The True Realization of the World by Those with Fruitful Practice

He Qianxing: Our saha world is a burning house and a cesspit. The body is also foul and impure, like a beggar's robe, covered in filth and stench. Whether male or female, old or young, whether handsome or beautiful, all have feces and urine piled up inside, wrapped in a layer of skin on the outside, yet embraced with intense attachment. When this robe rots and tears, people think it is death and become extremely afraid. Isn't it a particularly joyful thing to take off this tattered robe of the ordinary person and change into the fine silks and brocades of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas?

Men display their careers, wealth, strength, and physical prowess; women flaunt their beauty with coquettish poses—like holding up a vase filled with feces and urine, showing it off with great effort in order to gain recognition from the opposite sex and satisfy lustful desires and vanity. Isn't this an absurd thing? Those who know the vase contains feces and urine would avoid it at all costs—how could they still have the impulse to fight over it?

In the cultivation and realization of the Dharma, whether it is the foundational Dharma or the more profound Dharma, true understanding and comprehension are always accompanied by tremendous physical and mental transformations. It cannot be as plain as water, without sensation or impact. This is because the manas is closely connected to the physical body, and the physical body is regulated by the manas. When the manas truly unties a mental knot, there will be tremendous changes in body and mind. Only those who genuinely practice can have this personal experience. Because the Dharma is now obtained too easily, and answers come too readily, people may think that knowing the answer is their own wisdom and that it equals realization. In fact, actually having been to Beijing and merely having read a guidebook about Beijing are completely different things. If one thinks one understands the Dharma but has not undergone tremendous physical and mental changes, then one must reflect on whether one's understanding comes from personal experience or from comprehending others' explanations of the Dharma. Understanding through personal experience is one's true understanding, and only then can one achieve consistency between words and actions.

When a mental knot is untied, there will be a feeling of lightness and of chains breaking, like a tightly compressed ball of cotton being released from its bindings. Through continuous introspection and reflection on one's own world of body and mind, one becomes aware of the arising and ceasing of one's own greed, anger, delusion, arrogance, and doubt. Each time one observes the changes within the mind, one feels that afflictions have become a little thinner, and the body accordingly becomes increasingly light and at ease. As thoughts of greed, anger, and delusion become fewer and fewer, until one day those afflicting thoughts basically no longer arise, the body and mind will experience brightness—of course, not actual light, but the mind-light, which only oneself can feel. With each physical and mental transformation, one also becomes aware that faith in the Dharma is continuously strengthening. Because it is personal realization, not imagination of the brain, and the body and mind genuinely feel that change, the growth of faith is truly visible. From letting go with half-belief and half-doubt to consciously and proactively letting go of worldly things, it is all because faith is growing and doubts are diminishing. Looking back at the past, the state of living amid greed, anger, and delusion was as uncomfortable as being soaked in poison water, so one proactively stays away from those things because they are all painful feelings. Many, many Dharma principles must be personally realized by oneself. When truly facing oneself, one discovers that one was previously nothing less than a beast in human clothing. Now, through cultivating mind contemplation and reflecting on one's own body and mind, one's virtue has greatly improved, transforming from a beast in human clothing into having a bit of a human appearance. I myself am still far from it—I have only just begun.