Primordial Spirit Unmoved

Have any of you ever experienced meditation, or truly understood its real meaning?

I'd like to borrow a quote from my old teacher, Zhang Zhishun, to explain the meaning of meditation.

"Meditation isn't about keeping your body still; it's about keeping your Primordial Spirit still."

The so-called stillness of the Primordial Spirit means that your thoughts, your perceptions, don't wander aimlessly or get swayed or pulled by external things.

Instead, they remain as they are, unmoving, not stirred by anything.

When there's nothing happening, your spirit, your attention, doesn't chase after the thoughts that arise from your habitual tendencies.

When the heart doesn't move with the thoughts, that's called the Primordial Spirit being still.

This is because you know that thoughts, in different environments and situations, are constantly and uncertainly changing; they have no fixed state, so there's no need to treat them as real.

Today you think someone is good, tomorrow you think they are bad. It's not the person's problem; the problem lies in your changing thoughts.

When you think someone is good, even if they do something wrong, you'll still see them as good.

When you think someone is bad, no matter what they do, you'll still see them as bad.

What cultivators practice in meditation is this: not being disturbed by anything, not having their habitual thoughts dictated by anything to form conclusions.

Some people might ask, "What do I do when I'm alone and my thoughts just race, thinking about this and that?"

It's the same principle: practice keeping your Primordial Spirit still. In other words, observe from outside your own thoughts, or let your mind freely shift its thoughts without following their habits, meaning you're not controlled by your own thoughts.

What does it mean to not be controlled by thoughts? To put it simply, don't take what you think as reality, because it's just a habit.

For example, you clearly don't want to think about something, but you can't stop yourself. Who is making you think about it?

It's your karmic habit making you think about it. When others tell you about it, they might say these are your karmic creditors; in reality, they are your karmic habits from this life and past lives.

When sentient beings come into this world, they don't bring memories from past lives because the divine consciousness or Conscious Spirit from that past life, meaning that mind and awareness, has already dissipated.

However, the Primordial Spirit, which is the subconscious, still retains your past karmic habits, and they continuously manifest as you grow.

It's like how everyone has different innate talents for different things; these are all due to karmic habits from past lives, or you could call them past life habits.

Some friends might ask, "Back then, there were no pianos. How could people in later generations have a talent for the piano?"

There are two explanations: one is that they encountered something similar. The other is, are you sure they came to this world in every life? Could they have brought it from other spaces?

But that's not important; let's put it aside for now. The main topic is still the stillness of the Primordial Spirit.

The Primordial Spirit that is still isn't referring to the subconscious being still, nor is it referring to thoughts being still. It's about standing outside of your thoughts, in the space between consciousness and subconsciousness, and remaining still in that position.

Humans have two hearts: the outer heart is your thinking consciousness, and the inner heart is the one that stands outside of your thoughts.

The stillness of the Primordial Spirit in meditation means your inner heart doesn't move with the outer heart.

Here, we must mention the topic of seclusion.

The so-called seclusion isn't about locking someone away somewhere; if that were seclusion, wouldn't a pig locked in a pen become an immortal long ago?

The so-called seclusion is also called closing the three views, referring to your eyes, ears, and mouth. As the saying goes, "Eyes do not perceive colors, ears do not listen, mouth does not speak, and one lives long."

Seclusion closes these three gates. But please note, the closing of the three views here doesn't mean closing your eyes and not looking, blocking your ears and not listening, or not opening your mouth to speak.

Its true meaning is that your attention will not be stirred by these three points, these three gates.

If an ordinary person looks at something, their attention is drawn to it; this is the Primordial Spirit moving.

Listening is the same; it's like hearing rumors and believing them, and so on.

"Mouth does not speak" actually means not speaking according to what your habits make you think, not that people shouldn't speak at all.

When these three views are properly closed, your attention won't wander, and this is how you nourish the spirit. The spirit mentioned here refers to the Primordial Spirit.

Some people, when they first start practicing cultivation, often go down the wrong path. Not only do their own karmic habits remain unchanged, but they also accumulate more suffering.

For example, they see someone fishing and insist on going up to admonish them, to chant scriptures. If the person doesn't listen, they force them to listen, and then they say bad things about the person, like, "You're creating bad karma!"

"Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will punish you; you'll go to hell after you die," and so on, trying to scare them.

At this moment, such people have actually fallen into the demonic path because they want to forcefully impose their own understanding on the fisherman.

Why are there so many children with depression nowadays, and why do they especially like to be alone and be reclusive?

It's all caused by parents who don't understand. There's a saying about the original family, and it means the same thing.

It means parents forcefully instill their own perceived "right" understanding onto their children, causing psychological distress.

This prevents them from expressing their true selves, leaving them at the mercy of their parents. Some children, even after becoming adults, are still in a confused state, not wanting to do anything, not interested in anything. This is because, subconsciously, they don't dare to express themselves, believing that even if they say something, it's useless and no one will understand. This is all caused by parents from childhood.

Whatever you want to do, it's denied. Whatever you want to do, you get no support. They judge what's good or bad from their own perspective.

People can't live as themselves anymore, and gradually they lose interest in everything, or they start to develop a resistant attitude towards the world.

If you don't understand this point, even if you cultivate for a lifetime, you won't reach the true Dao; you'll just keep going in circles within the confines of your habitual understanding.

What is cultivation? It's allowing others to be themselves, and allowing you to be yourself, without imposing your personal will on others. Aren't children human? Aren't others human?

You constantly try to force others to think and act according to what you think, and then you're displeased if they do it, and unwilling if they don't.

Think about it, are you sick or are they sick?

Similarly, if a cultivator, based on their own understanding, forcefully tries to change others, it's like falling into the demonic path.

If everyone in the world thought like you, wouldn't they all just be your copies? How could that possibly be true!

If what you think is right is right, and what you think is wrong is wrong, then what's the point of heavenly principles?

Wouldn't that mean heavenly principles have no role to play???

Wake up and stop persecuting others. What he experiences is what he needs to experience, and what you experience is what you need to experience. Your experiences don't represent him, and his experiences don't represent you.

Your way of thinking and perceiving belongs only to you, and likewise, his belongs only to him.

There's empathy, but it's not exactly the same.