PureInsight | June 23, 2007
[PureInsight.org] Preface: In
the vast world filled with human beings, all of us have been busily
working on our own things. Happiness and sadness, however, are always
with us - they are like our twins. On the days that we aren't so busy,
have we thought about what the true goals are for our lives? Why are we
here? Why are there so many good and bad things happening around us?
Why are there always people who trouble us, or people whom we trouble
in our lives? Are these really all just random? Are lives just supposed
to be like this until we get old?
My friends, maybe you have encountered a certain group of people: they
are spread over all levels of society and are in all age groups. They
pretty much feel indifferent about materialistic benefits and stand
apart from worldly affairs. Any honors, insults, gains, and loss in the
human world are not important to them. Even if they've suffered all
kinds of persecutions by the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP), they
are still firm in cultivation and are still compassionate with people
around them...
What is the motivating force that has made them so different? What kind
of spiritual realm does the principle they follow - "Truthfulness,
Compassion, and Forbearance" have?
In this series of articles I will use my own experience to talk about
these topics. But because the universe is so huge, there are way too
many things that I have not come to understand and don't have a clue
about. Thus I only hope my articles can have an effect of "attracting a
jade by throwing out a brick".
Anything I talk about in the articles comes from my own experience.
Because of the obvious reason that everyone knows, the names of people
and places are all made up.
Index:
Chapter 1: Originally Coming From the Heavens
Chapter 2: Falling to the Human World and Being Buried within Human Society
Chapter 3: Obtaining the Fa Today and Breaking through Confusion
Chapter 4: Assisting Master to Validate the Fa and Settling Down the Vows
Chapter 5: Returning to the Original Place in the New Universe (Concluding Remarks)
Chapter 1: Originally Coming From the Heavens
Introduction: It was raining
outside today. I walked back home from work. The mountains were far
away and the buildings were nearby. They all seemed misty due to the
rain. People were passing by me and they also seemed to be covered up
by the rain. As I was looking at all this, I suddenly felt the urge in
my heart to write down everything I know.
This is not the way we used to live. In our original state of life, we
did not have to struggle for money or fame and we did not suffer from
being surrounded by birth, old age, illness, and death. We came from
very high levels. We owned things that were much more beautiful,
realistic, and permanent, compared with what we have now.
Section 1: Being at Ease in Heaven
Each one of us has an origin where we came from. In the boundless
universe there are so many different levels and worlds. They are more
than the number of grains of sand on the bottom of the Ganges River.
Therefore, every being has a different understanding about the meaning
of life. This has to do with the characteristics of this life.
Here I'll talk about my experience and my understanding of the states of the divine beings in the heavens.
In order for more people to understand it, I'll begin with one specific
level in the universe. I'll try my best to provide some details.
In the worlds of Buddhas, things are very lively and diverse. In the
world that I originally came from there were mountains, rivers,
flowers, as well as sky and earth.
Everything there will be a form of energy to beings below that level.
They can change their forms and states at will. All things are
transparent but have different colors. Also, everything is very smooth
and gentle and emits a form of a Buddha's compassion. These are only
described with human words, but actually it way surpasses the limits
that human languages can describe.
Let me talk about some details:
Among the worlds of the Buddhas, there is a part that belongs to me.
There, swift changes happen all the time. Do not mistake me – I'm just
talking about switching between mountains and oceans. In human
understanding, this kind of thing can only happen over the course
hundreds of thousands of years, or even longer. But in the heavens, it
is only that something has changed its state or form of existence. The
purpose of the changes is to show the richness and beauty of the Buddha
worlds. Of course the changes are not totally random. All forms of
changes in lives correspond to the levels of these beings. It's like
what's said in Journey to the West,
the Monkey can turn into 72 different forms but the Pig can only turn
into 36 different forms. In that level of the heavens, the mountains
are all enormous. They are much bigger than the largest realm of the
universe that a human can imagine. There are lots of trees and grass on
the mountains and their colors are all transparent. In my domain, there
are many mountains that are very high. There are also many caves on the
mountains. The mountains are like our scriptures – we just make them
however we think to be the best. All of these are created using a
Buddha's power. Actually everything is alive, especially everything in
the worlds of the Buddhas. All these beings have their own forms and
states of existence. In the human world people always say "two
mountains cannot come together but two persons can meet each other
eventually." This sentence is not accurate in the worlds of Buddhas. In
general two mountains do not come together, but if they want to, they
can.
For example, when there is a big Fa-conference held in the heavens,
when some Buddha is teaching dharma, or when many Buddhas and other
forms of beings get together and discuss important issues in the entire
part of the universe and about the sentient beings there (the word
"discuss" cannot really describe it, but there aren't any better
words), these mountains would turn into the forms of kids or small
pieces of jade to come and listen to the dharma. This is unbelievable
to humans who are used to the way of thinking in our dimension. But
from what I see, it's indeed like this.
