Taoism > Meditation

About the Realization of the Celestial Mind

By Jhian Yang

The realization of the Celestial Mind (or the Great Ultimate) is a must for the Taoist disciples. There are many texts, more or less confusing, explaining the method.

The following one is extremely simple if we take into account the difficulty of such a goal. Let's see what it is about.

Quote:

The reason this Way is not operative is that the Way is not clearly understood. At first the work is a matter of extinguishing emotionalism and sweeping away miscellaneous thoughts. This is the first step, building the foundation and refining the self. Once the human mentality is set aside, the celestial mind come back. Once human desires are purified, then the celestial design is always present.

Commentary

This quote is from Master Zang Safeng's teachings about the Taoist alchemical work. The text is translated by Thomas Clearly in his book on Taoist meditation*.

Let's try to understand its meaning.

- The work is a matter of extinguishing emotionalism… - this is about what happens when we contemplate a beautiful landscape. Something moves our hearts and we feel completely submerged by our intense feelings. This is wrong, according to Master Safeng.

- … and sweeping away miscellaneous thoughts - that is, we must reject what we previously thought we knew about the subject matter.

We rather choose to think than live the experience of meditation. Westerners cannot do without first thinking about what it means to do something…

- ... building the foundation and refining the self - Getting rid of our emotional states and common thoughts is the first step as it lead to the refining our self.

- Once the human mentality is set aside, the celestial mind come back - The celestial mind is not something to be acquired by effort. It exists in us from birth and we just have to discover it. For this we need to give up our ethical values ​​(aka human mentality)

- Once human desires are purified, then the celestial design is always present - Moreover, from the moment we get rid of our desires, we may see the celestial design, meaning the Real as it is (Buddhist Suchness).

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*Thomas Clearly: Taoist Meditation. You may order this startling book from Amazon.com: https://amzn.to/30CXwgn.

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