《雲笈七籤》Vol. 92

No matter how violent the wind becomes, it cannot destroy your firm and upright original nature; however the gale churns, it cannot alter your pure, still, and sincere original mind. You should realize this alone in emptiness and stillness, keep the inner mind empty and luminous, let the spirit settle and gather, remove all disturbances, and return the mind to clarity, stillness, and purity. In this way, sorrow, vexation, and fatigue cannot invade your Mysterious Dwelling (Xuanzhai, referring to the inner mind or body-mind), nor can grief and longing disturb your Crimson Ford (Jiangjin, a Daoist term referring to the place in body-mind where Jing and Qi circulate).

Taishang (the Most High) says: When people of outstanding talent become addicted to drink, the Qi of wine permeates and stains their inner mind, causing their temperament to become inverted and abnormal. This destroys the Ten Goodnesses (shishan) and fosters the Ten Evils (shie); the capacity for penetrating understanding is thereby neglected, and the six spiritual powers (liu shentong) become blocked.

The Heavenly Worthy (Tianzun) says: All sentient beings have long been habituated to inversion and delusion; their thoughts are chaotic, they chase external things, and they are unsettled in acceptance and rejection, unable to rest even for a moment. This is like monkeys leaping and running through forests and marshes, impossible to stop. The mind-nature of ordinary people is likewise: it wanders in the forest of the Five Desires (wuyu: desires for form, sound, fragrance, taste, touch, and so on) and leaps about unchecked in the marsh of the Six Roots (liugen: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind), hard to restrain.

The Heavenly Worthy speaks again: The human mind is hard to control, like a banner flapping in the wind, fluttering without cease. Some people even think of using falsehood and cunning to win reputation. The Dingzhi Jing (Scripture on Settling the Will) says: Once a person has a physical form, that form is stained by the Six Emotions (liuqing: the six desires and moods). Once the Six Emotions dye the mind, one’s actions become corrupt and polluted; one becomes infatuated with and unwilling to let go of what one has, and is benighted about what one does not have. Thus people create karmic actions through various causes and conditions, bringing guilt and defilement upon themselves; accumulated over successive lifetimes, they drift in cyclic existence through the Three Realms (sanjie: the Realm of Desire, the Realm of Form, and the Realm of Formlessness), forgetting to turn back; they tumble and sink repeatedly through the Five Destinies (wudao: the five destinations of rebirth), never awakening. They endure all kinds of suffering but are unable to understand themselves; their spirit is bewildered and uneasy, and whatever they do tends toward transgression.

Taishang says: The Dao of Heaven benefits the myriad things and does not harm them; the sage acts and accomplishes, yet does not contend with others for victory. Therefore, one who accords with the times and does not contend prospers; one who contends with others in every matter meets danger. Thus, even when one possesses weapons, one does not display them, because one does not contend. Calamity is what people do not wish to seek, and disgrace is what people do not wish to endure. To be able to endure what others will not endure is enough; to obtain what others do not contend for is to be at peace.

The Miaozhen Jing (Scripture of Wondrous Truth) says: When the eyes see too much, the power of clear discernment cannot remain settled; when the ears hear too much, Jing and Qi disperse; when the mind’s craving and attachment are excessive, the spirit runs outward. To be swayed by the pull of profit and made anxious and fearful, and to form factions and cliques to support oneself—these are not the true practice of cultivating the Dao.

There is no greater transgression than acting wrongly, no greater calamity than greed, and no greater fault than overstepping one’s proper station. These three are like a carriage that summons disaster: at the lightest they cost a person his life; at the heaviest they bring ruin upon a whole family.

The Dao (the Way) says: good and bad fortune, calamity and blessing, all come from a profound and unfathomable source. To encounter disaster is not something the rich and noble can avoid merely by asking; glory and prosperity are not something the poor and lowly can obtain merely by wanting. Cultivate blessings and do good, and there will be a good response; do evil, and calamity will come.

