眾生無邊誓願度
煩惱無盡誓願斷
法門無量誓願學
佛道無上誓願成

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Dharma Teachings

12 Jul 2018    Thursday     1st Teach Total 732

From Where Does the Merit of Attaining the Fruit in Past Lives Manifest?

Only the mind consciousness has eradicated the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), while the manas has not eradicated the view of self; the manas has not been perfumed, and remains the manas of an ordinary being. When one enters the womb in a later life, the mind consciousness ceases, and upon rebirth as a human, neither the mind consciousness nor the manas has eradicated the view of self, and the manas behaves exactly like the ordinary being of the previous life, with no difference. Then where would the merit of attaining realization in the previous life manifest itself?

But in fact, for one who in a previous life truly attained realization and saw the mind and saw the nature, because the manas has been perfumed, upon rebirth as a human, his mental conduct is decidedly different from that of an ordinary being. The longer one cultivated in the previous life, the purer his mental conduct becomes, and the greater the difference from ordinary beings. Before studying Buddhism, the mind consciousness did not even know why it was different from other people, and when being cursed as a fool, the mind consciousness still felt distressed. Sometimes it wanted to be like everyone else, to keep up with the rhythm of society, and to be equally greedy, hateful, and deluded, but the manas was unwilling to do so.

——Master Sheng-Ru's Teachings
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The Mystery of the Aggregate Barrier and the Realization of the Fruit of Practice

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