Life's Most Critical Step

Xue Feng

August 24, 2005

What kind of person would you like to become? This is the most critical question in Life. A mistake here could reduce your whole Life to a tragedy.

Everyone's reality is the result of the consciousness of their past. Buddha’s consciousness will attain Buddhahood. Saints’ consciousnesses will become saints. Dogs’ consciousnesses will become dogs. Likewise, whether you will become a Celestial being, a sage, a mortal, or a laity all depends on your own consciousness.

Life is short and not easy to come by. Foxes, white snakes, and other animals need to cultivate their LIVES for millennia to attain human status. If we do not fully grasp Life, it will be too late for us to regret it.

Consider four classmates: Peter, Alex, Jack, and John are the same age and attend the same classes at the same school. Peter wants to become the president, Alex wants to become an artist, Jack a peasant, and John a robber. At the present, there are no obvious differences between them, but in the long run, the distance will grow immensely. Jack can never become the president and John can never be an artist.

Ninety percent (90%) of people live haphazardly. Only a handful are sensible enough to master Tao. Many great figures started to plan their Lives and begin their own unique struggles when they were very young.

In terms of realizing Life’s value, the greatest ideal leads to the easiest potential to be developed and the greatest contribution to society and mankind. The lives of those who live only for themselves by consuming resources and bringing pain to others do not have much value. If they live only for their families, to glorify their ancestors, and to rush around for their children, they will not benefit their society very much. If they serve only their nation, state, religion, political party, or class, they cannot be beneficial to the whole of mankind by creating contradictions, chaos, hatred, and wars with non-members. However, those who seek to benefit all of mankind stand too high for average people to reach. Their love benefits everyone. Jesus and Sakyamuni were great in this way.

Consider this question: Has anyone in the history of mankind ever been as wise or as great as Jesus or Sakyamuni?

We must learn from Jesus and Sakyamuni, become their disciples from deep within our hearts, and keep our thoughts resonant with theirs. On the basis of this resonance, we draw ourselves closer to the Greatest Creator; the ancestor of Buddha Tathagata.

The accumulated and combined wisdom of mankind would not surpass the integrated wisdom of Jesus and Sakyamuni. Therefore, those who have given up their teachings, be it an individual, a religious organization, a psychic, or someone who has acquired special magical power and arts, and no matter how many believers they have or how prestigious they might be, have taken on the heterodoxy, the small way, not the Great Way.

What kind of person would you like to become? You must consider this question and answer it or your life will be unclear, confused, muddled, and ultimately in vain.

Why do people have no faith? Because they do not know what kind of people they want to become. Why do people suffer? The answer is the same.

Once you have set your goals, information that is relevant to them will flood in. You can make full use of the following information: “The benevolent see benevolence and the wise see wisdom”? Su Xiaomei recognized this when she educated her unwise and confused brother.

Capitalists see money everywhere and stay on top of market conditions; artists live in a world of colors, lines, and structures; sports fans are keen to find information about their favorite teams and players in newspapers, magazines, on TV, and across the internet; pop culture fans know each and every move of their idols; johns looking for hookers have very different looks in their eyes than saintly priests; Mages think quite differently from pastors; and beggars never think like millionaires.

“Seek and ye shall find.” Everything depends on whether we have or do not have firm faith. If you want to build a tall building, you must see concrete and steel; if you want to live in a thatched cottage, you must feel thatch and adobe; if you want to eat meat, you must taste flesh; if you want to eat vegetables, you must smell plants; and if you want to be a Celestial being, you must explore the mysteries of time, space, and LIFE. The truth is simple but hard to enact.

You often stray from your goal because you cannot resist temptation and you often regret because you do not have a strong enough will. Those who monitor others have evil intentions and those who are always afraid of being cheated are themselves, worthless cheaters. Those who suspect Jesus and Sakyamuni have no spiritual perception or short of firm will to seek Tao，and those who are companies of laities cannot be saints. Those who delude themselves with phenomena and who are extremely rational and focus on reality too much shall never see the Greatest Creator and atheists can never become Celestial beings.

Hey, I have said more than enough. The lost are lost and the awakened are awake.