Teachings of the Mentor
Author: Fafu
Translator : Lotus
A person can enter the sea of Buddhadharma only through faith and attain the Six Perfections only through wisdom. When he really trusts and believes in you, the preacher, you can help him with any kinds of means and when he has true wisdom, he will obtain the Six Perfections. You had better not speak the Dharma to the person who has neither wisdom nor belief. However, if you still try to teach it to him, you will not receive good results in the end. For a person who has no belief, what you teach will just be excuse for him to slander you. For the person who has not wisdom but faith, you can teach what is appropriate to him.
Praise the Mentor
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you are good at mastering the essence of cultivating the buddhadharma, having bestowed the subtle dharma of subduing affliction on us in order to make us pure in both bodies and minds, to increase the Ten Good Karmas, to abandon sufferings and to attain bliss. What you have taught is just explained in Upasaka Sutra “Because of affliction, the Ten Evil Karmas will grow in a person; because of no affliction, the Ten Good Karmas will grow in a person.” Your teaching is the same as the Buddha’s.
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you often stoop and lead and inspire us, remove our difficulties and anxiety, even have taken our sufferings and lived with them for us in silence.
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you have manifested the different aspects according to the various Causes and Conditions of sentient beings in order to save sentient beings in various ranks.
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you have tried your best to help us to realize our dreams and achieve our best in accordance with our Causes and Conditions with powerful compassionate vow that “Don’t seek peace and bliss for yourself but help sentient beings to relieve suffering.”
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you have been established in the habit of making offering with your body to the buddhas and bodhisattvas spontaneously and held the firm resolution that however the buddhas and bodhisattvas treat us, it’s the best to ourselves.
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you have hidden your merits and virtues, always saying humbly, “At this point, you are better than me.”
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you have never disliked and left us because of our ignorance and uselessness, less merit and virtue；on the contrary, you have been nourishing us carefully and diligently, trying to improve our wisdom and pattern.
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you have been taking care of all sentient beings comprehensively and always following their stage in order to save them, having provided opportunities for them to obtain achievements equally.
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you have manifested the buddhadharma spontaneously in your speech and behavior, “There is （a）profound meaning in your joke and essence and key points in your chat.”
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you have told us with kindness and compassion, saying:“To put the Buddhadharma into practice is very important.” and because you told us based on your own experience, saying, “When we perfect our cultivation of the Dharma, then we can make the sentient beings trust in us and receive our teachings better.”
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you have led and inspired us and revealed the key to success and failure, saying: “If you apply affliction, you are bound to have failure in what you should have succeeded. If you have no vexations, you are bound to be successful in what you would have failed.”
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because for undertaking the Great Dreamy Work of Buddha, you have planted and taken use of the jwelled Moringa trees to extinguish the sufferings of sentient beings in both their bodies and minds.
I vow that I will praise you, our mentor, just like the true self which appears in anytime, any space and which can play a subtle role without any obstruction, fit for the time, place and people, good for all sentient beings with perfect kindness, compassion, joy and giving.
