V 1-36 Adjustment of the Mind to cultivate our Behaviour and shape our Personality 调心即修身养性

Disclaimer: The translations are not official nor endorsed by 2OR, so please just treat it as a ‘fan-based’ translation. The Buddha-Dharma is profound. No matter how you convey it, it won’t be completely perfect. Because the Buddha-Dharma is an experience, it’s an awakening 【佛法深奥无比，怎么写，都不会是究竟圆满。佛法是一种悟】. Please enjoy, and I hope it serves as a good filler until the official English version comes out.

现在给你们讲一讲“调心”。一个人要学会调节心理。调心是非常重要的。如果一个开悟的人，他要有一颗清凉的心，清凉是脑子很清醒，人很冷静，清凉心就是说这个心永远是很安定的、很平稳的。调心的目的就是要修正我们身上的习性，也就是习惯性的东西，因为习惯性的性格有时并不是件好事情。比如：你已经生糖尿病了，还是喜欢吃巧克力，吃甜品，你们说这个习性好不好？不好的习惯、习性一定要改掉。调心就是把心调得平衡一点。修心也叫调心，即修心养性。儒家教育就是修身养性。

I will discuss ‘adjustment of the mind’. A person must know how to adjust their mentality; this is very important. An awakened person must possess a clear and placid state of mind. The purpose of adjusting our mentality is to correct our habitual behaviour because some habits are considered bad. For example, let’s assume that you are diagnosed with diabetes, but you’re still eating chocolates and desserts. Do you think that this is good? Bad habits and behaviour must be corrected. Adjusting the mind is to keep our mentality stay balanced. Cultivation of the mind can also be called ‘adjustment of the mind’, and it’s to cultivate our behaviour and shape our personality. This principle is the same as Confucianism.

告诉你们一个非常好的方法能让你们修得更好，就是共修，人在一起的时候容易修，容易进步，与大家在一起修心念经，才能与佛印心。什么叫佛印心？就是与大家在一起修心念经，大家都是佛，大家身上都有好的气场，大家在修心的时候会有佛性磁场和气场出来，那时你与大家一起念经，你会得到信心，得到能量，会得到佛菩萨的佛心的普照，将佛光印在你的心里。如果一个人修心，有时会产生懈怠心，很难让佛在心中留住，因为一个人修心时，他的磁场、佛性不够， 而且私心杂念一起佛菩萨就离开了。

Let me tell you a very good method that can help you improve your cultivation that is to practise inside a Buddhist practitioner group. When everybody is reciting sutras and cultivating together, it’s easier to make progress and establish a connection with the Buddhas. How so? When everybody is cultivating their mind and reciting sutras together, they are becoming in tune with their Buddha-nature. Thus everybody will emanate a positive energy field and the energy of a Buddha. As a result, when you are practising and reciting sutras with them, you’ll become more confident, and you’ll benefit from this energy, you’ll benefit from the energy transfer transmitted by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and can contain it within you. If somebody practises alone, sometimes they will begin to slack, and it becomes difficult to keep in tune with their Buddha-nature. That’s because their energy and refinement of their Buddha-nature are not enough. Selfish and distracting thoughts appear time to time, and so they’re unable to establish a connection with the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

一个人修心之后，不可能马上得到清净心和自在心。以为自己清净了、自在了。那是你自己认为的，其实你不了解什么叫做清净，更何况业力。就是说你以为自己平静了、清净了、得到安静了，以为自己修心已出成果了，实际上你还不了解你自己身上的业力。因为身上有业力的人， 他的心不可能马上修到清净。比如：你现在还欠很多钱，而每天所赚来的钱，实际上不是你的，因为你欠人家的钱，进来的钱就不是你的钱。业力是不可思议的， 不可思议的业力就是说这个业力会随着境界转，就是心会随境界转，心会随着业力转。比如：今天业报到了，你很恨这个人，这时你心中就产生恨意，产生恨之后，身体就会有变化，饭吃不下，觉睡不好，业力就开始变了，你的脸也会随着业力变化，变得越来越凶，事业越来越有阻碍，身体越来越差，这就是你恨人家， 业力转化的结果。

When practising alone, it’s not possible to attain a pure and liberated mind immediately. When you think that you’ve become pure and liberated, that’s just your subjective opinion. In reality, you don’t understand what’s the true definition of being ‘pure’, not to mention the karmic force. In other words, you think that you’ve become peaceful, you think that you’ve become calm and you think that your cultivation has bear fruit. But in fact, you still don’t understand about the karmic force inside your body. That’s because when somebody still has negative karma, it’s impossible for their mind to be cultivated into a pure state. For example, let’s assume that you’re in debt. Therefore the money you earn every day doesn’t truly belong to you because you must use it to pay off your debt first. Karmic force is unfathomable. It transforms as it acts in accordance with your level of spirituality. Thus, your mind will change, along with external conditions. Your mind will change along with the karmic force. Illustrating this with an example, today is the day your karmic retribution reaches fruition, and you are very angry at a person. At this moment, your mind creates a lot of hostile thoughts. Afterwards, your physical body changes along with it; for example, you can’t eat well, you can’t sleep well etc. The karmic force also begins to change. Your face changes along with the karmic force, making you look more aggressive and hostile. You begin to encounter more and more obstacles in your career, and your health condition declines. That is the result of your hatred and the transformation of the karmic force.

你们今天跟随师父修行，不要去追求任何的感应。师父常常告诫你们，修心念经不要去追求有什么神通和感应，要做到今世不造业，累世的业也不要让它来。你们在过去累世当中已作了很多罪业，随着你们再投胎受报，有的也会没了。就像税务局的档案一样，每五年就会自动注销。但是你们要记住，因为你们在正修， 佛菩萨就会保佑你们，你们头上会有佛光，过去做的小业障真的能消掉。因此不要让累世的罪业再来侵入你当下的身体，师父现在让你们念《礼佛大忏悔文》就是忏悔你前世的罪业，也只是前世而已。佛菩萨讲的三世因果是前世、今世、来世，能把这三世修好，你就是一个很善良有修为的人。

When you follow Master’s teachings to cultivate, do not seek spiritual experiences. Master has regularly warned you, when cultivating the mind and performing recitations of Buddhist scriptures, don’t seek for any supranormal abilities nor spiritual experiences. Instead, you should dedicate yourself to stop creating new negative karma in the present life and to cease the negative karma accumulated over the previous lives. In the past, you have committed many malicious deeds that have accumulated over time, and this had followed you when you were reborn, waiting to be triggered. But once it’s triggered, then it’s over. Just like the files stored in the taxation office, they will be destroyed automatically every five years. Please take note, because you are cultivating in an orthodox manner, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will bless you, and there will be a Buddhist halo above your head. Minor karmic obstacles created from the past can be eliminated as a result. Henceforth, you mustn’t allow the negative karma from the previous life to intrude your body. Master now teaches you to recite the “Eighty-eight Buddhas Great Repentance”, through which you repent the malicious deeds you had committed in your previous life, and only the previous life. The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have said that karma is connected through three lifetimes; they are the past life, present life and afterlife. As long as you can cultivate these three lives well, you are deemed as a very kind-hearted person who possesses a very high level of spirituality.