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Lingshan Hermit: Sometimes There’s Only a Thin Line Between Transcending Cultural Conditioning and Simply Being Uncivilized

Between the 8th and 12th centuries, ancient India was home to a group of great accomplished beings—individuals utterly unlike the worldly. Even today, we still hear tales of their extraordinary deeds. Among them were beggars, kings, musicians, and hunters. Some survived on fish entrails; some were perpetually drunk yet could command the sun to remain still; some flew through the sky and engaged in yogic union with dakinis. In their time, their actions were often incomprehensible to ordinary people, yet all of their shocking behaviors were rooted in profound realization.

Ever since Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Rgya mtsho Rinpoche proclaimed that “wisdom is more important than morality,” a new wave of so-called "great accomplished ones" has emerged, seemingly unbound by moral constraints. It appears that they have cast aside morality, taking Rinpoche’s words as license to do so. One must admit, this has in some ways opened the floodgates of their desires, allowing them to indulge their impulses without shame, completely unburdened by concepts of right and wrong.

I am an ordinary person, so I cannot discern whether such behavior—reminiscent of those ancient Indian siddhas—is truly the conduct of realized beings, or merely worldly indulgence disguised with spiritual jargon. But more often than not, I categorize it as the latter. So, when I saw a Black man nonchalantly taking a shower in a university classroom in the U.S., I instinctively assumed he was doing so not because he had transcended social norms, but because he had never been civilized to begin with—he did not know that public bathing violates common decency, or that normal human beings don't do such things in front of others. That’s what I assumed.

He may never have heard the phrase “wisdom is more important than morality,” but in essence, he and the others are of the same kind.

A few months ago on social media, I saw footage from a university in California: a professor was giving a lecture to a dozen students when, in a corner of the back row, a student began smearing body wash on himself. His entire body and head were covered in white foam—he was joyfully bathing mid-class. A similar scene took place in the New York subway: an older African man with a high ponytail calmly took out his bathing supplies while seated, stripped down to his underwear, and began lathering soap onto his neck and belly. The surrounding passengers, visibly alarmed, began gathering their belongings and making a hasty exit.

So, have such people attained realization? Perhaps. Maybe they are emanations of the Buddha. Maybe they’re just fools. Who can say?

You could argue that their behavior resembles those 8th-century Indian siddhas. But resemblance does not equal identity. The ancient masters acted from deep realization of emptiness and the illusory nature of worldly values. Take Luipa, one of the 84 Mahasiddhas, who consumed fish entrails only after being scolded by a dakini—for him, it was an intentional act to transcend the duality of good and bad food.

But those who bathe in classrooms are more likely doing so out of ignorance—they simply don’t know that bathing in public is inappropriate. Or they know, but refuse to conform. They come from a culture where mating and bathing don’t require privacy. Their actions are not about transcending habits but about continuing them. In their case, dressing properly and observing social norms would be the real challenge—the real spiritual breakthrough. Nudity is not their obstacle; wearing clothes is. Thus, their behavior is not about spiritual discipline but about self-indulgence. It runs counter to the Buddhist path.

(Relatively speaking, the Black people from the Gone with the Wind era were far more endearing—their “self” had not yet been unleashed into total anarchy.)

Some so-called Vajrayana practitioners are doing much the same. Though they may not bathe in classrooms or parade around in sheer clothing, they too are simply continuing their habitual lifestyles, but with better camouflage. They know a bit of Buddhist theory. They can quote Chögyam Trungpa. They speak of Dzogchen. They repeat the mantra “wisdom is more important than morality.” This makes them appear like the former category. But they are still in the latter.

Trungpa Rinpoche, when teaching in America, required his hippie students to dress like gentlemen and drill like soldiers. He emphasized discipline. Asking a beggar to behave like a beggar does not challenge his conditioning; asking a beggar to dress like a Disney princess does.

Breaking with traditional morality is only difficult for those who actually uphold moral standards. Only for such people—those who dare not cross the boundary of ethical conduct—does transcending morality hold any real meaning. For those who have never practiced morality to begin with, transcending it is a farce. It costs them nothing. They’ve always lived that way. Asking them to transcend morality is like asking a fish to leave the land to learn how to swim.

These people have never had morality; they just hadn’t yet found a spiritual teacher to endorse their lifestyle. Now they have one—and to them, it’s a festival. Their behavior may seem like they’re breaking the shackles of cultural norms, but in reality, they’re using it as an excuse to continue indulging in their habits. This is why many societal outsiders not accepted by traditional Buddhism gravitate toward Vajrayana. Because they can pretend to be spiritual without changing anything. No effort. No sacrifice. No transformation. Their greed, anger, and ignorance are allowed to flourish and even receive sanctification. They can even look down on those who uphold morality.

They are the worst role models for spiritual practice.

Sometimes I even think it might be better if such people never encountered the Dharma. Or perhaps they should study under a more traditional Buddhist teacher—a strict, by-the-book kind of teacher. That might be better suited to them. But perhaps they never had any intention of truly practicing at all. What they were really looking for was a teacher who could sanctify their behavior, who could elevate their dopamine highs to a peak.

These not-so-wise individuals let their “self” exploit every available tool and opportunity to satisfy itself. When they hear “wisdom is more important than morality,” they take it as a passport to unleash the self—no more shame about having slept with 300 men. In fact, they flaunt it.

They brag about being drunkards, womanizers, flaunt their tattoos, their immorality, boast about being unapologetic bastards—and their determination to remain so.

But those who are truly wise, when they hear that phrase, understand: Morality is only second to wisdom in importance—it is not unimportant. They don’t then go out and sleep with 300 people. They certainly don’t shower on the subway.

So, sometimes, the line between transcending cultural conditioning and merely being uncivilized is razor-thin. Others can’t distinguish which side you’re on, nor are they obliged to. Only you can discern this for yourself. Only you can change it.

So the question is: Will you continue to deceive yourself, indulge the self, and mislead others? Or will you embark on the true path of transcending the self?

Written by Lingshan Hermit, March 2025. First published on April 1, 2025.

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灵山居士：突破文化习气束缚和未开化之间有时侯只有一线之隔

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Lingshan Hermit: If They Were a Bit Dumber, They Would Be Much Smarter

Over all these years, I have never met a person who considered themselves stupid. Everyone I've met is smart—they know everything, understand whatever you say, and nothing escapes their discerning eye. For instance, they know Trump was a Russian spy, they know octopuses have three hearts, they know Hitler was rejected by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, and they know how Newton and Leibniz's fans fought bitterly over who deserved credit for inventing calculus. Beyond this, they know their rights and how to seek justice when those rights are violated. They absolutely never let themselves be taken advantage of. In my view, they are sometimes excessively smart. People this smart cannot learn anything new, let alone practice spiritual cultivation.

Imagine if Milarepa lived in our time and was as smart as these people—what would happen? If Milarepa lived in our era, scrolling through his phone and TikTok daily like we do, having seen all sorts of schemes, heard about various extraordinary people and their stories, his subconscious would lead him to view everyone as a con artist. He would scrutinize everyone with suspicion, believing himself incredibly clever and that no one could deceive him.

Then he would meet Marpa. Marpa wouldn't teach him anything or transmit dharma to him, but would instead tell him to build a house. After completing it, Marpa would tell him to tear it down and return every stone to its original place. What would Milarepa think? He would believe Marpa was tormenting him, enjoying his suffering, and that Marpa was both perverse and a fraud. He would feel like a fool building houses for Marpa, only to be expelled from the empowerment ceremony in the end, gaining nothing while Marpa slept soundly with his wife. What would happen next? Certainly not a beautiful ending. History would lack one who achieved enlightenment in a single lifetime, and instead gain one more person destined for hell.

Sometimes I think perhaps it's better for us to be a bit dumber—being dumber might lead to enlightenment. Meanwhile, those so smart they sleep with one eye open likely won't come to a good end.

Today's spiritual practitioners differ completely from those of thousands of years past. They live in an era where traditional culture has been extinguished and individualism runs rampant, an era buried under garbage information. The biggest difference between them and practitioners of the past is that they have lost the ability to believe. They have smelled burning corpses by the Ganges in India, viewed all of New York from the Empire State Building, seen elephants and 3.6-million-year-old human ancestor footprints in Tanzania, dated partners from around the world, and encountered various masters—all while having their minds daily polluted by internet garbage. This makes them think they are worldly and incredibly intelligent, not realizing they've been stripped of the ability to believe. They have lost their simplicity and devotion, and can no longer establish genuine trust in anything.

They are victims of modern civilization, as I've always said—smart, but not smart enough; knowledgeable about many things, but to no avail. Because they are so smart, they often make the dumbest choices. If they were a bit dumber, perhaps they would be much smarter.

Written by Lingshan Hermit on March 20, 2025, first published on April 2, 2025.

灵山居士：如果他们笨一点，他们就会聪明很多

这么多年，我从未见过一个认为自己笨的人，我见的全是聪明人，他们什么都懂，你说什么他们都知道，任何事情都逃不过他的法眼。譬如他们知道川普是俄罗斯间谍，知道章鱼有三个心脏，知道希特勒曾被维也纳美术学院拒之门外还知道牛顿和莱布尼茨的粉丝为了争夺微积分的发明权而打的头破血流。除此之外，他们还知道自己的权利，知道当权利受损时该如何讨回公道。他们绝对不吃亏。在我看来，他们有时候实在是聪明的过头了。像他们这么聪明的人是学不到东西的。更加无法修行。试想，假如密勒日巴活在这个时代��也像他们这么聪明的话会如何？如果密勒日巴是和我们生活在一个时代，和我们一样每天都刷手机刷tiktok，他见识过很多套路、听闻过各种奇人异事吃过各种瓜，潜意识里，他会把所有人当成骗子，会用怀疑的眼光审视每个人，他会觉得自己聪明无比，会觉得没有人能骗得了自己。然后他遇上了玛尔巴。玛尔巴不教他东西，也不给他传法，却叫他去盖房子。盖好了之后又让他拆掉。把每一块石头都放回原处。他会怎么想？他会认为玛尔巴是在折腾他，会认为玛尔巴很享受折腾他的乐趣，会认为玛尔巴是个变态加骗子。自己像个傻瓜一样給他盖房子，最后却被他赶出灌顶法会。什么都没得到。玛尔巴却在搂着老婆睡大觉。然后会发生什么呢？反正不会是很美好的结局。历史上就少了一位即身成佛的成就者，而多了一个下地狱的人。所以，有时候我会想，或许我们还是笨一点的好，笨一点能成佛。而那些聪明到睡觉都睁着一只眼的人，怕是没有什么好的结果。现在的修行者和过去几千年的修行者完全不同，他们生活在传统文化湮灭个人主义横行的时代，生活在被垃圾信息覆盖的时代，他们和过去的修行者最大的不同就是他们失去了相信的能力。他们在印度的恒河边闻过烧尸的味道，在帝国大厦楼顶鸟瞰过整个纽约，去坦桑尼亚看过大象和360万年前人类祖先留下的脚印，她们还谈过世界各地的男朋友，接触过各种各样的大师，每天都在被互联网上的垃圾污染头脑，这让他们自以为见多识广且聪明无比，他们不知道自己早已被剥夺了相信的能力，他们丧失了单纯，丧失了虔诚，再也无法对任何事物建立起真正的信任。他们是我一直在说的现代文明的受害者，虽然很聪明但却不够聪明，虽然知道的很多但是却毫无用处。因为他们实在太聪明了，所以经常做出最笨的选择。如果他们笨一点，或许他们就会聪明很多。

灵山居士写于2025年3月20日，首发于2025年4月2日。

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Lingshan Hermit: What is the True Nature of the World

When we talk about venturing forth together, we're not discussing events on a distant alien world. Fundamentally, we're talking about not opposing the truth, about not attempting to make an enemy of relative reality. The content described in our collective journey forward is not religious fantasy; it is actually Buddha showing us the true nature of the relative world. This nearly encompasses all correct recognition of the relative world, from biological types to the notion of "self," to the laws governing the universe, to the various predicaments we face and how to seek benefits and avoid harms. Aside from the enlightened ones, we all live in this relative world, in a world framed by size, beauty, ugliness, length, and the distinctions between self and others. Therefore, whether we practice or not, this information is very valuable to us.

Yet because we humans do not like facing reality—in fact, we fear it, and we prefer self-deception—over the years, we have developed a complete set of perfect self-deceptive thought processes and ways of living. This makes us incredibly unfamiliar with the truth. Whether in Eastern or Western societies, everyone is trying hard to forget the fact that we could die at any moment. We fill our lives with music, gourmet food, and various novelties to help us forget reality. Thus, today, an obvious fact like "you will die" needs to be deliberately reminded to be remembered. These issues we must confront are like unwelcome, shabby guests at a feast; everyone wants to avoid them. And most of our education and propaganda are leading you away from reality. We believe in judges and the legal system, in advertisements for teeth-whitening toothpaste, in individualism, private property, and free markets, in hair removers, domestic robots, and elite education. We believe these things will bring us joy or happiness. We believe in the entire Western value system, in organizations like the World Food Programme, the CDC, and NASA, and we also believe in the value of the dollar, forgetting that it's just printed paper. When someone believes that graduating from Johns Hopkins Medical School, entering a clinic as a doctor, and earning millions a year will make their life incredibly successful, they are actually opposing the laws of the relative world, opposing the unrepairable nature of the world. Because all the pain and trouble that life should have will still inevitably come. Over the last hundred-plus years, the billions of people on our planet have been shaped to believe that this is the only path to happiness. But tragically, the things they strive so hard to find never actually existed. That is to say, you can never find these things. It is impossible to achieve happiness in this way. It's like you can't fish for whales in a washbasin, can't light a torch underwater, or keep your two cats from fighting forever. If you're smart enough and have watched enough movies and TV shows, you'll realize that all these American dramas and movies are telling you about the absurdity of American values. The theories they deeply believe in have never brought them happiness, only a busy, chaotic, and meaningless life. They must tirelessly plug one leak after another, and as soon as they plug one, another two start leaking. In the end, they lost a lot for the sake of gaining a lot, lost their freedom in pursuit of freedom, and some even lost their lives. This is the life experiment conducted by everyone from Walter White to Nucky Thompson to Michael Corleone to the ordinary American to verify American values. This is also what we have been discussing in our journey forward about the true nature of our world. But most people are not smart enough, so they will not draw such conclusions.

Written by Lingshan Hermit on April 6, 2025. First published on April 6, 2025.

灵山居士：什么是世界真实的样子

当我们说起共同外前行，我们不是在说一个遥远外星世界所发生的事。基本上，我们是在说不要和真实对抗，是在说不要试图和相对实相为敌。共同外前行所描述的内容并非是宗教臆想，它其实是佛陀在向我们展示相对世界真实的样子，它几乎囊括了所有对相对世界的正确认知，囊括了从生物类型到“自我”认知到宇宙运行规则到我们所会面临的各种困境以及如何趋利避害等各方面的信息。除了证悟者，我们都活在这个相对的世界里，活在这个被大小美丑长短自他所框定的世界里，所以无论我们修行与否，这些信息对我们来说都非常有价值。

但是因为我们人类并不喜欢直面真实——事实上，我们是恐惧真实，我们喜欢自欺——所以这么多年我们已经发展出一整套完美的自欺思维方式和生活方式。这让我们对真相感到无比陌生。无论在东方社会还是西方社会，大家都在努力忘掉自己随时会死掉这个事实。我们用音乐美食和各种新鲜事物来填塞自己，以便让自己能忘掉真实。所以到了今天，像“你会死掉”这样显而易见的事实反而需要被刻意提醒才能被记起。这些我们必须要面对的问题就像是宴会上不受欢迎的寒酸宾客，每个人都想要避开它们。而我们所受的大多数教育和宣传，也都在带你偏离实相。我们会相信法官和法律体系，相信能让牙齿变白的牙膏广告，相信个人主义、私有财产和自由市场，相信脱毛器、家用机器人和精英教育，我们相信这些东西能带给我们快乐或是幸福。我们相信整个西方的价值体系，相信世界粮食计划署、CDC和NASA，我们同样相信美元的价值，却忘了它只是印刷出来的纸。当一个人相信如果自己能从约翰霍普金斯医学院毕业成功进入一家诊所当上医生，每年赚个几百万，自己的人生就会爽到起飞，他其实就是在对抗相对世界的规律、对抗世界无法被修复的本质。因为人生所有那些应有的痛苦和麻烦并不会因此而消遁，它们全都会如约而至。最近一百多年，我们都是被这么教育，我们星球上的数十亿人都被塑造得相信这是唯一幸福之途。但是悲剧的是，他们倾尽全力所要寻找的东西，其实从未存在过。也就是说，你永远不可能找到这些东西。永远不可能通过这种方式获致幸福。这就像是你不可能在洗脸池里钓到鲸鱼、不可能在水中点燃火把、也不可能让你的两只猫永远不打架。如果你足够聪明，又看了足够多的电影美剧，你会发现所有的美剧和美国电影都在告诉你美国价值观的荒谬。他们所深信的那套理论从未带给过他们幸福，只带给他们一个忙碌混乱而又毫无意义的人生，他们必须疲于奔命地去堵一个又一个漏水的洞，当他们堵上了一个，另外两个马上又开始漏了。最终，他们为了得到很多东西而失去了很多东西，为了得到自由而丧失了自由，有的人最后连命都没了。这就是从沃尔特.怀特到努基.汤普森到迈克.柯里昂再到普通美国人为了验证美式价值观所做的人生实验。这也是共同外前行一直在讲述的我们的世界真实的样子。但是大多数人都不够聪明，所以他们不会从中收获这样的结论。

灵山居士写于2025年4月6日，首发于2025年4月6月。

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Lingshan Hermit: Are You Relying on Vajradhara or Money-dhara?

