In Buddhist scriptures, the Bodhi tree is often used as an example for Bodhicitta. So, what is Bodhicitta? Bodhi means enlightenment, including three types of enlightenment: self-enlightenment, enlightenment of others, and complete enlightenment. Bodhicitta is the mind that seeks enlightenment. Because Bodhicitta is the source of all Buddhas, the wisdom life of all sentient beings; therefore, generating Bodhicitta is the king of all good deeds, according to Amitabha Buddha's teachings: "It is like making offerings to countless saints, it is not as strong as steadfastly seeking enlightenment."

In this world, we see that no matter how tall or how wide a Bodhi tree is, it must be planted from the ground. The ground represents our own mind; therefore, Bodhicitta must be planted from our own mind; it cannot be obtained from anything or anywhere outside our own mind. When we first learn to practice Buddhism, our Bodhi mind is still very small, but due to our constant diligence in seeking the path, it will gradually grow larger, until when our merits and virtues are complete, we will become Buddhas.

The main principle of Pure Land Buddhism is “Generate Bodhi mind, single-mindedly recite.” Of these two, generating Bodhi mind is the most important. Why? Because if a practitioner does not generate Bodhi mind, that is, does not have the mind to seek enlightenment, then no matter how many good dharmas he cultivates or how much he recites Buddha’s name, he will only be committing demonic karma. For that reason, Amitabha Buddha made the 19th vow - Hearing the Name, Generating the Mind; to be fully stated, “Hearing the name of Amitabha Buddha, generate the Bodhi mind.” He vowed: “When I become a Buddha, sentient beings in the ten directions who hear my name will develop the Bodhi mind, cultivate meritorious virtues, reverently practice the Six Paramitas steadfastly and without retreat, and dedicate all their good roots to being born in my land, single-mindedly reciting my name, day and night without ceasing.”

Currently, there are many people who recite Buddha’s name to the point of being confused, reciting Buddha’s name to the point of going crazy, why does this problem occur? Because they do not understand the true meaning of Bodhi mind and do not know how to develop true Bodhi mind. Bodhi mind is like the head, reciting Buddha’s name is like the body, if the body does not have a head to control it, it will not be able to function properly. A person who recites Buddha’s name but does not develop Bodhi mind will be like a headless snake, only knowing how to writhe and wriggle in one place, unable to crawl in the right direction or reach the right place. To put it more clearly, if a person recites the Buddha's name without generating the Bodhi mind, the Buddha's name cannot activate the function of the Self-nature, so the virtue and power in the Self-nature cannot be revealed. In fact, once we generate the true Bodhi mind, we have already attained Buddhahood. Why? Because the Bodhi mind is inherently complete with the three truths: virtue, power, and the five wisdoms of the Tathagata. The five wisdoms of the Tathagata include: Buddha Wisdom, Inconceivable Wisdom, Inconceivable Wisdom, Great Mahayana Wisdom, and Supreme, Unsurpassed, Unsurpassed Wisdom. Furthermore, the Three Stages of Rebirth chapter of the Infinite Life Sutra clearly states that all three stages, Upper, Middle, and Lower, must generate the Bodhi mind and single-mindedly recite Amitabha Buddha's name in order to be reborn. It is enough to see that “generating the Bodhi mind” is truly the most important thing, placed right before “single-mindedly reciting Amitabha Buddha.”

The Bodhi Tree Chapter of the Infinite Life Sutra records: “As for that Bodhi Tree, the Bodhi tree is four hundred million miles high. The circumference of the tree’s base is five thousand yojanas, and its branches and leaves spread out two hundred million miles. It is naturally composed of all treasures, with beautiful, fresh fruits shining everywhere. There are also colors, red, green, blue, and white, precious mani jewels, king of treasures, garlands of Avalokitesvara, clouds of treasures gathered together, and treasure pillars adorned with jewels. The sacred bells and bells, made of gold and jade, are spread all around, and the nets of precious treasures cover it above, with hundreds of thousands of myriads of colors, shining brightly on each other, with immeasurable rays of light, boundless radiance, all adorned and appearing in response.” In this verse, the sutra describes the appearance of the Bodhi tree in the Western Pure Land as follows:

- The Bodhi tree is adorned with countless precious objects spread around it. Above it is a net made of seven precious objects that covers the entire sky, decorated with bells and gongs also made of seven precious objects spread all over the four directions, emitting the sound of the mysterious and wonderful Dharma.

