Commentary on the Great Way - Part 2 ⒃

The reason why the ancients did not pass on the teachings to the world was that the foolish did not believe in them earnestly or practice them diligently, and instead slandered them. Therefore, they kept it secret and did not pass it on. Since I met the right person, I have shared this secret of self-cultivation to alert my fellow students to each 黾勉② and ascend to the celestial capital together. [Li Xiyue] Note: This piece delves into the true nature of life and reveals the principles of sages, immortals, and Buddhas, presenting them in their original form, as if they were scattered and annotated. The sequence of action and non-action, the distinction between internal and external medicines, and the subtleties of nourishing and transforming the fetus are all presented in the concise Compilation ④. This is already a defamation. [Note] ① Du: Pronounced as "gu", it describes a tune, indicating firmness and reliability. ②黾勉 : min, sensitive in pronunciation. Youdaoplaceholder0, means to strive with one heart. ③ Zhi: Pronounced as "rank", it means to ascend or climb. ④ Concise compilation: Borrowing ancient bamboo slips to refer to manuscripts and articles. ⑤ Mei: Pronounced as "mie", it means unnecessary or impossible. The main reason why the ancients were reluctant to openly spread the Tao to the world was that ordinary people had simple minds and were unwilling to delve into the principles, thus lacking a sense of firm belief in the Tao. He was too lazy to put it into practice. Without experiencing it, he didn't believe and instead slandered and defamed the Tao. So the ancients always kept it a secret and refused to publicly impart it. Since I received guidance from someone who has truly achieved the great way, I have been determined to publicly expound this secret of self-cultivation. The purpose is to draw the special attention of my fellow learners. I hope we can encourage each other, be of one mind and one heart, and jointly scale the highest realm of health preservation. [Li Xiyue] Note: This article elaborates on the true meaning of cultivating both life and nature to the fullest extent. He employed various ways of expounding the truth from Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism to present the true essence of the Great Way in its entirety. The logic is clear and the explanation is explicit. For instance, the mastery of procedures such as doing and not doing, the distinction between internal and external medicines, and the mysteries of nourishing the fetus and getting rid of it are all elaborated in great detail in this article. His comprehensive summary of the elixir path is already beyond measure. [Understanding] I think the reason why the way of immortals is not widely believed by the world is very complex and can be roughly divided into the following many aspects. Firstly, the vast majority of people in the world are not capable of making efforts or using their brains to explore the truth. They are accustomed to accepting real life, to the fixed impressions given by the phenomenal world, and to the pursuit of the most direct, realistic, convenient and quick-acting material and spiritual benefits. As for any worldview that goes against this habitual nature, they have an instinctive and habitual rebellious mentality. Especially for extraordinary phenomena, they have far exceeded their cognitive capacity. Therefore, if such a peculiar phenomenon, no matter where it comes from, directly affects them, has an important relationship with their survival interests, and makes them face the undeniable and inconceivable reality, they will create a worship of deities. The superstitions in history have persisted to this day, and their roots lie here. This is actually a distorted rebellious mentality, that is, absolutely not believing in the unknown will instead lead to absolute belief in a state of confusion and helplessness. However, this situation has its limitations. If the extraordinary phenomenon does not directly affect them, does not relate to their survival interests, or if they have the ability to escape such influence and relationship, they will still maintain their original rebellious mentality and not be recognized. Therefore, both the positive and negative phenomena of elimination reflect ignorance. Today, regarding the phenomenon of Qigong, some Qigong "masters" and their techniques are subject to sensational and fanatical worship, while on the other hand, there are people who hysterically deny the functional phenomena of Qigong and Tedan. Both are manifestations of the same ignorant mentality of opposing and reversing. Secondly, the cultivation of the Great Way has two important conditions: one is to explore the principles thoroughly, and the other is to practice earnestly. Reason is an abstract thing. If in the past, the so-called cultivation of the Tao only required exploring reason, just like the emergence of the various schools of thought during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, everyone would come to talk about reason, and for a time the whole society would be engaged in this great debate movement, it would indeed arouse the interest of the majority: I want you to believe in my way, and you want me to believe in your way. Anyway, a copy of the "Tao Te Ching" is as good as a copy of the "Aphorisms" during the Cultural Revolution. If you use it and I use it, there's no need to say who doesn't believe in it. It can definitely ensure that everyone believes in it. However, immortals not only talk the talk but also put it into practice to truly cultivate this path, translating the abstract principles into the concrete, leaving no room for falseism. Therefore, immortals say, "Attaining the Tao enables one