Chapter 154: All Beings Are Equal
Someone asked the boy, “Master, I want to learn how to cultivate my heart with you. How much is your tuition fee?”
The boy smiled and replied, “As a master, I preach the Dao, impart knowledge, and resolve doubts. There is no such thing as charging a fee. Master, master, you treat your master as your father. A father should naturally use his own strength to help his child grow and nourish him to be strong. If you want me to nourish you, then wouldn’t you become my father? Cough cough cough, whether you are filial or not is your business, but if I demand money from you and force you to support me, I might as well get insurance for the elderly, hahaha.”
“Then why do other people charge fees to teach their disciples, but you don’t?”
The boy stroked his beardless chin out of thin air and chuckled, “Because others are exchanging, while I am planting trees. I sow Bodhi seeds, water them often, and patiently wait for the flowers to bloom. When the flowers bloom, as a master, I will naturally be delighted. This joy will extend my life, hahaha.”
“Is that true, Master? Can you teach me how to plant trees? I want to live a long life too.”
Upon hearing this, the boy shook his head and smiled helplessly, “You little idiot, always maintain purity and joy, and you will naturally nourish your essence and vital energy. Vitality leads to spirit, and spirit returns to emptiness, which in turn generates essence, and this cycle repeats. Planting what trees? Planting trees is just my metaphor.”
“Okay, although I still don’t quite understand what you mean, Master, you can rest assured that I will definitely listen to you, plant roots of goodness in my heart, and do no evil and practice all good.”
“Hahaha, a teachable child.”
After putting down his mobile phone, the boy sat in meditation for a while. In the blink of an eye, it was evening. He cooked and fried dishes as usual, feeling delighted in his heart. He also gave his Pothos a bath.
“Little babies, little babies, you are the most beautiful. You will grow up strong. You are the most awesome flowers that will grow bigger and bigger, hahaha, la la la la la, la la la la la…”
“Beep beep.”
The boy picked up his mobile phone, and a good child said to the boy, “Master, I want to cultivate with you. Can I add you as a friend and learn from you?”
The boy smiled and replied, “Where did you find me?”
“I read your book and learned many things. I also understood some principles and want to add your WeChat to be closer to you and ask for your advice from time to time.”
“You read my book and enlightened yourself to your own principles, so I am already teaching you. Don’t be anxious, read books first and play, and temper your temperament.”
“Alright then, I wish you, teacher, boundless blessings.”
“Boundless blessings.”
This is not to say the boy didn’t want to get closer to others. In fact, closeness sometimes doesn’t need to be deliberate. If you keep me in your heart and remember me, then my image has already been planted in your heart. Whether you see me or not, whether you add me on WeChat or not doesn’t matter much. What the boy does is help people ascend spiritually and enhance the strength of their souls. Moreover, writing doesn’t require repeating things over and over; just write whatever comes to mind, which is a way of being lazy, hahaha.
Furthermore, when ordinary people listen to the Dharma, there are many things they cannot understand immediately. Explaining to one person is too taxing. He can explain to a hundred people, and he can do it without thinking, just by opening his mouth, tirelessly, but it’s too troublesome.
But it’s impossible for him not to teach, because the two teachers who enlightened him have both ascended or entered Nirvana. Their Dharma bodies are still sitting in videos, repeatedly enlightening sentient beings. Although he, as a disciple, likes to be lazy and goes with the flow, he cannot do nothing. Otherwise, how can the legacy be passed down?
Legacy, legacy, passed on to others to bear, from generation to generation, from one generation to the next.
Even if someone cultivates well and doesn’t deliberately do this, it will have an intangible influence on that person’s family and friends, as well as the next generation. Then the next generation will influence the next, spreading the power of upward growth for generations.
Dao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, and Three gives birth to all things, nourishing sentient beings.
Of course, some people refuted the boy;
“The Buddha says all beings are equal. You teach foreigners to hit us, and then disable them. Aren’t foreigners people? Aren’t they also life forms?”