The Heavenly Worthy says: The course of Qi (vital energy) cannot be brought to its end, and the measure of life is hard to exhaust. After death there can be life again; after darkness there is brightness again. Heaven and Earth revolve like a wheel; human life is not utterly cut off, just as a shadow follows a form. Therefore it is hard to say that life has an absolute ending.

In the Miaolin Jing, the Heavenly Worthy says: All sentient beings who are conditioned and caught in birth and death wander like drifters, illusory and unreal: like clouds in the sky, colors in the sky, echoes in valleys, the moon’s reflection in water, images in a mirror, flames in heat haze, sparks in lightning; and also like a deaf person hearing sounds, a blind person seeing things, a mute person speaking, a two-headed crane, a three-legged chicken, hair on a turtle, horns on a rabbit—all are impossible. Sentient beings fall into birth and death through ignorance (delusion and unawareness), craving, and attachment to various views; the principle is exactly this. In the final analysis, everything is empty and cannot be expressed in words. For example, when a lamp is extinguished, it cannot be found; the root of birth and death is originally empty and cannot be pursued.

The dharma of birth and death is like a raging fire and like four poisonous snakes; it must not be approached.

The Heavenly Worthy admonishes the sage practitioner and true adept (a realized cultivator of the Dao), saying: If someone clings to “real existence” in all things, abandons the defiled human world and seeks the bliss of the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing, the pure realm inhabited by the honored Daoist deities); abandons the body of sentient beings and seeks the form of the true Dao; wishes to sever afflictions and enter Wuwei (non-action), yet still clings to various wrong views in seeking quiescent extinction—such a person I call a holder of “great wrong view.” This is like a fool who fears the earth and wants to escape; wherever he runs, he never leaves the earth. Sentient beings are likewise: fearing birth and death, they rush to abandon the conditions of the Three Realms (the desire realm, form realm, and formless realm) with a mind of aversion; but even if they abandon their present body, they still have not escaped birth and death. Such beings have not truly understood the principle; their pursuit of the form of the true Dao is truly lamentable.

The so-called true mark of the Dao is non-fabrication, neither arising nor perishing, neither existent nor nonexistent, neither eternal nor annihilated, neither great nor small, neither material nor mental. Only one who can realize these principles can be said to cultivate the true Dao and walk the right path.

The Heavenly Worthy again admonishes the sage practitioner and true adept, saying: Sentient beings in the world are deeply sunk in darkness because of ignorance; the true Dao is clearly within themselves, yet they cannot see it. This is just like a fool running about in all directions trying to find empty space.

They cling to external appearances—forms that can be seen and touched—yet do not know that “form is emptiness” (forms have no unchanging self-nature), and the same is true of all things in the world.

The mind and spirit race about unsettled, single-mindedly seeking the true Dao (the Way), yet they do not know that body and mind themselves are the true Dao. It is like a fool who sees only bamboo and wood but does not know that fire is hidden within wood, and so abandons the wood to seek fire, running about in all directions. People in the world are the same: they abandon themselves to seek the Dao, not knowing that the Dao is within the body.

It is also like a fool who abandons the body to seek its shadow, or covers up the sound to seek the echo, not knowing that the body is the root of the shadow and sound is the source of the echo. From this one should know that the false views and afflictions of the world blaze like fire, like a forest overgrown with thorns or a garden thick with caltrops, making it hard for people to approach.

I now explain these principles to you so that you may understand: the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing)—the pure and supreme realm spoken of in Daoism—that you will attain in the future is not apart from afflictions; the great Dao is nowhere else. Simply observe body and mind and cultivate the correct path, and you will naturally be liberated.

The Heavenly Venerable said to Perfected Scholar Biantong, “Does the mind-dharma of all sentient beings arise in the same way that all things arise?”

