What is called Dao follows nature is a law by which passive instincts operate. People often compare Dao to the operating laws of all things under heaven.
Yet these laws were not set in stone. They changed with time, space, and all sorts of factors. For example, in ancient times, people generally believed the heavens were round and the earth square. That was the Dao of that era. But as science and technology developed, we gradually came to understand that the Earth was round and the heavens boundless. That was how Dao evolved.
Yet Dao's changes were not without pattern. It was like an invisible thread running through the entire universe, guiding the direction in which things developed. If we could follow the changes of Dao, we could better adapt to our surroundings and even predict future trends.
Conversely, if we went against Dao, we might encounter setbacks and failure. Therefore, understanding and grasping the laws behind Dao's changes held immense significance for our lives.
What did it mean to follow the laws of Dao? The laws of Dao were often both simple and difficult to fathom.
They had many forms of expression. For instance, humanity's own habits of thought and behavior were both forms of Dao.
There were also laws that ordinary people found difficult to discover.
For example, there was a saying: The movement of Dao is reversal.
Take a look at the streamers on all kinds of short-video platforms today. You could see this trait in them.
Some dressed revealingly, twisting their hips and swaying their waists. Some acted ugly or pitiful, showing off and strutting about, and so on. Things ordinary people disdained to do, yet feared being gossiped about or making fools of themselves over, could all be seen on these streamers. They did what many people wanted to do but did not dare, drawing vast numbers of viewers.
Some scorned them, while others praised them. But there was no denying that, whether the comments were good or bad, they had successfully attracted traffic.
While gaining attention, they received monetary rewards.
This was one manifestation of The movement of Dao is reversal.
Yet these people attained this Dao in ignorance, and some repeatedly suffered spectacular backfires because their moral character was lacking.
Most of it came from speaking without restraint. This was what was meant by virtue being unworthy of one's position.
I knew many friends also wanted to be like them, accumulating a certain amount of wealth in a short time in this chaotic world. So some imitated them, while others were still watching.
Let me clarify something here: time, space, and one's environment and state of mind at the time would all determine the final result.
It could be said that one needed to possess one or two of timing, location, and people in order to gain wealth.
Working in self-media meant catching the timing of the era, the favorable location of the platform, and the people provided by one's fans.
One way to attain a certain Dao through The movement of Dao is reversal was often to act contrary to ordinary people.
Yet those who cultivated Dao normally were also among them. Look at monks, Daoist priests, and spirit mediums—weren't they very different from ordinary people?
Those who cultivated Buddhism abandoned worldly perceptions and used Buddhist thought to view the world. Those who cultivated Dao used Daoist thought to view the world. Spirit mediums claimed Buddhist and Daoist dual cultivation, meaning they used the understandings of both Buddhism and Daoism, combined with some inherited knowledge of their own, to view the world.
But if you observed carefully, it should not be difficult to discover that Buddhism and Daoism were actually aligned in certain ideas, and they also shared common ground with Confucianism.
I would not explain that further here. Friends who were curious could research it yourselves.
I had discovered that things in this world had different names under different systems of understanding, yet they spoke of the same thing.
For example, the power of belief, psychological suggestion, invoking deities, and so on. They were actually all the same thing.
Put simply, the more you believed in something, the more it would come to exist.
Let me tell a story here.
Before a death-row prisoner was executed, an experimental scientist overseas gave him two choices: hanging, or bleeding to death. The prisoner chose the latter. So the scientist blindfolded him, scraped the back of his hand with the blunt side of a knife—without actually cutting it—and let warm water flow over his skin, making him believe he was bleeding. Throughout this process, the scientist continuously used psychological suggestion, telling the prisoner that he would bleed to death within a specific time.
Sure enough, after some time, the prisoner quietly passed away without having suffered any actual harm.
Why did he die without being injured? Some said he was frightened to death. That was right, but not entirely right.
It happened because he believed he would bleed to death within a specific time. He frightened the energy within his body to death.
Or perhaps his heart died, so the person died too—gone, bye-bye.
From this story, I did not know what you would come to understand. How about this? Let me explain the Dao I had realized.
Just as stated above: the more you believed in something, the more such things would happen.
This had been mentioned in certain books. Some people called it the Law of Universal Attraction.
Let us explain it another way. In ancient times, there was an incredibly formidable scholar named Zhang San. Zhang San's academic performance had always ranked among the best. But by coincidence, on the morning he went to take the imperial examination, he encountered a household holding a funeral. A large group of people dressed in mourning clothes and white headbands, carrying a huge black coffin past him. Zhang San's heart jolted in panic. Damn, on such an important day, I had to run into a funeral. This examination is probably fucking doomed. Unease lingered in his heart, and during the exam, he could not focus on reading the questions. Under normal circumstances, an exam like this would have been beneath Zhang San's notice. Yet for some reason, even when the examination ended, he could not escape that pessimistic mood. Disheartened, just as expected, he ultimately failed the examination.
There was another man named Li Si, Zhang San's classmate. His usual grades were neither high nor low, and he had not held much hope for the imperial examination to begin with. On the morning of the exam, he too encountered that funeral procession and saw the group carrying that huge black coffin. But unlike Zhang San, Li Si was overjoyed at the sight of the coffin. He muttered to himself, "Coffin, coffin—promotion and wealth. Looks like I, Li Si, will surely earn my name on the golden list today. I'm about to become awesome." Things went exactly as Li Si expected. Because he firmly believed he would succeed, he remained as pumped throughout the exam as if he had taken Viagra or been injected with chicken blood. He even performed beyond his usual level, and in the end, he passed with distinction.
The same event happened to Zhang San and Li Si, yet different thoughts arose in their hearts, leading to different results. This was also an example of the power of belief.
In life, if we were like Zhang San, growing troubled and irritable whenever something happened, then whether in mind or body, we would be affected by such negative emotions and continue suffering in the end.
But if we were like Li Si, able to see the good side of everything we encountered, then I believed that regardless of the result, both the process and the ending would be surrounded by joyful, upward-striving energy.
This energy was what people called positive energy—good energy. Those who cultivated transformed all energy into good energy for their own use.