Chapter 241: Animal Cultivation
After speaking to this point, Old Dog asked Big Brother, “Old Ghost, do you say that this kind of cultivation knowledge is the same as what Great Lord Ksitigarbha and the others cultivate?”
Big Brother nodded and continued, “It’s exactly the same. The Dharma contains all things, and the mind gives birth to all phenomena. When Great Lord Ksitigarbha was in the mortal realm, he was a Great Cultivator of the mortal realm, or rather, someone who had awakened. His appearance was no different from that of a human, there was no difference at all. The biggest difference was his heart, his great compassion for all living beings after he awakened.
Even though he is now in Hell, he is still silently giving back for all living beings. This spirit is what we cultivators should learn the most.
Even Uncle Zhong Kui, after his death, transformed into a ghost and used his ghost body to contribute to all living beings, helping people resolve disasters and capture evil ghosts.
All cultivators on the Righteous Path will have this altruistic heart; this state of mind is the same. They are just contributing in their respective fields.”
“Big Brother, you say I am so lustful, a lecherous ghost, can I also use my lust to help people?” Xue Pan asked.
“You can use anything. It depends on what you are thinking in your heart when you use it. Just like when we go out to fight every time, you couldn’t do anything else then, so you used your lust to fight. In cultivation, you can completely lead your lustful heart, letting it rise and fall. Use it when needed, and make it disappear when you shouldn’t have this thought. Everything you have is for your use. Cultivation is in the heart, not in your actions. If you indulge yourself, you will be dominated by desire and become something controlled by desire. But when you can counter-control desire, it will not only not become your weakness, but it will become your tool.
It’s like this for any desire. If sentient beings were truly not allowed to have lustful thoughts, then humans would be like cannon fodder, almost extinct. Having lustful thoughts is natural for humans, but one must never have them randomly. As the saying goes, ‘lust makes one bold enough to defy heaven.’ If you are controlled by this, you are prone to doing many, many out-of-line things, which is not good. Lust will become a knife, and this knife will wound yourself.”
“Big Brother, how can a cultivator like me from the demon race walk the Righteous Path?” Jin Buque asked.
“If you don’t have a human body, the first thing is to achieve spiritual attunement, which is to understand human nature, that is, to improve wisdom. Although you don’t have a human body, after gaining human nature, apart from your appearance, you are not much different from humans, only the difficulty of cultivation will be greater.
For some little cats and dogs that are close to humans, after spending a long time in contact with people, they can understand human intentions, which is enlightenment. But the next step will be much more difficult than for human cultivators.
For humans to cultivate, they first become human, this so-called human is something with human nature, or rather, a normal human cognition. Then, borrow Buddhist Dharma cognition to break through the cognition of ordinary people, and then break through again by comprehending all things.
Animal cultivators find it difficult to achieve anything. The so-called borrowing a human body to cultivate is actually false. It’s not borrowing a human body, but borrowing human cognition. Because the soul of a living being is not in its appearance, but in the state of the spirit within the body.
Some people live like livestock, some live like ghosts, some live like immortals, and some dogs live like children. In fact, it all has to do with the inner self, not the outer appearance.
Therefore, borrowing a human body to cultivate means that animal cultivators first understand human nature, because understanding human nature makes it easier to hear Buddhist Dharma, not what ordinary people in the mortal world think, like possessing someone or cultivating with someone.
Which guy who understands human nature would go onto a person full of flaws to cultivate? Those who can’t even distinguish between bad habits and evil thoughts, they can’t even avoid them, and they still want to cultivate with them. They are talking utter nonsense. This is also self-consolation of the ignorant, forcefully attaching it to themselves.
Obtaining a human body is not a human body, but human spirituality. Borrowing a human body to cultivate is not borrowing a human body, but borrowing cognition.
Look at those bewildered guys, they don’t even understand what Buddha is and what Dao is. What the hell can they cultivate? One moment, their old immortal likes to eat this, the next they ask people for money to open their treasury, if they don’t eat what they are given or don’t like it, they throw it away, and the money is spent by them. This is also the pattern of human nature.
Let’s say, Old Jin, why are you suddenly asking about this matter? With your cultivation, you shouldn’t be bothered by such problems.”
Jin Buque scratched his head, “It’s not that, Big Brother. I cultivated it myself without thinking too much, and it just happened. But among my descendants and some other fellow Daoists, they always like to find cultivators in the mortal realm to cultivate using the so-called method of borrowing a human body. So I wanted to ask you.
Big Brother nodded and continued, “Those you can persuade, persuade them back. Those you can’t persuade, let them be, don’t get entangled. That method will not only not help them progress in their cultivation, but it will also contaminate them with worldly dust, contaminating them with all sorts of messy bad habits of humans, wanting this, wanting that, wanting to do this, wanting to do that, and so on. Their desires will actually become much stronger, and it will be very, very difficult to break free afterwards.
If one wishes to achieve something as an animal, then understanding human nature is the first lesson, and the second lesson is necessarily to hear Buddhist Dharma, not to get entangled with anyone. Otherwise, in the end, not only will you fail to achieve the Dao yourself, but that person will also not find their true self. Both will return to dust, not finding the Righteous Path.
Humans and demon immortals mingling all day long, humans absorbing the malice of demons, and demons absorbing the desires of humans. Only an idiot would cultivate like this…”
Hearing me say this, Jin Buque was clearly a little excited, “Damn it~! I knew it couldn’t be cultivated like that! Several juniors in my family don’t listen and insist on going to the mortal realm to cultivate like that. They’ve received incense offerings from several generations of people, and they’re still just demons, not having achieved True Immortal. So that’s how it is, so that’s how it is~! Alas…”
I shook my head and sighed, “Everyone has their own fate. You try to persuade them, and if they are persuaded, that’s their destiny. If you try to persuade them and they don’t listen, that’s also their destiny. If they don’t achieve the Dao in this life, they will be reborn with fur and horns. If they have good fate, they will come again. If they have bad fate, then this life will be their final incarnation.
Because when a person leaves, that person has never been their true self in this life. This thought, this cognitive perception, will dissipate. This is the true meaning of the ‘final incarnation’ for those who practice Spirit Mediumship.
And the so-called immortals who attach themselves to people are actually people’s thoughts. After generating this thought, they communicate with this kind of mind, making themselves believe what kind of being that immortal is.
As for animal immortals, hehehe, they are the same as humans, just entanglement between two magnetic fields. In essence, it doesn’t really matter who is related to whom. Everyone is self-righteous!
Therefore, animal immortals clearly cannot awaken. When they die, it is also considered their final incarnation. Their final incarnation is complete disappearance, like drinking Meng Po’s soup. The thought in their brains disappears. If they treat this thought as themselves, then they themselves have disappeared.
The proper Dao is that this thought is not oneself. Awakening is oneself. Awakening will not disappear, it is unborn and undying, not controlled by this pattern, naturally free and at ease, and need not return. This is called achieving the Dao, attaining the Dao and ascending.
Everything else is called dying…”
