The Ancient Soul's Search for Truth

This interview features Arhat Xuan Kai, an ancient soul who has traversed the vast cycles of existence for over two millennia. Having sought the ultimate truth through countless incarnations—from the primordial stones of the early universe to the complex structures of human life—he eventually found his way to the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre in Australia. This testimony was recorded on August 8, 2020, as he recounts his journey and his discovery of the path to deliverance.

Arhat Xuan Kai speaks:

"Namo Amituofo. My spirit has existed since the very beginning of creation. The formation of my spirit was a natural occurrence. All things, even the vastness of empty space, hold a deep respect for this ancient soul. I have the ability to exist in a spiritual form across various planets; I can manifest a physical body or remain formless, depending entirely on the needs of the Causal Conditions at that time. If you were to ask me exactly how long I have existed, I cannot give you a precise answer, but I estimate it to be countless eons ago. My own being can emit endless energy—an energy that is unborn and undying, existing because of my vow to protect the universe.

The Birth of the Stars

The initial formation of this universe came from a great rock plate—a primordial stone that nurtured all things. It was filled with energy, and after it matured, it exploded, becoming countless smaller stones. The force of this explosion was immense; some stones were flung far, others remained near. Some retained the original energy of that great rock, while others appeared dim and lifeless. These stones, scattered throughout the universe, are the planets we see today. Since being flung out, they have remained in the void, beginning to emit their own light and heat, eventually extending life within them. The powerful energy at the centre of that explosion still accumulates to this day, illuminating the planets. That powerful, primitive energy centre eventually became what we now know as the sun.

Before there was life on these planets, I thought: 'Besides myself, there should be different forms of life. Perhaps everything could have more diverse changes.' The sun was already shining upon the planets just as the rock plate had once given energy to all. When we were part of the rock, our lives were gathered together, but once we scattered into stones, it depended on our own karmic fruits. I, this ancient soul, opened my arms, imagining myself wearing robes with long sleeves, capable of wrapping around everyone, allowing them to remain unaffected by any external changes. However, the reality was that each stone had already begun to occupy its own space after the explosion, nurturing its own planet with its own energy. Gradually, the outer appearance of these stones changed, and simple life forms appeared—like the sky, the earth, and rivers. Everything was so simple, without messy thoughts; it was a state of purity, and everything seemed calm and untroubled.

The First Human Body

The entire void remained a silent world, with almost no movement. My heart was so open, caring for every stone scattered throughout. I treated every stone as a part of my own existence. In this silence, I slept, only waking up after hundreds of millions of years. Suddenly, I felt everything was bland and tasteless. How could I still be alone after sleeping for so long? Looking around, although every planet maintained its normal operation without falling, there was no sign of active life. I suddenly felt: did I make a mistake by sleeping for so long? I began to actively develop more life, so I transformed myself into a physical form. This was the first time in hundreds of millions of years that I had done so, and I did not know what the result would be. My body was very primitive, without any covering. I chose to land in the current solar system; unexpectedly, after having a body, I felt heat for the first time—so hot, so hot, I couldn't bear it. While I was still thinking about how hot the body was, the sudden scorching sensation burned my body away. My body vanished, and I became a spirit again. The speed of this moment was too fast; I hadn't even reacted. Since the solar system wouldn't work, I transformed into a body again and went to another nearby planet; unexpectedly, the body vanished again. The scorching heat of the sun still reached this planet, making it impossible for a physical body to survive. The third time, I decided to try a planet further away. This time I was more experienced, so I stood at the centre of the planet, looked left, looked right, and this time it seemed to succeed. This body finally existed. This was the first time I used a physical body. I didn't know what the use of this body was, so I stood in place for a long time. For the first time, I used the eyes of this body to see everything; besides looking at the surroundings, I also looked at this body itself. When I lifted my right hand, I looked at it—it was truly a body of flesh and blood. My spirit was very clear; I could see the tissues, blood flow, blood vessels, and internal organs beneath the skin. At that time, I didn't know the names of these organs, only seeing them by their shapes—there were straight ones, horizontal ones, round ones, and there was flowing water, and even a kind of heat supporting this body. I also lifted my feet to move, moved my limbs, moved my toes and fingers. Oh! Only then did I know that if I wanted to move, this hand could move; if I wanted my head to move, my head could move. So, the meaning of this body belonging to me was that I could control it.

The Discovery of Hunger and Energy

I began to walk back and forth, adapting to this body. Not long after, a sound came from within the body—gurgling, gurgling—where did this come from? I didn't understand yet. This sound wasn't constant, but a brief, momentary noise. Afterwards, I began to feel that the body lacked energy, as if it were losing its 'breath'. I was so surprised! I had never experienced this before, because my spirit had always been full of energy, never feeling low-spirited. Before long, I couldn't even walk, and my body collapsed to the ground. Just as I was about to lose consciousness, a natural voice told me: 'You must put things into your mouth to have energy!' Mouth? Where is the mouth? Beside where I fell was a clump of grass. I pulled it up with both hands, looked at this body, and stuffed the grass into my ears. After waiting a while, the body still didn't react; it had no strength. The second time, I put the grass into my nostrils; the body still had no energy. Finally, I put the grass into my mouth. At first, the grass was long, and when I put it in, it poked my throat directly, making me unable to help but cough—'ka, ka'—twice. Only then did I close my mouth, merging the saliva and the grass together. This was the first time I felt the taste of grass; it was a bit rough, and even harder to swallow. Chewing for the first time, my mouth was so sore, but the body gradually seemed to have energy. Only then did I know that the body made a gurgling sound, or when it lacked energy, it had to rely on this mouth to eat and replenish energy. I didn't know what was edible and what was not. Whenever the body lacked energy, I would try to find anything on the planet that could be eaten. When I first tried, the body's reaction was a bit strong. The first time I ate something round and hard, my whole mouth was rubbed severely, and the passage below the mouth was also quite miserable. It was clear to see the process of this thing entering the body; it was something the body couldn't use. Only later did I have the concept that this thing was called a stone. Whenever there was no moist feeling in the mouth, I could see that the blood flow in the body became slow and thick, and even the outer skin would become dry and wrinkled. At this time, I had to use flowing water to replenish it and improve the situation.