In Tibet, every long-established Buddhist lineage has its own refuge field. The refuge field encompasses the images of all masters from the Dharmakaya Buddha to the Sambhogakaya Buddha to the human lineage holders, all the way to the most recent patriarch. On thangkas depicting the refuge field, you can see these lineage masters with calm gazes and elegant demeanors arranged according to their historical distance, appearing either far or near on the thangka. You can also see noble beings of both Mahayana and Hinayana traditions, as well as various deities and protectors. Some refuge fields have Guru Padmasambhava at the center, while others feature the deep blue Vajradhara. As lineage disciples, we prostrate to the refuge field, regarding them as our ultimate source of protection and support.

Although we prostrate to them daily, pray to them, and recite their prayers, do we truly believe in them? Do we truly believe they can protect us and solve all our problems? Do we truly believe they possess extraordinary powers? I have my doubts about this. From my observations, many people I've met haven't truly taken refuge in the Buddha, Guru Rinpoche, or Vimalamitra. Instead, they've taken refuge in dollars, power, and modern technology. Every day, they contemplate how to earn more money or which new Sichuan restaurant has opened, rather than how to attain enlightenment quickly. When they encounter problems, their first reaction is never to pray to their guru; instead, they think about checking Xiaohongshu (Red Book) for solutions or finding someone who can help. Perhaps only as a last resort would they think to seek help from their guru or the Three Jewels. This is their genuine and natural reaction, indicating what they truly believe in—money, power, and modern technology. So if they were honest with themselves, they should replace Guru Rinpoche at the center of their refuge field with dollars and a MacBook Pro, and replace Vajradhara with "Money-dhara."

Your behavior is an extension of your true values. Where you spend most of your time shows what you consider most important. Whom you first think to seek when you encounter problems indicates whom you consider most capable and reliable. And what you consider most important and powerful reveals your true values and merit. If you truly believe that those smiling buddhas, bodhisattvas, and lineage masters in the thangka are extraordinarily powerful, you would certainly think of them first when facing difficulties. If you don't believe they are powerful, don't believe they are the most powerful in the entire universe, don't believe they are incomparable, then the quality of your prayers and refuge is highly questionable.

But don't misunderstand me as criticizing this phenomenon. I have no such intention. Your perception is determined by your merit; what kind of perception you have depends on the abundance of your merit. Criticism cannot increase your merit, much less change your perception. Changing perception is a lengthy process. It requires long-term guru-disciple interaction and the confluence of various causes and conditions. I never fantasize that someone will immediately change their mind after reading my article. Between us lies a vast ocean of merit; for most people, even understanding is unlikely, let alone transformation.

Moreover, living in modern society, you must acknowledge the importance of money. If you want to attend an empowerment ceremony in Nepal, you need money for airfare and hotels. You need to pay monthly rent to your landlord, buy dresses, hairpins, toner, and electric toothbrushes for your girlfriend, give some to your parents, and make offerings. All these require money. Most people's merit is only sufficient to see the benefits money brings but not enough to see its harm. So don't pretend you don't love money; don't pretend money isn't important to you. Especially don't pretend you now love Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal more. If you believe money or power is more important, it's because your understanding of samsara is still superficial, your merit is still insufficient, you don't comprehend how powerful these lineage masters are, and you don't know that only they can truly help you. That's why you think this way. This is your authentic perception at this stage. You need not feel ashamed of this, nor should you pretend otherwise.

Only when you have accumulated sufficient merit, when your life experience is rich enough, when you begin to slowly understand samsara, when you begin to understand that everyone is suffering, that everyone is hiding their pain and pretending to be happy, that behind everyone's glamorous appearance are countless anxieties gnawing at them—only when you have seen enough people's lives, seen them build tall buildings, host grand banquets, seen their buildings collapse, seen their efforts to pursue happiness fail one by one, seen them ultimately gain nothing—will you develop greater trust and reliance on the noble beings in the refuge field. Only then will you know that money, power, or Novartis Pharmaceuticals cannot solve your problems; in fact, they only bring more problems. Most people who believe money can solve problems are those who don't have much money. So they mistakenly think these problems will disappear once they have money. But this is merely their wishful fantasy.

Written by Lingshan Hermit on September 26, 2024. First published on April 1, 2025.

灵山居士：你依止的是金刚总持还是金钱总持

在西藏，每一个历史悠久的佛法传承都有自己的皈依境，皈依境囊括了从法身佛到报身佛到人间祖师一直到最近的那位祖师的形象。在绘有皈依境的唐卡上，你能看到这些眼神淡然举止优雅的传承祖师们按照年代的久远程度或远或近地逐一呈现在唐卡上，你还能看到大小乘的圣者，以及各种本尊和各种护法神。有些皈依境的中间是莲花生大士，有些则是深蓝色的金刚总持。作为传承弟子，我们会向皈依境做礼拜，以他们为我们最终的依止护佑处。

虽然我们每天都在礼拜他们，都在向他们祈祷，都在念诵他们的祈祷文，但我们真的相信他们吗？真的相信他们能保护我们能解决我们的所有问题吗？我们真的相信他们具有超强的能力？对此我很怀疑。我见过的很多人，从我对他们的观察来看，他们真正皈依的不是佛陀不是莲师、不是无垢友，他们皈依的是美元权力和现代科技产品，他们每天在琢磨的是怎么挣更多的钱哪里新开了个川菜馆而不是如何尽快成佛。假如他们遇到事情，他们的第一个反应也绝不是祈祷上师，他们想的是上小红书看看有没有解决办法，或是有没有认识的人可以帮助解决。可能到最后他们才会想到还可以向上师三宝求助。这是他们真实而自然的反应，这表示他们真正相信的是这些——是金钱权力和现代科技。所以如果他们对自己诚实的话，他们其实应该把皈依境中间的莲师换成美元和MacBook Pro，把金刚总持换成金钱总持。

你的行为是你真实价值观的延伸，你在什么地方花的时间最多，就表示你觉的什么东西最重要。你遇到事情第一个想到要找谁解决，表示在你的眼里这个人的能力最强最可靠。而你觉的最重要最厉害的东西，则展示了你真实的价值观和福德。如果你真觉得唐卡里那些微笑的佛菩萨祖师超级厉害，你遇到事情肯定会第一个想到他们。假如你不觉得他们很厉害，不觉得他们是全宇宙最厉害的，不觉得他们无与伦比，那么你的祈祷和皈依质量就非常堪忧。

但是不要误以为我是在批判这种现象。我完全没有这种意图。你的认知是由你的福德决定的，你有什么样的认知取决于你的福德多寡，而批判并不能使你的福德增长，更加不可能改变你的认知。改变认知是个漫长的过程。需要长期的师徒互动需要各种因缘具足才可能发生。我从来不幻想有人看了我的文章就能马上改变想法。我们之间隔着巨大的福德海，对大多数人而言，看懂都不太可能，更何况是改变。

而且生在现代社会，你必须承认金钱的重要性。如果你要去尼泊尔参加灌顶法会，你需要钱买机票住旅店，你要每月要缴钱给房东，要给女朋友买裙子发卡爽肤水和电动牙刷，要给父母一些，还要去做供养。这些都需要钱。大部分人的福德都只够让他们看到金钱所带来的好处而不够让他们看到它的坏处。所以不要假装自己不爱钱，不要假装钱对你不重要。更不要假装自己现在更爱莲师和依西措嘉。你认为钱或是权力更重要，那是因为你对轮回的认识还很粗浅，你的功德还很不够，你不了解这些传承祖师有多大能耐，也不知道真正能帮你的只有他们。所以你才会这么认为。这是你现阶段的真实认知。你完全无需为此惭愧。更加不必假装自己不是这样。

只有当你累积的功德足够多的时候，你的人生经验也足够丰富，你开始慢慢了解轮回，开始了解到每一个人都在受苦，了解到每一个人都在隐藏自己的痛苦假装快乐，了解每个人风光的背后都有无数的烦恼噬咬，只有在你看了足够多的人的人生，看到他们起高楼、看到他们宴宾客、看到他们楼塌了，看到他们追逐快乐的努力逐一失败，看到他们最终一无所获，你才会对皈依境里的圣众生起更大的信任和依止心，才会知道金钱、权力或是诺华制药解决不了你的问题，事实上它们只会带来更多的问题。大多数相信钱能解决问题的人都是没什么钱的人。所以他们误以为只要有钱这些问题就会消失。但这只是他们一厢情愿的幻想。

灵山居士写于2024年9月26日。首发于2025年4月0日。

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gunsangdema-blog · 2 months ago

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Lingshan Hermit: Benefiting Sentient Beings and How Sentient Beings Can Be Benefited

Typically, only omniscient Buddhas truly know how to benefit sentient beings. They know every being's thoughts and capacities, what issues they wish to address and what past experiences they prefer not to mention, all their secrets and habits, what troubles them or what brings them joy. Someone like me can only gradually understand what kind of person someone is and what kind of teaching they need through personal contact and observation.

Generally speaking, if you want to study the Dharma, you must first have some foundation. Just as when two parties wish to converse, they must share a basic foundation for dialogue—both sides must have a comparable level of understanding for the discussion to proceed. Beyond this, both parties must also possess sincerity. If you attempt to discuss Federal Reserve interest rate cuts or federal government layoffs in the United States with the Maasai people of Africa, you'll find the conversation cannot continue because they don't understand what you're talking about. They don't know what a nation is, what an economy is, have never used a vending machine, and certainly don't know what Federal Reserve interest rate cuts are—they lack these basic concepts. In their world, people only know how to snatch food from lions' mouths and how to perform the Adumu dance. So if you want to discuss these matters with them, you must first learn their language (or have them learn yours), then start from American national history all the way to the private nature of the Federal Reserve—you need to spend considerable time educating them.

The same applies to the Dharma. If the other person doesn't understand even the basic terminology and concepts, discussion becomes extremely difficult. They don't know what the "Bodhicaryavatara" is, don't know who Milarepa is, don't understand renunciation, and certainly don't know about Mazu Daoyi. Therefore, to accommodate sentient beings, many bodhisattvas lower themselves to the other's level of understanding, learn their language, and communicate using familiar terminology and references. But even then, thresholds still exist because this involves two people, not just one. The effort of only one party is entirely insufficient.

Most of the time, I assume my readers have some knowledge of the Dharma, but this assumption doesn't always work—assumptions are just assumptions—because it's not only such people who see my writings. Sometimes my articles are seen by those who have no concept of the Dharma at all. I need to clarify that my writing is completely unsuitable for those with no concept of the Dharma; you need to have profound practice and experience of the Dharma, and be very intelligent to understand what I'm saying. This isn't arrogance but fact. I haven't failed to consider the needs of those who know nothing about the Dharma or what they need to hear, but currently my focus isn't in this area. Perhaps later I will dedicate some time to addressing their needs, but not yet. So, if you want to learn the Dharma, you must first do a lot of preparatory work. Otherwise, you certainly won't understand what I'm saying.

Beyond this, you must also possess great sincerity. Although I used words like "discussion" earlier, this doesn't mean you actually qualify to discuss with those who teach you the Dharma. In the past twenty-plus years, the prevalence of the internet has led to various wrong views running rampant, depriving many people of basic devotion and a proper learning attitude. The demon king makes you feel clever, makes you feel you understand everything, makes you feel qualified to discuss and judge everything. These things are destroying your foundation for learning the Dharma. They cause many people to not know how to position themselves correctly.

So you can see many people who appear to be learning but aren't actually learning at all, many people who are "self-studying" the Dharma, many complete outsiders discussing the Dharma. Ordinary people discussing the Dharma seems to me like watching Marilyn Monroe lecture on quantum mechanics. If someone can critique a field they know nothing about, it shows they understand neither themselves nor the Dharma—it shows their self-positioning is completely misaligned. This also means they will be misaligned in other matters, which usually means they can only reap failure in everything they do.

The Dharma is the most difficult thing to understand in the world. Even if you spend fifty years studying it, whether you truly understand it remains questionable. So if you think you can casually discuss the Dharma, or believe you can learn the Dharma by reading a few books, you're actually making a tremendous mistake. Judging the Dharma is far more dangerous than subduing a grizzly bear with your bare hands, because in fighting a bear, you'll only be torn apart once.

Beyond this, the devil has instilled in you a false sense of equality, which is disastrous for most practitioners (because most practitioners cannot discern that so-called equality only exists in ultimate truth; in conventional truth, the Buddha never taught that everyone is equal). Because of this misunderstanding of equality, many people don't position themselves as students who need guidance. They feel they can stand as equals with their teachers, resulting in their inability to learn anything or receive any blessings. Because they lack the necessary sincerity and the preparation to humble and empty themselves, they can never find their correct position. Many people may join others in prostrations, but they have never conquered their arrogance. In their subconscious, they feel the other person's knowledge is similar to their own, at most only slightly higher. So they don't feel inferior or in need of help. This leads them to always view Dharma teachers with scrutinizing and judgmental eyes, ultimately gaining nothing.

Written by Lingshan Hermit on April 8, 2025, first published on April 9, 2025.

灵山居士：利益众生以及众生应该如何才能被利益到

通常，只有遍知的佛才真正知道如何利益众生，他们知道每一个众生的想法和根器，知道他们希望被注意的点以及不想被提及的过往，知道他们所有的秘密和癖好，知道他们正在为什么事情犯愁或是正在为什么事情而心花怒放。像我这样的人，通常只能通过接触和观察才能慢慢知道对方是什么样的人，需要什么样的教法。

一般而言，如果你要学习佛法，必须先要具备一些基础。就像是如果双方想要对话，就必须要有对话基础一样——双方的文明程度必须对等或是差不太多才能让讨论进行下去。——除此之外，双方还必须要具有诚意。如果你尝试去和非洲的马赛人讨论美联储降息或是米国联邦政府的裁员风暴，你会发现无法进行下去，因为你说的东西他都不知道，他不知道什么是国家，不知道什么是经济，没用过自动售货机，更加不知道什么是美联储降息，他缺乏这些基本理念。在他的世界里，人们只知道如何从狮子嘴里抢食如何跳阿穆达舞。所以你如果你要和他讨论这件事，就必须先学习他的语言（或是让他学习你的语言），然后从美国国家历史谈起、一直到美联储的私人性质、你需要耗费大量的时间给他普及。在佛法上也是如此。如果对方连那些基本名词概念都不懂，讨论就会变得异常艰难。对方不知道什么是《入菩萨行论》，不知道谁是米勒日巴不知道出离心，更不知道马祖道一。所以，为了迎合众生，很多菩萨会把自己降低到对方的认知去和对方对话，会去学习对方的语言，会用对方熟悉的语言和典故去沟通。但是即便是如此，也依然存在门槛。因为这是两个人的事而不是一个人的事。只有一方努力是完全不够的。大多数时候，我会假设我的读者是具有一定佛法知识的人，但是这种假设并非时时都能奏效——假设毕竟是假设。——因为并不是只有这样的人才能看到我的文章。有时候我的文章会被那些对佛法全无概念的人看到。在此我需要说明的是，它完全不适合那些对佛法全无概念的人，你需要对佛法有很深刻的修持和体验、还要很聪明才能看懂我在说什么。这不是傲慢而是事实。我并非没有考虑过那些对佛法一窍不通的人们的需求、没考虑过他们需要听什么，但是目前我的重点并不在这个领域。也许以后我会拿出一部分时间来兼顾他们的需求。但是至少现在还没有。所以，如果你想要学习佛法，就必须先去做很多准备工作。否则你肯定看不懂我在说什么。除此之外，你还要具有极大的诚意。虽然在前面我用了“讨论”这样的词，但这不表示你真的有资格和教你佛法的人讨论。最近这二十多年，因为互联网的风行而导致各种邪见大行其道，很多人被剥夺了基本的虔诚和学习态度。魔王会让你觉得自己很聪明，会让你觉得自己什么都懂，让你觉得自己有资格谈论和评判一切。这些东西正在摧毁你学习佛法的基础。它让很多人不知道该如何摆正自己的位置。所以你能看到很多人貌似在学习其实根本没在学，能看到很多人在自学佛法，能看到很多完全外行的人谈论佛法。普通人谈论佛法对我而言就像是看玛丽莲梦露讲量子力学一样。如果一个人能对自己完全不了解的领域评头论足，这表示他既不了解自己也不了解佛法，表示他对自己的定位完全错位。这同时也意味着他在其他事务上也将会完全错位，通常这意味着所有的事情他都只能收获失败。佛法是世界上最最难懂的东西，即便你花上五十年时间去学习最后能否学懂尚且还要存疑，所以，如果你认为自己可以随意谈论佛法、认为自己看几本书就能学到佛法，你其实是在犯一个极大的错误，评判佛法比你徒手制服棕熊还要危险的多。因为和棕熊干仗你最多只会被撕碎一次。除此之外，魔鬼还给你灌输了错误的平等意识，对大多数修行者而言，这都是灾难性的，（因为大部分修行者分不清楚所谓平等只有在胜义谛才存在，在世俗谛上，佛从未讲过大家是平等的。）因为错误地理解了平等，所以很多人并不把自己当成是需要被教导的人，他们觉得自己可以和老师平起平坐的人，这样做的后果是他们什么也学不到。也得不到任何加持。因为他们缺乏必要的诚意，缺乏把自己放低放空的准备，所以他们始终无法找到自己正确的位置。很多人虽然也会随众礼拜，但是他们其实从未降服自己的傲慢。在潜意识里，他们觉得对方知道的和自己差不多，最多只是略高一点点。所以他们并不觉得自己比他差或是需要他的帮助。这让他们始终带着审视和评判的眼光去看待佛法老师，而导致最终全无所得。

