Double Dream Ghost Pressing the Bed

"Right?"

Guan Zizai says that one should constantly observe their inner self to achieve freedom.

To "see" is to look inward at one's own mind and perceive it.

"All five aggregates are empty" refers to the aggregates of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness, which correspond to material and mental phenomena respectively. The emptiness of the five aggregates means that all phenomena of birth and death in the world are not real but empty.

Emptiness is not nothingness, but a thorough insight into the substance of "being." That is, "being" is nominal; it exists if you think it exists, and emptiness is also nominal. Emptiness is used to break our mistaken attachment to "being." When one can see that the five aggregates are empty, humans can naturally overcome all troubles and suffering.

The state of the five aggregates being empty is not a state, but a fact. It means that people cannot correctly and completely understand things. What you see, think, and the experiences you summarize are all incorrect and incomplete.

Understand?

Emptiness is not absolute emptiness, and being is not absolute being.

Use emptiness to break the attachment to being.

Simply put, it means to break self-attachment, to remove the way of looking at and thinking about problems from my perspective within the heart.

By doing so, all suffering and calamities can be overcome.

If you don't understand this principle, endlessly copying scriptures and chanting Buddha's name, while not entirely useless, will never lead you to understand what you are truly cultivating or how to cultivate properly.

You will only believe that copying scriptures or chanting has divine power.

Copying scriptures and chanting to become a Buddha? If that were true, wouldn't a tape recorder have become a Buddha long ago?

Copying scriptures to become a Buddha? If that were true, wouldn't a photocopier have become a Buddha long ago?

It would be strange if a pig could understand you when you chant Amitabha to it!

Chanting Amitabha to a pig is about emitting benevolent waves from your own heart, not about the divine power of the words themselves.

If the words had divine power, how could a mute person who cannot speak cultivate?

If words had divine power, and you chanted Amitabha with your mouth while thinking evil thoughts in your heart, could you achieve anything? Could you cultivate successfully?

If the heart is kind and good, even abusive words spoken with the mouth will be perceived as having good intentions.

Look at how friends sometimes tease each other with playful insults. Have you ever seen one of them get genuinely angry?

Isn't the reason that neither person takes it seriously in their heart?

Only by understanding this principle can you understand why I taught you to slap ghosts in the face in the previous chapter.

The more you fear it, the more it will bully you!

Ghosts also pick on people; this is why ghosts fear evil people.

Because evil people have a strong temper and are fierce. This fiery energy is a form of energy, and if the energy is sufficient, ghosts dare not act.

Also, butchers, who have spent years slaughtering pigs and sheep, exude a killing aura that ghosts fear. Why do they fear it?

It's simple: killing aura is also a form of energy.

Those who cultivate by reading my book must cultivate dominance!

Dominance is fiercer than the other two types of energy!

What is dominance? You want to bully me? Heh, I'll just slap you twice and make you understand who's boss.

You have murderous intent towards me? I'll fire up the wok and fry you up for dinner with some wine, see if I don't eat you.

Fierce, right? Dominant, right? With this attitude, which ghost wouldn't be confused upon seeing you?

Which ghost wouldn't run away immediately?

Most of the time, when people see ghosts, they are either in a daze, dreaming, or see them out of extreme fear.

This is because ghosts are formless and lack substance.

They can only be seen when your energy frequency reaches a specific band; they cannot be seen normally.

Let me tell you a few true stories.

Before my enlightenment, my good buddy and I lived in the factory dorms. We had bunk beds next to each other. I slept on the top bunk, and he slept below me.

One morning, I saw him looking listless, with vacant eyes, as if he hadn't slept well. I asked him what was wrong.

He said he dreamt of a ghost. In his dream, he saw a woman with a child sitting on him, pressing him down. He couldn't move or speak.

I told him it was nothing and not to take dreams seriously.

Guess what? Damn it, that night I had the same dream. I dreamt of a woman in a long red dress with long hair, and a little girl with two pigtails sitting on me.

They were one behind the other, the little girl in front, the woman behind. Their four hands pressed on my chest, and they stared directly at me.

I hadn't achieved enlightenment back then, and I was so scared I almost ascended on the spot.

I forced myself to stay calm. Realizing I couldn't speak, I used my mind to ask them if they needed any help. If they did, they should say so, and I would help if I could. I asked them to stop pressing me.

I asked twice, but they ignored me. Finally, I got angry. My temper was terrifying back then. Although I rarely got angry, once I did, I didn't care who it was; no one mattered.

As this anger surged, I glared at them and cursed in my mind: "Damn your mother's! If you have something to say, say it! If not, get the hell out! If you keep pressing me down, I'll eat you!"

With that, I instantly woke up from the dream. I took a moment to recover, didn't think much of it, and fell back asleep.

After work, I happily asked my buddy if the woman he dreamt about was wearing a red dress, had long hair, and looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties.

The child was about six or seven years old, with two pigtails on its head and big eyes.

Then, they both sat on him, one after the other, the child in front and the woman behind.

Two hands pressed on his chest, their eyes staring straight at him.

After hearing my words, he was shocked and asked how I knew.

I first laughed heartily to lighten the mood, and finally told him I had dreamt it too.

I also taught him how I broke free and told him not to be afraid, that they probably wouldn't come back.

After that, I indeed never dreamt of it again.

This was the strangest case of sleep paralysis I'd encountered in real life; two people having the exact same dream.

Thinking back, it was probably because I had just started my job and wasn't resting well, my energy frequency was too low, and it just so happened that the mother and daughter were looking for someone, and we two buddies ran into them.

Later, after I achieved enlightenment, similar things happened, but they weren't scary anymore; instead, they became quite amusing.

For example, I'd be lying in bed at night, feeling a dark shadow slowly approaching me.

I don't know if any of you have ever felt this way, but I've had it since I was a teenager: you're clearly asleep, but you can sense things happening around you, and then you choose whether to wake up or not.

This time was no different. I squinted my eyes, waiting for it to get closer.

When it was near me, I suddenly sat up and grabbed it by the neck.

It was a middle-aged woman with short hair, and she looked terrified when I grabbed her.

I asked her who she was and why she was in my house.

I thought she was a damn thief.

She quickly explained that my partner had opened the door and let her in.

I looked back, and my partner was still asleep, so I nudged her and asked if it was true. She said it was.

I told her not to open the door for strangers anymore; it was already past midnight, and someone was lurking around our house.

Grumbling, I yanked the woman by her collar and threw her out, especially after she begged and promised not to come back again. Otherwise, she would have definitely gotten a beating.