Perfected Scholar Biantong asked, “Are all sentient beings originally born? If they are originally born, where does birth come from? Are all sentient beings originally unborn? If they are originally unborn, why can one see a body that has arisen? Do you now consider the body to exist or not to exist?”

Biantong replied, “We all now consider the body to be nonexistent. Why do we say so? Because the previous form-body has already disappeared, and only afterward does a new form-body arise.”

The Heavenly Venerable said, “Mind-dharma is also like this: it is neither truly existent nor entirely nonexistent; from thought-moment to thought-moment it arises and perishes. The preceding thought has ceased, so it cannot be the cause of the following thought; the following thought arises, so it is not the result of the preceding thought. Therefore I say that the mind-dharma of all sentient beings is like the arising of all things.”

Biantong asked again, “Since the mind-dharma of all sentient beings is like the arising of all things, can the dharmas that arise be seen? Since the mind is like the dharmas that arise, can the mind be seen?”

The Heavenly Venerable replied, “Mind-dharma can be seen. But to see mind-dharma is like seeing the arising of all things; arising has no fixed location, and in the same way, when seeking to see mind-dharma, one cannot find any fixed location.”

Biantong asked again, “If neither mind-dharma nor the arising of all things has a fixed location, how should one comfort sentient beings and enable them to attain peace and happiness?”

The Heavenly Venerable replied, “Can the body be stable and secure?”

Biantong said, “The body changes from thought-moment to thought-moment and cannot be stable.”

The Heavenly Venerable said, “Mind-dharma is also like this and cannot be stable.”

Biantong asked again, “If it cannot be stable, why did you just say to comfort their minds and enable them to attain happiness?”

The Heavenly Venerable replied, “Because sentient beings believe the body truly exists, one first comforts them. After they are comforted, they come to know that the mind is neither truly existent nor entirely nonexistent. This is called attaining the true mind, and thus they can obtain peace and happiness.”

The Baosheng Zuanyao says: Qing (emotion) is the servant of the hun-soul, and Xing (nature) is the official of the po-soul. Qing arises from Yin and impels people toward contrivance and action; Xing arises from Yang and is responsible for governance. Yang governs benevolence and generosity, while Yin governs greed and desire; therefore Qing easily tends toward profit and desire, whereas Xing has a benevolent and harmonious side. When Jing and Qi are abundant, the hun- and po-souls are strong; when Qi is scant, Qing and Xing weaken. Qing and Xing are disturbed by cravings, just as white silk is dyed various colors.

It also says: Human Qing and Xing are harmed by profit and desire, just as ice and snow are exposed to the sun, or plants and trees are touched by frost—in an instant they melt away or wither and decay. Ice and snow originally have non-melting as their nature, yet fierce heat alters their true state; plants and trees originally have non-withering as their essence, yet severe cold robs them of their vitality. Humans originally have the possibility of long life, yet cravings harm their lifespan. If one practices Daoyin (guiding and pulling: a health-preserving method of regulating the breath and moving the body) according to principle, one can attain endless longevity.

It also says: Shen is the hun-soul, descending from Heaven; Gui is the po-soul, moving upon Earth. Therefore, Shen can ingest Qi through breath regulation and exhalation-inhalation, while the body obtains nourishment through food and drink. When Qi is clear, Shen is clear; when the physical form is worn out, the po-soul becomes muddled and turbid. Those who practice Fuqi (ingesting Qi) have continuous, unbroken breath and can live long without dying; their physical form may even ascend to Heaven. Those who rely only on food and drink have a disordered and short life, and their bodies ultimately return to the earth. This is the natural principle.

The Xian Jing (Scripture of Immortality) says: Things with form arise from the formless, and the bodily form must rely on Shen to be established. Therefore, the formed body is the dwelling of the formless Dao, and the body is the residence of Shen. People must keep the dwelling intact in order to settle the master within it; they must cultivate the body in order to nourish the spirit. If Qi scatters and returns to the void, the wandering hun-soul will undergo transformation. This is like fire depending on a lamp or candle: when the lamp or candle burns out, fire has nowhere to stay; water depends on a dike: when the dike is destroyed, water cannot be retained. When the hun-soul is exhausted, Shen scatters, and Qi is depleted, life comes to an end.

