Fa-shi's, fellow cultivators, good evening. Om Mani Padme Hum. (audience applause)

Today's Kuan Yin Purification Puja is the sixth of this series of seven pujas. Tomorrow evening, we will have the seventh and completion puja. For the last several days, Kuan Yin has appeared to teach us. In the third puja, she showed us how to modulate the mind. And in the fourth puja, she taught us how to become free of desires.

Today I asked Kuan Yin how to enter into yogic union (with a Buddha). Her answer was very simple. She said, "Yogic union is having the Buddha in one's mind."

Then I asked her, "Some people claim that they can communicate with and receive dream messages from Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Are they experiencing yogic union?" I often receive letters from people telling me their psychic experiences and what happens to them during meditation. That was why I asked Kuan Yin if such phenomena could be considered yogic union.

She said, "Such experiences are not yogic union but a part of psychic perceptions. In true yogic union, there is a mutual merging of the two parties. One talks, the other also talks --- and there is an exchange of ideas between two completely equal parties. In both parties, levels, feelings, degree of luminosity, bodhicitta, and realms of realization are the same. If the two parties do not share the same views, ideas, or voices, then they are not in yogic union. The experience is only unilaterally perceived by one side."

Kuan Yin's answer was very direct. To achieve yogic union with the Buddha, one has to have the right knowledge, right view, right intent, a compassionate heart, and not complain or regret the sacrifices one makes. One serves and totally surrenders oneself to the public. One's mind is always oriented towards the right goal while providing guidance to sentient beings trapped in darkness and ignorance. To achieve yogic union, one becomes one with the Buddha. That is, having the Buddha in one's mind. In yogic union, perceptions are mutual. The two minds become one great luminous mind --- the Buddha Mind.

The so-called yogic union is in reality "oneness." In "oneness," everything is the same and without any separation or differentiation.

Therefore, as indicated by this revelation from Kuan Yin, to achieve yogic union, one has to have the mind of a Buddha. With the mind of a Buddha, one then becomes exactly the same as a Buddha and can therefore interchange and communicate equally. The Buddha's mind is filled with light, and one's mind is also filled with light. Sharing same recognition and consciousness, the two are entirely free of egotistical desires and motivations. Their minds are completely focused on the correct and flawless direction. They are forever helping and guiding ignorant beings to become liberated from emotional afflictions and transcend the cycles of transmigration.

So, in Kuan Yin's words, to attain yogic union, one has to be inseparable from the Buddha and have the Buddha's mind in one's mind. The Buddha's mind is forever compassionate and focused on the welfare of others.

Pray to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for this kind of yogic union. Invoke the Buddha's mind, energy, and light to enter into your heart. Open the lotus in your heart and constantly invoke the Buddha to take up residence in this heart lotus. Then magnify the Buddha until there is no difference between you and the Buddha. When you talk, it is the Buddha talking. When you act, it is the Buddha acting.

If you do not constantly bring the Buddha or Bodhisattva into your heart and become one with Him, then you are just an ordinary being. Then, from moment to moment, you will revert to your habitual tendencies. You will become greedy, angry, ignorant, attached, sad, hurt, and mired in all kinds of emotional afflictions. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are not like this.

In the past, when I talked about cultivation, many fellow students would say, "I don't have time. I am so busy and I have to work more than ten hours a day. I have housework and children to take care of." These are the kinds of responses I often hear.

But, as Grand Master has taught us, how can the lack of time be used as an excuse for not doing cultivation? You can cultivate while you carry out your daily chores. You can cultivate anytime and anywhere. Cultivation is not confined to the sadhana performed in front of the shrine or inside the temple. You only have to visualize the Buddha or Bodhisattva manifesting in the empty space above your crown, draw his light into your heart, and become one with the Buddha. Doing this today would be sufficient, as this is cultivation already. During your daily activities of standing, walking, sitting, and lying down, you are not any different from the Buddha. Today, you are the Buddha speaking, walking, eating, and interacting with others.

When you have Buddha in your heart, you will constantly have light inside you. When you radiate the clear light from your heart lotus outwards, you will view sentient beings with compassion. You will not have any wicked thoughts and you will not do any bad deeds. You will forever render opportunities to others to help guide them. How can there be no time or environment for cultivation? All your words are entirely the sound of mantras, which transform into light lotuses and circles of blessed light flying out of your mouth.

Yesterday, I talked about the meaning of "Kuan Yin" which literally means "observing the sounds." In chanting mantras, we don't have to say them out loud. You can also chant mantras silently in your heart. Dwell in the sound of the mantra in your heart, and, with practice, the sound will manifest to you. The goal is to chant your mantras until the sounds merge with the universe. This kind of mantra chanting is the "vajra way of mantra chanting."

When you hear the mantra sound emanating from your heart, you should observe and trace the origin of the sound. Why would sounds come out of your heart? The reason is that inside your heart, there exists a true self. Your original spirit and soul is buried deep inside your consciousness. At the time of death, your soul will emerge. Everyone has such a soul, but it is wrapped up while you are alive. You have to find and uncover this essence of your being to let it emerge. Doing cultivation today is a step toward uncovering this soul to release it as soon and as speedily as possible.

