学佛的人要无心。不要把什么事情都挂在心上，挂在心上你就会痛苦，痛苦之后你就会伤心的，伤心之后，你心中就会打一个结，叫心结。听得懂吗？所以师父不管什么结都不喜欢挂在办公室里，因为任何有结的东西，结都是打起来、绕起来，实际上就跟你心中打结一样，解不开啊。听得懂吗？你们一个不开心就是一个结，一个难过就是一个结，一个嫉妒又是一个结，一个恨人家又是一个结……想想看，你怎么样能够把这些结化解开呢？而且你们知道像绳子一样，刚刚打个结的绳子你马上可以把它解开，等到一段时间之后你解都解不开了。所以说心结也是这样，打不开心结呀，因为时间太长了。报道说为什么有人会突然动手杀死老婆，就是心结没有打开啊。
Buddhist practitioners should cultivate a state of “no-mind”. Do not hang every little thing on your heart; if you do, you will suffer. From suffering comes heartache, and from heartache, a knot forms in your mind—we call this a “mental knot”, something that gnaws at one’s peace of mind. Do you understand? This is why I don’t like hanging decorative knots in my office; any knot is something tied up and entangled, just like the knots in your mind that become impossible to undo. Every time you are unhappy, that’s a knot. Every time you are sad, that’s a knot. Every instance of jealousy or resentment—each one is another knot. How can you expect to unravel them all? Remember, a knot in a rope can be untied easily if you do it right away, but if you leave it for a long time, it becomes impossible to loosen. Mental knots are the same; if too much time passes, they become permanent. There are reports of people suddenly snapping and killing their spouses—that happens because those mental knots were never untied.
师父给大家讲，掏空了心不被自己的念头所控制、所动。也就是说，我今天心没有了，我就没有念头出来了。比方说这个彩票是我买的，是我送给隔壁邻居做生日礼物的，没有想到给中奖了。难过啊，不开心了吧？然后就想能不能分给我一点？人家就是不给，你就打了个心结。如果他的心是掏空了，他看穿了，“我给你就给你了，给了人家就不是我的事情了”。那样你就不会伤心，不会难过了。你掏空了的话，就是中了六合彩，对你有什么影响呢？空了。如果脑子里一想：“最好我能要回几万块，多开心呀！”但是心是空的，“我无所谓的，关我什么事情呀，没有就没有了”。心就会把你的念头打掉。如果一个念头起了，“这个钱我一定要拿回来的，是我给他的”。这个意念一起，心生烦恼。但如果心是空的，“我无所谓，算了算了”。不想了，就没烦恼了。空心就这点好，可以把坏念头打掉。比方说，这个老婆天天想“我最不喜欢老公讲这一句话了”，她心里已经有一个芥蒂了，她心没有空。好了，有一天他老公又讲这句话了。她的念头一起，“你这个神经病，怎么又讲了？”这个时候她这个念头一到，跟心连上了，“嘭”——她发脾气了，把东西就扔过去了。就是让你们不要有心，哪怕有念头出来，也要去掉。因为你在心中已经有了一个基础了，然后什么东西进来，它就很快茁壮成长。就像一个坏的根苗一样，到了好的土壤里它也会长，一个坏的种子到了好的土壤里它也长。我暂且把你们的心作为一个好的土壤，但是你已经种下去了一颗不好的种子了，所以当这个种子一发芽的时候，出来的全是不好的。你们能怪这个土壤不好吗？这个土壤就是你的本性。你本性是好的，但是你种下去的因不好，果一定不好。因为你打了心结之后，你会把顺逆看得比较重。顺境的时候，特别开心；逆境的时候，特别难过。因为你的结已经打进去了，很难过，得失心重。所以当烦恼来的时候，就没有办法把它破除。只有当烦恼漏尽的时候，就没有烦恼了。什么叫漏尽？就是把烦恼全部去除光。烦恼漏尽了，才能看到心中的佛性。比如你这个镜子在洗澡的时候，如果有热蒸汽，这个镜子是看不到你这个脸的；你只有把这个镜子擦干净了，你才能看见自己这张脸，你才能看见真正的你是谁。就像有些人经常说我都不要看我自己的脸了，我这个脸真的太讨厌了，凶得不得了。
I’m telling you: empty your heart so that you aren’t controlled or swayed by your own thoughts. If my heart is “gone”, then thoughts won’t even arise. For example, imagine you bought a lottery ticket as a birthday gift for your neighbour, and it turns out to be a winner. You’d feel upset, wouldn’t you? You’d start thinking, “Maybe they’ll give me a cut?” But if they don’t give you anything, a knot forms in your mind. However, if your heart were empty, you’d see through it: “I gave it away, so it’s no longer my business.” Then you wouldn’t feel sad or hurt. If you are empty, even a Lotto win has no power over you. It’s gone. If a thought pops up—”It’d be