According to the Bible, Jesus once said, "Apart from Me, there is no other God.” Earlier in history, the young prince Siddharta who became the Buddha, soon after he was born unto this world took seven steps and declared, "Above and beneath the heaven, I am the greatest.” Did these statements come from the mouth of utterly arrogant and egotistical persons or were there other implications? If we were to make the same statement, many would have thought that we are conceited. Those who study the teachings of Buddha would find Buddha's statement far from being arrogant and likewise the Christian on what Jesus said. In fact it is because of these statements that made the faithful proud.

Most people do not have the courage to stake a claim as the greatest person in the world. During the boxing era of Mohammad Ali, he always said that "He is the greatest and he floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee.” Mike Tyson claimed almost the same words and every boxer feared him during his prime. How long can they last to be the greatest? Soon the butterfly will stop flying, the bee stopped stinging and the killer punch gone and replaced by younger boxer who could also float like a butterfly, sting like a bee and give the killer punch. The direction is different from Jesus and Buddha but all claimed to be the greatest for different reasons. One can cause millions of people to bow and kneel down everyday to pray and show respect until today and the other will be forgotten soon.

The statement made by both Buddha and Jesus is a reflection of a person's great aspiration and sheer resolution. The Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng of Buddhism and Tao was an illiterate wood cutter when he went to seek Tao from the Fifth Patriarch Hong Ren. Although he was an ordinary wood cutter, he experienced immediate realization on hearing a recitation of The Diamond Sutra from someone while cutting firewood and decided to seek the path of enlightenment.

When he sought audience from Hong Ren, the Fifth Patriarch deliberately belittled him upon seeing that he was an ugly, tanned and unrefined barbarian from the south. He pretended to spite Hui Neng in front of all his disciples and said, "You are a barbarian, why are you here?” Hui Neng was not disturbed at all and instead replied, "I am here to seek nothing of irrelevance except the way to Buddhahood.” Such words again sounded rather conceited considering Hui Neng came from a humble and deprived background. This is another example of the behavior of a person with great aspiration in life.

Greatness however does not come from mere words. To achieve greatness, we should firstly seek to understand the direction in life and overcome all stumbling blocks which have been hindering our progress. We might say people like Jesus or Buddha had been endowed with special preconditions to achieve greatness while we have not. Like all other great Saints, we have the same physical attributes, such as a pair of eyes, a mouth, a nose, a pair of hands and feet etc. While Jesus Christ became the King of Kings and Buddha was known as The Enlightened One, what

will become of us? Can we achieve something equivalent or the King of Kings or The Enlightened One of the 21st Century! Are there such a possibility and the ways and means to achieve it? Is it possible to have two people who are the best at the same time?

The first message from God (Lao Mu) in the Temple of Tao of Heaven was, "There are billions of 'Kuan Yin' (pure divine soul) in Homeland” and my Heavenly Teacher JiGong said, "To become a Buddha is not a dream.” We are all children of God and not only Jesus Christ or Sakyamuni Buddha who came to save the world. Even the demons (or the fallen angels according to Christianity) are also children of God including the animals and suffering souls in Hell. Animals can become Humans and Humans can become animals. If there are no suffering souls and human beings on Earth, there won't be any Buddhas to descend from Heaven to save the world or any necessity for Jesus Christ to come again as mentioned in the Bible. We all can become the greatest and in the eyes of Heaven we are the greatest. The only difference is who can go back home first.

To feel great, this is the advice from my Heavenly Teacher JiGong, "Within the universe, heaven is great, yet the Self-Nature (Inner Being) is even greater. Do utilize fully your Inner Being to accomplish the Three Immortals: build Virtues, build Words and build Merits - to assist heaven-and-earth in their task of transforming and nurturing the living things.”

Build Virtues means to correct oneself and be a perfect person. Build Words means to pass on the right teachings in writings. Build Merits means to make contributions. Contributions can be in the form of giving monetary support, spreading the teachings of Tao and general help in the propagation of Tao.

To be the greatest is not important in life. To come to the understanding that why are we here and the purpose of human existence is more important. The great matter of human existence is that we must realize the value and the meaning of life. Life is to seek a permanent home to go to. Life can be long or short. As long as there is birth, there is death. He has his fate; you have your destiny. In order to put an end to the causes and consequences (one's karmic debts), one must make contributions and build one's virtues. Live naturally and easily. Life is bitter, but it is sweet too.

Author: T.A Chew

 Previous      Next