This incident shows that the Venerable Master's Dharma body is constantly with us. Every time we make a mistake, the Venerable Master sees it clearly down to the last detail. In the course of cultivation, the Venerable Master also uses different methods to instruct and teach his disciples according to their individual dispositions. He wants us to see through and renounce the five desires and not let ourselves be turned by the six sense faculties, six sense objects, and six consciousnesses anymore. If we can successfully put them down and not cling to them, then we will be at ease and free of impediments. According to our vows, in no time we will certainly be born in the Pure Land.

Arrogance and self-conceit
Are absolute taboos in cultivation.
They cause you to cut off your own good roots
And refuse to listen to good advice from others.
You will not be able to develop proper views,
Nor enter the proper path.
Such cultivators will certainly end up
Next door to the demons.

Once when the Venerable Master was instructing us, he described people with big egos as being "stinky" [in Chinese, the character for "stinky" is composed of the characters for "self" and "big"] and therefore repulsive to others. On the other hand, the Buddha's kindness and compassion makes everyone want to draw near him. In the course of cultivation, an inflated ego and self-conceit are the greatest impediments to practicing the Way.

Before I took refuge in 1987, I remember saying to my mother-in-law at home, "I don't think there's any need for me to kneel in front of anyone else. I don't even kneel in front of my parents, so why should I bow to the Venerable Master?" That Sunday, the Venerable Master gave a Dharma talk at Mission College. After the talk was over, everyone was bowing to the Venerable Master, and I was deliberating over whether I should go bow or not. Finally, there seemed to be an invisible force pushing me forward, making me bow before the Master. The Venerable Master said, "You're such a tall guy. Aren't you afraid you'll lose face by bowing to me?" I was shocked, thinking, "How did the Master know what I had said at home?" Later I analyzed the matter and realized that my unwillingness to kneel and bow was due to my arrogant character. Because the Venerable Master immediately instructed, taught, and subdued me, pulling me out of my deluded, ignorant world and setting me on the proper path, I am where I am today. If I had been unable to accept his teaching, I would have continued living with my mistaken notions without ever getting an opportunity to walk on the proper path of cultivation.

I also remember that during the year of 1988, the Venerable Master would sit on the sofa in front of the Buddhahall every Saturday afternoon at Gold Mountain Monastery. On those occasions I had the opportunity to draw near to the Venerable Master and converse with him a little bit. I was rather naive, thinking that I had read the Venerable Master's books and gained some insight from them. I had gotten rid of some of my vices--drinking, meat-eating, and gambling--and smugly thought I was quite pure. So once I asked for instruction from the Venerable Master, saying, "I don't have enough samadhi power." The Master shook his head and put me off neither gently nor harshly, saying, "You're not ready to talk about samadhi yet." It's true, I'm not ready to talk about samadhi, because I haven't been able to maintain the precepts strictly yet. So of course I'm not ready to talk about samadhi. From the Venerable Master's instruction, I realized that I still had a lot to learn! The only way to learn would be to seek instruction humbly. With self-conceit and arrogance, one is like the shallow and short-sighted frog at the bottom of a well.

I also remember when I accompanied the Venerable Master to Hualien, Taiwan, to propagate the Dharma in 1989. Before we went to visit the Mercy Salvation Hospital, the Venerable Master repeatedly reminded the laypeople that we should be respectful to Dharma Master Cheng Yen and not be proud or arrogant. The Venerable Master was always reminding us of the importance of not being arrogant. Also, in 1988 when I followed the Master to propagate the Dharma at Wonderful Dharma Monastery in Taoyuan, because there were many visitors I had to go into the Master's room to report to him many times. Every day I was scolded by the Master, but I knew the Master was only testing me and driving away my arrogance and conceit. These valuable experiences have told me that if a person cannot be humble and lower himself, he will not be able to accomplish his work in the Way. If a person is self-conceited, then even if he were to master the classics and Sutras, he would still end up in the retinue of demons after all his cultivation.

I was in worry and difficulty.
At a loss for what to do.
My teacher helped me without my knowing,
Bathing me with his kindness.
Only after a long time
Did I learn that this was my teacher's doing.
In gratitude to my teacher's grace,
I resolve to follow his teachings.

After graduating from graduate school, I got a job as an engineer in an electronics company. Before I encountered the Venerable Master's teaching, I didn't understand any principles and didn't know how to be a proper human being. I created many bad conditions with people and constantly lived amidst the afflictions of self and others, rights and wrongs, without being able to pull myself out. After I took refuge with the Venerable Master, I still had some afflictions. My supervisor in the company where I worked often gave me difficult problems to deal with, and that caused me to think of leaving the company. However, the job application letters that I mailed out over several months' time seemed to have sunk to the bottom of the sea like stones. At the same time, the company was trying to cut down its staff. Under this double-sided pressure, I felt extremely miserable. One Saturday I went to Gold Mountain Monastery and requested to see the Venerable Master. When I told the Venerable Master my situation, he said, "Keep trying." The following week, I had three interviews and three job offers. I immediately went to Gold Mountain Monastery to bow to and thank the Venerable Master. The Master said, "No need to thank me." I know one thing: As long as a disciple has faith in the Venerable Master, when he is in difficulty, in a single thought the Venerable Master will invisibly come to his aid, and after the matter he will not acknowledge that he did anything, either.

Six years afterwards, I started my own business. Actually, it was under the Venerable Master's guidance that the conditions for starting a business ripened. When the International Translation Institute first moved to Burlingame, the Venerable Master said that some furniture would be needed and that if the opportunity arose, we should purchase some for future use. So I kept my eyes open for auctions. In purchasing furniture, I discovered some equipment related to my work, so I could enter that line of business.

When I was an engineer, I often wished I could have a job that would support my family so I'd have more time to work for the Way-place. The Venerable Master knew about my wish and guided me onto that path, allowing me to fulfill my wish.

It was only after I had my business that I realized all this was made possible by the Venerable Master's step-by-step guidance. I will forever remember the kindness the Venerable Master has bestowed upon me. I venerate the Venerable Master with all my heart.

Now that the Venerable Master has completed the stillness, we should more than ever, with the attitude of "taking the precepts as our teacher," respectfully practice the Six Great Principles. Let everyone unite under the Venerable Master's spiritual inspiration to make the holy teaching flourish again.