great if I could get a few thousand back”—an empty heart responds: “Whatever, it has nothing to do with me. If it’s gone, it’s gone.” The empty heart strikes down the greedy thought. But if you hold onto the thought—”I have to get that money back; I’m the one who gave it to him”—trouble and worry are born instantly. If the heart is empty, you would just think, “Forget it, it doesn’t matter,” and the worry vanishes. That is the beauty of an empty heart: it strikes down unwholesome thoughts before they take root.
Take a wife who constantly thinks, “I can’t stand it when my husband says that one specific thing.” She already has a grudge; her heart isn’t empty. Then one day, the husband says it again. Her thought immediately triggers: “You lunatic, why did you say that again?” The moment this thought arises and connects with her heart—bang!—she loses her temper and throws something at him. This is why I tell you to cultivate the state of “no-mind”; even if a thought arises, let it go immediately. Once something has taken root in your heart, anything that comes in will quickly grow. It’s like a bad seed—even a bad seed will grow if the soil is fertile. Let’s say your heart is good soil—your inherent nature is pure. But if you plant a bad seed, the fruit will inevitably be bad. Can you blame the soil? No. The soil is your inherent nature—it is good. But if the “cause” you plant is not good, the result cannot be good.
Once you have these mental knots, you start taking the “ups and downs” of life too seriously. When things go your way, you’re over the moon; when they don’t, you’re devastated. Because the knots are tied deep, your sense of gain and loss becomes too heavy. When worries arrive, you have no way to break through them. Only when your afflictions are extinguished will you be free of worry. What does it mean for them to be “extinguished”? It means removing every single trace of worry. Only then can you see the Buddha-nature within. It’s like a mirror in the bathroom; if it’s covered in steam, you can’t see your face. Only when you wipe the mirror clean can you see who you truly are. It’s like some people who say, “I can’t even stand to look at my own face anymore—it looks so fierce and unpleasant.”
明心开悟，常见佛性。把人间的顺逆境看得都是一样的。今天顺境来了，我开心了，也是这样，我不就是吃三顿饭睡一个觉吗？逆境来了，我不也是吃三顿饭睡一个觉吗？有什么了不起的？很多女孩子小的时候，爸爸妈妈给她买了一件新的连衣裙，喜欢得不得了，想到第二天可以穿到学校里去给大家看，那种幻想：“哇，我是校花了！”想呀想，一个晚上也没有睡好觉。等到第二天早上去学校，一转身不小心把漂亮的连衣裙撕坏了，那时不是人家看“校花”，而是看“笑话”了。所以，人时刻在变化当中生存，时刻是在顺逆境当中生存。顺境来了很自然地就过去了，逆境来了也是很自然过去了。做生意也是，“我今天亏了一点钱了，唉，算了算了”。不要捶胸顿足，难过啊，你的心脏就生病了。当逆境来的时候也不要不得了了，闯祸了，天塌下来了。当顺境来了，我也能受；逆境来了，我也能受——我无所谓了。今天顺逆境都随缘，要想得开啊。当你把顺逆境都看成一样，你的心结就会打开了，你藏在内心深处的结就会被你慢慢打开。所以人跟人接触，用我们现在的话讲叫“产生距离美”，其实这新名词在中国古代早就有了，叫“君子之交淡如水”。一个人离得远一点反而感情越来越好，天天在一起就是经常会吵架啊。举个简单例子，夫妻也是这样的，不要一天到晚在一起，客客气气过一辈子多好啊！天天在一起看着都麻烦，想着都讨厌，冤结都看出来了——本来都没有冤结了，看到后来都看出冤结了。你们不懂的，这句话很有哲理的，很多东西都是看出毛病出来的。比如你去买一个很喜欢的东西，很多女孩子就是买了一个包，看看就看得不顺眼了，越看越看出毛病了。为什么？她经常看，经常看，看到后来总会看出毛病出来的。所以夫妻也是这样，老在一起哪会没有毛病看出来的？还好你们现在是学佛了，不然谁会不看出对方的毛病呢？因为人的毛病就是喜欢看人家的缺点，不喜欢看人家的优点，人家好的地方看不到的。
