Conclusion

In the universe, the human condition is impermanent and finite, yet it can also become absolute when that very person practises and attains enlightenment and liberation. But that stretch of the road takes thousands of lifetimes of diligent practice, deep and focused, with the right method and the right path.

Only with the map of Right View in our hands can we keep going forward. To be called one who knows how to practise, to place the first step on that long journey, is when we know our own faults. The more we practise, the brighter our wisdom, the steadier our virtue, the deeper our spiritual power, and the more we see the subtle, deep and systemic faults; even the lofty wisdom of the Bodhisattvas exists to discover these faults that beings lack the strength to see.

We stop and look into our own inner self, seeing clearly every hidden fault. We admonish ourselves sternly, earnestly bow our heads before the Compassionate Honoured One, and quietly gather the mind in the stillness of emptiness. Seeing faults, knowing faults, awakening ourselves, repenting, overcoming… reflecting on ourselves in order to practise and correct, using the sword of wisdom to eliminate clinging to self. In this way the path of practice, the path of the sages, opens. We must understand that this journey is long and exceedingly arduous. To accept practice is to accept the process of wearing down the ego, of climbing uphill against pits, thorns, quagmires and thickets of faults buried deep in the mind. However hard and difficult, let us keep on diligently and steadily, going on and on until the day when not one subtle fault can appear, which is also the day we set down the burden of birth, death and rebirth and enter the absolute Nirvana nature of non-self in the universe. Non-self is also the realm of the absolute realisation of an extraordinary, transcendent arahant, the summit of practice in Buddhism. Looking back at ourselves hour by hour and minute by minute, so that one day we reach the deathless and peaceful.

May those who have the affinity to read these teachings plant wholesome roots in the Buddha's Dharma, so that along the myriad roads of life we keep to one path, keep looking back at ourselves, and have the Buddha's protection at every step on the path of practice.