Endlessness wrote:
I have placed the link to the lectures in my 2nd post in this thread. The reason why I have chosen a few excerpts to share is because not everything covered in the lectures pertains to Spiritual and Metaphysical matters and there is indeed alot of lectures to cover to find such excerpts.
As to why I am sharing this material on the Nexus, well this is the Spirituality section after all and the excerpts do have many fascinating insights and similarities to the DMT experience but are coming from a very different angle and perspective. These excerpts are in my opinion shedding light on what these DMT dimensions, experiences and entities are all about and the more knowledge people have of these matters the better.
You mention DMT a great tool for development but I feel, as do many Shamanic Scholars such as Stever Bayer and Jeremy Narby that there are real and inherent risks with these substances that most people still dismiss by looking at these 'bad trips' and other negative phenomena through the lens of 21st century science and psychology.
Narby does talk about the dark side of Shamanism and Entheogens in this interesting interview here:
Some other videos in regard to this:
Shamans who voyage in these realms take this things extremely seriously and most often then not they do not plunge into these realms on a whim or out of curiosity, they also protect themselves via various means against negative entities and forces.
Also one must be aware that what looks good on the surface is not always the case in reality, this is doubly so for entities and dimensions that most people that have no true understanding of.
Many Shamans infact have what they call 'Spirit Animals' or 'Spirit Helpers' such as snakes, foxes and other beings that help heal a patient. The truth is that these Spirit Animals have actually attached themselves to this Shaman when he partakes in Ayahuasca and they do indeed heal a person but they are not benevolent. They are actually possessing spirits that have their own goals and agendas and their help comes with serious strings attached for both the Shaman and the Patient being healed.
Many beings and entities offer guidance, help, teachings and healings but not all of them are benevolent even though it looks like they are.
Some people after smoking DMT for example may spontaneously perform mudras and think this is something wonderous and highly spiritual. Did you know that Demons also know these things? They possess a person to perform these hand signs and on the other side they are 'changing' you but it is not for your benefit in the least.
Endlessness wrote:
The search for the Truth of these matters is indeed a tricky thing. I beleive people have their own discernment and judgement in these matters and anything that can shed new insights and light onto this phenomena is a positive thing.
I am merely sharing some fresh insights from an accomplished Buddha GrandMaster and his views on spiritual matters which seems to correspond to the DMT phenomena in certain regards.
Of course if this doesn't resonate with people and they don't believe in it or they don't care for this information, that is also fine. Everyone is entitled to their views and beliefs.
My personal belief however is that many people here do not understand what they are truly doing to themselves when they enter these realms through DMT and Ayahuasca.
I think an analogy is a person who scales the protective walls of a Zoo's animal enclosure to take a look at the wild animals up close and personal thinking that if he has light and love in his heart or if the sends out love he will be safe, it's not as simple as that as can be attested by the many bad and sometimes horrific trips that people also experience on DMT. This is not a game or a recreational toy one does out just does out of curiosities sake.
I agree with you. Religions for the most part are just formalities and the Gods don't care about them. They only look upon a person mind and heart. When Buddha Shakyamuni or Jesus was in the world they never wanted to form a 'religion'. They only preached their Law on how to purify oneself and be a good person with the goal to eventually attain salvation.
That is what 'Cultivation' and the 'Dao' truly is. No thing 'out there' can help you attain it. You have to work hard on your own self, on one's mind, pour out the filth, temper the will and guard one's virtue and be a good person. That is what 'spirituality' truly is, it's not about formalities like Kow Towing to a statue or going to church or building Temples or shrines, they are just intention filled formalities that no Gods in the Heavens pay heed to.
Endlessness you in the end choose your own destiny as we all do. I am not trying to convert you to anything I am merely sharing some fresh information on all of this fascinating stuff. I do beleive that DMT has inherent dangers in all it's forms and I feel it is good to share this information with people.
I also feel that their are still true and upright ancient Practices that do have ways to elevate themselves to higher realms safely and naturally and awaken one's Supernatural abilites that you 'yourself' have bought out through spiritually working on yourself and that weren't gifted to you by beings who's true intentions are unknown and could very well be detrimental to your spiritual development.
Rising Spirit wrote:
This 'essence' that you speak of, this 'energy' as it were is, I agree, the fundamental force of the universe and from which the different dimensional realms are created but from our own Earthly level there are indeed degrees of attainment, even in the normal world there are different jobs and people fill out there responsibilities to different extents.
There are good people and bad people and there are people that have very fortunate lives and others that have extremely painful lives full of misery. Not only that but why is it that some people are born rich and some into poverty?, some are born beautiful and others deformed and so forth. People are not the same, there are Karmik reasons for everything one is and has in their current lifetime so the universe is indeed very complex.
There are indeed levels of attainment in the spiritual realms, even in Buddhism they talk about Arhats, Boddhisatvas and Tathagatas and so forth, all different spiritual attainment levels depending on how much a person 'Cultivated', how much he worked on himself spiritually while in this Earthly existence.
