If you had finished the previous nine chapters and felt that what I said made sense and was reasonable, then listen carefully from here on.
The first step was called using cognition to break cognition, also known as breaking through appearances.
First, regard all living beings as gods and Buddhas. Treat every interaction and every event involving other people as a test from gods and Buddhas.
Truly imprint this idea in your mind, then put it into practice in life.
At the same time, continuously train yourself to notice your own thoughts.
At the beginning, being Every Thought Awakened was impossible, and that was perfectly normal. But afterward, remember to reflect, to recall, and to remind yourself that the next time a thought arose, you had to notice it immediately and see what you were thinking.
Seeing what you were thinking meant observing your own thoughts with your mind—thoughts watching thoughts. Practice it deliberately.
There was no need to listen to those who said observing the heart was not thoughts watching thoughts. Once you grew accustomed to it, it would no longer be thoughts watching thoughts; it would become instinct.
Believe in yourself and persist. If you were quick, you could observe your heart within ten days or half a month. Keep at it, and in at most around a hundred days, you could achieve foundation establishment. Foundation establishment meant laying a solid foundation.
While training yourself to observe your heart, try using a method to shift your thoughts. This method was somewhat like secretly switching concepts.
It carried roughly the same meaning as treating all beings as Buddhas. You could also think of it as your own thoughts deceiving themselves. Yes, deceiving your own thoughts.
For example, when I got into an argument with someone, I would regard the other person as a Buddha and Bodhisattva. Their argument with me was only meant to help me train myself to observe the thoughts in my heart, so that I could see what I was thinking and what emotions had arisen. They were helping me, not truly trying to quarrel with me.
Once that thought arose, I would no longer dwell on the matter or the person.
Because you firmly believed that this person had come to help you cultivate, you could use them to practice observation and Shifting Thoughts.
If you could shift your thoughts, then in truth, you had changed the matter itself.
Though the matter was still the same matter and the person was still the same person, once your thoughts changed, the matter became a good thing. You would no longer grow angry or distressed. At the same time, you learned Shifting Thoughts, and in the end, you used the matter to improve yourself rather than being dragged into it and tangled up in distress.
Once you reached this step, train yourself to control thoughts and transform thoughts at the same time. Controlling thoughts was very similar to Shifting Thoughts. It meant using your method of replacing thoughts to control what you thought about and what you did not think about. At the same time, your previous bad thoughts would be transformed away.
In other words, shifting thoughts, transforming thoughts, and controlling thoughts happened at the same time.
When you were bored, you could also learn from me and use deluded thoughts to subdue deluded thoughts. For example, visualize a sword in your heart, or some other Magic Seal. Yes, a Magic Seal.
Use your thoughts to sketch out its form in your mind. Because thoughts were unfixed, this sword might sometimes be broad, huge, and heavy, while at other times it might be slender and soft, changing as it pleased. But none of that mattered. You only had to remember to visualize this sword whenever you were bored, then use your mind to control it and change its shape freely. It could become a Fang Tian Hua Ji, a meteor hammer, anything at all. Whatever you wanted it to become, it became.
This thing was meant for cutting down thoughts. For example, when irritation arose in your heart, visualize this sword, then use this sword of intent to cut down the thought that was making you irritated.
Make your thoughts tangible. You could imagine irritation and distress as a ball or a little monster, then use the sword in your mind to slash the monster to the ground.
The more deliberately you imagined it, the better. You would discover that while thinking this way, the matter that had just troubled you would be set down and cast aside.
It seemed simple and fantastical, but this was also a method of bringing the heart back to one place.
Keep practicing, and slowly, you would notice every thought as it came, then resolve it through similar methods.
Afterward, all kinds of thoughts would launch fierce counterattacks against you. Grit your teeth and persist. Continue slaying demons and vanquishing devils.
Slowly, those bad thoughts would submit to you, and they would also become deeply afraid of you. No matter how many came, you could fling out a streak of Sword Qi and destroy them.
Treat controlling your thoughts as play, and you would cultivate while having fun.
If you continued like this, only a few thoughts would arise in a day. Even those formerly chaotic thoughts that disturbed you would become pitifully few.
Of course, while cultivating in this way, you also had to continue contemplating and comprehend the principles of all things under heaven.
For example, you knew that all life would one day depart, and that included yourself. Then whether someone was present or gone, there was no need to suffer so deeply.
Because this was destined and could not be changed. The only thing you could do was live well.
I once had a very good friend. When he left, he left behind some final words for me. When I saw them, I was devastated and desperately called him again and again, but no one answered.
I knew it was over. He was gone. I could not help recalling every little moment we had spent together, and I missed him terribly.
When I realized that I was thinking about his departure and sinking into sorrow, I directly chose to forget that he had left and think only of the happy times we had shared. That was how I controlled my emotions.
This was a method, not self-deception, nor was it heartlessness. Put another way, if someone had left, crying yourself to death would be utterly useless. It brought a hundred harms and not a single benefit.
If you truly cherished that bond, then keep that person properly in your heart. Do not forget that friend, and do not drown in pain. Carry the beauty you shared with them and live well.
Wasn't there a saying? Beyond the natural death of the body, another true death for a human being was being forgotten.
Moreover, you also had to grow used to the coming and going of people in life. No one could stay with anyone forever without parting; everything was only temporary.
Nor should you grieve over how some friends remained friends while others no longer kept in touch.
Human thoughts were unstable. Today, you thought well of someone, and they thought well of you, so the two of you were close. Tomorrow, when that person thought poorly of you and you lost contact, there was no need to grieve or cling.
Even you yourself were constantly changing, so how could you demand that others never change? Do you understand? Accepting everything was, in truth, an expression of compassion and kindness.
There was no need to stubbornly cling to every detail of the past, to who was right and who was wrong. They had all come to help you grow. From those events, you gained your own experiences and realized certain truths.
Whether they were good things or bad things, it was the same. In the end, you would find that they had only been part of the process of helping you become stronger.
What love that made you live and die for one another, what earth-shaking loyalty soaring to the heavens—it was all only temporary, because human hearts changed.
Look again ten years later: with children at home, who would still be beside you reveling in wine and pleasure? With an aged father above, who would still cling to you through life and death?
For a person, the greatest love was to take good care of yourself, to take good care of your heart and body.
Because if either of those two was wounded, no one could take your place.
After taking good care of yourself, keep making yourself stronger, until you possessed the ability to protect the people you once wished to protect.
Of course, in life, you also had to possess great love, selflessness, and the capacity to embrace all things.
If your heart could contain all things, then you would possess all things. In the words of fantasy novels, if you could achieve this, then you would reach the Myriad Manifestations Realm.