What is the “ferry to God’s kingdom”? Can it be seen?
The phrase “ferry to God’s kingdom” is a parable. Actually,
it refers to Tien-Tao, which cannot be seen. Why would it take on
the name “ferry to God’s kingdom”? It is because humans are in the
sea of sufferings. When humans are alive, they are lost. After they die,
they are tried in the Underworld. Then they take one of the six paths in
the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. As this perpetuates, they sow a
variety of causes and receive a variety of effects, like riding endless
tides and waves in the ocean. They cannot find a way to escape, and
suffer through the cycle of birth, death and rebirth in great pain. Isn’t
this the sea of sufferings? However, if a person becomes a practitioner
of Tao, he treats the physical world as an imaginary flower, fame and
wealth as dreams, and his wife and children as emotional burdens.
He understands that all matters and phenomena cannot endure, and
upon their destruction, their existence becomes nil; the true existence
is in the Void, for the Void is eternal. Thus, he has no struggle nor
obstacle in his way. Isn’t this the same as if he has boarded the ferry
to God’s kingdom?