Some ancient masters like Lao Zi, Jesus, Buddha Shakyamuni and the ones before them that are unknown have raised their levels and eventually through painful and arduous cultivation through many years become unlocked or 'Enlightened'.
What does Enlightenment truly mean? I will share with you what Enlightenment means from a Buddha Masters Perspective:
Enlightenment
What’s "enlightenment"? "Enlightenment" started out as a religious term. In Buddhism it refers to a cultivator’s understanding of Buddha Law, to his enlightening to different truths, and to his final Enlightenment, and it means Wisdom-Enlightenment. But nowadays it’s being used by ordinary people to refer to somebody who’s clever, or who knows what’s on his boss’s mind and can pick up on it right away, somebody who’s good at pleasing his boss. People say that that’s somebody who’s good at enlightening to things. People often understand it that way. But if you jump out of this level of ordinary people and get to a level slightly higher, you’ll find that what ordinary people see as the truth is usually wrong. But for us, "enlightening" is totally different from that kind of enlightening.
A crafty, slick person’s ability to enlighten is actually pretty poor, and that’s because somebody who’s overly clever will tend to just do superficial work to get on the good side of his boss and superiors. Then won’t other people have to do the real work? Well, then you’ll have to pay them back. He’s crafty and he’s good at doing things that make him look good, so he makes out better, and then other people have to fill in for him. With his cleverness he won’t let himself lose out on anything, and chances are he won’t lose out, so other people will then have to lose out. As those trivial, immediate benefits become more and more important to him, he gets more and more calculating and petty, and he thinks more and more that ordinary people’s material gains are something he shouldn’t let go of. And he’ll think he’s practical, and that he doesn’t get short-changed.
And you know what, some people admire that kind of guy! But look, I’m going to tell you: don’t admire him. You have no idea how exhausting his life is—he can’t enjoy his food, he can’t sleep well, and even in his dreams he’s worrying about losing out. And when it comes to his own gain, he’ll dig his heels in over even the most trivial things. Wouldn’t you say his life is exhausting? He goes through his whole life just living for that. We say that when you’re handling a disagreement, if you can take a step back you’ll see things in a whole new light. I guarantee things will look different. But people like that guy won’t give ground. His life is just the most exhausting, so don’t go learn from him. In the cultivation world they say that people like him are the most lost.
He’s gotten completely lost among ordinary people over his own gain. If you suggest to him that he guard his virtue, good luck! Suggest to him that he cultivate and he’ll come right back at you, "Cultivate? You practitioners don’t even hit back when you’re attacked, or talk back when people insult you. People treat you like dirt, and you aren’t supposed to hold a grudge like other people would. Instead, you have to turn around and thank them. You’re all like that pathetic guy Ah-Q! There’s something wrong with your heads!" Somebody like that can’t understand cultivation. He’d say you’re the one who’s unbelievable. He’d say you’re dumb. Wouldn’t you agree he’s hard to save?
What we mean by "enlightened" isn’t that. Turns out, what we mean by enlightened is actually what that guy calls dumb when it comes to making out well. That’s the "enlightened" we’re talking about. Of course it’s not really being dumb. It’s only that we take lightly those things that have to do with self-interest, when it comes to other things we’re plenty smart. When we work on a scientific research project, or, say, when our supervisor gives us an assignment, or when we’re completing our tasks, we do a great job with crystal-clear thinking. But when it comes to that petty personal gain, or when it’s about tensions and disagreements with other people, it’s just then that we take things lightly. Who’d call you dumb for that? Nobody will. I guarantee it.
Now let’s talk about somebody who’s a bit mentally slow. The truth about this matter is totally reversed at higher levels. Someone who’s slow probably won’t do any seriously bad ordinary things. There’s no way for him to fight and compete to benefit himself. He’s not out to build a name for himself, and he doesn’t lose virtue. But other people give him virtue. They hit him and insult him, they all give him virtue, and that material is really precious. There’s a law in this universe of ours: someone who doesn’t lose doesn’t gain, and to gain you have to lose. When people see that retarded guy they’ll put him down, "You big retard!" And when they open their mouths to insult him, a piece of virtue is flung over. When you’ve abused somebody you’re the party that’s gotten something out of it, and so you’ll have to lose something.
Maybe somebody will walk over and kick that guy, "You big retard!" Well, then another hefty chunk of virtue is flung over. When somebody bullies him or kicks him, he isn’t bothered and just takes it with a grin, "Go ahead, what matters is you’re giving me your virtue. I won’t push any of it back!" So if we go by higher truths, then let’s think about it, who’s clever? Isn’t he the clever one? He’s the cleverest. He doesn’t lose any virtue. When you fling virtue over to him he doesn’t push any of it back and he accepts it all, he takes it all with a grin. Maybe he’s retarded in this life, but he won’t be in his next life, his master soul isn’t retarded. In some religions they say that if a person has a lot of virtue then in his next life he’ll be a high-ranking official or make a big fortune. His virtue is exchanged for them.
