Q: How can we avoid being fooled by non-Buddhists?
A: Don't be greedy for fame or fortune. Recite the Shurangama Mantra every day.

Q (by a disciple): I saw someone who calls himself an Unsupassed Teacher but dresses like a layperson use Buddhism as an ad everywhere he goes.
A: He is a cult figure, not a real Buddhist.

Q: How come some people think about killing themselves all day long? Is there any way to resolve this problem?
A: This is the result of karma. Some people improve their conditions by reciting the Sixth Patriarch's Platform Sutra, some people recite the Vajra Sutra, and some people recite the Avatamsaka Sutra. They must repent every day.

Q: Why does the Venerable Master want to go into seclusion when your have not yet recovered physically?
A: I have to go into seclusion for a month for the war in Iraq. I want to help them by dedicating merit and virtue to the locals there.

Q (by a disciple): Someone took a photograph of a great Dharma assembly hosted by someone who calls himself a Buddha. More than ten thousand people were in attendance. There are two white shadows in that photo; they are said to be two deceased individuals who have come to be saved.
A: Someone who is virtuous does not need to organize any Dharma assembly and yet can still save thousands, tens' of thousands, and countless souls in the underworld.

Q: My grandson is in the hospital. He is at the brink of death. What should I do?
A: Recite the name of Guanshiyin Bodhisattva.

Q: I really want to cultivate.
A: Have you let go of your emotions?

Q: How come my children never listen to me?
A: Because you treated your parents this way when you were young too.

Q: How come my mother is illiterate?
A: Because in her last life she had studied the Buddhadharma, but she did not want to teach it to others who asked.

Q (by a disciple): Master, I have fewer and fewer friends since I had begun studying Buddhism.
A: Why do you want friends?

Q: My husband is having an affair, what should I do?
A: You've got a substitute ghost; you are now free!

Q: How come the Master is wearing a green bracelet all of sudden?
A: A spirit from several millenniums ago still possesses this bracelet. It'll be a while before she can let go of and become liberated.

Q: The Master's blessings cured my sickness. Will the Master please use your supernatural powers to take back the land that a certain monastery has robbed from me? That monastery forced me and conned me into donating it.
A: I don't save people for money. It would be ineffective if we were to ask the Bodhisattva to bless us in the hopes of gaining something.

Q (by a disciple): I have been dreaming often lately. In these dreams, I've got fantastic paranormal powers. I was killing many visible and invisible beings.
A: You have a strong tendency to kill; you had better repent thoroughly.

Q: Should we repent even when we err in our dreams?
A: Everything is made from the mind alone. We must repent of and change any improper thinking.

Q: Sutra texts are very difficult to understand, what should I do?
A: You must concentrate and read the commentaries at least four times. You will understand the Sutras readily that way.

Q: Has someone certified to the fruition because of his supernatural powers?
A: No.

Q: What is the Vajra Bodhi Sea?
A: What is Vajra? It means indestructibility. What is the Sea of Bodhi? It is the sea of great enlightenment. Actually, the Vajra Bodhi Sea is deeper and wider than any ocean.

Q: How do we attain wisdom?
A: Quit being confused then you've got wisdom! How could you be wise when you're confused day in and day out, laden with so much sexual desire?

Q: Will my recitation of the Great Compassion Mantra be equally effective if I am not a vegetarian or do not keep the precepts?
A: You have to stand on your own. Don't rely on the Great Compassion Mantra, small compassion mantra, eastern compassion mantra, or western compassion mantra.

Q: What are the Three Non-retreats?
A: The Non-retreating Position is a resultant position for Mahayana Bodhisattvas whereby they do not retreat to become those of the Two Vehicles and study Theravadan teachings. The Non-retreating Resolve refers to one's resolve for Bodhi. One would never withdraw from cultivating enlightenment and achieving one's vows. The Non-retreating Conduct means that one always moves ahead boldly and cultivates vigorously, never backsliding or becoming lazy after cultivating for a while. For instance, one does not stop and turn back after cultivating for two or three days, asking, "Why haven't I become a Buddha yet?"