to live forever, to be free from the mundane world, to ascend during the day, and to roam freely and freely." This is really too tempting. It is said that ancient people did not believe in immortals and Taoism, but that was later in ancient times. In the early ancient times recorded in the Shan Hai Jing, people who cultivated the path of immortality and became immortals almost had a social nature. At that time, material life was much less enjoyable than later on, so people in the world were less dependent on the phenomenal world, and the success rate of attaining enlightenment through cultivation was relatively high. Later on, as the conditions for enjoying material life improved, people's dependence on the phenomenal world increased, and thus inertia emerged. Cultivating immortality and achieving enlightenment do have a certain appeal to them, and there must be quite a few who join the ranks of cultivators. However, due to inertia, the vast majority of people find it hard to persevere to the end by getting rid of the easily accessible material and spiritual pleasures and engaging in that kind of indifferent and unassuming cultivation that requires no slackness for even a second. One by one, they are just at the beginner stage, or even have not yet started, but they have already defected and withdrawn. These people, due to the difficulty of their cultivation, or thinking that "if I can't endure this hardship, who else in the world can? Since no one can endure this hardship, there must be no possibility of becoming an immortal", thus deny the possibility of becoming an immortal. Some people cannot become immortals because they cannot endure hardships themselves. Even though what they see and know cannot deny that immortals can be cultivated, they still cannot bear the reputation of being a "lazy ghost", and thus deny the possibility of becoming an immortal. Especially, it is the anti-propaganda of the countless people who gave up halfway in the study of Taoism throughout history that has gradually made the true nature of the study of immortality less known to the world. Thirdly, the popularity of ancient social alchemy and the confusion of other studies have cast an inescapable shadow over the study of immortals. The cultivation of inner alchemy, a discipline of the Chan family, is about achieving the extraordinary from the unextraordinary, seeking the divine from the divine, and attaining the accomplished through non-action. Immortals who have achieved enlightenment do not possess the six supernatural powers alone, but rather have both physical and spiritual wonders. Without the spirit, they cannot understand. However, most people in the world are unaware of the difficulty of its cultivation, as its hidden and visible changes are often beyond imagination. Therefore, it is often confused with the popular martial arts in the world. Chinese divination techniques are diverse and numerous. For instance, in the field of divination, there are oracle bone divination, Yi Divination, miscellaneous divination, image divination, dream Divination, star Divination, number divination, physiognomy, Liu Ren Divination, Tai Yi Divination, and Qimen Dunjia Divination. Like feng shui, it also recognizes celestial phenomena, earth veins, mountain ranges and feng shui. There are also sorceries such as talismans, incantations and other spells to ward off disasters, ward off evil spirits, eliminate misfortunes and disasters. There are numerous magical methods in the category of miscellaneous arts... When it comes to health preservation, there are also external elixir refining, in-room techniques, and oral administration. The various methods such as fasting, breathing exercises, guiding exercises and holding one's breath are also often referred to as the path to immortality. It is impossible to generalize whether all the so-called magic arts and sorcery are classified as evil arts and sorcery, and whether all of them are justified or not. All that is used in the right way is right art, and all that is used in the wrong way is wrong art. But in any case, it is a fact that most of the magic and techniques come from people's innate ingenuity. Since it is out of ingenuity, there have always been many people who act cunning and obedient in this way. Since the Qin and Han dynasties, these martial arts practitioners have always taken advantage of the admiration of the imperial court and the powerful families for immortality to walk around the market. Those who were fortunate enough to fail in their martial arts were treated with great favor. If the method is clumsy and the technique fails, the head will be cut off. Such pessimistic performances have been carried out generation after generation. The sorcerer's head was cut off. Sadly, it was only him. This, however, led to the social public opinion, which had nothing to do with alchemy and no one knew where the difference was, to mix the immortal path together and ridicule it. Therefore, after the Sui and Tang Dynasties, immortals, in order to maintain their purity and integrity, focused on pure cultivation, often keeping themselves in seclusion and rarely showing themselves, and gradually became unknown to the world. Fourthly, the immortals Revere Taoism. Since the rise of Taoism in the Han Dynasty, they originally regarded Taoism as the supreme theory. However, for the sake of religious survival, they gradually incorporated almost all the content of alchemy into their religious system. Because Taoism and immortals have a close theoretical affinity, although there were immortals in later dynasties who were accustomed to seclusion and living in the secular world, Taoist temples and Buddhist monasteries became relatively ideal and common places for them to study theories