Only When You Have Become A Child Again
Can You Enter The Kingdom Of God

When Jesus Christ grew up, He went out to preach and glorify God. He traveled to many places introducing the true doctrine to people. Here is a story told by Him when He was preaching in a certain region. The story was about two sons. Jesus Christ had no discrimination, and He treated everyone very nicely regardless of who they were. He often mixed with all kinds of people -- the poor, the sick, the elderly, the ugly, the beautiful and children. He loved all of them and had very good relationships with them. The people also loved and respected Him very much. Jesus Christ really pampered them, especially the children.

People from all walks of life brought their children to see Jesus Christ, and asked Him to touch their heads to bless them. Jesus Christ had many principal apostles, or you can say His good friends, who would bar the children from seeing Him if too many of them had come. "Please! Don't disturb Him! Why are you troubling Him like this?"

Then Jesus Christ would say, "No, no, no! Don't stop them. Let the children come. The Kingdom of God belongs to the children or people who have a pure heart like that of a child. Should we want to return to the Heavenly Kingdom, we must become as innocent as a child." Taking this opportunity, Jesus Christ told us that we must become like a child to return to the Heavenly Kingdom. We should not be too complicated. We must not mind too much about everything. Even when we have grown up, we still should preserve a heart like a child.

To fulfill our obligations to society, naturally we should go to work when we have grown up, get married, or study hard. However, we should keep our heart pure just like when we were small. Don't compete with others; don't long for profit and fame; don't be mean and calculating, be forgiving instead. People may have treated us badly but we should treat them well and love them. Such is the heart of a child. If we can preserve this heart of a child, no matter how old we have grown we are still God's children.

We won't go to hell or fall into undesirable situations. Our life will be smooth; at least our heart will always be happy. We will face any problem cheerfully. No obstacles will make us feel frustrated or worried as we can overcome them. We will easily forgive others, and we will feel very free. We may be rich or poor, our position may be high or low, and despite where we are living or whom we are staying with, we just won't mind. Such is the heart of a child. It is not definite that we cannot be a child again after we have grown up.

Children Can Easily Forgive Others

Jesus Christ was a big child, and so was Shakyamuni Buddha. They were very affectionate and pure _ not complicated in mind. Therefore, They didn't mind what people had done to Them. They wouldn't fuss about or remember enmities, nor would They try to take revenge. In His whole life, Jesus Christ only did good thing sand worshipped God. He never did anything harmful, or competed with others for power, wealth or fame. He taught people to do good deeds; He spread God's love to the whole world, and saved many souls.

Nevertheless, some people were still jealous of Him because He was too famous and loved by too many. Out of their love for Him, people revered Him as king _ the Great King. Worldly people think that being a king is the highest position on Earth, so we revere whomever we love as the Great King.

Consequently, the real king was jealous, and feared that Jesus Christ would challenge him and seize his throne. Jesus Christ was crucified due to this jealousy. However, He kept His child-like heart even when He was nailed to the cross. He begged God to forgive those ignorant people who didn't know the Truth. A child can easily forgive others, and will not harbor enmity against them.

Since Jesus Christ often mixed with all types of people, the so-called monks or monastic people at that time criticized Him. Each religion has their monastic people. For instance, the pastors and nuns of Catholicism and Christianity are monastic people, so they are respected by people. There are also Buddhist monks -- the bhiksus and bhiksunis. The Hindu monks are called swamis. Other religions also have their monastic people. Though they wear different clothes and live in different ways, they are regarded as monastic people.

Being monastic means that they have renounced everything for God, to serve God, and to spread God's Truth to the multitude. They put aside their human emotions and affections for their families, consider the whole world as their family, and see all men as their brothers. Their ideal is really noble and great, so they deserve our veneration.

We shouldn't revere only monastic people of our religion and not those from other paths. This is wrong! Of course, in every religion, there are some monastic people who don't understand this ideal, but seek money and fame in the name of their religion. They are not really monastic people. They wear the same clothes but their hearts are not the same. Fortunately, there is only a handful of them.

The Real Monastic People

Monastic people truly deserve people's admiration, not because of their outer appearance, but because of their inner ideal. They are really keen in serving the multitude, and their hearts extend to the whole world. This is why we admire and respect them, not because of their attire. It doesn't matter what clothes they wear because they have lofty ideals and are broad-minded. They care little about personal feelings, and they see the whole world as one illusion -- all beings are one; there is only one God, one Truth and one Tao. They want to spread this Tao to everyone, and to remind us this Tao is the only way that we should quest.

To these people who have severed their personal affections, we call them monastic people. Monastic or "leaving-home" means to forsake the binding affections of one's family. Every religion bears the same ideal to extend its heart, and go beyond birth and death.

When Jesus Christ was alive, some of the so-called monastic people (rabbis) of Judaism complained about Him. They criticized Him for mixing with prostitutes, beggars or very poor people who were the lowest in society. He mixed with them, made friends with them, and taught them some doctrines. The rabbis thought that was a shameful and inappropriate thing to do.

They thought that Jewish people were the best, so the teachings should only be imparted to the Jewish or people belonging to the higher classes, and not to the so-called lowly people who were despised by society.

