Clouds Part, Fog Disperses

If you do not have even a little meditative stability, or if this understanding of yours is becoming clearer and clearer, more and more lucid, then it seems you can withdraw from this sensation. Otherwise, this sensation will trouble you relentlessly. In other words, this sensation, this feeling in your body and mind, is instinctive.

You say you have awakened, but when other people scold you, you still feel uncomfortable. Of course, you may feel that you do not care, that it does not matter. But if they scolded you every day, you would be like someone living in hell; you would still feel unhappy and surely would not smile as radiantly, would you? It still pulls you along.

There is also physical illness and pain. If your body hurts badly, that sensation—you are simply in pain. There is no way to pull yourself out of that suffering, to detach from it; it has you firmly in its grip.

But with cultivation and realization, it really is like that. At that time, though, I do not think it is meditative stability that is bearing it. However, if you truly awaken completely in the end, enter into reality, and realize emptiness, in fact you have not changed anything. At that moment, for example, even if your body still has pain, or the world is still defiled and pure, while you know everything, your mind has withdrawn from within it.

It can emerge from here without being affected by anything, like sunlight shining through the clouds—that is sunlight. The clouds are thick overhead, but the sun is still there, and its light shines through them. It is not that the sun fails to come out because there are clouds.

In other words, nothing can block the sun’s light anymore; your mind absolutely will no longer be trapped or troubled. You will pass through those clouds with that complete wisdom and emerge.

But once the sun has come out, given enough time, those clouds will naturally disperse; this is fully realizing Buddhahood. All your physiological problems—the things that are not right—will gradually correct themselves and improve, little by little, but it takes some time.

Those clouds and fog—many things will simply happen naturally… Because it is overcast, the fog just… Once the sun shines through, it slowly, slowly… After a certain amount of time, the fog disperses. It is not a matter of whether you should transform; you do not need to transform.

Before your sun has come out, no matter how desperately you try to turn things around, practice qigong, or take medicine, none of it will help. Some things are due to karma; some involve dampness and are hard to treat. But once the sun comes out, everything will be OK.

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.