If you could hear the Venerable Master's words on that day.... In the crowded Dharma assembly, there was a layman who started lighting a cigarette. The Venerable Master sternly told the smoker that he didn't want to be permeated by smoke... (That day was in 1979).

A white gull dirtied with tar and oil cannot fly away from the blue sea. Smokers who defile their lives with the stink of nicotine can no longer be at ease with themselves.

If one does not eat food laden with oil, one will not develop obesity, diabetes, or senility.

Although they were instructed many times, they were, greedy for rich gourmet food. Our Dharma friends, one by one, neglected the Master's exhortations. They threw away the treatment of simple, natural food. After the Dharma session was over, they went out for greasy gourmet food.

If...
But there won't be another chance to hear the Venerable Master's repeated remonstrations.
If you pick up the volume of the Venerable Master's Dharma talks that has been lying in a corner of the room, the Master's unique style will again appear in your mind.

Why is that after the painter passed away, his paintings became priceless, while after the Venerable Master departed, only one evening newspaper printed a brief report? How unfair!

Is it because the Venerable Master made the comparison of the Southern Song dynasty and some people were offended?

If--and this is the only thing we can do--the Venerable Master's conduct can enter deeply into our minds, why don't we try to think back and remember what true cultivation is.

Our Dharma friends: In the last one or two decades, have we planted the Dharma into the field of our eighth consciousness? Or have we just wasted the Dharma by treating it as a topic for social conversations?
If the world changes for the better in the future and people's minds recover, we pray that the Venerable Master will come back again, riding on his vows.

If the world changes for the worse in the future and people's minds do not recover, we still pray that the Venerable Master will come back riding on his vows.

Who caused the world to become such a mess? Many Dharma-friends are disappointed and want to leave for the West, willing to return only after they have cultivated and realized the fruition.

They are all being selfish!

It's a good thing the sound of the Sanskrit syllables of the Shurangama Mantra has not stopped and the demons dare not act.

The recitation of the Avatamsaka Sutra will not stop, and the recitation of the Dharma Flower Sutra still continues.

Who will be able to carry on the Buddhadharma? Who can fight with the demons and win converts from their retinue? Such a one will be the Venerable Master's Dharma son!

There will many memorial articles, and the memorial volumes will be thick and heavy. If you can take the time to read them carefully, your mind will be replenished with the water of Dharma.

There are many if's. If you are a Dharma-friend whose Dharma-name begins with "Guo" ("fruition"), I hope you will certify to the fruition....

One who is a father usually hopes that his own father can still stay in the world, and that when his father slaps him, he will feel the sting of such stern and severe teaching.

If the aged father is still in the world, his hands will be frail and dry, and the glow of his eyes will be gentle and kind.

If the Venerable Master had always tried to please people, he wouldn't have run into so much resistance, and he would have been given a grand welcome upon coming to Taiwan.

It's only now that I feel sad in thinking of the Venerable Master.