Q : What is the "first thought"?
A : It's that very first thought of understanding before you consciously deliberate. Whenever you think, you are using your human brain and not your enlightened mind.

Q : Typically, our first thought at the sight of good food is to eat it and our first thought at the sight of pretty things is to own them. Is that the Primary Truth?
A : No, don't get confused. The so-called "first thought" is the revelation of your true mind, or your original face. It is view and knowledge at its most fundamental. Thoughts of greed for food, for nice things belong to the false mind, the mind of greed, and not the true mind.

Q : Can insentient beings restore their spiritual nature?
A : Yes, if they were to meet the right people who speak Dharma for them. Just as "When the Honorable Shen spoke Dharma, obdurate rocks nodded too." They could restore their spiritual sense only if they were to meet a sage or an arhat.

Q : Do King Yama and the Ghost of Impermanence exist?
A : That depends on whether you can avoid death. If you can avoid death, there is no Ghost of Impermanence. If you're certain that you will not have to undergo any retribution, there is no King Yama.

Q : Buddhism talks about returning to one's origin, which means that we become whatever we were originally. Well, what were we like originally?
A : Nothing at all. So now we try to go back to where there is nothing. Any bit of attachment is a barrier that keeps us from transcending the Triple Realm.

Q : How did demons become demons?
A : They became demons with the help of the five poisonous gases: hate, resentment, affliction, anger, and frustration.

Q : Why have we been this confused for all these countless eons?
A : Because we're not diligent. We're lazy and try to hide out in some comfort zone.

Q : What is liberation?
A : It's to attain true freedom, to be free from hindrances and bindings, and to come and go as we please.

Q : What is true emptiness?
A : Zero.

Venerable Master: Most people only make small business transactions and fail to make the major deals. Why?
First of all, they don't have enough "good roots" for their capitol. Second, they lack "wisdom" that comes with experience. Consequently, nothing major takes place. What is a major deal? It's the business of birth and death, that of transcending the Triple Realm.

Venerable Master: What heirloom do we own?
We own an heirloom that is the true mind. It is the wondrous and enlightened nature of understanding that always dwells in the Tathagatha's Treasury. It's not the visible and tangible world of gold, silver, and gems.

Q : How many melodies may we use in chanting repentances?
A : It's fine to use two or three elegant tunes. Sing softly and sing so that people hear your sincerity.

Q : How can we be filial?
A : By being compliant.
Q : What if my parents want me to do bad things?
A : See! Never having been filial and not having even taken the first step in filiality, you're already trying to circumvent it!

Q (by a disciple): Master, someone wants to become a monk. Firstly, because he wants to repay the Buddha's kindness, secondly to repay the Master's kindness. . .
A : I have lots of disciples, but very few really repay my kindness.

Q : Master, how can we teach the little shramaneras (novice monks) well?
A : Make sure they don't return to lay life.

While the Venerable Master is giving a talk, a disciple is entertaining a false thought off the stage: It's so hard to earn a Ph.D., should I attempt it?
A : Some people are really stupid, they don't enjoy studying and yet they want to go and get a Ph.D. . .
This disciple thought he was just that way. He doesn't enjoy studying and yet he still wants to earn a doctorate degree. He would only cause himself distress. So stupid! He immediately decided to not pursue the degree.

Q : What should we name the monastery that we will build at the Lake County walnut grove, northwest of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas?
A : Gold Sea Monastery.

Q : On the market now are vegetarian fishballs, vegetarian shrimp balls, vegetarian chicken, vegetarian chicken drums, vegetarian pork, vegetarian beef, vegetarian mutton, vegetarian ham and the like. Although they're vegetarian, they taste exactly like seafood or meat, leaving an unforgettable impression with vegetarians. . Are we really vegetarians when we eat these things?
A : You've got to have some backbone as vegetarians! We must improve upon these trends in Buddhism. If we don't change these trends, there will eventually be no more vegetarian monks and nuns. I believe vegetarian dishes shouldn't contain names such as chicken, duck, etc. I hope every Buddhist has the ability to be selective with dharmas and recognize the law of cause and effect so as avoid errors.

