The Suffering of Sentient Beings and the Path to Liberation

If you possess great blessings, you will realise that all conditions in this life are illusory, arising from the convergence of Causal Conditions. When conditions meet, things gather; when they dissipate, things scatter. Everything is transient, yet the spirit remains.

The Awakening of the Sensitive Heart

Why do I ask if sentient beings know their own suffering? To truly know suffering, one's sensitive awareness must be active. Only when this awareness is awakened can one develop the heart to leave suffering behind, and only then does one have the opportunity to escape the cycle of rebirth. If this sensitive awareness remains dormant, one will spend their life in a state of constant, busy distraction. One may work tirelessly, yet in the end, they gain nothing. As people in the world often say, one brings nothing into this world at birth, and one takes nothing away at death. If this is the case, why endure such unnecessary hardship?

The Endless Echoes of the Six Realms

When Shakyamuni Buddha was in the world, He once observed a group of ants scurrying across the ground in search of food. He sighed and said to His disciples: "Do you know that these ants have already lived through the appearance of seven Buddhas, yet they are still ants?"

Consider the vastness of time represented by the appearance of seven Buddhas. In our worldly realm, the most recent Buddha was Shakyamuni Buddha, who was born in India over two thousand years ago. The next Buddha to appear will be Maitreya Buddha. Currently, Maitreya Buddha is residing in the Tushita Heaven, teaching the Dharma. When we convert that time into human years, it will be approximately five billion, six hundred and seventy million years before He descends to this world to manifest as a Buddha and teach all beings.

From this, we can see that the appearance of seven Buddhas spans an unimaginably long duration. Yet, these ants remain ants. It is truly chilling to contemplate the terror of the six realms of rebirth. While this is the result of their own karmic retribution, does it not make you feel a profound sense of sorrow and pity to think of such a long, endless cycle of life and death within the insect realm? Yet, do these ants realise that their existence is one of suffering and sorrow? They continue to live within their own dimension, constantly working, moving, and cycling through birth and death, life after life.

The Precious Vessel of the Human Form

Ants possess a spirit and are living beings, but they lack the heart to seek liberation. They have no opportunity to be taught that they, too, possess the Buddha-nature and can chant Namo Amituofo to seek rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. Their Buddha-nature is obstructed, and they can only follow the dictates of their karmic destiny until their retribution is exhausted and they are released from their insect bodies to enter the next cycle of rebirth.

You may wonder: if the Buddha is so compassionate, why can He not help these ants escape their insect bodies? The answer lies in the fact that Shakyamuni Buddha manifested in this world to teach us that we must each bear the consequences of our own karma. No one can take the place of another. As the sutras say, we are born alone, we die alone, and we depart alone. However, if there is a good causal condition where one encounters a person with a compassionate heart, that person can perform the Three Refuges for the animals, insects, and crawling creatures they encounter. This provides them with the opportunity to escape their current form in the next life and attain a human body.

The Eightfold Path of Worldly Sorrow

Do you feel that the six realms of rebirth are suffering, or do you think that being a human is quite pleasant? Consider the eight types of suffering that define human existence:

• The suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death.
• The suffering of being separated from those we love.
• The suffering of being in the presence of those we dislike.
• The suffering of not obtaining what we desire.
• The suffering of the five aggregates burning like a fire.

Life in this world is inseparable from these eight sufferings. People in the world often assume that this is simply the nature of life, unaware that there is a higher, spiritual existence—a completely different realm of being. Laozi once said: "My great trouble is that I have a body." When one is without a body, the spirit is much lighter, and naturally, many things can be known. However, having a body is also vital. For human beings, so much can only be accomplished through the union of body and spirit.

The Hidden Light of the True Self

Within the six realms of rebirth, only the human realm and the animal realm possess both a body and a spirit simultaneously. Other beings, such as those in the ghost realm, the hells, the heavenly realms, the asura realm, and the higher levels of the Four Sacred Realms—the Arhats, Pratyekabuddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas—all lead lives of pure spirit. Therefore, this space is not occupied solely by humans and animals. So many lives exist simultaneously in this worldly realm, existing every day, every night, every second, yet because they occupy different dimensional levels, they remain undisturbed and do not infringe upon one another.

Every single life, from a grain of sand, a single cell, or a human being, to a massive whale, contains a true self. Every true self possesses the Buddha-nature, the true reality, and the same wisdom and virtue of the Tathagata as Shakyamuni Buddha, Namo Amituofo, and Maitreya Buddha. It is only because of our delusions and discriminations that we cannot realise it. When Shakyamuni Buddha attained awakening under the Bodhi tree, He declared: "All sentient beings possess the wisdom and virtue of the Tathagata, but they cannot realise it due to their delusions and discriminations."

How important these words of the World-Honoured One are! Since then, how many beings have followed this teaching, practising diligently to find their true self and the true nature of reality? By doing so, they have permanently escaped the six realms of rebirth, living a life of coolness and freedom, no longer controlled by other beings. This is true autonomy. Yet, how many beings are aware of this? Most live their lives in a state of confusion, simply following the arrangements of fate and the cycle of rebirth, passing life after life in vain.

The Final Return to Ultimate Bliss

If you possess great blessings, you will know that all conditions in this life are illusory. They arise from the convergence of Causal Conditions; when conditions meet, they gather, and when they dissipate, they scatter. When the body dies, the spirit departs. The physical body and the conditions of this world come to an end and decay. This life passes, but the soul is neither born nor destroyed. Once this life ends, where will the spirit go?

• Will it follow the force of karma, judged by the King of Hell to enter one of the six realms?
• Will it have performed the ten good deeds, naturally rising to one of the twenty-eight levels of heaven?
• Will it follow the final thought at the moment of death, becoming a spirit of the mountains, rivers, earth, flowers, or trees?
• Or, through the power of vows, will it follow Namo Amituofo and be reborn in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss?

It is precisely because you possess this human body, where body and spirit are united, that you have the power to determine your own future destination. You must cherish this human body. Recognise that all physical existence is illusory, and understand that the suffering of the cycle of rebirth is real. The only way to truly leave suffering behind and find happiness is to be reborn in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. This is the very mission to which the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre is dedicated: leading all spirits to be reborn in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.

Namo Amituofo