PureInsight | July 15, 2007
[PureInsight.org]
Chapter 1: Originally Coming From the Heavens
Section 1: Being at Ease in Heaven
(Continued)
I always hear people saying around me say: "I'm living a very leisurely
and carefree life. It's almost comparable to the divine beings' lives!"
At these times, I always smile. I always think: "If he only knew how he
had lived before, he would at least feel embarrassed for what he just
said."
While we are living in this society, who can say that in his life he
has no worries and no sufferings? Our everyday saying to describe this
life is "every family has its own troubles." It's always one thing
after another. When an everyday person gains something he gets so happy
and when he loses something he's so sad. Some have gotten sick and
struggle with their health situations. Slowly and gradually, a lifetime
is over. The good things and bad things he has done in this lifetime
all become the important criteria of whether he will live a good or a
bad life in his next lifetime. After being evaluated, he enters the
next round of reincarnation.
In the heavens there are no such uncertainties or sufferings due to human sentimentality. How is that possible?
In this universe, the higher level a being lives in, the more eternal
the life is. In different levels and different dimensions, the concepts
of time are different.
We think that we have five thousand years of culture and that we can
realize the several billions of years of history of the universe. But
all of these, from the point of view of many levels, are just like an
instant! It's comparable to the time of a short sentence spoken by one
Buddha to another Buddha. Then, can we not say that the times in the
dimensions that Buddhas and other high level beings live are basically
eternal? They forever enjoy the infinite happiness that Dafa has
created for the beings in that level!
There is a saying among ordinary people: "Without a healthy body, even
the best food will not taste delicious." If one's health condition gets
worse or if one passes away, then even if he had been a billionaire,
what difference does that make? In the heavens, the Buddha bodies are
all golden, shining, transparent, fine, and smooth. The jewelry
Bodhisattvas wear on their heads and wrists are all extremely
wonderful. Since they don't have to suffer from reincarnation,
everything exists almost eternally at those levels.
Actually many people with great inborn quality have understood that
nothing in the human world can be eternal. Thus, in the eyes of
cultivators, everything in the human world is just like a dream or some
kind of hallucination. In history, there was a very successful
cultivator named Milerepa. Before he passed away, he instructed his
disciples that they must believe in cause and effect, as well in as the
suffering in the Three Realms due to reincarnation. By doing this they
can reinforce their wills to cultivate and eventually successfully
break away from the rebirth cycle.
This is exactly true! When a being understands that one could live
without any suffering, then he will cultivate despite any price. There
have been many historical stories like this, such as Sakyamuni giving
up being a respected prince and going into the mountains alone in order
to cultivate. Monk Huike cut off his arm in order to obtain the Fa and
so on.
We've discussed eternity, so now we will talk about compassion.
Humans live for sentimentality. This is acknowledged by everyone. Thus,
when a human being is held strongly by sentimentality, much of what he
expresses is not based on reason and a lot of it is very bad. Humans
are just like this. Being angry is sentimentality, things going on
between male and female are sentimentality, love and hate, wanting to
do something or not wanting to do something, these are all
sentimentality. From sentimentality many notions have evolved, which
will be discussed in detail later.
Actually, sentimentality is quite selfish. Of course we are also harmed
by these sentimentalities. For example, if someone treats us badly in
the work place we will feel unhappy. If, at home, our children
weren't doing well at school, we will be worried, etc. These are small
things in our everyday lives. However, even big things, such as
scientists doing research for all the people in the world (eg, planning
for migration to Mars), considered the most unselfish things in the
viewpoint of ordinary people, are still selfish in the eyes of
cultivators. These scientists do not view it from the point of the
entire universe. The level of human morality is so low nowadays
that if we let ourselves go to other planets, won't we also pollute and
destroy other planets in the process? Of course all these ideas came
from the will to seek for places to live, so they are not wrong. But
now the "materialism" that science promotes totally puts away human
morality, which has caused the decline of human morality and caused
humans to rely more and more on machinery and become more and more like
animals.. Obviously, there are other reasons that will be discussed in
the second section. When we lose the moral levels of humans, it will be
like wolves are in control of the most advanced technologies. Isn't
that scary?
What a Buddha has is compassion, which is in the opposite direction from human sentimentality.
Compassion is completely unselfish. It's truly for sentient beings.
Here I must clarify something. From point of view of the high level
beings, for humans who come to this world, their true purpose should
not be living as humans, but for paying off their sinful karma so they
can return to the beautiful heavens. But modern people have twisted the
original meaning of compassion and ask Buddhas to be compassionate by
letting one become rich, healthy and trouble-free. If a Buddha indeed
let you have lots of money and have no diseases or disasters
whatsoever, then how could you go back to the original place? It would
be impossible.
