Testimony posted on Master Jun Hong Lu’s blog (Posting 694) 27 January 2022
Deepest Gratitude to Namo Shakyamuni Buddha!
Deepest Gratitude to the Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva!
Deepest Gratitude to all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Dharma Protectors!
Deepest Gratitude to Master Jun Hong Lu!
Good afternoon to all Buddhist friends.
Master Lu once said, “Less suffering for those who can completely let go, no end to desires when letting go selectively” (完全地放下，可以减少痛苦；选择性地放下，会让你欲罢不能) . A phrase that hardly struck a chord with me when I first came across it. I was unable to fully appreciate its underlying meaning. However, in the last two days, I have had moments of epiphany about the true meaning of letting go.
Prior to my Buddhism practice, I was an outright materialistic and avaricious person – other than money, nothing else matters in life. With self-interests high on my priority list, I would unabashedly and heedlessly go all out to fight tooth and nail even for the smallest trifles. In my mind then, what’s wrong if one sacrifices his life for the sake of money. Simply put, I would do anything in order to get ahead of the rest than to suffer poverty, to the extent that money prevails over morality.
To the envy of many, I became a public school teacher upon graduation from university. Feeling unfulfilled and being paid a pittance at work, I quit my teaching career and left for Shanghai after landing a job at a large multinational company. With a multifold increase in pay despite being an inexperienced recruit, needless to say, I was full of myself.
Conceited and driven to secure a higher pay, I picked up a second foreign language and exerted relentless effort on learning it. To a certain extent, my effort was paid off but deep down, never once did I feel truly happy about my achievement.
It was only after practising Buddhism and understanding the law of causation, I learned to let go of my obsession with money. After all, all of us come to this world empty-handed and there is practically nothing that we can bring along when we depart. Money is nothing but vanity and the joy we derive from it is merely transient.
Soon after, I left Shanghai to live in a second-tier city after securing a job that allowed me to perform recitation and propagate Buddhism. Although my pay was lower than before, it was able to sustain my livelihood with some balance for life liberation. Yet, I was content and deeply thankful to Bodhisattva for the impeccable arrangement.
On the surface, it might have looked like I was no longer infatuated with money, well, at least that was what I believed. However, in actual fact, I was far from it.
As e-commerce flourished, an online shopping platform was set up within my neighbourhood, constantly enticing us with an endless stream of product choices, discount vouchers and eye-popping deals.
Being a frugal person, naturally, I was calculative when weighing the various options, in hopes of stretching my money so that the extra savings can be used for life liberation. After all, frugality is a virtue. Not surprisingly, I would spend hours browsing for bargains. To maximise the discount, I would even go to great lengths to mix and match the products. Not wanting to ‘waste’ those expiring vouchers, there were days that I ended up buying non-essentials.
At times, it felt like I had taken advantage of the system and snapped up the best buys, only to find out prices being slashed further the following day. Come to think of it, this should have been a wake-up call for me, yet, I would justify, “At least I’ve done my best to secure the best bargain, too bad they slashed the price further today”. I thought I was acting in accordance with conditions with this mentality.
Once, while browsing the online community platform, I left Master Lu’s recording running. Buried away scouting around for bargains with no intent whatsoever to listen to what Master Lu had to say. For some reason, on that day, I struggled to derive a satisfactory add-on deal. Somehow, there was an inkling that I had gone overboard and deviated from Master Lu’s teachings. Yet, I was unwilling to give up. To justify my action, I told myself, “I am no longer covetous of money, and have completely let it go. I am just trying to stretch my money and save every penny”.
Out of the blue, from the recording, Master Lu uttered a phrase that jumped out at me, which roughly means, “You must learn to let go”. What a light-bulb moment! It suddenly dawned on me that I was still grasping and have yet to root out the greedy trait in me. There and then, I recalled what Master Lu once said, “There will be no end to desires when you let go selectively”.
Come to think of it, my bad habit had gone undetected for so long. On the surface, it looked like I had let go of money, but the reality is, this shortcoming of mine has yet to be completely shaken off. On a deeper level, I am still grasping.
Fixated on those inconsequential discount vouchers, I have squandered an enormous amount of my precious time that could have been used for the recitation of the Buddhist scriptures, and Buddhism propagation. What a great loss!
After this incident, I immediately discarded all the discount vouchers and decided to only purchase things that I need. Unlike the past, I now take any discounts or offers on the table in my stride and with a heart of gratitude. No longer do I go the extra mile to look for offers and discounts. I’m deeply grateful to Master Lu for His tireless guidance.
Last but not least, all of us must be diligent in studying Master Lu’s discourses, including Buddhism in Plain Terms and Words of Wisdom. By doing so, the aha moment of Buddhist teachings that were once incomprehensible may inadvertently wake us up!
If my sharing is improper in any way, I would like to seek forgiveness from Namo Shakyamuni Buddha, the Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva, all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Dharma Protectors and Master Jun Hong Lu.
Thank you!