The most important question for all Buddhists is how to understand birth and death completely for then, should you be able to find Buddha within birth and death, they both vanish. All you have to do is realize that birth and death, as such, should not be avoided and they will cease to exist for then, if you can understand that birth and death are Nirvana itself, there is not only no necessity to avoid them but also noth- ing to search for that is called Nirvana. The understanding of the above breaks the chains that bind one to birth and death; therefore, this problem, which is the greatest in all Buddhism, must be completely understood. It is very difficult to be born as a human being and equally difficult to find Buddhism, however, because of the good karma that we have accumulated, we have received the exceptional gift of a human body and are able to hear the Truths of Buddhism: we therefore have the greatest possibility of a full life within the limits of birth and death. It would be criminal to waste such an opportunity by leaving this weak life of ours exposed to imperma- nence through lack of faith and commitment. Impermanence offers no permanent succor. On what weeds by the roadside will the dew of our life fall? At this very min- ute this body is not my own. Life, which is controlled by time, never ceases even for an instant; youth vanishes forever once it is gone. It is impossible to bring back the past when one suddenly comes face to face with impermanence and it is impossible to look for assistance from kings, statesmen, rela- tives, servants, wife or children, let alone wealth and treasure. The kingdom of death must be entered by oneself alone with nothing for company but our own good and bad karma. Avoid the company of those who are deluded and ignorant about the Truth of karmic consequence, the three states of existence and good and evil. It is obvi- ous that the caw of cause and effect is not answerable to my personal will for, without fail, evil is vanquished and good prevails; if it were not so, Buddhism would never have appeared and Bodhidharma would never have come from the west. There are three periods into which the karmic consequences of good and evil fall: one is the con- sequence experienced in this present world, the second is consequence experienced in the next world and the third consequence experienced in a world after the next one; one must understand this very clearly before under- taking any training in the way of the Buddhas and Ancestors, otherwise mistakes will be made by many and they will fall into heresy; in addition to this, their lives will become evil and their suffering will be prolonged. None of us have more than one body during this lifetime, therefore, it is indeed tragic to lead a life of evil as a result of heresy, for it is impossible to escape from karmic consequence if we do evil on the assumption that, by not recog- nizing an act as evil, no bad karma can accrue to us.