Part Three: Further Deliberations on the Benefits of Spiritual Tranquility

两极哲理

Now let us investigate how religions enable spiritual tranquillity. Religions, without exception, urge their believers to strive for spiritual tranquillity, which ensures a higher-level of achievement. To put it clearer, the higher-level of achievement refers to the development of inner wisdom.

Religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, classify men into two kinds of human wisdom, i.e., inner and outer wisdom. In the Bible, the former is referred to as the wisdom of God, the latter wisdom of men. Outer wisdom is that used by human beings to learn and create, and is perceptible. Outer wisdom contributes to the acquisition of skills associated with language, arts, science and technology, artistic creations and inventions. True, at the present stage, the human outer wisdom is highly developed. Unfortunately, the more developed the outer wisdom, the less we use our inner wisdom.

What is inner wisdom? It is the supernatural power possessed by human beings, which is invisible and imperceptible. For instance, some people are capable of perceiving the happenings in the far distance; some can cure a disease simply by touching the patient. These phenomena, still beyond the comprehensibility of scientists, are related to the inner wisdom. In the past, the human inner wisdom was highly developed. However, owing to its imperceptibility, there are few records available. This makes it even more mysterious. Yet we may find specific instances manifesting the existence of inner wisdom, such as the legends of Jesus Christ and Sakyamuni, and other stories about people possessing extraordinary abilities.

Being invisible and imperceptible, inner wisdom still remains a mystery even for scientists in the 1990s, who are equipped with high technology. Yet if we take an objective view about developing it, it will inevitably contribute to the advancement of the human society.

Similar to outer wisdom, inner wisdom can be divided into different levels. When reaching a higher-level, one lives in a state of harmony which he wants to share with others. Such a state is what is referred to as Heaven or Paradise. Sages like Jesus, Sakyamuni and the Prophet Mohammed all reached this level. When still on Earth , their souls had lived in Heaven. It may sound ridiculous, yet it is true.

Religions vary in their methods to develop the inner wisdom, however, these methods are similar in essence, which can be grouped into the following steps or ways:

1. To exploit one's inner wisdom, perpetual spiritual tranquillity is the prerequisite, for only in such a state can a person’s inner wisdom be developed.

2. To achieve spiritual tranquillity, one must first purify himself physically and spiritually, which may include:

a. going on a strict diet, such as being a vegetarian or abstaining from alcoholic drinks;
b. being discreet in word, such as not telling lies, not sowing discord;
c. doing good deeds, for good deeds help one to achieve spiritual tranquillity. Good deeds include being free from evil ideas; being beneficial to people and society. Good deeds should be done naturally and without any ulterior motive behind.

3. To help the believers with rituals, such as meditation, scripture chanting and prayers. These rituals are recorded in Christianity, Islam, Guanyin Method and Jingangjing.
How to acquire inner wisdom once spiritual tranquillity has been achieved? Religions all agree that inner wisdom lies within — not in the heart, but in the consciousness. So, to achieve it, you should reach a tranquil mind which can then propel your soul towards the world of inner wisdom (i.e., Heaven or Paradise; see ‘‘Map of Heaven and Earth’’). Accordingly to Buddhist scriptures, the inner wisdom world consists of seven states. Normally, the sages and living Buddhas can reach the 2nd or 3rd state, few can reach the 7th state. One of my Christian friends told me of the Bible recording people who have reached the 7th state. But I do not have any evidence. So far as I know, the Qinghai Supreme Master is the only person who claims that she can reach this state.

One may question about the essence of soul, because it is beyond description. Yet when your life is in danger, you may clearly feel the existence of your soul. Also, when caught in the meantime by two emergent cases, and the decisions must be carried out immediately, you may feel that the soul and body exist separately.

I have no idea as to how a person acquires the supernatural power the moment his soul enters the world of inner wisdom. What is true is that when he acquires the inner wisdom, his behaviour changes. He is found to possess extraordinary capabilities and gradually loses his ‘‘self-consciousness’’ (‘‘self-consciousness’’ is the opposite of ‘‘void’’ in Buddhism). Though equipped with extraordinary capabilities, he will not use it for self-interest or will not use it to harm others. If he close his eyes, he may hear a sound or see a light which would never be sensed by worldly beings. If he has any faith, he can see the visions of God or Buddha.

The purpose of my writing so much about the inner and outer wisdom, is to hopefully convince you of accepting the existance of such wisdom. Once you accept this fact, instead of being scared by some seemingly unusual and mysterious occurrences, you can learn to contribute to mankind by the proper use of the inner wisdom. Another fact is that inner wisdom can be acquired through certain methods which has been described in this Part earlier.

Religions are all striving for this goal. To understand this ultimate goal behind religions may make religious faith more meaningful.

LEE enables one to achieve spiritual tranquillity on the basis of his own judgement, while religions through preaching and the enforcement of admonishment and training. Furthermore, religions resort to rituals, such as prayers and meditation. Rituals may make one temporarily forget his vexations. Different from religions, LEE intends to eradicate vexations by making one tranquil and enabling him to judge good and evil on his own. By using LEE, I find it easier to understand the creeds and admonishments of religions. For instance, the admonishment of ‘‘being discreet in word’’, if interpreted with LEE, is: you insult others (as a bad starting event) incurs hatred for you (as a bad subsequent event). Such a relation of causality, in terms of religion, would be the punishment by God or Allah. Hence, should religions combine with LEE, it would be conducive to the development of human inner wisdom and to the ultimate goal of religion which is to persuade followers to do good deeds.

What are the benefits of adhering to the admonishment of a strict diet? Religions are against alcoholism, because alcohol influences one’s mind which in turn affects the behaviour. When drunk, one is liable to be talkative, hot-tempered or full of wicked ideas. Likewise, Buddhism opposes flesh-eating, because it, too, influences one’s mind and behaviour. Why so? As we know, human beings when in face of danger tend to generate more adrenaline which helps to speed up blood circulation thus increasing strengths. Similarly, when animals are threatened by an approaching danger secrete certain unknown hormones which remain in their bodies after death. Meat containing these unknown hormones has the similar effect as adrenaline, thus affecting one’s mind and behaviour. That is why people sometimes get angry easily or over-worried over the small matters, but regret it afterwards.

So Buddhism allows believers to eat the meat of animals that have died a natural death, when they have no other choice but to eat meat. Buddhism opposes flesh-eating for another reason. That is, to get meat from animals inevitably involves slaughtering which leads to bad subsequent event. True, both alcoholism and flesh-eating affects one’s mind and behaviour. Yet the amount consumed, sufficient for a such influence, varies from person to person. In general, flesh-eating, though affecting mind and behaviour does not have such a strong effect as alcohol. You may do an experiment. Be a vegetarian for a couple of weeks, then try some meat, beef in particular. You may feel the physical and psychological changes within you.