The Multiplication of Life

After a period of time, I gradually learned how to use this body. When the initial spirit obtained this human body, thoughts could manifest everything. When I adapted to using this body, I began to manifest another 'me'. This manifested 'me' was exactly the same as myself, with the same movements, the same behaviours, and even needing to eat the same amount of food. I manifested an identical 'me' hoping he could spark something different with me, that I could have a companion; unexpectedly, every manifestation was exactly the same as me. So I manifested five more of me, still exactly the same as me, but when hungry, I had to find five portions of food. Every day, besides maintaining the normal functions of this body, I had no other thoughts. The body was still transparent, with flesh, blood, and organs clearly visible. My strength was great; as long as I picked up a stone and threw it to the ground, a crack would immediately appear, and water would seep out. A large area of water accumulated, which later became what humans now call the ocean, and this crack was the deep trench. After this transparent body lived for five hundred years, it turned into a pool of blood and merged into the earth. My five clones died at the same time, each falling in different places on the planet, nurturing different life forms according to the Causal Conditions at that time. Some became shelled reptiles, some turned into clouds when the breeze blew, and some became ant-like beasts of various sizes. Although they turned into different forms, the similarity between them and me was that they could use thoughts to clone themselves, turning into countless replicas, waiting for the body to die before nurturing different lives. And because of the different external environments, these lives turned into different appearances. The number of creatures of each appearance doubled and doubled again, finally becoming many different lives existing on the planet. This is the process of how I initially established life and then multiplied. These natural phenomena continued until many species were formed, and the survival pattern began to change. Originally, everyone fed on natural water and grass, but as there were too many species and not enough food, some races began to rely mainly on meat. For example, birds began to eat insects, insects began to eat microorganisms, etc. The food chain began to evolve and was passed down to the descendants of these races, dividing them into herbivorous or carnivorous species. Among the many species, after they began to rely mainly on meat, life began to shorten, and accidents occurred.

The Origin of Spirits

After life faded, my spirit returned to the space, watching the life on the planet multiply continuously. I didn't understand: these lives all came from my flesh and blood, so where did every spirit under these life forms come from now? After a long pause, I realized that the spirit of every species now came from the thoughts that corresponded when I had a physical body. Along with the temperament of every drop of my blood, they entered the bodies of various different lives. Each drop of blood had different Causal Conditions, and after having a body and consciousness, each species developed on its own, using their own thoughts to manifest into various shapes. The spirits corresponding to these bodies naturally came from the universe, entered the bodies, and became intertwined with them. The length of life also depended on their current thoughts. For the species at that time, thoughts were not like human 'thinking', but their own heart-thoughts. Once a heart-thought arose, it would trigger the Causal Conditions in the universe. Since these lives existed, the universe began to be less simple, and the magnetic field showed unstable fluctuations. During this period, organisms had no distinction between male and female, but were born by thought, died by thought, and passed on descendants by thought. Once a heart-thought was produced, it would manifest into a form.

The Cycle of Destruction and Rebirth

The life and lifestyle of the planet's species passed in this way for two billion years. Until the primitive food, grass, and river water on the planet began to run out, the species began to prey on each other. At first, beasts ate birds, birds ate insects, and insects ate bacteria. Species with sturdy bodies could survive in this food war, until various species became extinct one after another, leaving only the more ferocious beasts. With no other species to eat, it finally became beasts eating beasts. Every beast lived in fear and anxiety. At night, they hid in different places to save their lives, enduring until they were hungry and had to replenish energy, only then risking their lives to come out to find food. Every beast lived very tensely, with their fur standing up as if in a life-and-death battle. The heart of every ferocious beast was very uneasy; under the soul of a beast, they were all seeking comfort. At first, the big protected the small, and the small protected the old. Under such circumstances of attachment, distinctions began to appear among species, and even divergence, beginning to produce gender. The weaker became female; the stronger became male. This destruction of the planet still happened. Hundreds of millions of years after the planet was destroyed into emptiness, the planet began to nurture life again, starting from simple mountains and rivers, and then to moving creatures. At this moment, the newly born species began to produce dependence—males relied on females, and females relied on males. From a single species, every species began to have gender distinctions. Because of this gender and this dependence, interactive emotions were produced, and even the concept of family was formed. After species had the concept of family, their lifespans began to shorten, shrinking from the original ten thousand years and five thousand years to two thousand to three thousand years. If the food eaten by the species was non-killing, the lifespan could be closer to three thousand years; compared to species that ate meat, the lifespan was closer to two thousand years, or even less than two thousand years. In this era, most species focused on survival, and their spirits and temperaments were quite simple. This was about five hundred trillion years ago.

The Evolution of Human-like Beings

My spirit has always been observing its changes from the void. Seeing species plundering and splitting from each other, I was very sad to see this situation. Originally, they came from the same flesh and blood, but now this situation is like me killing me, me eating me. I tried to change it, but the speed of species multiplication was too fast. In the universe, spirits from different places were constantly entering the bodies of various species due to Causal Conditions. After the evolution of species stabilized, the spirits gradually began to have memories. These spirits scattered to various planets, changing into different species and forms according to various external conditions.

The emergence of forms similar to humans was about five hundred million years ago. At that time, they could not be called humans, but various large standing animals, similar in appearance to bears and apes. They began to have the habit of gathering in groups—big bears with small bears, big apes with small apes, inseparable from each other. In order to survive and to be full, they had to hunt other animals. Some animals were agile and ran fast, while others could burrow into the ground. If they couldn't catch them, the whole race would have to go hungry. Hunting was done by male species. They were born taller and stronger, so they had to take on this responsibility. Female animals had to hold their children, guard their safety, feed their children, and let their children grow into strong adults, who would then stand up to protect the species.

