Cultivation Practice for Everyone's Reference

Sit quietly in meditation for at least half an hour each morning and evening. During sitting, you may recite the Śūraṅgama Mantra or the Heart Sutra; recite slowly, reciting with the mind gathered and collected.

Perform one good deed each day; if you cannot manage that, doing one good deed each week is also acceptable. Try to cultivate merit every day; ideally, make offerings to the Buddha daily. As for other practices, cultivate them according to conditions and according to your capacity.

Each day, examine your observance of precepts and your mental conduct; examine your arising thoughts and intentions, and frequently contemplate and observe your own mind.

Read the Āgama sutras, understand the concepts and meanings of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) and the eighteen realms, and each day engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and reflection on a small section of the content.

Read and recite, or memorize, the Heart Sutra or the Diamond Sutra; even being able to reflect upon a single sentence is good.

While walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, let the mind rest on one dharma—whether reciting the Śūraṅgama Mantra, or the Heart Sutra, or engaging in recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti).

Whenever you have time, contemplate and investigate the functions and natures of the seven consciousnesses, and then contemplate the functions and nature of the eighth consciousness.

Each person's practice and level of cultivation are different. Arrange your own practice according to your actual circumstances, and do not let any single day pass in vain.

Each day, also turn the light around and look back, examining your mind: see whether your afflictions have become a bit lighter; whether your mental state has become calm and free of turbulence; whether your pursuits of and attachments to worldly matters have diminished; whether you have grown less fond of indulgence; whether a sense of renunciation has gradually arisen; whether your disposition has become more sincere and honest; whether both worldly wisdom and the wisdom of the Buddha's teachings have increased; whether your confidence in your own practice has grown strong; whether your mind's daily clinging to external conditions has lessened; whether your mind has become clear, bright, and joyful; whether you handle matters more thoroughly...