Pushing People to Forge Ahead is Doing the Devil’s Trick
Xuefeng
December 26, 2018
(Translated by Qinyou and Edited by Kaer)
The kind of individual that each person is and how many blessings and sins they will enjoy throughout their lifetime is a definite number. What kind of achievements each person will rise to is a certainty, whom each person is destined to meet and fall in love with and who they will encounter and torture are all part of their life’s trajectory. Whether you want to be a singer, a politician, a scientist, an artist, a high-ranking official, have lots of wealth, a thief, a beggar, or whatever else, has already been written into the script; you cannot just be whoever you want to be. Similarly, who can become a Celestial being or Buddha, who can become a monster or demon, who will fly to heaven, and who will fall to hell have long been decided. When a person gets sick, what kind of diseases they will have，when they will be born, and when and how they will die have all been determined in the process of LIFE. What kind of life a person can live and whether they are rich or poor have also been determined and no one can escape the arrangement of the cosmic script.
If you fertilize, water, and maintain a Chinese cabbage, it will grow very plump and fat, but in no case can it become lettuce. Feed a sheep more grass and grain and it will grow fat, but it will never become a cow. Do not bother with a giraffe’s neck, it will grow long naturally; do not tell lions how to catch zebras, they will figure it out; do not teach mice how to dig holes, they are born to dig them.
Prompting people to forge ahead, encouraging them to achieve things, teaching them how to become successful, grooming them to become officials and make fortunes, instigating them to glorify and illuminate their ancestors, to be outstanding, and so forth are all like teaching hens how to crow or asking bulls to produce milk. Not only is it useless, but it is also the same as compelling a woman to engage in prostitution. Its profound meaning is: “Go to your death! Work hard to die! Look, the grave is not far away, run to it quickly!”. So, promoting people to forge ahead is a devil's trick.
According to Apple Daily, more than two hundred-sixty officials and corporate executives over the last five years have taken their lives by shooting themselves, cutting their wrists, drowning themselves, hanging from beams, jumping off buildings, and lying on rails. All these people were successful and outstanding, but what were their results? Had they been allowed to choose their path again, would they still work so hard to become so successful? Can we see how their past hard work was actually leading them to their deaths?
Do you think that the higher an official’s rank, the happier and freer they will be? Do you think that the more money they earn, the more freedom and happiness they will enjoy? Do you think that becoming the chairman of a board or a president is joyful? Do you think that the more powerful and capable people you associate with, you will have a better and more satisfactory life? Wrong! The more you possess, the more troubles and pains you will have.
Barefoot people and those who wear high class leather shoes, who are happier? Children with bare butts playing in the mud and those who practice hard, dress in fashionable clothes, and play pianos on stages, who are happier?
I used to live in Binka, the most backward area of Zimbabwe, Africa, where most children do not wear shoes. Under the moonlight at night, in the middle of dozens of simple thatched huts, there were bonfires with young people beating drums, the children were jumping and laughing around those bonfires, and a few thin dogs were running around and barking. At that moment, I understood what happiness meant. I lived with a primitive tribe in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. During the day, many people would sit or lie down chatting in shabby houses with air leaks on all sides or sit or lie down drinking tea in the shade of the outdoor courtyard. They live like this for more than half of each year and who can say that they are not happy?
It is said that a wealthy person once came to relax in a seaside resort. They saw a fisherman lying on the bow of his boat every day enjoying the sunlight after having caught only a few fish. The wealthy vacationer felt that this was a waste of good time, so they “showed kindness” and went to teach the fisherman how to succeed. They told the fisherman that he should hurry up every day to catch and sell more fish, and then if he got enough money, he could form a fishing team to catch even more fish and then he could set up a fish processing factory. In this way, in a few years, the fisherman could become wealthy and successful. The fisherman asked, “what would I do if I become wealthy?” The rich one replied, “when you have money, you can come to the beach to enjoy your vacation like me”. The fisherman asked again: “What do you think I am doing now?”.
Why do you want to forge ahead? Why do you want to be diligent? Why do you have to work hard? Why do you want to be a winner? Is it not good enough to just live in compliance with nature? Life only lasts for a hundred years, if that; playing in the mud in childhood, chasing members of the opposite sex and playing around in your early youth, going to school when you are young, falling in love and working in your prime, drinking tea and chatting when you are old, and watching flowers bloom and fade in your old age, is this not a good life?
Mice dig holes, cats catch mice, seedlings strive to grow, and fruit trees bear fruit, but what about people? Without instigation and encouragement, they will naturally follow their lives’ paths. If someone loves to learn, there is no need to urge them on because they will definitely learn, if they love to work, then they will definitely study technology and work hard, but if they deserve to be a boss, without instigation, they would definitely be uneasy working as an employee. If they would like to steal or rob, it would be useless for you attempt to instill morality and ethics into them. If they want to be a saint, they will study the philosophy of saints and understand the truth of the universe. It is a waste of effort for you to attempt to bring a saint into the world. If they want to become a Celestial being or Buddha, they will naturally look for the environment conducive to that end and nothing can stop them.
Twenty years ago, I read Napoleon Hill’s “The Complete Book of Success”. I became very ambitious and wanted to earn more money. As a result, I was deceived and defrauded out of more than four hundred-thousand RMB Yuan. From then on, I have hated “Success”; for more than twenty years, I have been studying, and finally found that promoting people to forge ahead is the devil’s trick.
Someone might ask: “You, Xuefeng write articles day and night to create Lifechanyuan and Chanyuan homes, are you not working hard?” My answer is that I love it; no one urges me to do it. I would like to be like this, but if someone urges me to work hard, I will tell them to, “Go to hell, you abettor!”. Can a hen lay eggs if she has none in her belly? If she has eggs in her belly, can she not lay them?