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.
师父继续给大家讲修心的要点，一个人想修心，那么要点是什么呢？就是自了自己烦恼和习气，烦恼多不多呀？天天有。身上的习气多不多呀？多。什么是习气？一般指的就是坏习气，骂人，生气、讽刺人家、只想吃好的，不想吃坏的，只想赚进，不想拿出等等，这些都是属于习气，听得懂吗？所以要自了烦恼和习气，这就是修心的第一步，用白话讲，叫烦恼少一点，修心的功夫就多一点，越修越有力量。烦恼越少的人，他的功力会大，整天烦恼的人，是修不好心的，比如你们今天到这里来听师父讲课，是不是修心？
Master continues to expound the essential points of cultivating one’s mind. Firstly, aren’t you frustrated about the number of afflictions you have? You experience it daily. What about your bad habits? Are there a lot? These bad habits include scolding at others, getting angry, give sarcastic remarks, taking advantage of others, only wanting to eat well, etc. Do you understand? You must be able to minimise your afflictions and bad habits. That’s the first step in cultivation. In plain terms, if you experience fewer afflictions, you will be more focused in your cultivation, and you will gain more power. People with few afflictions have greater power. People who are stressed daily won’t be able to cultivate well. For example, when you’re listening to Master’s lecture, doesn’t that count as cultivating your mind?
如果你脑子里都是烦恼，你能听得进吗？你修得好吗？你今天来了脑子里都是烦恼，孩子的事，家里的事，单位里的……，人虽然坐在这里，而心不定，你说能修得好吗？我告诉你们，人坐在这里，脑子不在这里，就是烦恼障，什么叫烦恼障？烦恼障碍了你，所以习气要修，越修越有力量，要把习气越修越少，把烦恼越修越少，这里面有个道理，是什么道理呢？是回光返照，师父给大家讲什么叫回光返照？这个人生病一年了，忽然之间醒过来了，脑子很清楚，大家都以为他好了，但很快就走了，这就叫回光返照。
If you keep being distracted by your afflictions, could you listen properly? Could you cultivate well? Your mind is occupied with things like issues with your children, family, work etc. Although you’re sitting in Master’s lecture, your mind isn’t concentrating, could you cultivate well? Master expounds that if you’re physically here, but your mind is absent, then it means you are obstructed by your afflictions. That’s why you must cultivate your bad habits and afflictions to become less. There’s a principle in that called ‘terminal lucidity’. Master illustrates with an example. There was a person who was ill in bed for a year. Suddenly the person woke up and was very clear-minded. Everybody thought that he recovered, but he quickly passed away. His case is what’s known as terminal lucidity.
你这个人一辈子糊涂，忽然之间脑子很清楚了，精神抖擞，这个就叫回光返照。一个人平时很可怜的，忽然之间他什么都想通了，开始笑人，笑天笑地了，这个人就是回光返照。在这里给大家讲什么是学佛当中的回光返照？当你学佛学了一段时候，你并不明白，并不真正的理解所学习佛法的道理。当你走过一段时间，你再回过头来看一看，你过去走的路，你就明白了。我学习佛法的哪几句话，原来是讲我过去的坏习气呀，我明白了。就像你们过去抽烟一样，你现在学佛了之后，还会抽烟吗？
You have been muddle-headed all your life and then suddenly you become clear-minded and filled with energy. That’s called terminal lucidity. Every person is typically pitiful, but then they suddenly become clear about everything and starts to laugh at the world. That’s terminal lucidity. When you are learning Buddhism, there’s a period where you don’t really understand nor comprehend the principles expounded by the Buddha-Dharma. But afterwards, when you look back at what you did, you will finally understand. “The wisdom I learnt from the Buddha-Dharma was actually talking about my past habits, I now know.” Just like if you were smoking in the past, for example, do you still smoke after practising Buddhism?
你们过去经常发脾气，动不动就讽刺人家，你们现在跟随师父学佛了之后，你们把这个光回过去再照一照你们的过去，现在知道自己做错了，这就是回光返照。用佛光照一照你们过去所做错的事情，照一照你们哪些肮脏的灵魂，谁没有做错过？看见人家掉在地板上的钱会不会捡？会不会拿？这就是灵魂当中的肮脏。师父告诉你们占人家便宜的人，实际上损失是最大的，布施出去的人，实际上占的便宜是最大的。师父用人间法来讲，师父今天布施出去做的是最多的，所以我受到了百万人拥戴。
You regularly lost your temper and mocked others in the past. Now after following Master and learning Buddhism from him for a period, and you reflect what you did in the past and knew what you did were wrong, that’s also considered as terminal lucidity. Use Buddha’s light to reflect on your past mistakes and your defiled spirit, who hasn’t made mistakes before? When you see somebody drop their money on the ground, would you take it for yourself? If you will, it shows how defiled your spirit is. Master expounds that those who take advantage of others regularly suffer the greatest losses. Those who give to others actually gain the most. In plain terms, since Master has given out the most, he gained the love and respect from hundreds of thousands of people.