We believe that virtue can be evolved directly into gong. Isn’t how high you cultivate to evolved from your virtue? It can be evolved right into gong. Isn’t the gong that decides how high your level is, or how strong your potency is, isn’t it evolved from that material? Wouldn’t you say it’s precious? You should know that it can be brought along at birth and taken along at death. In Buddhism it’s said that whatever height you’ve achieved in cultivating, that’s your Fruition. However much you put in, that’s how much you get out. That’s how it works. In some religions they say that a virtuous person will be a high-ranking official or make a big fortune in his next life, while somebody without much virtue can’t even get anything begging for food, and that’s because he doesn’t have any virtue to swap—no loss, no gain, right?! And when somebody doesn’t have an ounce of virtue left, both his body and spirit will perish, he’ll truly die.
There was a qigong master whose level was pretty high when he first went public with his practice. Later on that qigong master got all caught up in fame and money, so his master left with the guy’s subordinate soul, since he was one of those people whose subordinate souls cultivates. When his subordinate soul was still around it was his subordinate soul that called the shots. I’ll give you an example. One day his company was assigning an apartment to one chosen employee. Management said, "Whoever needs housing come on over, tell me why you think you deserve it and why you each need an apartment." Everyone got riled up about making a case for himself, but that guy was mute. In the end management decided that he was in a tougher situation than everybody else, and that the apartment should go to him.
The other people said, "No way, you can’t give him the apartment. You should give it to me. Let me tell you how badly I need it." Then the guy said, "Okay, then you can take it." In ordinary people’s eyes that guy was dumb. Some people knew he was a cultivator, so they asked him, "You cultivators don’t want anything. So just what do you want?" He told them, "Whatever other folks don’t want, that’s what I want." The truth is, he wasn’t at all dumb. He was pretty sharp. It was just when something of his was at stake that he handled it that way—he let things happen naturally. Then the others followed up, "What don’t people want nowadays?" He said, "The stones on the ground are kicked around and nobody wants them. So I’ll take the stones." Ordinary people think that’s just unbelievable. Ordinary people can’t understand cultivators. There’s no way they can, their level of awareness is just too far behind, there’s just too huge a gap in levels. Of course, he’s not really about to go pick up stones.
But he told a truth that ordinary people just can’t grasp—"I’m not after ordinary things." Let’s just talk about stones as an example. You know how the Buddhist scriptures say that in the Western Paradise the trees are gold, the ground is gold, birds are gold, flowers are gold, houses are also gold, and even Buddha’s body is golden and shining, right? Well, you can’t find even one piece of stone there, and word has it they use stones as money. Now that guy wouldn’t haul a chunk of rock over there, but he did reveal a truth, and ordinary people can’t get it. Beyond a doubt, a cultivator believes, "Ordinary people have those ordinary pursuits of theirs, but we don’t go after that. And we don’t care for what ordinary people have. But what we have, that’s something ordinary people couldn’t get even if they wanted to."
So in fact, the "enlightening" that we just talked about is still just the type of enlightening that is during the process of cultivating. And it’s just the opposite of ordinary people’s "enlightening." When we talk about real enlightening it has to do with whether we can, while we’re cultivating, come to understand that we’re cultivators when we run into difficulty; with whether we can understand and accept the Law that the master teaches, or the Dao that a Daoist master teaches; and with whether we can, in the process of cultivating, do things in line with that Law. Some people won’t believe in these things no matter how you explain it to them, and ordinary things are still more real to them. They hold on to their rigid ways of thinking and don’t let go, and so they can’t believe in it. And then some people are just thinking about healing. The second I said qigong really isn’t for healing they got turned off, and now they won’t believe anything that’s said.
Some people’s comprehension just doesn’t improve. Some folks just go and start marking up this book of mine. Now, those of us with open Third Eyes can see that this book is full of dazzling colors, and sparkling with golden light, and every word is in my Law Body’s image. If I lied I’d be cheating you, so I’ll tell you: the marks you make are so dark, and you dare to just mark it up like that? Do you know what we’re doing here? Aren’t we guiding you upward in cultivation? You should stop and give a little thought to some things. This book can guide your cultivation—now think, isn’t it precious? You worship Buddha, but can that help you do true cultivation? You’re very pious and you handle that Buddha’s statue like fragile glass, and you burn incense for it every day, yet you dare to tamper with the Great Law that can truly guide your cultivation.
When we talk about a person’s comprehension, it’s about how much you understand, while you’re in the process of cultivating, the certain things that come up when you arrive at different levels, or the certain things or certain Laws that your master teaches you. But that’s not what we mean by fundamental enlightenment. When we talk about fundamental enlightenment, it’s about how during his life a person, from the time he takes up cultivation on, keeps rising to higher levels and keeps getting rid of his human attachments and all those desires, and his gong keeps growing, until at some point he reaches the last step of his cultivation.
