Spiritual practice is often misunderstood as an accumulation of external forms: holding prayer beads, reciting scriptures, using ritual implements, wearing robes. However, if one becomes attached to appearances and neglects inner purification, practice can become a burden, even making one feel "surrounded by negative energy." True practice lies not in what you do, but in what you become.

1. Common Misconceptions in Practice: Form Over Essence

• Over-reliance on Ritual Tools: Mistaking tools for dispelling negativity, while ignoring that mental cultivation is the foundation.

• Mechanical Repetition of Rituals: Chanting daily with a wandering mind turns practice into an empty routine.

• Seeking External Validation: Displaying a "practitioner" identity through clothing, speech, or diet, while straying from the essence of heart cultivation.

2. The Core of Practice: Inner Seeking and Heart-Mind Unity

• Face Inner Conflicts: Practice is about confronting inner greed, anger, delusion, and false thoughts, not escaping worldly life.

• Let Go of Attachment to Form: True offering is "offering from the heart," not the number of statues.

• Practice Within the Mundane World: Practice does not require withdrawing from society; it is about maintaining awareness and compassion in daily life.

3. Practical Suggestions: From "Recalling the Spirit" to "Pacifying the Heart"

• Daily Self-Reflection Time: Sit quietly, observe the mind, acknowledge the rise and fall of thoughts, and accept oneself as is.

• Simplify External Forms: Do not cling to ritual tools and procedures; emphasize the motivation and state of mind behind actions.

• Cultivate Goodness Starting from Those Around You: Filial piety towards parents and kindness to others are true "merit."

Spiritual practice is not a performance nor a transaction; it is a path inward. Only when the heart is pure and the spirit is settled can external "negative energy" find no place to attach.