Please Take A Look and See if You Are Yourself

Xuefeng

Oct. 5, 2020

If we have interacted with many people, we will find that people change and are unpredictable. We cannot figure out what kind of person they really are. There is a saying that "human hearts are hard to fathom." Even after decades of being together, we may still find the other person to be a stranger, causing us to feel lost in life. At this time, when we feel that others are difficult to fathom, we need to have a self-recognition, "Who am I really?" Am I myself? Am I also a fickle and unpredictable person?

It is not difficult to know oneself, and we can reason it out this way.

You see a peach tree with ripe peaches hanging from its branches. You pick one, take a bite, and feel the sweetness and fragrance in your mouth. You like it from the bottom of your heart and believe that this peach is a fairy peach. However, someone comes over and tells you that this peach is a demonic peach, which will turn people into demons when eaten. Later, someone else says that this peach is a desire peach, which will generate desires in people. Desires are like the chains that drag people down to hell.

The question is, what will you do now? Will you continue to eat or stop eating from now on?

If you follow your own feelings and continue to eat, then you are yourself.

If you listen to the evaluations of others and stop eating, then you are not yourself. You are just a puppet, possessed by the consciousness of others.

Have you ever experienced the taste of sexual love, especially the excitement brought by having an affair? If you feel excited, wonderful, and blissful and want to enjoy this happiness for the rest of your life, what will you do when you see an article that describes the harm of sex, such as, your energy is going to drain from below and warns of the difficulty of becoming enlightened due to lustful thoughts?

If you continue to enjoy the sexual pleasure and ignore the teachings of others, even ignoring the teachings of “Buddhists” and “gods”, then you are yourself. On the other hand, if you restrain the driving force in your heart and no longer engage in sexual activity, then you are not yourself. You are a puppet controlled by the thoughts of others, without any intellectual or independent consciousness. You cannot be considered a complete and independent person.

Suppose you are a Chanyuan celestial. You have lived in the New Oasis for LIFE, and you sincerely like this new way of life and want to live in it for the rest of your life. Now, someone says that Lifechanyuan is a cult and an illegal organization, and Xuefeng is a big demon who cheats people out of money and sex. What will you do? You start to waver, gradually moving away from Lifechanyuan and no longer daring to live in the New Oasis for LIFE, fearing that you will be deceived or suppressed. At this point, you have betrayed your own heart, abandoned your true feelings, and you are no longer yourself. You have been kidnapped by fear and have lost your true self.

People often say that they should "stick to the truth," but what is the "truth"? At the most basic level, the truth is your inner feelings, your inner driving force. When you listen to external judgments and preaching and go against your innermost driving force to speak and act, you have violated the truth. When you violate the truth, you are not yourself, you are a "fake person." The words you speak do not come from yourself; you are just a "megaphone." You will always be influenced by the outside world, and you have no "roots."

During my time at the Beijing University of International Business and Economics, I had a roommate who always said, "My wife said." Regardless of the topic, he always said, "My wife said..." Later, we gave him a nickname, "Mrs. Said." Is he still himself? Of course not; he is just a shadow of his wife. There are many such people. Some say, "My mother said," some say, "My master said," some say, "The guru said," some say, "The Buddha said," some say, "The organization said," and so on. These people have no selves and cannot find themselves. Of course, this "no self" is miles away from "selflessness." Every day on the internet, we can see articles that come like a tsunami, but upon careful reading, we find that they are all things taken from others. Some have only been slightly decorated, but fundamentally, they are not their own true voice and feelings.

It is very unfortunate that once you cannot find yourself, cannot live out your true self, you will ultimately regret it, and regret it for the rest of your life. Don't believe me? Go ask people over sixty years old who have lived their whole lives following others' "correct" and "instructive" ways, never living according to their true desires. As they near death, can they not regret it?

Yesterday, in a WeChat group, I saw a woman say a few words. She said, "People around me always ask me to be more stable. Be stable my ass! I am like a grasshopper in the autumn, and I can't jump around for many more days. What stability?"

After reading her heartfelt words, I felt that a true person had emerged.

Only the world of true people is the most exciting world, and only in the life of true people is there a heavenly life. If the surroundings are full of fake people, floating like ghosts. How can life be happy and fulfilling? How can one not be lost?