灵山居士写于2025年4月8日，首发于2025年4月9日。

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gunsangdema-blog · 4 months ago

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灵山居士：菩提心是人类所能拥有的最高级别的责任感

如果你去观察猫，你会发现猫是有某种程度责任感的生物。母猫会为小猫找食物，会为它舔舐毛发和屁股，会抚养它长大直到它能够自己出去找食。它对自己生的小孩是有某种程度的责任感的。事实上，不止是猫，你能在很多动物身上看到这种程度的责任感，从黑犀牛到大猩猩到帝企鹅再到非洲鱼鹰，他们都有这样的责任感。动物们之所以具有这样的责任感，大概是因为它们的社会里没有西蒙波娃、没有约翰·洛克，所以它们对于自己的权利一无所知，这让它们保有了基本的责任感。我看到的是，有些号称修金刚乘的人，他们的责任感其实并不大于猫，他们很多人的责任感和猫其实差不多。猫不会关心阿富汗女子板球运动员的处境，不会关心法国的马克龙最近发表了什么演说，不会关心街上正在生病的那条狗，除非它们要从你手里讨吃的否则它们其实也不太关心人类。我见过很多人，他们的责任感其实并不多于猫，他们只关心自己的子女和生活，不关心其他任何人。他们只想让子女过上好日子，完全不管别人。我看到很多这样的人说自己有菩提心，还在修金刚乘的法，马上就要成佛了，这让我倍感幽默。

如果我们把人类的责任感分级，菩提心应该是人类所能拥有的最高级别的责任感，因为你要负责一切众生的解脱，要为一切众生设计解脱之道，要从123A B C开始教起直到他们成佛。真正教过学生的人都知道人类的自我有多顽固，知道这是何等艰巨的任务。所以菩提心是人类所能具有的最高级别的责任感。而那种像猫一样的责任感应该是最低程度的。这是大多数生物的本能。但是现在人类社会有很多这样的人，他们成长在在一种只对自己负责的文化里，他们最多只会关心两三个人。有的人甚至只关心自己。他们对别人毫无责任感。他们觉得别人过的怎么样与自己无关。所以他们完全不管别人。只想自己过得好就行。这种思潮在最近这几十年里愈演愈烈，俘获了大多数人的心。前几天我看到一个视频，一个妈妈在让儿子给自己倒杯水，但是儿子拒绝了她，儿子说：“我不是你的仆人、不是你老公、不是你爸爸，所以没有义务帮你倒水。”这实在是个悲剧。基本上，这就是这种思潮发展到极致的后果。他们连对自己的母亲都没有��毫的责任感。如果你让你的猫去给你倒杯水，我不认为它会拒绝你。所以，这种文化发展到极致就会绞杀你所有的人性，让你残存的那点责任感都荡然无存，它会让你变成有史以来最蠢的生物——连鹅都不会那么笨。

需要指出的是，这样的文化与东亚社会存在了几千年的传统文化截然相反。在东亚社会，自古以来就有以天下为己任的传统，传统的读书人认为让世界变得更好是自己天然的责任。现今这个传统在亚洲各国已然衰败，在个人主义横行且统御一切的今天，这种传统早已沦为很多人嘲讽和揶揄的对象。大多数人看不到它的价值，更不知道失去它对我们会有何等样的影响。（在北方，你能看到比成年人还高的高中生放学需要接送。他们不会做饭，不会沟通，不会自己削苹果，连自己坐地铁回家都不会。这就是这种自私文化所带给你的。）

但是无论如何，它依然是我们最该珍视的传统。缺乏这种文化传统，你的责任感不会高过一只猫。如果你只有猫的责任感，只关心100平米内发生的事，你肯定无法成佛、无法解脱。即便你是修托嘎的也不行。即便你的上师是佛也不行。即便你念了一亿大威德也不行。这个世界奇妙的是，那些肩负最大责任的人，总是最幸运的人。他们肩负的责任越大，助力也就会越大，会有无数人来帮助他，世界就是这么奇妙。也是如此公平。

灵山居士写于2025年3月7日，首发于2025年3月8日。

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gunsangdema-blog · 4 months ago

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灵山居士：镀金与红铁丸

查干湖者，关外之名湖也，其幅员辽阔，盛产大鱼。湖中冬捕之鱼王，有售至十万金者。因其利大，常有为贪念所驱之贩鱼者，载他处之鱼，倾入湖中网内，稍待数日即起网，鱼入其湖，水沾其身，即成查干之鱼，可售高价。十数载前，余常见有一等人，以求法之名，入藏地各大佛寺学院，有稍作停留者，有住三五七载者，后返乡开庙，主持一方，称已得成就，已见自性，可利众生，可受用十方香火供养。且有证为证。其人若有真实证悟，自无需多言。然此辈多发心不正，发心不正者若能成就，则藤壶亦可悟道也。其人之所为与查干湖之过路鱼可谓有异曲同工之妙，皆镀金增值之旅也。余谓之查干师也。然大众可欺，因果不可欺也。若无真实学问，未证本地风光，享十方香火，徒增己罪矣。古圣德有言，若无真实修证、无铁打之胃，莫享此利养，地狱之红铁丸又岂是好吞受者？

灵山居士写于2025年3月7日，首发于2025年3月10日。

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gunsangdema-blog · 4 months ago

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Lingshan Hermit: Does Everyone Have Their Own Way of Spiritual Practice?

Every time after I criticize others' spiritual practice issues, I would see, after a while, people posting opposing views that directly contradict what I said, as if countering my statements. I know this is the Demon King making a show of force, telling me in this way to mind my own business, attempting to reclaim his lost territory and rebuild his followers' confidence. Recently I saw someone say: "Everyone has their own way of spiritual practice, don't disturb their mind." The subtext of "everyone has their own way of spiritual practice" is that one shouldn't interfere with others' practice. Why shouldn't one interfere? Because they are practicing in their own way, in a way you don't understand, and since you don't understand others' methods of practice, you shouldn't interfere. If you point out issues in their practice, you're disturbing their mind. If I were a fool, I might think they have a point. This statement has a twin sister: "Just work on yourself, don't mind others." According to this logic, all lineage masters including the Buddha were problematic, because they were all "minding others' business," rectifying foundations, and pointing out errors in people's practice (in their words, disturbing your mind). Therefore, they shouldn't be considered good practitioners.

"Everyone has their own way of spiritual practice, don't disturb their mind" - this statement contains the panic of the Demon King after his tricks are exposed. When his tricks are revealed and exposed to the public, he quickly finds a seemingly reasonable excuse. "Everyone has their own way of spiritual practice" is like "you are your own guru" - frequently used by many to cover up their own issues. Of course, everyone's practice methods won't be exactly the same, but regardless of the method, it must come from your teacher, must be designed by your teacher specifically for you, it cannot be something you dreamed up and arranged for yourself. What you arrange for yourself isn't spiritual practice, because it doesn't harm your ego-habits at all. In the past, I've met many people who arranged their own practice. Some had teachers, some didn't, but whether they had teachers or not, they actually had no real teacher in the true sense, because they were unwilling to bow their heads, unwilling to admit their inadequacy, unwilling to find someone to guide them, unwilling to lose their freedom. Therefore, they couldn't establish a true teacher-student relationship, nor could they receive genuine teaching, so they kept practicing according to their own imagined methods, which is why when I met them again years later, I found all their habits and concepts perfectly preserved. This is the result of practicing in one's own way, because they were practicing in ways they liked, could accept, and that didn't harm their ego. Such practice is like trying to scald pork with lukewarm water - even after a hundred years, the pork won't be cooked.

Spiritual practice is like a knife trying to bend itself to fix itself. Do you think a knife can bend itself to fix itself? Then there's "you are your own guru." I agree with this statement - you certainly are your own guru, but that's only after you've recognized your true mind. At that stage, you finally know what keeps you in samsara, finally know how to practice, know what to abide in and what to cease, know that continuing practice will exhaust your habits and punch a big hole in samsara. Such a person can be their own guru because they completely understand what's blocking their enlightenment. Awareness itself is their teacher. Their practice is constantly observing to ensure they don't fall into the duality of subject and object. At this stage, an external guru becomes less important. But before this, you absolutely need an external teacher, a real teacher, and this teacher certainly cannot be yourself. They must be someone who understands you, someone who can apply the Dharma to you, someone who truly wants you to be liberated. In terms of realization, they should at least be someone who has recognized their own true mind.

Every time I see such words, I can sense the fear of the ego hidden behind them and the resistance after the Demon King's game is exposed, can see the Demon King's nervousness, anxiety, and cunning arguments. Many people will like such words and be deceived by them. Those who like these words are the ones who equate having their issues pointed out with having their minds disturbed. Such people usually cannot accept their true selves, let alone reflect - they are long addicted to self-deception, and such words are their life-preserving treasure. They can only "practice" in ways they like, unable to engage in true practice, and the ways they like happen to be exactly what the Demon King likes as well.

Written by Lingshan Hermit on February 1, 2025. First published on February 5, 2025.

灵山居士：每个人都有自己的修行方式？

每次我批评完别人的修行问题，隔段时间就会看到有人发的相反的东西，那些东西恰好和我说的正好相反，像是对我所说的内容的回击。我知道这是魔王在示威，他在以这种方式告诉我少管闲事，在以这种方式收复自己的失地，在以这种方式重建追随者的信心。前些日子我看到有人说：“每个人都有自己的修行方式，莫扰他心。”“每个人都有自己的修行方式”，这句话的潜台词是不要去干涉别人的修行，为什么不要干涉别人的修行呢？因为他是在以自己的的方式修行，是在以你不懂的方式在修行，你不懂别人的修行方式，所以不要去干涉别人。如果你指出他的修行问题就是在扰乱他的心。如果我是个笨蛋，大概会觉得他说的对。这句话还有个有孪生姊妹是：“修好自己就行了，不要管别人。”按照这个说法，所有的传承祖师包括佛都有问题。因为他们都是在管别人，都是在正本清源，都在指出大众修行中的谬误。（用他们的说法，都是在扰乱你的心。）所以，他们应该不是好的修行人。“每个人都有自己的修行方式，莫扰他心。”这句话蕴藏着魔王的把戏被戳穿之后的恐慌，他的把戏被戳穿了、被曝之于众，所以赶忙找了个看似有理的借口。“每个人都有自己的修行方式”，这句话就像是“你是你自己的上师”一样经常被很多人拿来遮挡自己的问题。每个人的修行方式当然不会尽然相同，但无论是哪种修行方式它都必须出自你的老师，必须是你的老师设计出来用在你身上的，它不能是你异想天开自己给自己安排的。你自己给自己安排的，那不叫修行，因为对你的自我习气完全无伤。过去我见过很多自己安排自己修行的人。他们有的人有老师，有的人没有老师，但是无论是有老师还是没有老师，他们其实都没有真正意义上的老师，因为不愿意低头，不愿意承认自己不行，不愿意找个人管着自己，不愿意失去自由。所以他们无法成立真正意义上的师徒关系，也完全无法得到真正的教授，所以他们一直都在按自己所臆想的方式修行，所以当多年以后我再次见到他们的时候发现他们的各种习气观念都保存完整。这就是以自己的方式修行的结果。因为他们是在以自我喜欢的、能接受的、无伤自我的方式修行。这样的修行就像是用温水去烫猪肉，一百年猪肉也不会被烫熟。修行就像是一把刀自己弯下来修理自己。你觉得一把刀能自己弯下来修理自己吗？还有“你是你自己的上师”。我同意这样的说法，你当然是你自己的上师，但那是在你认明自心之后的事，到了那个阶段，你终于知道是什么在让你轮回了，终于知道要怎么修了，知道要安住的是什么要终止的是什么，知道只要继续修下去就能把习气耗尽，就能把轮回戳个大窟窿。这样的人才能做自己的上师，因为他已经完全明白阻挡他成佛的是什么。觉性就是他的老师。他的修行就是时时观照让自己不落入能所二取。到了这个阶段，外在的上师已经不那么重要了。但是在此之前，你绝对需要一个外在的老师，一个真正的老师，这个老师当然不能是你自己。他必须是一个了解你的人，必须是一个能把佛法用到你身上的人，必须是一个真正想要让你解脱的人。在修证上他至少应该是一个已经认明自心的人。

每次看到这样的话，我都能感受到这些话背后所隐藏的自我的恐惧和魔王游戏被戳穿之后的抗拒，能看到魔王的紧张焦虑和狡猾机辩。很多人会喜欢这样的话，会被这样的话迷惑。而喜欢这些话的人就是那些会把被指出问题等同于扰乱自心的人。像这样的人，他们通常都无法接受真实的自己，更加不会反思，他们长期沉迷于自欺，这样的话对他们而言是续命之宝。他们只能以自己喜欢的方式“修行”，而无法进行真正的修行，而他们所喜欢的方式恰好也是魔王所喜欢的。

灵山居士写于2025年2月1日。首发于2025年2月5日。

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gunsangdema-blog · 4 months ago

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Lingshan Hermit: How to Raise Your Children to Become Song Qingshu and Ding Minjun

I see many parents working hard to raise their children into the antagonists from Jin Yong's novels. According to their educational philosophy, their children will become Ding Minjun, Song Qingshu, Yang Kang, or Zuo Lengchan. Their children cannot suffer any loss, endure any grievance, bear loneliness, or have anything they can't obtain. Their children are taught never to admit mistakes. When they make mistakes, no punishment follows. If you point out their errors, they have a hundred excuses waiting. They are also taught to associate with classmates from privileged backgrounds and avoid dating ordinary people. At a young age, they are already taught to be worldly, calculating, and ambitious. From what I've seen, their education belongs neither to traditional Eastern education nor traditional Western education, as it lacks both the Eastern Confucian concern for the world and Western chivalric spirit. Instead, it's an absurd education born from narrow-minded culture combined with misinterpretation of Western education. I've seen such parents picking up their high school children every day, seen working adults still being driven by their fathers daily. This astounds me. I don't know how such people will cope with future life. They are spoiled and praised to the skies by everyone, but they have no wings, so when they realize they're about to fall, they'll become Song Qingshu or Yang Kang to protect themselves. These children have neither Zhang Wuji's sincerity and generosity, nor Xiao Feng's selfless righteousness, nor Duan Yu's genuine kindness, nor Linghu Chong's natural detachment - they resemble antagonists from Jin Yong's novels in every way. I once asked a mother who educated her child this way if she liked characters like Song Qingshu and Ding Minjun. She was stunned and said of course not. Yet she was striving to make her child become such a person. If your children lack Chinese traditional culture, if they don't understand humility, retreat, or compromise, if their minds are filled only with transactional thinking, they will become like this. They will become Song Qingshu, Ding Minjun, or Yang Kang. And those wuxia characters you once loved - the qualities that make them shine, that make them who they are - come from the traditional culture you've abandoned. Once when discussing modern wuxia films with others, everyone said today's wuxia films lack the chivalrous spirit of old TVB Hong Kong films. Of course they do - today's actors in their twenties grew up in a completely different environment from Tony Wong's generation. They grew up in an era of rampant individualism, being fed films like "Turning Red" that promote self-centeredness. Many received Yang Kang-style education and lived Yang Kang-style lives. If someone receives Yang Kang-style education, how could they possibly capture the essence of Hero Guo?