When one realises the true mind and awakens, one constantly perceives one’s Buddha-nature. We should treat the “ups and downs” of life exactly the same. Try this: When things go your way, you’re happy, but you think: “So what? I still just eat three meals and sleep at night.” When things go against you, you think: “I still just eat three meals and sleep at night. What’s the big deal?” Think of a young girl whose parents buy her a beautiful new dress. She’s over the moon, imagining she’ll go to school the next day and everyone will see her as the “belle of the ball.” She spends the whole night fantasising about it and can’t sleep a wink. But the next morning, she trips and tears that lovely dress. Suddenly, instead of being the “belle of the ball,” she feels like the “butt of the joke.”
This is how we survive—constantly shifting between good times and bad. When things go well, let them pass naturally; when things go poorly, let them pass just as naturally. It’s the same in business: “I lost a bit of money today—oh well, forget it.” Don’t carry on about it, beating your chest and falling into despair, or you’ll end up making yourself sick. When trouble hits, don’t act like the sky is falling. Instead: “Whether it’s a smooth run or a rough patch, I can take it—I’m indifferent. Today, I follow the conditions of life, whether they are favourable or not.” You have to be open-minded. When you view success and failure as the same, your mental knots will begin to loosen; those deep-seated tangles in your heart will slowly unravel.
In modern terms, we talk about “the beauty of distance.” In ancient China, there is a saying: “A friendship between gentlemen is as plain as water.” When you keep a bit of distance, the relationship actually stays stronger. When people are constantly on top of each other, they just end up fighting. Take a married couple, for example—don’t be together twenty-four-seven! It’s much better to be polite and respectful to one another for a lifetime. If you’re constantly in each other’s pockets, you start finding each other irritating. Over time, even without any real grievances, you start to see problems that weren’t there before—as if karmic conflicts have appeared out of nowhere. It’s like when a girl buys a handbag she absolutely loves. After she’s looked at it every single day for a while, she starts seeing little flaws—she looks so often that she eventually finds something wrong with it. Relationships are no different. If you’re always together, how could you not find faults? It’s lucky you are all practising Buddhism now; otherwise, who wouldn’t be obsessed with their partner’s shortcomings? Human nature loves to focus on the negatives while ignoring the positives—people often fail to see what is good in others.