During a crisis of food shortage on the planet, all species were looking for ways to continue to survive. Apes began to stack dry grass, placing wood of different thicknesses under the grass pile to trip passing animals, then catching them in one go to have a full meal. Bears mainly captured animals in caves, with one guarding the cave entrance, one guarding another exit, and another entering the cave to drive out the creatures inside. Through cooperation, everyone had a full meal. For the sake of every meal, this food war caused the brain structure of the ape-like and bear-like species to change because of thinking, and they began to have some momentary, short-term memories.

After these processes, whether it was the structure of the body, emotional exchange, the way of taking care of children, various expressions, the way of conveying actions, or the ape-like posture, they were more similar to humans. Gradually, with the changes of the earth and the needs of survival, a species that stood up and could make fire emerged—humans.

The Rise of Settlements

The brain cells of humans were originally simple, but then gradually evolved to be meticulous and developed. They also began to gather in groups, building simple fences to prevent animal attacks. At first, they fenced around, and then gradually tied some dry grass as a roof to cover, so they didn't have to get wet in the rain. These dry grasses could even have some windproof and cold-proof effects. Simple fences went from one for a large group, to one for ten people, and then to one for five people. One fence after another became closer and closer, in order to help each other. Under this, the concept of a simple settlement was formed.

After their brains developed, ape-men also began to use all things to make simple living tools, sharpening wood to hunt. With the wisdom of this ape-man species, they also protected other species so they could survive together. In order to have more output in the place where they lived, ape-men began to use polygamy to multiply descendants. At this time, all things were gentle, heaven and earth were in harmony, and many various species began to emerge among the planets—flying in the sky, crawling on the ground, jumping, and standing. The species at this time, like the dinosaur era, were mostly large species, whether they were insects, birds, or various beasts. Ape-men cooperated to shoot with sharp sticks and bring the obtained species back to the gathering place to sacrifice, dismember, and then share. Ape-men began to rely mainly on omnivorous diets, and even tried to make fire to cook them into delicacies. Among the planets, it was primitive and without major changes, until humans had thoughts. The fluctuations of thoughts were quite inconsistent; some were long, some were short, and some changed rapidly. Everything depended on their temperament. Because of these fluctuations, the originally peaceful magnetic field among the planets began to be unstable. In some areas with more thoughts, the magnetic field was even destroyed, causing cracks to appear on the ground where they originally lived. The more thoughts, the bigger the cracks. After a great earthquake one day, the originally connected land split into several pieces, and species with the same magnetic field lived on the same piece of land.

The Truth of Karma

Looking closely, most of these thoughts came from survival. For every meal of survival, as long as there were negative or even harmful thoughts, even if they hadn't been put into action, these thoughts had already reached the magnetic field of space, causing a negative impact on the magnetic field, and even negative reactions, forming one negative magnetic field after another. Finally, they accumulated and pressed to form the outbreak of disasters. In more serious cases, it even caused the extinction of species, or caused the planet to be affected by the negative magnetic field and enter a state of decay. The changes or alterations caused by good and evil thoughts to the planet are not just for a single planet, but for the entire universe. This is the Truth.

If a planet decays, the forms of various species no longer exist, but return to their original spiritual appearance. Some wait in space for the appearance of the next body, some are attached to the space before the planet decays, and some follow Causal Conditions to other spaces, living in the form of spiritual consciousness or entering the bodies of other species. The universe is like a large net, very fair and very much in accordance with Causal Conditions.

The First Bloodshed

I have been observing the changes of various planets from the void every day. About four hundred and fifty million years ago, several different settlements had formed on one planet. Because the living conditions in various parts of the planet were different, their appearances were different, and their lifestyles were different. Some lived in trees, with long hands and long feet, and extremely strong arm strength; some lived near dwarf shrubs, with short stature; and some had extremely high jumping power. At first, they each lived in their own living range, until one day, a person living in a tree accidentally broke into the dwarf shrubs, stole and ate food he had never seen before, and then left. From that day on, he kept wanting to enter the dwarf shrubs again in his heart. Returning to the forest, he gathered some people who were as agile and curious as himself, and decided to find a day to explore again. Returning to the place where he fell into the dwarf shrubs last time, he carefully jumped under the branches with all his might, observed that no one was paying attention, and immediately jumped into the dwarf shrubs. He rummaged around in the place where he saw the food last time, and stuffed several kinds of food he had never seen into his mouth. At this time, he heard some movement around him, and they immediately climbed up the tree, hid in the grass in the bushes, and looked down. A person with a clumsy reaction was grabbed by the tail. Suddenly, there was a continuous pulling force. Looking back, it was a row of small humans, each of them using both hands to tightly grab the person who had broken in. Everyone seemed to have shouted a slogan: 'One, pull back; two, pull back again,' making this intruder unable to escape. Other companions in the tree saw this and fled back to their own area first. They began to discuss actively, thinking that the area they hadn't seen must have a lot of food. In order to save their companions and also for the sake of food, after discussing with the leader, they decided to send strong men to invade the dwarf shrubs. The dwarf shrub people, who had always lived a comfortable life, were invaded at this time, and were as afraid, uneasy, and displaced as if they had encountered an army. In the panic and self-protection, they killed the person with a tail who had been captured. This was the first bloody incident in the dwarf shrubs. The patriarch began to gather everyone to do some protection, including building protective houses with stones or digging passages into the ground, etc. Almost everyone in the nation was mobilized and began to store food. Usually, the tribesmen would only look for food when they needed to eat one meal, and would not keep any extra. But now the patriarch wanted everyone to store some food so that they would not run out of food if they were invaded again.

After this attack, the humans in the bushes began to know that they could go beyond their daily living range to find food, or even invade other races to seize better food, or occupy that area and drive out the people who originally lived there. These were all methods. After having such a concept, the confrontation between the two races was constant, and finally, the people in the dwarf shrubs were all slaughtered and eliminated. It was a scene of bloodshed, leaving an invisible sound of wailing in this place.