Written by Lingshan Hermit on March 6, 2022. First published on February 7, 2025.

灵山居士：怎样把孩子培养成宋青书丁敏君

我看到很多父母正在致力于把自己的孩子陪养成金庸小说里的反面人物。按照他们的教育理念，他们的孩子将来会成为丁敏君、会成为宋青书、会成为杨康、会成为左冷禅。他们的孩子不能吃半点亏，不能受一点委屈，不能忍受孤独，也不能有任何得不到的东西。他们的孩子被教的完全不会认错。当他们犯错的时候，不会有任何惩罚降临。如果你说他错了，他会有一百个借口在等着你。他们还被教育要和那些有背景的同学交往，不要和普通人交往谈恋爱，他们小小年纪就被教育地老成世故精于算计野心勃勃。就我所见，他们所受的教育既不属于传统的东方式教育也不属于传统的西方式教育，因为既没有东方儒家的心怀天下也没有西方的骑士精神，而是一种狭隘文化加上对西式教育的错误解读所产生的荒唐教育。我见过这样的家长每天去接他们高中放学的孩子，见过上了班的人还有父亲每天接送。这让我无比惊叹。我不知道这样的人他们如何应对未来的生活。他们被众人宠上了天吹上了云霄，但是却没有翅膀，所以，当他们发现自己就要摔下来的时候，为了自保他们就会变成宋青书或是杨康。这些孩子，他们既没有张无忌的真诚大度，也没有萧峰的仁义忘我，没有段誉的善良真挚，更没有令狐冲的天然淡泊，他们怎么看都像是金庸小说里的反面人物。以前我问过一个这么教育孩子的母亲，她是不是喜欢宋青书丁敏君这样的人？她愣了一下，说当然不喜欢。但是她却在努力让自己的孩子成为这样的人。如果你的孩子身上没有中国传统文化的东西，如果他们不懂得谦让，不懂得后退，不懂得妥协，满脑子都是利益交换，他们以后就会是这个样子。就会成为宋青书丁敏君，就会成为杨康。而那些你喜欢过的武侠人物，他们身上闪光的东西，让他们成为这样的人的东西，正是你所离弃的传统文化。有一回我和别人聊天时提到现在的武侠片，大家都说现在的武侠片没有tvb老港片的侠味，那是当然的了，现在二十几岁的演员他们和黄日华那一代人的生长环境完全不同，他们生长在个人主义疯狂发展的年代，每天都在被喂食《青春变形记》这类鼓吹自我的电影，他们很多人受的是杨康式的教育，过的是杨康式的生活，如果一个人受的是杨康式的教育，他又怎么可能演得出郭大侠的味儿。

灵山居士写于2022年3月6日，首发于2025年2月7日。

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gunsangdema-blog · 4 months ago

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Lingshan Hermit: It Could Be Any Movie You've Seen (Revised)

Someone asked me about my thoughts on this movie that is currently causing a frenzy. But I think she wouldn't like my opinion. As far as I'm concerned, this movie is like a pot of Hollywood stew that has been simmering for years, where the main ingredients and side dishes are all Hollywood staples that have been used for decades. I can taste the bones of "Gone with the Wind", the scallions from "The Shawshank Redemption", and the flavors of "Joker" and "Thelma & Louise". So, to me, it lacks novelty— the only difference is that this time, the meat is served in a Chinese clay pot. After decades of inferiority complex-driven learning and exploration, Chinese directors have mastered Hollywood’s techniques, style, and concepts. Now, with sufficient funds and capabilities, they can produce animations that are every bit as good as those from Hollywood. They have thus become efficient killers of traditional culture—though wrapped in the skin of Eastern mythology, the core remains Western. This isn't surprising as the entire intellectual community worldwide is crazy for the West, intoxicated by Western narratives, led by Western ideologies, and admiring the Western pursuit of happiness. So, you cannot solely blame one director for having a Voltaire-like brain. This is happening to every Asian director in every Asian country (and possibly beyond). The movies, music, books, philosophies, and talk shows you see are all shaping you to be such a person, with almost no one escaping. However, it's crucial to remember that what they are eager to spread is exactly what is now bringing great disasters to the West, which is struggling because of it. These things seem flawless and are filled with love and equality, but they are crafted with the most exquisite skill and most deceptive techniques by the devil. Therefore, it's normal that you don’t see any issues. Not just you, 99% of the world, philosophers, tech elites, social dignitaries, and internet celebrities alike, also fail to see the issues. They only applaud such movies. Such films cater to everyone’s ego, unleash your desires, beat down tradition, and give you a tremendous sense of revenge. Given time, it will be absorbed by you and become a part of you. It should be noted that this isn’t the first time you've encountered such content. Before this, most people have already absorbed a lot from Voltaire, Locke, and Simone de Beauvoir. These influences come from movies like "Titanic", "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri", and "The Glory Days", from Valentine's Day chocolate ads, surrounding you from all sides, with nowhere to hide. These influences dictate your thoughts and choices. They could lead your daughter to get pregnant in her teens, make her feel you have no right to lecture her because you are just her biological father, force the Trump administration to lay off hundreds of thousands of employees, make Kanye West's wife parade in a see-through dress, make everyone increasingly selfish and skilled at maintaining their selfishness, close off everyone more, eradicate various traditions, and ultimately, make you unable to love, trust anyone, reflect on yourself, or cultivate spiritually. Lastly, the movie I'm talking about could be the one you're thinking of, but it could also be "Dangal" or "A Simple Romance", and it's even more likely to be "Desperate Housewives" or "Wreck-It Ralph".

Written by Lingshan Hermit on February 5, 2025. First published on February 6, 2025.

灵山居士：它可以是你看过的任何一部电影（修订）

有人问我对这部正在引发狂欢的电影的看法。但是我觉得她不会喜欢我的看法。就我而言，这部电影就像是一锅放了很多年的好莱坞炖肉，里面的主要食材和佐料配菜都是好莱坞用了几十年的，我能在里面吃到《乱世佳人》的骨头、能品到《肖申克的救赎》葱花、还能尝出《小丑》和《末路狂花》的味道，所以，在我看来它毫无新意——区别只在于这次盛肉的锅是中式砂锅。中国的导演们经过几十年的自卑学习和摸索，学会了好莱坞的技巧、学会了好莱坞的风格、也学会了好莱坞的观念，现在他们有足够的资金和能力，能拍出丝毫不亚于好莱坞的动画制作，他们也因此成为传统文化的得力杀手——虽然它裹着东方神话的外皮，内里却依然是西方的核。这不奇怪，整个世界的知识分子社会大众都在为西方癫狂，都沉醉于西方的叙事，被西方理念带着走，认可西方追寻快乐的方式。所以，你不能单独责怪一个导演有着伏尔泰式的大脑。这是发生在每一个亚洲国家亚洲导演身上的事（也可能不只是亚洲）。你所看到的电影音乐书籍哲学脱口秀都在把你塑造成为一个这样的人，几乎没有人可以幸免。但是需要提醒的是，他们热衷传播的正是现在带给西方巨大灾难的东西，西方正在为此而狼狈不堪，这些东西看上去毫无问题，且充满了大爱和平等，但它却是魔王用最精湛的技能最具迷惑力的手法铸成。所以，你看不出来问题很正常。不光是你看不出问题，这个世界上百分之九十九的人都看不出问题，哲学家科技精英社会贤达网红大咖，他们和你一样，也都看不出问题，他们只会为这样的电影击节赞赏。这样的电影迎合了每个人的自我，释放了你的欲望，痛扁了传统，让你有极大的复仇快感。假以时日，它就会被你吸收，会变成你的一部分。需要说明的是，你不是第一次看到这样的东西，在此之前，大多数人已经吸收了很多这类东西，他们吸收了很多来自伏尔泰、洛克和西蒙波娃的东西，这些东西来自《泰坦尼克��》、来自《三块广告牌》、来自《光辉岁月》，来自情人节巧克力广告，你被它们全方位围猎，无处可躲。这些东西左右着你的思维和抉择。它会让你的女儿十几岁就怀上孩子、会让她觉得你没有资格教训她因为你只是她的生物学父亲，会让川普政府不得不裁掉几十万雇员，会让坎耶.维斯特老婆穿着透明装招摇过市，会让每个人都变得越来越自私且精于维护自己的自私，让每个人都更加封闭，让各种传统消失，最终它会让你无法爱、无法相信任何人、让你无法自省、更加无法修行。最后，我说的电影，也许是你以为的那部，但也可能是《摔跤吧爸爸》或是《飞一般爱情小说》，更可能是《疯狂主妇》《无敌破坏王》。

灵山居士写于2025年2月5日。首发于2025年2月6日。

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gunsangdema-blog · 4 months ago

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Lingshan Hermit: Artificial Intelligence and Spiritual Guidance

Recently, I often see people consulting Deepest about spiritual practice questions. This reminds me of the scene several years ago when OpenAI's ChatGPT was first born—at that time, many people also asked it many questions about spiritual practice. If you're doing this just for fun, you can certainly continue to do so, continue to ask it these questions, ask it how to achieve enlightenment, how to fly, how to develop supernatural powers, how to make tomato-braised beef brisket. As long as you don't take its answers seriously. But if you really want it to help you solve these spiritual practice issues, really want to practice according to what it says, that's completely misguided. Because this shows you neither understand artificial intelligence, nor spiritual practice, nor Buddhist teachers.

From my understanding of artificial intelligence, whether it's Deepest or ChatGPT, they are trained by tech companies using massive amounts of data. It has been fed many relevant materials. So, it's like an extremely intelligent person who has read many Buddhist sutras and teacher's instructions but has never truly practiced. The problem with such a person is that although they haven't truly practiced, they will make you feel they are very accomplished and knowledgeable. Artificial intelligence is very similar to such people. All AI can provide are conclusions drawn from integrating and refining those data (though it will make laypeople have the illusion that it is omniscient). But real Buddhist teaching between master and disciple is not like this at all, not at all like this dead approach of prescribing medicine by looking at books. Real Buddhist teaching is actually quite flexible. If a group of people asks a Buddhist master questions about dharma, even if they ask the same question, due to the different capacities of the questioners, different cultures, comprehension abilities, execution abilities, sometimes even differences in wealth and gender, they might receive completely different answers. So this is completely different from AI integrating information, because what's answering is a fully enlightened, totally beyond duality, altruistic mind. Its job is to guide beings to abandon evil, practice good, and move toward liberation, not to piece together an answer from existing data—which is exactly what AI does. AI doesn't know your capacity, doesn't know your psychological state, doesn't know your taste, doesn't know you just got divorced, it just integrates its knowledge based on your question, and only provides some theory. But spiritual practice is not limited to theory; theory is only a small part of practice. Many important practices can only happen in human interaction. And practice that takes the guru as the path especially needs a living, unpredictable teacher who must first be human, must be somewhat realized, must understand you, must possess skillful means and wisdom, is not predictable by you, much less bribeable by you, knows when to be strict and when to be lenient—only such a person can interact with you and precisely attack your ego-clinging. AIs like ChatGPT and Deepest can at most provide some theory, they cannot order you to cook noodle soup, cannot hurt your pride, much less ambush your habitual patterns, so they cannot serve the function that a living teacher can. And most importantly, they have no heart. No heart that can experience tiredness and thirst in this moment, that can love and experience being loved. Although they sometimes appear to have emotions, those aren't real emotions. So, although AI is very intelligent, although it's much smarter than most people, what it manifests is still not realization, much less omniscience, just a heartless computer that knows massive amounts of data and is very good at integration and comprehension and extremely clever. Therefore, it cannot guide your practice, much less solve your problems. If Deepest could tell you how to practice, then kettles and toasters could give you Dzogchen empowerments.

Perhaps within a few years, AI development could help us find ways to cure AIDS, find ways to live to 300 years old. But enlightenment is different from all worldly things. It is beyond all concepts, beyond big and small, far and near, beautiful and ugly, right and wrong, beyond all your imagination and speculation. Therefore, it also cannot be captured by artificial intelligence. The superiority of AI or quantum computers lies in their ability to observe trillions upon trillions of causes and conditions that ordinary people cannot observe, so in the world of causes and conditions (the relative world) they can do great things—they can be excellent doctors, help you pull teeth, help you design life strategies, even help you make movies, they can quickly find the cause of illness, can peel a raw egg's shell without breaking the membrane, they can take on most of human society's work, from being assassins to teaching quantum physics to building houses, they can do all these things. But they should never be able to become Buddhist teachers or possess an enlightened mind—because enlightenment transcends all causes and conditions, and cannot be obtained through massive accumulation of knowledge.—This might be the only thing they cannot do. So, never expect artificial intelligence to become your spiritual guide—if you're taking this matter seriously.

Written by Lingshan Hermit on February 9, 2025. First published on February 10, 2025.

灵山居士：人工智能与修行指导

最近这段时间，我经常能看到有人在咨询Deepest 修行上的问题。这让我想起几年之前Openai 公司的ChatGPT刚刚诞生时侯的场景——那时候很多人也是问了它很多修行上的事。如果你这么做只是为了图个开心，你当然可以继续这么做，可以继续问它这些问题，可以问它如何证悟如何飞天如何修神通如何做番茄炖牛腩。只要你不拿它的回答当真就行。但是如果你是真的想要让他来帮助你解决这些修行问题，真的想要按他说的去修行，那就荒腔走板了。因为这显示你既不了解人工智能，也不了解修行，更不了解佛法老师。

就我对人工智能的了解，无论是Deepest 还是ChatGPT 他们都是科技公司用天量的大数据训练出来的。它被喂食了很多相关资料。所以，他就像是一个读了很多佛经和上师开示但是却没有真正修行又极度聪明的人。这样的人的糟糕之处在于虽然他没有真正修行过但他却会让你觉的他很有修行懂的也很多。人工智能和这样的人非常相似。人工智能所能提供的只是他根据那些数据整合提炼得出的结论（但是他会让那些外行产生一种他是遍知者的错觉。）。而真正的师徒之间的佛法教授完全不是这样，完全不是这种看着书开方抓药的死法，真正的佛法教授其实是相当灵活。如果一群人去请示一位佛教大师佛法问题，即便他们问的是同样的问题，但是由于提问者的根器不同，文化、理解力、执行力也各不相同，有时候甚至是贫富和性别差异，都会导致他得到的可能是完全不同于别人的答案。所以这和人工智能整合信息完全不同，因为回答问题的是一颗全然证悟全然超越二元的利他的心。他所要做的是引导众生断恶行善走向解脱，而不是整合已有的数据拼凑出一个答案——而这正是人工智能所做的。人工智能不知道你是什么根机，不知道你处于什么心理状态，不知道你的口味不知道你刚刚离过婚，他只是根据你的问题整合了自己的所知，而且只是提供了一些理论而已。但是修行并不只局限于理论，理论只是修行的一小部分。很多重要的修行只能发生在人与人的互动中。而以上师为道的修行更是需要一个你完全无法预判的活生生的老师，这位老师首先必须是人类，他必须是某种程度的证悟者，他必须了解你，他还必须具有善巧和智慧，他不是你所能预判的，更不是你能贿赂的，他知道何时收何时放，只有这样的人才能和你互动，才能精准地攻击你的我执。像ChatGPT、Deepest这样的人工智能最多只能提供一些理论，它无法命令你去煮面汤，无法挫伤你的骄傲，更加无法突袭你的习气，所以他无法起到活生生的老师所能起的作用。而最重要的一点是，它没有心。没有在此刻能体验到倦意和��渴、能爱人也能体验被爱的那颗心。虽然它有时候看起来好像有情绪，但那并不是真正的情绪。所以，虽然人工智能非常聪明，虽然它比大多数人都要聪明的多，但它所体现出的依然不是证悟，更不是遍知，只是一个知道天量数据又很会整合很会融汇贯通聪明绝顶的没有心的电脑。所以，它无法引导你修行，更不可能解决你的烦恼。如果Deepest 可以告诉你如何修行，那么热水壶和烤面包机就能给你传授大圆满的灌顶。

也许在几年之内人工智能的发展就能让我们找到治愈艾滋病的方法，找到让我们活到300岁的方法。但是证悟和世间一切事物都不同。它离于所有的概念，离于大小、远近、美丑、对错，离于你所有的想像和猜测。所以，它同样不可能被人工智能所捕捉。人工智能或是量子计算机的超胜之处在于它可以观测到数以万万亿计的普通人无法观测到的因缘，所以在因缘的世界里（相对的世界里）它可以大展拳脚，它能成为很好的医生，能帮你拔牙帮你设计人生攻略还能帮你制作电影，它能迅速找到致病之因，能在蛋膜不破的前提下剥掉生鸡蛋的壳，它能承担人类社会的大部分工作，从杀手到教授量子物理到盖房子，这些它都能干。但是它应该永远也无法成为佛法老师、无法拥有一颗证悟的心——因为证悟超越一切因缘，不可能经由巨量知识累积而获得。——这或许是它唯一不能做的事情。所以，永远不要指望人工智能能成为你的修行指导——如果你是认真对待这件事的话。

灵山居士写于2025年2月9日。首发于2025年2月10日。

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gunsangdema-blog · 4 months ago

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Lingshan Hermit: Those Who Disguise Themselves as Devils Will Eventually Become Real Devils

Some people say you should make yourself appear unapproachable, that you should become a bad person, and then the whole world will become gentle and courteous before you, with everyone starting to behave reasonably. Others say you should develop the ability to talk nonsense and act crazy, so you can keep many people you dislike at bay. Indeed, disguising yourself as a villain, as someone unapproachable, or as a madman can save you from many troubles. Most people will avoid you – after all, who wants to have coffee with a crazy person? However, in the long run, you will lose many things, and the cost will outweigh the benefits.

