Does having supernatural power necessarily make a deity worthy of reliance?

Not necessarily. I consider more than whether a being has ritual or supernatural power. I pay greater attention to their virtues. For Sheng Zhen Men, deities and Buddhas worthy of deep respect and closeness have great love, aspirations and compassion. They embody clarity and stillness and guide our learning, rather than simply satisfy our desires.

Different cultures and faiths have beings called gods. So after hearing a title or feeling considerable power, we still need to understand what kind of deity this is and what they teach. Respecting others’ cultures and beliefs does not mean adopting every one ourselves. Nor do different choices require us to deliberately create conflict.

Even without spiritual perceptions, we can learn through virtue. When discussing a news story involving a deity statue, I reminded people to ask whether the belief encourages goodness or merely caters to a particular desire. It is like choosing a teacher: sharing that title does not tell us how someone treats people or guides learning. Compassion, clarity and a wish to help are the qualities Sheng Zhen Men hopes to approach and learn from.

The direction people take after receiving help also matters. If they become increasingly drawn to gambling, alcohol or sexual indulgence, or describe a business that harms others as divinely protected, I cannot regard that as virtue worth learning. I once recounted something Dao Xuan had heard: someone claimed divine protection for making money, but the work involved pushing girls into exploitation and running a casino. Examine these actions rather than assume the direction is correct merely because someone says they received protection.

We also need to distinguish a little entertainment from surrendering ourselves to the desire to gamble. Some belief systems involve exchanges and fulfilling vows, and some people do have connections with them. We respect that, but it does not mean we must follow them too. Sheng Zhen Men seeks compassion, clarity and helping living beings, so we choose deities and Buddhas who correspond to that direction and continue examining concrete words and actions.

After gaining perceptions or abilities, we must still develop knowledge and judgment. In my religious experience, different kinds of beings may display astonishing abilities. Ghosts also have what are called ghostly powers. If we abandon judgment merely because something seems miraculous, it becomes harder to distinguish what we are encountering. We need to understand a deity’s virtues and what we ourselves are learning. Sensations of energy cannot be all we have while our human understanding never grows.

Another point to consider is how the being regards the suffering of living beings. A friend shared a video in which someone asked the Third Prince what he had been doing during the severe pandemic. The answer was that he had been playing all along. Hearing that, I felt something was wrong. If this were a deity, how could he simply play while so many people suffered?

By contrast, when we asked Master Ji Gong, the answer was that the deities were all very busy seeking ways to reduce the pandemic’s effects on people. Comparing these answers is intended to encourage further understanding. Does the faith you encounter care about living beings and have a willingness to help? Hearing a divine title should not end our thinking and questions.

Accuracy also needs to be considered in terms of its use. I have heard of people finding a teacher especially impressive because the teacher correctly predicted when an accident would happen. But within my faith, I would rather deities guide people away from disaster than merely let it occur to prove a prediction accurate. I have offered a hypothetical example: a warning suggests a possible road accident, but after earnest prayers the person passes safely through the danger and the prediction is then called inaccurate. I care more about safety than that reputation. One safe outcome does not prove that deities resolved every danger. It explains what I value.

Compassion also has boundaries. If the help sought is to harm someone or cheat them of money, we cannot demand that deities assist simply because they are willing to help people. Guiding us toward wisdom and less greed, anger and delusion differs from merely catering to desire.