师父继续给大家讲，修行修心要修出成果。心中有时候产生怨气或者恩怨，如果你不用一种修心的方法把它里面深深的杂念挖出来、把脑子里那些不好的东西深深地挖出来，你想想看，如果冤结不解决，这一辈子冤结何时了？永远不会结束的。大家一定要明白修心一定要修出成果出来。如果没有成果的人就是白修了，否则你就一边在修心，一边在轮回当中打转。表面上在修心修行，实际上还在轮回当中打转。比如天天在念经求菩萨保佑我，保佑我……而另一边在说人家的坏话，恨人家。想想看，你这么一恨，你不就是在轮回当中了吗？念经念了半天还是生气，你说有什么用？念了半天还是恨人家，念了半天还是嫉妒人家，你说这个人修心有什么用呢？很简单，就是没修好。如果不改掉自己的习性，下辈子叫你披毛戴角还，就是下一辈子投胎一个动物。戴角的就是牛呀、羊呀等；披毛，动物都有毛皮。所以大家想一想，如果这辈子修不好，下辈子等你知道自己是一头马的时候，你真的是苦，可怜啊。你们仔细看看动物的眼睛，跟人的眼睛差不多的，有些人的眼睛你仔细看，像动物的眼睛一样。当一个人很恨人家的时候，他的眼睛冒出凶光，就跟动物一样。那些杀人的流氓，他要杀人的时候，眼睛冒出那种凶光就叫狼眼。狼眼实际上就叫冷眼，因为它出来的眼光是冷嗖嗖的。如果不好好修，下辈子变成动物。我们要警钟长鸣。
I’ll continue: you must see actual results from your cultivation of mind and your spiritual practice. Resentment and grudges occasionally arise in the heart. If you don’t use the proper method of cultivation to dig out those deep-seated distractions and negative thoughts—then think about it: if karmic conflicts are not resolved, when will the cycle ever end? It will go on forever. You must understand that your efforts to cultivate your mind must yield results. If there is no result, your practice has been in vain; you’ll just be “cultivating” on the surface while spinning around in the cycle of rebirth. You might spend all day reciting sutras and praying to the Bodhisattvas for blessings, but at the same time, you continue gossiping or hating others. If you’re full of hate, aren’t you still stuck in the cycle of rebirth? If you’re still angry, jealous, or resentful after reciting sutras for hours, what was the point? It’s simple: you haven’t cultivated properly.
If you don’t change your habitual flaws, you may have to “pay it back in fur and horns” in the next life—meaning you’ll be reborn as an animal. The “horns” belong to the cows and sheep; the “fur” belongs to the beasts of the field. Think about it: if you don’t cultivate well in this life, and in the next you find yourself as a horse, you will be truly miserable. Look closely at the eyes of an animal—they are very similar to human eyes. And look at some people when they are consumed by hate—their eyes reveal a fierce, animal-like glare. When a violent criminal is about to strike, that look in their eye is what we call “wolf eyes.” They are cold, piercing eyes. If you don’t cultivate well, you risk becoming an animal in the next life. Let this be a constant wake-up call for us all.
菩萨是完全付出的。所以你想求真的道，你就必须完全付出。没有一个人说学佛我不完全付出，我边学学，边贪瞋痴。如果你是贪瞋痴、不完全付出的人，这个人是学不好佛的、修不好心的、学不好道的。所以，纠正即是道。如果你知道自己在学佛之后，懂得纠正自己身上的毛病，实际上你就找到了道。举个简单例子，你过去不是走在正道上，你找不到这条佛的道路，你不断地纠正自己的方向，最后你不就是找到正道了吗？要不断纠正自己的错误，实际上就是找到了道，用现在的话就是叫拨乱反正。过去不懂规矩，过去做人嘻嘻哈哈、疯疯癫癫；现在稳重、规规矩矩，那不就叫拨乱反正了吗？所以要知道修行要见正道，纠正即是道。
The Bodhisattvas give of themselves completely. Therefore, if you seek the true Path, you must also give of yourself entirely. No one can say, “I am practising Buddhism,” while still clinging to greed, anger, and ignorance. If you are someone who holds back or remains consumed by these three poisons, you will never truly master the Buddha-dharma or cultivate your mind, and you will not realise the Path.
The truth is, to correct yourself is the Path. If you know how to fix your own flaws after starting your Buddhist practice, you have found the way. Think of it like this: if you were off-track and couldn’t find the Buddha’s path, but you kept correcting your direction, wouldn’t you eventually find the Path? Constantly correcting your mistakes is, in fact, finding the Path—it is what we call “setting things right.” Perhaps in the past, you didn’t know the rules; you were flighty or lived life recklessly. Now, you are steady and well-behaved. Is that not setting things right? To cultivate is to see the right Path, and to correct yourself is the Path.
