The Smile That Transcended the Hells

This interview was recorded on November 16, 2024, at the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre. The interviewer is the chief writer, Shi Fajing. Lin Baishu, a soul who once served as a prison guard in the hells, shares his extraordinary journey from a tragic birth to his ultimate deliverance into the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss through the teachings of Practitioner Su.

Lin Baishu speaks:

"Baishu has arrived, and the other fifty-nine prison guards have arrived as well. We have all reached the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss. We can only say that we are truly fortunate; to have encountered the Buddha even within the hells, and to have been able to come from the hells to the West—this is something we had never even heard of. Yet, it actually happened to us, the prison guards. It is inconceivable, truly inconceivable. We sixty prison guards are filled with boundless gratitude toward Practitioner Su. We do not know how to express this endless sense of appreciation, so we continue to kowtow and kneel with the utmost sincerity. Our hearts are truly moved, and we are eternally grateful."

A Tragic Beginning in the Village

"In this lifetime, my name was Lin Baishu. The year I was born, all the bandits from a nearby mountain descended upon our village. They broke in, hacking, killing, looting, and violating everyone. Every villager and woman suffered, tortured to death. The entire village was a scene of utter devastation. My mother was in labour that day. She knew she could not wait any longer; I was about to emerge from her womb. However, the village was in complete chaos. She could not find a midwife, nor could she stay at home to give birth to me safely.

My mother used every ounce of her strength, carrying a cloth bag, and began to run toward the mountains. She ran without stopping. She endured the agony of her labour, biting her lips until they bled, her body drenched in sweat, her legs stained with blood. After running into a hidden spot deep in the mountains, she finally stopped. Her legs gave way, and she collapsed. I was already gasping for breath in her womb, so she hurriedly delivered me. The moment she heard my cry, my mother finally felt at ease. With her last bit of strength, she wrapped me in a cloth, and then she breathed her last."

The Smile of the Orphan

"I lay on the ground and soon stopped crying. My mother had no breath left, and I quietly kept her company. Soon, a villager found me—it was the village head. When he saw me, he immediately tried to lift me from my mother's embrace. But her body had already stiffened, and her rigid hands were still holding me tightly. The village head had to carefully pry her stiff hands apart, saying to her, 'Rest assured! Since I have found this child, I will certainly take good care of him until he grows up safely. You can leave in peace; do not worry about this child.'

After the village head held me in his arms, he looked at me. My eyes were not yet open, but I was wearing a big, wide smile. The village head could not help but smile back, saying to me, 'I am old enough to be your grandfather, so why don't you call me Grandfather?' After Grandfather buried my mother's body, he took me down the mountain. The entire village was filled with corpses. Grandfather carried me on his back and began to collect the bodies one by one. He buried them all on the same mountain. Counting them, there were about a hundred bodies. After Grandfather spent a long time burying them all, he erected a tombstone at the site, clearly writing the name of every person, including my mother's name."

A Village Reborn Through Joy

"Only a few stray cats remained in the village. Grandfather looked at this place, once full of warmth, now reduced to dead silence. He was deeply sorrowful, but every time he looked at me, he could not help but smile, because my face always wore a smile. By the time I was two or three years old, Grandfather discovered that I could not speak; I could only smile. He often asked me, 'What makes you so happy that you want to smile every day?' I could not speak, so I just smiled at him.

My appearance ignited a glimmer of hope in Grandfather's life. In fact, Grandfather had a family—a wife and three sons—but they had all perished in that tragedy. The reason Grandfather survived that day was that he had gone up the mountain to plant trees. Planting trees was his life's commitment; he believed that planting trees benefited future generations and the environment. So, as the village head, whenever he had time, he went everywhere to plant trees. It was because he was not in the village that day that he narrowly escaped death.

I knew Grandfather was miserable every day, and I could feel the sorrow and resentment filling the village. But I still looked at this world with a smile. No matter how much Grandfather suffered, I would smile at him, and his suffering seemed to lessen because of it. The village slowly began to show signs of life again. Grandfather took care of the whole village every day, repairing whatever needed fixing. When outsiders wanted to move in, Grandfather welcomed them, because a village needs people to feel like a village."

The Philosophy of the Smile

"As I grew older, although I could not speak, my smile became more beautiful. Everyone who saw me could not help but smile back. A boy who was crying would look at me, see me smiling, and suddenly stop. He would walk over and ask curiously, 'Why do you keep smiling? What are you happy about?' I would shake my head and just smile at him. Everyone in the village knew me, not just because I was the village head's grandson, but because of my signature smile. Later, Grandfather renamed our village 'Smile Village'. There were no sorrowful faces in our village, only smiles; no pain, only joy.