and engage in the practice of internal alchemy cultivation. Many immortals also engaged in religious careers throughout their lives and brought forth generation after generation of successors in both Buddhism and Taoism. This phenomenon also leads the uninformed people to regard the study of immortals and religion as one and the same. It is too cheap to pass them on to others lightly, and it is a sin to pass them on to others lightly. Moreover, this path cannot be endured only by those of great talent. To test whether a person is a vessel capable of carrying the path, one must be extremely cautious. Therefore, "This is the way that the ancients did not pass on to the world." However, the practice of human life science that the immortals experienced made them feel most profoundly that only the study of immortals is the only way for humanity to be completely liberated and truly achieve freedom and happiness. Therefore, since Laozi, he has been constantly Shouting and appealing to humanity. But their cries are often in cryptic language, which most people cannot understand, and this still restricts the development of immortal studies. So during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, some reformers of the immortal studies finally emerged, such as Zhang Sanfeng, Huang Yuanji, Lu Xixing, Wu Shouyang, Liu Huayang and others. They gradually and boldly disclosed the immortal studies that were not open to the world to the public, and from then on, the popularization of immortal studies became possible. Many people believe that the study of immortals was initially imperfect and has been enriched and developed through the theories and practices of generations of cultivators. I think we should view this from two perspectives. If it is said that five thousand years ago, or even earlier, the practice of immortals had already been enriched and perfected by successive cultivators, that is a fact. From the records of the Yellow Emperor seeking enlightenment from Guangchengzi and the Yellow Emperor attaining immortality, five thousand years ago, the study of immortals had indeed matured and become complete in practice. Of course, at that time, what was emphasized was practical cultivation and verification. In terms of teaching, the focus was on oral instruction, but it was more important than complex theories. The only theoretical system has indeed been continuously enriched and improved by later generations of cultivators. In practice, it seems that there have been quite a few reforms. In fact, most of these reforms are based on the existing experiences of predecessors, but these experiences have never been made public before. Why do you say so affirmatively? Because immortals talk about practical cultivation and verification, and these experiences of practical cultivation and verification cannot be accumulated by the descendants of ten or eight generations. Just like traditional Chinese medicine, they must have gone through a long and arduous history, and only after achieving success can they become models for future generations to follow. Therefore, for instance, the later emerging schools such as the Southern School, the Northern School, the Eastern School, the Western School, and the Central School, etc., as the founding master of a school, it was definitely not him who invented the cultivation methods of this school. Because it is absolutely impossible to guarantee the success or failure of cultivation by merely inferring a new method from theory. He was able to succeed and, after achieving success, promote the methods of a certain school only because he inherited a certain method from his predecessors or flexibly combined multiple methods without losing their original purpose. Since he has not succeeded, how could he dare to create a new method and promote it widely? By common sense, there is no such truth. The great way was neither achieved by Yao nor destroyed by Zhou. It will fearlessly continue on her path with the belief that "practice is the sole criterion for testing truth". Her pioneering spirit, dedication, pragmatism, scientific spirit, impartial mind, and the heroic spirit of "My life is in my own hands, not in the heavens" will continue to shine with the most brilliant light in the field of human life science as always. References: "Dictionary of Chinese Culture and Literature" published by Zhejiang Ancient Books Rental Society in March 1988; "Dictionary of Chinese and Japanese Names" published by the Commercial Press in August 1984; "Dictionary of Chinese Taoism" published by China Social Sciences Press in August 1995; Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House in August 1985 The Concise Ancient Chinese Dictionary was published by Guangxi People's Publishing House in February 1985. The Dictionary of Common Philosophical Terms was also published by Guangxi People's Publishing House in February 1985. Cihai was published by Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House in August 1980. Ciyuan was published by Commercial Press in September 1988 Shuowen Jiezi was published by Zhonghua Book Company in December 1963 as a Concise Historical Dictionary. Henan Education Publishing House published the Chronology of Chinese History in December 1983. Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House published the Great Dictionary of Chinese and Japanese Alchemy in October 1982. Sun Yat-sen University Press published it in July 1991 "Translation and Annotation of Laozi" by Feng Dafu, published by Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House in May 1991. The author is Mr. Kong De. This website has been authorized for exclusive publication and recording. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use for other purposes is prohibited.