Once
you have understood the structure of life, you also realise that you are about
to engage in the four foundations of awareness. To make it easier for you to
understand, you must think of the comparison I made about the pond of holy
water that the Buddha found on the night of his enlightenment. Now that you
have heard about it, you want to set out upon a journey to find that pond of
holy water which can offer you eternal life. The four foundations of awareness
are indeed the mind journey which can help you to reach that pond of holy
water.
A
physical journey is a straightforward matter. If you want to go from A to B, as
long as you know the route or have a map in your hand, you can reach there by
any means - walking, running, driving or taking a train, a boat, a plane or a
space ship.
A
mind journey, however, is a much more complex matter. How exactly can you
travel from A to B? Some of you might assume right away that it has to be by
way of thinking and that is how you can travel by the mind. That is a wrong
assumption. As far as the mind journey is concerned, thinking is the very thing
that you must not do if you want to get to the place of destination. This is
not something that one can venture alone without any help. Therefore, taking
advice from the one who knows is important at this stage.
A
mind journey nonetheless still works the same as a physical journey in the
sense that you must know where you are going first. Knowing the place of
destination is of the utmost importance. I am going to talk from the point of
view where I have no more doubts regarding the place of destination. If I had
the slightest doubt at all, this book could not be born.
My
conclusion is still based on the fact that if there is a state of the absolute
or the ultimate at all, there has to be ONE point or ONE state, no more than
that. This ultimate or absolute point or state is indeed the same one that
Einstein wanted to find, but he did not succeed. As a result, he found only
relative motion which resulted in the theory of relativity. Basically, this
theory tries to tell us that there is no absolute ruling point in the universe
for us to measure anything against. That's why we have to make up or assume a
ruling point to measure things by, using whatever is applicable such as length,
weight, time, volume, etc. From this theory is also derived a concept of
thinking call relativism. Relativism is the theory that all truth is relative
to the individual and to the time or place in which one acts. This has led to
people nowadays thinking that there is no moral absolute; good and bad are only
relative. This gives way to people crossing over the moral threshold and doing
whatever they wish to do. By thinking comparatively or relatively, individuals
can always find excuses for doing immoral acts. As long as they can compare
themselves to those who are morally worse than them, they can comfortably carry
out immoral acts. This obviously is very dangerous. This relative way of
thinking can go on endlessly and is the main reason that brings morality to its
knees. When morality collapses, it is a guarantee that society will be in
disarray and this is what happens in our modern society right now. I can bring
you to the blunt conclusion that all the trouble we are facing in society right
now is because we don't know the state of the absolute. Therefore, we cannot
refer back to that ultimate normal point. And vice versa, if we know that
absolute point, we can always refer back to it and many problems can be solved
easily.
I
know you might think that Einstein's theory has nothing to do with religion.
But this is the whole point: most people get it all wrong, especially
intellectuals. It is true that Einstein could not find that absolute point but
it doesn't mean that others can't. Had Einstein had a chance to study Buddhism
and engage in the practice of the four foundations of awareness, his theory
might be totally different. However, the point that I want to confirm is that
the enlightenment of the Buddha is about his finding the state of the absolute
in nature that Einstein has missed. Nirvana is the state of the absolute that
can be used as a steady ruling point which everything can be referred back to.
We have to agree on this fundamental fact first, otherwise we cannot move on.
In
trying to confirm the place of destination for you, I must connect the
scientific and the religious world together so that this ultimate knowledge can
be claimed as being universal, and that goes for humanity and all sentient
beings. Such an extraordinary claim has been made by the saints in other
religions too. That's why I have been trying to prove my point all along that
Buddhism and Christianity might share the same ground. Therefore, I have no
choice but to bring in all those big words used in both the scientific world
and the religious world and confirm to you that they all refer to that ONE
ABSOLUTE TRUTH in the universe.
Judging
from my own practice and experience, I am totally convinced and very confident
that Nirvana, Tao, The Tree of Life, Godhood and The Kingdom of God are the
different names which refer to the state of the absolute or ultimate in nature.
In the scientific world, it can also be referred to as the ultimate or absolute
reality, truth, simplicity, normality, eternity and immortality. However, I add
yet another term - the innocent
world - to represent this ultimate state in nature, so that it can suit people
who are not religious. My experience in the past year after 'A Handful of
Leaves' has confirmed more deeply this ultimate wisdom.