Q: The Master says that if we were to understand this line, "sa dan duo bwo dan la", then we would understand our mind and see our true nature, also tame spirits, demons, and heretics. Exactly how do we use it?
A: Just like learning martial arts, we must master its moves before we confront the enemy with our sword or rifle at hand. We don't become the world's undefeated champion because we've watched for a day a few Shaolin-styled kung fu moves and think they're very good. You think you know it but you don't even have the basics down! The Shurangama Mantra works the same way, how could you use it if you haven't even recited it?

Q: Just now the Master gave a talk on how excellent the Great Compassion Mantra is. May I ask which layperson or Buddha or Bodhisattva invented the Great Compassion Mantra?
A: The Great Compassion Repentance and the Great Compassion Dharani Sutra both make it clear that the Great Compassion Mantra was said by Buddhas as many as grains of sand in 990 million Ganges Rivers in the past. As soon as Guanshiyin Bodhisattva recited the Great Compassion Mantra, she acquired a thousand hands and a thousand eyes. She sees with her one thousand eyes, listens with one thousand ears, and rescues all beings with one thousand hands. Since she has accepted, upholds, reads, and recites the Great Compassion Mantra, she has wonderful features that adorn and is replete with a thousand hands and a thousand eyes.

Q: How do we uncover intense ignorance and see real wisdom during our waking hours.
A: This question shows that you're not too far from real wisdom.

Q: What is Right Samadhi in cultivation? What kind of a state is that?
A: Right Samadhi is [a state of deep absorption] during which one has no deviant views. There's no Right Samadhi if one has deviant views. The Shurangama Sutra says so clearly, "It is a wholesome state if one doesn't consider oneself a sage because of that state; if one does consider oneself a sage, one will fall for deviant multitudes." This is an explanation of Right Samadhi, and the best explanation at that.

Q: How come the Buddha has Three Impossibilities?
A: Have you read the Avatamsaka Sutra? Go back and really study it.

Q (by a disciple): Venerable Master, please have my son take refuge with the Triple Jewel.
A: Everything has its time and place. Don't force things.

Q (by a disciple): Natural disasters are occurring often recently, will the Master please not go to Taiwan.
A: If I deserve this retribution, then I'll accept it.

Q: Today I saw some really awesome people. One made recitation beads smell really good, and another person grew out his arm so that it was really long!
A: Can these things make someone become liberated from the cycle of birth and death? What is a long arm good for?

Q: We may recite the Great Compassion Mantra or other mantras, but we don't understand what they mean. Will we naturally understand what they mean by continuing to recite and thereby developing our wisdom? Is there any other way to understand what they mean?
A: This mantra is not to be understood. Although not to be understood, it contains meaning. Since there are very few people who understand mantras, they are generally considered incomprehensible. However, I have used four line verses to explain every line of the Great Compassion Mantra. Those explanations are not perfect, but they shed some light.

Q: How does an ordinary person tell whether someone has true spiritual penetration?
A: A real cultivator doesn't talk about spiritual penetration, only wisdom. Spiritual penetration is just an alias for wisdom. Once you have wisdom, you will naturally understand everything, the trichilocosm (three thousand great world systems of thousands of worlds) would be like an apple in your palm. Without wisdom, you run into obstacles in everything that you do.

Q: Why should we recite the Shurangama Mantra once in the morning and once at night?
A: Once in the morning for protection during the day and once in the evening for protection throughout the night.

Q (by a disciple): What things should we be careful of in the future?
A: Don't make any predictions. Don't brag. Don't be interested in fame and fortune. Real cultivators appear dumb though they're extremely wise. They don't go around advertising how they have saved so many people.

Q: Is rebirth in the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss possible if we were to recite the Great Compassion Mantra and make the vow that we be reborn there after death?
A: The same rebirth [as reciting the Buddha's name].

Q: How come some people are irresponsible and drag their foot when it comes to work in the monastery?
A: They have food to eat despite their irresponsibility.