The Sacrifice of the Spirit

With this experience, the people in the bushes began to know that they could use this method to plunder land, increase territory and activity range. Their originally simple hearts began to become barbaric, and they went everywhere to find the next place to invade. The tribesmen had already identified two or three targets and were ready to capture them one by one. I, in the void, knew that this was a catastrophe among humans—people hurting people, people killing people, coming from the same root but wanting to destroy the root. I took a look and saw that the patriarch had a son who would die in this battle for plunder, just a few days later. At this time, I quickly entered his body and told the patriarch father in a mature and steady tone: 'Father, I saw in a dream that if you do not stop this war of aggression, I will die in this war of aggression. In the future, our race will also perish by being invaded.' The father was very nervous when he heard this and immediately ordered all the tribesmen not to move, thus preserving several races that could survive. I breathed a sigh of relief in this young man's body. A few days later, I felt that this body had a feeling of mountains collapsing and the earth cracking. Although my spirit remained unchanged, I could feel that this body was under extreme pain and great pressure, and finally collapsed. It was destined how long this body could be used. At the moment this body stopped breathing, my spirit was ejected from the body, and his spirit was also taken away. I used his body to help several families survive. I saw his spirit go to the place of light, and I was happy for him and blessed him.

As for me, I was originally prepared to return to the void. When my spirit wanted to go up, I was pulled away by a great pulling force. I was so surprised, shouting in my heart: 'How could this happen?' But shouting was useless. I was still being rolled and rolled, until my spirit entered a beast egg. The space inside the egg was just enough for me to survive. At first, my spirit was still clear, just not sure where I belonged now, until I broke out of the shell, I found that I had a long tail. Hatching with me were two small beasts. The beast mother circled us with her tail. Not long after, the beast father returned from the outside and spat several live insects from his cheeks into the nest. My newly born small body quickly ate the insects. One was not enough, and I had to eat another. After the insect was bitten by me instantly, the juice of the body sprayed out, making the chewing in my mouth not too dry. Just like this, the small beast grew up eating insects every day. Every time food was eaten, it brought energy for the operation of this body. Although this was the case, every inch of meat I grew, my beast body seemed heavier. Finally, when I walked, I swayed from side to side. Calculated by Earth time, I lived for about twenty-five thousand years, and finally died paralyzed on the side of the road with my four feet facing the sky.

The Guardian of the Other Dimension

Once again, my spirit left the body, returned to a clear state, and had a strong intention to return to the void, but my spiritual consciousness entered the cracks of the universe again. This time, I entered an alien space, where most of the space was dominated by birds and beasts. My soul drifted in this space, becoming a floating soul, until I entered a flying body. The flying body was the guardian of this space. At that time, most of the spirits in the void had clear spirits and could easily pass through space. In order not to let outsiders enter this space to destroy it, I flew back and forth between the boundary of this space and other spaces to ensure that no one broke into this space. Being able to be a flying body in this space, of course, also had a close Causal Condition with the people of this space. I performed my duties faithfully every day, until a group of beings with evil superpowers broke into this space. Without any warning, they cast a spell on me. My whole body was weak, paralyzed, and fainted. After waking up, the alien space I guarded had disappeared before my eyes. I was shocked, puzzled, and angry. I, who was full of energy while guarding the alien space, was now somewhat weak in my anger. Just when I was angry, my whole body, which was transparent, turned red, and I felt weak when flying, not knowing where to go. Just when my physical strength was exhausted, I fell from the sky, and my long body fell onto a large open space in southern China. At that time, many residents didn't know what I was and gathered around my body. Just as they were watching, one person spoke first: 'This is a dragon, this is the dragon that represents our China. During the New Year, a red dragon landed, which means great luck.' The next day, the villagers wanted to come and see my body again, but my long form had already disappeared and been withdrawn into the space. And I was born not far from that open space. When I was born, red light appeared, and the era was about two thousand three hundred years ago in China.

The Child Who Listened to the Void

After I was born, I was a very spiritual fat baby. My parents were both illiterate rough people. In the remote settlement, the village was almost all old people and children, and no one played with me. I didn't like to play with people either, always liking to be quiet, alone. I could stay in the room alone for a whole day without coming out, or go to the river, sit by the river for a whole day, or sit under a big tree for a whole day. My parents were very worried about me, thinking whether I was an abnormal child? But actually, it wasn't. I was listening to people in every space telling me their stories. The reason I could stay for a whole day was that after this space finished telling me a story, another space would tell me its story. After listening to these stories, the age of the space in my head increased instantly. I seemed to have walked through many vicissitudes of life with many people. Although I was a three-year-old child on the outside, I was already like an old man of fifty or sixty on the inside, ready for death to come at any moment. On the trees, trunks, branches, leaves, roots, soil, and even around the trees, there were too many spaces. Even if I spent a day under the tree, I only knew the stories of one or two tiny, subtle spaces, and there were too many waiting for me to hear. In fact, once the people in these spaces knew that someone could understand what they were saying, they would be very active in wanting to pour out, so that others could understand them. At first, there were many noisy sounds in the spaces around my ears, too many, making me unable to figure out where the sounds came from. Gradually, after getting used to hearing them, I began to know how to judge, and I could also separate these sounds one by one—listen if I wanted to, and not listen if I didn't want to. Just like this, I could know when it would rain, how many days it would be sunny, and how many different spirits had come to the hillside, and where they came from. In fact, they didn't need to tell me themselves. If I wanted to know, standing on the hillside, there would be voices discussing in a noisy way, and I could hear them. When new members arrived, the grass gods could naturally know where they came from and how long they would be grass gods. What kind of personality this grass god had, and why it fell on the east side of the hillside, etc. The grass gods had clear spirits. In a piece of grass, there were ten thousand-year-old ones, three-thousand-year-old ones, and five-hundred-year-old ones. This age calculation is how long they must be grass. A blade of grass dries and dies, and after it dies, the roots grow again. That is their life.

