Intermediate Cultivation (Friendly Version)¶
From Rules to Transformation¶
Once you've established the daily habits of Elementary Cultivation, your life becomes more orderly and your mind more settled. But that's just the beginning.
Intermediate Cultivation goes deeper. It's not about following more rules — it's about changing how you see the world, rebuilding your life's trajectory, and gradually uncovering a hidden transcendence within ordinary everyday life.
The Central Goal¶
Intermediate Cultivation means creating a new life trajectory through reverence for the Greatest Creator, awakening to the Dao, and recognizing Buddha-nature — entering and transcending the mundane, engaging and leaving the world, becoming ordinary yet transcendent, and reaching the state of forgetting self and world, living by heart images.
This single sentence holds 11 distinct aspects. Here's what the key phrases mean.
Three Key Pairs¶
Entering the Mundane · Transcending the Mundane
Entering the mundane means accepting the ordinary world around you — the social rituals, the pursuit of money and status, the habits and customs of common people — as normal, without judgment or interference.
Transcending the mundane means gradually not being captured by these things. You understand them, but you're not tangled in them.
"Shed a little worldliness and gain a degree of elegance. Fully transcend the mundane, and you have become a celestial being."
Engaging the World · Leaving the World
Engaging the world means fully living life — going through failure, betrayal, poverty, illness, grief, and joy. Not avoiding anything. Experiencing the full range of what it means to be human.
Leaving the world means that after all that experience, you can look at it all "as one who has already died" — not withdrawing from life, but seeing through it.
The key insight: "Engage first, then leave — that's the shortcut." Trying to leave the world without first engaging it actually makes the path longer.
Becoming Ordinary · Transcending the Ordinary
Becoming ordinary means living simply and humbly — no drama, no ambition for fame, no need to stand out.
Transcending the ordinary is the quiet power hidden in that plainness. It's not visible on the surface, but it cannot be shaken. Those who have achieved this "look ordinary but have essentially arrived at the celestial realm."
Fate vs. Fortune: You Have More Control Than You Think¶
Here's an important insight from Intermediate Cultivation: your destiny has two parts.
Fate is what you're born with — your heredity, your time of birth, your family circumstances. You can't control it. Accept it.
Fortune is what you create — which path you choose, what you learn, who you spend time with. This is entirely up to you.
The conclusion: even with difficult circumstances you were born into, you can reshape your destiny by carefully managing your fortune. Three ways to do it: 1. Choose work that fits your personality — don't try to be someone you're not 2. Keep learning and educating yourself 3. Surround yourself with people of genuine accomplishment and virtue
What Are "Heart Images"?¶
This is one of the most mysterious aspects of Intermediate Cultivation.
A heart image is not something you deliberately picture. It's a vivid, realistic image that spontaneously appears in your mind when you're at peace, free from desire, in a state of calm — a scene of a future you will actually inhabit.
The Guide himself experienced this multiple times. As a child of seven or eight, watching the sunset, he imagined going to "the farthest west." Thirty years later, he found himself living in Zimbabwe — the farthest west from his childhood home — in a villa with 64 species of trees in the garden, birds singing every morning.
"Once a heart image appears, that is your future. The negative universe will bring you to the place shown in your heart image."
Forgetting Self and World: The Summit¶
Forgetting self and world is the highest goal of Intermediate Cultivation.
Simply put: when you're no longer obsessed with "what I want" and "what I have," when you're no longer gripped by gains and losses — when you exist in a state of lightness, flow, and deep peace — that is forgetting self and world.
It doesn't happen all at once. It's the accumulated result of sustained Intermediate Cultivation.
"When you have forgotten self and world, you already possess Buddha-nature."
Three Kinds of Self-Rescue¶
Intermediate Cultivation places strong emphasis on self-reliance:
- Life self-rescue: Use your own mind and hands. Don't wait. Don't depend.
- Spiritual self-rescue: Nurture your vital energy, keep your health and vitality strong.
- Soul self-rescue: No matter what difficult situation you're in, keep aspiring toward truth, goodness, and beauty.
"As long as you learn soul self-rescue, celestial beings and Buddhas will help you break through adversity, and miracles will certainly occur."
Welcome to explore the other versions of 【Intermediate Cultivation】: http://wiki.lifecosmos.org/en/intermediate-cultivation/