168. You may actually refine yourself by immersing yourself in the world of laities; you may keep yourself aloof from the worldly affairs by involving yourself in them; you can accomplish your wish with your devotion; and you may make yourself outstanding from the ordinary by following the steps of the ordinary.
169. You can have the self only if you don’t have the self; you won’t have the self if you are encumbered by the self.
170. The more you possess, the more trouble you will have; What is surplus may prove a life-threatening burden to you.
171. It is difficult to cultivate Tao, even more difficult than the cliff path of Sichuan or even more difficult than scaling the heaven; it is difficult to attain celestial immortality, because it is difficult to get rid of the encumbrance of the worldly affairs.
172. To attain celestial immortality, you must make more commitment, paying off as soon as possible the debts you have owed for generations, and ridding life of the universal gravitation of human world, animal world, plant world, and inferno.
173. The end point of form is emptiness, not the nothingness but the deiformity. Immerse yourself in the deiformity and you become a celestial.
174. Fame, power, wealth and rank are traps. Glory and humiliation, and favor and humbleness are obstacles. Only with little selfish desire and indifference to favor and humiliation, can you embark on the road to celestial immortality. The lack of selfish desire is the starting point of becoming a celestial being. If the selfishness is not banished, you will be bound by a life of a laity, and if the desire is not extinguished, you may be engulfed by the fire of desire. If you want to be a celestial being, you must decrease your selfishness and weaken your desire, you must keep a sober mind in the face of fame, power and carnal pleasure, you should not be enslaved by material but use it at your will.
175. Flunkies sacrifice their life for profits, literati sacrifice their life for fame, scientists sacrifice their life for duty, ordinary people sacrifice their life for family, politicians sacrifice their life for the state, saints sacrifice their life for the world, and celestials sacrifice their life for Tao.
176. Love nature, you can hear the sound of nature and understand its meaning, you can taste the profundity of the Creator, you can understand the sanctity and order of the Greatest Creator, you can arouse your power of mercy and sympathy, you can treat everything in the universe equally, and you will be exempted from the vexation and worries resulting from the distinction between the noble and the humble, and you can prevent yourself from being eliminated by the principle of life.
177. If you want to become a celestial, you must be detached from the worldly affairs and withdraw from the worldly pursuit. There is only one word to describe the secular world: restlessness. There is only one word to depict the human world: noisiness. There is only one word to portray the fairyland: serenity. Transcendence over the worldly affairs means the great distance from restlessness and noisiness and a return to serenity.
178. Each kind of life structure lives in its corresponding space. Animals rush about on the earth, birds soar in the sky, bees buzz among the flowers, flies fleet to and fro between garbage piles, laities hustle and bustle in the private ownership of family, the sages wander freely in the public ownership, the celestial being loiter in the non-ownership, and fairies follow their own inclinations in their own world. Chanyuan celestial undergoes transition from the private ownership to public ownership, to non-ownership, and finally to free world.
179. One of the secrets for attaining celestial being is that we shall create the future and the fairyland in our consciousness. We shall first imagines ourselves as celestial beings in our consciousness. “The different modes of thinking will correspond to different modalities of life forms”. If we are always envisioning the life in the Thousand-year World, in the long run the structure of our life will be developed toward that of Thousand-year World. When the conditions are right, we can go to the Thousand-year World. Others may think that you are dead, but actually you have departed the human world to enjoy the celestial being’s life in the Thousand-year World.
180. Buddhism has theories of “five monastic precepts and ten kindnesses”, and “precepts, calmness, and wisdom”, Christianity has theories of original sins and penance, and human ethics has theories of rules governing human relationships, while the theories of celestial immortality preach the exposition of nature, freedom and pleasure, following the predestined relationship, freedom from restraint, and peripateticism.
181. If we are very tired and fatigued in life, we have strayed far from the Way of celestial; if we are more and more happy in life, if we are more and more unrestrained in life, then we are closer and closer to the Way of celestial.
