Guan Gong’s “Awakening Sutra”
The following is the Text of Guan Gong’s “Awakening Sutra” these are the official words of Guan Gong the God of War to teach people how to awaken from their evil ways and become good people leading lives of honor and integrity. – Translated by Rachel Jensen
“Lord Guan Yu said: To stand tall between heaven and earth, and live without shame or regret, one should uphold with integrity the ideals of loyalty, filial duty, self-control, and righteousness.
Otherwise, one is merely living without conscience in a warm body, living only for the sake of being alive.
One’s conscience is deities. Deities are one’s conscience. Act in harmony with your conscience, have no regrets or shame before deities. Deceiving your own conscience is deceiving deities.
Therefore, an honorable person keeps the three forebodings and four knowings at heart.
(Note: Three forebodings: Forebode Heaven, forebode those who are more honorable, forebode saints. Four Knowings: All acts are known by Heaven, Earth, one’s collaborators and themselves.)
Do not think a dark room can obscure loathsome acts. Do not think a hidden room can conceal evil intentions. Every action that one takes, deities observe and examine clearly, as if every deed is watched by ten pairs of eyes and unveiled by ten pairs of hands. Justice will arrive. Karmic retributions manifest intelligently without even one hair’s mistake.
Sexual misconduct is the first of all evils. Filial duty is the origin of all noble acts. When presented with the opportunity for personal gain, do not act if it is against righteous principles, do not proceed if it causes regrets of the conscience. On the contrary, actions that conform to righteous principles, and lead to no regrets of the conscience, cannot be ignored because they bring no material benefits. For those who dishonor my teaching, I invite you to test the power of my blade.
Respect Heaven and Earth, honor the deities, venerate your ancestors, care for your parents, abide by the laws, respect your teachers, love your siblings, trust your friends, be harmonious with your relatives, be friendly with your neighbors, be faithful to your spouse, teach your children.
Be helpful to others whenever possible. Actively spread virtuous seeds without boasting about your good deeds. Reach out to those suffering in disasters. Care for the orphans and be compassionate towards the poor.
Build and restore temples, print sutras and scriptures. Contribute medicine and provide teas. Abstain from killing and release animals about to be killed.
Build bridges and repair roads. Sympathize with widows and assist those in difficult situations. Be thankful for the food you receive and appreciate your good fortune. Resolve problems and settle disputes.
Donate money to assist others’ sound endeavors. Set up good examples for others to follow. Dissipate hatred and conflicts. Be fair and honorable in business dealings.
Be friends with people of noble character. Stay away from wrong doers. Hold back from publicly criticizing other’s mistakes. Praise those who do good deeds. Think about benefiting others when acting. When in power perform righteously to better society. All these virtuous acts yield blessings.
For wrong doers to obtain good fortune:
Change your mind and move onto the righteous path, repent and mend your errors, be compassionate to others, clean away evil thoughts and carry out good deeds diligently with faith. Some others may not see your good actions, nonetheless, deities will hear about your good deeds before them. Deities will grant you blessings and increase your longevity, as well as the number of your descendants. Deities will decrease your sufferings and diseases. Natural disasters and accidents will stay away from you. Both your body and belongings will be safe; auspicious stars will shine upon you.
Ill fortune will arrive if you bear evil thoughts, turn away from virtuous deeds, lust and rape others’ wives or daughters, break up others’ marriages, or tarnish others’ reputations.
Or if you feel jealous of others’ talents, conspire to steal others’ property, coerce or encourage others into disputes and lawsuits, benefit yourself at the expense of others to bring wealth to yourself and your family.
Or, even if you bear hatred for Heaven and anger towards Earth, curse the weather, speak ill of saints or slander people of virtues, destroy statues of deities or deceive deities.
Refrain from killing farming or working animals, desecrating writings by placing them in filth, using influence to humiliate honorable people, oppressing the poor with wealth, separating parents from their offspring or igniting disputes between brothers.
If you diverge from the righteous path by committing sexual misconduct or robbery, or defrauding others to have a sumptuous life style, or being wasteful or idle, being ungrateful for the food you have, failing to repay favors to your benefactors, deceiving your own conscience by deluding yourself, dealing in business using unethical means, all will bring you misfortune.
Retributions will befall those who establish evil cults to deceive others. For those who lure the ignorant with lies that the denomination will bring followers to Nirvana, who lie to accumulate wealth, who lie to gain sexual favors, who conceal the truth and cover up sins. Further more, those who verbally abuse, even curse the disbelievers to be punished by gods and ghosts, while in fact, plotting secretly how to harm the disbelievers.
These malicious actions go against the principles of righteousness and the laws of nature. They go against people’s conscience.
Those evil men do not believe in karmic retribution. They are oblivious to virtuous actions, instead, luring people into doing evil and committing all kinds of immoral deeds.
There are reasons why some people get tangled in lawsuits or disputes, suffer from disasters like flood or fire, or problems like theft and robbery, contract vile epidemics, have offsprings who are prodigals or mentally challenged, incur catastrophe like murder, lose one’s home, become thieves and robbers or prostitutes.
Karmic retributions materialize and impose on them as well as their descendants in the distant future. Deities inspect every act carefully, punishments and rewards are granted orderly without error.
The paths of virtue and evil define blessings and disasters. Those who do virtuous deeds receive blessings in their lives, those who do evil deeds attract sufferings and disasters. These teachings from Lord Guan are to be adopted as guiding principles. Although Lord Guan’s words are simple, they greatly benefit the body and soul. Anyone who dares to desecrate Lord Guan’s teachings will be decapitated as a warning to all.
For those who recite this sutra, fierce retribution will be eliminated, and good luck will shower upon them. Seek sons, receive sons. Ask for longevity, receive longevity. Fame or fortune all can come true. Whatever one prays for, it shall be answered. Disasters melt away like snow; auspicious events gather like clouds.
These kinds of blessings can only be obtained by realizing moral deeds. The Lord is fair and just. Protections and blessings are justified by the virtuous. Conscientiously uphold virtue, do not neglect your will or waste your opportunity to possess integrity.”
We recommend that you print out a copy of the Guan Gong’s “Awakening Sutra” and then post it where you will see it often and think about Wu De. Without Wu De people become thugs not masters of martial arts. Becoming a master of martial arts means master Wu De first and foremost. A wise teacher looks for students of good moral character who wish to become better.
You can also listen to Guan Gong’s “Awakening Sutra” read aloud by Sifu Jensen in the Ancient Wisdom Modern Health Podcast # and subscribe to the Ancient Wisdom Modern Health podcast here.
If you would like to show your support for Wu De and spark conversations about Wu De with your friends and others you can get a Wu De Dad Cap, or a Wu De Red Seal Beanie or even a Wu De Red Seal Shirt
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