Getting a Permit

The path cultivators ultimately walk is to refine the seventh consciousness and integrate it into the eighth consciousness.

This means hiding the mind away.

It is also called Earth Store.

Here, "Earth" refers to the mind's ground, and "Store" refers to the meaning of containment.

It means hiding your mind within your subconscious.

This mind refers to your consciousness. When your consciousness is hidden within the subconscious, and the subconscious is not extinguished, your consciousness will not be extinguished.

This is what is called achieving the Dao. The Dao is the law. Achieving the Dao means you have obtained the innate laws.

Becoming one with the innate laws.

I know what I'm saying is getting a bit deep now, but it's alright. Everyone, feel it out slowly, take your time, don't rush.

These things cannot be perfected in a day or two, or even one or two lifetimes; they require cultivation across many lifetimes.

For example, I didn't start cultivating in this lifetime. I was cultivating in previous lifetimes, which is why I can walk this path of cultivation again in this life.

This is called affinity, or entanglement.

There's no need to force anything. If you can achieve great freedom of the mind in this life, then you have skill.

Humans have biological instincts, things passed down through genes over generations, an instinctual drive to survive and fear death.

Like some drowning people, in their panic, they lose the ability to think and instinctively push down the person trying to save them. In the end, they don't get saved themselves and end up harming others.

Only by remaining calm and rational at all times can one maximize the chances of survival.

Similarly, cultivation is the same. People with different understandings than yours will instinctively try to pull you down. You must save their souls while ensuring your own mind remains unburdened.

If you find yourself being assimilated or pulled into their understanding, you must remain constantly vigilant and alert.

Save others according to affinity, but first, ensure you can do it yourself, that you can avoid being trapped.

This is also a problem many cultivators face.

Most people in society who claim to have energy or to be cultivators, you can tell if they have skill with just one observation.

You don't need to listen to what they say, or watch them get angry and curse. Instead, observe whether they are genuinely moved or just outwardly acting angry. If their heart is unmoved, then this is just a convenient method they are intentionally using.

It's merely to awaken others, or to resist assimilation.

Don't listen to anyone who says that after cultivating, you shouldn't care about anything or hold grudges about anything?

Are you cultivating the Buddha, cultivating the Dao? If someone slanders the Buddha or the Dao, misinterpreting their true meaning, are you just going to ignore it?

If you ignore it, others will think what they're saying is reasonable and then be led in a direction opposite to the Dao. This is committing evil.

If you indulge evil, what difference is there between you and evil?

The best approach is, if they can understand, let them. If they can't, don't force it, but try your best not to let them influence too many people.

Yesterday, I was browsing short video platforms and saw people selling refuge certificates. Some from Mount Jiuhua, some from Lotus Temple. I deliberately asked how much it cost to get one, and guess what?

The one from Mount Jiuhua messaged me saying it cost nine hundred and ninety-nine. I was shocked. I asked him why it was so much higher than other places.

He told me his was stamped by a certain religious association on Mount Jiuhua, making it the most authoritative.

I was speechless... Hahaha. I said this is different from my understanding of taking refuge, and he stopped talking.

Another one said, "Senior brother, auspicious six periods, have you gotten your refuge certificate yet?"

I asked how much it cost. He said one hundred and three.

I asked what the use of it was after getting it.

He told me it was for faith, to find a home for the soul. Also, to get free or half-price entry to some temples, depending on the specific announcements of each temple.

I told him I had already cultivated to Breaking Illusions and seeing the True Self, that I had no attachments or worries, and knew that all sentient beings were lost in their own thoughts.

I can achieve Every Thought Awakened, and I don't get emotional. Various thoughts arise, and I immediately transform them. Buddha is awareness, I have no faith, I only cultivate Buddha.

I have taken refuge in being aware yet not deluded, upright yet not crooked, pure yet not stained. In other words, my mind is Buddha, whom else would I worship?

If you insist on faith, I only have faith in the wisdom of Buddha, which is awareness, and this awareness is my own true heart and inherent nature.

I have awakened. I can see myself and know what I truly look like.

After reading this, he immediately ran away, not saying another word.

Do you know why?

Because he's not as good as you! Because he's using the doctrine of faith to make money. But you have cultivated to the point where you have few troubles or emotions.

He can't fool you, so he can only run away and stop bothering you.

I don't seek anything, so he can't fool me.

If I were attached to having a refuge certificate, I would definitely have been scammed.

Because taking refuge isn't proven by that certificate; it's your own heart that knows whether you have taken refuge.

If I don't cultivate, that certificate is useless to me! If I do cultivate, whether I have the certificate or not proves nothing!

So, it's optional, it doesn't have much significance.

If you have a certificate of taking refuge, you'll still experience worries and sorrows, so what's the point of it?

Without that certificate, if your mind achieves great freedom and is not troubled by karmic habits, that is what's real.

Therefore, cultivators don't need to be attached to having or not having anything.

Even if you were made the abbot, if you don't act like a decent human being, what's the use of you being the abbot?

Even if you were begging for food, if you diligently cultivated, ultimately broke through self-attachment, broke through karmic habits, and eliminated worries, you could still be considered to have achieved something in your cultivation.

The dazzling world can blind your eyes; if you have even a slight attachment, someone will take advantage of it to deceive you.

If I hadn't cultivated, and believed that obtaining some certificate conferred magical abilities, or that obtaining some certificate could lead to the Buddha's realm, wouldn't I have been completely fooled?

Wouldn't I have rushed to get certificates for all my relatives and friends, and even for the pigs and dogs I raised?

If cultivation and achievement could be gained by obtaining certificates, I would just specialize in making them myself! I could use certificates to guide others!

Just a round of copying, ka-ka, stamping, and I'd give you whatever certificate you wanted.

Someone would surely say, "What you issue isn't valid, the stamps you make aren't valid, it has to be done by so-and-so from such-and-such a place."

This kind of talk is like saying they aren't human.

Don't they eat, drink, sleep, and urinate? Don't they need to breathe? Do they float down from the sky without legs to issue certificates for you?

Or does it mean their hands aren't hands, and anything that passes through their hands gains magical power?

They are just like you! If you can't even see this, then you don't need to cultivate anymore.

Cultivating would be useless; it would only make your brain spew nonsense.

You were already foolish, and you'd only become more foolish, foolishly believing that by believing in someone else, you could achieve something.

If you don't believe in yourself, what do you expect to happen?

The Buddha said to seek within, to solve problems from the root. It's already told you that you are inherently complete and no different from others.

Yet you do the opposite, seeking externally, looking for solutions from other people.

Aren't you purely going against the Dao of the Buddha?