As The Abbot Explained
Excerpts from published lectures by Venerable Master Hsuan Hua

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Afflictions
Ask yourself if you have a temper, ignorance, and afflictions. If you have these, it’s because you don’t have enough virtue. Ignorance, anger, and afflictions are the roots of suffering. Enduring suffering puts an end to suffering. Enjoying blessings uses up blessings. (Mem. V2.Pg.176)

Attachment
Harboring the least bit of attachment creates obstructions. When we are obstructed, then we cannot transcend the triple realm. When we finally don’t want anything at all, we will have everything. Our wisdom will become apparent. Our spiritual penetrations will manifest. (Sur. Roll 9)

Bliss
The bliss of still extinction – the principle of emptiness – is tens of millions of times more intense than the bliss derived from external physical gratification. If you want that experience, though, you must first stop your involvement with external sensory experiences. Otherwise, the True Emptiness within you cannot manifest. (Sur.roll 9)

Buddha Nature
Due to the influence of the six sense faculties – eyes,  ears, nose, tongue, body and mind – people are reborn in the hells or become hungry ghosts or animals. It’s also due to the functioning of the six senses that people become asuras or are reborn in the heavens or as humans. Actually, the six sense faculties aren’t in control; it’s just that we don’t know how to use them. The master is within everyone’s own nature, the bright nature of enlightenment. This master is also known as the inherent Buddha-nature. When it is in charge, proper thoughts manifest, and one is free and at ease, not obstructed by anything. But once this nature is covered up by even a single thought of ignorance, a dull darkness is erroneously stirred up; the six sense faculties then become the masters and take control. (Dh.Talks v7 pg149)

Consciousness
Fundamentally, consciousness is not of eight kinds, although there are eight kinds in name. We could say that there is a single headquarters with eight departments under it. Although there are eight departments, they are controlled by the headquarters. The eight are one, and the one is eight. The eight don’t contradict the one, and the one doesn’t contradict the eight. From the one, the eight come forth. From eight, they can also return to one. That’s the consciousness. (Dh.Tk.V2pg63)

Fear
Why do people fear ghosts? Because ghosts are grotesque and frightening, menacing and capable of killing people. Fear of ghosts is a form of the fear of death. If you didn’t fear death, you wouldn’t fear anything. You wouldn’t be afraid of ghosts, spirits, goblins, demons, monsters, or anything at all. If you are afraid of something, you cannot be proper. You can attain proper samadhi and reception only if you have no fear. (Dh.Tk.V2.pg77)

Mind alone
If you’re in the Land of Ultimate Bliss but do nothing but cry all day long, then there’s no bliss. If you’re in the Saha World and you’re happy from morning to night, then you’re like the Bodhisattvas of the Ground of Happiness. The principle here is that "everything is made from the mind alone." (Sur. Roll 9)

Mindfulness
The Sixth Patriarch Sutra: "When there is proper mindfulness, the Buddha is in the house. When there is deviant mindfulness, the demon is in the hall." A genuine cultivator does not talk or laugh casually. You should not move or act casually. ( Mem. V.2. Pg. 147)

Mommy dearest
These diseases which are hard to cure do not happen by chance. Behind them, there is a ghost with a grievance who wants the person’s life in payment. So now I see a lot of little ghosts everywhere, trying to make people pay with their lives or causing them to suffer various strange diseases. These little ghosts were fetuses who were aborted before they had a chance to develop into complete human beings, so they are very ruthless. Why are they so malicious? Because you killed them first, and now they want to take revenge. Diseases caused by vengeful ghosts cannot be cured no matter what kind of doctor, Chinese or Western. (Memorial V. 2, Page 173)

Not truly good
Good deeds that are done hoping others will see are not truly good. Evil done fearing others will find out is great evil. (Mem. V2.Pg.176)

Only you…
One can establish one’s own destiny and seek one’s own blessings. Calamities and blessings do not come on their own; people themselves bring them about." (Dh.Talks V7.pg5)