His virtue, that matter, will all have been evolved into gong, he’ll arrive at the end of the cultivation path his master arranged, and at that split second, "Boom!" all the locks will be blasted open. His Third Eye will reach the highest point of the level he’s at, and he’ll see the reality of the various dimensions at his level, the forms of existence of the various beings in different space-times, the forms of existence of matter in each space-time, and he’ll see the Truth of our universe. His divine powers will be displayed in all their grandeur, and he’ll be able to communicate with all kinds of beings. At that point, isn’t he a Great Enlightened Being? Isn’t he a person who’s become Enlightened by cultivating? In the language of ancient India, that’s a "Buddha."
That type of enlightenment we talk about, a type of fundamental enlightenment, is in the form of "sudden enlightenment." With sudden enlightenment a person is locked for all the years that he cultivates. He doesn’t know how high his gong is, and he doesn’t know the forms of the gong he’s cultivated, he can’t feel anything, and even the cells in his body are locked, all the gong he’s cultivated is locked, and it stays that way until he cultivates to the very final step, and then it’s unlocked. Only somebody with a great spiritual inclination can handle this, and the cultivation process is awfully tough. He starts as a good person, he perseveres in improving his character standard, perseveres in bearing hardships, perseveres in cultivating upward, and he perseveres in demanding of himself that he improve his character, but he can’t see his gong. That kind of person’s cultivation is the hardest, and he has to be somebody with great spiritual inclination. He’ll cultivate for a lot of years without any awareness of what’s going on.
There’s another type of enlightenment, called "gradual enlightenment." A lot of people can feel the Law Wheel rotating right from the get-go, and I also open your Third Eye for you. For different reasons some people will go from not being able to see things to at some point being able to see them, and they’ll go from not seeing things well to seeing them well, or from not knowing how to use it to knowing how to use it, and their levels are constantly going up. As you improve your character and give up all those attachments of yours, all kinds of abilities are coming toward the surface. And all the changes during the progress of your cultivation, and the process of transforming your body, these all take place in such a way that you can see them or feel them. You go on like that until you reach the final stage, at which point you’ve completely understood the Truth of the universe, and your level will have reached the highest point that you’re supposed to reach in cultivation.
The evolving of your innate body and the strengthening of your abilities will have reached a certain point. You gradually achieve all this. That is "gradual enlightenment." Cultivating by gradual enlightenment isn’t easy, either. Once some people get abilities they just can’t give up their attachments, and they tend to show off or do bad things. And that way your gong drops, you cultivate for nothing, and in the end you’re ruined. Some people will be able to see things, and they’ll be able to see all kinds of beings displayed at different levels. Maybe those beings will try to get you to do something or other, or they’ll try to get you to cultivate their things or try to take you in as a disciple. But they can’t help you achieve a True Fruition since they haven’t even achieved a True Fruition.
Also, the people in higher dimensions will be divine beings who can become enormous and who can grandly display their divine powers. If your thoughts aren’t proper, won’t you follow them? As soon as you follow them your cultivation will be ruined. Even if they are real Buddhas or real Daos, you’ll still have to cultivate again from scratch. Aren’t the beings at different levels of Heaven all Celestial Beings? Only when somebody has cultivated up to an extremely high level and achieved his goal can he completely break out. But when these divine beings are in front of ordinary people’s eyes they look tall and huge, and endowed with great powers. Yet maybe they haven’t achieved True Fruitions. When you’re being interfered with by all kinds of messages, and when you’re being tempted by all kinds of scenes, will you be able to stay unaffected inside? That’s why we say cultivating with the Third Eye open is hard too.
It’s even harder to guard your character. But don’t worry too much, because for some of our practitioners their abilities will be unlocked at the halfway point, and then they’ll enter the state of gradual enlightenment. We open the Third Eye for all of you, but a lot of people’s abilities aren’t allowed to come out. But when your character improves bit by bit to a certain level, your state of mind is steady, and you can handle yourself well, so then we’ll blast them all completely open for you. So, when you get to a certain level you’re allowed to experience a gradual enlightenment state, since at that time it’s a bit easier to handle yourself, and all kinds of abilities will come out, and you will keep cultivating upward until eventually everything is unlocked. You’re allowed to have that happen halfway through your cultivation. That’s the case for a lot of us, so don’t be anxious to see things.
Maybe you’ve heard about the Zen sect making a distinction between sudden and gradual enlightenment. The Zen sect’s sixth patriarch, Hui Neng, believed in sudden enlightenment, while Shen Xiu from the Northern School of Zen believed in gradual enlightenment. The debate between the two carried on in Buddhist philosophy for a long time, with people arguing on and on. But I’d say it’s meaningless. And why is that? Because what they were talking about was really just the understanding of a truth in the process of cultivating. And as for that truth, some people will grasp it instantly, while others will come to enlighten to it, or grasp it, a bit slowly. So then what’s the difference? It’s better to grasp it instantly, but it’s fine to gradually enlighten to it, too—in both cases he enlightens to it, right? Both ways of enlightening work, so either way is good.