Since I was young, Grandfather showed me many books and taught me to write. Although I could not speak, I wrote with a beautiful hand. I could write any style, and the words I wrote always carried positive meanings. The books I read were also mostly positive. To me, life seemed to hold only joy, not pain. However, is there really no pain in life? The birth, aging, sickness, and death of human life, the white-haired person sending off the black-haired person—these are constant entanglements of suffering. Yet, to me, I could face these sufferings with a smile.

A woman who had just lost her husband asked me, 'Baishu, why can you smile at everything? Have you never tasted the bitterness of life?' I smiled at her; I was about ten years old then. Since I could not answer with words, I wrote for her. I wrote: 'Life is originally nothing, and death is also nothing.' The woman read these words aloud, looking at me with confusion. I wrote again: 'Since it is originally nothing, why worry about this nothingness?' The woman repeated the words, unable to understand at first. As she kept reciting them, she suddenly laughed and said to me, 'Baishu, I understand! It never existed in the first place, so why suffer for an illusion that was never there!' She interpreted it happily and walked away."

The Final Lesson

"Many people in the village liked to ask me questions because they still felt the weight of suffering. Whenever they were in pain, they would come to find me. Seeing the smile on my face, they would smile too, and then I would write a few sentences to help open their hearts. Gradually, the people in the entire village really lived more happily and freely. When I was thirty, I knew my time had come. Grandfather knew it too, though the villagers did not.

In fact, I was born with a disease. It was discovered shortly after I was born when Grandfather took me to a doctor. It was a congenital condition; I was not expected to live long, at most five or six years. However, my life did not end within those years, which left that doctor in disbelief. The main reason was 'smiling'. I smiled with my heart. Even though my physical condition was poor, I could still smile. To me, these were all illusions. The physical pain was an illusion, and all the joys and sorrows of life were illusions. Therefore, I smiled freely at the world, and there was not a day I did not smile.

I brought Grandfather only joy, never sorrow. Grandfather knew clearly that I had come to repay a kindness in this life. Because of my companionship, he was able to endure the most painful time of his life and even live a more brilliant life—smiling every day. I left the human world at thirty, and Grandfather smiled as he sent me off to the mountain. Later, Grandfather passed away as well. Perhaps it was his intention; once he had sent me off, he no longer needed his body. He naturally followed his breath as it slowly faded, and with a gentle breeze, he left the human world."

From the Stars to the Hells

"After leaving my body, I followed a lucky star I had often watched during my life and entered the space of that star. A lucky star brings good fortune, hope, growth, and strength; this is what I did. In the space of the lucky star, I used my right mindfulness to bring people positive power and positive energy. I always brought people joy and smiles, without a trace of negative energy. I stayed in the space of the lucky star for several decades. Then, following my heart's intention, I entered the extremely bitter hells.

Two hell guards escorted me. King Yama asked me, 'Do you really intend to do this?' I nodded firmly and replied, 'Let me experience it.' In that place of extreme suffering, I still faced every criminal being punished with a smile. They were truly suffering; their faces were twisted in agony, and not a single criminal could manage a smile. Although I could look at them with a smile, I could not help them. It was not until I heard Practitioner Su giving Dharma talks and explaining the Buddha's teachings that I suddenly awakened.

The Sutras explained by Practitioner Su helped me understand reincarnation and how to help these hell-bound beings leave their suffering behind. I began to help them recognise Namo Amituofo and shared the Sutras Practitioner Su had taught. The Buddha's teachings truly saved many beings in the hells. They began to listen to the teachings, repent, and then made vows to change their ways and seek to leave suffering behind. Many were saved through the deliverance of Practitioner Su. As for me, I finally saw everything clearly, made a vow to seek rebirth in the Western Pure Land, and was successfully placed on the list to be guided by Practitioner Su to the West. In the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss, I will surely have eternal happiness and an eternal smile.

Today, I have arrived in the West together with the other fifty-nine prison guards. We are filled with joy and gratitude, kneeling to thank Namo Amituofo and Practitioner Su."

Lin Baishu bows in reverence.

Note: The grandfather of the prison guard Lin Baishu, named Lin Liansheng, is in the space of the Great Tree. He has been invited by Sister Su into the Western Land of Dharma Nature.