Mind & Practice

Practice and realization

Buddha

Awakening

Practice to become a Buddha lies in seeking

Realization to understand one’s nature lies in knowing

Practice: use action to discipline one’s nature

Realization: let one’s nature guide action

Practitioners follow external discipline, using rules to govern the mind

The awakened awaken themselves, letting rules arise from the heart

Thus

The foolish follow external discipline, painstakingly scheming

The wise follow the discipline of the heart, doing as the heart desires

Realizing the Way is

Settling

Accumulating

Reflecting and questioning

Buddha

Awakening

Can be realized, cannot be cultivated

How to practice and realize

As for the causes and conditions of this great matter, everyone inherently possesses it, each complete as they are, lacking not a hair. Yet since beginningless kalpas, the seeds of attachment, deluded thoughts, emotional concerns, and deeply ingrained habits have obscured wondrous clarity, preventing its true use. We have always made our living only among the illusory shadows of body, mind, and world, and so wander through birth and death. Buddhas and patriarchs appeared in the world with countless words and skillful means, speaking of Chan and doctrine, all merely adapting to capacities and circumstances as tools to break attachment. Originally there is no actual teaching to give anyone.

What is called practice merely follows one’s own mind, cleansing deluded thoughts and the shadows of habits. Applying effort here is called practice. If deluded thought suddenly ceases and one thoroughly sees one’s own mind—originally complete, luminous, vast, naturally pure, without a single thing—this is called realization. Apart from this mind, there is nothing else to practice or realize. The mind’s essence is like a mirror; deluded thoughts and grasping shadows are merely dirt upon the true mind. Thus it is said that imagined forms are dust, discriminating feelings grime. When deluded thoughts dissolve, the original essence appears, like polishing a mirror: dirt cleared, brightness revealed. Such is its nature.

Yet our habits accumulated through kalpas are firm, the root of self-attachment deep and hard to pull out. Fortunately, in this life, inherent prajna works inwardly as a cause, and good teachers provide the external condition that awakens it. Knowing it is originally ours, we arouse aspiration toward liberation from birth and death. Pulling up in one stroke the roots of birth and death accumulated through immeasurable kalpas is no small matter. Unless one has great strength, shoulders it stripped bare, and goes straight in with a single blade, it is difficult indeed. The ancients said it is like one person fighting ten thousand: no empty words.

Where to begin practice and realization

Generally, in this age of declining Dharma, many practice but few gain true benefit; many expend effort but few gain effective strength. Why? They have not found a direct starting point. They work only upon previously heard and seen knowledge, interpretations, and words, measuring through discriminating consciousness, suppressing deluded thoughts, and laboring at the gate of light and shadow. They first store ancient subtle sayings in their breasts, treating them as real teachings and their own understanding, unaware that none of it is useful here. This is precisely relying on others’ explanations and blocking one’s own gate to realization.

To work now, first cut away knowledge and interpretations, working solely upon this single thought. Firmly trust that your own mind is originally utterly clean, without a thread attached, perfectly luminous and filling the Dharma realm. Originally there is no body, mind, or world, nor deluded thoughts or emotional concerns. This very thought is originally unborn. Present appearances are all illusory and unreal, only shadows manifested in the true mind. Seeing through this, fix your gaze where deluded thoughts arise and cease: from where do they arise, and where do they cease? Press with effort in this way, and whatever the thought, one press crushes it, instantly dissolving it like ice and collapsing tiles. Never follow its turning or let it continue. This is what Yongjia meant by cutting off the continuing mind. The floating delusive mind originally has no roots; never treat it as a real thing lodged in your breast. When it arises, rebuke it, and with one rebuke it vanishes. Never force it down, or it will manipulate you like a gourd on water. Simply cast body, mind, and world aside and raise this single thought, like a precious sword across the sky. Whether Buddha or demon, cut everything off like tangled threads, pressing ahead with sheer force. This is the straight mind rightly recollecting suchness. Right recollection is no-thought. Observing no-thought may be called approaching Buddha’s wisdom.

At the first aspiration to practice, firmly trust the mind-only gateway. Buddha said the three realms are only mind and all phenomena only consciousness. All the Dharma explains these eight Chinese characters clearly so everyone can trust them. Broadly, the paths of sage and ordinary person are merely the two roads of delusion and awakening within one’s own mind. All good and evil, cause and effect: apart from this mind, not a single thing can be found. Our wondrous nature is natural and originally does not belong to awakening; how could it be deluded? What is now called delusion is merely failing to understand that one’s mind originally contains nothing and that body, mind, and world are originally empty, and being obstructed by them. One has always treated the arising and ceasing mind of deluded thought as real, thus taking the many transformations of the six sense objects and circumstances as real. Arousing aspiration now means turning the current upward. Entirely discard previous knowledge and interpretations; not the slightest clever view or method is useful. See through your present body, mind, and world at one glance: all are floating lights and illusory shadows in your mind, like images in a mirror or the moon in water. Regard every sound as wind through trees, every circumstance as clouds floating in space: all changing and unreal. This applies not only outside; your own deluded thoughts, emotional concerns, seeds of attachment, habits, and afflictions are also floating, illusory, and unreal.

