Before you awaken, you are nothing; once you awaken, you are everything. Continue with sitting meditation and cleansing, then understand the highest view—understand it, and keep realizing the Buddha’s wisdom, realizing their view, and realizing the principle of emptiness. You will gradually understand.
Once you awaken, if you have time, you can cultivate the form body and go into retreat to cultivate your energy channels and chakras. In fact, it is only at this point that they truly open and become activated.
(A few days ago I watched a movie. While I was watching it, it seemed that I had nothing to do with the world. Yesterday, after listening to you talk about the issue of self, that no longer seemed right. How could I exist again? I was in this world again. Later I thought, if there is no me, there is no world either—anyway, that’s how it was…)
Because the world is in your mind, always in your mind. When you hang on to it, you have a connection with the world. In that moment, you let go and suddenly took the stance of an onlooker, standing to the side, and felt that the world had nothing to do with you again.
It is just that, in that moment, your mind had fewer impediments; you had fewer concerns, the world had nothing to do with you, and you felt that it had moved away. But you have not realized emptiness yet, because there is still a you and there is still a world. You have only become a little purer, with fewer impediments.
But you have not seen through the illusory nature of your self, or the illusory nature of the world. Your realization is not sufficient at this point, so you will lose yourself again in a couple of days. You have only become slightly purer, a little purer. Because everything you believe is connected to you is something you have hung on your mind. When there are No Impediments in the Mind, nothing has anything to do with you.
Shao Ning has nothing to do with you, and the Buddha has nothing to do with you; nothing has anything to do with you. What connection could there be? You are neither the Buddha nor Shao Ning. But your mind is merely blank, and you know that it is blank; you have not realized it yet, and the time has not come.
You have an appearance of empty space, an appearance of blankness, and so on—you are still clinging to appearances. You still need to continue practicing, but to some extent all of you have experienced something. That state just now is called the state of No Impediments in the Mind. It means that nothing is hanging in your mind; this matter has nothing to do with you.
In fact, you have the whole world hanging in your mind, which is why there are so many troubles. It is just that now nothing is hanging there anymore; it is not that the whole world has disappeared—it simply has nothing to do with you, and no longer affects you. The workings of this world have nothing to do with you, so you are not swayed by anything. This is called having a slight experience of the feeling of No Impediments in the Mind. Your realization is not sufficient to sustain this state. This too is a wholesome state, a good feeling. Keep going; keep practicing.
All pressure comes from the attachment in your mind. Because you have hung on to things, pressure arrives. You can do things, but do not get hung up. You can work desperately; you can work nonstop for twenty-four hours a day, but have No Impediments in the Mind. You can practice very diligently for twenty-four hours a day, with No Impediments in the Mind. You can prostrate and practice sitting meditation for twenty-four hours a day, but there is no you and no Buddha; there are No Impediments in the Mind, and you are not clinging to appearances—not clinging to the appearance of cultivation. This state is the best. This is the appearance of Form and emptiness not being two.
But now you cling both to the appearance of form and to the appearance of emptiness, so you cannot see the true nature of Form and emptiness not being two. You cling to both sides, so you have gone off again. When you enter the formless state, you are blank, or without thoughts, or dazed, because you are still clinging to appearances; both sides are still moving.
When you do not cling to the appearance of form, the appearance of empty space, the appearance of nothing at all, or the appearance of being dazed, the fact that Form and emptiness are not two gradually appears. Because the past, the future, and the present begin to appear a little in front.
Continue cultivating. Everything is cultivation; it does not necessarily happen on the meditation cushion. All the arising and movement of thoughts you have this year are cultivation and realization—cultivation and realization of your false mind and habitual tendencies. Your false mind is what causes impediments. With your false mind, things continually arise and continually cease, and then you are confused by this arising-and-ceasing false mind. This arising-and-ceasing false mind has no true mind; your true mind does not arise or cease, does not move or waver, and is neither defiled nor pure. There is a false mind that arises and ceases, and then it affects you.
Now you have experienced a little of a state, just a little. This is direct realization. If you experience it amid worldly life, that is better than experiencing it on the meditation cushion, within a state. This state is not about closing your eyes and thinking, “I have great spiritual powers in this state,” then rising from meditation to find that everything is a mess. When you can experience this state amid worldly life—not suddenly feeling it while meditating, but feeling it while watching a movie—there will be a measure of realization. Gradually, this measure of realization can be sustained.
Actually, you can continue practicing the things you practiced last year in this way. For example, keep listening to the sound of the ocean tide, cleansing the ear faculty. Because everyone is stained and attached, do this again: sit there and listen, listen, listen; keep listening, then practice sitting meditation. Some even say to contemplate the breath, and so on; any Dharma door will do. Listening to Buddha-recitation is like listening to the sound of yourself reciting the Buddha’s name aloud. Then listen to the arising and ceasing of the ocean-tide sound; all of these are false appearances.
So with these, gradually, when you suddenly hear it, you realize. Just remain concentrated; these Dharma doors are all quite workable, I think. They are simply tools, and there is no best Dharma door. Everyone can choose one or two and use them. I think these Dharma doors are also useful as an antidote to your habitual tendencies, I think.
Note: This text was prepared from a teaching video by Yang Ning. If it differs from the video, the video takes precedence. Watch the video.
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