若真修道人，不见世间过。如果是一个真正学佛修行的人，他不会看见人家的过错，看不到人家的错误，是不见人过的。人家都是好的，感恩人家，整天把人家往好的地方想，你就是好人。人的毛病就是老把人家往坏的地方想。明明人家讲了一句很普通的话，但你却在心想他是在讽刺我、他在诬蔑我、他在恨我……想想看，你得到的是什么？得到的是恨、是嫉妒、是讽刺，那些不好的肮脏的垃圾全部进入你的心肺，你说你得到的是什么？你得到的就是这些垃圾在你心中储存着。当你恨人家的时候、想人家不好的时候，你想的东西实际上已经进入你的意识当中了，进入了第六意识。第六意识是什么？是感觉。师父讲的第八意识实际上是已经接近你的本性的东西了。所以当一个人做很坏的事情时，他下不定决心，想想想，“我一定要去做，哪怕我死了也要去做。”那个时候实际上他的恶意识就进入到他的八识田中了，这个人这辈子就肯定上不了天了，因为这是很难擦掉的东西。第六意识，也叫第六感觉。比如他说要去看房子，在还没有去看这间房子的时候，在他的意识当中他感觉这间房子很差。等他跑过去看这间房子，是很差。如果你感觉这间房子好漂亮，一看很差，没希望了。这个意识已经在你的心中了。为什么有些人一看见有些东西就喜欢呢？因为在他的六识当中已经储存了一块完整的记忆，我们叫记忆块，就像现在科学上讲的叫集成块一样。这个块已经是完全把它焊接在里面了，然后这个块就在你的第六意识当中储存。比如说我今天要去见这个人，这个人肯定很好，一看见他，首先是把他往好的地方想，把他往这个集成块当中融合；所以你越看他越好，因为你有个框框去把他套起来。
A true cultivator does not see the faults of the world. Someone who is truly practising Buddhism will not focus on the mistakes of others; they simply don’t see them. To them, everyone is good. They feel gratitude and always think of others in a positive light. Such a person is, in turn, a good person. The human tendency, however, is the opposite—always assuming the worst in others. Someone may say something completely ordinary, yet you think, “They’re mocking me… they’re slandering me… they dislike me…” Reflect on this: what do you actually gain from such thinking? You gain hatred, jealousy, and negativity. All this unwholesome “garbage” enters your heart and mind. So what have you really achieved? Nothing but accumulated negativity stored within you.
When you hate someone or think poorly of them, those thoughts actually enter your Sixth Consciousness—the part of your mind that processes your perceptions. I often speak of the Eighth Consciousness, which is the level closest to your inherent nature. When someone decides to do something truly evil, they go back and forth until they finally resolve: “I’m doing this, even if it costs me my life.” At that point, the negative intention has entered the storehouse of the Eighth Consciousness. Once it’s in there, it is incredibly difficult to erase, and that person almost certainly won’t be ascending to the Heavenly Realms.
The Sixth Consciousness is also known as your “sixth sense.” For example, before going to inspect a house, a person may already feel, “This place probably isn’t good.” When they arrive, it indeed seems disappointing. Or if they initially feel, “This place looks beautiful,” but upon seeing it, it turns out to be a dump, they’d be disappointed. These perceptions have already formed within the mind. Why do some people fall in love with certain things the moment they see them? It’s because their Sixth Consciousness has stored a ‘memory block’—what modern science might call a ‘pre-programmed circuit’. This block is effectively soldered into your consciousness. Suppose you’re going to meet someone and you think, ‘This person is definitely a good sort.’ When you see them, you immediately filter them through that positive ‘memory block.’ You find them better and better because you’ve already created a positive frame to fit them into.