After listening, the boy didn’t explain, but it made him laugh. hahaha.
Because “all beings are equal” refers to the Buddha-nature being naturally complete, and all beings possess the Tathagata’s wisdom and nature. It is equality from this perspective.
It does not refer to the kind of equality that ordinary people talk about. Ordinary people are inherently unequal from birth. One is born into a wealthy family, and another into an ordinary family. Is that equality?
Some people are extremely wealthy from birth to the end, while others remain materially poor until the end. Is that equality?
Some flowers grow in greenhouses, some grow on hills, and some even bloom in the desert. Is that equality for flowers?
Asking the boy this question is like saying, “It’s okay for them to hit me. Why shouldn’t you stop them from hitting me? We are all equal. If they hit me, they hit me.”
Such foolish words made the boy feel both amused and speechless.
If ghosts harm people, shouldn’t we stop them? Ghosts are also sentient beings. And shouldn’t we offer salvation? Because all are equal, what is there to save?
If you are sick, shouldn’t you get treated? Viruses are also life forms, and they are equal. Should we just wait to die?
Then don’t drink water. There is life in water. Don’t eat food either. Rice was also once life. And don’t breathe air? There are microorganisms in the air.
This person’s head must be a little messed up. The boy didn’t say to proactively attack them, but rather, if they attack us first, we should fight back hard.
We don’t initiate gunfire, but we shouldn’t lose our ability to resist, right?
If you get hit and accept it, and tell others to endure it, and it’s okay to be beaten to death, is that what you call all beings are equal? Is that equality?
If you are a coward, just say you’re a coward! If you don’t fight back, are you going to watch sentient beings be bullied and trampled upon? The one who hits is a sentient being, and is the one being hit not a sentient being?
To have a sword in hand and not use it is different from not having a sword in hand.
To have a sword and not use it, and not harm others, is itself a form of kindness and compassion. To have no sword in hand and to find an excuse for being beaten is truly speechless.
People like this would be better off watching Journey to the West. When Tathagata fought Wukong, Wukong became a Buddha by fighting.
Having a sword is so that others dare not hit us, and we can coexist in peace. To have no sword and accept being bullied means countless lives will be lost in the ensuing conflict. Is that equality?
Do you want peace or not? Can’t you choose?
Sometimes, kind people have more means than wicked people to stop evil deeds. What is the use of self-righteous kindness alone?
The Buddha said that all beings inherently possess infinite possibilities, and this infinity is equality.
It doesn’t matter if a flower grows in the desert or in a greenhouse; they can both bloom. It doesn’t mean they are equal only if they are placed together.
In terms of people, regardless of their background, noble or humble, they have the power to overcome adversity.
For example, some people are born with disabilities, and some lose their legs in accidents, yet they strive relentlessly and forge their own paths.
Weaklings attribute their situation to others having better luck. They say they have a better fate than you. Are you looking with your backside?
Weaklings always make excuses for their failures, while strong people find patterns of success and carve out their own world.
In the Dunhuang Bianwen Collection’s “Sutra of the Crown Prince’s Enlightenment,” it is recounted that when the Buddha Shakyamuni first came to the mortal world, the first sentence he spoke was: “In heaven and earth, I alone am honored.”
The meaning of this sentence is that the Buddha believed himself to be the highest existence in this world. The “I” here does not refer to the Buddha himself, but rather to the Buddha-nature possessed by every sentient being, which is the innocent Buddha-nature that is unborn and undying, not impure or pure, neither increasing nor decreasing.
This is what equality means, damn it! Arrogantly arguing without understanding anything.
Blindly superstitious, blindly believing, confused little fools.
They don’t open their minds at all. Those who cannot be awakened can only awaken at their own pace; calling them is useless.
If you don’t achieve enlightenment by listening to scriptures, then you can only achieve it through your own experiences. If you still can’t achieve it, you’ll live confused until you’re old.
You refuse to learn how to save yourself and instead choose to endure with suffocation. Just endure it, and perhaps you’ll achieve enlightenment.
