The Soaring Fire Horse: A Luminous Year Through Virtue

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, February 18, 2026, many returned to Ling Jiou Mountain to welcome the God of Wealth. This year’s spring couplet reads: “The Fire Horse Soars; Through Flourishing Virtue, Achievement, Power, and Prosperity.” In the Year of the Horse, associated with the element of fire, and within the Ninth Period, likewise characterized by fire, the intensification of fire signifies luminosity. Yet it is essential to remain mindful that only with virtue does true prosperity occur. When we attain reputation, we must attend to virtue; when we acquire wealth, we must also attend to virtue. We should not forget the observance of virtue upon achieving success.

Accordingly, the greatest means of dispelling calamities and resolving adversity this year is “virtue (dé).” Holding virtue is paramount. In contemporary society, however, few pay attention to virtue; consequently, the environment at large deteriorates and becomes unstable. If, by contrast, everyone acts virtuously and kindly, then society would naturally prosper. We ourselves must strive toward such a disposition: to benefit others and to encourage them to do what is virtuous.

The greatest benefit in this life lies in acting for the benefit of others. To hold the intention, at every moment, of benefiting others is itself the mark of a virtuous individual. To study and practice Buddhadharma is to attain awakening, to clear obstacles, and to gain clarity of understanding. The benefits derived from Dharma practice include refraining from non-virtue and the cultivation of virtue. Moreover, everyone can attain buddhahood, which is a shared and universal good. As a collective society, we must flourish together; human hearts must flourish together. Bodhicitta means always remaining with sentient beings without regression; until all beings attain buddhahood, we accompany them. This is the generation of bodhicitta.

To practice Dharma is to acquire clarity, or, to uncover the luminosity within: to learn how there is no birth and death, no cyclic existence, and no suffering; how to be free from afflictions and to dispel all delusion. Clarity is our original face. Our mind is luminous; our nature is of emptiness. Being of emptiness, it possesses no intrinsic entity. This luminosity has been present even before our birth. The very nature of this essence is emptiness; thus, our mind, which is luminous and of emptiness, remains unchanging.

By contrast, this physical body arises from karmic force and therefore inevitably undergoes birth, aging, sickness, and death. Such processes are entirely natural. To study and practice Dharma is to understand that the Buddha is luminous, and that we too are luminous; when there is luminosity, there is no affliction. Affliction arises from ignorance, from a lack of clarity. To live one’s days in lucid awareness is to live as a Buddha; to live in confusion is to live as an ordinary sentient being. Today, we are fortunate to encounter the teachings of the Buddha. Since we ourselves possess the buddha-nature, we can certainly attain buddhahood—there is no doubt. The only concern is engaging in wrongdoing: failing to refrain from non-virtue, failing to cultivate virtue, and lacking the aspiration to become a Buddha. In such a case, one gains nothing in this life. If one wishes to gain something, there are only three essentials: to refrain from non-virtue, to cultivate virtue, and to engender bodhicitta.

Life, as ordinarily experienced, is a continuous cycle of birth and death. That which neither revolves in cyclic existence nor undergoes birth and death is this luminosity. It is due to ignorance that we revolve in samsara and undergo living and dying; with luminosity, there is no birth and death. Therefore, everyone should have confidence in themselves, as all are capable of practicing the Dharma and attaining buddhahood. Be joyful now; be joyful in all things; be joyful always.