Dharma Outline????5-4 You can have delusions but must not follow them 你可以有妄想，但不随妄转

(English Subtitles) 佛法修學概要, Lectured by Master Jìng Jiè (淨界法師) from Taiwan.
Subtitles:
[75] How can we avoid being swayed by delusion and find a shortcut to spiritual practice?
You should know that in the process of cultivation, if you want to progress faster, there are shortcuts. In fact, there are shortcuts in Buddhism. If there were no shortcuts in Buddhist teachings,
then the Tiantai Sect would have no need to classify and evaluate schools, and there would be no distinction between superior and inferior ones. Why did the Tiantai Sect classify the teachings into the Four Schools: the Tantra, the General, the Distinct, and the Perfect?
Some dharma door is like traveling by bicycle, some by oxcart, and some by large white oxcarts. This means progress occurs at varying speed. It's not that the longer you practice Buddhism, the faster you advance. That's not the point. It has nothing to do with time; it depends entirely on your approach .
If you haven't mastered a method, after thirty years of Buddhist practice, you remain unchanged because you can't escape delusion. Your life remains unsolved.
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In your next life, you'll still be caught in this delusion.
If you want to progress quickly, you must first find the origin of your life. This is what the Shurangama Sutra says: Where do you come from? This principle is extremely important! It's about the perspective you need to live in. If you deal with life from the perspective of delusion, you will not be able to find a solution in this life, nor will you be able to be reborn. Because you have tied yourself up by infinite delusions. Buddha's names are completely useless. You simply cannot escape delusions. What is the right mindfulness at the end of life? It means to escape the delusions in your mind. That’s it in a nutshell. We can have delusions, but you cannot follow them. If I demand you stop having delusions, that's asking too much
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for no one can achieve it.
There are two kinds of right mindfulness at the moment of death: one is the right mindfulness of the sage. It is like “a bright moon in a clear sky stretching a thousand miles,” utterly free from deluded thoughts. Who is this? This is the right mindfulness at the time of death of Master Ouyi and Master Yin Guang, without any delusion. The right mindfulness of us ordinary people is called "not following delusion." It does not mean that there are no delusions, but that you should not be distracted by them. In order not to be disturbed by it, it is very important that you stand in the right position. This is the key.
We must confront afflictions from the perspective that they never truly existed; We must repent karmic obstacles from the perspective that they never truly arose; We must transcend birth and death from the perspective that they never truly existed.
Namely, you have to deal with things from a perspective without any delusions originally,
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which means bringing your life back to the initial point. To achieve this, you have to train this regularly. Let's take a practical example. Let's say you have an argument with your son. There must be karma behind the quarrel between you and your son. Everything has a reason, there must be karma.
Anyway, there are only two situations when this child comes: first, he comes to repay a debt, and second, he comes to collect a debt. If he comes to collect a debt, he will trouble you a lot; if he comes to repay a debt, he will help you a lot.
But it's impossible to be entirely about debt collection, nor is it entirely about debt repayment. The karma of life is a mixture of happiness and sorrow. Suppose your son annoys you, how will you resolve the situation? You will definitely have delusions, because this karma stimulates you to raise attachments, and you dwell in your delusions. At this time，you have no way to get out of trouble.
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You have to tell yourself that you didn't originally have this son. Did you originally have a son? No! Your family is a combination of causes and conditions, arising from false delusions. You never had a son in the first place, and you will not own him in the end. Can you take your son with you when you die? No! So this son is a process.
Fundamentally, there is nothing. Why stir up the dust? This nothing at all is so crucial. You never have this son to begin with, he is merely a manifestation of cause, condition, and effect. In fact, this formula applies everywhere. Did you ever have a house to begin with?
Did you ever have a son to begin with? Everything is born of causes and conditions, and that is illusory and impermanent. So, to avoid being swayed by delusions, we must first break free from them, this is crucial. This is crucial. It's called abiding in true suchness.
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The Shurangama Sutra, which is about enlightenment, tells you the power of settling down in peace and the perspective from which you should approach problems.