Contemplate deeply like this, and whenever a thought arises, determine to investigate its origin and end. Never let it pass lightly or deceive you. Such work comes somewhat close to the genuine. Dragging in mysterious views and clever methods beyond this has no connection at all. Even speaking of practice is only a necessity, like warfare: weapons are inauspicious tools, used only when unavoidable. The ancients’ Chan inquiry and raising a huatou likewise were expedients. Though koans are many, the huatou of investigating the reality of Buddha-recollection is particularly easy to make effective amid worldly toil. Even so, it is only a tile used to knock on a door, ultimately to be discarded, though one must use it for a time. Working with it now requires full trust, firm reliance, and holding fast, never hesitation. Do not do this today and that tomorrow, fearing nonawakening or disliking its lack of mystery. These calculations are obstacles. Expose them beforehand so doubts do not arise at the moment.

When practice becomes effective, outside circumstances no longer enter, but inner afflictions arise wildly: desires erupt, vexation develops, or varied obstacles leave mind and strength exhausted and helpless. These are seeds of habits stored in the eighth consciousness through immeasurable kalpas, now pressed urgently by practice and appearing together. Here discernment is essential: first recognize and penetrate them. Never be enveloped, manipulated, or treat them as real. Simply rouse the spirit, exert brave vigor, and raise the original huatou. At the very arising of such thoughts, pursue directly: this matter originally does not exist here in me—ask where it comes from and what it ultimately is. Determine to see its source and end. Press ahead until spirits and ghosts weep, their traces vanish and hide. Drive them all out, leaving not a thread. Applying effort thus naturally brings good news.

If a single thought is broken through, all deluded thoughts fall away at once, like illusory flowers dropping from the sky and mirage waves settling. Passing through this brings immeasurable lightness, peace, and freedom. This is an early point of effective practice, nothing mysterious. In lightness and freedom, do not generate delight: delight invites the demon of delight into the mind, adding another obstacle. As for firmly rooted, deeply hidden seeds of attachment and habits in storehouse consciousness, where the huatou cannot exert force and observation of mind cannot illuminate, one cannot work unaided. Bow to Buddha, recite sutras, repent, and secretly maintain the mantra-heart, relying on Buddha’s secret seal to remove them. All secret mantras are Buddha’s adamantine mind-seal. Using them is like wielding an adamantine vajra that crushes all things to dust. The secret mind-seal instructions of Buddhas and patriarchs go no further than this. Thus it is said: “The Tathagatas of the ten directions maintain this mantra-heart and attain unsurpassed complete perfect awakening.” Buddha stated it openly, but patriarchal schools feared ordinary attachment and kept it unspoken, not unused. Set a daily practice; long familiarity brings much strength. Simply do not seek miraculous responses.

Intellectual awakening and realized awakening

Some practitioners awaken first and practice afterward; others practice first and awaken afterward. Yet awakening differs between understanding and realization.

Clarifying the mind through Buddhas’ and patriarchs’ verbal teachings is intellectual awakening. It often falls into conceptual views and is ineffective in circumstances because mind and objects stand opposed and cannot merge. Every encounter becomes a blockage and obstacle. This is called semblance prajna, not true inquiry.

Realized awakening comes through earnest work within one’s own mind, pressing to the end of every road until suddenly one thought ceases and the mind is thoroughly understood. It is like meeting your own father at a crossroads: no doubt remains. Like drinking water, you know its cold or warmth yourself and cannot convey it to others. This is true inquiry and genuine awakening. Then integrate mind and circumstances through that awakening, cleansing present karma and the flowing consciousness until deluded thoughts and emotional concerns melt into the single taste of true mind. This is realized awakening.

Realized awakening also has different depths. Working from the root, breaking the mold of the eighth consciousness, suddenly overturning ignorance’s lair, and directly entering in one leap with no remaining teaching is for those of the highest keen faculties, whose realization is deep. Others practice gradually and realize more shallowly.

Most to be feared is satisfaction with little; never fall at the gate of light and shadow. Since the eighth consciousness’s root remains unbroken, whatever is done remains at the level of discriminating consciousness. Taking this as truth resembles adopting a thief as one’s son. The ancients said: learners of the Way fail to know the true because they have long recognized discriminating consciousness; fools mistake the root of birth and death through immeasurable kalpas for their original person. This barrier especially must be penetrated.

Sudden awakening followed by gradual practice means awakening is already complete, but habits cannot be purified instantly. In every circumstance, raise the power of contemplation through the realized principle, testing the mind through experience. Integrate one measure of circumstance and realize one measure of Dharma body; remove one measure of delusion and reveal one measure of original wisdom. This depends entirely on continuous, meticulous work, becoming more effective through actual circumstances.