I have placed the link to the lectures in my 2nd post in this thread. The reason why I have chosen a few excerpts to share is because not everything covered in the lectures pertains to Spiritual and Metaphysical matters and there is indeed alot of lectures to cover to find such excerpts.
As to why I am sharing this material on the Nexus, well this is the Spirituality section after all and the excerpts do have many fascinating insights and similarities to the DMT experience but are coming from a very different angle and perspective. These excerpts are in my opinion shedding light on what these DMT dimensions, experiences and entities are all about and the more knowledge people have of these matters the better.
You mention DMT a great tool for development but I feel, as do many Shamanic Scholars such as Stever Bayer and Jeremy Narby that there are real and inherent risks with these substances that most people still dismiss by looking at these 'bad trips' and other negative phenomena through the lens of 21st century science and psychology.
Narby does talk about the dark side of Shamanism and Entheogens in this interesting interview here:
Some other videos in regard to this:
Shamans who voyage in these realms take this things extremely seriously and most often then not they do not plunge into these realms on a whim or out of curiosity, they also protect themselves via various means against negative entities and forces.
Also one must be aware that what looks good on the surface is not always the case in reality, this is doubly so for entities and dimensions that most people that have no true understanding of.
Many Shamans infact have what they call 'Spirit Animals' or 'Spirit Helpers' such as snakes, foxes and other beings that help heal a patient. The truth is that these Spirit Animals have actually attached themselves to this Shaman when he partakes in Ayahuasca and they do indeed heal a person but they are not benevolent. They are actually possessing spirits that have their own goals and agendas and their help comes with serious strings attached for both the Shaman and the Patient being healed.
Many beings and entities offer guidance, help, teachings and healings but not all of them are benevolent even though it looks like they are.
Some people after smoking DMT for example may spontaneously perform mudras and think this is something wonderous and highly spiritual. Did you know that Demons also know these things? They possess a person to perform these hand signs and on the other side they are 'changing' you but it is not for your benefit in the least.
Endlessness wrote:
The search for the Truth of these matters is indeed a tricky thing. I beleive people have their own discernment and judgement in these matters and anything that can shed new insights and light onto this phenomena is a positive thing.
I am merely sharing some fresh insights from an accomplished Buddha GrandMaster and his views on spiritual matters which seems to correspond to the DMT phenomena in certain regards.
Of course if this doesn't resonate with people and they don't believe in it or they don't care for this information, that is also fine. Everyone is entitled to their views and beliefs.
My personal belief however is that many people here do not understand what they are truly doing to themselves when they enter these realms through DMT and Ayahuasca.
I think an analogy is a person who scales the protective walls of a Zoo's animal enclosure to take a look at the wild animals up close and personal thinking that if he has light and love in his heart or if the sends out love he will be safe, it's not as simple as that as can be attested by the many bad and sometimes horrific trips that people also experience on DMT. This is not a game or a recreational toy one does out just does out of curiosities sake.
I agree with you. Religions for the most part are just formalities and the Gods don't care about them. They only look upon a person mind and heart. When Buddha Shakyamuni or Jesus was in the world they never wanted to form a 'religion'. They only preached their Law on how to purify oneself and be a good person with the goal to eventually attain salvation.
That is what 'Cultivation' and the 'Dao' truly is. No thing 'out there' can help you attain it. You have to work hard on your own self, on one's mind, pour out the filth, temper the will and guard one's virtue and be a good person. That is what 'spirituality' truly is, it's not about formalities like Kow Towing to a statue or going to church or building Temples or shrines, they are just intention filled formalities that no Gods in the Heavens pay heed to.
Endlessness you in the end choose your own destiny as we all do. I am not trying to convert you to anything I am merely sharing some fresh information on all of this fascinating stuff. I do beleive that DMT has inherent dangers in all it's forms and I feel it is good to share this information with people.
I also feel that their are still true and upright ancient Practices that do have ways to elevate themselves to higher realms safely and naturally and awaken one's Supernatural abilites that you 'yourself' have bought out through spiritually working on yourself and that weren't gifted to you by beings who's true intentions are unknown and could very well be detrimental to your spiritual development.
Rising Spirit wrote:
This 'essence' that you speak of, this 'energy' as it were is, I agree, the fundamental force of the universe and from which the different dimensional realms are created but from our own Earthly level there are indeed degrees of attainment, even in the normal world there are different jobs and people fill out there responsibilities to different extents.
There are good people and bad people and there are people that have very fortunate lives and others that have extremely painful lives full of misery. Not only that but why is it that some people are born rich and some into poverty?, some are born beautiful and others deformed and so forth. People are not the same, there are Karmik reasons for everything one is and has in their current lifetime so the universe is indeed very complex.
There are indeed levels of attainment in the spiritual realms, even in Buddhism they talk about Arhats, Boddhisatvas and Tathagatas and so forth, all different spiritual attainment levels depending on how much a person 'Cultivated', how much he worked on himself spiritually while in this Earthly existence.