It also says: People often lose the Dao themselves; it is not that the Dao leaves people. People often turn away from life themselves; it is not that life leaves people. Those who nourish Shen must be cautious not to lose the Dao; those who cultivate the Dao must be cautious not to harm life. When Dao and life keep to each other, and Shen and Qi protect each other, body and spirit can endure long.

The Holy Mother Yuanjun says: The secret essentials of cultivating the Dao are only three: talismans, medicine, and Qi. Talismans are the numinous script of the three lights—sun, moon, and stars—and the credentials of the Dao of Heavenly Truth; medicine is the essence of the Five Phases and the essence-fluid in the Huachi (Flower Pond); Qi is the harmonized Qi of Yin-Yang and the wondrous, numinous Qi of the ten thousand things. These three are the key to penetrating the great Dao and the precious treasures valued by those who seek immortality.

It also says: If an ordinary person commits one thousand evil deeds in a lifetime, in later generations they will become demons, evil spirits, and rebels; with two thousand evil deeds, they will be reduced to slaves and servants; with three thousand evil deeds, they will suffer the six kinds of illness, loneliness, and destitution; with four thousand evil deeds, they will contract severe diseases…

Those who commit five thousand evil deeds will be exiled as ghosts of the Five Hells; those who commit six thousand will become prisoners of the Twenty-Eight Hells; those who commit seven thousand will be reduced to laborers in the hells of every direction; those who commit eight thousand will fall into the Hell of Cold Ice; those who commit nine thousand will enter the Hell of the Boundless Depths; and those who commit ten thousand will fall into Bili Hell (a kind of hell spoken of in Daoism).

All evil conduct begins with the three karmas of body, speech, and mind—bodily action, speech, and thought—and these mutually foster one another. Developing in this way to ten thousand evils, those who fall into Bili Hell will never have a time of pardon; even until heaven itself comes to an end, there will be no way to rescue them. How could this fail to move one to grief! If people perceive that they have committed a single evil deed, they should immediately correct it and not repeat it; doing so, they are not far from attaining the Dao. If they are disturbed by malevolent demons, they should cleanse their minds, reproach themselves, repent and renew themselves, and persevere in cultivation; thus they can turn evil into good.

When a person performs one good deed, the mind becomes settled and the spirit peaceful; when they perform ten good deeds, their strength becomes robust; when they perform a hundred good deeds, precious auspicious signs will descend; when they perform a thousand good deeds, their descendants can become divine Perfected. When they perform two thousand good deeds, they can become sage-Perfected immortal generals and officers; when they perform three thousand, they can become sage-Perfected immortal bureau officials; when they perform four thousand, they can become teachers of the world and sage-Perfected immortal chief commanders; when they perform five thousand, they can become sage-Perfected immortal leader-teachers; when they perform six thousand, they can become sage-Perfected immortal ministers and grand officers; when they perform seven thousand, they can become sage-Perfected immortal kings and dukes; when they perform eight thousand, they can become sage-Perfected immortal emperors; when they perform nine thousand, they can become the Primordial Five Emperors; and when they perform ten thousand good deeds, they can become the Supreme Jade Emperor.

The Yuanjun said: “The foundation of ten thousand good deeds also lies in the three karmas. Ten good deeds foster one another and accumulate to a thousand and then ten thousand. Doing good can increase the years of one’s lifespan, while doing evil diminishes the years of one’s lifespan. There are presiding divine bureaus for rewarding good and punishing evil, and the principle of retribution is not off by even a hair’s breadth. The root of long life lies only in taking goodness as its foundation.”