Six principles of practice and realization

When people of keen faculties, strong faith, and courageous vigor willingly practice, practical obstacles are easy to remove, conceptual obstacles difficult. A few difficulties are outlined here.

First: do not crave the mysterious

This matter is originally plain, settled, solid, and entirely ordinary, with nothing mysterious. Thus the ancients said: after awakening it is still as before awakening; the same person remains, but not the former way of walking. There is nothing mysterious. When practice matures, plainness naturally comes. Because habits of knowledge and interpretation remain impure, they inwardly perfume prajna; prajna, influenced by habits, produces illusions and clever views that cling to the mind. Mistaking them for mystery, one enters deeply and will not release them. These are precisely the reflected brightness of discriminating consciousness, roots of false discriminating views, also called the thorn of views. Unlike earlier coarse delusions, they are subtle continuous arising and ceasing, also called the obstruction of knowledge, blocking right understanding. Taking them as true generates wild views and is especially to be avoided.

Second: do not wait for awakening with the mind

Our wondrous, complete true mind is originally beyond oppositions. Delusions congealed into opposed mind and objects, faculties and sense objects, producing confusion and karma. Practitioners now need only let go of body, mind, and world in one thought, raise this one thought, and advance. Never concern yourself with awakening or nonawakening; simply work thought by thought and step by step. When practice reaches its point, the original face naturally appears. Why calculate beforehand? If the mind waits for awakening, that waiting mind is itself the root of birth and death. Waiting through endless kalpas will not bring awakening, because one fails to understand the true mind beyond oppositions and imagines something separate. If waiting remains, weariness easily arises and leads to retreat, like searching unsuccessfully for an object and deciding to stop.

Third: do not seek wondrous fruition

Beings’ deluded mind of birth and death is originally the Tathagata’s fruition-body. In delusion, Buddhas’ wondrous powers become deluded thoughts, emotional concerns, and discriminating views; the true pure Dharma body becomes karmic substance of birth and death; the pure wondrous land becomes the realm of the six sense objects. If practice brings sudden realization of one’s mind, it is like a great red furnace melting all forms. This body, mind, and world are originally the Tathagata’s fruition-body; these deluded thoughts and concerns are originally wondrous powers. The name changes, not the substance. Yongjia said: ignorance’s true nature is Buddha-nature; the illusory empty body is the Dharma body. Realizing this gateway lets feelings of grasping and rejecting vanish, delight and aversion cease: every step is the Flower Treasury pure land, every thought Maitreya descending into birth. If the mind first seeks wondrous fruition, that seeking is the root of birth and death, obstructing right understanding. The more one seeks, the farther away; exhausted seeking breeds weariness.

Fourth: do not generate doubts and anxieties

In practice, continually release body and mind, shut out seeing, hearing, and knowing, abandon old tracks, and face the dim unknown with nowhere to settle life. Forward there is no new realization; backward the old dwelling is lost. Calculating ahead and behind breeds doubt, countless reckonings of gain and loss, conjectural views, and deviant thoughts, obstructing right understanding. See through this, decide to enter directly, and cease worrying. Generally, when practice reaches the point where it seems impossible, that is precisely where it becomes effective. Increase spirit and vigor, and you will not retreat or yield; otherwise you fall to the demon of worry.

Fifth: do not generate fear

When practice’s concentrated force presses urgently, deluded thought suddenly stops and body and mind fall into emptiness. Seeing no inch of land on the earth, with limitless depth, one becomes terrified. Without seeing through this, one dares not advance. Or one regards this expansive emptiness as wondrous attainment. Taking this emptiness as real produces grave deviant views denying cause and effect. This is most dangerous.

Sixth: firmly believe your own mind is Buddha

There is no separate Buddha: this very mind is it. Buddha’s true Dharma body is like space. Understanding delusion’s original emptiness lets the inherently possessed Dharma body appear: luminous, silently illuminating, perfectly pervasive, lacking nothing and having no surplus. Do not send the mind chasing outside. Abandoning this mind to seek elsewhere makes limitless dreamlike realms arise within it. These are transformations of discriminating consciousness; never consider them extraordinary. In our pure mind originally there is not one thing, nor one thought. Any stirring of thought departs from the Dharma’s essence.

Today’s practitioners generally do not understand their mind’s deluded thoughts are originally unreal. Mistaking them for truth, they concentrate on opposing them, like children playing with lamp-shadows. The more they play, the less connection it has; continued play brings fear.

