Chapter 24: Shared Dreams, Sleep Paralysis
Right or wrong?
Guānzìzài says to constantly observe the inner heart to attain freedom.
To see through means to internally observe one’s own heart and perceive.
The Five Aggregates are Empty means the five aggregates: form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness, correspond to material and mental phenomena respectively. The Five Aggregates are Empty means that all phenomena of birth and death in the world are not real, but empty.
Empty does not mean nothingness, but rather a penetration of the substance of “being.” That is, “being” refers to nominal existence; if you believe it exists, it does. “Empty” also refers to nominal emptiness. Emptiness is used to break our wrong attachments to “being.” When one can see through the Five Aggregates are Empty, individuals can naturally overcome all troubles and suffering.
The realm of the Five Aggregates are Empty is not a state, but a fact. It indicates that people cannot correctly and completely perceive things; what you see, think, and the experiences you summarize are all incorrect and incomplete.
Do you understand?
Emptiness is not true emptiness, and existence is not true existence.
Use emptiness to break attachments to existence.
Simply put, it means to break self-attachment and remove the way of thinking and problem-solving from your inner heart from your own perspective.
Achieving this will break all suffering.
If you don’t understand this principle, copying sutras and reciting Buddha’s name all day may not be entirely useless, but you will never understand what you are cultivating, or how you should truly cultivate.
You will only believe that copying sutras has divine power, and reciting sutras has divine power.
Copying and reciting sutras are to keep your inner heart pure and free from distracting thoughts. They are used to help you focus on breaking through the disturbance of distracting thoughts. They do not lead to Buddhahood.
If reciting sutras leads to Buddhahood, then wouldn’t a tape recorder have become a Buddha long ago?
If copying sutras leads to Buddhahood, then wouldn’t a photocopier have become a Buddha long ago?
It would be strange if a pig could understand what you were saying when you recited Amitabha to it!
Reciting Amitabha to a pig is about emitting good energy frequencies from your own heart, not about the divine power of the words.
If saying that sentence has divine power, then how can a mute person cultivate?
If words have divine power, and you recite Amitabha with your mouth while thinking of doing evil, can you achieve anything? Can you cultivate?
If your heart is kind and good, even words of cursing will be perceived as goodwill.
You see many friends playfully curse each other; have you seen any of them get angry?
The reason is simply that no one takes it seriously!
You need to understand this principle to understand why I taught you to slap ghosts in the previous chapter.
The more you fear it, the more it bullies you!
Ghosts also pick on people, which is why they fear wicked people.
Because wicked people have a strong fiery temper and are fierce; this fiery temper is a kind of energy. When the energy is sufficient, ghosts dare not approach.
Also, butchers, constantly slaughtering pigs and sheep, carry a lifetime of killing intent; ghosts fear them too. Why do they fear?
It’s very simple, because killing intent is also a form of energy.
Those who cultivate by reading my books must cultivate Overbearing Qi!
Overbearing Qi is even more fierce than the other two types of Qi!
What is Overbearing Qi? You’re being fierce to me? Heh, I’ll just slap you twice and make you understand who’s in charge.
You have killing intent towards me? I’ll heat up the pan and fry a ghost for my evening drink, see if I don’t eat you.
Fierce, isn’t it? Overbearing, isn’t it? With this kind of virtue, which ghost wouldn’t be dazed?
Which ghost wouldn’t run away immediately upon seeing you?
Most of the time, when people see ghosts, they are either dazed, asleep in dreams, or see them out of extreme fear.
Because ghosts are intangible and have no physical form.
They can only be seen when your energy frequency reaches a specific waveband; they cannot be seen at other times.
I’ll tell you a few true stories.
Before I attained enlightenment, my good buddy and I lived in the factory dormitory. We had adjacent beds, with me on the upper bunk and him on the lower.
One morning, I saw him looking dazed, with lifeless eyes, as if he hadn’t slept well. So I asked him what was wrong.
He said he dreamed of a ghost, that in his dream, he saw a woman with a child sitting on him, pressing him down, and he couldn’t move or speak.
I told him it was nothing, and not to take dreams seriously.
Guess what? Damn it, that same night I also had a dream. I dreamed of a woman in a long red dress and long hair, and a little girl with two pigtails sitting on me.
They were one in front of the other, the little girl in front, the woman behind. Four hands pressed on my chest, and they stared straight at me.
At that time, I hadn’t attained enlightenment yet, and I was so scared that I almost ascended on the spot.
I forced myself to stay calm. I found I couldn’t speak, so I used my thoughts to ask them if they needed any help. If they did, they should say so, and I would help if I could, and asked them to stop pressing me.
I asked twice, but they didn’t pay attention to me. Finally, I got angry. My temper was terrifying back then. Although I didn’t get angry easily, once I did, it didn’t matter who it was, and no one was spared.
As my anger rose, my eyes widened, and I cursed in my heart: “Damn your mothers! If you have something to say, say it. If not, get lost! If you keep pressing me, I’ll eat you!”
With that, I instantly woke up from the dream. After recovering for a bit and not thinking too much about it, I fell asleep again.
After work, I happily asked my buddy if the woman he saw in his dream was wearing a long red dress, had long hair, and looked to be in her early thirties.
The child was about six or seven years old, with two pigtails on her head and big eyes.
Then they both sat on him, one in front of the other, the child in front and the woman behind.
Their two hands pressed on his chest, their eyes staring directly at him.
After hearing my words, he was shocked. He asked me how I knew.
I first laughed heartily, adjusted the atmosphere, and then told him that I had also dreamed it.
I also taught him how I broke through it and told him not to worry, and that they probably wouldn’t come again.
After that, I indeed never dreamed of them again.
This was the most peculiar ghost pressing experience I encountered in reality; two people having the exact same dream.
Thinking about it later, perhaps it was because I had just started working, my rest was poor, and my energy frequency was too low. By chance, that mother and daughter were looking for someone, and my buddy and I happened to be there.
Later, after I attained enlightenment, similar things happened, but they were no longer terrifying; instead, they became fun.
For example, at night, I would be lying in bed sleeping, and I felt a dark shadow slowly approaching me.
I don’t know if any of you have had this feeling, but I’ve had it since I was a teenager: you’re clearly sleeping, but you can perceive things happening nearby and then choose whether to wake up.
This time it was the same. I quietly narrowed my eyes, waiting for it to approach me.
When it got close, I instantly sat up and grabbed it by the neck.
It was a middle-aged woman with short hair, and after I grabbed her, her eyes were full of fear.
I asked her who she was and why she came to my place.
I thought she was a damn thief.
She quickly explained that my partner had opened the door and let her in.
I turned to look at my partner, who was still sleeping, and nudged her. I asked if it was true, and she said yes.
I said, “Next time, don’t casually open the door for strangers. It’s already past midnight, and they’re wandering into our room.”
I grumbled and dragged the woman out by her collar. This was after she pleaded and promised not to come again, otherwise, she would have definitely received a severe beating.
