When you thought about it, wasn't living the same wherever a person was? Eating, drinking, relieving oneself, sleeping—it was all the same.
The fewer desires one had, the more happiness humanity possessed.
Look at those primitive people who had yet to enter technological life. Though they seemed more barbaric and filthy than ordinary humans,
their happiness was simple. Going out to hunt and catching even a little food could make them happy for an entire day.
Then look at those who took life lightly and lived simply. Keeping flowers or growing vegetables was enough to make them happy.
Much of our time today did not truly belong to us.
Scrolling videos, playing games—we mostly poured our energy into them, and before we knew it, time had slipped away.
I could not say that was bad, but sometimes, when people quieted down, they still needed to think.
If a person's time was one, then 0.5 was taken away here and 0.3 was taken away there, leaving only a tiny fraction of time that truly belonged to oneself.
Before one could even react, that tiny fraction had passed as well.
Some people lived their entire lives without understanding because they placed all their time into all manner of things and never stopped to think about who they truly were.
Thus, they were ruled by their habits for their whole lives, and still did not understand in the end.
Some cultivators even reached a certain point in their cultivation and, when something happened to the country, did nothing but watch coldly from the sidelines.
Coming into this world to cultivate and save others was a mission, but defending one's household and country was a duty.
Tell me, should one's innate duty not take precedence over one's mission? Of course it should; innate duty must outweigh one's mission during peacetime.
These two did not conflict. During peacetime, one should cultivate properly; when the nation was in peril, one should raise a blade and resist.
This too was great kindness and great righteousness, the manifestation of the Bodhi heart and Vajra wrath.
Having only the heart of a bodhisattva was not enough. When a horde of demons attacked, if you did not slay demons and vanquish evil, where would that leave the common people of Huaxia?
Where would that leave all living beings under heaven? If you could not even protect a patch of pure land, how could you speak of guarding the hearts of all beneath heaven?
How could you speak of saving all living beings?
If you would not protect or defend those around you, then were those around you not living beings?
If you kept your own life and crawled on in miserable existence, whom would you save? Lackeys? Traitors? Enemies?
Forgive my bluntness, but if you could not even protect or save the living beings around you, what the hell were you talking about saving all living beings for?
The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation existed to jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind.
What other country could do this? What other country possessed such great righteousness?
Certain countries waved the banner of maintaining world peace while plundering resources and oil everywhere, branding every enemy that refused to cooperate as terrorists.
If the sons and daughters of Huaxia did not rise, and people like them seized control of the world's direction, then just imagine how despicable it would be when they robbed you and still labeled you as evil.
Therefore, no matter how ignorant people judged us with their dregs of opinion, please believe that those were merely judgments born of their individual perspectives.
Compared with countries still living amid suffering, Huaxia could be called a heavenly realm.
You did not need to worry about being robbed on the street under the banner of equality for all beings, nor did you need to worry about a neighbor sending you off under that same banner after a quarrel.
So-called freedom should begin with liberating the human heart, not trapping oneself in habitual perceptions until one could not break free, all while blaming heaven and resenting others.
Everyone would die eventually. If something was unfair in your heart, resolve it in your heart; if something was unfair in reality, resolve it in reality. Neither was an excuse for blaming heaven and resenting others, much less a reason not to love one's country.
A truly friendly country was like ours: it did not interfere in other countries, nor did it allow other countries to interfere in it.
This was what was meant by letting others be themselves and letting me be myself. That was a nation of great kindness.
Look at those brothers standing at the border and guarding peace. Which one of them was not, like you and me, a child of their parents? Which one did not wish for a stable and happy life?
The reason we could live and cultivate so well now was entirely because these guardians silently gave so much.
Some even guarded this peace at the cost of their lives!
Vast Huaxia, magnificent mountains and rivers—all of it had been protected by their drop after drop of blood and sweat.
Yes, you could also say that once you had money, you could go anywhere in the world or have whatever kind of life you wanted.
But while you were still weak, you could not deny that it was because your predecessors built powerful fortresses with their flesh, blood, and steel-like bodies that you could grow up in peace.
You said you had studied much culture, that your understanding was outstanding, that you had achieved such high grades—but without this protection, would you truly be any different from those children who had lost their homes and wandered displaced?
Without this protection, how could you safeguard the beauty in your heart amid hunger and suffering?
The righteous heart of a cultivator was sometimes not the self-proclaimed sacrifice of the small for the great.
It was truly abandoning one's own smallness for the greatness of all.
If you would not even protect the peace of your parents and family, whom did you claim you could protect?
Would you only protect that heart of yours that believed itself different from everyone else?
All things were one body; heart and heart were connected.
If it were truly like that, then it was nothing more than deceiving oneself in order to preserve one's selfish desires.
A cultivator's enlightenment should not fear life, nor should it fear death. One should live when it was time to live, and die when it was time to die.
Heroic spirit covered the world; righteousness pierced the clouds.
Only when one's spirit held the energy to reach the heavens and penetrate the earth could one possess the ability to change heaven and earth.
To act for oneself was selfishness; to act for all living beings was great righteousness.
Great righteousness would not die; heroic souls would remain forever.
If you thought I was merely spouting nonsense, then you could conduct an experiment to verify what I said.
Try going to a mass grave at midnight and see the panic in your heart, then go to Martyrs' Park and feel that peace of mind.
Then you would understand just how powerful the energy of great righteousness I spoke of was.
You might feel a trace of fear toward the place where your Lineage buried its ancestors, but you would never feel terror toward the resting place of heroic martyrs from generations past.
Do you see this energy? It remained undispersed through a thousand autumns and ten thousand ages, filling heaven and earth! A heart of great righteousness could span ancient and modern times!
No matter when or where you were, if fear arose in your heart, take a bouquet of flowers and visit Martyrs' Cemetery. That was the place with the most abundant Positive energy in the world!
You needed to know who stood behind you: countless people who had carried broadswords and bravely slain enemies, all so that you could live in peace today.
They were those who gave their lives for your peace! They were the predecessors of Huaxia who died in your place so that you could live!
Their one shared purpose was to protect the descendants of Huaxia and this hard-won peace.
Were you proud? Could you feel how powerful those standing behind you were?
He said immortals stood behind him. He said ghosts stood behind him. He said he was so very powerful.
Show him who stood behind you!
Would you still be afraid?
What stood behind you were heroic souls! What stood behind you was great righteousness!
It was the most powerful and selfless energy between heaven and earth!
We cultivators of immortality had to continue this energy and pass it on!
With heads held high and spirits soaring, cross the Yalu River; preserving peace and defending the motherland was protecting one's homeland!
Preserving peace and defending the motherland was guarding the light in one's heart!