Why Strive to Become a Celestial

Xuefeng

Imagine if a caterpillar didn’t struggle to break out of its cocoon, the result would be suffocation inside it.

Imagine if Elon Musk hadn’t left South Africa for the United States, he would be just an ordinary person.

If Einstein hadn’t left Germany for the U.S., if Sergey Brin hadn’t left the Soviet Union for the U.S., if Fermi hadn’t left Italy for the U.S., if Madeleine Albright hadn’t left Czechoslovakia for the U.S., if Arnold Schwarzenegger hadn’t left Austria for the U.S., and so on, they wouldn’t have had the brilliant chapters in their lives.

In 1980, Cuban President Castro deliberately released 150,000 Cuban prisoners, mentally ill patients, and prostitutes into the small American city of Miami, intending to create chaos in the U.S. Instead, it contributed to Miami’s prosperity. Imagine, if these 150,000 prisoners, mentally ill patients, and prostitutes had stayed in Cuba, their fate would have been much more tragic.

Right now, in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, it's said that nearly 200,000 Russian soldiers have already died on the battlefield, with even more injured. If Russia as a country didn’t exist, or if the soldiers who died weren’t Russian citizens, this tragedy wouldn’t have happened.

From this, we can see that if a person wants their life to shine, to avoid a tragic existence, they must break out of their cocoons and escape from the environments that confine them.

Think for a moment: What is imprisoning you?

Anything that traps you is a prison, no matter what it is.

You either escape from prison, endure the suffering until your sentence ends, or die in prison.

Without breaking free from your prison, all your efforts will ultimately be in vain. Any status, fame, wealth, or achievements gained inside the prison will eventually dissipate like smoke.

A person lives only once. If they don’t break out of the two great prisons of the body and the earth, their final fate will be to have lived as a prisoner their entire life. Even if one becomes an emperor or president, a billionaire, or a person of great success and admiration, they are just big prisoners or small prisoners, famous prisoners or nameless prisoners.

Therefore, the ultimate effort of a person’s life should be directed toward becoming a celestial.

If you don’t strive to become a celestial, you remain a prisoner.

Perhaps the effort to become a celestial won’t fulfill your wish, but at least there is hope. If you don’t make the effort, despair is inevitable because the final stop is death.

2024-10-11