Chapter 189: Infant State
Someone asked a brother: “Big Brother, do you have any Qi Refining cultivation techniques in your practice?”
Of course I do, but Big Brother’s focus is Zen Cultivation, primarily cultivating the heart and mind, directly addressing fundamental problems. Because sentient beings’ circumstances vary, this isn’t suitable for everyone. Since circumstances differ, comprehension will differ, leading to varying strengths in the spirit.
But the simplest method is to constantly relax, maintain a calm heart and peaceful breath, with a steady Qi and serene spirit. This is also related to cultivating the heart. Don’t underestimate these words; they are extremely powerful and not easy to cultivate.
“Calm heart, peaceful breath” means smoothing out unbalanced matters in your heart, letting your Qi flow smoothly through things you can’t get over. It sounds simple, but if you can achieve this, you’re not simple.
Then there’s “steady Qi and serene spirit,” which means abundant and stable vital energy. Steady Qi refers to stable breathing and a calm Qi meridian, without being anxious or impatient. Serene spirit means a relaxed spirit and a peaceful demeanor, without haste.
If you can achieve these two points, then come on. Your primordial spirit won’t easily wander or move randomly, it can autonomously adjust the circulation of your Qi and Blood, slowly clearing out previously blocked areas.
This is the simplest method, and also the safest method.
In your daily life, no matter what you are doing, walking or anything else, learn to withdraw your mind and spirit, don’t overthink. Be present in the moment. Walking is walking, eating is eating, doing is doing. Even watching videos can be practice; just watch, don’t overthink what you’re seeing. These are all methods of cultivation, super simple.
It’s just that it feels difficult to start with. Thoughts will wander off. Big Brother wasn’t like this right after achieving enlightenment!
Who can become invincible overnight? Even the Sword Saint had to shatter countless swords before becoming the Sword Saint! Why do you always think of reaching the heavens in one step?
Big Brother’s deep comprehension, wasn’t it also achieved step by step. Ah, people, that eagerness to achieve results is the easiest way to go astray. You need to slow down. The more anxious you are, the slower you must go, step by step.
One reason for the Dharma-Ending Age is the prevalence of material desires, which are dazzling and prevent the mind and spirit from resting, causing them to flit about among various things.
When you want to be still, you find you’ve developed this habit; you can’t be still and are at a loss. Many people always talk about desires, thieves, or this and that; there are many adjectives, but at their root, it’s all in the heart. The heart speaks, not just your thoughts, but also your primordial spirit.
These two things are one, differentiated from the One. When united, they are Yin and Yang, one internal, one external. When differentiated, they are also Yin and Yang, also one internal, one external. They have always been One.
Constantly protect good thoughts, meaning don’t generate too many bad thoughts, otherwise, you’ll create karma over time. You’ll torment yourself.
This good thought can also be called a thought of no resentment. If you don’t generate resentment, you won’t generate trouble. If you don’t generate self-attachment, you won’t generate disturbance.
Let go of those useless thoughts, discard them, be your present self. This is releasing life, releasing your own life, not releasing fish or turtles, my lord.
If you are kind yourself, you naturally won’t kill. You will naturally generate compassion. It’s not that you have compassion first, then what is there to be compassionate about? Big Brother has explained this so many times.
“I think this is good, you must listen to me, otherwise you’ll go to hell.” Is that compassion?
“I like dogs, you can’t sell dogs, you can’t eat dogs. Later, I’ll eat fish and say it’s delicious.” Is that compassion?
Emptiness means not blaming Heaven above and not worrying about people below.
Precepts mean doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Purity means do no evil, practice all good. Naturally, you will be pure. Eating anything with a grateful heart can resolve its resentment.
Many of our hearts are in a state of differentiation, as I’ve said: Dao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, Three gives birth to all things, thoughts are endless.
To withdraw is to return from all things, from endless thoughts, back to One, uniting the mind and spirit. Don’t be anxious; this is not something to rush. Don’t be discouraged either, because over ninety percent of people in this world have gone astray.
They seem very articulate, but they are only speaking from the doorway; they can’t do it themselves. This isn’t because we are so awesome that we say this; that’s not the meaning.
Believe it or not, some cultivators say you can’t eat meat and are attached to vegetarianism. Isn’t that also attachment?
