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Since ancient times, there have been many great heroes and heroes, or people who have learned a lot and listened to a lot; among them, there are also people who have tried their best to shoulder the Buddha Dharma, and devoted themselves to cultivating. But there are also people who have not known the meaning of the Buddha Dharma their entire lives. There are also people who, although they know the Buddha Dharma, have taken refuge in the Three Jewels, and are called Buddhists and disciples of Shakyamuni Buddha, they have not studied Buddhism from the Buddhist scriptures at all, and so do not understand the Buddha Dharma. Therefore, although they do not slander the Buddha Dharma, they do not praise the Buddha Dharma either. Their minds towards the Buddha Dharma are truly indifferent and superficial. There are also people who know absolutely nothing about the Buddha Dharma, yet they arbitrarily criticize it according to their own ideas; the Buddha said that these people are Icchantikas, that is, the most foolish and perverted. Worst of all and most dangerous of all are those who study Buddhism, understand the Dharma, and in their hearts admire the profoundness of the Dharma, but they develop a false mind, steal the Dharma to establish a sect, to be eccentric, to claim to be a hero in the world, and then deliberately slander the Buddhist scriptures in order to block the causes and conditions of others, so that they do not have the opportunity to study the Dharma. This sutra tells people with such worldly wisdom and eloquence, the more they study Buddhism, the more their evil minds increase, so why is it so difficult for them to escape the great disaster of birth and death?

The knowledge of living beings changes so strangely and strangely that it is frightening, no one is the same. Therefore, the ancient sages from ancient times to the present, when speaking the Dharma, only repeat the words of the Buddha and Patriarchs, and do not dare to arbitrarily use their own ideas to speak, or speak the Dharma in a way that is cut, disassembled, increased, or reduced, without a beginning or a bottom, causing the listeners to misunderstand the meaning of the Buddha and Patriarchs. Therefore, the person who teaches the sutra must speak from the beginning to the end of the sutra to complete a sutra. He cannot speak halfway and then leave it unfinished, causing the listener not only to not be enlightened but also to misunderstand the Buddha's intention.

In the Infinite Life Sutra, the Buddha advised and reminded that: If this sutra is not circulated and interpreted, the Buddha Dharma will very quickly come to an end. At that time, the evil people will be free to commit extremely evil deeds, the five sufferings and five fires will become even more dangerous. Therefore, the Buddha specially blessed and preserved this sutra so that it will remain in the world for another hundred years after the Buddha's true Dharma is destroyed. During that time, if anyone still has a little bit of good roots, merit, and affinity who encounters this sutra, they will also be liberated. Today, we are still fortunate enough to encounter this sutra, so why should we destroy our own good roots, merit, and affinity that we have accumulated from countless past lives until now? This is truly a sad story! For those who study Buddhism, clearly understand the fate of Buddhism in the Dharma-ending Age as the Buddha prophesied, they treasure this sutra extremely, they consider this sutra as their life and wisdom, the last source of hope to be able to escape birth and death in this life. That is the true person who studies Buddhism, knows how to contemplate the times and principles, so has a steadfast will, takes the encounter of suffering and obstacles to motivate and guide themselves to penetrate into the true Dharma of Amitabha Buddha. Because of receiving and upholding this sutra, they know clearly that if life always goes according to their wishes, they will only fear that they will have to stand outside the door of Buddhism for the rest of their lives, unable to penetrate into the wisdom treasury of Tathagata. We must know that the Infinite Life Sutra is the Dharma treasury of Amitabha Buddha, which is also the light of wisdom of Amitabha Buddha. Therefore, if anyone wants to become the light treasury of Amitabha Buddha, they must penetrate this sutra.

The arising or concealing of misfortunes and blessings in the world depends only on one's wisdom and whether one knows how to skillfully use one's mind or not! People who regularly study Buddhism, recite Buddhist sutras, and contemplate the Prajna texts in Buddhist sutras do so simply to learn how to use the mind and wisdom of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to transform their realms. Thanks to studying Buddhism and listening to the Dharma, Buddhists understand clearly the true nature of all dharmas, which inherently have no form of person, self, living being, or life span to attain. Moreover, from time immemorial until now, all living beings have taken turns being each other's parents, and in the future they will all become Buddhas; therefore, Buddhists must know: "All living beings are parents in the past, and Buddhas in the future." If we know the truth is like that, then we are not respectful enough, how dare we blame, criticize, and point out the shortcomings and mistakes of others. Moreover, aren't the shortcomings and mistakes of others the things that help us reflect on our own mistakes?

