This quote is from Master Hsuan Hua‘s commentary on the Medicine Master Sūtra.

Life is filled with suffering. There are the Three Sufferings, the Eight Sufferings, and the limitless sufferings. Mentally and physically oppressed by all these sufferings, living beings never find any peace, happiness, or comfort. These oppressive sufferings dominate their lives.

The Three Sufferings:

1. The suffering due to contact with unpleasant conditions.
2. The suffering due to the loss of pleasurable conditions.
3. The suffering due to inexorable change.

The “suffering due to contact with unpleasant conditions” means that in the midst of suffering, there is still more suffering. One has neither food, clothes, nor shelter. That’s suffering piled on top of suffering, suffering that never comes to an end.

If one does not undergo the “suffering due to contact with unpleasant conditions” that comes with poverty, one may undergo the “suffering due to the loss of pleasurable conditions” experienced by rich people when they lose all their wealth in a sudden and unexpected disaster, such as robbery, fire, or flood.

“I’m neither poor nor rich, so these two sufferings don’t apply to me,” you say.

However, you cannot escape the “suffering due to inexorable change.” From youth until the prime of life, and then on into old age and death, your thoughts flow in an unending succession. That’s known as the suffering due to inexorable change. The life process itself entails suffering.

There are also the Eight Sufferings:

1. The suffering of birth
2. The suffering of old age
3. The suffering of sickness
4. The suffering of death
5. The suffering of being apart from those you love
6. The suffering of being together with those you hate
7. The suffering of not obtaining what you seek
8. The suffering of the raging blaze of the five skandhas

Birth is a very uncomfortable experience. You feel as if you were being squeezed between two mountains. You feel as much pain as a live turtle whose shell is ripped off. After a painful birth, you gradually get old. Old age is also suffering. One by one, your organs start failing, and even simple tasks become very difficult. The pain of sickness is even harder to bear. You may moan and cry, but no one can suffer in your stead.

Such suffering is very democratic: everyone from the king down to the lowliest beggar must bear it. Even the emperor, who owns the empire and is worshipped by all-even after his death-suffers just like anyone else when he gets sick. Of course, if you don’t get sick, then it’s not a problem. If you do, then sickness treats you the same as anyone else; it’s not polite at all.

Ordinary people have deep emotional attachments. They hope their loved ones will live and their enemies will die. When two people fall in love, they forget about everything else. Like besotted fools, they are always stuck to each other, as if with Crazy Glue, and nothing can pull them apart. …

There is also the suffering of being together with those one hates. “I really detest that person,” you think. “The mere sight of him upsets me.” You wish to get away from him, but strangely enough, he follows you wherever you go and always makes a point of greeting you and working with you. You detest him, but he always hangs around you. You can’t escape him. That’s the suffering of being with those whom one hates.

Then there’s the suffering of not obtaining what you seek. When you fail to obtain what you seek, you may become so afflicted that you can’t sleep at night and you lose your appetite. You feel restless and ill at ease. That’s the suffering of not obtaining what you seek.

The worst suffering Is that of the raging blaze of the five skandhas. The five skandhas are form, feeling, thinking, formations, and consciousness. No one can leave them behind. They are so powerful that they have suffocated us and smothered our Buddha-nature. However, once we understand them, we’ll see that there’s no real substance to them. They are just like clouds drifting by. Once we “illuminate the five skandhas and see that they are all empty,” as the line from the Heart Sūtra says, then we know that “originally there was not a single thing; where can the dust alight?” (a verse from the Sixth Patriarch’s Sūtra)

This quote is from Master Hsuan Hua‘s commentary on the Medicine Master Sūtra.

Fundamentally, our tempers do not come from the food we eat, nor from heaven or earth, nor from the weather. They come from our own ignorance. Ignorance comes from selfishness, as do afflictions, indirectly. We have so much anger and affliction simply because we are afraid to suffer a loss. Not wanting to take a loss, we get mad and fight. If we did not fight, were not greedy, did not seek anything, were not selfish, and did not want to benefit ourselves, we would have no anger.

