Huang Nianzu: A family letter to my younger daughter

Anyone who is not willing to die drunk and dream until he enters the crematorium must first understand this one thing: why live? What problems are you living to solve?

What is rare in the human body? Heaven is smarter than man, blessed and long-lived; heaven is better than man, why not say that heaven is rare? Because in solving the fundamental problem, the heavenly body is not as good as the human body. Heavenly people enjoy pleasure and relaxation, unlike people who can improve; the human body is rare and easy to lose, and once the human body is lost, all disasters will not be recovered.

That is to say, the best chance to solve the problem is the human body, but this opportunity is like an electric stone fire, fleeting. Three ways and one reward five thousand disasters, how to get! Therefore, the first question is obvious, to live is to solve life and death, that is, to seize this opportunity in life to transcend life and death forever.

"There are all life and death things in front of you", and since you are alive, there must be these things. On the face of it, these things contradict birth and death. What to do? The reason is clear. People can't all become monks, and they can't leave their homes to live and live in contact with society.

Therefore, it is necessary to grasp the program, one program is fully dressed, and one collar is fully dressed. So in the mind there must be the principle of birth and death. All changes are inseparable from their sects, and all eyes follow the program, and the worldly law and the Dharma are mixed together.

For example, to do a good job, for what? If its purpose, its motive, falls on the Dharma, then the work you do is the work of the Buddha. On the other hand, if you are in the Buddhist dojo and are too busy to get your feet on the ground, but deep down, it is a personal plan, and you are using Buddhism to seek fame and profit, that is to deceive the Buddha, on the surface you are a Buddhist, in essence, how different from the demon son!

In the same way, worshiping the Buddha and burning incense all day long, all one hopes is to eliminate disasters and prolong life, wealth and glory, wives, children, and blessings in the world, which is called foolishness. I don't know if the Dharma is foolishness, but I know that the Dharma is still like this, so I know that I am a multiplicity.

Since it is in the family, of course, there are endless worldly affairs, as long as we start from the birth law and implement it on the birth law, how can the world law hinder it? But when there are different opportunities, what to choose, this is the best instrument to test yourself, is the real performance of whether you have a real heart. Always sacrificing the world for the sake of the world, what else can we talk about?

Sometimes you don't have to choose. For example, my upper cadre school and your lower rural areas are inseparable. This kind of thing, big and small, sour, salty, bitter, spicy, sweet, all kinds of things, there have been in the past, there are now, and there will be in the future.

What to do? Since there is no room for choice, of course, there is no escape. Then we must go against the grain, turn the fire into coolness, turn poison into nectar, be good at using it, and be good at transforming.

There are two sides to everything: the good side and the bad side; the light side and the dark side. All things have the same two aspects for our fundamental major events, depending on whether we will use it or not, and whether we will use it.

But the same is true of being able to transfer things. Many people mistakenly think that the word "transfer" is to move a building in front of them, which is the transfer of things. No, that's the end of the day. It should be known that turning a defilement into a bodhi is really a transmutation.

For example, during the Cultural Revolution, I was in the Henan Cadre School, and my identity was a cow, ghost, snake god, and everyone hated it. There is nothing they can do about their families and their own futures. Labor all day long, with cattle and horses. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

But I felt that people didn't want to talk to me, and I just didn't say a word. Since many things are useless to calculate, I simply don't want to. So I got a leap in practice, and bad things turned into good things.

Is now (1979) a good thing or a bad thing for you?

It should be said that there are good and bad. The collapse of work units and the lack of economic income are all bad things from the perspective of the world law.

But there is one great thing that must be taken seriously: it is now possible to have all the time and the best causes to learn The Buddha and practice. This is not only difficult for families, but also difficult for monks to find;

But you have it yourself! How to implement the good aspects is the primary issue now.

The key is to understand these three paragraphs clearly: the first is to send the heart; the second is to distinguish the primary and secondary and know the choice; third, in the absence of choice, start from two aspects. Avoiding its bad aspects and implementing its good aspects is, of course, unfavorable.

Although this paragraph is not complete, it is extremely important and should be well thought out. If you can believe it, you will never live up to this life. Work hard!