Red Dust · Internal Reference¶

This version is for deep study. It preserves the Guide's original texts in translation, organized by thematic sections.

I. Definition and Essential Nature¶

Red Dust Is the Thirty-Six Bagua Formations

"What is Red Dust? Red Dust is the Thirty-Six Bagua Formations. When we say 'living in the Red Dust,' we mean living inside these thirty-six formations."

"The strongest and hardest formation to break in the Red Dust is the emotion web — this is the core of the Red Dust."

"At the center of the emotion web is the husband-wife bond, followed by the father-son bond, mother-daughter bond, father-daughter bond, mother-son bond, grandparent-grandchild bond, teacher-disciple bond, sibling bonds, lover bonds, extended family bonds, friendship bonds, comrade bonds, colleague bonds, and so on, and so on."

"If this emotion web is never seen through, never broken through, we will forever be adrift and revolving in the Red Dust, and will never reach the ideal shore." (Xuefeng's Collected Writings · Awakening Essays · See Through the Red Dust Early)

II. Characteristics and Manifestations of Red Dust¶

Endless and Maze-Like

"Red Dust goes deep with no end in sight — like layer upon layer of a spider's web. If you don't fight your way out, you'll end up becoming the spider yourself." (New Era Human 800 Concepts, 4th Edition · Concept 293)

"The ties of the Red Dust grow deeper the longer you stay. Trying to resolve Red Dust entanglements while still living in the Red Dust is like trying to lift yourself off the ground by pulling on your own hair — utterly impossible." (Xuefeng's Collected Writings · Inspiration Essays · Stop Lingering in the Red Dust)

A Great Dye Vat; Universal Selfishness

"Among those living in the Red Dust — from emperors down to beggars, from doctoral supervisors to the illiterate in remote villages, from parents to children, from masters to disciples, from billionaires to beggars — not a single one is without selfishness. Every person lives for themselves. Every person's daily striving and calculating is primarily for their own benefit."

"The Red Dust is a great dye vat. Soak in it long enough and you will inevitably be contaminated. What people call 'a great hermit hides in the city' — what a joke! It just means they've become more cunning, more devious, more resigned. Is there a single clean person in the Red Dust? Not one person here doesn't give off a smell — it's just that, as the saying goes, 'Enter a fish market long enough and you stop noticing the stench.'" (Xuefeng's Collected Writings · Inspiration Essays · Stop Lingering in the Red Dust)

A Place of Right and Wrong

"The Red Dust is a place of right and wrong, filthy through and through; grudges and grievances are exhausting — it is not a good game." (Chanyuan Corpus · Cultivation Practice · Purification Mantra of the Chanyuan Celestial)

Full of Traps and Ordeals

"Living in the Red Dust, there are traps at every moment and ordeals everywhere. Without leaving the Red Dust, you will never escape the traps, never shake off the ordeals — like being surrounded by thousands of troops, like being caught in endless heaving waves. Only by attaining Buddhahood right where you stand can you fly over the ordeals and enter the Buddha realm."

"Everything connected to me, everything related to me, all of it is in the Red Dust — all of it is fleeting clouds, dream bubbles, not worth grief." (Chanyuan Corpus · Buddha Cultivation · Transcending Space-Time, Entering Buddha Realm)

III. Clarifications and Distinctions¶

Seeing Through Red Dust ≠ Resignation

"My releasing of worldly bonds is not 'seeing through Red Dust' in the sense of a heart turned to ashes. It is finding a new opening — entering the realm of the celestial. Here, in Lifechanyuan — the home for heart and spirit — together with Chanyuan Celestials from sacred mountains, we co-create the Lifechanyuan era, living out our truest nature to the fullest, living out freedom to the fullest." (Xuefeng's Collected Writings · Miscellaneous Essays · Worldly Bonds Released)

"Cultivating in Red Dust, Awakening in Red Dust, Applying in Red Dust"

"To cultivate spiritual powers, concentration, and wisdom — the ultimate aim is for these to work within the Red Dust. If they can't be applied in the Red Dust, what good are they? That would be the very definition of 'useless.' One must cultivate in the Red Dust, awaken in the Red Dust, apply in the Red Dust." (Guide's Other Writings · 2010 · Why Is Everyone's Progress So Slow Despite Years of Practice?)

IV. Cultivation: Why Red Dust Cannot Produce Celestial Beings or Buddhas¶

The Essential Definitions:

"Buddha is nature — mind with no dwelling, no obstruction; no self, no form; free and at ease."