Among the Bodhisattvas, Guanyin Bodhisattva (Avalokiteśvara, Kannon) has great compassion, and if you recite his name, he will relieve your suffering and pain. He has great affinities with all beings. If you wish to strengthen your ties with Guanyin Bodhisattva, recite his name more often and let your light blend with his.

Earth Store Bodhisattva (Kṣitigarbha, Jizo) has great vows. He cannot bear to see any living being in suffering. If we recite his name, he will help us to quickly attain Buddhahood with his awe-inspiring spiritual power. Did these two Bodhisattvas place advertisements in the sūtras to promote themselves? No. The Buddha, who always speaks the truth, personally praised them and told us about their great compassion and great vows.

This quote is from Master Hsuan Hua‘s commentary on the Medicine Master Sūtra.

When we make offerings to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, we should not think that they are as greedy as we are, always hoping someone will invite them for tea or a vegetarian meal. We offer fine incense, fresh flowers, and so forth to show our sincerity, but that doesn’t mean the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas enjoy these things. They aren’t delighted if we burn incense for them, and they don’t get upset if we don’t. They don’t need any of the worldly things that people offer to them. We make such offerings only because we have no other way of showing our sincerity.

When we make offerings, we should not be like those superstitious people who light big handfuls of joss sticks in front of the Buddha. When they burn so much incense, the Buddha, who had been peacefully shining his protective light on living beings, disappears in a cloud of smoke and can’t even open his eyes. That causes him to stop shining his light and protecting people. Of course this is just my foolish conjecture about the Buddha’s state, but my point is, there’s no need to offer great big handfuls of incense to the Buddha. It would be like covering a hundred-foot-long table with food and expecting one person to eat it all.

We should light no more than three sticks of incense as an offering to the Buddha, with perhaps one more stick for the Dharma-protecting spirits, making four sticks in all. Usually, one stick of incense is enough. If you are sincere, the Bodhisattvas will protect you even if you don’t offer incense. The Buddhas will be happy as long as you are mindful of the Three Jewels and you recite the sūtras. You don’t need to light incense to make them happy.

Ordinary people dislike criticism and are fond of praise, but Buddhas are not so petty. Our common minds cannot fathom the wisdom of sages. Don’t think Buddhas are as greedy as people. Don’t be like the superstitious folk who worship in the temples, thinking, “The more money we give and the more incense we burn, the better.” They are very sure that their attitude is correct, but they can’t explain why. Now wouldn’t you say that they are muddled? Buddhists should listen to truth and wisdom and not be superstitious.

This quote is from Master Hsuan Hua‘s commentary on the Medicine Master Sūtra.

By giving, one reaps blessings. Those who were stingy in past lives are poor now, while those who were generous are now rich. It is said, “You must first give in order to get something in return. If you don’t give, you won’t get anything.” We must be clear about cause and effect. If you make even a tiny mistake in cause and effect, the consequences may be terrible. When we come to the temple to bow to the Buddhas, we should try to benefit others, not try to gain something for ourselves. We should be willing to take a loss. People who come to the temple to steal food, money, or other things will certainly fall into the three lower paths.

Be sure to tell your relatives and friends that, no matter what temple they go to, they shouldn’t go there hoping to obtain responses or bargains, or to steal things. If they do, they are creating great offenses. If you fail to tell them, then you have a share in their offenses. You should clearly explain the law of cause and effect to them, so they won’t make mistakes.

The sūtras tell us to give to others, not to constantly be seeking offerings from others. Buddhists should benefit others. Otherwise, we will only be “thieves among the virtuous.” If we constantly exploit situations and pull strings with the Dharma-protectors, we are simply creating offenses and trying to destroy Buddhism.

Hearing my advice, I hope you will wake up and quickly take stock of yourself. If you have faults, change them right away; and if you don’t, then try even harder to be a good Buddhist. Don’t be a phony Buddhist who tries to take advantage of Buddhism. Don’t be tempted to do business within Buddhism, for it will surely lead you to the hells.