Chapter 18 Chapter Sixteen

To the extreme, keep quiet and scold.All things work together, and I can see them back.husband!All kinds of things return to their roots.Returning to the root and calming the day is called returning to life.Returning to life is called daily life, and knowing daily life is called Ming.I don't know what to do, and I commit crimes recklessly.Knowing Changrong, Rong is the public, the public is the king, the king is the sky, the sky is the way, and the way is righteousness.Not dead. Quiet magic "To the extreme of emptiness, keep quiet and earnest. All things work together, and I will restore them through visualization. Husband! All things return to their roots. Returning to the root is called tranquility, which means returning to life." This is the principle and method of Taoist cultivation. wrong.Some people want to practice Taoism and learn to meditate, so they should read this article to thoroughly understand the real method.In fact, as long as there is a method, it is no longer called stillness, but movement.Since you want to meditate with peace of mind, what method do you need to add? Wouldn’t it be more messy and busy?

"Lao Tzu" and all Taoist scriptures and theories on the study of immortality and alchemy are combined into "Tao Zang", which has more than 8,000 volumes. "Lao Tzu" is only one volume, and it is impossible to read it all.If you finish reading it, you will probably go crazy.But I read it all without going crazy.After reading it, I understood that the so-called "that" in this volume is the "this" in that volume, and I naturally integrated it.Roughly speaking, the more than 8,000 volumes of "Taoist Canon" are inseparable from Lao Tzu's six words: "To the extreme of emptiness, and to keep quiet." "Void" is almost equal to "emptiness" in Buddhism. It is simply empty, that is the reason why Danshu was influenced by Buddhism after Tang and Song Dynasties.

In the past, Taoism only had the words "clear" and "virtual". "Qing" describes that realm, while "xu" symbolizes the etherealness of that realm, and the two are actually the same thing. "Zhi" is a verb, which means to achieve and achieve; "Zhi emptiness to the extreme" requires you to be empty to the extreme, without any pollution.As for what it looks like to be empty to the extreme?If there is still a look, it will not be called empty.Kong didn't have a face to look for. However, "Shou Jing Du" talks about kung fu and function, and you are forced to guard it persistently.Let’s use a few adjectives from Master Huanglong Nanpai of Zen Buddhism: “It’s like a civet cat catching mice, its eyes are not blinking, its four feet are on the ground, its roots are in the same direction, its head and tail are upright, and it’s perfect for everything.” To catch mice, squat on the ground with four feet, straight head, straight tail, two sharp eyes staring at the prey that is about to catch, concentrate on it, stay still, and wait for an opportunity to jump at any time to give a fatal blow.This is to describe a person who is practicing Zen, practicing Huatou, doing kung fu, concentrating, and having no other distractions.Otherwise, Dao Gong cannot be accomplished.

The Shenzong masters have another metaphor: "like a chicken hatching an egg".It's not like a cat catching a mouse, staring and clawing, ready to go.Instead, he closed his eyes and was in a daze. He didn't care if the sky was falling. If you kicked him, he wouldn't bark or talk to him.This is also a kind of meditation practice, and it also describes the extreme emptiness and the extreme tranquility, just like the six-character mantra that Lao Tzu said: "To the extreme emptiness, to keep the tranquility".These six words have already described all the methods of cultivating the Tao and the realm and level of cultivating the Tao.All kinds of sects and various ways of cultivating Taoism in the world are all for this purpose.The reasons are explained below.

"All things are made together, and I can see and recover." "Working" is an adjective. Everything in the universe, mountains, rivers and the earth are changing all the time, and they are developing and creating endlessly.It is always in motion and has never been static. The manifestation of the universe is a dynamic world.Everyone is constantly busy, and every blade of grass is constantly growing. This is a state of functioning of Tao.It is reasonable for all life to be biochemical; it is also reasonable for biochemical to end and die naturally. "All things work together" are creating changes, and walking towards the road of death lively.Therefore, Zhuangzi explained everything in the world and said: "Here we live and we die".The day of birth is the day of death.When a child is born for one month, relatives and friends come to celebrate happily, but the previous twenty-nine days of life have passed away.long dead.Even if you live a hundred years later, in the first ninety-nine years, you will all die and disappear without a trace.

Looking at the two ends of life, Zhuangzi humorously pointed out that everything in life is fundamentally "not dying until the end of time". "Life is born and death is life", life seems to be happy and peaceful, but in reality it is just waiting to die.It's just that you have to wait in line longer than others.How ridiculous it is to start from the first day of birth and wait until the last moment is over!This view of the Taoists is quite sad.In fact, on a deeper level, one lives and one dies, one dies and one lives, one lives and one dies, and one dies and one lives, so why be so hard-pressed?

