Dear Friends,hello everyone!Welcome to this episode of the podcast, brought to you by the Australia Buddhas’ Practice Incorporated.
Today, I’d like to explore a profound yet deeply personal topic: our spirit and its true power.Our true heart is called the “spirit” because it possesses an extraordinary ability: you can shape your reality with your will—whatever you affirm, you become. This heart, this spirit, is no small matter.
The body we perceive, as well as the external world of mountains, rivers, space, and earth—all of these are manifestations within the spirit. This means that everything you see is not separate from your heart. Your true heart inherently possesses the ability to perceive, hear, feel, and know.
Consider this: the wisdom of the Tathagata is just like this—boundless, unobstructed, and capable of benefiting all beings. This perfect wisdom is already within you, inherent in every being.
Here, the act of “identification” is absolutely critical. It is this mistaken “identification” that leads to endless predicaments. Influenced by long-standing conditioning, we develop contradictory delusions and attachments—labels we impose upon ourselves. These delusions and attachments drive us to act through body, speech, and mind, trapping us in a cycle of self-inflicted confusion, harm, and suffering. We cling to pain, unable to let go.
A clear example is our firm belief that the body is “self.” We strive to protect and satisfy the body, yet the body is inherently subject to the “threefold suffering” of disease, pain, and impermanence. When our spirit perceives through this lens of suffering, it can only experience suffering—like seeing the world through tinted glasses, losing sight of its true colors. This cycle of “identification” and “attachment” has repeated endlessly.
What you choose to identify with, what you establish as real, marks the beginning of delusion. When we label the body as “self,” our troubles as “ours,” or possessions as “mine,” we become attached to them. When these attachments are challenged, anger arises. Thus, we sink deeper into the mire, unwilling to break free. Yet, all of this stems from the conditioning we’ve absorbed since childhood. We’re caught in a flawed game of our own making, always striving to win but inevitably losing.
Whether you identify the body as “you” or the spirit as “you” makes all the difference! The outcome—suffering or joy, ordinary or enlightened—hinges on this choice. And it’s a choice you can make.
It’s time to awaken! Let us unleash the inherent power of our spirit, which perceives, hears, knows, and spans the universe. Once awakened, this spirit can transcend all barriers—time, space, light, darkness, and matter—to perceive, understand, and manifest everything with ease. This is the innate ability of prajna (wisdom), the spirit’s capacity to see, hear, and comprehend all things, allowing us to shape reality with the freedom of wisdom.
Remember, prajna is the spirit that sees, hears, and knows. It is like a computer screen—pure by nature, capable of generating countless forms (images) yet remaining flawless and untainted.
In essence, everything is the spirit. There is nothing to grasp or cling to. You are like the designer of the screen, free to create and manifest as you wish.
Let us wield this innate wisdom to liberate ourselves from the traps we’ve set. Like bodhisattvas who rely on prajna, let us awaken the spirit’s inherent ability to perceive and know, using it with great compassion to hear the cries of the universe and benefit all beings.
Thank you for listening!