182. Swine must have the thinking of the swine keeper if they want to know the meaning of their life. Man must know the thinking of their keeper if they want to know the meaning of their life. Anyone who knows the meaning of his life has achieved celestial.
183. If you want to become a celestial being, you must strive to find the “spiritual pure land”. You must plan your life around “spiritual pure land”. If you want to achieve celestial immortality, you must spread your love across the world. If you want to achieve celestial immortality, you must pool in effort to build the home without marriage and family of Lifechanyuan.
184. Eight major consciousnesses are involved in the process from the human world to the heaven, namely from human being to celestial being:
(1). Consciousness of LIFE. LIFE is an nonmaterial structure with spiritualism. It undergoes endless transmigration without annihilation.
(2). Consciousness of life and death. Life and death are only superficial phenomena and not essence, and they are only forms and not root. “Boundless grasses over the plain; Come and go with every season; Wildfire never quite consumes them ; They are tall once more in the spring wind” When the boat reaches the other shore, you should disembark and forget about the boat.
(3). Consciousness of karma. “As a man sows and so he shall reap”, “Mills of god grind slowly but surely”.
(4). Consciousness of space. There are 20 parallel worlds in the universe, 36-dimensional space, and paradises and hells. Paradises are prepared for the perfect persons, and hells are set up for the defected ones. There are different spaces of life for different life states.
(5). Consciousness of predestined relationships. All are predestined. A relationship with ghosts will make one go to the hell, a relationship with celestial being will make one go to the fairyland. If the debts are not paid off, one cannot walk out of the plight, and if one does not have enough merits and virtue, he cannot reach the fairyland.
(6). The consciousness of mind and nature. Reality is the projection of consciousness, consciousness creates realities. Phenomena arise from mind and mind transcends all phenomena. “Mind is the most important of the Three Realms, and consciousness is the most important of all rules” The fragrance will attract butterflies to flowers, and a pure heart will be frequented by celestial beings. A mind that does not abide anywhere is Tathagata. Nature is the characteristic of structure, and nature is Buddha.
(7). The consciousness of magical arrays. In the universe there are 36 magical arrays, which are the sources of games. They are full of fun. For example, power, money, fame, gain, carnal pleasure, and sentiment are magical arrays, from which one can not detach himself once plunged in them. Only if one has acquired the supreme Authentic Wisdom, can he transport himself outside the samsara world and the transmigration.
(8). The consciousness of the real self. Everything has its source, and the source is the real self. Consciousness, structure and energy are the three constituent elements of the universe. Others are “like a dream, an illusion, a bubble and a shadow, like dew and lightning. Thus should you meditate upon them”. Buddha and the Greatest Creator is the source of everything and the real self. Understanding the Greatest Creator and following Way of the Greatest Creator, you will find any of the eighty four thousand Buddhist gates leading to a smooth path. If you don’t understand the Greatest Creator and follow Way of the Greatest Creator, you will find any of the eighty four thousand Buddhist gates leading to a cliff.
185. How to achieve these consciousnesses? If you can cultivate a righteous body and mind, true spirit and soul will abide within them and great capability and virtues will arise from them. If you don’t have the wish of Great Vehicle, you may find it difficult to understand the profundity of the universe and difficult to achieve these consciousnesses. If you can stick to and keep the “universality” , have no self and selfish desire, revere the Greatest Creator, LIFE, and nature wholeheartedly, follow Way of the Greatest Creator, and devote your heart and soul to the creation of a reality in which “the talented will be put to good use, and the whole world will be one family”, in which “no one would pocket anything found on the ground, and doors are not bolted at night”, and in which everything is in harmony, the weather are perfect, and everyone is happy, joyful, free and blessed, then the light of the soul will become brighter and brighter and the consciousnesses will become clearer and clearer and the eight consciousnesses will finally be achieved.
186. If conditions are not ripe, the programme cannot be initiated. One cannot achieve celestial being if the self-improving and self-refining has not achieved an ideal status.
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