Walk on the Way of Nature, Love all Life Beings – Series of the Bright Spots (4)

Written by Yixian on January 16, 2014

The core principles of Lifechanyuan are: Revere the Greatest Creator, revere LIFE, revere nature, and walk on the way of the Greatest Creator. When seeing these values of Lifechanyuan for the first time, I thought: “Why use the word “revere”? Are “the Greatest Creator” (Chinese for, “the heaven”), LIFE, and nature not very lovely? They could be very kind, so why use “revere” which means respect, stay away with some fears – this did not sound good and I did not really like it (*^__^*). Later when I went more deeply, I understood the reason behind it. Other than the word “revere”, there is no more perfect word to use.I remember reading part of an article which said that people who have reverence in their hearts are the very best people. I was surprised, why was it reverence but not mercy, tolerance, or love? I later understood that people who have reverence in their hearts, by very definition, must be merciful and tolerant, and love all life beings. Their hearts are soft and delicate and their love is broad and pure. The author must have found the secret.

The Greatest Creator of Lifechanyuan is the almighty creator who created the universe and all life beings. He is the “heaven” and the “God” that people refer to in daily life, or that which is often understood as nature. The Greatest Creator created the universe, LIFE, and nature, and He loves every life being very much and manages the running of the universe and the birth, sublimation, and death of all life beings through Tao.

He creates people, lets us live on earth, gives us free will to do what we like, and shows His tremendous love. If we can get along well with each other and love and protect the beauty of nature, the Greatest Creator will be very happy, because His will is to let every life being live a happy, joyful, free, and blessed life.

The Second Home of Lifechanyuan walks on the way of the Greatest Creator and follows His will, loves all life beings, and exists in harmony with all lives in nature, whether they are grass, mice, birds, snakes, or any others.

Four years ago, when we arrived in the 1st branch in Anning, we found mice in the storeroom, so some people asked our guide if we needed to buy rat poison or mousetraps. Xuefeng said, “mice are also lives, they have their right to live, and they also have their families, but they are just staying in the wrong places”. Then he tried to communicate with the mice, saying: “we have recently moved in here, and although you were created by the Greatest Creator and bestowed with your way of living, you would be better off living in a place without people. Now you came and destroyed our food and supplies and this seriously affected our daily lives, so why not go to a place far away where we will not interfere with each other but we will get along in harmony.” Then our people caught these mice carefully and moved them to a place far away from us, without hurting any of them.

In 2011, we planted several acres of wheat in our 3rd branch in Chuxiong. When they ripened, many birds came and sang happily, but also ate lots of our wheat. Some of our sisters complained to the guide, “You see so much wheat grew and ripened after our hard work, but now it is being eaten by the birds”. Our guide smiled and said, “It is good that they are eating, now we can hear the singing of birds”. There are about ten persimmon trees on the mountain slopes of the 3rd branch, and when they turn red in autumn, small birds learn it first and eat the sweetest and reddest parts of them, and many times we ate the fruits after they had been bitten by the birds. We never pick up all the fruits, but we leave some specially for the birds. Therefore, the singing of birds can be heard everywhere in our 3rd branch, plus flowers are blooming all over our garden, it is really a place full of flower fragrance and bird’s songs. These lovely small life beings are never afraid of us, they stand in front of you, tilt their heads, and look at you. At that moment you can feel how awesome it is to be harmonious with nature.

In the 4th branch in Lincang, as most of the trees were eucalyptus and were planted by previous landlords, there were almost no birds at first. Later we planted many other trees such as ornamental trees and fruit trees, and also all kinds of different flowers. We even built many small bird houses for them, putting some millets on them before their “windows”, and then they came. Now you can see birds flying freely and happily in the garden. When I first came to 4th branch last May, I saw a group of birds flying up and down in the flowers before my window, then later I knew they were eating the ripe seeds. In the harvest season, we had a whole slope of turnips, way too many to eat, so most of them flowered. Our guide suggested that we leave them so that the bees and birds would have enough food. We also made several beehives specifically for bees, and although we have not had any honey yet, we let these lovely life beings enjoy their own fruit first.

We also built a bird park, specifically in the 4th branch, and there are seven or eight kinds of birds that live there happily. Pigeons walk and fly freely in the park with no fears at all. We even built a glass flower villa for some delicate flowers and everyone treats all flowers and diverse plants with love from our hearts.

In the view-ponds there are some fishes, one sister is responsible for taking care of and feeding them, another sister is responsible for changing the water and cleaning the pond for them.

Humans and all life beings are trying to live in the Second Home while demonstrating their most natural, civilized, and beautiful states, because this is a home of love and beauty.

We have many examples of, “revere LIFE, love plants and animals”, in the Second Home. For example, if we find snakes, we catch them and take them to the mountains. If the grass or weeds grow too high on the slope, we cut them without hurting their roots, because we know that treating other lives kindly is treating ourselves kindly. Everything created by the Greatest Creator is ordered and every life being walks their own way. The life and production of human beings cannot deprive the same rights to other lives and cannot destroy the balance of nature.

Because of the value, “Revere LIFE, Revere Nature” in Lifechanyuan, the life and production of the Second Home matches the principle of ecological civilization — “create the environment of realizing the broad and deep harmony between people and people, people and society, and people and nature.