So how can I keep myself from dying? "All things are created together, and I can see and recover." "Recovery" is the way to go back. If we borrow the Buddhist adjective "infinite and boundless" to describe the power of life, it is endless, and it has been kept there forever, never born. off.Non-birth does not mean the cessation of extinction, it does not mean silence, and it does not mean that there is no thing at all, but that there will always be infinite energy there, and it will not be exhausted if it is used or not.This kind of incomparably great life value is called not born in Gu's name, but it is called "recovery" in Laozi. "Fu" is also the name of a hexagram, and the hexagram Fu is also called "Di Lei Fu" - 口, the upper part is the hexagram Kun, which is represented as earth, and the lower part is the hexagram Zhen, which is represented as thunder.Thunder represents electrical energy, the energy source of life development, from which it takes place.Therefore, Lao Tzu puts forward the concept of "returning back" later in the article, "reversing is the movement of Tao", returning to the original state of life.Cultivation is to go back to the root and pursue the original source of life.

"All things are made together, and I can see and recover." Those who are ambitious for the Tao do not rush forward recklessly, but go back and walk to the source of life.The idiom of later generations of Zen Buddhism, "return my original face", can be used as a reference and as a commentary on this statement.When you really discover your true colors and see your nature clearly, you will start to connect to the inherent, continuous and huge energy of life. The lifeblood of all beings "Husbands and things, all things return to their roots, and returning to their roots is called tranquility, which means returning to life and returning to daily life." Let's see, among all things in the world, what is the fastest growing? --Grass. "The wild fire is endless, and the spring breeze blows and regenerates." After digging its roots, as long as there is a little bit of inexhaustibility, it will grow again quickly.Plants seem to be the quickest and most obvious examples of the power of endless life.According to the Chinese terminology of yin and yang and five elements, wood represents the opportunity for hair growth, and in the East, wood is expressed as a phenomenon of endless growth.Vegetation means the same word. "Yunyun" represents an ordinary grass, and is also used to describe the endless life of all things in the universe.A group died, and another group was born; more and more were born, called "Yunyun".Later generations evolved from the Taoist "Yunyun" and the Buddhist "all living beings" into a very beautiful term in literature, "all living beings".Later, the term "all kinds of forests" appeared, which also described the innumerable situations like vegetation.

Lao Tzu said that all things are so colorful, "each returns to its root", he observes that every life depends on its own root to live.Plants have no roots and cannot survive.People also have roots, where are the roots of people?I often see many friends who seek the Tao with all their heart, but practice blindly and practice blindly. They desperately regard the dantian as the root, which is wrong; some people mistakenly think that the root is in the navel, which is even more outrageous.The belly button is just the opening for absorbing nutrients with the mother when you are not born. It is cut off as soon as it hits the ground. How can it be the root of Taoism?The root of man is in space, on the top of his head.The void is our soil, and this is what makes man different from everything else.The root of the plant is planted in the soil, and man is the opposite of the plant, whose root is planted in the void.Therefore, Taoism talks about cultivating the Tao, "returning the essence to nourish the brain, and immortality." This "essence" does not entirely refer to the essence of sperm, but is related to it.When we look at Chinese traditional paintings, the old man who celebrates longevity—the Antarctic Immortal, his head is painted to be one weight higher than ordinary people, and it is called "Shoutou".The brain is also the source of wisdom.Therefore, when a baby is just born, the chimney recess on the top of the head is still open and connected to the heavenly root. In terms of human physical life, the so-called "heavenly root and moon cave often come and go" refers to this place.After the place is sealed and hardened, he will slowly start to speak, his consciousness will gradually grow, and the heavenly root will be cut off.If you want to cultivate to restore the essence and nourish the brain, you will live forever. The connotation of the brain refers to this "root".

But how to "return to the root"?The only way is to seek tranquility. "Returning to the root means tranquility, which means returning to life." Only when you can reach the extreme of tranquility can you find the origin of life and return to the root of life.What is this root? — the void. "To the extreme of emptiness, to keep quiet." In Buddhism, it tells us "emptiness" straightforwardly.The so-called emptiness is just an adjective, don't think that emptiness means nothing, that's wrong.Emptiness is equal to what Lao Tzu called "purity and emptiness".Then, "returning to the root is quiet, which means returning to life", what kind of situation is it like to be quiet to the extreme?Taoism has two sayings: "The void is shattered, and the earth is flat", which describes this state of extreme tranquility.Even the emptiness must be broken to be truly quiet.