The earlier you are able to reawaken your soul, the sooner your life in this world will no longer be the same. You will become the awakened one. Now, you are in ignorance because your original soul and consciousness is completely enshrouded in darkness.

Take a look inside your body. Where is the light? Where is the window that lets in the light? You are like a house without any windows or doors. It is completely dark inside. There is no candle or any electrical source. You can't even see your own hands when you stretch them out. You are completely ignorant of what is happening. This is similar to the phenomenon your soul finds itself in. You don't know why you are doing what you are doing. You are just following popular opinions dictated by the culture in vogue.

But, when we cultivate and lean on the empowerment and guidance of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, we can draw their light in through the layers and layers of walls enclosing us. Through incessant effort, the light will seep through. There will definitely be one day when a ray of light will appear. You will exclaim and follow the path of light to find its origin. This is the crux of our cultivation today.

That is why we must constantly visualize the Buddha light coming inside us. Visualize the Buddha sitting above our crown, transforming into a drop of light, the size of a rice grain. It enters through our crown chakra, descending into our body to rest upon our heart. It shines upon our soul and consciousness to awaken it. Not seeing any light or getting any notice to wake up, the soul has been in slumber every day.

I remember reading this news after the last major earthquake in Taiwan. One small child was rescued after being buried under a collapsed building for six to seven days. He had slept under the debris the entire time. When he was rescued, he was quite weak but not seriously hurt. So, people interviewed him asking, "Did you know there was an earthquake?" He said he didn't know because the earthquake had struck at nighttime after he had gone to bed to sleep. When he first woke up, it was dark around him. So he thought it was still nighttime and went back to sleep. Then he woke up again. But it was still dark outside, so he went back to sleep again. This was a small child who had taken daylight as his cue to get out of bed. To him, light signified daytime. Since all he could see was darkness around him, he simply repeatedly fell back asleep.

He spent all those days in slumber and darkness, not knowing an earthquake had occurred, that the building had collapsed, and both his parents had died. When the floor caved, his bed happened to fall and land out of harm's way. The child escaped death from crushing beams and even managed to avoid serious injury.

Our soul is in a similar situation. After numerous reincarnations, the soul has accustomed itself to a limited degree of light awareness. Suddenly, death bids without any warning. You die and your soul exits from your body. Before your soul regains consciousness or reawakens, it immediately enters another body to reincarnate again. Thus it remains forever in a slumbering state, reincarnating from one lifetime to the next.

Our body reactions, our habits, are dictated by our karmic consciousness. Past powerful karmic events, whether good or bad, can cause one's present incarnation to react in certain ways, so one is not acting under the original awakened consciousness. When a new lifetime begins, karmic debt will have to be paid. Then when one life is over, the soul emerges. However, this soul has not reawakened to its original luminous state, the state that is no different from that of the Buddha's. So it continues lifetime after lifetime, enshrouded in darkness. Unable to see the true Great Light, it will never reawaken.

Cultivation, like engaging in this Purification Yoga that we are doing now, is to increase our spiritual awareness and speed our awakening.

If your soul awakens earlier and sooner than others, then you are the so-called "Awakened One," "Realized One," and "Enlightened One." You are no longer an ordinary person.

Therefore, in this Kuan Yin revelation, she teaches us that when we have the mind of the Buddha, we enter into union with him. It is not difficult to do. It all depends on whether one can be mindful of the Buddha from moment to moment. If you are with the Buddha every day, you of course can think of him very easily. For example, because you spend a lot of time with your family, you can easily recall how they look by simply closing your eyes. Even if they have died, you can still recall their faces. It takes some effort, however, to visualize Buddhas because you have not had any intimate contact with them. You care about family and friends in your immediate surrounding, so it is easier for you to think about and care for them.

However, make an effort to bring the Buddhas into your mind. Think about them every day, and it will be easy for you to become mindful of them. If you put instead the people around you in your mind, you will only experience more stress and emotional afflictions. Being mindful of the Buddhas and Bodhsattvas will bring about different effects since they are selfless. Family and friends have selfish desires and often think only of themselves. If you don't do what they want, they will be mad, upset, sad, or hurt. Then you will also come under this kind of influence and be affected by them.

Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, however, will not control, oppress, or threaten you. They always have your welfare in mind and want you to be liberated. Therefore, the more you think about them and put them in your mind, the more your heart will expand and the more freedom you will experience. As long as the Buddha enters your mind, you will not have any stress. You have stress only when men enter into your mind.

Give it a try. Just carry affairs of family and friends on your mind, and you will definitely feel the stress. It is different with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. They are forever emanating light, forever cheerful and optimistic, and forever boundless, just like the blue sky. They do not have the material worries of men to weigh them down.

I myself always visualize Buddhas and Bodhisattvas entering and merging with me. I merge with Kuan Yin, Padmakumara, and Amitabha. Merge with any Buddha or Bodhisattva, and your awareness will become purer and less attached to affairs of the human world.

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