Q : Master, what should I do? My grandson died.
A : How come you still react this way despite having studied Buddhism? Birth and death are the same!

Q : How do we cultivate?
A : To cultivate is to not entertain false thoughts.

Q : A disciple muses: How come the noise in the meditation hall doesn't quit?
A : It's hard to find a place that's completely silent. There are sounds from airplanes, cars, etc. outside and there are sounds such as heartbeat etc. inside our bodies. There are also the sounds of electromagnetic waves in the air, sounds of atoms, and sounds of atoms moving through space. If you were to stay in a hole underground that has been sealed with cement, you would still hear sounds of being underground. So too the meditation hall has the sounds of people coughing. It's impossible to find a place free from any sound in the Saha World. There is no sound, however, if you don't go looking for sound.

Q : What means do we have for collecting donations to build temples?
A : Like the eight immortals who were trying to cross the ocean, each used everything he or she had.

Once I brought my oldest daughter to Gold Wheel Monastery because I wanted Venerable Master Hua to bless her so that she will find a good marriage partner.
The Venerable Master takes a look at the daughter and with great kindness says: This child has a lot of affinities with Buddhism; unfortunately she is very emotional when it comes to relationships with the opposite sex. If she were to channel this kind of emotion into studying Buddhism or cultivating, she would be quite accomplished.

Q : How should we design the heating system at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas?
A : Northern Chinese styled fireplaces and brick beds warmed by a fire underneath are ideal.
(Editor's note: The Venerable Master always showed everyone how to design a brick bed heated by fire. He even told one of his relatives to build one at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas.)

Q : There are plans to build a Great Heroes Jeweled Hall on the back property of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. . .
A : Don't call it back property, it's Wonderful Enlightenment Mountain. Don't call it plans for the back either; you have to say it's the plans for the Wonderful Enlightenment Monastery.

Q (by the chairperson of a technical college's Buddhist Association): How can we make people believe in cause and effect?
A : By making sure that the people who are explaining it are the ones who understand.

While his disciples were translating the Shurangama Sutra, they asked the Venerable Master about the meaning of many words in the Sutra text.
Venerable Master (after explaining those words): You have to understand that the translation of the Shurangama Sutra into Chinese had utilized many different terms for one meaning. That translation avoided repetition of the same words and kept the text elegant throughout. You must pay attention to this too when you're translating this Sutra into English.

Q : Why is it detrimental to live in a small temple?
A : Because it's too unrestrictive and free. It's no longer about contemplating with ease, but about eating with ease, sleeping with ease, and traveling with ease. It's very easy to forget to cultivate. One only learns to build one-on-one relationships: a habit that will be the death of Buddhism.

Q : How should parents admonish children who are not filial?
A : Parents should reflect, first of all. We should begin by being filial to our own parents. Action speaks louder than words. When children see that their parents are filial, they will naturally model after their parents and be filial. If you kick your parents out or speak to your parents harshly and with conceit, your children will naturally emulate you who are their role models. Behavioral lessons are vivid for children. Parents may talk all they want, but if they don't walk their talk, children will always feel that their parents are not filial.

Q : A psychic once told my stepmother that her daughter is one of the youths close to Guanshiyin Bodhisattva and is here to create affinities with her mother. . .
A : Nonsense! You believe in fortunetellers?

In 1991, a proposal to expand the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas was denied by the local government. The disciples responsible for the application dejectedly asked the Venerable Master: Why didn't it pass?
A : Because you don't have enough virtue. That's why it failed.

