Chapter 11: Taking Refuge
After reaching a certain level in cultivation, remember not to tell anyone, otherwise you will be considered mentally ill.
Because your cognition is too different from others, people around you cannot understand.
Not only will it not help them, but it will also entangle you in trouble.
Continue to refine yourself, cultivate your inner heart.
When you have completely controlled your thoughts, you will find that you are very different from your past self. At this time, you are your true self.
You will no longer be led by thoughts that stir up emotions, nor will you overthink and become irritated.
Encounter ghosts and slay them, encounter demons and subdue them.
Regardless of ghosts or gods, they exist unseen but real. “Ghosts and gods” is a description.
It describes those unseen and intangible forces in this world, similar to magnetic fields, Wi-Fi, signals, and so on.
Every thought and intention of humans generates waves that spread out in their minds.
Therefore, you should constantly train your righteous heart and righteous mind.
People often compare good energy to gods and bad energy to ghosts.
So-called possession by a ghost is actually when your own energy is weak, and other wavelengths of energy enter your body. Your thoughts become chaotic, and you cannot control your actions.
Invoking a deity is similar; it’s about drawing the energy of the deity you hold in your heart into yourself, thereby gaining extraordinary abilities.
This kind of deity invocation technique is similar to suggestion. The more you imagine yourself as the deity in your heart, the more you can block out your original self.
It is enough to understand this principle; do not try to practice it randomly.
If you truly want to practice, then take refuge in a Bodhisattva, imprint the Bodhisattva’s image in your heart, learn the Bodhisattva’s kindness, care for all sentient beings, and you will also gain great strength.
Cultivation may sound simple, but it is not easy to practice, so you must persevere with long-term deliberate practice.
When you can control your thoughts, you can control your emotions.
When you are afraid of something, you can directly change your thoughts. Replace the thought with “I am a god, I am here to do this, what do I have to fear?”
You will instantly break through your fear.
Any ghosts or demons will become your meals; they will hide from you because they fear you will eat them, refine them, and use them for your practice.
Some people liken many distracting thoughts to karmic creditors; in reality, it’s quite similar. Put simply, it means having ghosts in your heart causing trouble.
These uncontrollable thoughts that disturb you, make you irritated, distressed, and in pain are your karmic creditors.
Simply destroy them. Without the courage of “I am the greatest under heaven,” what are you cultivating immortality for?
In front of me, all demons and monsters are like defeated enemies with flags in their hands, not worth mentioning.
Possessing this courage will allow you to cultivate the will of a Vajra.
When nothing can affect your inner heart, and your inner heart reaches a state of immovability, that is the Immovable Vajra realm.
When you instinctively develop an altruistic heart, you will enter the next realm, the Bodhisattva realm.
The Bodhisattva realm is divided into Great Bodhisattvas and Lesser Bodhisattvas. Lesser Bodhisattvas help the beings around them without expecting any reward, because the people around them are part of all sentient beings.
Great Bodhisattvas begin to work for the benefit of all beings in the world, using their power to influence the spiritual changes of people worldwide.
When you break through these cognitions and instinctively do things that benefit sentient beings, without complaint or expectation of reward, and can maintain it, that is what you look like when you attain Buddhahood.
Observe children more often; their innocence, happiness, lack of grudges, forgetting troubles quickly.
Train yourself to understand everything and yet be like a child; then you will have considerable skill.
Brother Jesus said that all people should be treated as family, as older brothers, older sisters, younger brothers, and younger sisters. This is also a method, using the power of love to cultivate.
When you can see everyone this way, you will give selflessly.
Universal salvation, God loves the world, the Dao benefits all things, wholeheartedly serving the people, jointly creating a community of shared future for mankind, all carry the same meaning: great love without bounds, impartiality.
While cultivating, you should also care for your country, be tolerant of its shortcomings, and strive to make it better and better.
Show kindness to good people in other countries; ignore those who are not good, and do not get entangled with them.
If they invade Huaxia, with swords and horses, don our armor and fight them, we will pursue them even if they are far away. This is Buddha’s wrath subduing demons.
Cultivation requires compassion, but at the same time, it also requires the wrathful gaze of a Vajra.
Friends who have read Journey to the West should understand that there is also a Victorious Fighting Buddha on Spirit Mountain.
When Monkey King wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace, Tathagata also came out and fought with Monkey King.
Therefore, when necessary, some means are still required.
Cultivation requires holding scriptures to attain enlightenment with one hand, and carrying a sword to exorcise demons with the other.
The scriptures refer to the insights and experiences gained along the path of one’s journey, while the sword for exorcising demons represents the powerful will cultivated.
Master Ji Gong once said, “Becoming a monk at home, or being at home as a monk,” refers to the heart becoming a monk, not the physical location of the person.
What does it mean for the heart to become a monk? There are many different interpretations.
My personal understanding is that the human consciousness shifts from one place to another.
That is to say, it changes from the original inertial thinking pattern to an awakened mode.
It transforms from a human perspective into oneness with self-awareness, meaning it is used in combination with acquired and innate aspects.
This is like two circles: the innate and the acquired are each considered a circle. The overlap between these two circles is where the human heart should be, which is where the heart becomes a monk.
Cultivators often compare this place to taking refuge. In Buddhism, it is called taking refuge in the Buddha, taking refuge in the Dharma, and taking refuge in the Sangha.
Daoism calls it taking refuge in the Dao, taking refuge in the scriptures, and taking refuge in the master.
This is what it refers to.
First, take refuge in the Buddha; second, take refuge in the Dharma; third, take refuge in the Sangha. It can also be said as: first, take refuge in awakeness, awakened and not deluded; second, take refuge in righteousness, righteous and not evil; third, take refuge in purity, pure and untainted.
It all refers to awareness that is neither increasing nor decreasing, neither impure nor pure, neither born nor dying.
It has another name, which is “Sariputra.”
Taking refuge in the Dao, taking refuge in the scriptures, and taking refuge in the master; among these, the Dao is the operational law of all things. The scriptures are the journey of enlightenment experienced by the heart. The master is the innate, self-aware self, which can also be called the Primordial Spirit.
To put it simply, taking refuge in the Three Jewels is the area between the two circles I mentioned. Placing your heart in that area is called taking refuge in the Three Jewels.
OO, do you see these two circles?
The first circle represents the acquired human heart, which is our thoughts and consciousness.
The second circle represents the innate heavenly heart, which is the subconscious.
You can also call them Spiritual Sense and Primordial Spirit.
Interlocking these two circles is like the Yin-Yang Heaven and Earth Circle in Daoism. The area between these two circles is the destination of cultivation, the belonging of the heart.
After cultivating the heart to that point, it is considered taking refuge.
By achieving this, one truly enters the threshold of cultivating immortality, which can also be called the entrance ticket to the Great Dao of longevity and immortal cultivation.
Only by reaching this step can one begin so-called immortal cultivation.
