Chapter 183: Traffic
“This is just my simple description. The process, hehe, every step had a big pit, it wasn’t easy. To enter appearance and break illusion, does it sound simple when I say it? You go look at that huge crowd of people. Some people spend their whole lives trying to get in, and some people are stuck inside their whole lives unable to get out, hmph, just think about it.
Also, when I entered the Buddha aspect, it wasn’t because I specifically wanted to attain Buddhahood. It was because I was super curious about what cultivating Buddhism was all about, so I plunged into it. Want to attain Buddhahood? Then you’ll be unable to get out. Don’t want to attain Buddhahood? Then you won’t be able to get in. Without the three truths, not fully believing yet you can’t cultivate to completion, isn’t it difficult?
What about the sentient being’s form? You wouldn’t imagine how one enters it, nor would you imagine how to get in and then out. They say it’s no different from all things, but anyone can say this sentence. When it comes to doing it, it’s as difficult as climbing to heaven. If you completely enter and then want to get out, hmph, with an unstable Dao heart, you’ll directly mistake yourself for an ant or a tree. Can that person not go mad?
You see, like some people have been following my books for so long, yet when they open their mouths, it’s still what they believe. They say this and that, but I’ve already said that text is just a description. Yet they still cling to the text and argue about it. These kinds of people watch them in vain. Instead, they get tangled up without realizing it and still insist on watching.
There’s a younger brother who is quite good. He also got tangled up while watching and suddenly became preoccupied with whether Taoism has a Primordial Spirit. Fortunately, he reacted.
The term Primordial Spirit, I heard it from my Master. My Master said, ‘Primordial Spirit is unmoved,’ and then I spent a lot of time researching it. Are Zhang Daoye’s words being overturned? Isn’t that clinging to the text aspect?
Cultivating anything is one thing. Cultivating any path ultimately leads to the same destination. That’s why so many aspects of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism are interconnected, though there are also differences.
This is like climbing a mountain. Everyone climbs from a different direction. The scenery along the way might have similarities, and it might also have differences, but the summit is only one. Once you reach the summit, you no longer distinguish between different schools. The Daoist school talks about Buddhist stories, and the Buddhist school talks about Daoist stories. This is the reason why.
Furthermore, enlightenment is just the beginning of clear understanding. It requires continuous cultivation, which is called cultivation after enlightenment.
It’s not enough to just understand the principle; you must apply the principle you’ve understood in your life and verify it through actual practice. Dissolving resentment, you must truly achieve a state of no resentment for your heart to suddenly be unburdened, and only then will you feel happy.
Afterwards, you must also cultivate to awakening. Awakening is somewhat like how I became the awakening I cultivated before. You see clearly many essential things, and this is just the beginning of awakening. You must continue to cultivate.
Awakening is standing at the doorstep of cultivating immortality. Whether you want to advance further or not depends on whether you know how to cultivate, or you’ll just remain at the doorstep.
It’s not as simple as you think. Some people believe they’ve awakened because they see and understand things differently. That’s not it. Those are just some methods I taught for breaking illusions, which can reduce most troubles in life and allow one to live a little more clearly, thus reducing their own resentment.”
“Big Brother, is cultivation really that difficult?”
“Enlightenment is not difficult. What’s difficult is truly cultivating after enlightenment, hehe. This is because enlightenment is merely understanding the principle. Although it helps you greatly, it’s not the end, but the beginning.”
“Big Brother, if cultivation is so difficult, what power supports you in continuously writing books?”
“When I first started writing, I wrote for a very, very long time, and absolutely no one could see it. Forget about money; if no one reads it, what’s there to talk about money? But I thought that as long as even one person could see it, could understand it, and it could help just one person, I would persist in writing.
You see, now that a few more people are reading, some people start speculating, saying things like it’s for earning royalties, or this and that. I’m speechless with these kinds of people. I wrote for over two months and no one read it, I didn’t get a single cent. What royalties was I earning? Who was paying me? Was I dreaming?
After writing for over two months and only getting a few cents, can someone tell me how many royalties those few cents can exchange for? Can they exchange for royalties? I knew for a long time that people would definitely say this about me. That’s true, after all, with more readers, I will definitely get royalties. So, shouldn’t I just not earn royalties and not eat? Cough, cough.
But who told me back then, when I had nothing, why didn’t you say anything? When I didn’t have a single cent, why didn’t you say anything? You’re speculating about how I earn a few dollars a day listening and reading, and then you speculate about me this and that, it’s become so solid. Hahahaha!”
