All elder teachers, all teachers in their prime, all young and capable teachers! Teachers are people who know which are the correct dharmas. Being able to tell the difference between what is correct and what is not, each of us must "select and follow that which is good and change that which is not good." "Proceed if it is the way and retreat if it is not." Make sure you have the ability to select the right dharma and proper knowledge and views. Having proper knowledge and views means that you do things to help humanity and avoid doing harm to humanity--actually, not just toward humanity but to all beings. If we were so, we wouldn't have wasted our time being humans. Conversely, if we do not understand the truth, the fundamentals to being human, we would have wasted our time as human beings. By helping others while we're here on this planet and forgetting ourselves, we are helping humanity and sentient beings. We are helping nations, families, individuals, and so on so that the entire world is covered. We must help others and not ourselves. We are only a small part of the whole that is made up of other people and sentient beings, which is equivalent to all of humanity being benefited. If we think only in terms of ourselves then we might as well not do anything. One person cannot eat much or wear much clothes. Even housing is merely a matter of,

Thousands and thousands of buildings abound,
But I use no more than eight feet to sleep;
Thousands and thousands of acres in fertile land,
But I eat only this much: three meals a day.

What about the people at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas? Monks, nuns and some lay people there eat only one meal a day. We do this because there is a shortage of food around the world. We are willing to cut down on our intake to allow the rest of the world to have more. Some claim, "Maybe you do not eat much, but that does not mean other people will get it necessarily." Whether they get it or not, at least we did not reduce the actual sum of provisions. By eating a bit less, we leave a bit more for the rest of the world. This is intended to help the world and it does. Some say, "This is impossible for me." Not only is it impossible for you, it is impossible for him too. People are selfish. We feel as if we've been taken advantage when we suffer from a little less food or warm clothing.

Actually, by suffering we reduce our suffering. We suffer because there is suffering that we need to face. Someone is wondering, "How do you know you have suffering waiting for you to undergo?" Ask yourself if you have a temper, ignorance or afflictions. Ignorance and afflictions come from the lack of virtue. The Buddha said, "Different forms of ignorance are the roots of suffering." Ignorance, afflictions, and temper are all roots to a kind of suffering. When the roots of suffering are extracted, only roots of goodness remain. If the source of suffering ends, roots of goodness develop. Hence, to suffer is to put an end to suffering, to enjoy blessings is to reduce blessings. By refraining from enjoying our blessings, we share our blessings with everyone, with all beings. Though we have food to eat, there are many people who do not. Many people in many countries die from starvation. Who knows how many die in a day? People in quite a few countries have no clothes to wear. By reducing the amount of clothing we have and dedicating the amount from which we refrained to people who are suffering throughout the world, we are helping the entire world. Even though this is what we do, we do not need to claim credit for it. We do not need to say, "I have earned some merit from doing this!" Good deeds done in the hopes that they will be seen are not really good; evil done with the fear of it being known is tremendous evil. Goodness is filiality. Promiscuity is on the top of the list when it comes to evil. Do not walk down the road to death. Promiscuity and infidelity are evil, but people nowadays elbow their way down this path. As people think of all kinds of ways to indulge in sex, the world continues to degenerate. People's minds and hearts are not like the way they were in ancient times; things are becoming worse by the day.

In the good old days people were innocent and down to earth. Diabolical behavior, cancer, AIDS, and various bizarre and incurable diseases were not rampant. But people are not awake still. They have not tried to find the real cause of this wide variety of disasters, which is malice. World catastrophes have not stop with one: a fire has followed a flood, a hurricane has happened after a fire, and an earthquake has occurred after a hurricane. There are all kinds of strange accidents too. Again, it is because people are wicked now! We must wake up. Quick, wake up everybody in the world. Select and follow that which is good and change that which is not good. Proceed if it is the way and retreat if it is not. We must have proper knowledge and proper views. We must have the ability to know what is right, what is black or white. Do not stay in a daze and let your life slip by, that would be too sad.