It also says: “To concentrate on nurturing the spirit and not be disturbed by external things is called clarity; to gather in the spirit, regulate the breath, and ingest Qi so that the inner mind becomes stable and unmoving is called stillness. Restrain scattered thoughts to stabilize the will, quiet the body to settle the spirit, and nurture the breath to preserve Jing and Qi; let all kinds of thoughts be set down, quietly contemplate and inwardly observe oneself, and then one can make body and spirit become one. When body and spirit are united, one is close to attaining the Dao.”

The Dao says: “If ordinary people treat me with misfortune, I should repay them with blessings. Therefore blessings will often come here, while the Qi of harm will shift and fall back upon that person. This is the manner of acting of those who study the Dao.”

Xu Laile asked: “What is meant by ‘dual forgetting’?” The Perfected Gaoxuan answered: “All ordinary...”

Within the swirling, undifferentiated movement of Qi (vital energy)—when breath and energy blend and have not yet separated—the human mind gives rise to ignorance and clings to various formed things. Even after long, diligent cultivation, obstructions are unavoidable. One therefore needs the skill of meditative concentration (chanding) to remove these obstructions. Even when the obstructions have been cleared, one may still cling to “emptiness”; only when both clinging to “being” and clinging to “emptiness” are purified is it called “jianwang” (forgetting both, forgetting attachment to being and emptiness). This is the condition of “beginning to enter correct contemplation” (zhengguan).

The Mingwei Jing says: “The Dao (the Way) is everywhere. Where there is a teacher, the Dao is the teacher; where there are scriptures, the Dao is the scripture. The Dao does not leave the place where it presently is.”

The Baoxuan Jing says: “Cut away deviation and bias and bring all back to central correctness; trace things to their root and, following the branches, return to the source. The source is the Dao. The Dao has no form; only through words and images can it serve as a ford to it. Since it is said that the Dao uses emptiness and stillness, its function is in fact not any concrete thing.”

The Sanhuang Jing says: “Nothing under heaven is eternally unchanging; what is solid and indestructible? Therefore one should quickly weary of and turn away from these things, seek the Dao of spontaneity, and escape one’s own bonds.” The scripture also says: “The ten thousand things do not forever keep their original state and cannot remain whole for long. The sun, moon, and stars are sometimes bright and sometimes dim, yet heaven and earth constantly shine upon all things.”

Yet the Huang-Lao Xuanshi Jing says: “The Dao cannot be transmitted by words; so that learners might record it and transmit it to one another, writing came into being, and thus people can still hear of the Dao. One skilled in recording affairs must understand the words spoken; one skilled in speaking must understand the meaning within. If one can understand its meaning, one may attain the Dao. At the beginning of heaven and earth, people knew that there were then no signs or omens; those who enter the realm of emptiness and nothingness know that reality is present therein. Therefore the process of establishing norms includes both beginning and end. When the sage sees a book, he knows that fundamentally there is no book; when he hears words, he knows that fundamentally there are no words. By reading books one understands words; by hearing words one understands their meaning; understanding the meaning, one understands the Dao. Understanding the Dao, one realizes that the Dao can be spoken by mouth but cannot be transmitted through books. Therefore the Zhenren (True Person) listens with spiritual awareness, and what is heard is worthy of reverence; the sage teaches by personal example, and such teaching is to be treasured.”

Taishang (the Most High) said to the Queen Mother: “People are born by receiving the Qi of heaven and earth. When Qi enters the human body, it is called Jing (essence); when Jing condenses, it is called Ling (numinous awareness); when Ling changes, it is called Shen (spirit); the generation of Shen is called Hun (ethereal soul). The coming and going of Hun is called Shi (consciousness); the exiting and entering of Hun in the body is called Po (corporeal soul). That which governs Jing and Po is called Xin (heart-mind); when Xin follows something, it is called Qing (emotion); when Qing has an attachment, it is called Yi (intention); when Yi has a direction, it is called Zhi (will); when Zhi has memory, it is called Si (thought); when thought reaches far and aspires toward the future, it is called Lü (deliberation); when after deliberation one puts it into action, it is called Zhi (wisdom). Wisdom is the sum of these various cognitive activities. As for what is called Xing (nature), it is stillness…”

