Grandmaster Letian Answers Questions From Students in Berlin, Germany

Date Published: 2007-11-30

Student: What is the difference between cleverness and wisdom?

Grandmaster Letian: Cleverness is associated with the ego-conscious self and often being self-concerned. A person can be very clever but not necessarily able to achieve great feat. Wisdom is of the higher self or selflessness, and altruistic nature. A wise person abides by the law of nature therefore can be a teacher. Inspiration strikes when the energy wave of a person with energy of vast righteousness and great love resonates at the frequency of the energy wave of the cosmic light. This kind of inspiration is wisdom. Cleverness is called petty cleverness while wisdom is called the great wisdom.

Question: How to gain wisdom of the Universe?

Answer: While in deep meditative state or twilight zone of sleep, a person is more likely to resonate at the frequency of the cosmic energy and thereby able to gain wisdom of the Universe. In order to enter into deep meditative state, worldly desires must first be reduced. One without desires will have calmness of mind, and a calm mind will not give in to external distractions, thus one will be able to enter a tranquil meditative state. While in this state, the sense of self with the ego identity fades away and the true Self establishes connections with the Universe to unleash intelligence and increase wisdom. We should always be mindful of the three-word mantra of Buddhism: Right Conduct, Mental Tranquility, and Wisdom.

Question: Is a person with extraordinary ability a wise person?

Answer: A person with great extraordinary ability is not necessarily a wise person but the wisdom of a wise person is verily great capability

Question: Do wise people have different degrees of wisdom?

Answer:：There are three different degrees of wisdom, namely great, medium and small. For instance, from among famous people from China and Germany with whom we are well acquainted, Goethe is a person of small wisdom, Confucius and Zhuangzi are persons with medium degree of wisdom, while Laozi is no doubt a person of great wisdom.

Question: What is the relationship between wisdom and knowledge?

Answer: The sources of knowledge come from book, school, family or society. Wisdom, on the other hand, comes from deep in the Universe. Some wise people are illiterate or have little literacy, such as the Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism Huineng, Joan of Arc, Jesus, Socrates and Muhammad. But wisdom is their real power. To promote the development of wisdom, one should abide by the principles of good thoughts, kind words and good deeds. Nowadays, many people are educated and have outstanding abilities yet only a few people are able to establish connection to the Universe, resonate at the same frequency, and comprehend the profound wisdom of the Universe. In today’s world, there are more capable ones than wise ones.

Question:What is the relationship between mind power and willpower? How to strengthen the mind power?

Answer: Mind power is indeed willpower. A few suggestions for strengthening willpower:

1. In order to strengthen the mind power, one must purify the soul, and eliminate all worries and anxiety. Of course, to be delivered from suffering, one must undergo profound energetic transformation of the human being. This is achieved through arduous hardship endurance along one’s lifelong cultivation practice path. When our worries and anxiety are reduced to the least possible extent, our mind power will be extremely strong. When one puts down the worries and anxiety of oneself and takes up the worries and anxiety of sentient beings, the mind power will be very strong and it will be easier for one to achieve sublimation of life.

2. Repentance guarantees the strengthening of mind power.

3. Follow the path of sage. Reduce desires, resist various kinds of temptations, and begin to repent of small things in everyday life, as this is the inevitable path for an ordinary human to become a sage.

4. Imagine yourself as a towering holy mountain and tell yourself that nothing can shake you.

Question: Why undertake spiritual practice? How to cultivate and practice?

Answer: 1. Spiritual practice will bring us awareness of who the true “Self” is.

2. Have a sense of sacredness. Sense of sacredness comes from our heart, comes from connection established with higher dimensional beings of the Universe.

3. A spiritual practitioner should undertake the “Three Rescues” as one’s mission and pursue the “Great Cosmic Unity” as the highest goal.

4. If one would like to achieve success in spiritual practice, persistence and perseverance are very important. Experience will come along as a result of ceaseless practice over a period of time. Just as a channel is formed by flowing water and a melon falls off its stem when ripe, so do success comes naturally with hard work and constant practice.

5. There are myriad methods of practices, but regardless of the various methods, they all will eventually return to oneness and be traced to one root method: Naturalness.

6. Be more pure minded. Be more loving. Be less selfish.

7. The Universe always puts us through tribulations to test us, improve our morality, develop our wisdom, and awaken our capabilities. Every single difficulty is a test given to us by the higher dimensional beings. We should be very grateful for every difficult problem we encounter because the opportunity to ascend to higher level of spiritual practice has come forth.

8. Don’t underestimate yourself! Many grandmasters in various different fields started out as students with poor performance. If you don’t have a strong foundation, just encourage yourself with this Chinese idiom “A slow sparrow should make an early start” and you will eventually become successful.

9. A spiritual practitioner needs to be able to withstand setbacks and loneliness. Great achievers are often the same. A so-called person who embraces the world, lives a simple and solitary life. Sages have always been solitary since ancient times.