Some ancient masters like Lao Zi, Jesus, Buddha Shakyamuni and the ones before them that are unknown have raised their levels and eventually through painful and arduous cultivation through many years become unlocked or 'Enlightened'.
What does Enlightenment truly mean? I will share with you what Enlightenment means from a Buddha Masters Perspective:
Enlightenment
What’s "enlightenment"? "Enlightenment" started out as a religious term. In Buddhism it refers to a cultivator’s understanding of Buddha Law, to his enlightening to different truths, and to his final Enlightenment, and it means Wisdom-Enlightenment. But nowadays it’s being used by ordinary people to refer to somebody who’s clever, or who knows what’s on his boss’s mind and can pick up on it right away, somebody who’s good at pleasing his boss. People say that that’s somebody who’s good at enlightening to things. People often understand it that way. But if you jump out of this level of ordinary people and get to a level slightly higher, you’ll find that what ordinary people see as the truth is usually wrong. But for us, "enlightening" is totally different from that kind of enlightening.
A crafty, slick person’s ability to enlighten is actually pretty poor, and that’s because somebody who’s overly clever will tend to just do superficial work to get on the good side of his boss and superiors. Then won’t other people have to do the real work? Well, then you’ll have to pay them back. He’s crafty and he’s good at doing things that make him look good, so he makes out better, and then other people have to fill in for him. With his cleverness he won’t let himself lose out on anything, and chances are he won’t lose out, so other people will then have to lose out. As those trivial, immediate benefits become more and more important to him, he gets more and more calculating and petty, and he thinks more and more that ordinary people’s material gains are something he shouldn’t let go of. And he’ll think he’s practical, and that he doesn’t get short-changed.
And you know what, some people admire that kind of guy! But look, I’m going to tell you: don’t admire him. You have no idea how exhausting his life is—he can’t enjoy his food, he can’t sleep well, and even in his dreams he’s worrying about losing out. And when it comes to his own gain, he’ll dig his heels in over even the most trivial things. Wouldn’t you say his life is exhausting? He goes through his whole life just living for that. We say that when you’re handling a disagreement, if you can take a step back you’ll see things in a whole new light. I guarantee things will look different. But people like that guy won’t give ground. His life is just the most exhausting, so don’t go learn from him. In the cultivation world they say that people like him are the most lost.
He’s gotten completely lost among ordinary people over his own gain. If you suggest to him that he guard his virtue, good luck! Suggest to him that he cultivate and he’ll come right back at you, "Cultivate? You practitioners don’t even hit back when you’re attacked, or talk back when people insult you. People treat you like dirt, and you aren’t supposed to hold a grudge like other people would. Instead, you have to turn around and thank them. You’re all like that pathetic guy Ah-Q! There’s something wrong with your heads!" Somebody like that can’t understand cultivation. He’d say you’re the one who’s unbelievable. He’d say you’re dumb. Wouldn’t you agree he’s hard to save?
What we mean by "enlightened" isn’t that. Turns out, what we mean by enlightened is actually what that guy calls dumb when it comes to making out well. That’s the "enlightened" we’re talking about. Of course it’s not really being dumb. It’s only that we take lightly those things that have to do with self-interest, when it comes to other things we’re plenty smart. When we work on a scientific research project, or, say, when our supervisor gives us an assignment, or when we’re completing our tasks, we do a great job with crystal-clear thinking. But when it comes to that petty personal gain, or when it’s about tensions and disagreements with other people, it’s just then that we take things lightly. Who’d call you dumb for that? Nobody will. I guarantee it.
Now let’s talk about somebody who’s a bit mentally slow. The truth about this matter is totally reversed at higher levels. Someone who’s slow probably won’t do any seriously bad ordinary things. There’s no way for him to fight and compete to benefit himself. He’s not out to build a name for himself, and he doesn’t lose virtue. But other people give him virtue. They hit him and insult him, they all give him virtue, and that material is really precious. There’s a law in this universe of ours: someone who doesn’t lose doesn’t gain, and to gain you have to lose. When people see that retarded guy they’ll put him down, "You big retard!" And when they open their mouths to insult him, a piece of virtue is flung over. When you’ve abused somebody you’re the party that’s gotten something out of it, and so you’ll have to lose something.
Maybe somebody will walk over and kick that guy, "You big retard!" Well, then another hefty chunk of virtue is flung over. When somebody bullies him or kicks him, he isn’t bothered and just takes it with a grin, "Go ahead, what matters is you’re giving me your virtue. I won’t push any of it back!" So if we go by higher truths, then let’s think about it, who’s clever? Isn’t he the clever one? He’s the cleverest. He doesn’t lose any virtue. When you fling virtue over to him he doesn’t push any of it back and he accepts it all, he takes it all with a grin. Maybe he’s retarded in this life, but he won’t be in his next life, his master soul isn’t retarded. In some religions they say that if a person has a lot of virtue then in his next life he’ll be a high-ranking official or make a big fortune. His virtue is exchanged for them.
