The scenes flashing within the six rays of light emitted by Xinru's revolving disc were no mere illusions. They were automatically calculated and evolved from the threads of karma attached to Shi Feiyang.
Anyone else, densely enveloped by millions of scenes linked to their own karma, would immediately have sunk into them, hopelessly trapped.
Even a Heavenly Immortal who had cultivated a yang spirit would fare no better. A yang spirit was immune to illusions, but these were not illusions!
Shi Feiyang's Dao practice, however, surpassed even that of a Heavenly Immortal. He had long since reached the "Seeing the Dao Realm" and beheld the true substance of the Great Dao.
The Dao gave birth to one, one gave birth to two, two gave birth to three, and three gave birth to all things.
The six paths of reincarnation, the Form Realm and formlessness, all living beings and spirits, all heavens great and small—everything had evolved upon the true substance of the Great Dao.
Once he had seen this essential truth, the world in all its "myriad forms and colors" could no longer bewilder him, nor could he sink into and become trapped in this hodgepodge of things.
In this respect, it closely resembled Buddhism's "self-nature." The vast majority of Buddhist and Daoist practitioners could not distinguish between the two, and some remained muddleheaded even after a lifetime of cultivation.
In truth, the Daoist School held that the Dao existed beyond the self: people were within the Dao, and the Dao was within people.
Buddhists held that no dharma existed outside the mind. Nature was appearance, and appearance was nature. To posit appearance outside nature was like placing another head atop one's head; it was not the one true reality.
This was the fundamental difference between their worldviews, and also