不要在做一件事情之前先在脑子里想很多，碰到了就碰到了。当然我所指的是在学佛当中。很多人为什么对人产生很多的矛盾和意见呢？就是因为有框框，这个框框怎么来的呢？我给你们举一个简单例子，师父今天在还没有见这个人之前，小于过来给师父说：“师父今天要见你的这个人，他曾经打过电话来，他讲话很粗鲁，还对师父不恭敬。”师父“啪”一下子，一块集成块到了第六意识当中了。其实这个人很好的。过一会儿他一进来，我怎么看他都不满意，他跟我讲话，我怎么都感觉他在讽刺我。因为小于的这个意念已经进入到了我的意识当中。所以听人家讲这个人不好、讲那个人不好的时候，实际上你已经接受了人家错误的信息，这个信息进入到了你的第六意识当中，就会损害你的一种正常的思维。举个简单例子，师父突然之间给你们宣布一件事情，说某个人意识有问题。当你们再看这一个人，你们的感觉马上就不一样了。又比如师父告诉你们说：“这个人已经是晚期了，还有几个星期可以活。”大家全部都是一种怜悯的眼睛看他。如果告诉你们，这个人会毁道，而且身上灵性很多。他只要一进来，你们每一个人都会躲开他。也就是说，一个人的意识当中所产生的一种负效应，就是负面的效应，非常非常地重要。
Don’t overthink things before you’ve even started; just deal with things as they come. Of course, I am speaking in the context of practising Buddhism. Why do so many people have conflicts and disagreements? It’s because of the “frames” they’ve built in their minds. How do these frames get there? Let me give you a simple example. Suppose I have a scheduled appointment. Before I’ve even met the person, my assistant, Mr Yu, comes up to me and says, “Master, the person you’re meeting today called earlier; he was very rude and wasn’t respectful to you at all.” Just like that—snap—a pre-programmed circuit of negative information is soldered into my Sixth Consciousness. In reality, this person might be perfectly fine. But when he walks in a moment later, no matter what he does, I’m dissatisfied. When he speaks to me, I feel like he’s being sarcastic. This is because Mr Yu’s idea has already taken root in my consciousness.
As such, when you listen to people gossiping about how “this person is bad” or “that person is trouble,” you are actually accepting incorrect information. Once that information enters your Sixth Consciousness, it damages your ability to think straight. For instance, if I suddenly announced to all of you that a certain person had “problematic views,” the next time you looked at them, your perception would instantly shift. Or, if I told you, “This person is terminal; they only have a few weeks left,” you would all look at them with eyes full of pity. Conversely, if I told you that a person would undermine the Dharma or was plagued by foreign spirits, everyone would move away from them the moment they walked in. This shows that the negative effects produced within a person’s consciousness are incredibly powerful.
学佛也是这样。你怎么样来坚定自己的信心？你不能被任何你所旁听到的、所让你感官感觉到的——就是你的眼耳鼻舌身意，你不能让这些东西接受一些不好的东西，来影响你要走的这条道。人家只要给你说：“我告诉你，听人家说卢台长法门怎么怎么……”你就告诉他：“你不要告诉我，我不听。”如果你一听就坏了，因为你没有把好的东西听进去，而把不好的东西听进去了，你的烦恼就生起了。所以聪明的人，人家跟你说：“这个人怎么怎么的……”你可以告诉他：“你不要告诉我，我不要听。”学佛也是这样的，你不该看的东西，你不要去看，你想准了自己的道就好好走下去。
Practising Buddhism is no different. How do you strengthen your faith? You cannot allow what you overhear or what your senses perceive—your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind—to absorb negative things that interfere with the Path you have chosen. If someone says to you, “Listen, I heard people saying this or that about Master Lu’s Dharma Door…” you should simply tell them: “Don’t tell me; I don’t want to hear it.” The moment you listen, the damage is done. Because you didn’t let the good things in but allowed the bad things to enter instead, your worries and afflictions will be triggered. A wise person, when someone starts gossiping about others, will say: “You don’t need to tell me that; I’m not interested.” It’s the same with your Buddhist practice: don’t look at what you shouldn’t look at. Once you’ve set your sights on your Path, just keep walking.