Morning Mushrooms Do Not Know the Cycle of Day and Night

Morning Mushrooms Do Not Know the Cycle of Day and Night, and Cicadas Do Not Understand the Cycles of Spring and Autumn

Xuefeng

What did Zhuangzi see? Why did he choose to "communicate with the spirit of Heaven and Earth and befriend the eternal and boundless"? Because he could not find a like-minded soul among humans. At least Yu Boya had Zhong Ziqi, who could understand his sublime melody of mountains and waters. But no one could understand Zhuangzi’s sublime melody of mountains and waters. Thus, he sought kindred spirits beyond humanity. As a flesh-and-blood member of human society, Zhuangzi found himself in a state of intense suffering, profound anger, and deep loneliness. Yet, as the saying goes, "extremes meet, and when things reach their limit, they reverse." In his extreme loneliness, he nearly gave up on life, but in the end, like encountering a new village after a winding path through dark willows and blooming flowers, Zhuangzi reached the state of transforming into a celestial being and the phoenix rising from the ashes, achieving a great leap in life.

"The spirit of Heaven and Earth" refers to the cosmic spirit, which is the Spirit of the Greatest Creator—the Tao. "The eternal and boundless" undoubtedly refers to the Greatest Creator. Therefore, Zhuangzi’s aspiration was to enter the Tao, commune with the Tao, seek the Greatest Creator, and befriend the Greatest Creator.

This is the highest realm of life: sinking deeper into misery and loneliness, only to eventually enter a new world, as though emerging into a world of unexpected brightness after darkness.

Materialists see this realm as idealism. But is it merely idealism? Is it nothing more than a fantastical state caused by psychological and spiritual delusions?

"Morning mushrooms do not know the cycle of day and night, and cicadas do not understand the cycles of spring and autumn." The bacteria that appear in the morning vanish by noon, never knowing there is a night. The cicadas that emerge in summer die in that season, never knowing there is spring and autumn. Materialists are like these "morning mushrooms" and "cicadas," unable to comprehend that the spirit and soul can indeed reach another world of life.

When I was a child, the adults in the village would gather after dinner, chatting endlessly and aimlessly. We children would play around them, sometimes crouching nearby to listen. On one occasion, an elder said, "Do you know? When it gets dark here, in some villages, it’s already morning. When it’s noon here, it’s midnight there." As soon as he finished, the others began to ridicule, mock, and laugh at him. I can’t recall their exact words, but they mocked him for speaking nonsense, imagining things, and having irrational thoughts.

Think about it: This conversation took place around 1964, in a remote village. The farthest anyone from the village had traveled was to Xinjiang. The villagers knew nothing about the time differences between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. The elder had never left his hometown. When asked how he came up with such an idea, he said, "I was just thinking about it." It turned out he had no evidence, only "blind speculation."

Genius wisdom and great imagination are often quickly drowned in a flood of ridicule.

If we rewind a hundred years, imagine someone saying, "In the future, we’ll lie in bed and see events happening thousands of miles away. We’ll hold something the size of a cigarette box and chat with people far across the horizon." What kind of reaction would that provoke?

Even today, with advanced communication and transportation, if I said, "Where I live, it’s lush and green year-round, with flourishing plants, blooming flowers, and birds singing every day of the 365 days," would anyone believe it?

Now, what about the 36-dimensional spaces, especially the realms of the Thousand-year World, the Ten-thousand-year World, or the Elysium World? Can anyone truly believe in them? "Morning mushrooms do not know the cycle of day and night, and cicadas do not understand the cycles of spring and autumn." Ninety-eight percent of humans cannot believe it, nor will they ever.

We humans are the "morning mushrooms" and "cicadas." Zhuangzi, too, had no choice but to "communicate with the spirit of Heaven and Earth and befriend the eternal and boundless." Would you like to be Zhuangzi’s kindred