Picture: White-Robed Guanyin Bodhisattva 白衣觀音
 ********************************************
 provided from tbsn.org/English2
 Translated by Amy Zhou
 Edited by Jessie Loh and Jason Yu
 Proofread by Lufang Hsiung
 ======================================

 I have a disciple who is a street vendor and sells odds and ends. However, times were not good and his business was bad. The money he earned was not enough to support his family and they also had to eat frugally.

 Once, they went to a cafeteria where they could only afford a single bowl of white rice for each person.

 (The cafeteria, however, had a big pot of soup, which each customer could drink from as much as they wanted for free.)

 So, the family members filled up their bowls with soup numerous times, while eating plain white rice.

 The owner of the cafeteria took notice.

 Other customers were similarly surprised.

 My disciple and his family ate until tears covered their faces, as they felt great shame and helplessness. Having no alternative and no money, they lived a bitter life! He cried for Grand Master to help!

 I learnt of this incident in samadhi and my heart was filled with sorrow. Therefore, I entered my disciple’s dream and taught him a simple method of chanting, because he could not master harder methods. He had never attended school nor did he know how to read.

 What I taught him to chant was:
 The sutra of conducting business.
 Meeting Guanyin in every transaction.
 To the east, also a group of buddhas.
 To the west, also a group of buddhas.
 To the south, also a group of buddhas.
 To the north, also a group of buddhas.
 Buddhas, buddhas, buddhas. Everything is auspicious.
 All the goods will be sold.

 Although this disciple took refuge in me, he did not know how to chant any sutras or mantras and did not know how to do cultivation. His family was barely surviving; their home did not have food for the next day, and they were at the point of not eating three meals a day.

 I entered his dream and taught him the method of convenient business.

 The street vendor awoke and remembered the sutra. Every day, he burned a stick of incense and chanted this sutra seven times before going to work.

 Haha! When the crowd passed by his booth, they stopped and could not bear to leave, and bought one or two items.

 Sure enough, his business saw changes; it was several times better than before. The more diligently he chanted, the better his business. This simple “sutra of conducting business” was easy to remember and easy to recite. He liked it a lot; this is an example of the expedient means of bodhisattvas and buddhas.

 This is saving sentient beings according to circumstances and affinity!

 ===========================