The ancients often said: "If we do not humble ourselves deeply before others, we cannot attain the truth." If we ourselves cannot generate a sincere and respectful mind to study Buddhism, then even if others try hard to teach us, but because our own minds do not have the upright energy to study Buddhism, and are filled with arrogance, we create obstacles in our own learning of Buddhism and cannot receive real benefits. The Buddha and the ancients established strict precepts and rituals to teach Buddhist disciples how to cut off their pride and arrogance and know how to use their minds like the Buddha, causing them to generate a heart of admiration, to practice diligently, and to eliminate the defilements in the three karmas of body, speech, and mind. Therefore, those who study Buddhism must first learn the rules of respect seriously, and must demonstrate the utmost sincerity in wanting to study Buddhism in order to be able to comprehend the teachings of the Buddha.

Arrogance is the root of afflictions that obscure the Buddha nature; therefore, those who study Buddhism must first learn the first practice of "Respect for the Buddhas" of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, in order to eliminate the mind of arrogance so that the Buddha nature can be revealed. The words "Respect for the Buddhas" here include respect for all living beings; because every living being has the Buddha nature, all have the ability to become Buddhas in the future. Therefore, the practice of "Respect for the Buddhas" means to practice the rules of respect, worship, and worship to counteract the defilements and afflictions that arise from the mind of arrogance. The Lotus Sutra tells that when Bodhisattva Thường Bất Khinh saw someone else, he immediately bowed and called them Buddhas. People thought that he was crazy and came to cause trouble, so they used whips, sticks, tiles, and stones to hit and throw at him. Although he ran away, he still respectfully bowed to everyone from afar, without any regret. People did not know that Bodhisattva Never Disparaging was practicing the Dharma of respectful bowing to eliminate the habit of arrogance and afflictions. This was because he knew how to directly base on the essence of the True Mind and Self-nature to plant the Buddha seed in his mind, not the way of maintaining the Dharma of ordinary people who only practice through actions without knowing how to use their minds like Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

Patriarch Yin Guang taught: “If you want to truly benefit from the Buddha Dharma, you must seek respect. Having one part of respect immediately eliminates one part of sinful karma and increases one part of blessings and wisdom. Having ten parts of respect, eliminates ten parts of sinful karma and increases ten parts of blessings and wisdom.” He also taught: “A person who truly studies Buddhism must know how to use his mind as if the sky covers and the earth protects, only fulfilling his duties, and never relying on his own merits and wisdom to be respected and worshipped by many people. That is the true humble gentleman whose practice has achieved good results.” This teaching of the Patriarch also means that before wanting to practice the Ten Great Vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva to lead to the Pure Land, the practitioner must begin to practice the virtue of “sincere respect,” which is “respecting the Buddhas.” In fact, the most difficult practice is to break the ego. The greatest obstacle for a Buddhist practitioner is not external obstacles but ego. If one can break the ego and one’s own opinions, then practice will naturally become easy and will no longer be hindered. Why? Because the ego-clinging is destroyed, the self-view will no longer exist, and all dharmas will be seen as equal. At that time, we see everything as good, everything as delicious, everything as beautiful, and no longer distinguish between this and that; thanks to that, our mind is completely purified of all defilements, cool and happy. This is the accomplishment of the self-benefiting conduct of the Sravakas and Pratyekabuddhas.

Even higher, those who have completely eradicated all defilements, no longer have thoughts of attachment to the body or ego, can then develop the Bodhi mind of the Great Bodhisattva practice, which means they can develop the mind to save all sentient beings, always wanting to make all sentient beings enter Nirvana without Remainder, but they do not see any sentient beings being liberated as the Diamond Sutra says. Indeed, only those who are humble and do not cling to their ego can open their hearts to a vast and tolerant mind, like the ocean that accepts all rivers, like the void that contains all images, without rejecting anything that is not tolerated or included. Thanks to that, they can shoulder all the tasks that should be shouldered to perfect the two virtues of self-benefit and altruism.