人家看见师父都那么尊敬师父，因为师父是布施，如果我今天说来一个人，师父收一百元，你们想想看师父会是什么形象？人要有骨气呀，修心更要有骨气。师父给你们讲过东方观音堂这里是一个干净的游泳池，是让你们沐浴佛的阳光的一个莲花池，如果这个人身上非常肮脏，身上长的都是疥疮，这个人到游泳池里来游一游，谁还会再来游呀？如果师父没有法力的话，全世界这么多的人一念经，为什么师父马上就到他们的家里去帮助他们？不是师父的法力无边，是佛菩萨的法力无边，是观世音菩萨的法力无边，是佛法无边，明白了吗？
People are respectful towards Master when they see him because he regularly donates. If he demanded $100 every time somebody sees him, what would that do for his reputation? Everybody must have some backbone, especially in cultivation. Master mentioned before that the 2OR Guan Yin Temple is like a clean and pure lotus pool where people can bathe in the Buddha’s light. If a person who was very defiled and have many skin diseases bathed in the pool, would there be anybody willing to step in? If Master didn’t have any powers, how could he immediately go to the families who recited sutras and help them? In reality, it’s not Master’s powers that are boundless, but it’s the Buddha and Bodhisattvas’ powers that are boundless. Do you understand?
不要贪小便宜，贪小便宜的人一定会吃大亏的，过去的电影里面，过去的小说里面还少吗？拿了人家一点东西，接下来被人家牵着鼻子走，叫你干什么就干什么，最后东窗事发，判刑枪毙，不要去占人家的便宜，学佛的人要懂得道理，明白了吗？要克除自己心中的妄情，什么叫妄情？就是妄想的情感。妄念，不应该去想的，就叫妄念，不应该做的而去做了，也是你的脑子里面先有不好的东西想出来的，明白了吗？不该想的事情你们去想了吗？不该做的事情你们去做了吗？你们谁敢说：“我没有想过，我没有做过”。想一想，后悔呀，来不及了。师父希望你们永远要记住，要相信佛法无边，不能去做那些不应该做的事情。痴心的人才会妄想，所以叫痴心妄想，贪瞋痴的痴就是这个痴呀，愚痴呀，用现在的话讲就是傻掉了，脑子坏掉了。
Don’t get greedy for petty gains. Otherwise, you will definitely suffer a huge loss. Aren’t there plenty of stories about it already? When you take somebody else’s things, you will be forced to do their bidding. Then might force you to do some crime and then you get punished by the law. Don’t try to take advantage of others, Buddhists must know about the principles, do you understand? You must control your delusional thoughts and feelings. When you do something that shouldn’t be done, it’s because you thought about something unwholesome, do you understand. Have you thought about something that shouldn’t be thought about before? Have you done something that shouldn’t be done before? Who dares say that they’ve never thought about it or did it? When you think back, don’t you feel regretful? But it’s too late. Master hopes that all of you take note to have complete faith in the boundless power of the Buddha-Dharma. You shouldn’t be doing things that shouldn’t be done. Only foolish people have delusional thoughts.
不能住相修持，就是看见周围的这些境界，你来修，你是修不好的。比如你今天孩子生不出来，住相了，哎呀，今天没有孩子怎么办呢？这个心就留在孩子生不出来的这个问题上，然后就拼命的求呀求，修心为了生孩子，孩子一旦生出来了，目的达到了，她就不好好修了，所以不能住相修持，明白了吗？如果这位老妈妈来，单纯的是为了长寿，一旦等她走了，功德就没有了，因为她所有的念经都用到她的长寿上面了，而等到她走的时候，她的境界就上不去了，这叫丢了西瓜捡芝麻，老妈妈现在要修什么呢？
You mustn’t cultivate while being attached to forms. In other words, if you cultivate while being mindful of the circumstances happening surrounding you, you won’t cultivate well. For example, if you can’t give birth and you’re attached to it, then your mind will dwell on this issue. Then you desperately pray and cultivate for the sake of giving birth. When you do finally give birth and fulfilled your aim, you then begin to slack on your cultivation. That’s why you mustn’t cultivate while being attached to forms, do you understand? If an old lady simply cultivates for the sake of extending her life span, once she passes away, there wouldn’t be any merit-virtues left as the merit-virtues accumulated from sutra recitations had already been used on her longevity. So when she passed away, her level of spirituality still remained at the original level. That’s being penny-wise but pound-foolish. So what should the elderly cultivate for?