We believe that virtue can be evolved directly into gong. Isn’t how high you cultivate to evolved from your virtue? It can be evolved right into gong. Isn’t the gong that decides how high your level is, or how strong your potency is, isn’t it evolved from that material? Wouldn’t you say it’s precious? You should know that it can be brought along at birth and taken along at death. In Buddhism it’s said that whatever height you’ve achieved in cultivating, that’s your Fruition. However much you put in, that’s how much you get out. That’s how it works. In some religions they say that a virtuous person will be a high-ranking official or make a big fortune in his next life, while somebody without much virtue can’t even get anything begging for food, and that’s because he doesn’t have any virtue to swap—no loss, no gain, right?! And when somebody doesn’t have an ounce of virtue left, both his body and spirit will perish, he’ll truly die.
There was a qigong master whose level was pretty high when he first went public with his practice. Later on that qigong master got all caught up in fame and money, so his master left with the guy’s subordinate soul, since he was one of those people whose subordinate souls cultivates. When his subordinate soul was still around it was his subordinate soul that called the shots. I’ll give you an example. One day his company was assigning an apartment to one chosen employee. Management said, "Whoever needs housing come on over, tell me why you think you deserve it and why you each need an apartment." Everyone got riled up about making a case for himself, but that guy was mute. In the end management decided that he was in a tougher situation than everybody else, and that the apartment should go to him.
The other people said, "No way, you can’t give him the apartment. You should give it to me. Let me tell you how badly I need it." Then the guy said, "Okay, then you can take it." In ordinary people’s eyes that guy was dumb. Some people knew he was a cultivator, so they asked him, "You cultivators don’t want anything. So just what do you want?" He told them, "Whatever other folks don’t want, that’s what I want." The truth is, he wasn’t at all dumb. He was pretty sharp. It was just when something of his was at stake that he handled it that way—he let things happen naturally. Then the others followed up, "What don’t people want nowadays?" He said, "The stones on the ground are kicked around and nobody wants them. So I’ll take the stones." Ordinary people think that’s just unbelievable. Ordinary people can’t understand cultivators. There’s no way they can, their level of awareness is just too far behind, there’s just too huge a gap in levels. Of course, he’s not really about to go pick up stones.
But he told a truth that ordinary people just can’t grasp—"I’m not after ordinary things." Let’s just talk about stones as an example. You know how the Buddhist scriptures say that in the Western Paradise the trees are gold, the ground is gold, birds are gold, flowers are gold, houses are also gold, and even Buddha’s body is golden and shining, right? Well, you can’t find even one piece of stone there, and word has it they use stones as money. Now that guy wouldn’t haul a chunk of rock over there, but he did reveal a truth, and ordinary people can’t get it. Beyond a doubt, a cultivator believes, "Ordinary people have those ordinary pursuits of theirs, but we don’t go after that. And we don’t care for what ordinary people have. But what we have, that’s something ordinary people couldn’t get even if they wanted to."
So in fact, the "enlightening" that we just talked about is still just the type of enlightening that is during the process of cultivating. And it’s just the opposite of ordinary people’s "enlightening." When we talk about real enlightening it has to do with whether we can, while we’re cultivating, come to understand that we’re cultivators when we run into difficulty; with whether we can understand and accept the Law that the master teaches, or the Dao that a Daoist master teaches; and with whether we can, in the process of cultivating, do things in line with that Law. Some people won’t believe in these things no matter how you explain it to them, and ordinary things are still more real to them. They hold on to their rigid ways of thinking and don’t let go, and so they can’t believe in it. And then some people are just thinking about healing. The second I said qigong really isn’t for healing they got turned off, and now they won’t believe anything that’s said.
Some people’s comprehension just doesn’t improve. Some folks just go and start marking up this book of mine. Now, those of us with open Third Eyes can see that this book is full of dazzling colors, and sparkling with golden light, and every word is in my Law Body’s image. If I lied I’d be cheating you, so I’ll tell you: the marks you make are so dark, and you dare to just mark it up like that? Do you know what we’re doing here? Aren’t we guiding you upward in cultivation? You should stop and give a little thought to some things. This book can guide your cultivation—now think, isn’t it precious? You worship Buddha, but can that help you do true cultivation? You’re very pious and you handle that Buddha’s statue like fragile glass, and you burn incense for it every day, yet you dare to tamper with the Great Law that can truly guide your cultivation.
When we talk about a person’s comprehension, it’s about how much you understand, while you’re in the process of cultivating, the certain things that come up when you arrive at different levels, or the certain things or certain Laws that your master teaches you. But that’s not what we mean by fundamental enlightenment. When we talk about fundamental enlightenment, it’s about how during his life a person, from the time he takes up cultivation on, keeps rising to higher levels and keeps getting rid of his human attachments and all those desires, and his gong keeps growing, until at some point he reaches the last step of his cultivation.