Because the Infinite Life Sutra promotes the perfect truth, teaching people living in the mundane world to study the Dharma, cultivate the truth in the mundane world to perfect both the virtues of “self-enlightenment, enlightenment of others” and “self-benefit, benefit of others” right in this life, this sutra is not only for Pure Land practitioners, but is a sutra that all Buddhists cannot help but read, recite, and uphold. Every sentence, every word in the sutra is the light of wisdom emanating from the Dharma body of Amitabha Buddha, so every sentence, every word in this sutra is Amitabha Buddha. Therefore, reciting one word in the Infinite Life Sutra is also reciting one sentence of Amitabha Buddha's name. People who understand this method are people who have attained the perfect truth of this Great Sutra: "True nature is all-pervasive, all dharmas are just one!" For them, any object or principle in the world is Amitabha Buddha, so there is nothing that is not emitted from Amitabha Buddha's light to enlighten sentient beings. These are truly people with deep good roots, with excellent affinity with Amitabha Buddha from many previous lives. Therefore, when they hear the Buddha's name, or see the Buddha's image, they immediately develop faith and respectfully bow. When these people read sutras or listen to the Buddha's dharma, their minds are immediately clear, they learn little but understand much, their minds always respect the Buddha, respect the dharma and are happy to practice. Because of their respectful, sincere, and filial hearts, they can learn the Buddha's teachings and listen to the Dharma like this, so they can grasp the fundamentals of the Dharma wheel, understand the Buddha's wisdom to the ultimate wisdom, know how to use their minds and wisdom of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and not be misled by the worldly possessions.

The Buddha's teachings are extremely positive, with boundless wisdom, compassion, and love. Those who do not study Buddhism will not know this clearly, and will easily give rise to arrogance, selfishness, and disrespect. Worst of all, they consider the Buddha's Mahayana Infinite Life Sutra, which ultimately saves all living beings from suffering, of the Tathagatas, to be a foolish Dharma, confusing the ignorant and worldly, and then tell others not to learn this sutra, not to speak this sutra because this sutra is not suitable for reason and opportunity! This is all because their past karma in their previous lives is too heavy, and the disasters in their previous lives have not yet ended, so they are skeptical and cannot believe or like this sutra. We must know: If this Infinite Life Sutra did not have the power to save sentient beings, immeasurable, boundless, and ultimately endless, then the Buddha would not have specially kept this sutra for another hundred years after the true Dharma was destroyed.

All of us ordinary people suffer from the disease of body view, so Amitabha Buddha made the vow “No attachment.” That is, the Buddha vows for sentient beings to no longer have thoughts of body attachment and ego attachment. Body view is the greatest attachment among defilements. If a practitioner cannot cut off defilements, he will never be able to enter the stream of the Saints, and will certainly have to constantly circulate in birth and death, with little hope of ever escaping. “Greeding at the body and ego attachment” is precisely body view or ego attachment. Because we ordinary people mistakenly think that our body is the self, we are attached to it, then we compare, love, preserve, and nourish this body. Whatever is in accordance with us, we give rise to love; whatever is contrary to us, we give rise to anger and hatred. All these kinds of discrimination and attachment are the root of afflictions, called arrogance.

Amitabha Buddha vows: “If I still have thoughts of attachment to the body and ego, I vow never to attain the state of perfect enlightenment.” This vow of the Buddha teaches sentient beings to stay away from three kinds of mind: the mind of attachment to the self, the mind of not pacifying sentient beings, and the mind of offering and respecting one’s own body. Because these three kinds of minds obstruct Bodhi, the Infinite Life Sutra takes “arousing the Bodhi mind, single-mindedly reciting Amitabha Buddha” as its main principle, aiming to teach Pure Land practitioners to abandon ego-clinging so that the Bodhi mind can arise, no longer be obstructed, and be able to recite Buddha’s name for rebirth. We have all taken refuge in the Buddha Dharma and clearly understand that everything in the world is impermanent and without self. If we do not let go of the habit of clinging to the body and self, and strongly recite Buddha’s name to seek rebirth in the Western Paradise, then we will have to follow our past karma and forever be reincarnated in the three evil paths and six paths, unable to stop.

We must know that, when faced with death, only the Western Paradise of Ultimate Bliss, Amitabha Buddha, is the true place for all living beings to rely on to escape the cycle of birth and death. There is no other place for living beings to rely on, not even ourselves. Why? Because the other-power of salvation in other places and one's own self-power are so insignificant compared to the infinite, limitless, and boundless other-power of salvation of Amitabha Buddha. For that reason, we must truly feel grateful to Amitabha Buddha, respect Amitabha Buddha's Dharma, courageously and diligently cultivate the meritorious Dharma, and then dedicate all the merits we have created to ourselves and all sentient beings to be reborn in the Western Paradise.