- The branches of the Bodhi tree are decorated with strings of pearls. These strings are made of mani gems in the colors pink, green, blue, and white. These mani jewels are endowed with all the supreme good qualities, so they are called “the king of treasures.”

- The treasures are linked together in a perfect way by locks also made of seven treasures, the sutra calls those locks gathering clouds.

- The Buddha Amitabha’s land has treasure pillars decorated with hundreds of thousands of precious treasures made of seven treasures. Some pillars are made of only one treasure, or some are made of two or seven treasures. Such treasure pillars are decorated with strings of beads made of precious mani jewels.

- Dharma instruments such as bells and gongs shaped like small bells are all made of wonderful treasures, so they emit extremely wonderful, mysterious, and melodious sounds, capable of attracting living beings to develop the mind of reciting the Buddha, reciting the Dharma, and reciting the Sangha. Such precious dharma instruments were hung all over the branches surrounding the Bodhi tree. The precious net was woven in an extremely marvelous way with precious treasures such as pure gold, pearls, bells, bells, etc.

- This precious net was stretched out, covering the Bodhi tree. Each precious pearl on the precious net emitted hundreds of thousands of rays of light, each ray of light had eighty-four thousand colors. Each of these wonderful colors reflected each other's light, making it even more brilliant everywhere, so the sutra recorded it as "infinite rays of light, boundless radiance."

All the solemn objects mentioned above appeared and transformed miraculously, freely and without hindrance to adapt to all capacities, in order to fully display the Unhindered Dharma Realm of the Land of Ultimate Bliss. These mysterious adornments are all due to the good karma from the true wisdom and infinite compassion of Amitabha Buddha, so they know how to adapt to the capacities of each living being, manifesting things big, small, long, short, from one treasure, two treasures to countless treasures, not one of which does not please and please the beholder according to their preferences. The Avatamsaka Sutra says that Vairocana Buddha, from his pure inner mind, attained Self-Enjoyment, accomplished the five wisdoms, and then from these five wisdoms gave birth to the Five Directions of Tathagatas. In the center, Vairocana Buddha assumed the Dharma Realm Purity Wisdom, then from the Great Round Bright Mirror Wisdom emanated the Eastern Akshobhya Buddha, from the Equal Nature Wisdom emanated the Southern Jewel Birth Buddha, from the Wonderful Contemplation Wisdom emanated the Western Pure Land Amitabha Buddha, from the Accomplished Action Wisdom emanated the Northern Pure Land Amitabha Buddha. In the work Zong Jing Lu, Master Zhi Jue said: “In the teachings of the General Holder, it is said that thirty-seven Buddhas all appeared from Vairocana Buddha.” Master Zhi Jue said that there were thirty-seven Buddhas appearing from Vairocana Buddha because each Buddha in the Five Directions of Tathagata has four great Bodhisattvas, that is, twenty (5x4 = 20) great Bodhisattvas, plus the Four Embraces and Eight Offerings, making thirty-two. The twenty Bodhisattvas, the Four Embraces and Eight Offerings are all called Buddhas because they are all incarnations manifested by Vairocana Dharmakaya Buddha. For example, if Vairocana Buddha manifests a blade of grass or a branch of tree, then that blade of grass or a branch of tree is also a Buddha. Now, the Dharmakaya Buddha manifests twenty Bodhisattvas, the Four Embraces and Eight Offerings, then these thirty-two are also thirty-two Buddhas. These thirty-two Buddhas, together with the Five Directions Buddhas, make thirty-seven Buddhas.