Some cultivators say you can’t get married, some say you can. Who is right? Whichever you acknowledge, you become attached to! What is acknowledgment? It’s beneficial! If you don’t want to get married, you’ll acknowledge that cultivators shouldn’t get married. If you want to get married, you’ll tell me it’s okay for cultivators to get married. Isn’t it all the same? Where is right and wrong? Overthinking only leads to your own entanglement.
There’s a saying: “For learning, increase daily; for the Dao, decrease daily.”
“For learning, increase daily” means that acquiring knowledge requires continuous accumulation, increasing one’s knowledge and abilities through learning new information and gaining experience.
“For the Dao, decrease daily” means that cultivating the Dao requires continuously reducing one’s desires and distracting thoughts, approaching the essence of the Dao by reducing inner distractions and external desires.
The following two sentences are “Decrease and decrease again, until there is non-action?”; this means by continuously reducing desires, one finally reaches the state of non-action. Non-action here doesn’t mean true inaction but rather conforming to nature, not forcing intervention, reaching a state of natural harmony.
These two, increasing and decreasing, seem contradictory but do not conflict. If you have already achieved inner guarding of the spirit, the things that increase will continue to be added to your instinct, meaning they will become natural. It’s not that you stop learning just because you want to cultivate the Dao.
If one doesn’t learn, how can they hear Buddhist Dharma? How can they cultivate the Dao? Many people misunderstand and think it means you can’t learn this or that, that learning too much is unhelpful for cultivating the Dao. If you learn randomly, it is indeed unhelpful. One moment you think this is right, the next you think that is wrong. In the end, you become dazed and can’t distinguish what’s right.
Don’t listen to what others say; that’s just listening to others. Every organism has some differences, but the heart is the same! There are thousands of Dharma, where do they all come from? They arise from the heart. The mind gives birth to all phenomena; the mind gives birth to all phenomena. Without a mind, where do phenomena come from?
After awakening, emptiness is boundless; all phenomena return to One, and then return to the heart.
Some people say to learn from an infant, observe the infant’s traits, and return to one’s original nature in cultivation. That idea is good, but it doesn’t mean you should actually find a child and watch them all day to learn!
That child doesn’t even distinguish black and white. If they wet their pants, should you wet yours? If they defecate and eat it, should you eat it too?
That’s not the meaning at all. Why do you always get stuck on the literal text?
Do you always want to cultivate back to the state of an infant? Oh, once you achieve that, it’s called a Nascent Soul, blah blah blah. Damn it, you don’t know anything and just spout things!
They mean to be natural like an infant, without desire or demand, pure and innocent.
Because the infant’s state is considered the most original and pure state of life: simple, happy. Without the troubles and discernment of the mortal world. This can help the cultivator better control themselves, achieving harmony and balance of body and mind.
But it doesn’t mean you should actually learn from an infant! It means to learn that characteristic.
Why does Big Brother say this? Because a good younger brother almost wanted to have a child first and then cultivate the Dao, which made Big Brother feel helpless. Fortunately, the child reacted and realized his thoughts had led him astray. Otherwise, the consequences, oh my heavens, what would happen when the child was born and it wasn’t what he imagined? We haven’t told you to have a child, so why do you always imagine things and assume them to be true? One moment Big Brother says something helpful and you get so excited, thinking you’ve achieved enlightenment. The next moment Big Brother says he’s also an ordinary person to encourage you, making you think you’re also amazing.
Hahaha. Oh my heavens. Can your “ordinary person” cultivate the Thought of No-Thought? Look around the entire map and see how many you can find. Find me even one disabled person who has recovered. You can’t even recognize comforting words. Do you think with my personality I would consider myself ordinary? I’m just afraid you children will cling to me too much… Damn it, why do you take everything I say so seriously…
That little infant is free and unfettered, carefree, innocent, without worries. Their mind doesn’t wander like an adult’s. Even if they think of something, they forget it soon after and don’t dwell on it endlessly. That’s why they can cry one moment and laugh the next, right? It’s because things don’t linger in their hearts. If they’re scared, they cry. If you tickle them, they laugh, and they forget what happened before. They don’t trouble themselves, get entangled, or attach; that’s the reason!
（ Reading Big Brother’s books and understanding a little bit doesn’t mean you’ve broken illusions or achieved enlightenment. It just means I’m guiding you to observe the laws of things and understand principles. Naturally, the more principles you understand, the more they will help you. However, the prerequisite is that after understanding, you must be able to act on it for it to be helpful… It’s not that you’ve achieved enlightenment just because you think you understand…）
