Some say it is always the best policy to go with the flow, while others say the opposite.  The latter stand firm amid adversity, thereby preventing a situation from deteriorating.  Quite a contrast, wouldn't you say?  All of us human beings partake in this world and therefore each of our actions should aim to benefit all.  But how can we follow this teaching, burdened as we are with all the evil karma accumulated during previous existences?  Since time immemorial, confused due to our karma, we were reborn over and over again with an impure five-skandha body into this Saha world at the time of the five turbidities.  Were we not forewarned, we might be forgiven.  However, countless buddhas, bodhisattvas, patriarchs and dharma masters have exhorted, encouraged and taught us expediently to no avail.  We do not wish to heed their teachings and we prefer to settle for a place that is inferior.  Great Master Ou I said that "sentient beings born in this kalpa of turbidity who do not act in the manner required to cross the three realms with their karma cannot be saved.  Sentient beings that suffer from turbidity of view and yet do not recourse to expedient means cannot free themselves.  Sentient beings who, afflicted by turbid views, fail to understand that the worldly mind and the buddha-mind are the same and fail to practice accordingly cannot be saved.  Sentient beings suffering from the turbidity of living, who do not foster an inclination to Pure Land practice and a dislike for this Saha world, likewise cannot be saved.  If such sentient beings do not spend kalpas in diligent practice they have no hope for salvation."  It appears that we must not delay any longer if we wish to be reborn in Pure Land.  According to the sutras, the Buddha stated that Pure Land teaching will survive the rest of the teachings by one hundred years.  Why cannot we understand the importance of this teaching in the dharma-ending age?  Most people prefer the eastern Pure Land means to seek a long life in this world due to attachment.  To be reborn in the western Pure Land one must practice by oneself and accept dependence on the Buddha as well.  Whoever does not generate the Bodhi-mind cannot be reborn in Pure Land.  To the one who asks if this matter can wait, thinking that there is no need to start now, I answer that from the point of the past, the present was once the future.  The future is inherent in the present.  A year passes like a dream and the awakening takes only a moment.  How can there be discussion of "sooner or later".  The Vajracchedika-prajnaparamita sutra says that when all sentient beings have been released not one of them has been in fact extinguished.  Just allow the Dharma of Pure land to spread far and wide so all sentient beings can work out their own salvation and let us not worry about who is delivered by whom.  Elder Lee Yuan Chin's writing is completely integral with Buddhadharma and with the teachings of the Pure Land sect; it flows and presents the main ideas in a way that is easy to understand.  This booklet is going to be included in the library publications series on Buddhism, this spreading Dharma and converting sentient beings.  I wrote these few words to help the world get rid of delusion.

Written in the summer of the year Hsin Wei.