Fluid Adaptability (灵活圆融) — Internal Reference¶
I. Definition and Essence¶
Non-action does not mean lying still like a stone or a log. It means fluid adaptability in accordance with nature — being able to remain at ease wherever you are (suí yù ér ān), transforming through affinity (suí yuán ér huà), moving with your innate nature (suí xìng ér dòng), and acting as the moment calls (suí jī ér zuò) — with no pursuit, no beseeching, no ideals, no wishes, no desires, no attachment, no resentment, no distress, no intimacy or distance, no discrimination, no worry, no fear, and no self. As a Buddha, one has entered nirvana stillness; as a celestial, everything has become play.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Cultivation Chapter · Non-Action Is the State of Celestials and Buddhas)
Fluid adaptability (línghuó yuánróng) brings out the best in others; the individual self merges into the collective. Líng huó — líng (the spiritual essence) comes alive; and when the spirit comes alive, it becomes one with the Spirit of the Greatest Creator — and so the whole manifests as a harmonious, warm atmosphere. A collective family that can reach this level is truly rare in the world and deserves to be remembered for ages.
(Guide's Other Writings · 2025 · Yesterday Everyone Made Me Feel Wonderful)
II. Connection to the Tao of Yi (易): Adaptive Change¶
Yi Zhongtian — "Yi" meaning "heavenly adaptability" — fluid adaptability and adaptive wisdom is the essence of yi. Within the unchanging lies change; within change lies the unchanging — this is the core of Yi.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Famous Figures Chapter · Revising Your Nine Classic Insights — To Yi Zhongtian)
Within the unchanging lies change; within change lies the unchanging.
(New Era Human Eight Hundred Concepts, Fourth Edition · Concept 78)
The Dharma has no fixed form — a thousand changes, ten thousand transformations. Within the unchanging lies change; within change lies the unchanging. The core never changes; methods and approaches must adapt fluidly to external circumstances.
(Guide's Other Writings · 2017 · My Grand Strategic Vision for Discussion)
The Dharma is the supreme teaching of fluid adaptability; therefore, studying the Dharma is correct.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Miscellaneous Essays · Should Buddhism Be Wholly Negated? [Discussion Draft])
III. Manifestations and Standards¶
(i) Concrete Expression in Interactions¶
In dealing with others — fluid adaptability, always leaving room.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Cultivation Chapter · 64 Details That Cultivate Celestial Bearing, Detail 61)
Fifth: I am a person of adaptive wisdom and fluid adaptability, with a mind that does not rigidify — someone who can play and joke with you, who can play in the mud with you, and will never impose my will upon you.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Friendship Chapter · Eight Reasons Worth Following Me)
The depth of a true person: solid foundations, reasoned discernment, reliable conduct, handling affairs with fluid adaptability without overstepping.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Essays · Without Measure, No Manhood)
Clear-eyed and bright-minded, intent lucid and spirit alert, fluidly adaptive — the path forward is open.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Chanyuan Chapter · What Inner Qualities a Chanyuan Grass Must Possess)
(ii) Fluid Adaptability and Playful Openness¶
The brothers and sisters who love playful banter are easier to get along with, more fluidly adaptive, with fewer weeds in their soul gardens, and more capable of bringing joy, happiness, freedom, and wellbeing to others. In a word: those who enjoy playful banter have more beautiful souls.
(Guide's Other Writings · 2025 · Yesterday Everyone Made Me Feel Wonderful)
Filter through the brothers and sisters in the community one by one, and you will reach this conclusion: those who love playful banter are more fluidly adaptive and more reasonable; those who are overly proper and dislike playful banter are more self-enclosed and more prone to various problems.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Chanyuan Chapter · Verifying the Community's Concept of Love and Sexuality with Facts)
(iii) As a Marker of Cultivation Progress¶
Is my thinking today more fluidly adaptive than yesterday?
(Chanyuan Corpus · Civilization Chapter · How New Members Find Their Place in Lifechanyuan)
The community now has a group of Chanyuan Grasses whose faith is firm, character excellent, work diligent, conduct solid, hearts strong, principles upheld — needing no management, souls beautiful, fluidly adaptive, gracefully free, unmoved by any storm.
(Guide's Other Writings · 2016 · The Community's Art of Encouragement Needs to Advance)
A group of outstanding talents combining the qualities of truth, goodness, beauty, love, faithfulness, and sincerity — hardworking, kind, wholesome, trustworthy, sincere, fluidly adaptive, with firm conviction and strong will, excellent in all they do, cultured and noble.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Chanyuan Chapter · The Eight Peerless Treasures of the Second Home)
Chanyuan Grasses are fluidly adaptive and change-wise — they will surely be lives of the Heavenly Kingdom.
(Guide's Other Writings · 2021 · In Praise of Those Who Got Vaccinated for the Community)
(iv) The Guide's Own Fluid Adaptability¶
As the guide — an emissary of the Greatest Creator — I myself am a zero, knowing virtually nothing. My greatest advantage is moving with my innate nature, fluid adaptability, going along with change, unbound by traditional rules. My thinking has no fetters; I follow only the Greatest Creator. I live by the Tao's arrangement, according to the will of the Greatest Creator.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Heart Chapter · Follow the Tao's Arrangement, Live by the Greatest Creator's Will)
Have I been fluidly adaptive in my interactions with others?
