Dead Parts Feel Nothing

Xuefeng

When your back itches intensely, you must scratch it vigorously; a light touch won’t suffice. When your head aches severely, only a firm massage will help; a gentle touch will have no effect. When your hands and feet go numb from the cold, they won’t feel the warmth of water. In a wound with necrosis, even a needle prick elicits no sensation. When someone is paralyzed in the lower limbs or has hemiplegia, half of the body loses its sense of touch. A person in a vegetative state has their sensation reduced to the lowest possible level.

The duller a part of the body is, the slower its response to external changes. Conversely, the more sensitive a part is, the quicker it reacts.

The physical body reflects changes in the material world, whereas the spiritual body reflects changes in the nonmaterial world.

The body perceives changes in external information through the five senses—sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. The spirit perceives changes in the nonmaterial world through spiritual perception.

It’s well known that the body reacts sensitively to external information, but what about the spirit? This is something many people overlook.

If I say that the visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile perceptions of different people vary, most people would readily understand and accept this. If I say that the sensitivity of these senses changes with age, it would not provoke much disagreement. However, if I suggest that each person’s spiritual perception differs, and that its sensitivity also changes with age, many would scoff.

Spiritual perception is a critically important sense that humanity has largely neglected.

The sensitivity of the five senses is closely tied to the health, and even the life or death, of the physical body. Similarly, the sensitivity of spiritual perception is deeply connected to the health and survival of the spiritual body.

Just as necrotic tissue in the body lacks sensation, necrotic parts of the spirit are also devoid of feeling.

Spiritual perception is not mysterious. For instance, people with heightened spiritual perception are highly sensitive to the government’s new policies. They quickly adjust their thinking and direction in response. Conversely, people with low spiritual perception remain indifferent, even when the policies are explained to them. Only when the changes become reality do they finally react.

Those with heightened spiritual perception can detect the future trajectory of events from subtle clues. Those with dull spiritual perception only wake up after a crisis has fully unfolded.

The foundation of spiritual perception is spirituality, which is about grasping things intuitively—"heart to heart, mind to mind." We say, "Some horses and dogs are highly spiritual because they sense human intentions and respond promptly." Conversely, we say, "Some pigs and cows lack spirituality because they only respond when beaten with a whip."

The primary reason for low spiritual perception is a scattered mind that lacks focus. Just as a magnifying glass can focus sunlight onto a single point to ignite a piece of paper, spiritual perception requires mental focus. Without focus, the energy dissipates, and nothing ignites.

Spiritual perception can be cultivated. For example, an American oil exploration company once drilled several wells in an area but found no oil. Years later, another company drilled in the same area and struck oil. Why? The first company didn’t drill deep enough, while the second went deeper. Similarly, whether a diver finds treasures on the ocean floor depends on the depth of their dive. Our ability to see the deeper essence of things hinges on the depth of our spiritual cultivation.

The essence of cultivation lies in refining the heart. When the heart is pure and transparent, spiritual perception becomes sharp. Those with high spiritual perception rise above worldly distractions, are not misled by illusions, and can seize the critical points to walk the best path in life.

The so-called "great hermits" are individuals with extraordinarily high spiritual perception. These rare individuals are the finest among humanity. Meeting such a person in life is akin to receiving a flashlight in the dark—it dispels confusion and illuminates the way forward.

Those with dull spiritual perception are unresponsive to the calls of gods or Buddhas. They dismiss these calls as nonsense and continually deny the existence of the Greatest Creator.

Necrotic tissue feels nothing; no matter how often you call, it does not respond. Even as they shiver in the biting snow, they remain oblivious.