His virtue, that matter, will all have been evolved into gong, he’ll arrive at the end of the cultivation path his master arranged, and at that split second, "Boom!" all the locks will be blasted open. His Third Eye will reach the highest point of the level he’s at, and he’ll see the reality of the various dimensions at his level, the forms of existence of the various beings in different space-times, the forms of existence of matter in each space-time, and he’ll see the Truth of our universe. His divine powers will be displayed in all their grandeur, and he’ll be able to communicate with all kinds of beings. At that point, isn’t he a Great Enlightened Being? Isn’t he a person who’s become Enlightened by cultivating? In the language of ancient India, that’s a "Buddha."
That type of enlightenment we talk about, a type of fundamental enlightenment, is in the form of "sudden enlightenment." With sudden enlightenment a person is locked for all the years that he cultivates. He doesn’t know how high his gong is, and he doesn’t know the forms of the gong he’s cultivated, he can’t feel anything, and even the cells in his body are locked, all the gong he’s cultivated is locked, and it stays that way until he cultivates to the very final step, and then it’s unlocked. Only somebody with a great spiritual inclination can handle this, and the cultivation process is awfully tough. He starts as a good person, he perseveres in improving his character standard, perseveres in bearing hardships, perseveres in cultivating upward, and he perseveres in demanding of himself that he improve his character, but he can’t see his gong. That kind of person’s cultivation is the hardest, and he has to be somebody with great spiritual inclination. He’ll cultivate for a lot of years without any awareness of what’s going on.
There’s another type of enlightenment, called "gradual enlightenment." A lot of people can feel the Law Wheel rotating right from the get-go, and I also open your Third Eye for you. For different reasons some people will go from not being able to see things to at some point being able to see them, and they’ll go from not seeing things well to seeing them well, or from not knowing how to use it to knowing how to use it, and their levels are constantly going up. As you improve your character and give up all those attachments of yours, all kinds of abilities are coming toward the surface. And all the changes during the progress of your cultivation, and the process of transforming your body, these all take place in such a way that you can see them or feel them. You go on like that until you reach the final stage, at which point you’ve completely understood the Truth of the universe, and your level will have reached the highest point that you’re supposed to reach in cultivation.
The evolving of your innate body and the strengthening of your abilities will have reached a certain point. You gradually achieve all this. That is "gradual enlightenment." Cultivating by gradual enlightenment isn’t easy, either. Once some people get abilities they just can’t give up their attachments, and they tend to show off or do bad things. And that way your gong drops, you cultivate for nothing, and in the end you’re ruined. Some people will be able to see things, and they’ll be able to see all kinds of beings displayed at different levels. Maybe those beings will try to get you to do something or other, or they’ll try to get you to cultivate their things or try to take you in as a disciple. But they can’t help you achieve a True Fruition since they haven’t even achieved a True Fruition.
Also, the people in higher dimensions will be divine beings who can become enormous and who can grandly display their divine powers. If your thoughts aren’t proper, won’t you follow them? As soon as you follow them your cultivation will be ruined. Even if they are real Buddhas or real Daos, you’ll still have to cultivate again from scratch. Aren’t the beings at different levels of Heaven all Celestial Beings? Only when somebody has cultivated up to an extremely high level and achieved his goal can he completely break out. But when these divine beings are in front of ordinary people’s eyes they look tall and huge, and endowed with great powers. Yet maybe they haven’t achieved True Fruitions. When you’re being interfered with by all kinds of messages, and when you’re being tempted by all kinds of scenes, will you be able to stay unaffected inside? That’s why we say cultivating with the Third Eye open is hard too.
It’s even harder to guard your character. But don’t worry too much, because for some of our practitioners their abilities will be unlocked at the halfway point, and then they’ll enter the state of gradual enlightenment. We open the Third Eye for all of you, but a lot of people’s abilities aren’t allowed to come out. But when your character improves bit by bit to a certain level, your state of mind is steady, and you can handle yourself well, so then we’ll blast them all completely open for you. So, when you get to a certain level you’re allowed to experience a gradual enlightenment state, since at that time it’s a bit easier to handle yourself, and all kinds of abilities will come out, and you will keep cultivating upward until eventually everything is unlocked. You’re allowed to have that happen halfway through your cultivation. That’s the case for a lot of us, so don’t be anxious to see things.
Maybe you’ve heard about the Zen sect making a distinction between sudden and gradual enlightenment. The Zen sect’s sixth patriarch, Hui Neng, believed in sudden enlightenment, while Shen Xiu from the Northern School of Zen believed in gradual enlightenment. The debate between the two carried on in Buddhist philosophy for a long time, with people arguing on and on. But I’d say it’s meaningless. And why is that? Because what they were talking about was really just the understanding of a truth in the process of cultivating. And as for that truth, some people will grasp it instantly, while others will come to enlighten to it, or grasp it, a bit slowly. So then what’s the difference? It’s better to grasp it instantly, but it’s fine to gradually enlighten to it, too—in both cases he enlightens to it, right? Both ways of enlightening work, so either way is good.
