In the course of human life, we are often beset by the suffering of illness or by depression and distress, unable to free or console ourselves. Some people even experience various terrors and confusions. All this is because the mind is not at peace.

As long as the mind is peaceful, meditative stability can give rise to wisdom. Once wisdom opens, one can examine all worldly success and failure, gain and loss, right and wrong, wealth and poverty, birth and death, coming and going, and see that they are all empty and illusory. If one further contemplates emptiness, no afflictive anger will arise; causes and results will become clearly understood, one's thoughts will not be biased, and all human sorrow and suffering will naturally disappear. Illness and pain will also naturally ease and may even be healed.

The key to all this lies in the single word “mind.” This Dharma is a method for cultivating the mind; it is the wondrous Dharma by which Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva relieves suffering and rescues beings from adversity. Those who practice it have something upon which to rely in their minds: it can cure illness, enable them to attain meditative stability and increase wisdom, benefit society and humankind, and enable Buddhist practitioners to comprehend the Dharma teachings, realize the nature of mind, be liberated from the future cycle of birth and death, plant immeasurable fields of merit, and help people fulfill their aspiration for rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.

This Dharma has already been transmitted to countless people. I now explain it clearly once again for the benefit of those with aspiration, so that those who have not yet aroused the resolve may do so, those who have aroused it may advance diligently, and those who have advanced diligently may cultivate and realize it. As for those who are ill, relying on Avalokiteśvara's great compassion, they may recover without medicine. Those whose illnesses are already grave and whose lifespan is limited may also promptly plant fields of merit, perhaps thereby averting the worst.

They may be freed from the suffering of the evil realms, or perhaps be saved from disaster. Those afflicted by past karma involving ghosts, malignant spirits, and the like may likewise be released through this practice. There are also those who become ill because they practice seated meditation incorrectly—for example, Buddha-recitation that injures the vital energy, rigid sitting in non-Buddhist practices, wooden meditative absorption causing abdominal distention, or madness and confusion. Only this Dharma can cure them.

In short, a human life of a hundred years passes in the blink of an eye. Even if one awakens and turns back early, one may still fear that it is too late. Use this single vessel to cross the sea of suffering: it benefits not only oneself but can also liberate others.