【Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels】- be your own barber

Therefore, when you practice, are you cultivating yourself or cultivating others (making others practice and improve)? If you are trying to cultivate others, then it is ok. Like a barber, you would trim other people’s hair and after that, then you take a mirror to show him and let him take a look. Since you are trimming it for him, then there is nothing wrong with that!  However, if you are here to cultivate yourself, to cultivate yourself, of course you will need to use this mirror on yourself to see if you’ve acted correctly.  This is very clear and very obvious.  Therefore, this is then what?  “Think of them in light of,” when we truly recollect, we should think in this way, we should think in this way.  If we can think of them in this way, then it would be right, it would be right!  Therefore, he will tell us later that, for us who are real practitioners, ah, we will only see our own errors, and desperately try to cultivate ourselves.  If you can in this way see your own errors and practice, you will be able to reduce your own errors!  If you can reduce your own errors, you will increase your good qualities/merits!  Then your will gradually distance yourself from sufferings, and you will gradually gain happiness.  This is a very natural principle.

SOURCE 来源 :

45B 06’23” Vol 6 of Master Jih-Chang’s Discourse P160 L8
English Lamrim Vol 1 P187

日常师父法语📡45B 06’23” 手抄稿第6册P160 L8

皈依 : 当自己的理发师

所以说修行是修你自己还是修别人啊？如果说你修别人，那不妨。像理髮师，跟人家理了髮，理完了以后，拿了一个镜子让他照照，让他看，因为你代他理嘛，那没有错嘛！现在你修理，修理你自己，当然拿这个镜子，自己看看对不对，这个很清楚、很明白。所以这个才是什么？「而为忆念」，我们真正要念，是要这样念的，要这样念的。如果我们就这样念的话，那对了，那就对了！所以他后面会告诉我们，我们真正修行的人的话，啊！只看见自己的错误，拼命自己的修习。如果你能这样地，看见自己的错误修习，那你就错误减少嘛！错误减少功德就增长嘛！然后呢痛苦就慢慢地远离，快乐就慢慢地得到，这就是个自然的一个道理。