Protection
Now that you know that the Vajra Treasury Bodhisattvas will not protect those who violate the precepts, you can understand why disasters are still likely to happen to people who profess faith but do not practise. But if you can cultivate according to the Dharma and uphold the precepts, and if you can read and recite the Shurangama Mantra, then the eighty-four thousand Vajra Treasury Bodhisattvas will always be with you to lend their aid, so that you can quickly get out of the revolving wheel of the six paths. (Sur-mantra vol.5-pg61)

Pure Land
Your not having any deluded thoughts is already the Pure Land. See how convenient, how immediate it is! Simply clean up your deluded thoughts, and you’ll be in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. When you have no deluded thoughts, then you have no afflictions. That freedom from afflictions, that happiness, is itself the Land of Ultimate Bliss. So, don’t go running all over the place!

The Pure Land teaches very clearly, "One definitely creates it; one doesn’t really go anywhere." You create the Pure Land yourself by revealing the light of your own nature.

You needn’t look outside. Ordinary people think that the Pure Land is outside, but if you really want to study and cultivate Buddhism, you must understand that the Land of Ultimate Bliss and the Saha world are not beyond this very thought. A defiled thought is the Saha world, while a pure thought is the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

Don’t be attached to the fact of your teaching living beings or being reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. Recite the Buddha’s name without worrying about whether you will be reborn there. Just cultivate sincerely. If you are free of affliction, then the Land of Ultimate Bliss is right here, read-made. If you become afflicted, then you are in the Saha world, with its unspeakable suffering. (Med.Mast.Pg.92)

Single Thought
The myriad things are speaking dharmas. If you understand, they are speaking the Buddhadharma, the transcendental Dharma; if you do not understand, then they are speaking worldly dharma, defiling dharma. In this way everything is contained within a single thought of your mind. When you have wisdom, you’ll be able to readily solve any kind of problem; when you don’t have wisdom, there are obstacles everywhere. (Dh.Talks v7 pg151)

Sixth Consciousness
The "intent" is the discriminating mind, the sixth consciousness. Not only does the "mind" make discriminations, it is filled with idle thoughts. The six consciousnesses can also be said to be a perceptive nature. That is, from the six sense organs – eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and intent – the functions of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, and knowing arise. When people commit offenses, they do it with the six sense organs. When they cultivate, they also do it with the six sense organs. If you can remain unperturbed by external states, then you are cultivating. If you are turned by external states, then you will fall. (Dh.Tk. V2.Pg63)

Stupid
During this meditation session, you want to set aside your cleverness and your petty intelligence. You shouldn’t assume that you understand everything there is to know. If you think you know everything already, then you haven’t truly understood the Buddhadharma. That is to say, "Great wisdom resembles stupidity." On the surface, a truly wise person appears to know nothing at all. In fact, he understands all things. That is to say, he may be very dull regarding petty business, but he can understand truly great matters. Only someone like that can have outstanding accomplishment. (Dh.Tk.V3. Pg.73)

Sudden Enlightenment

The Dharma-door of Chan meditation points directly to the human mind. It teaches us to see our nature and to become a Buddha. It is also called "the sudden teaching." The teaching of sudden enlightenment is brought to success by cultivating the gradual teaching. There’s a saying that goes: "One may suddenly be enlightened to the principles, but then one puts the principles into practice gradually. "Now in our daily deportment, as we walk, sit, stand, and lie down, we are cultivating gradually. Then in the future, there will be a day when we truly understand and we suddenly get enlightened. That’s what we mean by sudden. The sudden, in fact, is not apart from the gradual; and the gradual also aids the sudden. (Dh.Tk.V3. Pg. 69) 

Vengeance
People have been murdering one another and brewing up a poisonous enmity which cannot be blotted out. When animals are killed, they harbor a deep grudge. Right before they die, their hearts are filled with terror, hatred, and vengefulness. The hatred they feel produces a kind of poison. When people eat animal flesh, they are really eating poison! Although they do not realize the harm at the time, eventually they develop all kinds of strange and incurable diseases. This hateful energy reaches to the heavens. It is a greater threat than the atomic bomb, for it cannot be seen, but it can wipe out the human race. (Dharma Talks, V6.pg57)