“Big Brother, you’ve worked hard.”
“Sigh… Hard work, not hard work. I’m writing for those of you who can understand. I’m not writing for those scoundrels. I just ignore them. If I were to get angry over this, then perhaps I would abandon everyone and not bother writing this. I’d just write something else. With my awesome brain, I could find a popular novel, study its patterns, and write my own. Why would I bother with this effort? Constantly thinking about how to describe things simply so people can understand?”
“Brother, please don’t be angry. Let’s ignore them.”
“I’m not angry, hahahaha. I’m just expressing myself. Who can anger me? Yhahahaha!”
“Brother, are there any methods to obtain certain opportunities in life?”
“Yes, there are nine words: walk the dark path, cultivate the lean field, enter the narrow gate.”
“What does that mean, Big Brother?”
“‘Walk the dark path’ means to engage in industries that are not favored by most people, are somewhat niche, full of uncertainty and risk, and also hide opportunities. ‘Cultivate the lean field’ refers to barren, infertile land that requires more effort and patience to make fertile and yield a harvest. ‘Enter the narrow gate’ means facing difficulties and challenges, and overcoming these difficulties and challenges will lead to broader development space.
This doesn’t mean doing bad things, but rather finding something that isn’t favored, that no one wants to do, and that might be very difficult to start with. Once you succeed, it will become something significant. It’s like the early days of WeChat business, or Taobao. Things that weren’t favored, that no one wanted to do at first. If you can legally and compliantly establish it, then you will rise.
“Big Brother, are there still such industries now?”
“Yes, you need to carefully observe these things in life. Isn’t it true that some people who collect scrap metal earn a lot in a year? When I was in the capital, I was only nineteen years old. An old man who collected scrap metal could earn two to three hundred thousand yuan a year. Others would search through various garbage piles or collect randomly. He was very smart. He specifically went to places like car washes, certain shops, and factories to collect. He also knew how to give concessions, meaning his prices were slightly higher than his competitors’. Don’t underestimate these concessions. While they might not seem like much individually, collectively, many people would sell to him, and naturally, he would make money.
It’s the same for doing other things. You need to observe carefully, use cleverness, not brute force. Use wisdom to find a way out. Working desperately without finding a method is very foolish. Even when learning, as long as you find the method, you will achieve twice the result with half the effort. Without a method, you can only resort to rote memorization. Learn to adapt. Once your thinking changes, the path will open.
“Okay, Big Brother.”
“Mm, by observing the patterns of things in life, you can leverage those patterns for opportunities to rise. This is also the Dao. There are many such things in life. For example, a fruit vendor runs to the factory entrance during closing time. A snack vendor goes to the school entrance when classes are dismissed. This is because there’s traffic there. Traffic means human flow. Where there’s a large human flow, there are business opportunities. Look around the train station; they sell at high prices and still make money because there’s a large human flow. There will always be people who need something. Those live streamers who talk about traffic, traffic, it’s actually human flow. The Feng Shui of a good place to do business is where there are many people. Where there are many people, there are business opportunities. You can sell a lot of water.
Whether it’s brick-and-mortar stores, live streaming sales, or even vending machines, they all require traffic.
For example, when going to school, you can completely go to places with many people like sports fields during holidays and sell mineral water or drinks. Hmph, after playing soccer or basketball, who wouldn’t rest and drink something? I saw an auntie who brought her own stool for the tired children playing ball to sit on, and then she sold water. Whether they bought or not, she let them sit. Who would take advantage of that and then feel shy about not buying water? It’s the same as asking if someone who sees Big Brother working so hard to write books wouldn’t give a measly twenty cents. It all connects.
Those who take advantage and don’t reciprocate, well, that’s just how it is. As long as there are interactions between people, there are social graces. And where there are social graces, there is the martial world.
Ordinary people have their martial world, and cultivators have their martial world. As long as you need to interact with people, you cannot escape the martial world.
There are many opportunities, it just depends on whether you can see them. Master the traffic, and you master the password to wealth. Hehehe. I’ve explained it simply. Whether you succeed depends on your own comprehension, Yhahahaha!”
“Big Brother, you seem to have opened another window for me. So the secret to making money is in mastering traffic.”
“Hehehe, shh, just know it yourself. Generally, I don’t tell those who don’t follow me or read my books. Wahahahaha! To make money, find methods, don’t just think about working hard. Working hard is just manual labor. With methods and effort, you will achieve twice the result with half the effort.”
