Being a renunciate is just the same as being a householder. Now all of you are like renunciates. Why so? It’s because you’re not attached to worldly things any more. It’s the same whether you put on makeup or not, or whether you wear sports clothes or monk’s robes. So you don’t need to talk about whether to become a renunciateor toremain as a householder. Whatever you are right now, just continue in the same way. You earn your own living and live a simple life, so you can be considered a renunciate. Such is the way of a renunciate. In this day and age, it’s actually harder to spread the Dharma if one shaves his or her head and becomes a renunciate.

When a Buddha or Bodhisattva comes to this world, he or she will have a physical body. When he or she leaves the world, he or she will only have a manifested body. So it’s more beneficial to people if they can see both the manifested body and the physical body of the Buddha or Bodhisattva. An ordinary Buddha who has only the manifested body but not the physical body can’t be of much help to sentient beings, and he or she can’t give initiation to them. But such a Buddha may be able to lead people to a living Buddha with a physical body who can give people initiation. Since it’s not easy to find a living Buddha with a physical body, when people find one, they love the living Buddha. The universe is full of the spiritual bodies or the manifestations of the Buddha or Bodhisattva, and they permeate every corner of the universe. However, there are only a few physical bodies of the Buddha, and they are hard to find. Only when the Buddha comes to this world and adopts a physical body can people see him or her. For the Buddha to incarnate into a physical body, it takes a tremendous amount of work. It takes the right combination of affinity, merits of sentient beings, and willingness of the Buddha or Bodhisattva. That’s why the physical body of the Buddha is even more precious than the manifested body.

People who read the scriptures feel very proud of themselves. They think that they understand what the Buddha is like. But if we think that after reading fairy tales, we understand or know Snow White or this or that Prince, it’s impossible because we can’t communicate with the characters. In the say way, if people think that just because they have read the scriptures, they understand the Buddha, they’re dreaming!