The True Realization of the World by Those Who Have Achieved Effective Cultivation

He Qianxing: Our Saha world is a burning house and a cesspool; the body is also foul and impure, like a beggar's robe, covered in filth and stench. Regardless of gender, age, or whether one is handsome or beautiful, all are filled with excrement and urine within, wrapped in a layer of skin on the outside, yet people cling to it with intense attachment. When this robe wears out and breaks, they consider it death and become extremely fearful. Is it not a particularly joyful thing to take off this tattered robe of an ordinary being and put on the splendid silks and satins of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas?

Men display their careers, wealth, strength, and physical prowess, while women flaunt their beauty with coquettish postures, like holding up a vase filled with excrement and urine, showing it off vigorously in an attempt to gain approval from the opposite sex, satisfying their lust and vanity. Is this not a ridiculous thing? Those who know that the vase contains excrement and urine would only wish to avoid it; could they still have the impulse to fight over it?

In the cultivation and realization of the Dharma, whether it is the elementary teachings or the more profound ones, true understanding and comprehension are invariably accompanied by significant transformations of body and mind. It cannot be as flat as water, without sensation or impact. This is because the mind faculty is closely connected to the physical body, and the physical body is regulated by the mind faculty. When the mind faculty truly unties a knot, there will be great changes in body and mind; only those who practice earnestly can have personal experience. Because the Dharma is now too easily obtained, and answers come too effortlessly, people may mistakenly believe that knowing the answer is their own wisdom, equivalent to having realized it. In truth, having actually been to Beijing and merely reading a travel guide about Beijing are two entirely different things. If one believes they understand the Dharma without accompanying great changes in body and mind, they must reflect on whether their understanding comes from personal experience or from comprehending others' interpretations of the Dharma. Understanding through personal experience is true understanding, and only then can one achieve consistency in words and deeds.

When a knot is untied, there will be a feeling of relief and release, like a tightly compressed ball of cotton being set free from its bindings. Through continuous introspection and observation of one's own body and mind, one will perceive the arising and ceasing of greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt. With each observation of the inner changes, one feels that afflictions have become a little thinner, and the body becomes increasingly light and at ease. As thoughts of greed, anger, and ignorance gradually diminish, until one day they basically no longer arise, the body and mind will perceive a kind of brightness—not a physical light, but a light of the mind, which only oneself can feel. With each change in body and mind, one will also notice that faith in the Dharma continuously strengthens. Because it is direct realization, not mental imagination, the body and mind truly experience those changes, and the growth of that faith is tangibly visible. From a state of hesitant letting go to actively and voluntarily relinquishing worldly things, it is all due to the growth of faith and the gradual reduction of doubt. Looking back, the state of living amidst greed, anger, and ignorance felt like being soaked in poisonous water—so painful—and one actively stays away from those things, as they are all suffering. Many, many principles of the Dharma must be personally realized. Only when truly facing oneself does one discover that one was previously nothing but a beast in human clothing. Now, through cultivating the mind and observing one's own body and mind, one's virtue has greatly improved, transforming from a beast in human clothing into someone with a semblance of humanity. I myself am still far from the goal; I have only just begun.