How to Exorcise Demons and Rid Oneself of Sin-Induced Nightmares

Many people, after beginning their study of the Dharma, shift their pursuit from worldly benefits to seeking benefits from Dharma practice. Yet the inner self remains unrelinquished; ego-attachment persists, reinforcing self-view and ego-clinging. They crave more and more disciples, greater and greater power, higher and higher fame, more and more reverence from sentient beings—all for the sake of psychological comfort. But is this comfortable sensation truly meaningful? When others flatter me, I feel comfortable—this pleasurable sensation is a perception of the conscious mind. This conscious mind is subject to birth and cessation, illusory and impermanent; inherently unreal, it cannot endure. It arises and passes away, destined to cease day and night.

A genuine practitioner should often calm the mind and constantly introspect: What am I truly pursuing? Why do I grasp at wealth? What is the purpose? Why do I now covet enjoyments and sensations? What is the aim? What is its significance? What are its faults? I harbor various desires—what is the ultimate outcome of these desires? See clearly into your own mind, and bravely confront it. Clarify the ultimate purpose of your Dharma practice: How can you attain this goal through proper Dharma practice without deviating from your final aim? If the mind seeks nothing, the goal is swiftly reached—then what more should I pursue? Constantly ask yourself: What do I want? What is the point of all this striving and contention? Can liberation be attained? Is there any real meaning? Are all these pursuits merely illusory projections of the Tathāgatagarbha? Will what is sought inevitably be lost, or will even more be forfeited? Do such improper thoughts and pursuits bind one with more fetters, or do they bring more liberating merits and benefits?

The more one seeks to obtain, the more one often loses. Our study of Buddhism aims to lighten the burden of the mind; we must not let our eyes be clouded by the illusory phenomena of the world. See others clearly, but see yourself even more clearly—constantly engage in such self-reflection. If one’s Buddhist practice fixates on clinging to appearances without applying effort to the mind, this attachment to forms leads to worldly strife, contention, selling one’s soul, and acting against conscience—only increasing one’s own afflictions and the mind’s burdens. To use the Dharma as a tool for contending over worldly gains, a tool for personal greed, a tool for overpowering others—this is truly sinful, bringing endless calamity. If practitioners do not seek ways to alleviate the afflictions in their own minds and those of sentient beings, but instead add layer upon layer of fetters to these afflictions and create various unwholesome karmas, they harm both Buddhism and sentient beings—seeking life but falling into degradation, gaining little while losing much. This is truly an act devoid of wisdom; they should repent swiftly and eliminate sins and afflictions.