Others fear deluded thoughts and wish to seize them all at once and throw them aside. This is like catching wind and grasping shadows: struggling all day, exhausting strength, never resting for a thought. Entangled over time, faith weakens, and they say Chan inquiry has no effect, generating disparagement, fear, or retreat. This is a common beginner’s illness, arising simply from not understanding the abiding true mind and its unborn, unceasing nature, instead treating deluded thoughts as substantial truth. This must be penetrated. To pass this barrier, there is naturally a higher road: inquire apart from mind, intellect, and consciousness; seek apart from deluded realms. Whenever a thought arises, good or evil, cast it aside immediately; never oppose it. Firmly trust that this matter originally does not exist in your mind. Strongly raise the original huatou like an adamantine sword, sweeping away demons and Buddhas alike. Here great courage, great diligence, and great endurance are essential. Never calculate before and after or be timid. With a straight mind and right recollection, stand forth and advance. Naturally majestic and upright, you will not be entangled by these thoughts. Like a hawk freed from its tether, throughout the twelve double-hours you are naturally unbound by any circumstance, attaining great lightness, peace, and freedom. This is the first effective step of beginner’s practice.

These several points are much like drawing legs on a snake: temporary expedient words, neither ultimate nor an actual teaching. At the roadside, one step outside the door risks taking divergent paths, wasting effort and time. One must enter the genuinely correct gateway and emerge onto the wondrously adorned road. Thus it is said: walk evenly and rightly, swift as wind; such progress can make a day equal a kalpa.

In essence, the higher road of Buddhas and patriarchs involves no measured journey. Yet for a beginner’s expedients, one must still pass through here.

Cultivating the heart is cultivating one’s fate

Everything that goes against your wishes is the return of past conduct. There is no past life or future life, only this life.

Without cultivating the heart, life consists only in experiencing life; love those around you well and find happiness

Everything about cultivating the heart is here

My heart is everything; everything is my heart

Complaining is suffering

Gratitude is happiness

Without greed, whence deception?

Without selfishness, whence heartbreak?

View the past through cause and effect

View the present through morality and righteousness

Believing, trust, conviction, faith

1. Believing (believe): recognition and acceptance of a viewpoint, idea, or person. Believing is a judgment based on objective facts or experience. It can rest on reason and evidence, or on personal convictions or emotional experience.

2. Trust (trust): recognition and acceptance of the reliability, integrity, and loyalty of a person or organization. Trust is a relationship based on mutual respect, honesty, and responsibility, and can be built on mutual understanding and experience.

3. Conviction (belief): firm recognition and acceptance of an idea, value, or moral principle. Conviction is a conception based on inner experience and cognition, and may take the form of religious belief, moral ideas, cultural traditions, and so on.

4. Faith (faith): firm recognition and acceptance of a deity, belief system, or religious belief. Faith is grounded in the believer’s mental and spiritual feelings, and may take the form of religious belief, a philosophy of life, values, and so on.

Integrity, clarity of heart, peace of mind, craftsmanship, satisfaction, happiness, ease, enthusiasm, confidence

Look with your heart, not your eyes; the truly precious things in the world are often invisible.

The truth of life is not merely winning achievement and glory, but the courage to continue to the next stop.

A person of great awakening and great freedom is a Buddha

The foolish follow external discipline, painstakingly scheming

The wise follow the discipline of the heart, doing as the heart desires

Being yourself brings the greatest happiness

Accomplishing it brings the greatest confidence

Your confidence comes from having something unique that no one can match

And that something is valuable and needed by the world

Buddha

Awakening

Practice to become a Buddha lies in seeking

Realization to understand one’s nature lies in knowing

Practice: use action to discipline one’s nature

Realization: let one’s nature guide action

The awakened awaken themselves, letting rules arise from the heart

Practitioners follow external discipline, using rules to govern the mind

Realizing the Way is

Settling

Accumulating

Reflecting and questioning

Buddha

Awakening

Can be realized, cannot be cultivated

True cultivation comes from cultivating through action,

Doing more “Buddha’s work” matters more than believing in Buddha,

There are no masters beyond the world: away from the world, no masters exist. There is no cultivating life, only experiencing life.

Seeing through and becoming disenchanted: “the heart dies”; seeing through without disenchantment: “wisdom.”

Not complacent, yet content—happiness

Complacent, yet never content—suffering

Love those around you well and find happiness

Learn independence; learn to deliver all beings

Many say thought is used to seek truth;

Many argue over right and wrong within others’ ideas;

Many lose themselves before knowledge and ideas.

One word: “delusion”!

What is delusion? Becoming a slave beneath someone else’s ideas.

Ordinary people live under others’ ideas, arguing over right and wrong, their body, mind, and soul controlled by the outside world;

Great achievers create their own independent ideas to deliver all beings. I decide whether my heart is moved.

A Buddha is an awakened person. The moment you awaken, you are a Buddha. If you not only awaken but produce independent ideas to guide all beings to awakening, you are a Buddha lord.

Respect, learn from, and cultivate Buddhahood without believing in Buddha;

Respect, learn from, and cultivate the God of Wealth without being deluded by him.

Great achievers transcend ideas, rise above ideas, create ideas, and use ideas; strengthen the self and hold it supreme, use independent thought to help others grow, and put the energy of all things to their use.

Please free yourself from clinging to the familiar:

Many judge problems by past experience, but is the road we travel known or unknown? Why are most Chinese films historical costume dramas while Western films are science fiction? Everything stems from the focus of thought.

