ONE LAMP DISPELS THE DARKNESS OF A THOUSAND YEARS
Master Jun Hong Lu: “One lamp dispels the darkness of a thousand years.”
The ignorance within our minds is indeed like a room that remains dark for a thousand years. However, with a single lamp, everything can be illuminated.
In Andersen’s Fairy Tales, there’s a story called The Little Match Girl. Every time she lights a match, she sees something in the past or in the future and things in the spirit world, or heaven.
When the match burns out, her eyes fall upon darkness once again. Therefore, what we require is not a match, and not even a box of matches. What we need is a permanent lamp that is lit by the Bodhisattvas. With the little energy that we possess, it cannot be lit by us.
Once you have created negative karma, you must sincerely repent. If you don’t, with the negative karma, you are like being confined to a room so dark that you can’t see anything. However, when you sincerely repent, it’s like turning on a lamp that purifies all the unwholesome deeds committed in your past.
You must repent sincerely, because if you do, your mind will start to become pure. After all, who has not done a single bad thing in life? Who has not made a mistake?
As long as you’re human, you will make mistakes – but that just means you must understand the importance of repentance. Without it, you will never find the right direction.
Source: Master Jun Hong Lu’s Buddhism In Plain Terms, Volume 1 Chapter 29
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