"Celestial Being is nature — flowing freely with circumstances; wandering at ease; united with the Tao; graceful and unbound."

Four Dimensions Analyzed:

"A mind with no dwelling and no obstruction is the fundamental characteristic of Celestial Beings and Buddhas. Can this be achieved in the Red Dust? Not one bit of possibility. In the Red Dust, a person must first solve the problem of survival. To solve survival, there will inevitably be things one's mind clings to, things that obstruct it — worry, anxiety, fear, and apprehension pile up. How can one have a mind with no dwelling and no obstruction?"

"No self, no form, free and at ease — these are the root characteristics of Celestial Beings and Buddhas. In the Red Dust, every person possesses material things; no one can achieve 'owning nothing.' Without owning nothing, it is very hard to achieve no self, no form. The moment one carries responsibilities and obligations, the moment one worries about food, clothing, shelter, livelihood, aging, illness, and death — one cannot be free and at ease. How can one become a Buddha or Celestial Being?"

"Moving freely with circumstances and wandering at ease is the basic condition of Celestial Beings and Buddhas. In the Red Dust, a person must rush about, worry, and be anxious for survival — bound by possessions, relatives, concepts, and laws in the worldly realm. One cannot flow freely with circumstances. Even if a person wanders to the ends of the earth, the mind carries countless attachments. How can one wander freely?"

"Being united with the Tao and graceful and unbound is the root state of Celestial Beings and Buddhas. To unite with the Tao requires living by one's original nature. But people in the Red Dust live by their reactive mind, not their nature. A person spends a lifetime dazzled by the ever-shifting spectacle of the great world, perpetually caught in the state of grasping for desires and fretting over poverty. It is very hard to perceive the characteristics and qualities of the Tao. So those in the Red Dust find it nearly impossible to unite with the Tao — as for being graceful and unbound, that remains a dream entirely out of reach."

"Throughout thousands of years of people cultivating Celestial Being and Buddha in the Red Dust — how many have actually achieved it? One in ten thousand? Even if one in a thousand succeeded, the odds are still too low. The reason: in the Red Dust, one cannot become Celestial or Buddha. Calculating endlessly over profits, nursing grievances endlessly over injuries — how does one become Celestial or Buddha?"

"Just as a seed can only germinate, grow, flower, and bear fruit when given suitable soil and conditions — all living beings carry the Buddha-nature and Celestial-nature, the seed of becoming Celestial and Buddha. For this seed to germinate, grow, flower, and bear fruit, it needs the environment and conditions for such growth. Without these, a person cannot become Celestial or Buddha — and the Red Dust does not provide the environment and conditions for becoming Celestial or Buddha."

"Where does one go to cultivate? To a church? A monastery? A temple? Deep in the mountains? Wherever one goes, as long as the soil and conditions exist to achieve a mind with no dwelling and no obstruction, no self and no form, free and at ease — and simultaneously flowing freely with circumstances, wandering at ease, united with the Tao, graceful and unbound — that is sufficient."

"Today, the best cultivation ground for becoming Celestial and Buddha is the Second Home." (Chanyuan Corpus · Celestial Cultivation · Red Dust Makes It Hard to Become Celestial or Buddha, 2012/9/21)

Marriage and Family Cannot Produce Celestial Beings:

"People living within marriage and family have absolutely no possibility of becoming Celestial Beings or Buddhas — because the family environment simply does not possess the conditions needed to produce Celestial Beings and Buddhas... Marriage and family are where ordinary people and worldly folk are produced, not where Celestial Beings and Buddhas are produced. This is just like a garbage heap being where mosquitoes and flies are produced, not where bees are produced." (Chanyuan Corpus · Celestial Cultivation · Environment Produces Celestial Beings and Buddhas)

Leaving Red Dust Is One of the Second Home's Core Advantages:

"From this point on, living only for principles and faith, far from the Red Dust, no longer tormented by worldly affairs and worldly people." (New Era Human 800 Concepts, 4th Edition · Concept 645)

V. Obstacles: What Keeps People in the Red Dust¶

The Emotion Web Is the Greatest Barrier

"The strongest and hardest formation to break in the Red Dust is the emotion web — this is the core of the Red Dust." "If this emotion web is never seen through, never broken through, we will forever be adrift and revolving in the Red Dust, and will never reach the ideal shore." (Xuefeng's Collected Writings · Awakening Essays · See Through the Red Dust Early)