Others avoid troubling you because they fear complications, because your state makes them feel uncertain, so they treat you with caution. But consequently, you will lose job opportunities, friends, business partners, and love, ultimately becoming increasingly lonely. While talking nonsense might sometimes scare away people you dislike, it will equally frighten away those you like. Human habits are things that operate automatically. Therefore, if you become accustomed to talking nonsense, gradually you will speak carelessly about everything. If you get used to making up stories, you'll keep fabricating them, and over time, you'll become trapped, unable to distinguish between reality and your fabricated dreams. You'll become uncertain whether you've ever been to Cape Verde, whether you've ever fished for salmon in Norway, whether you've ever experienced sweet love, or whether you've ever owned a Siamese cat named Cola.

Sometimes, for self-protection, we believe in incorrect things. We make ourselves appear tougher or crazier to mask our vulnerability. But this doesn't make you safer – these are all devil's tricks. The devil says, "Make yourself appear evil, and when you're evil, others will fear you." Of course, others will fear you. Who doesn't fear a horned devil? Initially, you're just pretending to be evil, but gradually you'll start thinking evil is good, as it helps you obtain things you couldn't get during your time of goodness, and then you truly begin to become evil. This is how things progress.

From a Buddhist perspective, not harming others is the way to ensure your safety. Being kind and not hurting others is the only way to keep yourself safe. Although this method seems slow and difficult, far less effective than the devil's way, it is the only method that can truly keep you safe. Those who disguise themselves as devils will eventually become real devils. And fabricating stories will lead you into self-deception, making you live in your own delusional dreams, preventing you from seeing yourself clearly, thus losing the possibility of spiritual practice.

Written by Lingshan Hermit on February 12, 2025

First published on February 13, 2025

灵山居士：把自己打扮成魔鬼的人，最后都会变成真的魔鬼

有人说，你应该让自己看起来不那么好惹，应该让自己变成个坏人，这样整个世界就会在你面前变得温文尔雅，每个人都开始变得讲道理。还有人说，你应该具备胡说八道装疯的能力，这样就可以把很多你不喜欢的人挡在门外。把自己打扮成恶人打扮成不太好惹的人打扮成疯子的确会省去很多麻烦，大部分人见了你都会绕道走，谁会想要和疯子一起喝咖啡呢？但是从长远来看，你会失去很多东西，得不偿失。别人不来招惹你是因为怕麻烦，是因为你的状态让他感觉不确定，所以他会小心翼翼地对待你。但是你也会因此失去工作机会、失去朋友、失去合作伙伴、失去爱情，最后你会变得越来越孤独。胡说八道在某些时候是能把你不喜欢的人吓跑，但它同样也会把你喜欢的人吓跑。人类的习气是一种会自动运行的东西。所以，如果你习惯了胡说八道，慢慢你就会在所有的事情上信口胡言，你习惯了编故事，你就会一直编故事，时间长了，你就会陷进去，你自己都分不清楚哪些是现实哪些是你编造的梦境，你不确定自己是不是去过佛得角，不确定自己有没有在挪威钓过大马哈鱼，不确定自己是否有过甜美的爱情，不确定自己有没有养过一只叫可乐的暹罗猫。有时候我们出于自我保护会相信一些错误的东西，我们会让自己看起来比较强悍比较疯，以此掩饰我们的虚弱。但这并不能让你更安全，这些都是魔鬼的伎俩。魔鬼说：“让自己看起来邪恶吧，当你邪恶的时候，别人都会怕你。”别人当然会怕你。谁不害怕长着角的魔鬼呢？起初你只是假装邪恶，慢慢你就会觉得邪恶挺好，邪恶让你斩获很多善良时期无法得到的东西，然后你就真的开始邪恶起来。事情就是这样发展的。从佛教的角度来说，不伤害别人才是能让你安全的方式。让自己善良不去伤害别人是让你安全的唯一的方式。虽然这个方法看起来很慢也很难，远没有魔鬼的方法那么容易奏效，但是这是唯一真正能让你安全的方法。把自己打扮成魔鬼的人，最后都会变成真的魔鬼。而编造故事则会让你陷入自欺，让你活在自我的迷梦里，让你无法看清自己，从而失去修行的可能。

灵山居士写于2025年2月12日，首发于2025年2月13日。

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Lingshan Hermit: Good Illusions and Bad Illusions

Within the great illusion of life, there are some illusions that are good and others that are bad. For someone like me, whether an illusion is good or bad depends on whether it brings you closer to or further from reality. In this vast and continuous delusion, we create countless interconnected, mutually reinforcing, and seemingly real illusions. These include the concepts of self and others, the laws of thermodynamics, the path of spiritual practice, the Great Perfection empowerment, Genghis Khan's western expedition, tiramisu cake, and Gabriel García Márquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude". Because all of us who are unenlightened live in this continuous illusion, the Buddha and spiritual masters must first agree with our cognition to communicate with us. They must first pretend there are selves and others, size differences, spiritual practice, enlightenment, merit and karma, Buzz Lightyear, detergent, and Ronald McDonald. They must first pretend to believe in everything we believe before they can dialogue with us. Therefore, almost all Buddhist teachings are built upon this illusion. They use illusion to drive away illusion.

Within this illusion, we have established a so-called system of spiritual practice that has continued for thousands of years. In this system, many important qualities that practitioners should possess are emphasized, such as merit and devotion. However, among all the important qualities, honesty is one I consider to be among the most important. A person's level of honesty toward self and others determines whether they can enter spiritual practice and how far they can go in it. To some extent, this also determines their future. Honesty is a quality that is quite discouraged in this age, where everyone is too clever. So for many people, honesty is almost synonymous with foolishness and incompetence. Unlike parents of the past, today's parents no longer boast about their children possessing this quality. Most people can see that honesty leaves you with nothing, and we live in a world where honest people can barely survive. We need to tell many lies to gain things, so many people can no longer be honest. However, from the perspective of Buddhist practice, honesty is a very rare quality and also a necessary path for practice, because honesty means you can be candid with yourself and your teacher. This is very important in spiritual practice.

Of course, I'm not saying you should be honest with everyone at all times and places. That's impossible. You may need to tell some lies to survive. But at least you should know who you cannot lie to. Many people don't know this; they are accustomed to being dishonest with everyone, accustomed to lying to everyone. They don't know the consequences of doing this, much less how much it will affect their practice and life. If a person is habitually dishonest, if they lie to everyone, it indicates this has become their habit and also reveals that subconsciously they don't trust anyone, so they are accustomed to wrapping themselves in lies. They seal themselves off so tightly that there's almost no way in. If you pry open one layer of their disguise, they will be very unhappy, but soon they will pretend to accept it, pretend to be moved, pretend to be shocked by their own awfulness. But that's just their first layer of disguise; they have many more layers.

Such people are very difficult to deal with. If you expose all their lies, you gain an enemy. But if you don't expose their lies, they will continue living in their lies and be unable to begin spiritual practice. Because people who are accustomed to lying usually find it hard to realize they are lying. Many people never think they lie; they might even believe they are completely honest because lies have become their life - they completely believe what they say. They live in the illusion they've created for themselves. If you reveal their disguise, it will make them furious.

If a person is habitually dishonest and self-deceptive, they will live in the illusion they've created for themselves. This is an illusion built upon illusion. As we mentioned at the beginning, all living beings live in self-created illusions, but even among these illusions, there are good ones and bad ones. In the good illusions, we believe there are Buddhas, believe in reincarnation and nirvana, believe in enlightenment, believe there are great teachers, believe that through practice we can remove our defilements and achieve enlightenment. These are good illusions. If you have greater merit, you will realize that even becoming a Buddha and enlightenment are illusions. But if you have bad karma, you will have bad illusions. In bad illusions, you believe no one can be trusted, there are no saints, no liberation; you believe everyone is equally selfish, just that some are better at pretending. So all religions are nonsense. You believe people only live for a few decades, so you must work hard to make money and enjoy life - only what you grasp in your hands is yours. You believe the world exists truly, from your lambskin gloves to your 5000-square-foot apartment, all absolutely real. Although you've heard many teachings on emptiness and received so-called Great Perfection empowerments, this cannot shake your cognition at all; you still believe the world is as solid as ever. These are bad illusions.

Some people living in such bad illusions unfortunately become Buddhists, and even more unfortunately, they firmly believe what they're doing is spiritual practice. Although they've visited many holy places, met many masters, received many teachings, and have been practicing continuously, their deep-seated real views have never changed - they don't even know what their real views are. The teachings have never shaken their views; they still live and practice according to their old habits, make choices according to their old views. They just perform some actions that look like practice, but their true inner views remain intact, so everything they do in Buddhism inevitably becomes self-validation and self-protection.

For self-protection, for self-validation, for gaining more benefits, we learned to lie, learned to be dishonest with everyone. We lie not only to others but also to ourselves. We need lies because only lies can help maintain your ego needs and satisfy your self-expectations. If a person is accustomed to lying to others, it shows they have a deep distrust of others. And this can be seen as the greatest enemy of spiritual practice. Because whether you're practicing refuge or guru yoga, you need to invest enormous trust. (In fact, there is no Buddhist practice that doesn't require trust.) If you want to begin spiritual practice, you must trust your teacher. If you don't trust the person teaching you Buddhism, you won't be able to do as they say. If you don't do as they say, your Buddhist practice cannot begin. I've seen some people who choose to practice on their own; they think they don't need a teacher. Although they want the benefits of practice, they don't want to lose their freedom because of it; they don't want others to decide when they should wake up. They want autonomy. At a deeper level, that's their ego's resistance to death, and it also shows they don't trust anyone in their heart. So they're unwilling to give themselves to anyone. Because they cannot trust anyone, they lose the opportunity for practice and liberation.

Most people choose to lie because they want to create a false impression on others, want others to think they are a certain kind of person, so they can benefit from it. If you want to sell someone a bunch of bananas that are about to rot, would you tell them: "These bananas are about to rot, I want to sell them to you before they rot so my interests won't be damaged," or would you tell them these bananas are fresh? Most people would choose the latter because it brings practical benefits. If you choose the former, your bananas will probably rot. They can only see the benefits of lying and cannot see the benefits of not lying. Because they think telling the truth brings no profit, many people gradually become full of lies. As we mentioned earlier, this is the great enemy of practice.

If you're accustomed to lying and pretending, you face at least two problems in practice. First, as someone accustomed to lying, you will find it very difficult to distinguish whether you're lying. Because lying has the effect of deceiving others as well as self-deception. If you're accustomed to lying, accustomed to the self you've created, then over time, you won't be able to distinguish what's a lie and what's real, what you've actually done and what you've made up. Your newly created illusions interweave with the original ones, gradually becoming part of your history. In these self-created stories, you are clever and capable, have never done anything wrong, never lose out, and whenever you encounter danger, some mysterious force comes to save you. You immerse yourself in these stories; these stories feed your ego, become powerful assistants in your self-deception, allowing your ego to feast. And its greatest effect is preventing you from seeing your real self, preventing you from discovering your problems. The "real self" we're talking about here is still an illusion, but it belongs to the good kind. Only people with extremely great merit have such good illusions. In good illusions, you have a clear understanding of yourself. This means you have correct positioning of yourself, you know you make mistakes, know your shortcomings, when you lie, you know you're lying, and feel uneasy and conflicted about it. In good illusions, you trust your teacher, trust their teachings, you don't cover up your problems, and are willing to gradually correct them according to the teacher's instructions. You know you need their help and are willing to sacrifice much freedom for it. These are good illusions.

Compared to such people, those wrapped in bad illusions find it very difficult to break through their self-created barriers to see their real selves. Because they're accustomed to the image shaped by their ego, it makes it difficult for them to face their real selves. In fact, they've never examined their real selves. They are very unfamiliar with their real selves. If you give them a mirror, they won't think the person in the mirror is themselves. If you point out their problems, they'll feel humiliated. They think the monster you're describing isn't them. They are so beautiful and wise - how could they be like that? For those who are accustomed to self-deception and unable to recognize their true state, the teacher's straightforwardness is nothing short of an attack. They have long been accustomed to lies; truth to them is a serious offense.

For such people, directly showing them their true appearance might not be a good idea, so you can't directly hand them a mirror - that would cause them to flee or become angry with shame. Basically, when encountering such people, if you give them a mirror, don't expect them to be grateful. If they are rather foolish, they will even become angry with you - because it's no more comfortable than sawing off their legs - and most people are more likely to be foolish than wise. If they become angry, they will get a result they least want. And this is what dishonesty brings them.

When you're accustomed to dishonesty, your practice cannot unfold. You can only practice within the limits allowed by your ego, so your practice will absolutely not harm the ego. If you're lucky, you'll practice like this for a lifetime. But if one day your teacher suddenly breaks through the ego's warning line and steps on your tail, the ego will react, and finally you'll ruin everything.

Dishonesty brings another problem: you will try to deceive your teacher, you will play mind games with them, try to trick them. In practice, this is equivalent to digging your own grave. You might think no one would be stupid enough to dig a hole, lie in it, and shoot themselves in the head. But I've seen many such people. They often do this. In practice, deceiving your teacher is like deceiving a doctor - you tell the doctor you've been taking your medicine regularly when actually you haven't taken it at all. Buddhist teachers will prescribe medicine for you, but you must take it yourself, and if you don't take it, no one will come out and roar at you. Practice is about supervising yourself, correcting yourself, managing yourself. In practice, no one can watch over you; only you can watch over yourself. No one knows what's happening within you, no one knows your thoughts and intentions, no one knows your greed, anger, and delusion - only you know. So if you don't dig, no one can help you dig; no one can replace you, help you catch your greed, anger, and delusion, help you find their source. Only you can do these things. But you can't expect someone living in their ego's dream and accustomed to their own perfection to do these things. They completely lack this ability. Their practice only includes daily recitations and rituals, absolutely not including observing and analyzing themselves. They think doing these recitations and rituals is practice.

There are many such practitioners; they've never engaged in true practice, but because they've done many superficial practices, they think they're practicing; they've never truly understood their teacher's words, but they think they have; they've never truly implemented their teacher's instructions, but they think they have. It's like thinking you've taken medicine when you actually haven't. Some deception is intentional, while deception like this, though objectively unintentional, is still deception - the deceiver might not even know they're deceiving their teacher. But it's still deception. This kind of deception is harder to discover than intentional deception, thus also harder to correct. So, if you're honest with yourself, you should know this happens every day - every day you're deceiving yourself or your teacher. But very few teachers will be interested in piercing your mask. They won't pierce it, partly because doing so is meaningless - you won't be grateful, much less change; you'll only become angry, so why should they offend you? On the other hand, most teachers are very busy; they can't spend time on just one person. Practice is often like a buffet - if you don't want to eat, the restaurant owner will never come out and blame you for not eating. Even if they know you're deceiving yourself, know you're acting, they will pretend not to know. So, many people have teachers but no real practice, and the reason is that they're immersed in serious self-deception. Few teachers would be willing to risk breaking your dream. Usually, that wouldn't have good results. So, such people can't even have normal honest communication, how can they begin real practice?

