Last night after finishing a phone call with my mom, combined with some of the wisdom Lukia had shared with me before, I had some insights. I wrote them down during the night and organized them this morning.
The master says: Whether you’re chanting Buddha’s name or handling affairs, always use the first thought, not the second thought.
The true first thought is not the first idea that pops into your head — that first idea is just the consciousness of human nature’s curiosity. Like how many children’s first thought upon seeing ice cream is “I want to eat it,” but eating it might give them a stomachache. The consequences aren’t necessarily something they can afford. The master explains: “More often than not, it’s greed, it’s delusion. Don’t get it wrong. The so-called first thought is seeing your original nature, it’s the outflow of your true mind, your original face. Thoughts of craving food, craving comfort all belong to the deluded mind, the greedy mind — not the true mind.”
There is a big house. In the basement of the house lives a giant dragon. It is the owner of the house, but it has been sleeping all along. The house has many servants and stewards. Under the head steward’s leadership, everyone keeps repairing and expanding the house, living their lives in perfect order. The owner has been asleep the whole time — all matters big and small are handled by the steward. As time passes, the steward mistakes himself for the owner and forgets that the true owner is sleeping. The steward is like our consciousness; the dragon is the original face (or you could say, the soul). Many people practice spiritually precisely to awaken the dragon, to recover true insight — only then can the first thought emerge.
What does this mean for ordinary people like me, walking through the mundane world, chasing enjoyment and the fruits of karma?
The Bodhisattva fears the cause; the ordinary person fears the result. People who are wise and follow their inner voice have an advantage over us when facing choices.
The power of the true inner self is immense — it transcends time and space, it is omniscient. That is what’s called true insight.
A true inner choice is planting the cause that will never make you regret — a cause that will inevitably produce a result in the future, and that result is something you can fully accept and fully take responsibility for. If you can’t bear the result, then you’ve already planted the wrong cause — and what follows will prove it wasn’t following your heart. If after planting the cause you keep wavering, frequently regret it, or even change your mind, then you haven’t figured out what your heart truly needs.
So for those of us whose wisdom hasn’t yet opened, how do we find the true inner choice?
In all things, you must first be calm before you can find what your heart truly wants. There’s still much to cultivate in daily life. A simple rule: what your true inner self wants is always an inevitable result — it doesn’t have complicated butterfly effects. Anything else — the roundabout, the unpredictable — is driven by deluded thoughts. Sometimes deluded thoughts even blind us, making us believe that some small immediate gain is what our heart truly wants.
I don’t use “deluded thoughts” as a pejorative — there’s no praise or blame, only cause and effect. Deluded thoughts arise as causes, and you get deluded results. It’s just as described above: when such results manifest, you may not be able to bear them, and they may only add to your troubles — though of course, they also accumulate experience and open up wisdom. Once you know the pain, you can learn to let go.
I live in a world of deluded thoughts, where gain and loss are impermanent, where there is joy and sorrow. Sometimes I marvel at my good luck, sometimes I feel the times are against me. Various unexpected appearances of happy or sad results often arise, and I find it fantastical and wondrous. It’s actually just like playing an online game — after reading the walkthrough and understanding all its possibilities, knowing that everything boils down to the same principle, you can still go in and play. When you get good gear, you’re happy; when your dungeon run wipes, you get flamed. There’s joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness — but at every moment you know this is just illusory appearances brought about by a bunch of data in a game. The emotions that arise are all temporary and will quickly dissipate and vanish. These too are perfectly ordinary and no big deal. Being able to know this at every moment — that brings you closer to your true inner self.
We need to explore the inner self and uncover wisdom. Being compassionate and treating others with respect will continuously enrich our life experience and increase our wisdom.