The Soil Within

As a small child, I rarely spoke. After talking to ten thousand kinds of spaces, I often thought: 'Must humans be controlled by space?' I couldn't find the answer to this question outside, so I asked myself. When my thoughts arose, I heard someone talking to me in the space of my body, and the voice seemed to come from my stomach. The stomach said: 'You said it well! I am a fish in your stomach, I want to come out.' I touched my head, not knowing how to answer it. The voice of the lower leg said: 'We are the soil you stepped on, we also want to come out. We lived on the earth for two hundred thousand years. After you walked over, we liked it very much. Our intention was so strong that we tilted our bodies and entered your body. We don't know why this happened. When you were walking, we were shaken up and down, falling around in the space, which made us very dizzy. In the past on the earth, we were stepped on heavily, and our bodies were very painful; or various insect excrement was sprinkled on us. When it was just sprinkled, it was so smelly! On a piece of soil, we knew the insect was ready to excrete by watching its movements. At this time, many voices would come out, 'A little to the right, a little to the right!' After the insect crawled to the right, they would say, 'Yes, yes, yes!' But there would be voices on the right, telling the insect 'a little more to the right!' An insect preparing to excrete could actually cause such a big reaction in the soil! This insect was calm and couldn't hear the voices shouting in the soil at all, just doing whatever it wanted. If it wanted to go to a familiar place today, it would go; if it wanted to change a place to leave a mark, it would change. So no matter how the soil shouted, the insect would ignore it. From what I saw, it turned out that the soil and the insect were in different spaces, and the sounds could not correspond. The soil said a lot of things and told me that it didn't want to follow me anymore. I nodded and asked the soil: 'How can you come out?' The soil said: 'I don't know either.' So I first found a large stone to sit on and began to pat my lower legs. I asked them: 'Are you here?' They said: 'A little higher.' So I patted a little higher, and they said: 'Yes, yes, yes, we are here.' So I patted and said: 'Come out! Come out!' I felt a muscle in my lower leg moving. It moved for a while and then stopped. I asked: 'Have you come out?' As a result, I heard a panting sound, and it said pantingly: 'We can't come out.' I said: 'It doesn't matter, I will strengthen it.' So I lifted my leg, patted it, shook it, and shook it again, moving until my feet were sore before putting it down. After resting for a while, I asked again: 'Excuse me, have you come out?' No one answered me. I was so happy, maybe they came out? Today I seemed to have done a good deed, and I ran home happily. Because I was really happy in my heart, I ran home. After eating dinner, I returned to the room, lay down, put my hands under my head, and crossed my right leg over my left leg, looking very leisurely. At this time, my lower leg vibrated again, and not long after, it said loudly: 'You made me dizzy.' I said: 'You are still here! Didn't I help you come out?' The lower leg soil said: 'No, as soon as you hit, shook, and swung, we were instantly shaking around in the space. When you stopped and asked us, we were too dizzy to answer you. As soon as you ran, we shook again. We are so miserable!' I said: 'Then—this way can't help you come out, I have to think of another way. I will walk lighter recently and try not to affect you.' I felt the soil nodding. Lying on the bed, I was thinking, is this body so vast? I tried to close my eyes to feel everything, and only then did I see the organs of various sizes in the body, each organ panting with the frequency of my heartbeat. Looking closer, even every cell space in my body space was panting. Space upon space, layers upon layers, countless, and it could be seen that they did not interfere with each other. Saying space might be difficult to understand, then let's say countless spiritual bodies, former life forms, spirits, existed in the body, such as internal organs, skin tissues, fingernails, a mouthful of phlegm, a mole, and even between the toes, there were various lives. At this moment, I was stunned. I didn't know who to tell such a shocking thing to. Who could understand? Afterwards, I decided that before I found someone to help me, I would not say anything, otherwise, if I said the beginning but had no solution, saying it was the same as not saying it.

The Mother's Love

Besides looking at my own body, because of curiosity, I also looked at the overall state of my mother's and father's bodies. It was okay not to look, but once I looked, I was scared! I thought my father's physical condition would be worse than my mother's because my father always used physical labour to support us children; unexpectedly, my mother always took care of us, took care of this family, and thought a lot. For the sake of life, for the sake of the family, children, and everyone my mother cared about, they all formed a space in my mother's brain. If I appeared in front of my mother, the space about me in my mother's head would instantly enlarge in front of her eyes, and the space would be filled with the emotions of maternal love; if she saw her grandparents, it would be a kind of love and care from children to elders; or a dog running around in the house, my mother called its name 'A-Wang', and the image of A-Wang in my mother's head would also instantly enlarge. Countless spaces in my mother's head were enlarging and shrinking every day, small enough to be very small, small enough to be invisible. Until a line was connected to the head or eyes, the small memory space would run to the front and enlarge again. In the memory storage, grid by grid, there was no mistake. That morning, I stared at my mother's head, seeing my eyes widen, and my mouth slightly open. My mother turned around and saw me, and asked: 'What are you doing?' My mother's voice reached my ears, and only then did I come back to my senses and said to my mother: 'Nothing, nothing. Mom's breakfast is delicious!' After breakfast, I had to follow my father to the field. As a three-year-old child, I was wearing suspenders. These suspenders were passed down from my brother and were still too big, so I had to put the suspenders on my shoulders so the pants wouldn't slip off. Just like this, I picked up a shovel in the yard, my father carried a hoe, and I followed my father, swaying, not daring to walk too fast, because I promised the soil yesterday not to shake them hard. My father turned back to look at me while walking, seeing why I didn't run around today. Usually, I ran in front of my father and arrived at the field first. 'Why are you walking obediently behind today?' My father asked me: 'Didn't you sleep enough today?' I replied: 'Full, just very confused in my heart!' I said these last few words very quietly, and my father didn't hear clearly, so he asked: 'What did you say behind?' I said: 'Nothing!'