People who do not often recite or listen to the essential Dharma teachings in the Buddhist sutras will find it difficult to reflect on their own mistakes, and will often be attached to their bodies and ego, so they cannot give rise to a mind of renunciation from Saha and will also not be able to give rise to a mind of desire for the Pure Land. People who are attached to their bodies and ego often boast and are arrogant about the merits they have created and are lenient towards their own sins, while harshly criticizing the mistakes of others. As humans, who is without sin? Not to mention the sins that we have accumulated over countless lifetimes, if we only discuss the sins we have created in this life, it is impossible to count them all. Therefore, Bodhisattva Samantabhadra said: “All sentient beings’ thoughts and actions create evil karma.” Bodhisattva Maitreya also said: “In each instant, sentient beings give rise to three hundred and twenty million false thoughts.” Among them are both coarse and subtle false thoughts that ordinary sentient beings have no way to perceive, except for the Equal Enlightenment Bodhisattvas who have attained the steadfast Pure Mind. Each false thought creates a wave of karma, which means that in each instant we emit three hundred and twenty million waves of karma that are tightly intertwined and difficult to untangle. So, as ordinary people filled with afflictions like us, it is difficult for us to eliminate all karma on our own, so how can we save ourselves? Therefore, the term “self-salvation” in Buddhist scriptures is only used in theory; Let alone the fact that we ordinary people cannot do it. We ordinary people must rely on the Buddha's power to bless us in order to achieve the path of liberation.

If we only consider the sin of killing, we can clearly see that we have killed and confused all kinds of living beings to eat meat to satisfy our mouths and fill our stomachs. Living beings are not made of wood or stone, not knowing suffering, not wanting to live, only hoping that people will kill them to eat their meat? Yet we have the heart to tear them apart, cut open their stomachs, take out their hearts, livers, intestines, lungs to cook and eat them to our heart's content. Just ask, in just this one life, how many living beings have we eaten into our stomachs, so how can we dare to say "I am innocent"? Those living beings must resent us to the extreme; of course, they will never forgive us. Therefore, one day in the future, those living beings will definitely kill us to eat their meat. If this kind of retribution continues without any end, how can we escape from the cycle of reincarnation?

The ancients often said: “Ordinary people do not see their own faults, while sages do not see their own virtues. If we do not see faults, our sins will pile up like mountains. If we do not see virtues, our virtues will reach the sky.” Therefore, we must strive to do good, stay away from evil, only care about our own family, not interfere in other people's family matters, strive to recite Buddha's name, and dedicate all the merits we have to all sentient beings to be reborn in the Western Paradise. Then our mind and conduct in this life will be in accordance with the mind and conduct of the sages; when we are about to die, we will certainly be guided by Amitabha Buddha to be reborn as the Buddha vowed.

The Buddha often taught us that there is small enlightenment and great enlightenment. Every day in our daily lives, we must be enlightened; if we are not enlightened, we are deluded. What are we enlightened to? Enlightenment is discovering one's own wrongdoings and reflecting on one's own mistakes. After realizing one's mistakes, immediately correcting those shortcomings and habits is truly cultivation. Cultivation is not about standing in front of the Buddha or Bodhisattva altar every day, burning incense, knocking on wooden fish, and pretending to cultivate. True cultivation must be repenting and correcting mistakes!

In the biography of Zen Buddhism, in the past, on Mount Tiantai, there were three crazy monks, their names were Han Shan, Shi De, and Feng Gan. These three monks saw that the monks kept chanting the Dharma day and night, but did not know how to reflect on their mistakes, so they played tricks outside the temple gate. When people saw this, they thought they were three crazy people. Later, people learned that they were the incarnations of Manjushri Bodhisattva, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, and Amitabha Buddha. These three living Buddhas reside at the Guoqing Temple, and usually only do kitchen work, serving the masses, and never go to the main hall to worship. Why do they do this? To show the masses that cultivation is not cultivating in one's own false appearance, but must start from the heart, must know how to discover one's own mistakes and correct them to be in accordance with the principles of the Dharma. Those who cultivate like this, and know how to combine it with reciting the Buddha's name for rebirth, will surely have their wishes fulfilled according to the "Ten Recitations of Rebirth" vow of Amitabha Buddha.

When we meet the Buddha for rebirth in the Pure Land is the time to truly reap the merits and results of cultivation. If we cannot be reborn in the Western Pure Land in this life, then sooner or later all the good deeds we have done will be transformed into mundane blessings. After we have enjoyed all the blessings, the evil retribution will appear and we will fall into the three evil realms. Therefore, the Buddha said that the blessings of heaven and humans are "the resentment of the three worlds." This life doing good deeds, the next life enjoying good deeds, then the next life must fall into the three evil realms. When we think of this, we must be afraid and quickly concentrate on reciting Buddha's name, praying to be born in the Pure Land. We should not give rise to any other thoughts other than the thought of remembering Amitabha Buddha of the Western Paradise of Ultimate Bliss. Only then can our mind correspond to Amitabha Buddha's vow "Happy as a Bhikkhu who has completely eliminated all defilements" and vow "Not being attached to the body or clinging to the self."

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