要好好修，要把自己修得干干净净，要修到天上去，要把境界提高，这样修的话，你的寿就会越修越长呀，用不着求寿你的寿就会长的，而且走了还有依靠，因为你修的全部都是到上面去的，而不是到下面去的。如果单单就求一个长寿的话，在人间也就这么一段时间，那么按照你的身体、体质来说，就算给你活一百岁，你还能再活下去吗？这个房子就算让你住一百年，你还能住下去吗？下雨了，漏水了，什么都不行了，这个房子要拆掉重新造了，你怎么能再住下去。人和房子一样呀，如果没有诚信的人就像一座没有脊梁的房子，没有地基的房子，一晃就会倒塌的。人家一说，就不念了，就是这个道理。房子要有脊梁，人也要有脊梁，这个脊梁就是相信，我相信观世音菩萨一定能救我。
They should properly cultivate and purify themselves so that their level of spirituality increases and could ascend to heaven after they pass away. If they cultivate with this mindset, their life span will naturally increase anyway. There’s no need to pray explicitly for it. And when they do pass away, they have something to rely on because everything they had cultivated had reached the heavens and did not remain on Earth. If they simply prayed to extend their life, then it could only extend so much as there’s a limit to the human lifespan. Assuming humans could only live up to the age of one hundred, could you carry on living in it? Your house only lasts for one hundred years, could you carry on living in it afterwards? When it rains, water will seep through the walls, and there’s a lot of problems. The house would require to be demolished and reconstructed from the ground up. You couldn’t continue to live in it as it originally were. The human body is the same. A person’s faith is like the foundations of a property. If a property lacks the foundations, it will break down when it’s shaken. If a person lacks faith, if they hear some kind of slander, then they stop reciting. The principle is the same. So one must have complete faith in Guan Yin Bodhisattva that She will definitely save them.
师父从来不让你们求财，师父让你们求什么？让你们求事业、前途，因为它都是连在一起的，但是这也是凡人俗子所求，如果真的修得好的人，连这些都不要求。举个例子，做小生意的人，辛苦的不得了，天天求生意好，如果生意好了，忙得个贼死，累的浑身酸痛，对不对？我不求生意好，我无所谓，如果好那是自然的事情，如果不好没关系，这一点钱也够用了，因为不是你求来的财，如果你硬去求，你要加倍的力量去偿还，也就是说你今天加班得到的钱，那你一定要比别人干的多，你干的多，你就消耗的多，你的身体就损失的多，对不对？
Master has never let you pray for money, what did he let you pray for? He let you pray for a better career and prospects. That’s because it’s correlated with each other. But only secular people pray for these things. For people who cultivate well, they shouldn’t even pray for it. Let’s illustrate this with an example. Those own small businesses work very hard. If they pray for their business to prosper every day and it goes very well, they will get so busy and become so exhausted physically and mentally, is that right? If you don’t pray for your business to go very well, you’re indifferent to it; then if it goes well, it happened naturally. If it doesn’t go well, then it doesn’t matter as long as you have enough. If you’re adamant about it, then you have to use significantly more of your energy to get it. For example, you might have to work overtime to get more money, and you have to work harder than others by a lot. The more you work, the more energy your body consumes, and your body will deteriorate quicker. Is that right?
接下来师父给大家讲平时要随遇而安，遇到境界就要逢缘，今天别人对我忽然之间不好了，我就随缘；今天忽然出了什么事情了，我随缘；今天我摔了一跤，哎哟，我躲过了一关，我随缘，这叫逢境随缘。逢到境界的变化，我随这个缘分。你愿意跟我好，我们就好下去，你不愿意跟我好，我们就交个朋友，说不定有一天你是我的，是我的终究是我的，你们年轻人谈恋爱应该抱着这种思想，而不要选择你把我甩掉了，我就天昏地暗，痛不欲生，神经病呀？那是电影里的，现实当中不要去想那么多，是你的就是你的，不是你强求得来的，强求以后都会离婚，明白了吗？
Next, Master expounds that one must go with the flow and reconcile oneself to one’s situation. If somebody suddenly treated you badly, or if some misfortune occurred, then it is what it is, and you just go with it. “Today I accidentally tripped over. At least I got through a tribulation; it’s okay; it is what it is.” That’s called going with the flow. “If the external environment and conditions change, then I’ll go with the flow. If you’re willing to continue dating me, then we can continue doing so. If you’re not willing, then it’s ok, we can still be friends. Maybe one day we’ll be together again. What’s destined to be mine will eventually be mine.” Youngsters should possess this kind of mindset when they date, and not just break up whenever they feel like it and create some kind of drama. Do you have some problem? That kind of drama only exists on TV. In reality, don’t think about it too much. If you’re destined to be together, you’ll be together. If not, no matter how desperate you cling on to the other party, you might divorce in the future. Do you understand?
