Non-Self

If the light in your heart doesn't dissipate, the path to immortality and the Great Dao will shine brightly!

If you are doing this for all living beings, then you can reflect on this power of yours.

What else can break through your defenses? What else can stop your spear?

In life, in daily living, no matter what hardships you encounter, no matter how lost you feel inside, as long as you hold firm to the belief in righteousness.

You will be invincible, peerless in the world!

Don't you believe it a little?

Go and investigate, go and see. Those descendants of revolutionary pioneers who grew up in the military compounds back then, go and see that kind of awareness.

If they hadn't inherited that sense of righteousness that shakes the heavens and earth, how could they have become famous throughout the world today?

Isn't there a saying that people who came from military compounds supported half the entertainment industry?

Why is that? It's because they inherited the unique traits of those from the previous generation, a spirit of fearlessness.

You can't just look at how great they are; you have to research their fundamental principles to understand.

Look at their courage, their efforts towards a single goal.

And their resistance against any oppression, which is to say, the state of mind that possesses an independent self.

You tell him welding is good, you tell him driving is good, he says no, I just want to write.

No matter what you say, it's useless; you can't change him.

Whether you are parents or anyone else, no matter how you want him to live according to your wishes, it won't work. He will stick to his own ideas and do them.

But when it comes to national righteousness, he has his bottom line, and the awareness inherited from his forefathers.

This is what sets them apart from ordinary people.

Look at ordinary people: this one tells you should do this, that one tells you should do that. In the end, you listen to a few words from this person, a few words from that person, and you become confused, not knowing what's what. Finally, you don't even know how you should live.

When they get a little older and haven't achieved anything, they start lamenting the unfairness of society and the inequality of the environment.

They even start blaming heaven and earth, saying their country is no good. In reality, they just haven't lived as themselves.

Earlier, they were too obedient and lacked a sense of self.

Later, when they gained a sense of self, they lacked a sense of greater purpose, completely living as an empty shell.

They live a life of going with the flow, yet lamenting the impermanence of the world and its injustices.

Forgive this humble Daoist's bluntness, but you are f***ing nothing. You aren't even yourself, so what are you complaining about the Heavenly Dao being unfair?

You need to live as yourself first, understand the laws of society and human nature, and then speak.

You can't even see the patterns of your own karmic habits, believing anything you hear and mistaking one thing for another.

You are living in a world you've imagined for yourself, and you're talking to me about starring in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio!

You can't even control your own thoughts or emotions. What's the use of reading scriptures for eight hundred years and copying ancient texts for ten thousand years?

You haven't even become yourself. Do you think what you say is credible? Isn't that just the cognition under your habitual patterns?

If I were raised by dogs, would I believe you if you told me eating feces is right?

If I were raised by monkeys, would I believe you if you told me humans should climb trees?

If I believed one word you said, wouldn't I become you? Then I wouldn't need to be myself. I could be you, and then I'd be your father or something.

Cultivators should cultivate non-self. Non-self doesn't mean the individual ceases to exist, but that the perspective of individual cognition ceases to exist.

Having self and having others can be called wise people, while non-self is sainthood.

If one can achieve non-self, with no self, where do troubles come from?

This non-self refers to removing the characteristic of viewing things from a self-centered perspective.

Viewing issues from a self-centered perspective is called self-attachment, which is the clinging mind. Removing this self-attachment is the so-called True Self.

Then you will have leaped beyond the Three Realms and escaped the Five Elements.

Of course, I'm not talking about zombies. I'm talking about a state where one has already become an immortal or a sage.

You will not suffer the torments of reincarnation, nor fear life and death.

This is why the true heart is immortal, and this is why it is eternally indestructible.

With non-self, how can I be destroyed? With non-self, how can I die?

This non-self is the state after removing self-attachment, the state of this heart.

Why do some cultivators remain silent? Because speaking out represents a personal opinion, and a personal opinion is self-attachment.

However, if they don't speak, they cannot teach sentient beings, which is why there is expedient speech.

So-called expedient speech is using forms like words and texts to describe the process and state of cultivation to you.

Of course, because everyone's enlightenment is different, the things they cultivate also differ.

Some people think self-attachment means "I don't think so," or "he doesn't think so," but that's not it at all.

As long as you view issues from any perspective, it is called self-attachment.

Even speaking from outside one's self-perception is the same, because speaking it means representing "me."

That's why many people say, "The Buddha said this," or "The immortals said it," or "Lord Lao said it," or some representative figure.

Because they can't say it was themselves, what they themselves believe. If they say the Buddha or someone else said it, then people will believe and respect it.

Using this method, or rather, this Subtle Application, to guide others.

So when you see those so-called "great masters" or "second masters," you might wonder why what they say and do seems no different from ordinary people, why they charge money for everything.

It's because their state of mind isn't sufficient. While helping you, they also want to gain something from you.

Another major flaw of ordinary people is the notion that "you get what you pay for."

Due to habitual perception, ordinary people don't cherish things obtained easily and for free. Instead, they cherish what they've worked hard to obtain.

Sometimes, some masters, lacking sufficient power or not having transcended self-attachment, will also deceive people for profit, or guide them with the idea that "you must pay to receive."

When you don't understand, you'll feel very surprised.

Moreover, many people exploit human nature to cheat for money and sex, showing none of the demeanor a cultivator should possess.

What does it mean to benefit all beings? It means I don't seek reward!

If I seek reward, am I benefiting all beings? I don't think so; that's just an exchange or a transaction.

Think about it: you give me twenty thousand to help you with something, I take your money and help you. Who am I benefiting? Myself, right? I'm still seeking something from you, aren't I?

If I'm seeking something from you, isn't that because there's a "me" in my heart?

Since there's a "me," why am I calling myself a "great master" or a "dog master"?

What is a master? To transmit the Dao, teach knowledge, and resolve doubts. But it doesn't include benefiting oneself.

A great master is a master with higher cultivation, so they should especially not have that.

You trust me, and then I use that trust to take your money, saying it's for this ancestor or that ancestor.

Yes, I did buy incense for the ancestors, and a small portion of the money was used for repairs.

But the majority was still spent by me, on my food and drink! Then what kind of master am I? Am I not a great deceiver?

Spending your money, and still acting like a grandfather in front of you? Sorry, I don't have such a twisted psychology. I also don't want you to have such a subservient trait!