Strained Mind (3)

1 A man of practice should not be too tired in daily life. When feeling tired, he should take a brief pause. More brainwork causes mental fatigue; when feeling dull in thinking, he should have a break and relax for a while. He should take good care of his body, just like a house, which needs to be clean, sorted out and ventilated so that it is comfortable to live.

2 A man of practice, his mind may imitate water. The pure water is clean; but when mud or sand is poured into water, it becomes turbid. Without stirring, water is still; when gust blowing or boat is passing by, the still water is stirred by the ripples caused. Water without flowing is dead water. The dead water can’t keep itself clear for long time. A pool of dead water can nourish many plants and germ which may make the water turbid too.

3 As to the people’s heart, it shouldn’t hold too much distracting thought inside and simultaneously, it should guard carefully against the outward stimulation and disturbance. While the simple and easy life indifferent to fame and wealth is a good way of life but it doesn’t mean to stay still in a place like the dead water for the whole life.

4 A man of practice may imitate the Nature: Obvious four seasons, and clearly day and night. It is hot when it should be hot; it is cold when it should be cold. Work hard when work is a must; rest completely when tired. Don’t be nervous so that make the life of practice becoming tedious.

5 In a word, purity without foreign substance, concentration without wavering, indifference without action, and movement in accordance with the nature – these are the essentials of attaining mental tranquility.

6 Sword from Ganyue is well known and precious. He who has the sword always conserves it in the safe, never showing it to others casually because he is afraid of being stolen or damaging and devaluing it.

7 Qi is the sword of man of practice. He treated it as preciously as the Ganyue Sword. In his body the Qi roams everywhere. It is of symbiosis and the same as the Qi in universe, which is like the water in barrel and river, fundamentally they are the same but different in location.

8 The Qi in universe is the same as that in our body. Filling in Heaven and Earth, it is an important means to nourish every creature’s growth. It is no-self and has no physical appearance that people can’t image its existence. It is like the creator of universe or we may say it is actually the creator himself. Hence its alias is called: “Equivalent Creator”.

9 In practice, plain is the key point. Its goal is how to guard the Qi from losing, let it extend in our body fully and skillfully and eventually, it replaces consciousness to become the main commander of our body.

10 It is said that the common people value interest and wealth. The men of probity, such as Bao Qingtian, value their fame and integrity. Grasping some goals to death, the sages of society carry out the goals all out and never feel pity for it, even to death.

11 A man of practice values his Qi. He cultivates it, exercises it and guards it.

12 In general, the plain is pure without distracting. A man of practice must live in a simple, easy and lonely life of non-action, indifferent to fame and wealth. He must keep the Qi not been contaminated by the inner avarice, wrath and obsession.

13 Meanwhile, he keeps the Qi from temptation and instigation by the objective environment and wards off wasting and consuming the Qi too much.

14 He, who can reach the plain and pure to cultivate, exercise and guard it, would be a true man of perfect practice in the future.