My Path of Self-Reflection (Dedication)

I take this book to offer my sincere apology to everyone I have ever harmed. Whenever I repent, I weep and cry aloud over the hurt I caused you.

I wish the deceased peace and the living happiness. If I must bear some retribution for the harm I did to you, I will accept it calmly, to settle your resentment; it is the price I ought to pay.

I only pray that you may live more happily.

I take this book to say to everyone who has ever harmed me: please no longer hold it against me. If you once felt guilty, I ask you to lay down that guilt. I have let go of all resentment and forgiven everyone; I no longer count the harm anyone did to me. If you once obtained unjust gain from me, I now decide to give it to you, hoping that on the day you awaken you will use it to help the vulnerable.

I likewise wish you happiness and ease in the life ahead, and hope you soon find inner peace and tranquility.

I take this book to express my sincere gratitude to all the teachers who have taught me. Your instruction was of great benefit to me. At the time I failed to grasp your good intentions and perhaps even misunderstood you, but when I began to ruminate on your teaching, my heart was deeply moved, and I sometimes welled up with tears over your help.

You were so good and kind, guiding me forward. It is a pity that I was once foolish and unworthy, failing to follow your teaching and letting down your expectations, so that I committed too many unforgivable mistakes in life.

I take this book to express my sincere thanks to my family. You have always borne my errors and shared my hardships, yet repeatedly suffered my hurtful words. I can only, in the life ahead, wash myself clean and strive to make amends for the harm I did you.

The principles of conduct in dealing with people were taught to me when I was very young. It is just that I was long blinded by my arrogance and prejudice and did not act on them. Only when one day I began to look back over my life did I suddenly awaken.

It turned out I had been so proud that I rarely reflected on my own conduct; I was stuffed full of "convictions" and never thought that I might be a mere talker who had put none of them into practice.

Throughout my life I have drawn great strength from the following qualities, though I have not always upheld them: upholding justice, being fearless, thinking diligently, taking responsibility, sympathizing with the weak, never following blindly, loving learning, acting actively, being honest and upright, knowing when to stop and exercising restraint, being confident and self-disciplined, being untiring, being generous toward others, constantly reflecting, earnestly repenting, and correcting faults as soon as they are known. I know I am not yet perfect, and indeed have committed great faults and done wrong; therefore I have never given up the effort to improve myself and to give actively to atone. I will not conceal my faults, but I will never on that account belittle myself, withdraw from the world, or do nothing.