The Earth Is Only the Soul's Way-Station

📖Master’s Reading

Many treat the earth as an eternal home, desperately grasping and clinging to worldly wealth, status and emotion. The truth of the dharmadhātu is: the earth is not your home but a place where you lodge; the earth is the inn where you temporarily dwell in rebirth, and we are all passers-by, briefly staying in this world to learn and grow.

Seen from the long river of life, of all the outer things we pursue all our lives, not one can be carried away. Worldly wealth, status and emotion — none can be taken; when life reaches its end, the only thing you can carry is your karma, that is, memory. When we see through that life is only a brief journey and not the final home, worldly calculation of gain and loss no longer matters so much.

What truly gives life meaning was never how much one owned in the world but how much compassion and wisdom one learned in these limited years. Rather than grip material things that cannot be carried, seize the present to practice diligently, transforming life's energy into blessing that can truly be carried away.

When you understand that the earth is only the soul's way-station, you can set down needless burdens. Grasp this journey well, let the soul truly ascend through refinement, and move toward eternal liberation.

🌱Reflection for Daily Life

• Understand that the earth is only the soul's way-station.
• Not one worldly thing can be carried away.
• Seize the present to diligently cultivate compassion and wisdom.
• Set down burdens and let the soul truly ascend.
• The earth is only the soul's way-station.