Q: Is there one absolute truth, or is there none?
Another person: It's basically impossible for absolutes to exist in this world of relativity. If there were any absolutes, it would this one: expediency. For instance, we are studying Buddhism though fundamentally there is no Buddha. Since we're stupid, we have to have a Buddha to guide us to Buddhahood. When we do become Buddhas, we would realize that there's no such thing as a Buddha. I believe that's what the Master means.
A: That's somewhat right, although slightly off the mark. Everything is relative; there are no absolutes. There is one thing that is the absolute truth: that even this absolute doesn't exist. Even the "one" is gone. Once you understand the one absolute, you cannot become attached to this absolute. Attachment to the absolute, the truth, is still a form of attachment; consequently, that absolute truth will be of no use to you. You must let go of that absolute too. As it is said, "The myriad Dharmas return to one, and where does that one return to?" To where should "one" go back? There's not even that "one". If there's not a thing, what might that be? That's "zero". Zero creates the heaves, earth, and myriad things; it creates immortals, Buddhas, and sages. They are all born from this zero. That zero is limitless and boundless. Think about this number. If you put a "0" next to a "1", you've got "10", add another circle, it's a hundred. Draw another circle and it's one thousand. Draw yet another zero, and you have ten thousand, then thousands upon thousands, and ten's of thousands upon ten's of thousands. There's no end to the number of zeros that you could draw. Even the computer can't compute that figure. You say, "That's a number." You have to let go of that "a" then. What is there if there is nothing? A zero is not a number; being zero, it is nothing. So this "one", this absolute of yours basically doesn't exist.

Earlier you talked about Buddhas and how there are fundamentally none. Wrong, it's impossible for there to be no Buddhas. You are caught in dull emptiness and annihilism if there were no Buddhas. Why are you cultivating if there were no Buddhas? There are Buddhas; we just become attached no longer to the idea of Buddhas once we realize Buddhahood. This is incorrect: there are no Buddhas and the story of a Buddha was fabricated so that we would have an idol. Actually, the Buddha is just the fundamental nature in every one of us. "All living beings have the Buddha nature; we are capable of becoming Buddhas." So, to be able to become Buddhas is most democratic. Anyone can become a Buddha!

Once in a car ride from San Francisco to Gold Wheel Monastery, [Los Angeles,] a disciple was looking at the scenery and telling the Master how pretty it was there and how nice it was here.
A: I don't look to the outside.

Q: What is the usefulness of mantras?
A: Whether mantras are useful is beside the point, the important thing to note is that it's a dharma that adorns the Dharma Realm. To adorn the Dharma Realm is to adorn our inherent nature. Adorning the Dharma Realm, we also adorn our inherent nature. An adorned inherent nature is a dharma that allows us to realize Bodhi. I don't mean that I don't have to eat when hungry because I uphold mantras, that I don't need to put on more clothes when I'm cold because I uphold mantras, or that I don't need to sleep when on I tired because I uphold mantras. Mantras have nothing to do with those things; mantras make our Dharma body and wisdom life grow.

Q: How come some babies are born conjoined?
A: They used to be so intimate that they couldn't be apart from each other! Do you even need to ask?

A faith-goer is shooting pictures of the Venerable Master left and right, wanting lots of photos.
Venerable Master: Don't take so many pictures. You can't be so greedy. Just take one picture, don't take too many! You're not the only one eating. Be content. The Dharma is impartial and not hierarchical. Don't be eager for too much of anything; you'll only bite off more than you can chew.

Q: How come I had to go through such major trials and tribulations?
A: Trials and tribulations occur for sages because of their vows; trials and tribulations occur for average people because of their karma.

Q: I know that I've got a hot temper, but how may I change it?
A: If you really understand that, "others' faults are simply my own," then you would not get angry.

Q: But it's hard to change our temperament!
A: There are not two inherent natures. Temperament is an illusion created by ignorance. Get rid of it and become liberated.

Q (by a disciple): How should we cultivate once the Master leaves us?
Venerable Master: You must enter the Sutras deeply. Do everything according to the Buddhdharma. Cite from the Sutras whenever you answer people questions about the Buddhadharma.

Q: There's someone who can show people a method to getting rich.
A: I'm afraid that before you get rich, he will have already swindled everyone's money and become rich himself.

Q: Will the upholding of mantras help us restore our purity?
A: Not only can mantras help us restore our purity, but the recitation of mantras can help us become more pure.

Q: There are wholesome karma, unwholesome karma, and neutral karma. What kind of karma is neutral?
A: It's neither wholesome nor unwholesome and a bit wholesome and a bit unwholesome. You say it's wholesome and yet it's not completely wholesome; you say it's unwholesome and yet it's not completely unwholesome. You may not know whether it's wholesome or unwholesome because you have paid any attention; thus that karma is neutral.

Q: Why do we need so many temples?
A: There will be many Buddhists in the future. We will not have enough temples to serve them.

