A Thousand Cuts Won’t Awaken People

Xuefeng

December 24, 2024

The idea that people cannot be awakened by words but only through society’s brutal beatings is widespread online. Some claim that 1% of people awaken through the guidance of enlightened individuals, while the other 99% must endure the thousand cuts of harsh reality before they can wake up.

I want to say this: relying on beatings and a thousand cuts doesn’t awaken people—it drives them into decline, decadence, or even savagery and cruelty.

Our grandfathers were beaten and subjected to a thousand cuts; their grandfathers experienced the same. So why would people today awaken from such treatment?

Our parents’ marriages were unhappy, filled with quarrels. Our grandparents’ marriages were equally unhappy and quarrelsome. Their grandparents’ marriages were no different. Does this mean people today have awakened to the problems of marriage? If it weren’t for urbanization, the proliferation of the internet, and the rising costs of living forcing people to reconsider, most would still step into marriage as before. Who has truly awakened?

Many live in constant pain and worry every day. They reach the age of 50, 60, 70, or even 80, yet they remain trapped in their pain and worries. Have these hardships awakened them? Not at all!

A daughter-in-law endures hardship until she becomes a mother-in-law. But once she becomes a mother-in-law, does she spare her own daughter-in-law? No—she perpetuates the same torment her mother-in-law inflicted upon her. How many daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law have truly awakened?

What is the result of society’s beatings and a thousand cuts? Every day, tens of thousands of people commit suicide. Is this their so-called awakening?

Generation after generation has been subjected to beatings and a thousand cuts, and this has already broken their spines. Even if someone manages to awaken, their backbone is gone. What can they possibly achieve? How can they contribute positively to society?

Even in the exceedingly rare cases where someone awakens through beatings and a thousand cuts and chooses to resist, such individuals, once they seize power, often turn around and inflict the same beatings and cuts upon others. It is rare for them to become compassionate Buddhas or Bodhisattvas.

The reality is this: those who can awaken through the guidance of enlightened individuals are exceedingly few. Those who can awaken through beatings and a thousand cuts are even fewer. This is a historical lesson humanity has learned over thousands of years.

So, where does the path to awakening lie?

The path lies in the new production and life model established by Lifechanyuan’s Second Home. In other words, the nature of human character depends on the system in which it operates, just as the way a program functions depends on its coding. Without entering a new program, how can one awaken? Could people a hundred years ago have conceived of a smartphone? Could a heavenly paradise be realized without entering a heavenly lifestyle?

Let’s stop relying on beatings and a thousand cuts to awaken people. That road is a dead end. Instead, let people live joyfully, freely, and happily every day. That is the best path to awakening.