Courage is the mental and moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty in the face of opposition, shame, scandal, and discouragement.

Courage manifests as the Three Minds:
1. THE SINCERE MIND —the willingness to acknowledge our own fundamental goodness without arrogance, knowing that all sentient beings share Natural Perfection; and to recognize our innate stains without despair, knowing that we have the capacity to overcome and control our afflicted emotions and obscurations.
2. THE DEEP MIND —the ability to maintain full conviction and faith in the grace received from the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, regardless of doubts, obstacles, or difficulties, and to act according to our highest understanding of the Dharma.
3. THE ASPIRING MIND —the determination to dedicate this and all future lives to benefit others, tame our afflictions, open wide all the gates to the Dharma, and embody the path to enlightenment for every sentient…

Bodhisattvas work for the benefit of others in eleven ways:

1. befriending the friendless;
2. counseling the confused;
3. helping the helpless;
4. protecting the fearful;
5. comforting the grieving;
6. sharing with the destitute;
7. mentoring those who seek spiritual guidance;
8. accompanying those traversing the path;
9. praising the prudent;
10. admonishing the rash; and
11. subduing those who will not yield to good counsel.

If there are sentient beings who need someone in the form of a Buddha in order to be liberated, Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara, Kwan Yin, Kannon) immediately manifests as a Buddha and speaks the Dharma for them. If they need someone in the form of a Solitary Realizer to be liberated, the Bodhisattva immediately manifests as a Solitary Realizer and exemplifies the Dharma for them. If they need a Disciple to be liberated, the Bodhisattva immediately manifests as a Disciple and speaks the Dharma for them. 

If they need a powerful god, a great general, a heavenly king, a worldly king, an elder, a layperson, a minister, a priest, a monk, a nun, a female elder, a female layperson, a female minister, a priestess, a young boy, a young girl, a celestial being, a dragon, a human being, a non-human being, or an indestructible deity to be liberated, the…

If a good man or woman performs the Five Fundamental Practices and has accomplished them, he or she will eventually attain birth in the Pure Land of Bliss and see Buddha Amideva.

What are the Five Fundamental Practices? They are: (1) reverence; (2) praise; (3) aspiration; (4) contemplation; and (5) merit-transference.

What is reverence? It is a bodily act of honoring Amideva the Tathagata, the Arhat, the Perfectly Enlightened One. One performs this act because one aspires to be born in His Land.

How do we praise Amideva? We praise Him by means of speech. We call the Holy Name of that Tathagata which describes His Light, the embodiment of Wisdom, wishing to practice in accord with the Dharma, that is, in agreement with the significance of the Holy Name.

How do we aspire to be born in the Pure Land? We constantly and definitively resolve, fixing our thoughts on…