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

03 Feb 2024    Saturday     1st Teach Total 4111

Illustrating with Examples What Empirical Realization Is

<h2 style="text-indent: 2em;">Question: On your birthday, friends come to congratulate you. A gives 100 yuan, B gives 100 yuan, and C gives 50 yuan. You have forgotten how much money was originally in your pocket, so you take it out and count it, and discover: after removing the 250 yuan from outside sources, you originally did not have a single cent. Does this count as personally realizing that there was originally no money in your pocket?
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Answer: This certainly counts as personally realizing that there was originally no money in your pocket, because this matter was witnessed with your own eyes and counted with your own hands, actually observed directly in the present—it is an absolutely true, living fact that no one can dispute, deny, or refuse to believe; it was not obtained through inference, imagination, conjecture, or estimation. Another example: when doing business, every evening you return home and count your money; after counting, you have personally realized the amount of money you earned that day. This amount is not estimated or imagined, not speculated or conjured up—it is counted out with your own hands, solid and real, witnessed with your own eyes. Only this is called personal realization and direct verification; anything else is not.

——Master Sheng-Ru's Teachings
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