Chapter 17: Passing The Three Trials
Concentrate spiritual power on one point, breaking the surface with a point.
This method is called focusing the mind, also known as a flow state, as if divinely assisted.
Traditional or modern legalistic rituals are often like this.
Clear the mind, focus on one thing, no matter what you are doing, learning anything is like cheating.
Painting, music, etc., in all walks of life, if this can be achieved, you will reach the realm of Master in seven years.
Learning using a flow state and seeing through patterns. This is the state of life on cheat mode.
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Here we talk about passing three trials: emotion, wealth, and injury.
The emotional trial does not refer solely to romantic love, but to emotions in their normal state.
Family affection, friendship, romantic love, and other emotions are all included.
Understanding these emotions is just a result of cognitive patterns and habits, so don’t dwell on them.
It is said that cultivators are unfeeling, but this unfeeling is not true lack of emotion; rather, it means having compassion for all beings while knowing that this emotion is actually due to one’s own cognitive patterns.
The wealth trial represents not just money, but everything you own, those things you consider yours. They do not truly belong to you; even this body is only for use in this lifetime, and you can take nothing with you when you leave, so these things are only temporarily under your control and not truly yours. You must understand this clearly.
The injury trial does not refer only to physical harm. It refers to the soul experiencing despair countless times, yet rekindling hope. No matter what you experience, you still believe in yourself, are not defeated by anything, until you break free, see clearly that today’s suffering is temporary, and are not trapped by the present. Afterwards, you do not even consider suffering as suffering; being able to undergo this transformation, feeling comfortable and free with every breath.
These three trials are also for breaking through cognition. As the saying goes, “Without the heart dying, the Way cannot be born.” Let go of all the people, things, and matters you cannot let go of in your thoughts, and then these three trials will be overcome.
This does not mean you should abandon everything and go live in a mountain temple, otherwise, the human world would be thrown into chaos.
Rather, it means your inner heart is no longer troubled by those things; it’s fine to have them, and it’s fine to not have them; they won’t disturb your inner heart with their messiness.
What I’m saying is very simple, but in reality, when you encounter it yourself, it’s very difficult to extricate yourself; the insider is blinded.
You must always remember this, and practice it slowly, achieving it bit by bit.
The reason I like to drink a little alcohol is that it became my companion after my heart was wounded many times in the past, and later I was able to quit it at will.
Moreover, drinking no longer affects my consciousness.
Quitting is actually very easy; as long as you change your cognition, your habits will slowly change with it.
The difficulty lies in solidified thought patterns, making it hard to accept cognition outside of one’s habits.
It’s like what the masses believe about gods and buddhas, from watching myths, TV series, novels, and so on since childhood. Then hearing about legends of various gods and ghosts from those around you.
Over time, people will come to believe in their hearts that gods, buddhas, ghosts, and monsters are things within their own cognition.
You must know that those are just stories, and also, words and languages are just adjectives.
For example, a cup is a description of the thing in your hand used to hold water, and an ashtray is a description of something used to hold cigarette butts and ash.
If you use a cup as an ashtray, then the cup becomes an ashtray; if you use a mineral water bottle as an ashtray, then the mineral water bottle also becomes an ashtray.
Gods, buddhas, ghosts, and monsters are also like this; they are descriptions of certain energies in heaven and earth, and the symbols used to describe these energies are words.
Sun, for example, is a description of that big fireball in the sky; no matter what you call it, it remains what it is.
We call it this way here, but abroad, they use different characters, different languages, and make different sounds to represent it.
We say “Hello,” and these two words “Hello” represent greetings and well wishes.
Foreigners say “Hello,” so these two words, or this pronunciation, also represents the same meaning.
“What are you doing?” is asking someone what they are going to do. “What are you doing?” also asks what someone is going to do.
They are all descriptions.
These descriptions, in different cultures and in different cognitions, although they have the same meaning, due to the difference in the form of expression, cannot be understood by everyone.
I remember watching a video on Douyin where a mother was taking her young daughter to pet a dog by the roadside.
At first, the dog didn’t move. The little girl petted the dog’s head, and the mother petted it too. But when the dog reacted, it bit the mother.
The reason is similar: in different cognitions, your expressed goodwill may not necessarily be accepted. When it is not accepted and you persist, it will be considered an infringement or an act of malice.
If the person squatting by the roadside were not a dog, but a stranger, think about it, if they don’t know you, and you go around touching them, wouldn’t they hit you?
Therefore, as a person, or in whatever you do, don’t just assume what you consider good is good, and what you consider bad is bad; you should look at things rationally and from an objective perspective.
Because of the different angles, the understanding will certainly be different.
Taking the matter of getting a girlfriend as an example, before you get her, you feel this girl is too good, you must have her. After you finally chase her, you feel it’s just so-so.
Looking back at other girls, they seem even better, and so you become a scumbag.
The reason is not that the girl has changed, but that your cognitive thought patterns are changing, which causes you to change.
If it’s the same for girls, because a boy is good to you, you get together with him. Afterwards, you find there’s another who’s even better, or you see other people’s boyfriends are so good and you envy them, then your cognitive thought patterns change at this moment, and you become dissatisfied with the present, believing you can get someone better. Thus, a “scumbag girl” is born.
All of this is because you take what you imagine as reality, but you don’t know that thoughts are constant and always changing.
The root of human suffering lies here; the so-called Six Realms of Reincarnation, love, hate, passion, enmity, sorrow, joy, and anger, all stem from this.
This is called the call of karma.
Your thought patterns are driven by your past karma.
Do you understand?
This karma refers to your normal person’s thought patterns, being passively controlled by them.
This is why it is also called the Six Realms of Reincarnation.
You can think about it, what are the Six Realms of Reincarnation?
Celestial Realm, Asura Realm, Human Realm, Hell Realm, Hungry Ghost Realm, Animal Realm.
Beings in the Celestial Realm have no worries and are unrestrained.
As for the Asura Realm? They possess what ordinary people do not, but they still experience boredom and distress.
The Human Realm, we’ll talk about later.
The Hell Realm is being trapped in suffering, unable to escape.
The Hungry Ghost Realm is never satisfied, always feeling not full enough, always feeling that no matter what they possess, it’s not enough.
The Animal Realm has shallow cognition, is toiling, working like oxen and horses, busy their whole lives without a moment’s rest.
The Human Realm is constantly cycling among the other five realms, sometimes good, sometimes bad.
This is the so-called Six Realms of Reincarnation.