Taoism talks about the process of cultivating the Tao, "refining the essence to transform the Qi, refining the Qi to transform the spirit, and refining the spirit to return the emptiness", the principle is correct, but the various changes in the procedures are very troublesome.It must be done, not only does not have the feeling of the body, but also the material world, the image of consciousness, and even the feeling of emptiness, which is considered to be in line with the state of "reaching the extreme of emptiness and keeping quiet". Lao Tzu's article just showed a little light here, and immediately turned back at the stroke of the pen.Just like Taijiquan, it looks like a punch is coming, but it is retracted. If you don't want to hit, the hand will attack from the other side later, it is difficult to guard against, and it is impossible to block it.This is the spirit of the Taoist dragon who sees the head but does not see the end. The compilation of the book "Laozi" is also like this, so the phenomenon of the function of Taoism is explained next. "Return to the daily life", find the root of life, and then you will be able to "neither live nor die", always exist and exist forever. "Know the everlasting light", if you realize that the root of life is immortality, then it is called Mingdao, and you become a sensible person, and you will no longer be ignorant and confused.If people don't understand the fundamentals of Tao, the origin of life, "do not know what is constant, and act recklessly", and act recklessly, they will inevitably cause great harm and great harm, and there will be no good results.It goes without saying that if you don't know the truth of life, you don't know why, and you misuse the Dao body, you will end up in danger. Let’s take the view of Chinese philosophy as an example. Whether it’s Buddhism, Taoism, or Taoism, there are no rigid and fixed conclusions when it comes to life.Originally!Who in history can really find a conclusion?Let's see the most wonderful, eighty-eighty-sixty-four hexagrams, the last hexagram is Weiji—the mouth, fire and water are not finished, it is endless, and no conclusion can be drawn.The development of all things is never bottomless, boundless, endless, and elusive.It can also be said that it will always come from the source of flowing water, torrenting and rolling.How to describe it is everyone's subjective.It starts from Qiankun and ends in failure.If we understand it, we will understand the meaning of the two lines of the poem that the ancients said, "Sit at a small window and read "Book of Changes", I don't know how long the spring will be." I often tell my classmates that there are two things that must be learned——Buddhism and Buddhism.However, these two knowledges require a lifetime of effort, so it is not easy to master them, nor does it need to be mastered.If you don’t learn well, you will never be able to pursue it. It’s interesting to see that you don’t know what you know, and you have something to do for a lifetime—you won’t be lonely when you are old, and the more you study, the more interesting you are.The ancients said, "Read "Yi" at night." If you read it at night, ghosts and gods can't stand it.My experience is that if you read at night, you will never be able to fall asleep.Just after reading and reading, I saw some tricks, so I wanted to figure it out, I continued to read, and then went to sleep after a paragraph came to an end, but after one paragraph after another, it was already dawn before I knew it.It's really "sitting in a small window and reading "Book of Changes", I don't know how long the spring will go", and I don't know when the whole spring will slip away. This taste is very good. If a person who has learned well can see life clearly and thoroughly, what flavor does this life have?What beauty?It's fine to be vague, but if you open up the inside story of life and see everything in it, it's not artistic at all.Maybe this is a joke, but in a word, if you really master Yi Xue, "subtle and mysterious", and understand everything, that's fine. "Constant" does not necessarily mean eternity. If a person does not know permanence, he has to look back from his own life to find it. "Husbands and things, all things, return to their roots, and returning to their roots is called tranquility, which is called returning to life." That is to say, the source of life in the universe is originally pure and empty. "Originally there is nothing, so where does the dust come from?" Why should we hold on to everything and refuse to let go?In fact, there is nothing to grasp.Don't worry about it deliberately, everything in the universe belongs to you!People ask me, how can I learn how to give without being too greedy for profit?I said: "The earth is yours, why don't you give it away." Anyway, being philosophical doesn't break the law, the earth is yours, his, everyone's, and your own.This is common knowledge.The essence of our life is neither birth nor death, and we must grasp and thoroughly understand this origin of neither birth nor death. "I don't know what's going on, I act recklessly", living a life of drunkenness, dreaming of death, and living blindly, there will be no good results. Knowing "Chang" requires grasping the origin of the Tao before you know how to be a human being and how to do things.Knowing "chang" can "accommodate", and the mind can contain everything, covering the sky and covering the earth.Because of this mind, the field of wisdom expands and is unlimited, so it is said that "the tolerance is the public", and it is natural to make the world public and have no selfishness. Since it is possible to "respect the public", of course "the public is the king".The king is prosperous, hopeful, and helpful.All things are thriving, lively, and help each other.The horoscope family often tells the spectators that to do a certain thing according to your horoscope, you need to choose a certain "prosperous phase day" of your own.Is it the first day of junior high school or the fifteenth day?For example, if a person belongs to fire, and wood can make fire, then the day that belongs to wood is his "prosperous day". "Phase" means to assist and help.Among the five elements, each person has his own prosperous day, and your prosperous day is more beneficial to you, but it is not necessarily the case for others. "The public is the king", this "king" does not necessarily mean Wang Xie.According to the modern meaning, everything is for the society, while Buddhism says that everything is for saving sentient beings; forget yourself, think of others everywhere, you save sentient beings, and sentient beings also save you.If we use the slogan of general cooperation, it is "one for one, one for all." You are for everyone, and everyone is for you. In the end, regardless of each other, they are all the same. "The public is the king, and the king is the sky", which is in line with the natural law of heaven and earth.The heaven and the earth grow all things, the sun and the moon shine on all things, there is no difference in fairness, and no consideration is given to rewards. This is the natural law of "Heaven is Tao". If you have an all-encompassing mind like heaven and earth, you will be in line with the principles of Tao, and then you can "Tao is long", with a long history and immortality.The "non-self" mentioned by Buddhism is the "Grand Duke" and the "Way of Heaven".Once you understand the way of heaven, you will be "perishable". "Bodyless" means that our life, when we live to the last breath, our bones turn into dust after death, the flesh is gone, but the spirit of life remains forever.Immortality, its focus is all on the six words "to the extreme of emptiness, and to keep quiet".