Ordinary people are bound by past experience; great achievers pare back past experience to explore the unknown;

Ordinary people look at the past to walk through today; great achievers look to the future and live in the present.

Please free yourself from personality:

Ordinary people are trapped by personality. Great achievers keep the whole picture in mind and have no fixed personality. They are not swayed by personality; they transcend it, rise above it, and use it, displaying whatever personality the moment requires. Without fixed nature, self, or form, they manifest the form appropriate to whatever setting they enter.

Practice means continually correcting conduct; realization means seeing the heart behind conduct.

Awakening must return to life and relationships and withstand the test of concrete situations.

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○ It looks toward the future, persists in dreams, and explores life’s meaning. In personal growth, firm ambition enables us to navigate life’s storms and face challenges and difficulties better.

● Establish action: put intentions into practice

○ After ambition comes turning it into practical steps. Establishing action emphasizes doing, putting promises to oneself into practice rather than remaining with theory and dreams. Through practice in cultivation and realization, we can truly understand life’s meaning and the principles by which the world works.

● Establish virtue: develop character through action

○ Like the story of “Mencius’s Mother Moving Three Times,” establishing virtue means character and qualities accumulated through action. It represents moral ideas, values, and attitudes toward life. In personal growth, cultivation, and realization, virtue is the core, determining a person’s value and influence.

○ Throughout life, continually pursue noble moral character and cultivation, striving to become pure in character and upright in conduct. Whatever difficulties or temptations arise, persist in moral principles, letting conscience and morality guide conduct.

○ Virtue is established not only for oneself, but to benefit society. A person of high morality can become a social example, influence others, and bring positive energy to all society.

● Establish achievement: extending influence

○ Like the story of “The Foolish Old Man Removing the Mountains,” after virtue is established, personal values and character influence conduct and decisions, producing profound effects in society, family, and teams.

○ Achievement embodies this influence, affirming and recognizing personal value. Continually strive to create value in different fields and at different levels, bringing positive change to society, family, and organizations. Achievement means not only ideals but practice, advancing the world through actual action.

○ Do not settle for momentary success or results; contribute to society continuously and tirelessly, creating lasting value.

● Establish lasting words: transmitting wisdom

○ Like the story of “The Hundred Schools Contending,” lasting words are the final fruit of personal growth, cultivation, realization, and development.

○ They share experience, wisdom, and insight with others, helping them grow and progress.

○ Lasting words are not merely oral transmission, but examples of conduct, attitudes, and values. Share insights, experience, and wisdom in life through words as well as conduct. Establishing lasting words means taking responsibility for passing on knowledge and ideas, inspiring others and guiding them upward.

○ Lasting words also contribute to later generations. Good words and ideas are seeds that can take root and sprout in others’ hearts, becoming treasures passed through generations.

Return to goodness

Act

Without goodness, there is no basis for establishment

In all pursuits and practices, accumulating goodness is ultimately the highest standard and destination. “Goodness” has five dimensions:

● Good thoughts: the origin of thought

○ Every action and feeling begins with a thought. Good thoughts are our initial positive thinking and intentions, a yearning for kindness and uprightness. They begin all positive conduct, setting the first step’s direction on life’s road.

● A good heart: inner motivation

○ Sustained, accumulated good thoughts form a good heart: sincere feelings toward goodness and its continual pursuit deep within. This is our inner motivation and belief for continuing to do what is right.

● Good causes: the beginning of action

○ A good heart prompts concrete actions. Such positive conduct is a good cause, embodying good thoughts and heart, and directly causing future good outcomes.

● Good conditions: the environment’s response

○ Good causes trigger chain reactions in the external world, creating good conditions. These are positive external circumstances and factors arising from our positive conduct, as well as destined good opportunities and conditions.

● Good fruits: results manifest

○ All good thoughts, hearts, causes, and conditions ultimately lead to a result: good fruits. These complete and reward all previous steps, representing positive outcomes and returns.

Set right and put into practice

Do it

Without rightness, all is empty

In every practice, always maintain uprightness, uphold correct ways of doing things, and ensure conduct accords with moral standards. “Rightness” has five levels:

● Integrity: act honestly and fairly

○ Integrity is every entrepreneur’s inner principle and moral coordinate. It upholds truth, sincerity, and fairness, requiring truthfulness without falsity, concealment, or favoritism at every moment. In business, integrity means fair dealings, honesty and trustworthiness, and authentic self-presentation.

● Decency: treat the team fairly

○ Decency embodies integrity’s principles in teams and organizations. It requires preserving a fair team culture, treating every member equitably, and ensuring the undertaking’s direction aligns with team values.

● Justice: balance in business

○ Justice represents fairness and balance in the external market. In an undertaking, it requires fair and proper dealings with all partners, customers, and competitors, without harming others’ rights and interests, preserving normal market order.

