Translated by Shuyu

 

Life is a pilgrimage. It is a journey to search and refine our spiritual being. Regardless how you live your life, you are making your own journey. It starts at birth and continues until death.

Each of us has beaten the unlikely odds of being born and grown up as a person. Many have failed at fertilization, many died at fetus stage, and many died right after birth. Only the extreme lucky ones are able to reach adulthood.

Everyone wants a life with all the good fortunes, healthy, rich, secure, noble, and a natural and painless end. But there are many factors that impact a person’s life, including the pregnancy process, fate, and karma. Often we have little control over the amount of fortunes we can have.

“Where did I come from? Why am I what I am? What am I doing here? How many years do I have in this world? Is death the ultimate end? Is there life after death? Is there a way to beat death?” We may have all asked these questions at one point. These questions prompted our predecessors to search for ways to understand life and death. They have found methods and practices to refine ones body and spirit, and eventually built up a system with theories, methods and results. If one studies this system, and commits to practice over lifetime, one will find answers to those questions.

Normal people live their lives following the natural orders, being swayed by the unknown forces of life, regardless of their status or wealth. The practitioners of the system try to reverse the natural orders, and take back control to their own hands. They have chosen a different journey.

Different journeys take you to different places. We all need to ask our heart where we want to go, and choose our journey accordingly.