The Story of the Soil

Since the soil that ran into my lower leg talked to me that day, I began to pay close attention to every place I passed. They seemed to know me. I waved to them behind my father, and they seemed to be smiling at me, probably because they thought I was cute. I also smiled at them. Just like this, I observed for a while and found that the aura of the grass by the eastern field and the grass under the big tree was different. Although the grass was manifested by various people, the characteristics of the magnetic field emitted were different. The grass in the eastern field was mostly some country people engaged in farming, emitting a smell of being born and raised in the soil; while the grass under the big tree belonged to people with cultural cultivation, and they would always discuss and explore many things under the big tree. Such distinctions seemed to exist among all things, but grass was the most common, so I talked about grass first. I thought for a while, could it be that grass and all things have the concept of 'birds of a feather flock together'? At this time, I suddenly thought that I could ask the soil in my lower leg, so I called it with my intention: 'Soil in the lower leg, can you hear me?' After waiting for a while, the soil in the lower leg answered: 'I am here! What's the matter?' I asked the soil in the lower leg: 'What kind of people are with you?' The soil in the lower leg was silent for a while and answered: 'We are a group of children like you. Don't look at the simple era now, a long, long, long time ago, this place was very developed! And these people were researchers, developers, leaders who pushed that era to civilization. Their brains were very smart; but they created karma unconsciously, and they had to be soil for I don't know how many tens of thousands of years! As for me, I was a child who was killed while fleeing during a war twenty thousand years ago. I thought of that piece of land in my hometown, so I have been soil for twenty thousand years until now. I dare not recall the past because I cannot be happy if I recall the past, so I like to live in the present. Even if I am stepped on by humans again, the next moment that foot leaves, won't I be fine? Always live more cheerfully, and life will be happy.' I nodded: 'It turns out that everyone has their own story! I hope one day I can help you not to be soil anymore.' The soil on my lower leg became my motivation to find the truth.

The Suffering of Life

Besides the soil in my lower leg, sometimes I would hear sounds from different parts of my body when I lay on the bed, some crying, some laughing, and even the sound of food flowing and digesting in the intestines, I could hear clearly. There were also some waste residues in the intestines that would become excrement, and finally excreted by the human body. Once, I had a stomach ache and ran into the latrine, which was a simple thatched fence with a large pit inside. As soon as I squatted down, I began to squeeze hard, and squeeze again. Suddenly I heard a voice saying: 'A little lighter, you are killing us with pain! How can we come out of such a small passage? We still have to queue up!' I was scared and quickly relaxed my stomach. At this time, the excrement fell down one by one with a plop, plop sound. At this moment, I heard a voice from the big pit saying: 'There are new friends again! You are quite fresh.' Just when I wanted to look down and listen to the sound, a strong smell of excrement mixed with five flavours rushed straight to my brain, and I ran out of the latrine as if escaping, breathing heavily. The little bird on the tree actually laughed at me. I took a look and thought: forget it, laugh if you want! Anyway, everything is so natural. At this time, the more I experienced space, the clearer I could hear the sounds emitted by space.

Every Chinese New Year, my mother always asked me to catch a chicken in the yard to be the big meal for the evening. The first time I walked into the fence, I heard them running happily. I opened the fence and stood in, looked left and right, not knowing which one to catch. After standing for a while, I saw every chicken walking around, only the one in the corner didn't move. I walked to the corner, stretched out my hands, and prepared to pick up the chicken. The chicken next to it shouted: 'What are you doing, what are you doing? Don't catch A-De! Although A-De doesn't like to move, it is the smartest chicken among us. It often helps us come up with good ideas or helps us find some fun. We can't be without A-De.' After hearing this, I had to put A-De back in the corner. After looking around, I prepared to pick up the chicken that ran past in front of me. They called again: 'No, no! It is the old elder here, we all respect it very much, please let it go.' I put the old elder down again. I asked them: 'My mother asked me to catch a chicken for the New Year, so which chicken can I take away?' At this time, they began to cry and said: 'Every time you are happy for the New Year is when we are most sad. One of our companions will be taken away in the fence. When you are eating it, we are crying and saying goodbye to it.' After hearing this, I felt a sore nose, closed the fence, and didn't catch a single chicken. In the evening, my mother asked me: 'Where is the chicken?' I said: 'I couldn't catch it.' After hearing this, my mother's face suddenly turned red and said: 'I asked you to catch a chicken, you couldn't do it, and you still sit at the table to eat every day!' My mother rushed into the fence and grabbed a chicken at will. I heard a loud noise in the fence shouting: 'Help, help!' After my mother caught the chicken, she went to the kitchen. I followed, and seeing the chicken helpless, with the panic of facing death, I knelt down and begged my mother: 'Mom, don't, don't! It's so pitiful to die!' My mother said: 'So pitiful? Tomorrow is New Year, don't say unlucky words, hurry up and go outside, don't say so much! I still have a lot of New Year dishes to prepare. Hurry up!' My mother said while chopping off the chicken's neck. I was so scared that I covered my eyes with both hands and ran back to the room crying. I cried for a long time in the room, and large tears kept sliding down. The next day was the first day of the New Year, and I couldn't smile at all. At the New Year's Eve dinner, seeing the chicken on the table, my family ate big mouthfuls, while my stomach was churning. This night, I didn't stay up for the New Year like everyone else, but hid back in the quilt early.

The River God's Wisdom

Early the next morning, I got up early and ran to the eastern hill, looking at the sky, my mood was still a bit depressed. Although my heart was depressed, seeing the clouds in the sky still so free and easy, I asked the clouds: 'Must humans die?' The clouds answered: 'Death and non-death are all in a split second.' What does 'split second' mean? I don't understand. The clouds said again: 'That is because everyone is attached to this body of the present, the current moment, that there is life and death. In fact, the spirit can be unborn and undying. The life and death of the body are just various karmic retributions.' The clouds told me: 'You can go and observe the theory of cause and effect between life and death. Only with cause and fruit can there be life and death. See these clearly, and you don't have to be sad, and you don't have to rise and fall.' Since the day the clouds told me those words, I began to understand and understand more deeply; but I understood without attachment, without emotion. In this way, after a period of time, I found that my vision was broader.

