By Master Jingzong

Are flies more attracted to meat or green vegetables?

From kalpas of exposure to miscellaneous impurities, sentient beings have accumulated powerful karmic energies. They are naturally inclined to various contaminations, which immediately touch and excite their nerves. Like flies pursuing meat persistently, they swarm around impure things. Towards what's pure and clean, they are indifferent and uninterested.

As the saying goes, "Good news limps on crutches, bad news flies apace." People delight in talking about unwholesome matters and turn deaf ears to good deeds. Look at TV, newspapers and the online media, which are full of gossip-related news. Without such content they would have no market or their ratings would drop.

Even if they learn Buddhism, people with such dispositions tend to be attracted by mixed, impure Dharma paths. They keep their distance from pure teachings. Why are other religions flourishing, their followers numerous? Because they are mixed, impure. There are subtle defilements even in chanting or reading the sutras with a dualistic, logic-directed mindset. Most Buddhists prefer chanting sutras to reciting "Namo Amitabha Buddha," which they find insipid as it confounds both dualistic thinking and the ego. In fact, Amitabha's name is the purest and cleanest Dharma path, one that doesn't resonate with beings' impure habits and karmic energies.

Practitioners who recite "Namo Amitabha Buddha" exclusively, without variation or any ego-driven effort, reach the core and essence of the entire Dharma. Their virtuous roots were planted not by several Buddhas, but by countless Buddhas. They can practice in this manner because their meritorious roots have matured.