The Maturity We Need vs. The Maturity We Do Not Need By Xuefeng

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The Maturity We Need vs. The Maturity We Do Not NeedBy Xuefeng

Only when a fruit is mature is its flesh tender, sweet, palatable, and highly nutritious. Unripe fruit is astringent, sour, lacking juice, and coarse. Therefore, to eat fruit, it must be mature.

Only mature seeds are plump, their life's non-material structure perfect, and their life vitality abundant, making them fit to sprout, grow, flower, and bear fruit in the future. Therefore, the grains harvested into the granary must be mature seeds.

Only mature people are flexible, accommodating, and seamlessly connected to the infinite, like flowing water that adapts to any shape and flows far and wide. Only then can they unite with heaven, earth, and humanity without obstacles or stagnation; only then can they maintain harmony with all things in the universe without the illusion of "self"; only then can they merge with the Dao, free from individual selfish desires, pursuits, attachments, and possessions. Therefore, only mature individuals can become celestials or buddhas and live in the Heavenly Kingdom.

This kind of maturity is not needed: fruits picked before they are ripe and left for a few days or a period of time to force artificial ripening.

Maturity that forces an adult persona before childhood is even over is not needed; maturity that makes one act "like a grown-up" before completing youth is not needed; maturity that forces the gravity of old age before experiencing the full bloom of youth is not needed; maturity that claims to be "celestialized, buddhafied, or divinized" before experiencing the joy, happiness, freedom, and bliss of human life is not needed.

Every stage of life should display the unique splendor and grace of that stage. Premature maturity violates the Dao of God and natural laws.

• Forbidding children from playing and constantly demanding them to be "good," "obedient," and focus entirely on book knowledge is inhumane.
• Preventing youth from being high-spirited and vigorous, demanding them only to study, ponder, and bear heavy burdens is inhumane.
• Stopping young adults from having ideals, fantasies, aiming high, and enjoying romance, while forcing them to be realistic and practical to make money and hustle for survival is inhumane.
• Depriving humans of a happy, joyful, free, and blissful life to demand hardship just to become a celestial or buddha is inhumane.
  
  

Buddha is true nature (Xing性), and celestial is also true nature (Xing性). To live entirely within one's true nature is God's true intent for creating life. Therefore, any maturity brought about by suppressing or destroying one's true nature is not needed.

In fact, whether a life is a celestial or a buddha does not depend on age, knowledge, experience, or whether they understand celestial or buddhist spells and advanced theories and dharma methods. As long as one lives in their true nature, they are a celestial, a buddha, and a beautiful life unified with God. Therefore, a child of three or five, if their soul remains unpolluted, is already in the state of a celestial. They do not need anyone to deliberately guide or educate them on how to become a celestial or a buddha. If a genius is deliberately guided and educated by experts and masters, the genius is more likely to be stifled.

Imagine if we said to a peach tree: "You must grow well, absorb plenty of water and nutrients, maintain your true qualities as a peach tree, don't be tempted by pear trees, bloom on time in spring, and the peaches you bear must taste like peaches."

Is that necessary? How to grow, bloom, and bear fruit—the peach tree already knows exactly what to do. It understands natural laws and knows how to coexist harmoniously with nature far better than humans do. What humans need to do is not to guide or educate, but to water and fertilize.

Rushing to mature will backfire. If a person does not live in their true nature but constantly plots in their mind how to get people to praise, applaud, and commend them to feign "maturity," that kind of maturity is unacceptable.

Men must be men, and women must be women. "If a woman is gentle on the outside but resilient and capable of carrying burdens on the inside, she is considered a mature woman. If a man is physically strong on the outside but tender and delicate on the inside, he is felt to be a mature man." This kind of "maturity" is not the maturity of "mature crops"; it is a distorted "maturity." We would never consider a hen mature just because she can both lay eggs and crow, nor a rooster mature because he can crow and lay eggs.

A rooster crowing on time and a hen laying eggs on time is called maturity. If the hen stops laying eggs and the rooster stops crowing, it is time for them to be slaughtered.

June 23, 2013

Source: Lifechanyuan | Author: Xuefeng | [Chanyuan Corpus  : Spreading the Dao]