● The right path: the course of development

○ The right path identifies an undertaking’s correct direction and course. It represents long-term, sustained, harmonious development, ensuring that pursuing profit also preserves social and environmental harmony and balance.

● Right livelihood: apply these principles in business

○ Integrity, decency, justice, and the right path ultimately appear in an undertaking’s results: right livelihood. It embodies all positive principles and values in actual business, completes and rewards the previous steps, and is the ultimate sign of success.

Human nature

Evil is in the flesh

Good intentions are in the soul

The heart and soul’s goodness cannot defeat the flesh’s evil

The two provoke each other

Only thinking and ideas that teach goodness are immortal

More experiences and participation

More transmission and sharing with the world

Though a hundred kalpas pass, deeds do not perish. When causes and conditions meet, one receives the karmic result oneself. Zengzi also said: “When a person loves goodness, though blessings have not arrived, calamity is already far away.”

“Heaven gives birth to all things through yang and completes them through yin. Birth is benevolence; completion is righteousness.” Goodness signifies benevolence; establishing signifies righteousness. Benevolence is essence, righteousness appearance. Begin with righteousness as the first stirring of intention, and return to benevolence as the guide to conduct. Cause and effect cycle, following the rule that without breaking there is no establishing, continually preserving, breaking, and establishing. Reach utmost emptiness, maintain profound stillness. All things arise together; I observe their return.

Life’s three immortalities are establishing virtue, achievement, and lasting words; to these I add ambition and action. Ambition is the starting point. Without it, setting out lacks righteousness and nothing can be accomplished. Without ambition comes no action, hence no virtue, achievement, or lasting words. Thus, at the level of my individual self, I aspire to become a planner, investing immense time and energy. Through experience in one business project after another, I bring upon myself every virtue a planner should possess, thereby establishing virtue. Through consulting, planning, and training that support business development, I establish achievement. Following universal values, I share all my consolidated experience and accumulation unreservedly with those who need it, continually producing content and spreading it through the internet, establishing lasting words. This entire process is ambition, action, virtue, achievement, and lasting words, summarized as “Begin by establishing.”

Benevolence is Heaven’s Way. Heaven creates all things: great goodness, kindness toward others, an altruistic heart, following the life values of revering heaven and loving people. One thought arises: myriad rivers and mountains, prosperity through countless ages; one thought ceases: seas become fields, loss through eternity. Good and evil differ by one thought. Good thoughts nourish a good heart, create good causes, enact good conditions, and produce good fruits. Initially, as a creed, use action to discipline nature and rules to govern the heart; ultimately rise to acting through goodness. The awakened awaken themselves, letting rules arise from the heart. This is summarized as “Return to goodness.”

“Begin by establishing, return to goodness”: eight Chinese characters for continual cultivation and contemplation within finite life. Practice lies in seeking, realization in knowing. Practice uses action to discipline nature; realization lets nature guide action. The awakened awaken themselves, letting rules arise from the heart; practitioners follow external discipline, using rules to govern the heart. Continually cultivate the individual self and realize the transcendent self, cycling repeatedly and improving the capacity for realization.

Brush away worldly splendor, illuminate the original heart: limpid purity, light filling the void.

This folder’s contents record insights arising from everyday matters, saved by category. Some came from exchanges and collisions of ideas with friends nearby, some from reflections summarized from books, and some from teachings by masters.

They concern the outside world, labels, genius, time, life goals, reality, regret, and so forth.

Sichuang Society

Thought: the highest realm

One thought arises: myriad rivers and mountains, prosperity through countless ages

One thought ceases: seas become fields, loss through eternity

In this world, a person’s birth has already determined their level in society. These barriers between levels were formed by the long operation of human social order. Thus the level into which the individual self is born cannot be crossed, but a breakthrough between levels can be made through thought: using logical thinking to contemplate the worldly order of the “human realm” and the great natural law of “Heaven’s Way.” From the perspective of the unity of “humanity” and “heaven,” the universe, heaven and earth, and all things exist full of value and meaning. Through logical thought, we can not only discover this value and meaning through our own effort and gain powerful resources of spiritual motivation; more importantly, we must realize this value and meaning in human society, seeking to construct a reasonable political and cultural order consistent with the great law of “Heaven’s Way.” Thus, whether grounded in the essence of “Heaven’s Way” or the order of “human relationships,” there is every reason to encourage people living in the secular world to “learn below and reach above,” hoping they will devote themselves to moral practices of “benevolence” and “righteousness,” to realize the life’s charge and ultimate value necessarily entrusted to human life as “Heaven’s mandate” flows down into it.

Heaven’s Way and Sagely Virtue

Heaven gives birth to all things through yang and brings them to completion through yin. Giving birth is benevolence; completion is righteousness. Thus the sage in a position of authority nurtures all things with benevolence and sets all people right with righteousness. When Heaven’s Way operates, all things follow it; when sagely virtue is cultivated, all people are transformed. Such great harmony and transformation, whose traces cannot be seen and whose workings no one knows, are called divine. Thus the multitudes under heaven have their root in one person. Can the Way be far away? Can its methods be numerous?

