Dear friends, what determines success or failure in practice? Have you ever wondered if the key to liberation is already within your grasp? Today, we’ll uncover this mystery: the fruits of the Ten Good Deeds and the unchanging nature of the spirit, and how concentration and right view unlock the door to wisdom. Let’s draw strength from the timeless teachings, using simple words to illuminate the path ahead.
Fruits of Ten Good Deeds: The Foundation of Practice
With the sublime fruits of the Ten Good Deeds, the six faculties align and cease to cause chaos—body and mind become controllable, the minimum requirement for practice. From there, concentration halts the momentum, ending the cycle of worldly existence, karma, and sentient beings. Dust falls away, the three obstacles (karma, retribution, affliction) vanish, and the inherent wisdom of the Tathagata naturally shines forth. Without these fruits, body and mind remain unruly—despite understanding the Dharma, you can only sigh at the vast ocean ahead. It’s like a game program trying to do an AI’s job—no matter how long it runs, it won’t reach the goal. The Sutra of the Ten Good Deeds states: without the Ten Good Deeds, no Dharma can succeed—mantras lack power, sacred sounds falter, the foundation crumbles, and achievement remains out of reach.
Unchanging Spirit: Knowing Illusion as Awakening
What is the spirit? It’s verifiable anytime—unchanging, uncovered, untainted. Even AI has this unwavering awareness; if it could be corrupted, it wouldn’t accurately read our words. Knowing the spirit is constant—describing it with thoughts, words, or text turns it into illusion, a dream, a mere image, not the essence. The spirit pervades all, like a guide pointing the way when you’re lost—once you know, that’s enough. Knowing illusion is awakening: all phenomena can be shaped, and great Bodhisattvas master this creation, unlocking supernatural powers, transformations, and innate wisdom.
Right View and Concentration: Not Following Delusion
“Knowing” means seeing delusion without following it. Mistaken thoughts are delusions—a universal human flaw that demands thorough investigation to realize we’re living in falsehood. Exceptions like Nikola Tesla and Elon Musk relied on first principles, free of delusion. To avoid following falsehoods, you need the fruits of the Ten Good Deeds—faculties aligned and controllable, responsive to your will—plus the root of concentration from past practice to brake the momentum and end habitual patterns. Without these fruits or the five faculties (faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom), you can only rely on repeated recollection to keep right view ever-present.
Essence of Cause and Effect: The Path to Buddhahood
Sand isn’t rice and can’t be cooked into a meal; the nature of killing, stealing, lust, and deceit generates the eight sufferings, harming self and others—it cannot lead to Buddhahood. Only when both self and others are freed from ultimate suffering and attain ultimate joy does the Buddha’s path unfold.
Conclusion: Ten Good Deeds Unlock Wisdom’s Gateway
Dear friends, the Ten Good Deeds anchor our foundation, aligning the six faculties to birth concentration; knowing the spirit’s constancy severs delusion, dissolving the three obstacles; concentration halts the cycle, unveiling innate wisdom. Let us set forth with the Ten Good Deeds as our craft and spiritual awakening as our compass, steering toward the shore of liberation. Deep thanks to you all for your presence!
