You don't see that the thousand hands and thousand eyes of Kuan Shr Yin Bodhisattva are always emitting an unhindered light that shines throughout the universe on all beings who have affinities. But we are here bowing to and being mindful of the Buddhas; bowing to and being mindful of Kuan Shr Yin Bodhisattva, but we still don't see Kuan Shr Yin. We just go along with the crowd. Others bow so I bow; others recite so I recite. That is to be turned by others' states. You have not yet personally entered deeply into what you are doing. You haven't made it a part of your body and mind.

Ask yourself: "Since I bow to Kuan Shr Yin Bodhisattva and recite Kuan Shr Yin Bodhisattva's name, should I still have such a huge temper? Have I still not changed my old faults?" If that's the case, then you can bow to the ends of future time and you'll never see Kuan Shr Yin Bodhisattva. If you can try very hard to change from being evil and become good, really getting rid of your habits and faults, then Kuan Yin Bodhisattva will certainly aid you. Some people cultivate for many years but still don't open any wisdom. Some people cultivate and without knowing why, their wisdom opens and they gain unobstructed eloquence.

Shramanas should diligently cultivate precepts, samadhi and wisdom, putting to rest greed, hatred, and delusion. In everything we say and do, we should return our light and reflect it within. Only in that way will your cultivation progress. We listen to the Avatamsaka Sutra, explain the Avatamsaka Sutra, and recite the Avatamsaka Sutra, but if we do not apply the principles of the Avatamsaka Sutra to our practice, then the Sutra remains the Sutra and you are still just you, I am still just me, and they are still just themselves. We have not in any way united with the Sutra. If we can become one with the Sutra, relying on the principles of the Sutra in what we do, then we have united as one. If you don't use the Sutra in your actual practice; if you lack kindness and compassion and are deficient in joy and renunciation, then only ignorance and afflictions will follow you. That means you have not understood the Sutra; you don't know how to listen to the Sutra. Those who are able to listen hear one sentences and reflect upon it thinking, "How should I make this a part of what I do? Am I pursuing my habits and faults or am I relying on the principles of the Sutra in my practice?" If you can continually examine yourself in that way, you will certainly attain great benefit. Why have you not attained great benefit? It is because you regard the Sutra as just a text and that you have no relationship to it.

Actually at the time the Buddha first spoke the Avatamsaka Sutra, he was speaking for you and me and others who are now in this Dharma Assembly. The Buddha was speaking directly to us. Hearing the Sutra text, it is as if we are hearing the Buddha himself using every effort to personally exhort us to put the principles and Dharma doors of the Sutra into practice. The Sutra speaks of ten Dharmas, ten kinds of samadhi. Well, each Dharma and each samadhi is not beyond the scope of each person's own nature. Our own nature also pervades empty space throughout the Dharma Realm. If you are able to expand the scope of your mind, enlarge it, then you will become one with the Avatamsaka Sutra. You will be two and yet non-dual. Everyone should take the state of the Avatamsaka Sutra as his own state. Take the infinite and unending principles and wisdom of the Avatamsaka Sutra and make their your own wisdom. How vast that will be! Expansive and profound! Extend it and it fills the universe; retract it and it hides away. It is inexpressibly wonderful!