All the happiness, anger, sorrow and joy in this world are lessons for us to learn. Without going through all these emotions, we can’t understand the feelings of sentient beings. You see, it rained only last night, but you already find it uncomfortable living in your tents. Already you’ve begun to panic, pity yourselves and complain a lot. Even though you can see me here, you still complain just because it’s a bit uncomfortable and inconvenient on rainy days. Although you can see me, you’re still not happy enough to forget the rain. (Master laughs.) Even worse are those people who live in bitterness all their lives, without the least bit of happiness to compensate them or any situation that can make them laugh.

When we’re in misery, we should be grateful to God for giving us a chance to develop our compassion. If, even when we’re miserable, our compassion still fails to emerge, then we ought to have pity on ourselves. We should introspect on why we’re as rigid as stones! When we’re happy, our compassion should also emerge, and our thoughts should be with those miserable people. When we’re in misery, we should be more compassionate and think about the people who are as miserable as, or more miserable than, we are every day. This is being “always with God in whatever we do in daily life.” Our compassion is “God” and our love is “God.” If we lose our love and compassion, then we’re very far away from God. That’s what God is; God doesn’t have a fixed appearance.

When we meditate, we should observe the inner Light and contemplate the inner Sound, because this Light and Sound contain the supreme compassion and love within. The more we communicate with Them, the more compassionate we become. We don’t look at the Light because it’s very beautiful, or listen to the Sound because it’s very attractive. No, no! It’s because the compassion and universal Love that They contain are a kind of medication that can cure our symptoms of selfishness, arrogance and malevolence. Without this superior medication, there’s no cure for our illnesses of greed, anger and ignorance.

However, there are times when we fail to devote sufficient effort to meditation and spiritual cultivation, and God has to send us illnesses, disasters or suffering to compel us to learn faster. Since we don’t take the superior medication to cure ourselves, we can only take the inferior medication at such times. For instance, some patients don’t like Chinese herbs, so we have to prescribe western medicine for them. And if they don’t like western medicine either, and they’re seriously ill, then we can only “cut” or perform surgery on them. Therefore, when a patient isn’t very seriously ill, he can take Chinese herbs to recover slowly. But if his condition is grave, sometimes we have to quickly give him western medicine or an injection, which hurts a bit but is more effective. If the illness is really critical, then he will need an operation. Or, he may just die, get rid of this body completely and assume another body.

Therefore, we shouldn’t fear suffering; rather, we should worry about not having the stamina to withstand suffering. We should pray that God gives us greater endurance. What’s endurance? Endurance is the highest level, which doesn’t only call for tolerance without complaint, but also heartfelt gratitude. When we’re more elevated, we’re not bothered by any situation. Whatever the situation is, we just let it be; it doesn’t concern us. At that time, we’re absolutely detached from the world. We’re not attached to happiness, anger, sorrow or joy, nor are we scared. Just like people of the world, we can also be happy, angry, sad or joyous. But then we do it like spectators, standing on the sidelines observing another person being happy, angry, sad or joyous, instead of merging ourselves in these emotions. We can see it anytime we want, and if we don’t want to see it, we can just ignore it. It’s similar to watching television — we push the button when we want to watch TV, and when we don’t, we turn it off. It’s also similar to listening to audiotapes. When we want to listen to melancholy music, we play that kind of tape. And when we have had enough of it, we can quickly play another tape.

If we can behave in this way when we’re in this world, then all the happiness, anger, sorrow and joy will bring wisdom to us. In this world, we live with other people. Thus, it’s impossible to avoid happiness, anger, sorrow and joy, because we have to interact with them. It’s just like a mirror that cannot speak. If you’re ugly, it shows your ugly appearance; if you’re pretty, it shows your pretty face. If you have two horns on your head, it will show you the two horns. If you have long fangs, it surely will reflect them truthfully. It won’t put on makeup for you, conceal your fangs or get rid of your horns. It’s merely a mirror that always reflects clearly and honestly. It’s the same with spiritual practitioners. While living in this world, we will also have happiness, anger, sorrow and joy just like every one else in the world because they are reflections of the situations we experience.

Thus, even though an enlightened being appears externally to have the emotions of joy, anger, sorrow and happiness, in reality, he does not. He’s able to change his emotions very quickly. If he wants to laugh, he can do so immediately, or if he wants to, he can cry at once. He’s able to switch from weeping to laughing immediately. We don’t know if he’s upset or happy, because just a short while ago he may have been in tears scolding people, yet at this moment he may be laughing. So he’s very much at ease with his joy, anger, sorrow and happiness. He’s not controlled by these emotions, and sometimes he may fake them in order to coordinate with others.

We have heard about the living Saint Jigong (an enlightened and unconstrained Buddhist monk who was widely worshipped as a saint after he died) and his great miraculous powers. He was known to be completely at ease inside. However, many people considered him insane and called him “crazy Ji.” But actually he was faking craziness. Some people seemed to see him eating meat and drinking wine. But the truth is that he was also faking this. That’s because basically he had no need to eat or drink, not to mention eating meat and drinking wine! Some people wanted to find proof and snatched the bone he was gnawing, but it turned out to be his bottle gourd. Sometimes he was seen to be sitting and eating meat. But when he turned around, one could only see him reciting the sutras. (Master laughs) There was no sight of any meat!

Because we sentient beings can’t see through the actions of great Practitioners and make casual judgments, we transmigrate life after life. Great Masters come; we see nothing special in them. Minor masters come; we also can’t differentiate. Some people have followed me for a long time. They have also lived with me for some time. Yet they say that my teachings are the same as those of other people. Those people don’t practice and appear to be like me, but in fact there are many differences.