"Without cultivation, one remains a ghost."

The present writer is now 39 years old. I cannot say I am old, since I am not yet 60; I cannot say I am still young, for I am rapidly approaching 40. After another 40 years, I will be 80, which is commonly considered as a rare age. Come to think of it, the first half of my life is gone, after which my youth is going downhill with each passing day. The mere thought of this strikes fear into my heart.

Fortunately, when I was 26, by a miraculous chance, I came to know the causations and conditions of my previous lifetimes. Since then, I have been cultivating for 14 years, without relaxing my effort for a single day. Finally, I have realized the "External Eight Accomplishments", and will devote my remaining years to the cultivation of the "Eight Internal Accomplishments". I have confidence that I will attain my Buddhahood within the present lifetime. I have made a great vow of Bodhicitta to practice the Vajra-dharma. I am the personal deity, realising Buddhahood in this lifetime--I have realized, and have experienced, all the necessary responses.

Now, in my eyes, the three thousand worlds appear to be as tiny as a little seed of grain. My original spirit can fill up the space in the ten directions, or contract to reside in a speck of sand. After full realization, the original spirit can leave from the crown of the head and fly to any Buddha lands and the ten Dharma-dhatu (Dharma realms). With the acquisition of the Divine Eye, I can see anything in the ten Dharma-dhatu. With the Divine Ear, I can hear, at any time, the teaching of Dharma. With Isvara (self-mastery and freedom), I am completely free to do anything without any obstructions. My original spirit can dive into water without being drowned, and dash into fire without being burnt. Now I can gate-crash the doorway of Hell, and transcend the law of Cause and Effect, no longer confined to the five forms of existence. When I reach Nirvana, there will certainly be miraculous phenomena appearing. I can now cure other people's illnesses, deliver sentient beings from misery, and practice any secret methods that have been considered impossible.

Since I have made the greatest Resolution of Bodhicitta, I naturally cherish a loving compassion for sentient beings. As the human birth is indeed difficult to come by, it is the greatest pity that one does not know the importance of cultivation with the human form. Once this human form is lost, you may not get it again in ten thousand celestial years! In addition, man's life is short and unpredictable--in a split of a second, a life may go off like a light. There have been countless people who died very young. Efforts in cultivation should start as promptly as putting out a fire.

In my view, sentient beings in the mundane world who are craving for high positions are just like maggots in a manure pit, rolling up and down, struggling to keep their heads above others'. These maggots die unenlightened! As these people are infatuated with positions, those who get it can never part with it;it is as if they are addicted to opium. Those who lose it are at the mercy of others like dead maggots. The loss and gain of social positions is no different from the rise and fall of the maggots. Why cling to such suffering? It is high time for them to cast aside ignorance and start cultivating.

There are also people who are crazy about wealth and profit. Putting money in the first place, they see nothing but coins--anything else is meaningless to them. With their business rapidly expanding, they are fully occupied day and night, without a moment to spare. Their life and energy are all thrown into fierce competition for profit, and as a result, they fall down to pieces, like the outer layers of bamboo shoots--till everything falls off and is buried. Among them, the successful ones achieve nothing except some luxury for their children and grandchildren. The unsuccessful ones get old before they know it! Afflictions fall upon them one after another, making their life very miserable indeed.

Even lower than these people are those who are bent on drinking, gambling and acting wrongly. Whatever they do or think is nothing but bad deeds, generating karmic hindrances. Not knowing about the terror of karmic retributions, they never stop doing bad deeds and they never start doing good deeds. Still worse, some people take pleasure in evil actions, such as killing, robbing, burning, raping and what not. The sufferings of sentient beings are increased, the methods of cultivation are forsaken; there are no outcries against all this; no one teaches the correct way to cultivate.

Out of love and compassion for these sentient beings, I write these spiritual books to convert them. I have written forty-four (Note:At present time, this is over 114.) books explaining from the most preliminary to the most profound theories in Buddhism. This is the forty-fifth book about the true art of meditation. It is the essential method handed down by the lineage gurus, a secret way to attain Buddhahood. It contains all the celestial secrets and nature's mysteries. In this writing, I use a kind of language that makes the most profound truths intelligible to readers who will easily learn everything by heart. To realize my great wish to deliver sentient beings from misery, I explain the correct paths to the Truth in the hope that people with karmic affinity will get this book---they will practice everyday with instructions from erudite masters to arrive at an understanding of the right truths. If they practice sincerely the art of meditation, without pretence or falsehood, they will, in due time, attain realization, achieving the fruition of Buddhahood. They will arrive at the other shore to live in a realm of great bliss. This is my Great Resolution of Bodhicitta--to write spiritual books diligently for the salvation of sentient beings.