Rely on Yourself

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The Buddha taught that those who wish to know must realise the truth for themselves. Then it makes no difference whether others criticise or praise you., whatever you say, you will be undisturbed. If a person has no trust in himself, when someone calls him bad, he will feel he is bad accordingly. What a waste of time! If people call you bad, you must examine yourself. If they are not correct, then just ignore them. Then, if they are correct, you will have to learn from them.

In either case, why do you have to get angry over it? If you can see things this way, you will definitely be in peace. There will be nothing wrong, there will be only Dharma. If you really use the tools the Buddha had given to us, you will never envy others. Whereas, lazy people want to just listen and believe, you will be self-sufficient, able to earn your living by your own efforts.

To practice using only the resources of your own is troublesome because they are your own. You once thought practice was difficult because you were contending, grabbing at others' goods. Then the Buddha taught you to work with your own and you thought everything would be fine. Now you find that too is difficult, so the Buddha teaches you further.

If you cling and grasp at something, it does not matter whose it is. If you reach out and grab a fire in your neighbour's house, the fire will be hot; if you grab a fire in your own house, that too will be hot. So do not grab at anything.

This is how we practice, what is called the direct way. We do not content with anyone. If you bring scriptures or psychology  to argue with this, we shall not argue but instead show you the cause and effect in order to let you understand the truth of practice.

We must all learn to rely on ourselves.

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