One day, the aunt next door who loved me the most suddenly fell to the ground and couldn't get up, scaring everyone who knew her. The aunt had always been very healthy, how could she fall just like that? So I walked to the aunt's house to see her. Just as I reached the door, I heard: 'This Wang Caiwu, today is the day you lose your life.' Wang Caiwu was the aunt's name. How could she die today? I hadn't even entered the aunt's house, and I ran home nervously to tell my mother: 'Mom, I just wanted to see the aunt, and before the aunt's door, I heard someone say that someone was coming to take the aunt away today, to let her die!' When my mother heard this, she said: 'You child, don't talk nonsense!' I really didn't know what to do, walking back and forth at the door until I went to bed at night before entering the room. That night, I really couldn't sleep, my heart was so nervous: would someone really come to take the aunt away? Thinking and thinking, I fell asleep until dawn. When I opened my eyes, it was already dawn. I jumped out of bed, washed my face, and walked towards the aunt's house; unexpectedly, before I reached the aunt's house, crying had already come from the aunt's house. I hurried forward to ask the big brother who usually led the play, who was the aunt's son: 'What's wrong?' The big brother said: 'My mother is dead!' I said: 'Your mother is dead?' Then I really didn't hear wrong yesterday, the aunt was really taken away.

I was surprised, I couldn't stay at the aunt's house, so I ran out quickly and ran towards the river. When I ran, the soil in my lower leg began to wail again; but I couldn't care about so much anymore. My heart was beating so fast now, I didn't know how to calm down. I sat by the river crying sadly, and suddenly heard someone comforting me, telling me: 'Don't cry!' Looking around, there was no one. The voice came again: 'I am here.' I was puzzled: 'Where?' The voice said: 'I am the river god in the river. A child should be happy, so where does the sorrow come from?' I asked the river god: 'Must humans have life and death?' The river god laughed and said: 'The child asked well, I have also thought about this question the child thought about. Child, listen to my story, okay?' I nodded. The river god said: 'When I was in the upper reaches of this river, like you, child, I was a child who had never seen the world. Water flowing down seems normal, that's because I, who was once a child, also wanted to see this world. Child, do you know that water flowing down is not a simple thing? This journey must go through many tests, including sand and stones mixing with the originally clean self. Besides that, there will be large stones blocking. At this time, if you don't detour, you can't move forward. I originally thought that as long as I flowed down, it would be fine; unexpectedly, sometimes I had to accept other small lives swimming on my body, and even quarrelling, fighting, grabbing food, etc. At first, seeing these, I tried very hard to stop them; but no matter what I said, they didn't listen because they couldn't hear me. Over time, I chose silence and chose to bless. The water continued to flow downstream, and human settlements appeared. Compared with animals, humans have more activities—drawing water, washing clothes, bathing, any needs of life cannot be separated from us. Even for the sake of smoothness in the future, they will make small things for peace and blessings to drift on the water, so that the days in the future can be smoother. Finally, some people will wrap the dead bodies with straw mats and put them into the water flow, letting them sleep forever, and we still accept it. Child, life is a process of life and death. Child should not be sad for this, but live meaningfully while there is still life. And every meaningful life is different. Child, you can find the way that suits you best.' I nodded, holding a glimmer of hope and asked the river god: 'Then river god, do you know that there is space in the human body? Do you know how to let people in the human body space leave the body?' The river god was silent for a while and said: 'Child, I have never experienced what you said, but I believe the child can find the answer.' After talking to the river god, I seemed to have regained the motivation to live.

The Path to Truth

From that day on, I no longer sought outside. I found that the quieter I became, the clearer I saw. I knew that the answer to the question could be found within. I found that the clearest time for me was when I just woke up, and after everyone went to sleep at night. At these times, I could see myself clearly. And once food entered the human body, the whole body began to operate like a large machine. If the whole digestion schedule was not completed, the body would not stop. These processes of body digestion would make my body feel dizzy. At this time, if I didn't take a nap, the whole head seemed to stop working and couldn't move forward. At this time, I had to cooperate with the body to take a nap. Sometimes I could wake up after a while, and sometimes I couldn't wake up after sleeping. After I realized these, I began to eat lighter and lighter, so that my whole body was in a state of balance and purification. The more I was like this, even the noisy sounds in my body became quieter and quieter. These surprised and amazed me, and I wanted to continue to explore the human body. So at seven years old, I almost didn't run out like other children; instead, I was quiet in the room. I wanted to find any possible answers within. After the body was quiet day by day, at first I would go to the dining room to eat with my family, but the oily taste on the table and the taste of various meats made me nauseous. As soon as I walked out of the room door and smelled that taste, my stomach would roll like a giant wave. After trying several times, my mother agreed to let me stay in the room and blanch some simple vegetables for me.

After purifying in this way for half a year, suddenly one day, when I was quiet, standing at the door of the room, I saw my body sitting in the place where I usually sat quietly. I was a bit nervous: how could I be like this? I quickly sat back into the body, and the body moved quickly, thinking I was going to die; unexpectedly, I could still return to the body, and I breathed a sigh of relief. A few days later, my spirit came out again and saw my body. With the experience of the last time, I was less nervous this time. I first tried to sit back into the body to see if I could. After I could, my spirit began to walk out of the room door, and I could see clearly what everyone was doing.

The Servant's Secret

Once, my family hired a servant who stole my mother's hairpin when she wasn't paying attention. My mother soon discovered it. Such a thing had never happened in the village, and my mother was a bit anxious, worried about the safety of the house. It happened that night when my spirit was wandering in the courtyard, I saw the servant sneaking into my mother's room, so I followed him to see what he was doing. Unexpectedly, he rummaged around, found a hairpin that looked valuable, put it in a handkerchief, wrapped it up, and then carefully pushed open my mother's room door and came out. At that time, I had already purified to the point where I could know what people were thinking. I saw that after this servant returned to the room, he carefully opened a small corner of the handkerchief to look inside, feeling comforted in his heart, thinking that finally his mother could have money for treatment. At that moment, I felt a sore nose. He was just a brother a few years older than me, why was his fate so different? When my mother was about to go to the yamen, I quickly ran out of the room to stop my mother and asked her to come to my room. I told my mother the whole story of what I saw and asked my mother not to punish him, and even said: 'Can you help him?' After hearing this, my mother nodded happily and agreed, calling this servant to ask. At first, he spoke stammeringly, until my mother opened her mouth to say she would help his mother treat the illness. He was very surprised and knelt down, took out my mother's hairpin from his chest pocket, and kowtowed to my mother to apologize. My mother helped him up, took out some money and gave it to this big brother A-Wang, saying: 'If you encounter difficulties in the future, just speak up. If I can help, I will try my best to help.' Big brother A-Wang kowtowed several times in a row, and from that day on, he became the most loyal servant who shared the work for my father and mother.