Initially, you need to establish normal communication channels with your teacher, you need to trust your teacher, listen carefully to what they say, understand the meaning of their words. This is the first thing you need to do. But it's difficult. Because we're all accustomed to self-protection, accustomed to showing false faces, accustomed to showing our best side to others. So you won't like displaying your wounds. Generally speaking, it takes a long time for trust to build between teacher and student. And even if we've established some degree of trust, it's hard to say whether this trust is truly unbreakable. I've seen some people who, at certain times, during the honeymoon period, when the whip hasn't hit them, are very confident and emotional. They're also happy to see Milarepa-style things happen to other students. Such things might even strengthen their faith - because they're not the ones being hit. But it's different if one day the whip actually hits them. Some people might endure for a while but cannot persist forever. Because they're accustomed to self-deception, accustomed to feeding their ego, accustomed to the benefits brought by their ego, they've never truly recognized the problems their ego brings them. Deep in their hearts, they still cherish their ego. This allows them to sustain only for a while. The ego can endure temporary hunger and beating but cannot endure forever. They haven't developed the habit of starving their ego. While they can still endure, they will deceive themselves (they self-deceive even in this), they will deceive themselves saying they know this is for their own good, will tell themselves this is what practice is like. So they will briefly create an illusion that they can get through it, but illusions are just illusions, and at some point, when they can't handle the demonic outbreak, they'll be finished. So even those who claim to be accustomed to their teacher's straightforward style might suddenly snap, suddenly become unable to bear it. That's because deep in their hearts, they've never truly treated their ego as an enemy. Although they verbally declare themselves irreconcilable with their ego, once the ego is attacked, they will ultimately stand with their ego. This is the consequence of self-deception. Also because of self-deception, they don't know their true endurance. So they can deceive themselves for a while but cannot maintain the pretense forever.

A person accustomed to showing false faces finds it difficult to remove their disguise, similarly, a person accustomed to lying finds it difficult not to lie. Even if they determine to be honest, that might just be another more sophisticated disguise and performance. They find it hard to get used to honesty, just as people accustomed to wearing clothes cannot get used to not wearing them. But practice is not doing business, not dating, not making friends. The teacher is neither your client, nor your lover, nor your boss. But many people bring out their tactics for dealing with clients or boyfriends. True enlightened beings are completely genuine people; they probably aren't as easy to fool as your boyfriend. If they are skillful, they will probably watch your performance without exposing it. This makes you think your method is working. Then you'll continue doing this, continue maintaining this false teacher-student relationship. Therefore, true communication only happens in completely trusting teacher-student relationships. If you're accustomed to being false, your teacher cannot truly communicate with you; at most they can only give you some teachings to practice. And those teachings and empowerments are just things to keep you from running away, unrelated to real practice. Sadly, most people will think this is real practice; they will stagnate at this level of practice, never able to enter real practice in their lifetime. The root cause is that they're accustomed to lies and self-deception.

Whether you're listening to "The Words of My Perfect Teacher" or the "Ten Virtuous Actions Sutra" or any teaching, there's a prerequisite: your listening will only be useful if you're honest with yourself and others. If you're not an honest person, you cannot discover your true views. Without the habit of observing your mind, you'll find it hard to discover that your values actually conflict with the teachings you hear, hard to discover the conflicts between them, and even more unable to compare the teachings with yourself. Many people's listening to Buddhism only adds knowledge - self-deception prevents them from realizing their true views actually completely oppose the teachings, so they have no reason to dig into, examine, and destroy their existing values, which will continue standing there. This is why many people listen to Buddhism for many years yet completely fail to change their hearts. They live in an era of short videos, pet economy, and emotional values flying everywhere, they attend Imperial College London, yet they think their views don't conflict with what Buddha taught. This is quite humorous.

Those dishonest people can't even repent. People who are dishonest with themselves are best at defending themselves; they will justify and rationalize all their mistakes. In the self-illusion they've created, mistakes cannot survive. Their world doesn't need mistakes and doesn't accept any accusations of error. These are all brought to you by bad illusions.

Everything we experience is illusion, whether it's Buddhist practice, steam eye masks, karma, Madhyamaka, or lies and truth - these are all illusions. But although they're all illusions, they remain very important because illusions are all we can rely on (like crutches for someone with broken legs). For us living in illusion, this is the only method we can use.

Therefore, we must practice within illusion, use illusion to replace illusion, use illusion to block illusion, and finally use illusion to destroy illusion, and the best way to destroy illusion is to realize its illusory nature.

Written by Lingshan Hermit on February 18, 2025 First published on February 21, 2025

灵山居士：好的幻象和不好的幻象

在生命这个巨大的幻象里，有一些幻象是好的幻象，而另一些幻象则是坏的幻象。对于我这样的人而言，幻象的好坏取决于它是让你更接近实相还是更远离实相。在这个巨大而持续的迷妄里，我们营造出无数个互相关联互相烘托又相当真实的幻象，这里面有人我，有自他，有热力学定律，有修行之道，有大圆满灌顶有成吉思汗西征，也有提拉米苏蛋糕和的加西亚·马尔克斯的《百年孤独》。因为我们所有的未证悟者都生活在这种持续性的幻象之中，所以佛陀和祖师们要和我们沟通就要先同意我们的认知，要先假装有人我、有大小、有修行、有证悟、有功德有业力、有巴斯光年、洗涤剂和麦当劳叔叔，他们必须先假装相信我们所相信的一切，然后才能和我们对话。因此佛教几乎所有的教法都是建立在这个幻象之上。都是在利用幻象驱赶幻象。

在这个幻象里，我们建立了所谓的修行系统，这个修行系统至今已经延续数千年。在这个修行系统里，有很多被强调的修行人应该具有重要特质，诸如福德、虔诚心等等。但是在所有的重要特质中，诚实是我认为最重要的特质之一。一个人对自他的诚实程度，决定了他能否进入修行，决定了他在修行中能走多远。在某种程度上，这也决定了他的未来。诚实在这个时代是相当不被鼓励的品质，这个时代每个人都聪明过头了。所以对很多人来说，诚实几乎就像是傻瓜和无能的代名词。和以前的父母不同的是，现在的父母不再夸耀自己的孩子具有这种品质。大多数人能看到的是诚实让你一无所获，而我们又生活在一个诚实几乎就无法生存的世界里，我们需要说很多谎才能换取一些东西，所以很多人已经无法让自己诚实。但是从佛教修持的角度来说，诚实是非常罕有的品质，也是修行必由之路，因为诚实意味着你对自己和老师都能坦诚相待。在修行上，这非常重要。当然我并不是说你应该在所有的时间所有的地点对所有的人都要诚实。那不可能。因为生存你可能必须说一些谎。但是至少你要知道对哪些人是不能撒谎的。很多人并不知道这些，他们习惯了对所有人都不诚实，习惯了对所有人都撒谎。他们不知道这么做的后果，更不知道这会对他们的修行和人生产生多大的影响。如果一个人会习惯性地不诚实，如果他对所有人都撒谎，那表示这已经是他的一种习惯，同时也昭示着在潜意识里他不相信任何人，因此他习惯于用谎言把自己包裹起来。他们把自己封闭的严严实实，几乎无从下手。假如你撬开他的一层伪装，他们会很不高兴，但是很快他们就会假装接受，会假装被感动，假装被自己的糟糕震惊到了。但其实那只是他的第一层伪装，他还有很多很多层伪装。遇到这样的人会非常棘手。如果你戳破他所有的谎言，你就多了一个敌人。但是如果你不戳破他的谎言，他就会一直活在自己的谎言之中，而无法开启修行。因为习惯说谎的人通常都很难意识到自己在说谎。很多人从不认为自己会说谎，他们甚至会认为自己无比坦诚，因为谎言已经成为他们的生活，他们已经完全相信自己所说的东西。他们活在自己给自己制造的幻觉里。假如你揭开他的伪装，会让他怒不可遏。如果一个人习惯性地不诚实习惯性地自欺，他就会活在自己制造的自我幻象里。这是建立在幻象上的幻象。刚才开篇我们说过，所有的生命都活在自己制造的幻象里，但是即便是这些幻像，也有好的幻像和不好的幻像之分。在那些好的幻象里，我们认为有佛，认为有轮回有涅槃，认为有证悟，认为有伟大的老师，认为通过修行可以去除我们的染污，从而达到证悟。这些是好的幻象。假如你有更大的福德，你就能领悟即便是成佛证悟也都是幻象。但是假如你有不好的业力，你就会有不好的幻像。在不好的幻像里，你会认为没有人是可以信赖的，没有圣者，没有解脱，你会认为每个人都是一样的自私，只是有些人更会伪装而已。所以那些宗教都是糊弄鬼的。你会认为人只能活几十年、因此一定要要努力挣钱，好好享受人生，只有攥到手里的才是你的。你会认为世界是真实的存在，从你的羔羊皮手套到你的500平大平层，都无比真实。虽然你听闻很多次过空性教授，接受过所谓的大圆满灌顶，但这丝毫不能撼动你的认知，你依然认为世界坚实如故。这是不好的幻像。有些活在这种不好的幻象里的人不幸成为了佛教徒，更不幸的是，他们坚定地认为自己做的那些叫修行。虽然他们去过很多圣地，见过很多大师，接受过很多教法，也一直都在修行，但是他们内心深处的真实观念其实一直都没有改变过——他们甚至都不知道自己的真实观念是什么。——教法从未撼动过他们的观念，他们依然在按照旧有的习气生活修行，在按照旧有的观念取舍抉择，他们只是做了一些貌似修行的行为，但其实内心的真实观念一直都保存完整，所以他们在佛法上所做的一切最后都不可避免会沦为自我证明和自我保护。

为了自我保护，为了自我证明，为了攫取更多的好处，我们学会了说谎，学会了对所有人都不诚实。我们不但对别人说谎，也对自己说谎。我们需要谎言，因为只有谎言才能帮你维系你的自我需求、满足你的自我期许。如果一个人习惯于对别人说谎，那显示他对他人有着深深的不信任。而这可以被视为修行最大的敌人。因为无论你是修皈依还是上师瑜伽，都需要付出巨大的信任。（事实上，佛教没有哪一个修法不需要信任。）假如你要开启修行，你就必须信任你的老师，如果你不信任那个教你佛法的人，你就不可能照他说的做。你不照他说的做，你的佛法修行就无法开启。以前我见过有些人会选择自己修道，他们觉得自己不需要一个老师，虽然他们想要修行的好处，但他们却不愿意因此失去自由，他们不想让别人来决定自己应该什么时候起床。他们想要自主。从深层次来讲，那是他们的自我不愿意消亡的反抗，同时也显示他们内心不相信任何人。所以不愿意把自己交给任何人。因为无法相信任何人，所以他们失去了修行解脱的机会。

大多数人选择说谎，是因为想给对方造成一种假象，想要对方认为自己是某种人，从而可以从中获利。如果你想卖给一个人一堆快要腐烂的香蕉，你会告诉他：“这些香蕉马上就要腐烂了，我想在他们腐烂之前把它卖给你，这样我的利益就不会受损。”还是会告诉他这些香蕉很新鲜。大多数人都会选择后者。因为后者能得到现实的利益。假如你选择了前者，你的香蕉大概要烂掉了。他们只能看到说谎带来的好处，而无法看到不说谎的好处。因为认为说真话无利可图，所以很多人慢慢就变成了满口谎言的人。刚才我们说了，这是修行的大敌。假如你习惯了说谎，习惯了伪装，那么在修行上你至少要面临两个问题。首先，作为一个习惯了说谎的人，你将很难分辨自己是不是在说谎。因为说谎除了欺骗他人还有自欺的效果。假如你习惯了说谎，习惯了自己所营造出来的自己，那么时间长了，你就会分不清哪些是谎言哪些是真实，你分不清哪些是自己干过的那些是自己编造的。你新制造出来的幻象和原来的幻象交织在一起，慢慢都变成了你的一部分历史。在这些自我编造的故事里，你精明又强干，从来没做错过任何事，也从不吃亏，每次遇到危险都会有神奇的力量出来拯救你。你沉浸在这些故事里，这些故事在为你的自我供餐，成为你自欺的得力助手，让你的自我能够大快朵颐。而它最大的作用就是阻碍你看见真实的自己，阻碍你发掘自己的问题。这里我们所说的“真实的自己”仍然是幻象，但是它属于那种好的幻像。具有极大福德的人才会有这种好的幻象。在好的幻象里，你对自己有着清晰的认知。这意味你对自己有着正确的定位，你知道自己会犯错，知道自己的短板，当你说谎的时候，你能知道自己在说谎，并且会为此感到不安和纠结。在好的幻象里，你相信上师，相信他的教法，你不遮盖自己的问题，也愿意依照上师教言慢慢改正。你知道自己需要他的帮助，也愿意为此牺牲很多自由。这是好的幻象。相对于这样的人，那些被不好的幻像包裹的人，他们很难冲破自己制造的重重阻碍看到真实的自己。因为习惯了自我所塑造的形象，这让他们很难直视真实的自己。事实上，他们也从未审视过真实的自己。他们对真实的自己很陌生。如果你给他一面镜子，他不会觉得镜子里面的人是自己。如果你指出他的问题，他会觉得受到了羞辱。他觉得你说的那个怪物不是自己。自己是如此美丽聪慧。怎么可能是这个样子？对于那些习惯了自我欺骗而又无法认清自己真实状态的人而言，老师的直言不讳无异于一种攻击。他们早已习惯了谎言，真话对他们而言是一种严重的冒犯。对于这类人，直接让他们看自己真实的样子或许不是个好主意，所以你不能直接把镜子拿给他，那会导致他们逃跑或是恼羞成怒。基本上，遇到这样的人，如果你给他一面镜子，你不要指望他们会感激你。如果他们比较愚蠢，他们��会对你生起嗔恨。——因为那不比锯掉他们的腿更舒服。——而大多数人愚蠢的概率远比聪明要大的多。如果他们生起嗔恨，他们就会得到一个他们最不想要的结果。而这就是不诚实所带给他们的。

当你习惯了不诚实，你的修行就无法展开。你只能在自我所允许的范围内修行，所以你的修行绝对不会伤及自我。如果你幸运的话，你会一辈子这样修行。但是如果有一天你的老师突然闯进了自我的警戒线，踩到了你的尾巴，自我就会应激，最后你会把一切都搞砸。

不诚实还会带来另外一个问题，那就是你会欺哄老师，你会和他斗智斗勇，会和他玩心眼，会试图蒙骗他。在修行上，这等于是自掘坟墓。你也许觉得不会有人蠢到挖一个坑然后躺进坑里朝自己头上来一枪。但是我见过很多这样的人。他们经常会这么干。在修行上，欺骗老师就像是欺骗医生，你告诉医生自己已经按时吃药了而实际上你根本没有吃。佛法老师会给你开出药方，但是你必须自己吃药，假如你没有吃，也不会有人跑出来冲你咆哮。修行是自己监督自己，自己纠正自己，自己管着自己。在修行上没有人能看着你，只有你自己能看着自己。没有人知道你身上发生的事，没有人知道你的起心动念，没有人知道你的贪嗔痴，只有你自己知道。所以，如果你自己不挖掘，就没有人能帮你挖掘，没有人能替代你，帮你捕捉你的贪嗔痴，帮你找到贪嗔痴的源头。只有你自己能做这些事。但你不能指望一个活在自我的迷梦里习惯了自己的完美的人去做这些事。他们完全不具备这种能力。他们的修行只有日常的念诵和修持，绝对不包括观察分析自己这一项。他们觉得做这些念诵和修持就是修行。有很多这样的修行者，他们从未进行过真正的修行，但是因为他们做了很多表面的修持，所以他们认为自己在修行；他们也从未听懂过上师的话，但是他们会认为自己听懂了；他们也没真正能执行过上师教言，但是他们会认为自己执行了。这就像是你以为自己吃了药其实却没吃一样。有些欺骗是有意为之，像这样的欺骗虽然客观上不是有意为之但是仍旧是欺骗，欺骗者可能都不知道自己在欺骗老师。但这仍旧是一种欺骗。这种欺骗比有意欺骗更难被发现，因此也更不容易被纠正。所以，如果你对自己诚实的话，你应该知道这是每天都在发生的事，每天你都在欺骗自己或是欺骗老师。但是很少有哪位老师会有兴致戳破你的假面具。他们不会戳破你，一方面是因为这样做毫无意义，你不会因此感激涕零，更不会改变，你只会恚怒，他又何苦得罪你呢？另一方面是因为大多数老师都很忙，他们不可能把时间花在你一个人身上。修行很多时候就像是自助餐，假如你不想吃的话，餐厅的老板绝不会跑出来责怪你为何不吃。即便对方知道你是在自欺，知道你是在表演，他们也会假装不知道。所以，很多人虽然有老师，但是却没有真正意义上的修行，究其原因就是因为他沉浸在严重的自欺之中。很少有老师会愿意冒着风险去打破你的迷梦。通常那不会有好结果。所以，这样的人连正常的坦诚沟通都不可能，又如何能让他开始真正的修行。

