Book 246 Chatting with Oneself: This Is All Very Interesting

‧Written by Sheng-yen Lu‧
A US Daden Culture Publication

This human world is very interesting, and I greatly admire it. As soon as I turned on the television one morning, I saw:
Airplanes from the US and Europe unleashing a wave of airstrikes on the Islamic State.
The conflict between Israel and Palestine.
The “Ebola” plague in West Africa.
A certain country, in celebration of their National Day, paraded their murder weapons.
A country claimed that the “True Buddha School” I founded is a cult.
In addition, a slew of food-safety scandals continued to erupt in Taiwan.
Sure enough, this human world is a very complicated place, isn’t it?
And in my opinion:
“It is not complicated at all. It is just very interesting.”
Question:
“In short, you tell me, why is it not complicated? Just speak out
with the simplest reasoning!”
Reply:
“Differentiation exists in the human world. For example, there are foreigners and nationals, males and females, beautiful and ugly women, rich and poor men, presidents and civilians etc. When such differentiation exists, the world becomes very complicated.”
“Well! It is complicated! How can it not be?”
My reply:
“Do you see the patches of white cloud in the sky? Do all these white clouds have any entanglement with humans?”
“Well! No!”
My reply:
“The white clouds indeed have no entanglement with humans! The white clouds regard anything and everything the same.”
They appear whenever they like to appear.
They disappear whenever they like to disappear.
I said, “The roses planted by the door of the True Buddha Quarter exude a delicate fragrance. Do they treat anyone with partiality?”
“No!”
“This is it!”
I said:
“When a practitioner cultivates to the highest realm, he is like that patch of cloud, regarding the human world without any mind of differentiation. He is also like the rose fragrance, treating the human world without any mind of differentiation.”
Look!
I am the cloud.
I am the rose fragrance.
I am the sun.
I am the moon.
I am the stars.
People say you are righteous, you are devious, you are short, you are tall, you are kind, you are evil, you are genuine, and you are fake…
But, these totally cannot interfere with you at all.
“What about birth and death?”
My reply:
“There is neither birth nor death!”
“What about happiness or sorrow?”
My reply:
“None at all!”
“Why are there differences?”
My reply:
“There are differences because this is the human world. If one is liberated from the human world, everything becomes very simple. The nature of the dimension of Absolute Reality is reflected by Mirror-Like Wisdom.”
“How can you be like this?”
My reply:
“I have understood and witnessed the Buddha-essence!”