Just like this, after many experiences, my mother gradually realized that I had abilities different from ordinary people. When many people came to complain to my mother and talk about things they couldn't solve, my mother would always talk about me to everyone and ask me to help everyone. I always helped in a situation that conformed to the universal principles of truth, and even persuaded them. Being able to have this ability at a young age, the people in the village respected me very much, and also respected my parents. Once, I helped an uncle solve his trouble, and just as I was about to leave, I saw this uncle stuff a large red envelope to my father and mother. From then on, I began to observe my father and mother and found that their greed had arisen, using my ability to collect money from others. I once persuaded them frankly, asking them not to do this, but found that they still didn't listen to me, so I made up my mind to leave this home, not letting my parents carry karma and create karma.

The Journey of the Truth-Seeker

When I left home, I was about fifteen years old and began to walk ten thousand miles with my own feet. First, I went to a fishing village and lived in the fishing village for a long time. I found that many men here couldn't come back after going out to sea, and many women had to guard their homes alone for a lifetime. So I used the way of communicating with heaven and earth and the clouds to teach everyone how to observe the celestial phenomena and the phenomena of the sea, so that the villagers could be integrated with heaven and earth and the natural world, allowing many fishing boats and fishermen to reduce casualties. After most of the villagers understood, I set off and walked forward. Coming to a drought-stricken place, I told the people where they could find food to fill their stomachs, so they wouldn't be too affected by the drought. After walking through various places, gradually some people called me a 'True Man' because of my help, the 'True Man Xuan Kai' who could know the mysteries of heaven and earth.

While walking through various places, I already knew that all things have their own spaces. I asked myself again: 'Must a fish be a fish? Must a mountain be a mountain? Where will the final destination of all things be?' These years, the more I walked, the more spirits piled up on my body, and these were all things I could see myself. I couldn't stop them from attaching to my body. They said that my body was like a tangible home, and there were several scents on me that deeply attracted them, so they chose to follow me. To the spirit, this was a very natural force of attraction. Gradually, I felt a heavier and heavier feeling in my body. Even so, I still tried my best to keep the spirit clear and not be disturbed by these beings attached to me, affecting the state of the body or various possible emotions. If I didn't keep reminding myself like this, my spirit might have been suppressed by various spirits coming from inside and outside long ago. Being able to do this was because I saw the attraction produced by the outer appearance very clearly. The desire of this body, or any intention produced for the survival of this body, I stopped in time under very high awareness.

Every time I arrived at a different place, I would ask everywhere if there were any high masters to be found. I didn't just ask people, but also all things, hoping to get the answer quickly. Just when I was resting under a large stone, the old soul in the large stone told me that I could find the answer on a mountain in the south, but only a sincere person could find it. I was excited and couldn't wait to move forward. My sincere heart could respond to all things. After walking a few steps, there was a forest in front, so I walked into it. A few steps later, there was an opening in front, and several children were squatting in front, studying a compass embedded in the ground. The compass kept turning, kept turning, and the children were chattering, waiting for which direction the compass would stop. Suddenly, as soon as I approached, the compass stopped. Once it stopped, the children ran forward in the direction of the compass, running so fast, and then disappeared before my eyes. I didn't understand what happened in front of me, but I also followed the direction of the compass forward. Not long after, an ancient temple appeared before my eyes.

The Ultimate Truth

I was shocked by the solemnity and majesty of the ancient temple. Walking into the centre of the ancient temple, a cool feeling surged into my heart. Every wooden carved Buddha statue in the ancient temple was so solemn, and every sage and practitioner in every space was practicing before the seat. I naturally knelt before the Buddha. The Buddha was silent, and I melted into this silence. My heart calmed down, and all the spirits in my body also calmed down. My heart kept being quiet, quiet to the quietest, and I felt the Buddha's compassion. I felt some spirits in my body come out when they saw the Buddha. It turned out that the Buddha was the supreme truth. I didn't know how long I was quiet, I saw my most ancient soul and knew the preciousness of this spirit. I didn't leave the ancient temple again, just letting myself stay in the 'purity' until this spirit entered a magnificent space, which was the Arhat Dharma Realm.

In the Arhat Dharma Realm, I never left the meditative state. Unexpectedly, my heart was so pure that I still couldn't see the Buddha. I knew my practice was not enough, and I hoped to see the Buddha one day. And my body had been discarded. At the time of discarding, the four elements of my body separated, and all the spirits in the body space went to various spaces. I once saw them still waiting for me in the space during meditation, but I didn't know what to do. After obtaining this human body, I finally didn't find a way to directly help them let go and leave. Until I was in the Arhat Dharma Realm, I knew that there was a Practitioner Su in the human world who shook the Dharma Realm. I listened to the Dharma talks during meditation and also watched the Dharma assembly for deliverance, but I saw endless golden light pervading the entire Dharma Realm and empty space, constantly taking sentient beings to the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss. I also saw that the bodies of the fourfold assembly of disciples who participated constantly had spirits coming out following the Buddha-name and Buddha-light. I was surprised and amazed. It turned out that chanting the name of Amitabha—'Namo Amituofo'—could help the spirits in the body space leave. This was the answer I had been looking for for thousands of years.

I remembered the beings who had karmic affinity with me, so I decided to leave the meditative state and come with the holy assembly to the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre in Australia where Practitioner Su is. The Buddha is here, and endless Dharma protectors protect together, making me respectfully bow and be grateful. Xuan Kai hopes to follow Practitioner Su to save the world together, to repay the Buddha's kindness, and also hopes that one day he can help the beings who have karmic affinity with him, and send them on their way, just like the promise I made to them at that time. Grateful for the Buddha's compassion, and the Buddha's blessings, Xuan Kai can find the true Dharma, and Xuan Kai will cherish it even more."

Interview message recorded by the chief writer, Shi Fa.