Tongshu, Chapter 11, “Following and Transformation”—Zhou Dunyi

Worldly rules

Money, a tool of the mortal world, is a tool for cooperation that you neither bring at birth nor take at death

Power, a tool of rule, is a management tool affecting the strength and scope of control

Reputation, a tool of word of mouth, is a calling card that lets you move through society’s various strata

As Zhou Dunyi writes in Tongshu, Chapter 11, “Following and Transformation”: “Thus the multitudes under heaven have their root in one person.” From this we can realize that the secular world is not complicated; it all comes down to human nature. Human nature is “power and status, money, material things,” which ordinary worldly people find difficult to escape. We therefore need to understand and accommodate human nature fully.

Concentration Can Give Rise to Insight

● Know where to stop, then you can be settled; settled, you can be still; still, you can be at ease; at ease, you can deliberate; deliberating, you can attain.

● Stillness gives rise to concentration, concentration to insight, insight to wisdom.

● Preserve, break, establish: the steadiest upward spiral

Whoever causes me pain makes me strong

Pain is the fastest gateway to self-cultivation for everyone who accomplishes great undertakings

Without difficulties and pain, a person cannot awaken

At this moment we suddenly realize

When we wish friends fair winds and favorable rain, we are actually wishing them a lifetime of mediocrity

For thousands of years, no one who accomplished great undertakings had smooth sailing

Never utter a word of discouragement. We entrust our souls to great undertakings!

Heaven is in my heart,

The earth is beneath my feet,

Within, a spirit embracing mountains and rivers,

Without, the whole of all beings,

Head reaching heaven, feet planted on earth, a soaring ambition in my heart, fearing nothing!

Observe our body, speech, and mind from within. Do charitable work and build a career with a pure heart.

In this process, your heart will become not only perfected but very strong. You need not ask for any blessings; they will all come naturally.

When you lack blessings, even if someone brings charcoal in the snow, you may not have a lighter at home to light it!

What is a person with energy? Someone living for more people!

How does energy come? “Borrowing”

For however many people you live, borrow that many people’s energy.

Simply put, live for all beings and you can borrow all beings’ energy!

Intention determines the direction of action; conviction determines persistence through difficulty.

True conviction is proved through long-term choices, not declarations.

With demons in the heart, everyone looks like a ghost

Turn the heart toward Buddha

Evil is in the flesh

Good intentions are in the soul

But the soul’s goodness cannot defeat the flesh’s evil

The two provoke each other

Not complacent, yet content: happiness. Complacent, yet discontented: suffering.

Humanity’s most frightening invisible killer is “falseness,”

One word: “pretending”!

The more you pretend, the faker you become; the faker you become, the more you pretend. In the end, you very truly become a false person. Truth is not realistic; reality is not true. To escape falseness, delete every illusion and enter the root and essence. Liberation now, flowing now.

Without good news, where does “joy” come from? How can we find “joy”?

“Joy”! It is not found outside. Before doing something, simply:

Find its sense of value;

Prepare for the worst,

And enter the present. Energy instantly fills you, taking you straight into “joy,” as if divinely helped. The more you live, the more beautiful you become; the more beautiful, the more “alive.” Your state, wisdom, and feeling return one by one.

Life is coming to earth to “have a little fun”!

Unrealistic expectations or wishes may become desires you cannot control, and such irrational desire will lead you toward destruction.

When people lack self-awareness, they are one with the surrounding world, without any freedom, but with a sense of security, togetherness, and attachment

* An enticing goal

* Effortless progress

* The tension of unfinished things (the Zeigarnik effect)

**Seven emotions:** joy, anger, worry, thought, sadness, fear, fright

**Six desires:** eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind

The seven emotions in the Book of Rites are joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, aversion, and desire. The Confucian account likewise gives joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, aversion, and desire; the Buddhist account gives joy, anger, worry, fear, love, hatred, and desire; physicians give joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure, love, aversion, and desire.

Book of Rites, “Evolution of Rites”: “What are human feelings? Joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, aversion, and desire: these seven are possible without learning.”

Three Character Classic: “Joy and anger, sorrow and fear; love, aversion, and desire complete the seven emotions.”

In traditional Chinese medicine, the seven emotions are “joy, anger, worry, thought, sadness, fear, and fright.” Excessive arousal of these seven states may cause imbalance of yin and yang and disrupted circulation of qi and blood, triggering various illnesses. It is thought-provoking that Chinese medicine does not include “desire” among the seven emotions.

According to Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals, the six desires arise from life, death, ears, eyes, mouth, and nose. Buddhism names desires for color, appearance, bearing and posture, speech and sound, softness and smoothness, and the thought of a person. Another account lists the desires to survive, know, express, perform, be comfortable, and love sexually.

Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals, “Valuing Life,” first proposed the six desires: “What is called complete life is when all six desires receive their due.” Eastern Han philosopher Gao You annotated this: “The six desires are life, death, ears, eyes, mouth, and nose.” Later generations summarized them as the desires for seeing (vision), hearing (hearing), fragrance (smell), flavor (taste), touch (touch), and mental desire.

The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom identifies the six desires as desires for color, appearance, bearing and posture, speech and sound, softness and smoothness, and the thought of a person. It essentially situates the “six desires” as six innate desires ordinary people have for the opposite sex—what modern people commonly call “sexual desire.”

Do the right thing, and you will never be wrong

Do not care too much about anything. Without desire, one is strong.

With more experience, some things no longer cause immediate panic. Knowing there is room to handle matters and that present pain may not last long makes it easier to stabilize action. I value this calm and hope it comes from understanding and experience.

A calm appearance does not prove an absence of feeling. Disappointment remains disappointing; regret remains painful. Someone may arrange things well and still need time to process emotions: that too is a complete response. Hiding pain will not automatically remove it.

When negative events occur, first separate two parts: what needs handling now, and what am I feeling? Do urgent tasks first; express feelings needing explanation at a suitable time. Leave order for action and an outlet for yourself.

Stability deserves practice, and feelings deserve respect. Gradually becoming calm through understanding differs from continually demanding no emotions of oneself. Facing the real self creates more room to face real matters.

First observe emotions and desires, then decide whether to let them become action.

Desire can provide motivation, but also needs boundaries, rhythm, and awareness of consequences.

When tragedy strikes, you need to let yourself let go; tragedy, after all, cannot be reversed

After tragedy, the road must still be traveled. Only by letting go can you walk well and make life truly rich.

No one wants a life without richness

A lifetime is long

A lifetime is short

Tragedy or richness

Depends entirely on your mindset,

Your thinking determines your fate.

I asked Buddha, “What do nirvana and rebirth mean?”

Buddha said, “Nirvana is ‘non-arising,’ ‘non-doing,’ ‘non-movement.’ Rebirth is your cause: because of what are you born, and for what do you die? If life and death are meaningless, why seek nirvana or rebirth? Everything arises or does not arise, acts or does not act, moves or does not move, from your heart. When you ask this question, it actually means there is no answer.”

There is no Buddha; Buddha does not speak either. Buddha is awakening; Buddha is yourself. You alone are your own master. Cherish every minute and every second. Learning to cherish is nirvana and rebirth.

Only when impermanence arrives do we know this illusory body. I urge you to recollect Buddha often, each thought quieting greed and anger.

Fish tracks in autumn waters, bird traces in the vast sky. Ask where I go: rebirth in the pure realm. Awakened, not deluded; what is born must perish. Returning on the strength of vows, why weep in sorrow?

Our Buddha’s final teaching: take precepts as your teacher. Through precepts cultivate concentration; through concentration develop wisdom. Through precepts, concentration, and wisdom, know suffering and cut off its causes, aspire to cessation and cultivate the path, moving toward liberation.

Purify your own mind: this is the teaching of all Buddhas. Different schools and traditions take different paths to the same destination. Believe this or that; faith is free.

Respect one another, erect no sectarian barriers, practice the six harmonies without contention, unite and help one another. Practice according to the teachings: the five precepts, ten good deeds, four means of embracing others, and six perfections, cultivating step by step.

Arouse intention and cultivate the heart. Without arousing intention, people cannot subdue their troubles. It is like rowing upstream: the current is strong, and unless you row hard upward, you cannot even stay in place; you will surely be swept down. Without arousing upward aspiration and increasing inner wisdom’s strength, how could you simply let go of delusions and troubles whenever you wish?

Unable to emerge, it is hell bound by countless tangled thoughts; able to emerge, it is heaven liberated into boundless seas and skies.

Those of great cultivation enter the mortal world and the ordinary, acting neither strangely nor unusually nor making others’ hair stand on end.

How could the method of inner realization reside in verbal explanations? Is constant Buddha-talk not absurd? Plainness is the Way; ordinariness is Buddhahood.

Many who study Buddhism wear a Buddhist face and air, fill their mouths with Buddhist words, and look sanctimonious. I try to avoid them, for they have become slick Buddhist operators, entering “Buddhist demonhood.”

True practitioners do not put on a cultivated appearance.

Mouths full of Buddhist terms, no earthly language; a solemn dead expression entering a room and polluting the air; assuming an “empty” appearance free of stray thoughts, separating thoughts away only to enter another world of stray thoughts about “emptiness.” Freed from thought’s ropes, they are bound by the ropes of an “empty form,” entering discrimination. One word: “pretending”!

The secret behind great cultivation: connecting with the mortal world, no empty form, true reality, great ease!

Liberation is studying Buddhism; freedom is cultivating the Way

Letting go does not mean denying experience; it means no longer letting experience rule the present.

Settle what cannot be reversed, and reclaim the parts on which you can still act.