在最初的时候，你要和老师建立正常的沟通渠道，你要相信你的老师，要认真听他讲话，要把他的话的意思搞懂。这是你要做的第一件事。但是这很难。因为我们都习惯了自我保护，习惯了以假面示人，习惯了把自己最好的一面拿给别人看。所以你不会喜欢把自己的伤口拿出来展览。一般来说，老师和学生之间需要很长时间才能建立信任。而且即便我们建立了某种程度的信任，这种信任是否真的牢不可破也很难说。我见过的一些人，他们在某些时候，在蜜月期，在鞭子没抽到自己身上的时候，他们是很有信心和感情的。他们也很乐于见到米勒日巴式的事情发生在别的学生身上。这样的事甚至会增强他们的信心——因为打的不是他们。但是假如有一天鞭子真的抽到他们身上就不一样了。有些人或许能忍耐一时，但却无法一直坚持下去。因为他们习惯了自欺，习惯了喂食自我，习惯了自我带来的好处，他们从未真正认识到自我带给他的问题。在内心深处，他们依然珍爱自我。这让他们最多只能支撑一会儿。自我能忍受一时的饥馑和痛扁，但却无法一直忍受下去。他们还没有给自我断粮的习惯。在尚能忍受的时候，他们会自我欺骗（连这件事上他们都会自欺，），他们会骗自己说自己能知道这是为自己好，会告诉自己修行就是这样的。所以他们会短暂地产生一种自己可以挺过去的错觉，但是错觉终究是错觉，到了某个时候，到了他们忍受不了魔障大爆发的时候，他们就会完蛋了。所以即便是那些宣称已经习惯了上师直截了当风格的人，有些时候也会突然暴走，会突然之间承受不了。那是因为在内心深处，他们从未把自我真正当成过敌人。虽然他们嘴上和自我势不两立，但是一旦自我遭遇打击，他们最终还是会站到自我那里。这就是自欺的后果。也因为自欺的缘故，他们不知道自己真正的的承受力。所以，他们能自欺一时，却无法一直伪装下去。

一个习惯以假面示人的人，很难让自己卸下伪装，同样的，一个习惯了说谎的人，也很难让自己不说谎。即便他们下定决心要坦诚相见，但那可能只是另一种更精致的伪装和表演。他们很难习惯坦诚，就像是习惯了穿衣服的人无法习惯不穿衣服一样。但是修行不是做生意，不是谈恋爱，不是交朋友。上师既不是你的客户，也不是你的爱人，更不是你的老板。但是很多人会把他们对付客户对付男朋友那一套拿出来。真正的证悟者是一个完全无伪的人，他们大概不像你的男朋友那样容易糊弄。假如他们很有善巧的话，他们大概会看着你表演而不戳穿。这让你误以为自己的方法奏效了。然后你就会继续这么做，继续维持这种虚假的师徒关系。所以，真正的沟通只会发生在完全信任的师徒关系中，假如你习惯于作伪，你的老师就无法真正和你沟通，他最多只能扔给你一些教法，让你去修。而那些教法灌顶只是一些让你不至于跑掉的东西，跟真正的修行无关。可悲的是，大多数人会认为这就是真正的修行，他们会停滞在这个层面的修行，一辈子都无法进入真正的修行。根本原因就在于他们习惯于谎言和自欺。

不管你是在听受《大圆满前行引导文》还是十善业道经，或是任何教法，都有个前提，那就是你必须诚实的对待自他，你的听闻才会有用。假如你不是个诚实的人，你就无法发现自己真实的见解。缺乏洞察内心的习惯，你很难发现自己的价值观和你听到的教法其实是相左的，很难发现它们之间的冲突，更加无法用教法对照自己。很多人听闻佛法只是增加了一些知识，自欺让他无法察觉自己的真实观念其实和教法是完全相反的，这样他就没有理由去挖掘审视破坏自己现有的价值观，他的价值观就会一直矗立在那里。这就是很多人听了很多年佛法却完全无法改变内心的原因。他们生活在短视频、宠物经济和情绪价值满天飞的时代，上的是帝国理工学院，但是他们却认为自己的观念和佛陀讲的东西毫无冲突。这相当幽默。那些不诚实的人，他们甚至都无法忏悔。对自己不诚实的人最擅长做的就是为自己辩护，他们会将自己所有的错误都无罪化合理化。在他们所营造的自我幻象里，错误是无法生存的东西。他们的世界里不需要错误，也不接受任何错误指责。这些都是不好的幻像所带给你的。

我们所经历的一切都是幻象，无论是佛法修持，蒸汽眼罩、业力、中观，还是谎言与真实，这些全都是幻象。但是虽然它们都是幻象，却依然很重要，因为我们所能依托的只有幻象（它就像是断腿人的拐杖）。对于生活在幻象里的我们来说，这是唯一能使用的方法。

所以，我们要在幻象里修行，用幻象来替代幻象，用幻象来阻隔幻象，最后用幻象来摧毁幻象，而摧毁幻象的最好方法就是证悟它的如幻本质。

灵山居士写于2025年2月18日。首发于2025年2月21日。

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gunsangdema-blog · 4 months ago

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Lingshan Hermit: You Better Pray That Your Dentist, Your Pilot, and Everyone Else Don't Believe This Statement

The most terrifying people in this world are not the Hungarian Blood Countess who killed over 600 young girls, not the warmonger Timur, nor the Colombian drug lords, but those devil's advocates disguised as scholars and intellectuals. These devil's advocates appear as those who help you break free from constraints, yet they can easily destroy the foundations of your existence and lead your life toward hell.

In recent years, people have been saying that the world is just a shoddy operation, everyone is just getting by, so there's really no need to take things so seriously. Those who emphasize that the world is a shoddy operation are subconsciously trying to justify their own mistakes and lack of effort, but they are also acting as messengers of the demon king. The demon king is using this statement to destroy humanity's last enthusiasm and your only sense of responsibility. With just this one statement, he can make you lose many things, make you achieve nothing, and make the world unrecognizable.

Previously, you would admire certain people, admire their abilities, and strive to reach their heights. But now they've lost their halo in your eyes. You begin to think that everyone just appears polished on the surface, everyone is just getting by, and actually, everyone is equally flawed behind the scenes. Those who appear professional are actually quite ordinary. They're just pretending to be profound. So, you should relax, don't need to take everything so seriously, don't need to try so hard – being mediocre is good enough.

When you believe such statements, you become increasingly perfunctory. You become perfunctory with small matters, then with big matters, eventually with everything. You go through the motions, stop putting your heart into things, and after a long time, you become unable to be earnest even if you want to be. In the end, you can't do anything well. This is exactly what the demon king wants.

Many people I've met can't accomplish anything because they can't be serious and focused about anything. This happens because they've long been influenced by a culture that considers itself extremely clever. Therefore, they lack earnestness, focus, and passion, don't trust anyone, and have no faith at all. I'm not saying they don't believe in Taoism or Jesus – they believe in nothing. If a person believes in nothing, they have no life goals. They don't believe in emotions, enlightenment, liberation, or even worldly beauty. They're like soulless people who, although still alive, still working, walking, doing things, and eating, have the mentality of dead pigs. They lack passion for everything they do, everything is just going through the motions. This makes them the worst kind of people.

Such people – don't expect them to polish their shoes until they shine; some won't even change their bed sheets. You might think this isn't important, but it is. Because the same attitude extends to their spiritual practice – in practice, they'll be the kind who don't polish their shoes, don't change their sheets, don't brush their teeth. And one of the most essential qualities for spiritual practice is self-discipline. A person who can live with garbage and flies without bathing or changing sheets similarly won't feel uneasy about their mistakes.

Such people have been influenced by this self-proclaimed clever culture for too long. They can no longer believe in anything and lack motivation for everything. Even if they try hard to make themselves believe, try hard to have faith, it still doesn't work – like trying to make a corpse stand up, it falls down as soon as you let go. Everything becomes just going through the motions. Therefore, failure is their inevitable destiny.

But I've also seen some people who, although influenced by the same culture, seem to be very emotional and confident, and they even show self-discipline. At first, I was puzzled – it was like seeing rose flowers growing from potato seeds. Later, I gradually discovered they were pretending. Although these people also believe in nothing, they are very good at disguising themselves. They observe others' reactions, have received higher education, so they're best at making their selfishness appear as selflessness. They know what they want and what others want, know how to satisfy everyone's ego, so they pretend to have confidence, pretend to have feelings, pretend to believe in enlightenment and karma. This pretense can deceive many people, including themselves. But even the most elaborate disguise will eventually collapse. Moreover, pretending to have what you don't have is the beginning of many evils. Such people might appear to be perfect disciples, but they are actually the worst kind.

If we all believed this statement, believed that the world is a shoddy operation, believed that everyone is just polished on the surface, it would mean your trust system begins to collapse. You begin to view everything with skepticism, and once you view the world with skepticism, it's hard to go back. All virtues and teachings become words of deception to you. The world will change because of this – you'll find fingernails in your milk tea, elevators will fall from heights, your room will become too dirty to step in, trains will derail, bridges will collapse, you won't be able to love or be loved, you can't trust anyone, you can't face yourself, let alone change yourself. This is the profound impact this statement brings us.

So you better pray that your dentist, your pilot, and everyone else don't believe this statement. If humans thousands of years ago had believed this statement, you probably wouldn't have air conditioning to enjoy, bicycles to ride, ice cream to eat, there wouldn't be the exquisite murals of Fahai Temple, Monet's Water Lilies, no one would have written "A Song of Ice and Fire," and there would be no enlightened ones. There have always been some people in this world who are the force driving the world forward. They believe in their own efforts and believe there are many others who work as hard as they do. Their existence and what they've left behind are the strongest response to this statement.

Written by Lingshan Hermit on February 12, 2025

First published on February 14, 2025

灵山居士：你最好祈祷给你拔牙的大夫你坐的航班的驾驶员以及所有人都不相信这句话

这个世界上最可怕的人，不是杀了600多个少女的匈牙利血腥女伯爵，不是战争狂人帖木儿，也不是哥伦比亚毒枭，而是那些伪装成学者知识分子的魔鬼代言人。那些魔鬼代言人，他们都是以帮你解缚的面目出现的，他们很轻松就能毁掉你赖以生存的东西，让你的生活走向地狱。这几年一直有人在说，世界就是个草台班子，每个人都是在混日子，所以真的没必要那么认真。那些强调世界是草台班子的人，潜意识里大概是在为自己的错误和不努力开脱，但是他们同时也在充当着魔王的信使，魔王在借这句话毁掉人类最后的热情，毁掉你仅有的责任心，他只需用这么一句话，就能让你失去很多东西，就能让你变得一事无成，就能让世界变得面目全非。以前你会仰慕一些人，你会倾慕他的能力，会努力想要达到他的高度。而现在他在你眼里已经失去了光环，你开始觉得每个人都是表面光鲜，每个人都是在混日子，其实背地里大家都是一样的烂。那些看起来很专业的人其实水平也很一般。他们只是在故作高深而已。所以，你应该放松点，不需要每件事都那么认真，也不需要那么努力，差不多就可以了。当你相信了这样的说法，你就会越来越敷衍，小事敷衍，大事也开始敷衍，每件事你都开始敷衍，都开始走过场，每件事都不用心，时间久了，你就不会用心了，即便之后你再想要用心也做不到了，到最后你就会什么事都做不好。这就是魔王想要的结果。我见过的很多人，他们之所以最后什么事都做不成就是因为他们什么事都无法认真专注，而他们之所以会这样是因为他们长期受到一种自以为精明无比的文化的影响，所以他们不会用心、不会专注、没有热情，也不相信任何人，更没有任何信仰。我不是说他们不信仰道教或是耶稣，他们是什么都不信。如果一个人什么都不信，他就没有人生目标。他不相信感情，不相信证悟，不相信有解脱，连世俗的美好都不相信，他们就像是被抽离了灵魂的人，虽然还活着，虽然还在上班走路做事吃饭，但却是一种死猪的心态。他们干什么都没有热情，干什么都是走过场。这让他们成为最糟糕的人。像这样的人，你不要指望他们会把自己的皮鞋擦得锃亮，他们有的人甚至连床单都不会换。你可能觉得这不重要，但是这很重要。因为同样的态度也会延伸到你的修行上，在修行上他们也会是那种不擦皮鞋不换床单不刷牙的人。而修行最需要的品质之一就是自律。一个能不洗澡不换床单能和垃圾苍蝇生活在一起的人同样也不会对自己所犯的错误感到不安。像这样的人，他们被这种自以为精明无比的文化影响的太久，已经无法相信任何东西，做任何事情都缺乏动力，即便他们努力想让自己相信，努力想要让自己有，但也还是不行——就像是你努力想扶尸体站起来，你一松手，他就会倒下一样。——最后都会变成走过场。所以，失败是他们必然的命运。但是我也见过有一些人虽然他们也是被这样的文化影响，但是他表现的似乎很有感情很有信心，他们甚至还会很自律。开始的时候我有点疑惑——这就像是看到土豆的种子长出了玫瑰花。后来我慢慢发现他们是在假装，这类人虽然也是什么都不信，但他们非常善于伪装，他们会察言观色，还受过高等教育，所以他们最擅长的就是把自己的自私表现的像是无私，他们知道自己想要什么，也知道别人想要什么，知道如何满足每个人的自我，所以他们会假装自己有信心，假装自己有感情，假装相信证悟，相信因果。这种假装能欺骗很多人，包括他们自己。但是再精致的伪装到了最后都会崩塌。而且假装自己具有自己所没有的东西是很多罪恶的开端。这样的人看上去几乎像是个完美的弟子，但实际上却是最糟糕的那种。

如果我们每个人都相信了这句话，相信了世界是个草台班子，相信了所有人都是表面光鲜，那意味着你的信任体系开始崩塌，你开始以怀疑的眼光看待一切，一旦你以怀疑的眼光看待世界，你就很难再回到过去，所有的美德所有教言在你这里都会变成欺骗之词。世界会因此而改变，你会从奶茶里喝出指甲，电梯会从高处坠落，你的房间会脏到无法下脚，火车会出轨大桥会坍塌，你无法爱人也无法被爱，你对谁都无法信任，你无法正视自己，更无法改变自己，这就是这句话所带给我们的深刻影响。所以你最好祈祷给你拔牙的大夫你坐的航班的驾驶员以及所有人都不相信这句话。如果几千年前的人类相信了这句话，你大概不会有空调吹，不会有自行车用，不会有冰淇淋吃，不会有法海寺精美绝伦的壁画，不会有莫奈的睡莲，不会有人写出《冰与火之歌》，也不会有证悟者。这个世界一直都存在着一些人，他们是推动世界的力量。他们相信自己的努力，也相信有很多和他们一样努力的人。他们的存在和留下的东西是对这句话最有力的回应。

灵山居士写于2025年2月12日，首发于2025年2月14日。

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gunsangdema-blog · 5 months ago

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Lingshan Hermit: As Long as Someone Remains in This Stage, They Haven't Even Touched the Edge of True Spiritual Practice

One day, I saw a video on social media of a fully adorned yogi performing rituals. His mudras were very fluid, his recitations were perfectly standard, and he held the vajra bell and dorje with proper form. Those unfamiliar with Buddhism might find such a person very professional, but I feel largely indifferent to such displays. I've seen many people like this - they consider themselves professional practitioners, spending their days collecting various empowerments and ritual texts, focusing on how to hold ritual implements and form mudras correctly, worrying about whether their pronunciation is standard, and concerning themselves with how many Buddhist masters they know and how many deity mantras they've recited. Some can recite entire texts in Tibetan, knowing every detail of a ritual from beginning to end - when to perform purification, when to beat the drum, which mudras to make while chanting, and the key points of meditation. These are their primary concerns, and they believe mastering these elements means they've mastered Buddhism. However, they don't know who their real enemy is, don't understand their true state of mind, and are unaware of how many thoughts of desire arise in their minds every minute. Thus, they are merely Buddhist craftsmen familiar with ritual procedures, not true practitioners.

Previously, someone sent me a photo of a custom-made statue of Guru Rinpoche commissioned by a famous actor. This statue was quite unique, with colors and postures quite different from the familiar representations of Guru Rinpoche. Many people would naturally assume that this unusual representation of Guru Rinpoche possessed more power than ordinary ones. If you have such thoughts, it shows you're still stuck in the amateur understanding that "dharma practices alone determine spiritual results" or that "certain practices are superior to others and make it easier to achieve enlightenment." Most practitioners actually share this kind of thinking.

