The Illusion of the Worldly Realm

This is a record of an interview with the spirit of Li Keqiang, who sought Spiritual Deliverance at the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre in Australia. He reflects on the nature of existence, the illusion of worldly attachments, and the path to the Western Pure Land. This session was recorded by the chief writer, Venerable Fa Jing, on February 27, 2018.

Li Keqiang speaks:

"Namo Amituofo. My birth was not a celebrated event, for the society of that time was in a state of profound turmoil and instability. My mother endured ten months of hardship to bring me into this world. When I arrived, I let out a wail, entering this worldly realm with a cry. The very first sensation I felt was the friction between my skin and the air—a feeling of profound discomfort. Yet, my mother’s warm hands cradled me against her chest. A current of warmth, born from the deep emotion of family, flowed from my heart throughout my entire body. It was in that moment that the hallucinogenic drug of this worldly realm began to take hold of me."

The Mirage of Family and Blood Ties

"Family emotion held a significant place in my heart. I carried the blood of my kin within my veins, lived in a house filled with our shared memories, and walked upon the very earth we had once trodden together. These memories constantly tugged at my heart, binding me to the past. It is a natural human experience, and there is no fault in it. However, only now, from this vantage point, do I realise that all of it—every memory, every attachment—was merely a phantom, a fleeting shadow of this worldly realm."

"Today, I found myself standing in an old-fashioned Chinese tea house. Many people were inside, happily sipping tea, laughing, and engaging in lively conversation. But in the blink of an eye, I looked again, and the entire scene had vanished into thin air. All that remained were empty tables and chairs. I walked over and touched the wooden tables, feeling the faint indentations left by countless cups and plates over the years. It was a scene steeped in the atmosphere of a bygone era."

The Tea House of Forgotten Souls

"At that moment, the table itself began to speak to me. It told me that it had once been a regular patron of this place, visiting several times a day—sometimes to drink tea, sometimes to gamble away small sums of money. This environment was more familiar to it than anything else. It never imagined that the very table it sat at most often would become its dwelling place after death. In this space, I saw many people coming and going, as if the tea house were still bustling with life, yet in truth, the building had long since been buried beneath the earth."

"My heart was deeply stirred by this revelation. We come into this world for a single lifetime, and after death, we enter these spaces—lingering for centuries, even millennia. What, then, is the true meaning of this life? And where, now, is the emotion that once bound my mother and me?"

The Meaning of a Fleeting Life

"A lifetime is but a few short decades. I should not have spent my life in such a hollow, drifting manner. I now understand that I must seize this opportunity to leave behind the seeds of the Buddha for the world, so that all sentient beings may find a way to break free from the cycle of rebirth through the life-giving pulse of the Buddha’s teachings."

"Namo Amituofo."