In their opinion, the prostitutes were the untouchables, and they were so bad that their lives could never be changed. However, Jesus Christ could change them. He would, and He had the power. Any bad persons would change for the better after following Him, or after looking at Him once.

No One Is Good Or Bad

Good or bad people are created by the social circumstances. Someone might be a good person for many lives. Suddenly, if he was cheated in this life, or his family is separated because there was a war in his country; perhaps he suddenly lost his parents and so his security -- lost as in what to do, he becomes a so-called bad person. These kinds of people may become prostitutes, villains or even robbers, yet they may not be bad in nature.

If our heart is pure, it will shine with some polishing, just like gold. Gold is gold even if there are tons of earth burying it. When we first excavate a diamond, it is covered by a heavy layer of dust. After cleaning and polishing it, a diamond is still a diamond, and its value won't depreciate because of the dust.

Similarly, our Heavenly Kingdom or the innocent God nature within will never be contaminated by dust or karma. It is only our misunderstanding! Therefore, I often tell you that no one is a sinner to me. Only because our minds don't understand, so we cannot forgive ourselves and make a mess. If there is someone to remind us or tell us the Truth, we will know how to dispose of the karma, how to forget or change our so-called habits, then we will be exactly the same as the Bodhisattvas or Saints.

That was why Jesus Christ said that we are all God's children. However, we must revert our heart back to the state of an innocent child, and be determined not to submit to the bad habits again.

Two Sons

The monastic people then criticized Jesus Christ for acting improperly against the canon as He mixed with all kinds of people. Therefore, one day, Jesus Christ told them a story relevant to this issue. The story was like this: A person had two sons. The younger son demanded his father to give him his share of the family wealth, which his father duly granted him. Upon receiving the wealth, the younger son went out enjoying pleasures, traveling around the world, and spent all his money foolishly. Eventually he became penniless! Coincidentally, there was a famine at that time in his country, so everyone was starving. He went to work on a farm where many piglets were being raised. He was so hungry that when he saw the piglets eating the food in the trough, he wanted to fight for it with the piglets. He was very hungry and homesick.

One day, he talked to himself: "Oh! What an absurd life I am leading here. Even a laborer of my father has more to eat than I have now. They have more than enough to eat while I am starving here. This is illogical. It's about time I went home. I will apologize to father and tell him how sorry and remorseful I am for my ignorant behavior in the past, and that I was young and stupid. I will admit that I am not fit to be his son, then perhaps he will accept me as one of his workers. That would be fine too! At least I will have enough to eat." He kept telling this to himself on his way home.

Seeing that his son had returned, the father ran to embrace, greet and kiss him. He was so happy to see his child home again. He told the servants: "Quickly get some new clothes for my son, and bring him lots of good food and things to drink." The father was busy telling people to get the food, and then he said, "Come! We should celebrate." He told the servants and his family: "We should celebrate the return of my son. My younger son is home!"

Delightfully he prepared a big feast and invited everyone. When the older son came home, he was angry and jealous. He complained to his father: "I've worked for you for so many years, but you have never held a feast for me, nor have you given me any special things. Today you have all the best food and clothes for your rotten son. You also give him the best to drink, and even hold a big feast to celebrate his return. What is this all about?"

The older son angrily pressed for an explanation, so the father then said: "Don't be angry. You know very well that all my property is yours. There is no need to hold a feast for you because everything is already yours! As to why we have to celebrate today, it is because we originally thought that we had lost your brother. Now that he is found again, we have reason to rejoice."

The father had no discrimination. To him, his wealth was not as dear as his son, so he didn't mind spending a lot of money -- letting bygones be bygones. He was very happy to see his younger child come home safely.

So is God. Hes doesn't mind how great we have sinned, as it was all in the past. If we are sincere to repent and to be a good child again, Hes will welcome us Home. This is precisely what I am reminding you of all the time. Therefore, you can rest assured and don't be anxious. Our spiritual practice may be good or bad sometimes. Sometimes we see great Light and hear God's deafening Sound, but sometimes we seem to have nothing. It is because we are veiled by the so-called preconceived ideas, or our pure heart is affected by social influences. Then our guilty feelings will emerge again, and we will think that our sins are too heavy to deserve God's grace and love.

We Always Deserve God's Grace And Love

The truth is we are always worthy. How would God mind how much you have ruined Hiers wealth? Hes is the Creator. Hes can always create a wonderful and vast world or universe. Hes wouldn't mind. As we destroy, Hes creates again, no problem. For instance, we have killed human beings or animals before, or have broken the rules of the world, now we repent sincerely and ask for God's forgiveness. We humbly become Hiers slaves or servants, and meditate everyday.

If we can admit that we are God's children then we don't have to meditate. If we think that we are very worthy, we would be proud of ourselves and wouldn't repent, meditate, or check up on ourselves everyday. However, because we are still humble and are remorseful for our past karma, God will forgive us. We have the same position as those heavenly children who have not offended the precepts, nothing less.

Only because we are not Home yet, so we are still repenting here. When we reach Home and see Father, we are all the same. Hes will give us the best clothes to wear, the best abode in heaven, all the best things to enjoy, and an eternal life just like Hirm. Therefore, you don't have to rush. Prepare for it well while you are here; you can enjoy as soon as you reach Home.