一定要懂道理。要学会克己不发，什么叫克己不发？克制自己的毛病，克制自己的习惯、脾气不要发出来。要经常想到自己的身心，经常要想想自己的身心，身心是什么？身心都是幻妄，我今天心里想的事情，我今天身体所享受的一些东西都是幻觉，一会儿有，一会儿没有，这就叫幻觉，就像一个小孩子拿到一百块钱的时候，开心的不得了，买了东西之后，找回来的只有几个硬币，这就是幻觉，因为钱你不能把它留住，这个命也不能把它留住，都是幻觉。所以需要实体实性，什么叫实体实性？
You must understand the principles. You must learn to suppress shortcomings and bad habits and not lose temper. You must regularly think about your mind and body. Your mind and body are filled with illusionary distractions. Everything you think about with your mind and everything you enjoy with your body is all illusionary. It exists for a moment and then disappears. Just like when a small child received $100, they become very happy. But after they bought something with it, all that’s left are some coins. That’s an illusion. You can’t permanently hold on to your money, your life can’t also hold on to your money, so it’s illusionary. That’s why you must keep things real.
就是实实在在的身体，实实在在的心灵，我今天是一就是一，是二就是二，我对得起自己的良心，对得起自己的身体。人很难没有自我，当你把自己忘记了，我已经没有我了，我今天已经不是我自己了，你哪里来的烦恼呢？你把主题思想没有了，你把自己的主人翁没有了，你说你哪里来的烦恼呢？就没有烦恼了。人家骂我，因为有个“我”字；人家打我，因为有个“我”字，所以你就把自己挡在外面了，你就增加了烦恼。举个不好听的例子，神经病的时候，就是不知道自己是谁，就算人家骂他，他也只是笑笑，你说他有烦恼吗？没有烦恼了。
In other words, you must remain consistent and morally upright. It’s very hard for people to let go of their ego. When you forget about yourself, then your ego disappears. If you don’t think about yourself, where will there be afflictions? There’ll be nothing troubling you anymore because there is no ‘you’. “He hit me.” Because of this ‘me’, you have taken it personally, and you develop afflictions. A rather unfitting example is that when someone becomes insane, and they don’t know who they are. So when somebody scolds at them, they just laugh. Do you think they have any afflictions? They don’t.
当然师父不是让你们做神经病，是要你们做人间一个忘我的人，忘我无私的人，没有私心的人，把自己都忘掉的人，是一个大智若愚的人，才不会有烦恼。师父现在很开心，我没有我了，我是大家的，心底无私，天地宽，想得很开。没有自我，哪里来的人生烦恼呢？无所谓了，你们就是因为有我才会发脾气，如果没有我了，你再怎么骂，也无所谓，这就是要学的境界，明白了吗？最后给大家讲，一定要看到自己是空的，这样才能对付烦恼，一定要看到自己今天都是空的，就没有烦恼了，很多人怎么对付烦恼呢？经常想我有什么了不起的，我有什么，我什么都没有，我本来就一无所有，人家骂我，你骂好了，我无所谓的，那你就空掉了，听得懂吗？
Of course, Master is not telling you to become insane. He wants you to be someone who forgets about their ego and become selfless. A selfless person is somebody who’s wise yet acts like a fool. They won’t develop any afflictions. Master is currently very happy, he’s selfless, and he’s only here to serve others. If one is selfless, then their mind is broad and open to many things. How could they develop afflictions? They become indifferent. It’s because you still have an ego, and that’s why you lose your temper. If you don’t have an ego, you’ll remain indifferent to anybody who scolds at you. That is the level of spirituality that you must aim for, do you understand? Finally, Master expounds that one must view themselves as being empty. That way, they can confront their afflictions. How to do so? You must regularly have thoughts like, “What’s so great about me? What do I have? I have nothing. I originally have nothing. If you want to scold at me then you’re free to do so, I don’t care.” Then you are completely empty, do you understand?