Shu (technique) is application and adaptation. When movement and stillness can become one, and inner and outer are harmonious and unobstructed, who but a perfected person (zhiren) could settle the mind in such a state? Technique is hidden within the mind and can respond as affairs change; law is established externally and can govern the people according to circumstances. The people use its principles without knowing its workings—this is technique. To display edicts and instructions so that the people see them—this is law. Qi (vital energy) causes the myriad things to change, yet its form is unseen; technique transforms the myriad people, yet its traces are unseen. Thus Heaven manifests its numinous power through Qi, and the ruler manifests wondrous efficacy through technique.

The Guanshen Jing (Scripture on Observing the Body) says that what is called Dao (the Way) takes as essential conduct conforming to hidden numinous laws and accumulating good deeds within the mind. Only after doing this does one begin to step into the realm of the Great Dao. If one cannot do it oneself, then all one’s actions are merely futile labor in the dusty world and bring no benefit to the length of life. The Dao is in oneself and does not depend on others. Only compassion, goodness, generosity, and patience—if one can practice these four virtues, one may be considered close to the Dao.

The Laojun Jiejing (Laojun’s Precepts Scripture) says that the nature of an evil person is conceived from shallow and turbid Jing (essence) and Qi, and the body is like a straw dog. Their hun-soul is weak and their po-soul is strong; their belly is filled with corpse poison. Outwardly they are human, but inwardly they are like worms; their disposition is fierce, their jealousy like maggots and centipedes. They constantly harbor sinister thoughts of harming others, ruining what has been accomplished and causing undertakings to fail. When they speak, they sigh with resentment; they treat themselves as precious jewels and others as dust. Outwardly compliant but inwardly opposed, in truth they are treacherous as ghosts, and they never consider disaster or guilt.

Once there was a man who neglected his family property and devoted himself to theft, slipping into the house of a high minister. That night he went in the form of a dog, and it happened that the household was holding a large-scale merit-making ceremony. I saw him come in dog form and rebuked him, causing him to remain a dog forever, often carrying large stones in his mouth to the minister’s house; the stones piled up and ultimately became a mountain.

The Mingwei Jing (Scripture of Radiant Majesty) says that the licentious commit adultery within and without, force and seize those who are not their spouses, and invert the moral order of Yin-Yang; they commit adultery with relatives both public and private, and treacherously unite with heterodox evil spirits.

The Benxing Jing (Scripture of Original Conduct) says that formerly there was a king named Yuanqing who indulged himself and sank into lust. Later, when the kalpa came to an end, he was reincarnated in the womb of a woman of the Hong family. Because in a former life he had been lustful, Heaven caused him to be reborn as a woman, so as to satisfy his former predilection.

The Taiping Jing (Scripture of Great Peace) says: What is “excessive speech”? A single sentence that brings great misfortune—this is the highest form of excessive speech; a single sentence that brings disgrace—this is the middle form; a single sentence that plunges people into difficulty—this is the lowest form. The sages and worthies of past and present have their words and writings spread throughout heaven and earth, and yet they still feel that their words are insufficient…

Thus disasters and misfortunes keep occurring. The worthies and sages of later ages repeatedly expounded these principles, and the people of the world took them as norms, not daring to reject these teachings. Words that can eliminate harm are often still thought too few. Therefore one never objects to good words being many, nor to evil words being few. When the sages of antiquity were about to speak, they would always reflect first; when the sage’s intention is expressed, it becomes a Jing (scripture/classic) for the world to follow. Foolish people speak casually and bring disaster upon themselves, ultimately harming their own persons.

The Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected, a Daoist scripture) says: When all kinds of thoughts entwine in the chest, worry, fear, and agitated heat injure the Shen (spirit). When one is in official life and must deal with various affairs, one is also stirred by worldly disturbances; when speech involves auspicious and inauspicious outcomes, and bodily action involves gain and loss, worries and thoughts follow one after another without cease. Even if one has the mind to cultivate the Real, it is very difficult to remain firm; to hold fast to the Great Dao but not practice it, to grasp a treasure but not use it, and yet naturally hope that one’s hair will not turn white—such people are truly rare.

To hold office yet not be burdened by affairs, to keep the heart peaceful and cultivate inwardly; to let chaotic matters not injure the heart-mind and Shen, and let contention and competition not enter the breast—this is how a Daoist should be when in official life.

The Taiqing Zhongjing (Central Scripture of Great Clarity, a Daoist text) says: By all means do not sell my Dao-teaching for the sake of wealth and treasure, nor transmit the teaching to unsuitable people; but neither should you seal up the teaching and cut off its transmission. Those who transmit my learning will flourish; those who block its transmission, even if they cultivate alone, will surely meet with heavenly punishment. In transmitting my Dao-teaching, one should model oneself on Heaven and Earth, the rivers, and the Huai and the seas. Modeling oneself on Heaven and Earth—what do they not generate, what do they not complete? Modeling oneself on the rivers, the Huai, and the seas—where does the water flow not reach, which river or stream does it not carry?

The Xisheng Jing (Scripture of Western Ascension, a Daoist classic) says: Desire is the root of misfortune and disaster; “Nonbeing” is the origin of Heaven and Earth. People do not know the root of desire, nor recognize the origin of Heaven and Earth; therefore the sage removes desire and returns to “Nonbeing,” thereby protecting and nourishing himself.

In the Dongshen Jieshen Baoming Pian (Chapter on Admonishing the Body and Preserving Life, a Daoist chapter on precepts for the body and nourishing life), Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor) says: For the sage to preserve life, nothing is more important than body and mind. Can the benefit and harm of body and mind go beyond good and evil? Good and evil arise from the mind. If mind-thoughts cannot abide securely, they cling to external things; the object clung to is called “realm” (jingjie), and the mind capable of such clinging is called “mind.” All things arise from this, and all kinds of faults sprout from the mind. Thoughts sprouting in the mind are called “action” (xingye); the results produced by such action are called good and evil. Therefore, indulging desire produces evil, while stopping greed is good. Good can help worldly people and enable them to transcend the mundane; evil inevitably corrupts virtuous conduct and defiles body and mind. Thus the sage knows that although the mind is formless, it can exert effects; the body itself cannot operate on its own. Yet the mind does not record...

As far as the body is concerned, the mind’s function cannot manifest or be fully exercised; without the mind, the body loses its vitality. Although mind and body differ in form, their principle is interconnected: mind and body work together, and all good actions ultimately converge on a single goal.

Thus mind and body coordinate with each other in inner and outer, movement and stillness. The body cannot act by itself; it must be governed by the mind. If the mind cannot be still and always wants to cling to external things and chase desires, the body will rush about without rest, and desires will have no end. Therefore, the mind is the root of the difference between ordinary people and sages, while the body is where suffering and joy converge. The sage understands that misfortune arises from faults in the mind and knows that responsibility must lie with oneself; therefore he purifies the mind to eliminate misfortune and rectifies the will to eliminate faults.

Worldly people are not like this: they indulge their passions and desires but do not know that desire comes from the mind; they are arrogant and self-praising, extravagant and proud, but do not know that arrogance is produced by themselves; they only seek to show off strength and indulge their willfulness, disregarding their own safety. In this way they step by step take the road that invites misfortune, yet do not understand why peril and ruin come, and still act as before without knowing it. Therefore, those who are thoroughly enlightened and sage-like pity the ignorant and so leave behind teachings.

(Yunji Qiqian, fascicle 92)