Q: Will the Venerable Master please bless my son so that he doesn't become a bad person?
A: Parents should always discipline and teach their children.

Q: How do we avoid becoming attached to demons while meditating?
A: Repent daily, recite the Buddha's name more, do morning and evening ceremonies, and recite the Shurangama Mantra before meditating.

Q: What does one experience when one is attached to demons?
A: One doesn't want to recite Sutras and doesn't want to participate in daily worship in the mornings and evenings.

Venerable Master: Do you understand now? You can't take what's meant for the Great Heroes Jeweled Hall for Dharma propagation.

Q: How come the Venerable Master is fasting today?
A: Because a lot of people from Taiwan today are laden with karma. I am not eating so that I can transfer that merit to them.

Q: How come natural disasters occur?
A: The heads of states are not virtuous enough. Superiors and subordinates are all greedy.

Venerable Master: Have you been a nun for a long time? What have you been doing at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas? Which Sutra do you know how to lecture?
Disciple: I have been more focused on work and have neglected the studying of Sutras.
Venerable Master: What kind of work?
Disciple: I enjoy cleaning and organizing jobs.
Venerable Master: You can't do that. You only know how to clean up the outside, but you're such a mess inside. You don't have any real cultivation. Why do you have so many false thoughts?

Q: How do lay people cultivate the practice of 42 Hands and Eyes?
A: By not fighting, not being greedy, not seeking, not being selfish, not pursuing self-benefit, and not lying.

Q: The Master often instructs us that we must accept no remunerations for using the Buddhadharma to heal people, but is meals at a restaurant okay?
A: That is also a form of greed. My true disciples take advantage of no one.

Q: Why do I have to recite Namo Amitabha Buddha? How come Namo Amitabha Buddha doesn't recite my name?
A: Because you haven't made a vow to have everyone recite your name.

Q: While I was meditating, I heard a loud voice calling my name. Should I have continued to meditate?
A: It's okay. Don't be scared. You have to face reality and get through those tests. There's nothing to be afraid of as long as your thinking is upright and not deviant.

Q: How can we prevent nations from being enemies and waging war against another?
A: Only if everyone believes in the Buddha and understands the cause and effect that abstention from killing and hurting in this lifetime prevents suffering in future lives. We could not otherwise put an end to killing and injury, even for as long as a thousand lives or ten thousand lives.

Q: How come an act of kindness begets negative consequences?
A: Matchmakers, users, contrived donors to Buddhism, or donors who are disgusted with Buddhism after giving are people whose faith in Buddhism are actually obstructed. Actually, they actions reap no merit and virtue.

Q: Does the Master want to do some sightseeing?
A: Sightseeing? I've seen everything.

Q: What kind of causes and conditions bring people together?
A: The Avatamsaka Sutra says, "I have been a parent, a sibling, a child to every living being since time immemorial. . ."

Q: How come the Master is always telling people to recite the name of Guanshiyin Bodhisattva?
A: Because demons are in reign while Dharma is on a decline during this Dharma-Ending Age, but Guanshiyin Bodhisattva has a great vow to rescue all living beings with kindness and compassion.

Q: In which destiny was I, in my last incarnation?
A: The Vajra Sutra says, "What is in the past cannot be attained." As long as you do more good deeds, recite the Buddha's name more, everything will naturally be peaceful. Major disasters will turn into minor disasters, minor disasters will turn into no disasters.

Q: How come there are people who become possessed by demons as soon as they start to meditate?
A: This is the work of your enemies and debtors from past lives. You have to do more good deeds and dedicate those merit and virtue to them.

Q (by a disciple): Somebody said that the Venerable Master has already gone.
A: He's revealing to you how his level of cultivation is beyond that of others!

Q: It seems to me that there are many horror movies about ghosts and demons now. The scarier they are, the more people enjoy watching them. I never did understand that kind of mentality.
A: People are driven by curiosity. They don't understand what a ghost is about and have never seen one. They see one in the movies and think that's probably it, that the world of ghosts must be that way. They want to turn into ghosts too: "Let me try it, let me check it out. When I become a ghost I will know how to hassle people." This is a form of psychosis whereby one enjoys the novel and likes the strange; it has nothing to do with demons and ghosts, but false thinking.

