Making Effort to Cultivate an Integrated and Independent Consciousness
Xue Feng
May 12, 2011
Self-harmony is the supreme realm of self-cultivation. In order to achieve it, one must have an integrated and independent consciousness, and practitioners need to cultivate their own ones continuously. When your own consciousness is no longer influenced or interfered with by the consciousnesses of fellow humans, yours will have achieved self-consistency, namely Tathagata, then the most beautiful stage of LIFE will be unveiled.
Contradictions, conflicts, annoyances, pains, anxieties, and sorrows come mostly from incomplete and dependent consciousnesses; that is, when you do not have an integrated and independent consciousness, you will be caught in dilemmas, vacillation, risky recklessness, and be lost in those aforementioned maladies.
When you encounter problems but have no idea how to deal with them, you should listen to the words and advice of others, but it is easy to become confused, injure yourself, or even follow the wrong path. This would result from your lack of an integrated and independent consciousness. Having your own opinion on everything will allow you to know how to deal with all affairs and your life will be left with few regrets.
The more that you depend on the outside, the more you will be influenced and controlled by outside consciousnesses, the more passive you will be, and the more you will become slaves and vassals to other consciousnesses. As a result, you will not find your true self and your nature of origin will be submerged. Not to mention becoming a celestial being or achieving Buddhahood, it would even be difficult to conduct yourself as a person. How could your life not be painful?
The difference between slaves and slave-owners is that slaves do not have their own integrated and independent consciousnesses, but slave owners have their own relatively integrated and independent consciousnesses. There is a pet phrase "following people’s advice and bread will be coming", which is not only a bait from slave-owners to slaves, but also words that those who have relatively integrated and independent consciousnesses say to those who lack them and remain undecisive on everything.
Adhering to one’s own opinion, insisting on one's own ways, remaining stubborn and rigid, and sticking to dogma are not expressions of integrated and independent consciousnesses. The so-called "integrated and independent consciousness" shows that one’s own values, outlook on life and LIFE, and outlook on the universe conform to the Way of the Greatest Creator. On this basis, one can handle all affairs on their journey through life without being influenced or interfered with by others’ consciousnesses.
So, how do we cultivate integrated and independent consciousnesses?
Understand the origins of the universe, of LIFE, of humanity, and their moving and their revolutionary trends.
Understand the values, meanings of life; the principles of LIFE and its evolutionary program.
Understand roughly Tao’s features and operating mechanism; the laws of the universe, including causality and that the sum of negative and positive energy always equals zero.
Understand the main meaning of the Way of the Greatest Creator.
Understand the meaning and mystery of space, especially twenty parallel worlds and thirty-six dimensional spaces.
Understand the nonmaterial, what lies within it, its values and effects, and the Nonmaterial World.
Have a clear picture of your own condition and the direction of your efforts over time.
Able to observe human society from a higher perspective; understand its operating mechanism and its advantages and disadvantages.
One is unable to cultivate an integrated and independent consciousness until they have finished these eight courses. They might form an independent consciousness, but without integrity, it would be flawed, go to extremes easily, be blind and even harmful, and lead easily to despotism and dictatorship.
Concentrate on the main point! Once the key point is grasped, everything else will fall into their proper places. After finishing the eight courses above, one will have a clear mind and their own opinion for dealing with everything. Then, the boundless universe will no longer be complicated and unfathomable, the journey of life will no longer be full of confusion and hardships, and the path of LIFE will no longer be a cycle of rebirths.
Most of the injuries that we suffer in our lifetimes are caused by our relationships with other people, and the direct reason is that we do not have integrated and independent consciousnesses. The conflicts of consciousnesses between people are the greatest conflicts and problems in life. To reduce them, we should begin by having consciousnesses that are integrated and independent, then we should be free from the influence and control of others as far as possible. Only then will we be able to finally unite with Tao and achieve complete self-harmony.
Lifechanyuan is the final course for people, and Chanyuan Celestials who fully comprehend the meaning of Lifechanyuan, stand on the summit of human wisdom. No one can guide them further because they have acquired integrated and independent consciousnesses gradually and know how to deal with all affairs by taking the Way of the Greatest Creator. Even I, their guide, would have no more influence over them because we gradually become the same, resonating in harmony to the same frequency, and the problem of interplay or interference will no longer exist. This is why I always stress that I am just a guide, not a master or a savior of humanity, because we are ultimately equal and independent of each other.
I expect that all of you will make the effort to cultivate and form your own integrated and independent consciousnesses as soon as possible, to be free from the bondage, shackles, and control of the consciousnesses of others, and to leave the kingdom of necessity for the realm of freedom.
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