Amitabha Buddha is one of the thirty-seven Buddhas who manifested from the Vairocana Dharmakaya. Amitabha Buddha again manifested the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, in which there were ponds, streams, forests, houses, palaces, towers, railings, birds, light, fragrance, sounds, smells, etc., none of which were not incarnations of Vairocana Buddha, none of which could not be called Buddha. The Four Methods of Conversion that manifested from the Vairocana Dharmakaya are not the common Four Methods of Conversion such as charity, loving speech, beneficial conduct, and cooperation, but they are four Dharma instruments used in the Esoteric School, including: hook, chain, bell, and rope, used to convert living beings, so these four Dharma instruments are also called Buddha. In addition, Esoteric Buddhism also uses the Eight Offerings including: burning incense, scattering flowers, lamps, incense sticks, flowers, garlands, song and dance to make offerings to the Buddha and to receive sentient beings, so these eight things are also called Buddha. The four dharma instruments and eight offerings of Esoteric Buddhism are also considered to represent the Buddha's incarnation, then the treasures such as the Bodhi tree, fruits, mani jewels, necklaces, clouds, bells, bells, jewel nets, etc. in the Pure Land are also the Buddhas in the Four Offerings and the Eight Offerings that manifest from the Vairocana Buddha Dharma body or Amitabha Buddha Reward body to receive sentient beings.

The ancient sages said: All the achievements in Buddhism are nothing more than the two words "know clearly." Know clearly what? Knowing the true nature of the universe, human life is all due to delusion and insanity, so we run after grasping external things, grasping at appearances, but we do not expect that our Self-nature is inherently pure, and we do not expect that our Self-nature is inherently complete. In the Infinite Sutra, the Buddha used the Bodhi tree as an example for Bodhi Mind, which is the enlightened mind that is not deluded, the mind that is inherently pure and complete. No matter how tall or how large the Bodhi tree is, it must be planted from the ground. The ground is a symbol of our own mind, Bodhi Mind must originate from our own mind, it cannot come from anything outside. Cultivation in Buddhism is nothing more than transforming the perception of ordinary people into the perception of Buddha. When we have true wisdom to see and know truly, we can cut off ignorance and afflictions. Thus, ignorance and afflictions can only be cut off by the power of concentration and wisdom. However, because people do not have true wisdom, they often project their minds outward in hopes of ambition; Therefore, the more one practices, the more afflictions one has. One cannot recite the Buddha's name to attain purity. One cannot do anything freely and encounters obstacles. There are even people who recite the Buddha's name and meditate to the point of confusion, often seeing demons coming to rely on and harass them, becoming half sane and half insane. Yet they mistakenly think that their practice has achieved great results, and that they have a third eye that can see the underworld! This is all because worldly people cannot let go of all attachments and cannot abide in true wisdom to attain true enlightenment. Therefore, what they see and know is all delusion and inversion, not the true seeing and knowing of the Buddha. Cultivating without true wisdom to clearly see the nature, form and function of the dharmas is no different from a headless snake, which can only move in one place and cannot progress any further.