Q: It seems inappropriate to hang a picture of Fundamental Teacher Shakyamuni Buddha at work and bow to it. How should I solve this dilemma?
A: Your work is delayed by your eating, why do you eat?

Q: Is it the case that all disciples who have take refuge with the Venerable Master, whether monastic or lay disciples, would be able to avoid transmigration in the six destinies?
A: Those who have taken refuge with me but who are unruly, doing all kinds of bad things, cannot avoid transmigration in the six destinies. Those who have not taken refuge with me but try their best to do good deeds can also avoid transmigration in the six destinies.

Q: Yiguan (One Connection) Way's books often contain Buddha images and quotes from Sutras, should we burn them to prevent living beings from stepping into that on mistake.
A: The kind get together; the evil gang up. People look for those like them. Whether something is demonic or Buddhist depends on the situation, but they don't mix.

Q: A Buddhist nun has been teaching people a practice associated with Guanshiyin Bodhisattva recently. She stresses that we can become enlightened in one lifetime. May we ask the Venerable Master whether we can become enlightened in one lifetime with the Proper Dharma?
A: Crazy.

Q: My parents believe Mazu (Sea Goddess), the Holy Mother of Heaven. We also have the three sages of the West on our altar. Is it okay for me to bow to all of those statues simultaneously?
A: Cultivators must be kind and humble, being respectful toward everything. Don't make the distinction between Mazu (which sounds like "horse patriarch" in Chinese) and cow patriarch. All living beings have the Buddha nature; all are capable of becoming Buddhas, even mosquitoes and ants. It would be more than enough if they turn away from confusion and return to enlightenment. There's no need to differentiate and consider her some kind of a patriarch, be it horse patriarch, pig patriarch, cow patriarch, or sheep patriarch.

Q: What is the Mark of Longevity?
A: Wanting to live forever.

Q: The Shurangama Sutra says that because living beings don't know to dwell in the true mind at all times that they are mixed up and therefore revolve around the wheel of transmigration. Venerable Master, what is the true mind?
A: The true mind is the mind without any sexual desire. Anyone without sexual desire is someone no longer mixed up, someone who understands what it means to dwell in the true mind at all times.

Q: What is the relationship between dwelling in the true mind at all times and sleeping sitting up? How do we practice sleeping sitting up? Do we need to practice sleeping sitting up only if we were interested in dwelling in the true mind at all times?
A: To dwell in the true mind at all times doesn't require that you sleep sitting up. In Taipei, someone asked if laypeople could sleep sitting up. I said laypeople could quit fooling around. Sleeping sitting up is just one antidote for sexual desire, it doesn't have much to do with the true mind. It is one corridor along the road of cultivation. Of course it's okay if you can sleep sitting up. If you can't sleep sitting up, that's okay too. We don't become Buddhas by sleeping sitting up. Just because you sleep sitting up, it doesn't mean that you understand what it means to dwell in the true mind at all times and actually do so.

Q: The Bodhisattva Precept Against Sexual Misconduct prohibits conjugal sex during certain times and places. It's prohibited during the six vegetarian days and daytime. When one's husband has misgivings about this, divorce is likely. Should the precept be our first priority or should we ignore people's judgments and just divorce? I'm afraid that people will misconstrue Buddhism. I'm very troubled. Will the Master please kindly tell me what to do.
A: [The Precepts list] the inappropriate times and places quite explicitly, there's nothing more to it. Since you can't keep this precept, then don't keep it. You don't need explain and defend. It's your decision whether you divorce, I'm not the one to answer that question. He really wants a divorce though because he is tired of the old and wants to find something new, it's has nothing to do with this precept.

Q: A certain Sikh dressed in Buddhist monastic robes looks like a Buddhist monk. He has even received the three sets of ordination precepts. But the Dharma that he propagates is not the Buddhadharma at all. May I ask the Venerable Master how monks and nuns should protect and support the Proper Dharma? And how should laity protect and support the Proper Dharma?
A: Give him the silent treatment! The king of demons had told the Buddha before, "During the Dharma-Ending Age, my demon kids and grandkids will go to your homes, live there, and eat your food and defecate in it." We should give people like him the cold shoulder. They rely on Buddhism for their clothing and food by claiming that they're Buddhists, yet they don't do any work for Buddhism. At the same time, we can't kill him. If we were to kill him, we would violate the Precept Against Killing.