From now on, all we need to do is to become new people, to put on new faces, and to start fresh.
今日圆满十禅七, 改头换面发菩提;
常握金刚智慧剑, 纵横南北与东西。
Today we complete ten weeks of Chan.
Putting on a new face, we make the Bodhi resolve.
Always wield the Vajra sword of wisdom.
Up and down, north, south, east and west.
This is the last day of the ten-week Chan session. No matter how we were in the past, from now on, all we need to do is to become new people, to put on new faces, and to start fresh, being totally different from the greedy ghosts of the past. Instead of always discriminating between self and others and rights and wrongs as we did in the past, let's make a great Bodhi resolve.
We should constantly wield the Vajra King's Jeweled Sword of Wisdom, and get rid of stupidity. If we weren't stupid, we wouldn't do upside-down things. Why are we upside-down? It's because of stupidity, ignorance, and dark confusion. We should always grasp the Vajra Sword of Wisdom, roaming upwards, downwards, to the north, south, east, or west, throughout the world, going wherever we please. That's the state of great freedom in which there is no self and no others, no restrictions, and no rights or wrongs.
一九八三年一月十六日开示于 万佛圣城
A talk given on January 16, 1983
at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas