Do Not Stop Your Steps

Xuefeng

April 8, 2008

To those who are marching toward the kingdom of light, happiness, and freedom: once you’ve started your journey, do not stop. The road to the spiritual mountain is inherently rough and uneven. You must cross many high mountains and rivers, with countless ditches and obstacles along the way. It is like the journey of Monk Tang to the West to obtain the scriptures, where he had to endure eighty-one trials. If you retreat at the first setback, all your previous efforts will be in vain, and you will fail at the last moment.

The path I am guiding you on is already the most direct, simplest, and straightest. If you retreat now, you will lose this rare opportunity to reach the spiritual mountain, and I will feel sorry for you.

Cultivation inherently involves pain; without it, there is no true cultivation.

Self-improvement requires continually letting go and giving. If you do not want to release what you have or give others freedom, then it is not self-improvement.

I understand the difficulty of each person’s path. Sometimes, it truly is exhausting and unbearable. Loneliness and despair often strike the heart, and inexplicable melancholy and solitude, along with worry and anxiety, often spread like dark clouds, suffocating us. Thoughts like "I don’t want to live anymore" often flash through the mind. You want to shout out, but cannot. "Cutting the water with a knife only makes it flow more," and "trying to drown your sorrows in drink only deepens them." What can you do?

Persevere through the struggle and do not give up. If the mountain doesn’t move, the water will. If the land route is blocked, there is a waterway. If there is no bridge over the river, there is a ferry. Heaven never closes all doors; when one door closes, nine others will open. The key is, do not stop moving forward. Sandstorms and torrential rains will not last forever. Endure, endure, and endure again. After the rain, the air will be fresher, and the earth, mountains, and rivers will be more beautiful.

Believe in the Greatest Creator! Believe in goodness! Believe that the night will give way to dawn, and every day the sun will rise in the east. As long as we keep the divine light burning in our hearts and do not let obstacles block our vision, we will surely see the vast plains and the long-awaited home on our spiritual mountain.

It is because of suffering that we walk the path of the Greatest Creator, aiming for the Thousand-year World, Ten-thousand-year World, and the Celestial Islands Continent of the Elysium World. Along the way, hardships and tests will come at any time. When faced with challenges like the Flaming Mountain and Tongtian River, if we retreat, all hope will shatter, and we will be forever disconnected from our beautiful home. If we turn back, where will we go? The sea of suffering is endless! Without the help of divine authority, it will be difficult to escape the bounds of the sea of suffering with just our own wisdom and effort.

In the section of advanced self-improvement, I mentioned that we must often return to zero. If we carry too much weight, our journey will be too difficult. What does returning to zero mean? It means letting go of all personal biases and preconceptions, clearing all fixed ideas from our minds, making ourselves completely empty, and placing ourselves in a state of having already died—that is returning to zero.

Why do we suffer so much? Why are our steps so slow and heavy? Because we cannot let go and always want to possess more. Remember the teachings of Christ Jesus and Buddha Sakyamuni—they are the truth, the path to elevating LIFE! We are unwilling to let go of what we have now and always want more on top of it. However, if we do not let go now, one day, we will be forced to give up everything. By then, if we refuse to accept the toast and instead choose punishment, not only will we lose everything in this world, but more regrettably, our LIFE will find it difficult to ascend. The kingdom of freedom will be beyond our reach, and our LIFE will be forever accompanied by darkness, eternally trapped in the cycle of life and death, never knowing our past and future lives.

We should not blame heaven or earth, others, or society. In reality, no one owes us anything. If we think someone owes us something, it is a mistaken belief. Merits and demerits are judged by the Tao, and right and wrong are discerned by the divine. Do not think that our suffering is caused by others. "You reap what you sow"—this is the law of heaven.

Do not hate others, do not compare yourself with others, do not complain about others. When suffering comes, endure it; when hardship comes, bear it. The more we complain and cry, the more we suffer, and the deeper our troubles become.

Do not criticize or pick on others but reflect on ourselves. When we see ugliness in others, it may be that the ugliness is within us.

Keep a pure and clear heart, maintain a sober mind, and humble yourself to the lowest state. Be grateful for everything, and in doing so, we will not be far from the spiritual mountain. If we become arrogant, think we are remarkable, or believe the earth would stop turning without us, we will become worthless and distant from our spiritual home.

Keep moving forward! Heaven helps those who help themselves, and the beautiful home belongs to those who persevere without yielding!

"A thousand sails pass by the side of a sunken ship; a thousand trees flourish in front of a sick tree." Let the timid, lazy, arrogant, self-righteous, those who fear hardship, complain, speculate, and blame heaven and earth, stand still or turn back! We will continue to move forward!

Do not look back! Look forward!

Do not look down! Look up!

Do not look sideways! Look to the future!