Clinging to Red Dust Blocks Entry to the Kingdom of Heaven

"To still cling to the mundane world, to still yearn for the Red Dust — that is greed. To crave life leads surely to fearing death. To fear death leads surely to being unable to leave the Red Dust. Being unable to leave the Red Dust means being unable to reach the Kingdom of Heaven." (Guide's Other Writings · 2024 · My Living Will and View of the Home)

Leaving the Team Means Sinking Back into Red Dust

"The moment one leaves the team, one will quickly be swallowed by the rolling Red Dust and drift into mediocrity, discarded by the times." (Guide's Other Writings · 2020 · The Value and Meaning of Collective Advancement)

Transgression Means Falling Back into Red Dust

"A highly free environment is a kind of heaven. But if one 'transgresses' in heaven, the inevitable result is being cast back down into the mundane world, falling into the Red Dust." (Xuefeng's Collected Writings · Awakening Essays · Be Careful — Wild Grass Grows on the Land of Freedom)

VI. Ultimate Realm and Destination: Transcending Red Dust¶

The Practitioner's Path: Above the Red Dust

"The practitioner's path transcends the ordinary and reaches directly toward the celestial realm... Even as death spreads in all directions, the practitioner sees through the Red Dust and smiles; transcendent above all things, serene amid mountain collapse, delighted on the journey, natural on the Tao's path — facing tigers and wolves without fear, at rest amid adversity with a still heart, facing death without blinking, without self, without other, without the appearance of phenomena." (Chanyuan Corpus · Cultivation Practice · The Path of the Practitioner)

The Human-Celestial Realm: Seeing Through Red Dust

"Human-celestials do not possess supernatural powers. They simply can see through the Red Dust, see through the illusions of the world — they are not attached. Things like country, nationality, family, political party, religion — none of these weigh on their minds. They go with whatever circumstances bring, move with their original nature, act as the moment requires... Wealth, status, reputation — all viewed as passing clouds. Success, failure, winning, losing — all viewed as life's floating mist." (Chanyuan Corpus · Celestial Cultivation · Categories and Realms of Celestial Beings)

Those Who Have Become Celestial: No Clinging to Red Dust

"Not clinging to the Red Dust, not clinging to the human world, not clinging to human life, not clinging to human affections — we are Celestial Beings of the Thousand-year World, free and at ease." (Chanyuan Corpus · Celestial Cultivation · Transcending Space-Time, Ascending into Celestial Being)

Chanyuan Celestials: Consciousness Already Transcending Red Dust

"Though still living in the Red Dust, your consciousness has long since transcended the Red Dust — there is only a little helplessness remaining." (Guide's Other Writings · 2021 · Transcending the Prison of Life and Death — That Too Is Heaven)

Crossing the Red Dust to Return to the Source of LIFE

"Lifechanyuan is the home of heart and spirit. Our aim is to cross over the rolling Red Dust, return directly to the source of LIFE, merge with the Tao, and then — freely — set out toward the most beautiful realm of LIFE: the Celestial Islands Continent." (Xuefeng's Collected Writings · Friendship Essays · Congratulations to Wandao — One of the Eight Worthies)

The Declaration of the Purification Mantra

"No trace left in the mundane world, no imprint left in the Red Dust — a nightmare finally over; wake up and rejoice." (Chanyuan Corpus · Cultivation Practice · Purification Mantra of the Chanyuan Celestial)

VII. Poetic Expressions¶

"Leap Over the Red Dust, Forever Together" (Xuefeng, 2007/3/24)

"You and I come from the homeland of the Kingdom of Heaven; meeting in the Red Dust is a destined program... The clamor of the Red Dust cannot stop hearts that are linked; in this life I follow you, unafraid of heights or distances..." (Xuefeng's Collected Writings · Poetry · Leap Over the Red Dust, Forever Together)

"I am a rare flower of the Kingdom of Heaven, untouched by the smoke and blossoms of Red Dust; alone and beautiful amid a thousand miles of ice, unfolding with celestial grace." (Guide's Other Writings · 2010 · Seeking Snow Lotus amid a Thousand Miles of Ice — On Lifechanyuan Outreach)

Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Releasing Worldly Bonds · Qing — Affection · Becoming Celestial and Buddha · The Second Home · No Attachment, No Obstruction · Transcending the Ordinary · Transforming into a Celestial Being