As
a matter of fact, in between Can a Caterpillar be Perfect? and A
Handful of Leaves, I wrote
some twelve long chapters containing approximately one and a half million
words. The nature of writing was similar to Can a Caterpillar be Perfect?
when I talked about different topics. I always thought that they would make an
additional book when I had time to put more work into them. It was only just
recently, four years after I wrote them, when I read through some of them, I
told myself that they were not good enough because one essential ingredient
went missing in those words – my confirmation of the ultimate truth. When I
could not say that I knew the ultimate destination of life, the nature of my
writing was then scattered, fragmented and lacked conviction. Acting on
impulse, I decided to delete them all without any traces left. Despite having
spent a great deal of time writing them, I have no regret whatsoever that I got
rid of them. Why do I want to give people the lesser perfection of my work if I
can offer them a much clearer message and signpost to the ultimate place of
destination? My present work is based on my clear conviction. I can
wholeheartedly say that I know that place and I can help you to get there,
should you accept my assistance.
As
you can see, this is a very serious claim indeed. I can easily endanger myself
in making such a claim. As a mother of three sons, why would I want to place
myself as an open target for people who disagree to attack me? This kind of
courage can only come with real knowledge. I have to do this to win your confidence in me at this
stage. If you don't have confidence in your guide, how can your journey be
successful since it is a very tough journey too? Indeed I could either be
completely mad or know exactly what I am talking about. Time is running short
for me to help people; I don't want to mess around or beat around the bush
anymore. If you agree with me, take my advice and go for it. If you don't agree
and don't want to do it, it is also fine with me. It doesn't make any
difference on my part. The effort and energy that I put into my work to help
one person or one million people are exactly the same, no more and no less. The
choice is yours to make. I can only wish you to make the right choice.
Although
the above paragraphs sounded arrogant on my part, I have actually talked about
the place of destination on the ground of absolute simplicity and normality.
This has always been the ground that I stand on. I may have claimed that I know
something really great and the best, but my feeling towards that greatest thing
in the universe is strangely and incredibly simple and ordinary. It means that
my mind does not rattle or shake with joy or any other feeling when I think
that I might have the best experience in the universe. Not to mention the
moment when I can dwell in the innocent world itself, there is really nothing
to talk about until I fear at times that I might forget people who are still in
great suffering.
There
is a scientific precept, which says if all things being equal, the simplest
explanation is the right one. This is the sentence I plucked out from a film
called Contact, which depicted the dilemma between the spiritual and the
scientific notion on human in relates to the universe. I quite like the saying
of that scientific precept. Somehow, it can fit in with the ultimate
experience, which is the simplest experience. It is this extreme simplicity
which made me so certain that this is the real knowledge; this is the real
ultimate truth that we all want to search for. Because of this extreme
simplicity, I have been helped to safeguard myself as well as my students so
far. If we cannot see God and Nirvana as the ultimate simplicity, we can easily
get lost in the spiritual jungle and create for ourselves white sin.
Consequently we like to think that we are more special than others. This is
very dangerous. My students who carefully follow my guidance until they can
have the innocent world experience are indeed very special people. The best
thing out of this is that they do not feel special at all, although they are
truly special people. If they however feel that they are special, it means they
haven't seen the innocent world and haven't yet hit the real wisdom. All of you
who are about to set off on this journey with me should end up being special
without feeling special too. Otherwise, you are not hitting the right knowledge
yet. So, I will deal with this journey in a very simple manner so that all people,
regardless of any religious belief, can take part. By using the Buddha's
knowledge, I will do my best to create a non-religious path to suit the time
and age we are living in so that humanity can join in.
It
will be easier for you to understand if you can first realise that the place of
destination is in fact right here in front of you. Everything that you are
supposed to see and experience is right here in front of you. The innocent
world is here. If you don't have a clue of what I mean by that, it means you
cannot see. My students who have trained with me for some time can understand
what I have said. You can see that nothing is more difficult than trying to
tackle a question when the answer is right in front of your nose. Always bear
in mind that this is a matter of a single strand of hair hindering a whole
mountain, so don't look too far
away. I am trying to tell you that there is a gigantic mountain right here in
front of you. You are living at the foothills and are too close to see it. It
is the sheer size which is far too huge for you to see it. What you need to do
is to walk away from the foothills, to a distance far enough for you to see
this gigantic mountain. That way, you will have a clearer picture of what you
need to do regarding your mind journey. You can see right away that this is not
a matter of thinking and using too much logic to work things out. It is a
matter of walking away to a distance where you can actually see the view of the
whole mountain. I can explain it this way because I can see the whole mountain
myself, but you cannot see it because you haven't engaged in your mind journey
yet. So, you must follow my guidelines very carefully and must not use
excessive thought.
I
hope this chapter can help you to make up your mind whether you want to take
part in this journey with me or not. If you do, you are about to engage in a
mind journey so that you can reach a place of destination which is right here
in front of you. Everything that you are going to deal with is based on a
simple experience which everyone can share.