(Xuefeng Corpus · Inspirational Chapter · Continue the Trek Toward the Pure Land)
IV. Cultivation Practice: How to Attain Fluid Adaptability¶
(i) Living in One's Innate Nature (Huóxìng)¶
Simple: cast away the ego-mind, and live in your innate nature (xìng). This enables free-flowing, graceful fluid adaptability. Nature is Buddha; nature is celestial. Once you achieve huóxìng, do not doubt — you are already a celestial or a Buddha.
(Guide's Other Writings · 2016 · Beware of the Mind-Aperture Being Clouded)
Live in your innate nature! Buddha is nature; nature is Buddha. To live in nature is to be a living Buddha, a living celestial — how free!
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Hexagram Arrays · The Mind Array: The Fifth Hexagram Array)
Illuminate the mind, see the nature, nature is Buddha — Buddha has no ego-mind. An ego-mind means suffering; to live in nature is bodhi, the nature-light fully rounded, illuminating all.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Buddha-Attainment Chapter · Transcend Time and Space, Enter the Buddha Realm)
(ii) Breaking Free from the Hexagram Arrays, Restoring Original Nature¶
The path I guide is not about setting barriers and shackles for anyone — it is about expanding thinking with fluid adaptability, and guiding everyone to break out of the 36 hexagram arrays, ultimately restoring each one's original nature, to live freely, fully, comfortably, and without worry — to live out oneself, live with flair, live a life without regret or hatred.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Chanyuan Chapter · Eight Immortals Cross the Sea, Each Displaying Their Talents)
V. Obstacles and Opposites¶
When I see a person who is prim and self-righteous, always saying "the Buddha says this" or "the scriptures say that" or "the masters say so" — rigid and inflexible, not even a trace of fluid adaptability, and loudly condemning love and sexuality — I always feel as though I have encountered a ghost.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Chanyuan Chapter · Verifying the Community's Concepts with Facts)
I did not previously understand linghuoyuanrong deeply enough. Through the demonstrations of great figures like Zhehui, I finally understood its true meaning. From now on I too will be fluidly adaptive!
(Guide's Other Writings · 2024 · In Tribute to Great Figures Like Zhehui)
VI. Ultimate State: The Third Step of Becoming Celestial¶
The Three Steps of Becoming Celestial: First step: Having left behind distress, pain, sorrow, anxiety and fear, living in joy, happiness, freedom and wellbeing — one has already become a celestial. Second step: The mind without attachment, the mind without impediment, drifting freely with affinity, moving naturally in ease, always in a state of delight — one is already a celestial. Third step: No ego-mind; living entirely within one's innate nature — fluidly adaptive with extraordinary sensitivity, possessing 64 divine abilities, endlessly transforming, always in supreme bliss — this is the ultimate state of celestial perfection.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Cultivation Chapter · The Three Steps of Becoming Celestial)
...Third step: No ego-mind; living entirely within one's innate nature — fluidly adaptive with extraordinary sensitivity, possessing 64 divine abilities. Mind without attachment, mind without impediment, no-self no-form, self-sufficient and self-harmonious. Drifting freely with affinity, moving naturally in ease, united with the Tao, graceful and free.
(New Era Human Eight Hundred Concepts, Fourth Edition · Concept 497)
The highest of the three realms of the celestial: thinking has already transcended the boundaries of heaven and earth; consciousness has surpassed the human world; body, heart and spirit have reached supreme freedom; possessing boundless divine transformations — able to manifest any form, to create from nothing, to instantly conjure buildings, plants, animals, people, or even create heaven and earth, sun and moon, mountains and rivers — effortlessly, without the slightest obstruction.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Cultivation Chapter · The Three Realms of Celestials and the Three Steps to Becoming Celestial)
VII. Hundun Management and the Second Home¶
(The eighth principle of the Second Home's way of life:) Eight: Fluid adaptability — endless transformation.
(New Era Human Eight Hundred Concepts, Fourth Edition · Concept 628)
The Second Home (Life Oasis) has no formal rules or regulations; there is no leadership in the traditional sense, only differences in assigned roles. Everyone is a master of the community. All affairs are handled flexibly and responsively according to the principle: "The Dharma has no fixed form — a thousand changes, ten thousand transformations; within the unchanging lies change, within change lies the unchanging."
(New Era Human Eight Hundred Concepts, Fourth Edition · Concept 646)
The community's management is Hundun (organic) Management, following primarily the thinking of Laozi. Our thinking is fluidly adaptive — not rigid, not fixed. We are not attached to anything; everything goes along with natural change. Only our convictions are unchanged. The Dharma has no fixed form, a thousand changes, ten thousand transformations; within the unchanging lies change, within change lies the unchanging. In any difficult situation or circumstance, we will find a way — the brightest, most beautiful way.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Chanyuan Chapter · Why I Am Full of Confidence in the Second Home's Future)
Children raised in the community will, when they enter society, have far greater adaptive capacity and the ability to handle situations with fluid adaptability than children raised by conventional society.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Chanyuan Chapter · The Strategy and Plan for Cultivating Children in the Second Home)