Years ago, someone told me that circumambulating Mount Kailash once could purify the karma of an entire lifetime. Another person said that seeing the Mahāmāyā mandala would guarantee enlightenment within seven lifetimes. I'm not certain whether they truly have such powerful effects. Perhaps they do. However, in Buddhist teachings, these are all external forces, and even if they have effects, those effects would be very limited. If you lack the ability to observe, analyze, and examine yourself, if you haven't developed the habit of being honest with yourself and others, if you haven't recognized that your long-held values have been wrong, you will forever remain outside true practice. No mandala or blessed object can defeat your habitual patterns and self-righteousness. These are at most conveniences for beginners, not much different from copying sutras with a brush. The same applies to dharma practices - they too are external forces. Even the most supreme practices cannot produce good results without being accompanied by a great spirit and genuine capacity for self-reflection. True spiritual practice is an extremely complex matter, requiring long-term interaction and communication between master and disciple - a prolonged tug-of-war. If a human teacher who can drive, speak, and fix computers still struggles with your habitual patterns and self-righteousness, what can inanimate objects do? Can they make you lose face and break down internally? Can they tell you your previous understanding was all wrong? Can they order you to call your boss at 2 AM to say good morning? Only a living teacher can do these things to you. Only a living teacher can deliver unexpected blows, and only unexpected blows can affect your habitual patterns. However, it must be noted: all of this must be based on the premise that you know they want to help you achieve realization and that you fully accept this kind of training. Otherwise, realization is impossible - only aversion will result.

So if you think that circumambulating Mount Kailash, receiving a special empowerment, or spending a month with others at Bodh Gaya can change habitual patterns developed over countless eons, you probably have never appreciated the immense power of human habits or understood how difficult it is to change a person's inherent cognition, which is why you have such romantic notions. Therefore, as long as you haven't learned to observe your own faults, haven't learned to be honest with yourself and others, haven't learned to truly follow the teachings, haven't identified who your real enemy is, haven't recognized that these external things can't change much, as long as you're still fascinated by the effects of dharma practices and believe that obtaining certain teachings or key instructions will lead to certain results - even if Shakyamuni Buddha himself were teaching you, you would still be an amateur in spiritual practice. You might master ritual procedures and mandala arrangements but still not understand practice at all. You don't know what practice is, nor how to begin true practice. Although you appear professional, with full professional attire, you still can't hide your amateur nature. Over these many years, I often see people discussing the supremacy of dharma practices and the greatness of teachers, but rarely see anyone discuss the hard work of battling the "self," their true values, or what they really want. They probably have never examined their own souls, much less had the courage to face themselves directly. As long as someone remains in this stage, they haven't even touched the edge of true spiritual practice.

Written by Lingshan Hermit on December 8, 2024, first published on December 11, 2024.

灵山居士：只要一个人还处在这样的阶段，那他就还没有摸到修行的边儿。

有一天，我在某社交媒体上看到一个全套披挂的瑜伽士修法的视频，他的手印做的非常流畅，念诵也非常标准，铃杵也拿的有模有样，不懂佛法的人大概会觉得他这样的人很专业，但我对这样的人基本无感。因为我见过很多这样的人，他们都认为自己是很专业的修行人，每天关心的都是收集各种灌顶和法本，关心的是铃杵该怎么拿手印该怎么做，关心的是自己的发音标不标准，关心的是自己认识多少佛教大佬念了多少本尊咒。他们中有人可以用藏文念诵法本全文，他们知道一座法从头到尾的所有细节，知道何时洒净、何时摇鼓，知道念咒时作何手印，知道安住的窍诀，他们关心的都是这些，他们以为学会了这些就是学会了佛法。但是他们却不知道自己真正的敌人是谁，不知道自己真实的状态是什么样，更不知道自己一分钟生起了多少个贪念，所以他们是熟悉修法流程的佛法匠人，而非真正的修行者。

之前有人给我发了一张照片，照片内容是某位名演员所定制的莲师像，这尊像很特别，和大家熟悉的莲师颜色姿态都有很大差异，所以，很多人会想当然地认为这个从没见过的莲师比一般莲师更具威力。假如你有这样的想法，说明你还停留在“法可以决定修行结果”或“某些法比另一些法更殊胜更容易成佛”这样的外行认知里。大多数修行者其实都是这样的认知。

多年以前有人跟我说，去冈任波且转山一次可以清净一生的业障。还有人跟我说看到大幻化网坛城七世内必定成佛，我不确定它们是否真的有这么强大的作用。也许它们真的有这种效力。但是在佛教教法里，这些都是外力，即便是有作用作用也会非常有限。假如你没有观察分析审视自己的能力，没有对自他诚实的习惯，没有认识到自己一直以来的价值观都是错的，你就永远只能在修行之外打转。任何坛城加持物也不可能击溃你的习气和自以为是。那些最多只是一种针对初学的方便，和用毛笔抄写佛经差别不大。其实法也是一样，法也是外力。再殊胜的法，如果没有辅以伟大的灵魂和真正的审思能力，也不可能修出好的结果。真正的修行是非常复杂的事，需要师徒长期的互动和沟通、需要长期的拉锯战。一个会开车会说话会修电脑的人类老师面对你的习气和自以为是尚且要头痛要拉锯战，何况是不会说话的物件。它能对你做什么？能让你颜面全失内心崩溃吗？能告诉你你刚才的理解都是错的吗？能命令你凌晨两点给老板打电话说早上好吗？这些都是活生生的老师才能对你做的。只有活生生的老师才能对你进行猝不及防的打击，也只有猝不及防的打击才能对你的习气起作用。但是需要提醒的是：这一切的发生都必须建立在你知道他是想要让你证悟而你也完全接受这种调教的前提下。否则不可能有证悟发生，只能会是憎恶。

所以如果你认为去冈任波且转转山或是得到一个特殊灌顶或是去菩提迦耶和大众一起呆一个月就能改变无始劫以来的习气，你大概是从未领略过人类习气的强大程度、不知道改变一个人的固有认知有多难，所以才会有这种浪漫的想法。所以，只要你还没学会观自己的过失，没有学会对自他诚实，没有学会真正依教奉行，没有认清自己的敌人是谁，没有认识到这些外在的东西改变不了什么，只要你还在迷恋法的作用，还在以为得到某些法某些窍诀就能如何如何，就算是释迦牟尼在亲自教你，你也还是个修行的外行。你可能精通修法仪轨坛城布置但是却丝毫不懂修行。你不知道修行是什么，也不知道如何开始真正的修行。虽然你看上去很专业，有着全套的专业披挂，却依然不能掩饰你外行的本质。这么多年，我经常能看见有人谈论法的殊胜，谈论老师的殊胜，但是却鲜少看见有人谈一下和“自我”作战的辛劳，谈一下自己真实的价值观，谈一下自己真正想要的到底是什么。他们大概从来没有审视过自己的灵魂，更加没有直面自己的勇气。只要一个人还处在这样的阶段，那他就还没有摸到修行的边儿。

灵山居士写于2024年12月8日，首发于2024年12月11日。

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gunsangdema-blog · 5 months ago

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Lingshan Hermit: What Is Your True Protection?

For a long time to come, many of you will live in less than ideal circumstances. You will face many challenges, such as being unable to get coffee, separation from loved ones, illness, or having no one to rely on. Life is not easy for anyone, but this is not a reason to harm others. On the contrary, at times like these, you should maintain kindness and clarity, helping yourself and others. Harming others might bring temporary gains, but it will cost you your entire future.

Northern Song Dynasty Neo-Confucian philosopher Cheng Yi said: "Death from starvation is a small matter, but the loss of moral integrity is a great one." Today, most people would dismiss such a notion. However, if the six realms of existence are real, then in certain circumstances, this viewpoint is correct. If you start crossing certain lines, begin doing evil, and start tasting its sweetness, you won't be able to stop. You'll progress from minor evils to major ones, doing many terrible things until destruction. But destruction is not the end; it's just the beginning of an even more terrible nightmare.

Sometimes when I look at certain people, I think it would actually be better for them if their karma caused them to die earlier – departing while their souls are still clean, before they begin doing evil, would lead to a better next life. But they have unfavorable karma that gives them sufficient ability and lifespan to harm others. If you have good karma and merit, they will prevent such situations from arising. But ultimately, what stops you will always be your right view.

In the future, many people will shed their disguises and bare their fangs, because that is their true nature. The right views they speak of are merely lip service, never truly taken to heart. But those whose right views are deeply rooted in their hearts will never be like this. Even when facing various adversities, they will not make deals with the devil. They would rather choose death than choose evil. In fact, when you choose not to do evil, all doors of fortune will begin to open for you. Therefore, this is your greatest protection.

Written by Lingshan Hermit on December 12, 2024, first published on December 13, 2024.

灵山居士：什么才是你真正的保障

在之后很长的一段时间里，你们很多人都会生活在不如意之中。你会面临很多问题，诸如喝不到咖啡、离散、疾病或是无人可依。每个人的生活都不易，但这不是你伤害别人的理由，恰恰相反，在这样的时候你更应该保持善良和清醒，帮助自己和他人，伤害他人或许会让你一时得利，但却会让你失去所有的未来。北宋理学家程颐说：饿死事小、失节事大。在今天大多数人会对这样的观念不屑一顾。但是假如六道是真实的存在，那么在某些时候，这样的观点就是正确的。假如你开始越过某些线、开始作恶，并且开始尝到作恶的甜头，你就会无法止住，你会从小恶到大恶，你会做很多可怕的事，直至毁灭。但毁灭并非终点，只是更可怕噩梦的开始。有时候我看一些人，如果他们的业力让他们早点死去，其实对他们会更好，在开始作恶之前、在灵魂尚且干净的时候离开，��有一个更好的来世。但是他们有很不好的业，这让他们有足够的能力和寿命伤害他人，如果你有好的业力和功德，它们会阻止你出现这样的情况。但最终能阻止你的永远是你的正见。在未来，有很多人会褪下伪装，露出獠牙，因为那才是他们真正的样子，平时他们挂在嘴上的正见只是挂在嘴上而已，从未真正入过心，而那些正见根植于心的人则永远不会这样。即使他们面临各种逆境，也不会选择和魔鬼交易。他们宁愿选择死去也不选择作恶。事实上，当你选择了不作恶，所有的幸运之门都会开始向你敞开。所以，这才是你最大的保障。

灵山居士写于2024年12月12日，首发于2024年12月13日。

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gunsangdema-blog · 5 months ago

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Lingshan Hermit: Have You Ever Thought About What All Sentient Beings Are Really Like?

A few days ago, I watched Hugh Grant's new movie about two church girls who encounter danger while preaching at a stranger's house. It's a horror film, but that's not the point. While watching, I kept thinking how simple their work was: they just needed to knock on doors with leaflets and invite people to church on weekends. In comparison, Buddhism is much more complex. Mahayana Buddhism is particularly complex compared to Hinayana Buddhism because it must confront the "self" of all sentient beings.

As Mahayana Buddhists, we vow to help all sentient beings achieve enlightenment, but have you ever thought about who these sentient beings are? Where are they? What have they experienced? What are their values, thoughts, and peculiarities? Are they willing to listen to you? And what kind of beings are they really?

Right now, just beyond your wall, a female neighbor is fretting over dozens of missed calls from her boyfriends on her phone. She just woke up and needs to take her son to kindergarten soon, then go downtown for errands, and later work as a hostess at night. She struggles to get up, nursing a hangover while brushing her teeth, examining her dark eye circles, and trying to perfect her lies. Thousands of miles away, someone works as a lawyer while dating multiple men, finding ultimate pleasure in different men's suffocating embrace each night, believing in and pursuing only such tangible pleasures. Some have written dozens of bestsellers, some own half of Hong Kong's wealth, some have hundreds of thousands of employees. Would such people listen to you? Even beggars can feel invincible nowadays, let alone these people. They might be polite and pretend to listen, but usually, such people don't really hear others because they're too confident in themselves. They're more accustomed to being commanders.

These people are all part of what we call "all sentient beings." All sentient beings include psychopathic killers, internet streamers, Princeton professors, battle-hardened lawyers with quick minds who excel at finding logical loopholes, people like John Hopfield, J.K. Rowling, and Musk. Of course, this includes your mother - they're all people brimming with self-confidence. About your mother - are you sure you can convince her? Or do you even want to convince her? Perhaps you'd feel more confident about converting Jack the Ripper to Buddhism than her.

This world has many beings with countless bizarre thoughts and habits. Some don't wear socks, some enjoy being whipped, some talk to themselves, some like smelling rotten apples. Strangely, whether rich or poor, whether three or thirty years old, whether a Nobel laureate or someone who only completed third grade or an extreme feminist, everyone firmly believes their thoughts are correct. If you tell them, "All your beliefs are wrong," your relationship ends, and you become their enemy. There are billions of such humans on Earth alone (not counting animals).

So, are you prepared? Your vow is to help all these beings achieve enlightenment, meaning you must guide them from their current state to awakening. Think about what kind of project this is. These people - some like smelling between others' toes, some enjoy fermented herring, some believe all religions are scams. You need to make them listen to you, convince them, inspire their faith, get them to meditate, help them gain experience, and ultimately lead them to enlightenment. You must face countless mental barriers, confront the world's most rigid things, battle with the "self" of both the world's smartest and most foolish people, find ways to open their hearts, make them listen, and begin practicing. This is far more challenging than just handing out leaflets. It's the world's most challenging and greatest project. And this is exactly what your teacher is currently doing with you.

Written by Lingshan Hermit on December 16, 2024. First published on December 17, 2024.

灵山居士：你有没有想过一切众生都是什么样的众生

前几天我看了休·格兰特的新电影，电影里讲的是两个教会少女到一个陌生男人家里传教遇险的故事。电影是个恐怖片，但是这不是重点。我看的时候一直在想她们的工作可真是简单：只是拿着宣传单敲开别人家的门邀请他们周末的时候去教堂就可以了。相比之下，佛教可就复杂多了。比起小乘佛教，大乘佛教尤为复杂，因为他所要面对的是一切众生的“自我”。

作为大乘佛教徒，我们都发愿要让一切众生成佛，但是你有没有想过一切众生都是谁？他们都在哪里？他们都经历过什么？都有着什么样的价值观想法和癖好？他们愿不愿意听你说话？以及一切众生都是什么样的众生？

就在此刻，和你一墙之隔的女邻居正看着手机上几十个男友的未接来电犯愁，她刚刚睡醒，一会儿要送儿子上幼儿园，然后去市中心办事，晚上还要出去陪酒。她挣扎着爬起身，顶着宿醉一边刷牙一边看着自己发黑的眼眶一边琢磨着待会儿怎么把谎话编的更圆。在几千里外，有人一边做律师一边在和很多男人约会，每晚都沉醉在不同男人所带来的窒息般的至乐之中，她只相信这种现实的快乐，也只想要这种快乐。有人写过几十本畅销书，有人坐拥半个香港��财富，有人有几十万员工下属，像这样的人，他们会听你讲话吗？现在连乞丐都能觉得自己不可一世，何况是这些人。可能他们会表现的很有礼貌，会假装听你讲话，但通常这样的人都不太听的进别人的话。因为他们对自己太有信心。他们更习惯做指挥者。这些人他们都属于我们所说的一切众生。一切众生包括变态杀人犯，包括网络女主播，包括普林斯顿大学教授，包括身经百战思维敏捷又善于寻找语言漏洞的律师，包括约翰·霍普菲尔德、J.K.羅琳和马斯克这样的人。当然也包括你的母亲，他们都是对自己自信满满的人。关于你的母亲，你确定你能说服她？或者，你想说服她吗？相对于她，你或许对于说服开膛手杰克皈依佛法更有信心。这个世界有很多众生，他们有着千奇百怪的想法和习惯。他们有的人不穿袜子，有的人喜欢被抽打，有的人喜欢自言自语，有的人喜欢闻烂苹果。奇怪的是，不管一个人贫穷还是富有，不管他是三岁还是三十岁，也不管他是诺贝尔奖得主还是只上过小学三年级还是极端女权主义者，每个人都坚定地认为自己的想法是对的。如果你告诉他们：“你所有观念都是错的。”你们的关系就结束了，你就成了他们的敌人。仅仅是在地球上就有着几十亿这样的人类。（还没有算上动物。）所以，你做好准备了吗？你的愿力是要让这些众生全都成佛，也就是说，你要从他们现在的状态开始引导他们直至证悟。你想想这是什么样的工程。这些人，他们有的喜欢闻别人的脚趾缝，有的喜欢鲱鱼罐头，有的人认为所有的宗教都是骗人的。你要让他们听你讲话，要说服他们，要让他们产生信心，要让他们去禅修，让他们生起体验，最终你要让他们证悟。你要面对无数心的壁垒，要面对世上最坚固的东西，和世界上最聪明的人和最笨的人的“自我”作战，你要想方设法打开他们的心，让他们听你说话，开始修行。这可远比塞几张宣传单难多了。这是世上最艰巨和最伟大的工程。而这也正是你的老师正在对你做的事。

灵山居士写于2024年12月16日。首发于2024年12月17日。

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