We all know that back then when Monk Tripitaka was on the way to the
west to obtain the Buddhist scriptures, he went through all kinds of
tribulations, difficulties and dangers, and finally obtained the true
Buddhist scriptures at the end. Let's think about it. How much trouble
and patience would it take for a Buddha to arrange this whole process?!
Take today's Falun Gong practitioners for example. When a practitioner
first descended to this world, Teacher went looking for him and
constantly protected him from being harmed. During many generations of
reincarnations, Teacher continued to establish a relationship with him
in order to enlighten him to prevent him from creating more karma that
might destroy him before the spreading of Dafa was to begin. When
introducing Falun Dafa to the public, Teacher tried to open his
enclosed mind with the principle of the Fa to free his soul. Teacher
had to impart the mechanism of Dafa like planting seeds in him. Because
humans have bodies in many dimensions and there exists a complex and
broad structure in every cell, Teacher had to implement everything in
his microscopic body. When a practitioner was descending from a higher
level of the heaven, he came down layer after layer. They might have
done something not according to the standard of each level and thus
owed debts to some high level beings. During many samsara in this human
world, every one has committed many karma-causing acts or killing.
Because of these reasons, the enlightened being will need to eliminate
the bad karma so they can practice cultivation. Actually, all this
karma is shouldered by the enlightened being. And all the pain is also
endured by the enlightened being.
Compassion is not only expressed in kindness. It is a realm of
willingness to pay for the benefit of all sentient being and the
cosmos. This realm cannot be reached by just any being at any place. In
a celestial kingdom, under the compassionate field of Buddhas, sentient
beings will feel a pure and unparalleled compassionate power. This
compassionate realm will guard all things in it, benevolently resolve
all predestined relationships, and forgive everything. It will, of
course, change all impurities that do not meet the standard at that
level, including all matter and beings. This is the manifestation of
the Buddha Fa. All impure demons are really scared. These demons and
corrupt things will be disintegrated facing the mighty and
compassionate Buddha.
Let us now talk about the aspects of wisdom and abilities.
Many people think that humans nowadays have tremendous abilities.
Macroscopically, humans have landed on the moon and on Mars with an
unmanned space vehicle. Our telescopes can observe space tens of
billions of light-years away. Microscopically, humans can detect
elemental particles smaller than quarks. In architecture, humans have
built many skyscrapers. Humans pride themselves on all of these
accomplishments. But the Buddhas wisdom is much greater than all of
these.
A Buddha knows how the Earth come about and everything about a person
over many cycles of samsara. He can bring great changes on Earth with
the waving of a hand. He can create everything a human needs in a flash
and can make bad people vanish without a trace instantly. These things
are viewed from the human level. From the realm of Buddhas, their
capabilities would be inconceivable to us. The universe is a very
complex structure. It has many different coexisting spatial and
temporal dimensions. It is hard for the average person to comprehend.
Take a handbag as an example. Its two sides are made of different
pieces of cloth. It has the condition of same time and dimension.
Actually, we cannot see the difference of their true sources. All
things have spirit. If a thing does not have a spirit, it will
disintegrate immediately. Take our feet for example. They just look
like what they appear to be. But traditional Chinese medicine considers
them second hearts. Each acupoint on the feet corresponds to an organ.
That is why many cultivators consider the human body a universe. A
Buddha's view of such a complex structure is beyond human imagination.
A Buddha can see things most broadly, from the most macroscopic to
microscopic. That is to say, a Buddha will know every thing no matter
how complex the structure is. Isn't this the manifestation of their
capabilities and wisdom?
Let make a simple comparison of the capabilities.
We know to build a common three room brick house will take more than a
month to finish. The builder will be worried about it during the
construction. But it takes only a moment of time for a Buddha to build
a house. Of course, the houses in the heavens are not like the houses
in this world. The gods feel that everything in this human world is
filthy. Actually, a god can build a very large universe in a flash. The
higher a Buddha is, the more beautiful it will be. Of course, it lasts
forever. It takes machines and energy for humans to build anything, but
not so for a Buddha. A Buddha is invisible. He can complete a task
without other beings realizing it and it will be perfect. It is
permeated with Buddha's compassionate power and endless wisdom.
That is why human visions are unable to compare with those of a Buddha.
Life in the heavens can be described with this poem:
The heaven is serene and carefree,
Boundless Fa has compassion for the sentient beings,
A god sees ten directions macroscopically and microscopically,
Sitting on an unpolluted lotus flower to safeguard the cosmos.
When a Buddha spreads the Fa, the heavenly fairies scatter blossoms and Fa music fills the air,
Tens of thousands of manifestations when watching the sentient beings in the cosmos with a tranquil mind,
Willing to give up every thing for the safety of the cosmos,
Enjoying infinite happiness and being carefree in being the only supreme being at the level.
Translated from: http://zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2007/6/26/44551.html
