Chapter 239: The Heart To Preach The Dao Arises
Returning to the inner courtyard, it happened that Old Dog, Xue Pan, and Jin Buque were in the courtyard drinking tea.
My Big Brother’s heart suddenly felt the urge to preach the Dao, so he pulled his three brothers and began. It wasn’t for any other reason; preaching to these bastards is not as good as teaching my brothers who truly follow me and will always stand by my side, no matter what I do.
“Brothers, Big Brother will teach you something today.”
Hearing my sudden words, the three of them dropped their usual casual demeanor and immediately became fully attentive, even placing their teacups on the table.
These fellows know that Big Brother rarely preaches the Dao nowadays, and every time he does, it will help them achieve sublimation. Therefore, at such times, they are absolutely as serious as primary school students, afraid of missing a single word if they’re not careful.
“For a person to become immortal, or to achieve great things, they must first abandon the acquired. And this acquired doesn’t just refer to what we understand or learn later in life; it more importantly represents integrating the acquired to the point where it becomes instinctual and serves oneself.
Without acquired knowledge, unless you haven’t come into contact with anything, but this is obviously impossible. Even if you were raised by animals, you would inevitably be tainted by acquired things, just in a way different from ordinary people’s cognition.
This abandoning of the acquired refers to, after cultivating to a profound level, continuously breaking down the acquired patterns of thought, and then cultivating the innate self, which is the non-discriminative mind. Because only with non-discrimination can one see the discriminating mind, and because of the discriminating mind, one knows the non-discriminating mind.
The two are complementary. After further progress, they merge into one, indistinguishable. That is to say, the acquired thought and the innate awakening become one; awakening becomes thought, and thought becomes awakening.
Regarding “awaken as soon as a thought arises,” in this state, it’s like child’s play, so simple that you wouldn’t believe it.
Because every movement of your thoughts is observed by you with absolute clarity.
This then reaches the state of no awakening and no thought. There is no need to deliberately awaken; in this state, awakening is me, and I am awakening; or rather, I have become my innate self.
Afterwards, the discriminating mind and the non-discriminating mind gradually blur. You can even say you transcend both.
Standing outside both, entering this level, discrimination and non-discrimination, that is, your true self and false self, once again become your tools!
This is harder than climbing to heaven! Those who haven’t cultivated cannot possibly understand this state.
To be able to achieve a state of doing nothing and having no thoughts, and when something arises, to awaken without attachment—this is to be a celestial being, and can also be called a god!
And to leap further outside, you are the god beyond gods! The god who controls gods!
I cannot teach anyone how to achieve this; I can only teach up to the demigod and divine realms!
The so-called gods are not like what idiots say, that they only care about themselves, or other such nonsense. These are all metaphors.
Mortals who do not understand the true meaning of these words become selfish, and this selfishness is even mistakenly perceived by themselves as an ability.
This state belongs to the minor paths; it is essentially the shallow meaning of the Myriad Realms or Sentient Being Forms. Sentient Being Forms are very important; one must reach a state where there is no difference between oneself and sentient beings, and also know the equal state of all life. And this is just the Dharma!
As I said, no human form, no self-form, no sentient being form, are all just processes of breaking illusions in the early stages of cultivation. But most people get stuck in one form and cannot extricate themselves!
If you want to become transcendent! Then you must learn to act according to human nature and behave against human nature!
Here, acting according to human nature means that the cultivator is not eccentric, has the appearance of a normal person, and doesn’t mutter about divine languages or celestial beings. Such people have actually become mentally ill!
Because all incantations require the blessing of mental power, or rather, incantations are just carriers for using mental power. The key point lies in mental power, not incantations.
The Buddha said in the Diamond Sutra, “Those who see me through form, or seek me through sound, are practicing the wrong path and cannot see the Tathagata.” This sentence clearly expresses a state of deviation in cultivation!
This means that if you see the Buddha, whether with your eyes or in your heart, or if you hear any sound, whether external or internal, you are cultivating wrongly and deviating from the path, and cannot attain Buddhahood!
To attain Buddhahood, one must see all forms as non-forms. That is, after seeing, hearing, and thinking of all forms and breaking them down, the state of not being influenced by them is the path a cultivator of Buddhism should take!
I have said countless times that the Buddhist School and Buddhism are not the same thing. The Buddhist School is thought! Buddhism is a sect based on the thoughts of the Buddhist School! The Daoist School and Taoism are the same!
The human body is another heaven and earth, another universe! It contains everything in all metaphysical cultures, but mortals are unaware of it!
Simply put, the rice, vegetables, or meat you eat will eventually become a part of your body! They will evolve into various energy substances and tiny life forms within your body! Because all things were originally one with ourselves, this is called Qi or Qi.
Every word and action, every breath in and out, eating and defecating, drinking and urinating, even the absorption and release from pores, is essentially the ingress and egress of energy! That is, the entanglement between oneself and all things!
Don’t think of yourself as special. No matter when, as long as you still have this intention, this body, or you still exist, even if you ascend after death, etc., as long as you can awaken, you will inevitably intersect and entangle with energy.
The so-called ultimate return is the awakening in this life, which essentially refers to an individual’s recognition of their own origin.
One must understand what this mind, this body, and so on, truly are, in order to more clearly and distinctly know what kind of existence one is.
Only then can one talk about the so-called great path of cultivating immortality! If you lack this understanding and merely listen to what some cultivators say, agreeing with it and thinking you understand, yet you cannot achieve it, then it can only be said that they have helped you resolve your doubts, not that you have embarked on the path of cultivating immortality!
It is not cultivating immortality to sit on a stone with your palms together, nor is it cultivating immortality to hold prayer beads and chant Buddhist mantras. This is merely cultivation, which is the most basic modification of your own actions. This is learning, cultivating, and abiding by forms within the phenomenal world, and it is the same in the heart. It completely fails to achieve liberation or to transcend the phenomenal world and become your true self!
You yourself are a part of the celestial beings, and all celestial beings are entering and exiting within and outside your body. They are in the present, and also far away; they are before your eyes, and also in the void! These are all descriptions of energy states and characteristics! They are not talking about anything else!
If you do not understand the underlying meaning, listening to such words repeatedly is useless, and even harmful! It will lead you into virtual illusions.
