They're All the Same Thing

Actually, believing in yourself and deceiving yourself were not contradictory.

They could even bring each other to fruition.

You knew full well that the commands you gave your own heart were sometimes false, yet you could utterly believe that you had fooled yourself.

Then you were no ordinary person—you were your own god.

You possessed the ability to freely alter your perceptions and habits.

And thus, you possessed the ability to freely alter Karma.

For example, when you first started smoking, you were just doing it for fun. Then, as you kept playing around with it, you became addicted. You knew that.

That initial playing around was the cause; the later addiction was the result.

But what if you forgot about it? Wouldn't that be the same as if it had never happened?

If it had never happened, then the earlier cause was gone, and so was the result.

And now, the cause was forgetting about it, while the result was that you would not smoke.

Did that sound difficult and simple at the same time?

What you could not do was difficult; what you could do was simple.

The reason it felt difficult was because you had denied yourself in your heart and suggested to yourself that you could not do it.

The reason it was simple was that as long as you could suggest to yourself that you could do it, that it was not difficult, and persist for a while, then you truly could do it.

Wasn't there an old saying that everything was hard at the beginning?

To be honest, if you did not even have the courage to begin, then there was no point talking about whether it was hard or not.

It was like my younger brother. He was always envious of how well other people handled relationships, yet he was already in his twenties and had never dated anyone.

When someone introduced him to a girl, he did not even know how to chat. Within three sentences, he was bound to say something terribly awkward.

Tell me, who could put up with that?

Sometimes, when he came to ask me how to date, I told him to be bold. Date a few more people, and he would gradually learn.

If you did not even have the courage to get along with people, and did not dare pursue a single girl you liked, then do not daydream about what came afterward. That was called dreaming.

Only by not fearing failure and daring to try could you have a chance.

People, a lot of the time, scared themselves to death.

The moment they wanted to do something, they looked ahead and behind, thought this and that, and before they had even begun, it was already over.

In the end, they went through happiness and pain in their thoughts, when in reality nothing had happened at all. It was all their own imagination.

Whether it was dating in life or matters of career, first you had to have the courage to begin.

Only then, at the end, could you know whether you had won or lost.

Over the first half of my life, whenever I found that I knew nothing yet still got something done, it was because I plunged into it headfirst and absolutely believed that I could do it.

I just refused to accept defeat. I was fucking awesome. I definitely could do it. To hell with anyone else—I was the strongest.

All the way, I encouraged and cheered myself on, charging my heart with strength and courage. Anything could be accomplished.

Cancer could be reversed, injuries and disabilities could recover—it all required absolute confidence, along with unwavering persistence in that confidence.

Wasn't faith the same principle? You constantly used the power of faith to give yourself confidence.

You constantly suggested to yourself: Buddha blessed me, I can do it. God blessed me, I can do it.

I had gods, I had immortals, I feared nothing. I had someone to rely on behind me! The power behind me was immense!

Understand? This was all the power of confidence!

It was not the power of whatever you believed in. What you had always believed in was the self that gave you courage!

As everyone knew, Buddha meditated and attained enlightenment beneath a Bodhi tree back then, but ignorant people took that tree for an actual tree.

The body is a Bodhi tree, the mind is a bright mirror stand; constantly wipe it clean, do not let dust alight.

Bodhi originally has no tree, the bright mirror is also not a stand; originally there is not a single thing—where can dust alight?

Did you understand these two lines? The first half said that your own body was that Bodhi tree—both a tree and not a tree.

And the latter half spoke of two states of the mind.

One was that you must constantly sweep away the stray thoughts in your heart and not let it be tainted.

The other meaning was that the original mind itself was unstained. Once you recognized this, you would not be contaminated by habitual tendencies.

They spoke of the same thing, but they were two realms.

Some said Buddhism was originally Daoism; some said Buddhism was Buddhism and Daoism was Daoism.

What was there to argue about? Buddhism used the power of awareness to discover the laws of the mind, thereby recognize oneself, and live better.

The Dao was the law of all things. The laws of the mind were also Dao.

All understanding of the myriad things came from the mind. Without a mind, you would not know there were laws or Dao.

Likewise, without Dao, this mind would not arise.

Whether Buddhism was Dao or Dao was Buddhism, without Buddhism there was no Dao, and without Dao there would be no Buddhism. The words Buddha and Dao were both adjectives.

Back then, Laozi discovered that there was a certain law in this world. He did not know what to call it, so he forcibly gave it a name: Dao.

And Buddha referred to someone who could use the power of awareness and observation to discover this law.

Fuck! Wasn't that the same thing?

People said Buddhism and Daoism had fought for thousands of years, but how could Buddhism and Daoism themselves fight?

What fought was the human heart—the struggle for interests between people.

Some loved Buddhism and slandered Daoism; some loved Daoism and slandered Buddhism. It was all caused by the distinctions made by the human heart.

Anyone who told you Buddhism was so awesome and Daoism was nothing special, or Daoism was so awesome and Buddhism was nothing special, was nothing special himself.

He had not even understood the relationship between the two. He was relying entirely on his own imagination to fool you.

If you did not believe it, look at those great virtuous masters. Those who cultivated Buddhism also spoke of Dao, and those who cultivated Dao also spoke of Buddhism.

That was not demonic. On the contrary, that was what someone who truly cultivated could tell you.

I had seen plenty of arguments online,

"I'm Daoist and you're Buddhist. We're not the same. How many years has Buddhism even existed? How can it compare to Daoism?"

"Bullshit. That's because you're ignorant. Go read such-and-such scripture—the scriptures all say Buddhism has existed for hundreds of millions of years!"

"I practice Buddhist and Daoist dual cultivation. My household even has old immortals; our family was born with immortal affinity."

"You think you can compare yourself to us two? I'm Dao, he's Buddhism. What backwater immortal are you from?"

"Exactly, exactly! Daoism has existed for several thousand years at least, and our Buddhism has existed for hundreds of millions of years. How can a folk spirit-medium like you be mentioned in the same breath as us?"

"You don't understand. Our immortals cultivate Buddhism, Daoism, and immortality too."

"Get the fuck out of here! You're worshipping a couple of animals, and that has nothing to do with our Buddhism and Daoism! What fucking Daoist worships folk animals?"

"Exactly. We Buddhists aren't like you either, worshipping animals. We worship Buddha!"

"I'm not going to argue with you two. You definitely don't understand. Our immortals are both Buddha and Dao, and can even cultivate from animals into humans! It's obvious you two don't know anything!"

They rattled on and on, arguing without end, yet no one told you what Dao was, what Buddha was, or what an immortal was. The people watching the show could only guess for themselves.

"Oh, Daoism is powerful! Daoism has loads of gods, and every god is stronger than the last. If you cultivate Daoism, they can even assign soldiers and horses for you to use. You'll be fucking fierce then!"

"What are you talking about? Buddhism is the awesome one! Buddhist magic power is the highest. Didn't Sun Wukong start out cultivating Daoism? My Buddha beat him into obedient submission, and in the end didn't he switch to Buddhism?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! Wasn't Sun Wukong originally just a monkey? Then he cultivated Daoism and Buddhism and became a Daluo Golden Immortal! So cultivating immortality can't be wrong either, right?"

Ahem, ahem, ahem. Wasn't that amusing? Hahaha, do not argue about it. There was no point. They were all the same thing.