Three Steps to Enlightenment

[exorcist_1699]

Being situated in the post-heavenly status makes our mind incapble of understanding what Englightenment is. However, some Taoist masters did try to make it a little easier for us to grasp the way . The following is what the Ming Dynasty Taoist master , Lù Xī Xīng (陸西星), who is also the creator of the so-called East School , tries to summarize for us what the process* may look like:

 

1) Purifying our mind(澄神):

 

Because our yin-typed of mind (ie, post-heavenly mind) is full of unclean stuff, hardly can we rely on it to reach Enlightenment. That means, all those status we know about our mind : dreaming, intuition, reasoning , precetption..all can't be made use of for attaining Enlightenment ; conversely , they are things we have to get rid of . So not only what are in our mind : color, emotions, images, drive, feelings..but also the containers /forms ,whatever they are, that accomodate them are liable to be eliminated. ( That means, even Kant's a priori categories have to got rid off...)

 

 

2) Nourishing our mind( 養神):

 

Different from the Buddhist way, the Taoist does not think that soley by relying on the Purification, a great Mind will then arise from that status of pure mindlessness. In fact, the purified mind needs to be further nourished by jing and qi. Without them, even if we have achieved something great , we can't keep it long.

 

 

3) Condensing(凝神) our mind :

 

Originally the emergence of our post-heavenly mind is due to the split of jing , qi, shen of us , so in order to attain their unity , jing and qi have to be consolidated into Shen again . Having a pure mind nourished long enough by jing and qi , a condensed Mind will arise . And, it is after having a Mind securely condensed , a new gateway will open...and Enlightenment is close to us...

 

* Based on Lu's book " Some chats on the mystery"《玄膚論》; I have added some salt in it..

Edited March 12, 2012 by exorcist_1699