In Buddhist scriptures, gold is often used as an analogy to describe the four virtues of permanence, happiness, self and purity of the Buddha's Dharma body, because gold is a metal with four good characteristics as follows: gold has an unchanging color (permanence), gold makes people rich (happiness), gold's shape can be easily changed without hindrance (self) and gold has an unpolluted substance (purity). To put it more deeply, the seven treasures mentioned in the scriptures are an analogy used to refer to the seven Precious Alms in the body that have the ability to transform the mortal body into the Buddha's Dharma body with the four virtues of permanence, happiness, self and purity. The Seven Precious Alms are when the six senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind) come into contact with the six sense objects (form, sound, smell, taste, touch, dharma), the mind does not give rise to attachment, is not contaminated by worldly desires. The Seventh Precious Alms is also the last Precious Alms, which is to give up the mortal body to attain the Buddha Dharma body. If we clearly know that within our body there are inherently seven Precious Alms and practice the act of giving like that, we will definitely receive hundreds of thousands of billions of times more blessings, which cannot be counted, if compared to giving alms with seven kinds of treasures such as gold, silver, lapis lazuli, crystal, pearls, mother-of-pearl, and agate throughout the world. Thus, restraining the six senses, and continuously reciting the Buddha's name Amitabha until the mortal mind transforms into the Buddha mind, is the supreme act of giving alms with the seven treasures, which no other act of giving can compare to. Why? Because by giving alms without leakage like that, we will quickly realize our own mind, cross the shore of birth and death, and ultimately attain Buddhahood.

If we regularly follow the news of natural disasters and disturbances around the world, we will see that everything, everyone, everything is constantly changing in a way that is contrary to nature. This season should not have rain, but it rained heavily, causing floods everywhere. There are areas where it should have rained, but it did not rain, causing crop losses. There are forests burning for hundreds of thousands of acres, houses and villages were destroyed. There are areas that have never had snow before, but now it does. Volcanoes erupt everywhere, flowers bloom in winter in Northern Europe and America, snow falls in the middle of summer in tropical regions, etc. These are all extremely abnormal phenomena, all of these strange phenomena are definitely not good signs! The Admonition Chapter of the Book of Jin of the Infinite Life Sutra says that disasters such as water, fire, thieves, creditors, arson, robbery, destruction, etc. are all caused by the greedy and stubborn minds of living beings that cannot let go. When people are erratic, it is called a mental illness. Once they have a mental illness, it will cause unusual things. Unusual climate and weather are certainly signs that very unusual things will happen soon. In the current extremely unstable world situation, people have to face all kinds of disasters, diseases arise everywhere; these are all retributions caused by evil minds. Now, thanks to studying Buddhism, we know clearly that we need to make efforts, diligently practice, and recite Buddha's name to turn dark things into auspicious things, and to turn disasters into peace. If we practice well, we can definitely change the surrounding environment, and our parents, wives, children, relatives, and loved ones will also benefit. Buddhists who want to transform their realm must first make special efforts to cultivate from within their own hearts, do many good deeds, stay away from evil deeds, keep their minds pure, or meditate, or recite Buddha's name, or recite mantras, or chant sutras a lot. Only by cultivating like this can one transform one's realm from darkness to light, from suffering to joy, from adversity to auspiciousness.

In this abnormal era, we must know how to follow causes and conditions without changing, and not give in to causes and conditions, that is, we must know how to follow causes and conditions so that our minds do not change, but are steadfast and unmoved. Following causes and conditions without giving in to causes and conditions is "self," the mind does not change, and is unmoved is "being." If one's mind can follow all the changes of worldly conditions, all the changes of human circumstances, and is unshaken, then one will certainly attain great freedom; that is true wisdom. Going further, if people want to end birth and death, they must make an effort to practice, to cut off greed, anger, and ignorance. Greed is the cause of anger, causing one's living environment to change abnormally. Therefore, the most important thing is to never give rise to greed, anger, or ignorance. Making an effort to practice means that whatever one does, one must be completely honest, impartial, and selfless for others. When encountering disasters, adverse events, or troubles, one must not be moved, not become angry, or irritable, but must recite the Buddha's name without interruption, without mixing it with any other thoughts. That is the method of practicing concentration, aiming to nurture a calm mind; when the mind is pure, the land is pure. This sutra teaches that even if a great fire were to break out throughout the three thousand great thousand worlds, if anyone knew how to rely on the power of Amitabha Buddha, they would be at ease and not fall into suffering, and could even be reborn in the Pure Land at that very moment. If we can truly cultivate like this, it would be no different than mending the sky or filling the sea.