Venerable Master: Is there a problem with the search for temples?
A disciple: Yes. I could never find [a suitable] one. I don't know how to find one. I've been searching for four years, from 1992 to 1995.
A : To build a temple, you must have a vision that is far and wide, a plan that will cover the next century. You have to find a place that is big enough to accommodate future expansions and is conveniently located in city centers. You have to find a facility that can be used comprehensively and allows for more stories to be added. If a monastery is in a high-riser, it ought to be the one on the top floor. Businesses on the lower floors below the monastery must be larger than 10,000 square foot.

Q : Is the Middle-Way the state of neither existence nor non-existence?
A : The Middle-Way is not "neither existence nor non-existence." It embodies existence and emptiness; and yet it does not fall for existence or emptiness. To fall for existence means that one leans too heavily toward existence; to fall for emptiness means that one leans too heavily toward emptiness. The Middle-Way is about being unattached to existence and emptiness. Of course, if you are searching for the Middle-Way, you are attached to the Middle-Way, which would not be the Middle-Way.

Q : What does Buddhism think of euthanasia (literally, "peaceful and happy death" in Chinese)?
A : What is euthanasia? How can death be peaceful and happy? We would only enjoy a peaceful and happy death if we were to have a certain level of cultivation from being mindful of the Buddha and can predict when we will be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. Buddhism has no opinion on euthanasia.

But if this kind of death is peaceful and happy, is it a peaceful and happy death for people who have committed suicide by hanging themselves, jumping into the river, and poisoning themselves? Is it so for those who have ended their lives voluntarily and willingly, despite others' efforts to prevent them from such acts? I'm someone who doesn't know how to cultivate; I don't have the ability to teach you to die peacefully and happily. I have no way to teach you to live peacefully and happily either. I'm at my wits end when it comes to making you peaceful and happy as well as unpeaceful and unhappy. People are not the way they are because you want them that way. People do not stop their actions because you want them to avoid certain actions. This incredible process is called life.

Q : What does Buddhism think of euthanasia? Is it completely forbidden?
A : The things that people do are neither absolutely and necessarily right nor absolutely and necessarily wrong. Not every legal prohibition is correct, necessarily. People may want to help the dying by killing them because they see that they are in pain. That is right in a sense. Buddhism forbids killing though; after all, this is about karma. It is karma that a patient suffers and should therefore face the consequences. We have no way to prevent someone from facing his karma.

Q : Could patients who are vegetables try euthanasia?
A : I would be going against the universal principle of wanting to see things live if I were to approve of people trying euthanasia. At the same time, they probably would not be at peace or happy if their life continued. . . I can't answer this question.

Q : What are your feelings on organ donation after death?
A : Oh, it will be like having your skin peeled while alive! The most important thing for someone who is dying is this: have everybody recite the Buddha's name! If one is meant to die, one will go willing; if one isn't meant to die, one will live!

Q : How come the Venerable Master knows so many things?
A : When I want to know, I know everything. When I don't want to know, I know nothing.

Once one of the Master's disciples removed an important guest. The Master scolded his disciple so harshly that the student nearly wanted to pack up his stuff and leave.
Disciple: I feel so ashamed. What I did was wrong, unhelpful, and really pathetic. I should die.
Venerable Master: You won't die. Quit lying to yourself. For you to go away and die would be letting you off easy! You should change your bad habits. Where's that Sutra on the Comprehensive Extinction of Dharmas? Bring it over and read it to me! Since you've already left the householder's life with me, you can't act the way you used to. You must cultivate now. You're the Buddha's disciple, a member of the Buddha's family. Don't you realize how your every move is important? In this country, you represent the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, do you understand? You're no longer living for yourself. How could you be so careless and so selfish? Don't you see the path that you've chosen? How could you act like someone who is just hanging around and waiting for the next meal? As the Buddha's disciple, you have to be a role model for humans and gods. You have to be outstanding! You have to undertake what others cannot undertake, eat what others cannot eat, suffer what others cannot suffer, do what others cannot do, and bear what others cannot bear. This is the only way for you to pass the test. You must consider the propagation of Dharma your personal duty; otherwise, the Buddhadharma will never become rooted in this country.