This is what mountains are like. Now we will talk about water. In the
worlds in that level, the water is clear and transparent. But there are
many kinds of water. Although they are, in general liquid, but it's
different from the water in the human world. We know that water flows
downward due to the gravitational force. (This is the superficial
reason. We have different opinions on this in the cultivation world).
But over there, this does not hold. Water can suspend itself in the
air, it can flow following its own path, and it can even flow from down
up!
There are also oceans and lakes in the heavens. They are actually for
dotted decorations. There are many kinds of animals and plants in the
oceans and lakes. In different worlds of Buddhas, there are different
kinds of them. For example, there is a type of golden dragon in my
world. His whole body is transparent and shines with gold light. On his
tail there is a pink sign. In another world that belongs to a female
Buddha, the golden dragons have green signs on their heads.
Life is very colorful there. Sometimes the rivers "play" with each
other happily. For example, once after a Fa-conference, a Buddha asked
the rivers to "perform." Every river and lake used its supernal powers
in the environment created by the Buddhas. Some rivers rushed up from
the bottom of a mountain and then slowly flowed down. Some flowed down
from the top vigorously, like waterfalls in the human world. Some lakes
were like beautiful poetic girls under the beautiful sky. Some flowed
around quietly, just like clouds in the sky. Some were like the black
holes that sucked in everything, as if their capacities had no limits.
In the heavens there are also all kinds of plants and animals. But they
are all very nice and tame. Maybe someone would think: it's
understandable that animals can be nice and tame, but what does it mean
for plants to be nice and tame? One can not view the plants in heavens
with human notions. In the heavens, all plants are very glorious – they
would never be poisonous or have thorns. Let's use lotus flowers as
examples. In the world that I was in, lotus flowers can not only show
their unique beauty, but they can also change to many different forms
and images. They can even stretch in the air at will and shine many
different colors! If a human being eats a fruit from the heavens, this
person will be able to live almost forever, because the fruits are all
composed of high energy substances. If they are brought to the human
world, they would be just like gong, which is very precious.
We just talked mainly about an overview of the worlds of the Buddhas.
Next we will talk about how we originally lived in the universe.
Back then many of us were Lords of Fa (Buddhas) or even the lords over
enormous parts of the universe. Thus we had to take good care of the
sentient beings there as well as maintain good conditions of that part
of the universe. It was not very easy and could be quite complicated.
But we were also enjoying extremely great honor! The sentient beings
were very, very respectful to us!
The beings in the heavens live very meaningfully. It is something that
we cannot imagine as humans. Of course, for the beings at different
levels, the living quality varies and the meanings of lives are
different.
The Founder of Falun Gong has once said: "Actually, Buddhas, too, teach
Fa in their paradises. Along with teaching the principles living beings
in those realms should follow, they mainly tell the cultivation stories
of Buddhas in different heavenly paradises. The stories are so
inspiring that even the living beings in the heavenly paradises are
moved to tears upon hearing them. That's why I've said that everyone
has to reach the standard in cultivation." ("Falun Buddha Fa -- Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Singapore")
In the heavens, everything is eternally beautiful and happy. One is
indeed forever away from the abyss of misery. There is no human emotion
in the heavens; instead, there is compassion, which is much nobler and
purer.
I'm thinking right now as I'm writing this: if I only write
descriptions, it will probably be a little boring to read. So I'll use
myself as an example to talk about a little bit of what it is like in
heavens.
I remember that back then, I sat on many layers of lotus flowers. My
body was extremely fine and transparent. I often taught dharma there
and I have to say that I spent much effort to take care the sentient
beings in that level. But also there were many happy and fun things.
Once we were having a Fa conference. In order for the sentient beings
there to value the times, I used "the divine power of Buddha Fa" to
show the sentient beings what the worlds in the bottom levels looked
like. In the bottom levels (back then the human dimension did not
exist), nothing is eternal. The time of life is also very short. Then,
in order to give the sentient beings a broader view, a Buddha let the
sentient beings see extremely beautiful and outstanding scene from his
world. All the sentient beings were shocked! The beautiful and
magnificent sight could not be described using human words. There were
all kinds of marvelous spectacles that humans could never imagine.
Right before the Fa conference was over, there appeared many heavenly
maidens who began to scatter flowers. It was like:
Rare flowers of seven colors fall down from above
Tens of thousands of colorful clouds spread in the air
The Buddha land shows its holiness and purity
It is unbelievably beautiful under the Buddha Fa light
Because a Buddha is compassionate, he can give up everything for
sentient beings but he will not be moved by them. I'll talk about this
in detail.
(To be continued)
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2007/6/15/44401.html
