Greedy craving is the primary cause of rebirth in evil destinies

Buddhist practitioners who truly wish for liberation should, in their daily lives, carefully examine the various feelings and sensations within their own minds—examining what they are craving and attached to, what matters they care about, and what they devote their thoughts and energy to. Once discovered, they should analyze what kind of mentality this is, what significance it has, and what its outcome will be. Then they should find ways to counteract their cravings and feelings; in this way, practice will sweep away obstructions, and progress on the path will be swift.

Our craving habits accumulated over beginningless kalpas are very heavy, and we ourselves find them very hard to detect, because we have grown accustomed to them and take them for granted. Only those who have walked the path and eliminated or subdued their craving habits can detect their own and others' greedy minds. It is like one who has long dwelt in a fragrant hall no longer noticing the fragrance, or one who has long stayed in a dung pit no longer noticing the stench—only someone outside the fragrant hall can smell the pure fragrance, and only someone outside the dung pit can detect the foul odor.

The scope of craving is very broad: any dharma within the desire realm, so long as one is fond of it, is craving. Those literary masters skilled in poetry and verse, and those painters who wield their brushes with effortless flair, have almost all gone off to the ghost realm to enjoy themselves, because those things all belong to craving—let alone other aspects; romantic love is even more certainly craving, making it impossible to escape rebirth in the ghost realm. Those who often paint horses, painting them with lifelike spirit, are reborn into a horse's womb after death; those who often write ghost stories, writing them most vividly, are reborn as ghosts after death. Whatever one's mind frequently dwells upon, after death one goes to keep company with that very thing. A painter who paints horses with great concentration has a mind resonating with horses, and in the next life will be reborn as a horse; those who often write novels about ghosts and spirits pour their minds into ghosts and spirits, resonating with them, and after death will become ghosts. Now we recollect the Buddha, and our minds resonate with the Buddha, so we will be born beside the Buddha. When the mind resonates with the wholesome, one is reborn in wholesome destinies; when the mind resonates with the unwholesome, one is reborn in unwholesome destinies.

When the karmic retribution of the ghost realm ends, those who still have some merit go to take rebirth in the animal realm; when the karmic retribution of the animal realm ends, only those who still have some merit remaining will return to take rebirth in the human world. Therefore, the time one obtains a human body is very brief, while the time spent in the three evil destinies is very long. Every sentient being experiences far more suffering than joy. So we should still think of our future lives, enjoy less felicity, and leave more merit for later lives; only with great merit can one be reborn as a human as quickly as possible.

Those with deep roots of goodness and abundant merit stay beside the Buddha, receiving the Buddha's guidance and edification, and their practice advances very quickly. Without the Buddha, being beside bodhisattvas who have severed afflictions, or beside arhats, one's practice also advances very quickly—as the saying goes, near vermillion one becomes red, near ink one becomes black. Coarser greedy minds can still be observed with some care, but subtle cravings are extremely numerous, and almost no one can observe them, except those who have severed afflictions. How rare is the opportunity to obtain a human body, how brief the time one has it, and how rare and difficult it is to attain realization and liberation with a human body. Having already obtained human bodies, how should we seize this rare opportunity and diligently cultivate realization to attain even a small measure of liberation? This is a question we should often ponder deeply.