Minimal Desires, Unshaken Composure · Internal Reference¶
Guide Xuefeng's original texts, for deep study
I. Core Essay — Minimal Desires, Unshaken Composure¶
Chanyuan Corpus · Immortal Cultivation · "Minimal Desires, Unshaken Composure"
A living being is composed of both a physical body and a spirit body — what we call the soul (hún) and the corporeal spirit (pò). The hún refers to the mind, consciousness, and inner life; the pò refers to the physical body, the material vehicle of life.
Those who seek transcendence focus their cultivation on the hún, attending to the pò only in moderation — that is, they prioritize the mind, consciousness, and inner life over the physical body.
Observe the surging crowds on any street: you will see only two kinds of people — one pursuing fame, the other chasing profit. This is the normal condition of the human masses. If we lose our clarity and join the ranks of this competition, we inevitably invert all priorities and squander our precious human lives.
Fame, profit, glory, and wealth are traps on the cultivation path; honor and humiliation, favor and disgrace are obstacles. Only through minimal desires and unshaken composure can one step onto the cultivation path.
Lesser people sacrifice their lives for profit. Scholars and artists sacrifice their lives for reputation. Scientists and experts sacrifice their lives for knowledge. Men of great ambition sacrifice their lives for achievement. Ordinary people sacrifice their lives for their families. Politicians sacrifice their lives for their nations. Sages sacrifice their lives for all under heaven. But immortal beings sacrifice their lives for the Tao.
"People die for wealth as birds die for food" — "Geese leave a cry, people leave a name." This is the life-philosophy of the worldly masses. Those who prize gain are imprisoned by gain; those who covet gain are injured by gain. Those who prize reputation are imprisoned by reputation; those who seek reputation are injured by reputation. The desire for fame and fortune is a bottomless abyss — once it opens without restraint, people inevitably want more: they get a raincoat and demand an umbrella; they become chancellor and covet the throne. To not be destroyed in the conflagration of desire for name and profit requires exceptional inner strength. The burning of desire inevitably makes people lose all judgment — they extort, deceive, cheat, harm the innocent, steal and accept bribes — stopping at nothing. The result is invariably that they brew their own bitter wine, dig their own graves, bring their own calamity, and bring about their own ruin.
Minimal desires are the starting point of cultivation. Without removing selfishness, one inevitably sinks into mundane life. Without curbing desire, one is inevitably consumed by the fire of craving. Practitioners must reduce their private motives, lower their cravings, and maintain a clear head in the face of fame, profit, sensual pleasures, and rare objects. The principle is: use objects to serve people, not let objects enslave people. Laozi counseled: "Desire what is not desired; do not prize things difficult to obtain." "The five colors blind the eye; the five sounds deafen the ear; the five flavors dull the palate; racing and hunting madden the mind; goods hard to obtain impede one's conduct." Once one chases fame and profit, one inevitably "competes for reputation in court and fights for gain in the market" — even risking life and reputation.
"No calamity is greater than not knowing enough; no fault is greater than craving to acquire." Pursuing fame and profit excessively inevitably brings disaster and misfortune. And consider: "A thousand acres of fine fields — but you sleep only eight feet at night." A bird in a forest perches on but one branch. Why struggle so?
Therefore, practitioners of transcendence should cultivate minimal desires, contentment, quiet non-striving, and natural simplicity — only thus can they avoid anxiety over gain and loss, and avoid conflict and dispute with others. "The one who does not contend — no one under heaven can contend with them." If I do not contend with you, what can you contend with me about?
The desire to avoid misfortune and seek good fortune, to be pleased by favor and cold toward humiliation — this too is the worldly mind. Throughout history, on the great road of honor and disgrace, people have played out scene after scene of bittersweet, heart-stopping tragedy: when favored, they grow smug and lose themselves; when disgraced, they explode in anger and shame. They do not realize: to be favored is to receive the status of a slave. To lose favor and face humiliation is to return to one's own original nature. Why let it trouble you?
To prize worldly wealth and reputation is to make it impossible to preserve the integrity of one's own character. To be shaken by both favor and disgrace is a display of servility, a form of extreme self-centeredness: when favored, one struts and tramples others; when disgraced, one becomes listless, whines, and grovels. Practitioners must guard against this.
To be shaken by both honor and humiliation is to easily lose one's innate nature. Once the innate nature is lost, one cannot even achieve the qualities of a genuine immortal being — one might hardly qualify as a proper human being at all. Therefore, one must cultivate detachment from fame and fortune, remain unshaken by honor and disgrace, transcend the mundane, and be the sovereign of one's own inner life and emotions.
"In hidden forests there is no honor or disgrace; on the path of principle there is neither warmth nor cold." Watch the white clouds and autumn moon moving freely; observe flowers opening and falling with neither attachment nor resistance. On the Taiji Buddha Mountain, free and easy; on the Penglai Heavenly Mountains, clouds roll and winds drift; in the boundless Ten-Thousand-Year realm, beginningless and endless; amid blue clouds and vast seas, natural and simple — this is the immortal heart, the immortal emotion, the immortal joy, and the immortal realm.
II. The Eight Hundred New-Era Concepts — Key Entries¶
New-Era Human Eight Hundred Concepts, Fourth Edition · Entry 466
Fame, profit, glory, and wealth are traps on the cultivation path; honor and humiliation, favor and disgrace are obstacles. Only through minimal desires and unshaken composure can one step onto the cultivation path. Minimal desires are the starting point of cultivation. Without removing selfishness, one sinks into mundane life; without curbing desire, one is consumed by the fire of craving. Practitioners must reduce selfish motives, lower cravings, and maintain a clear head in the face of fame, profit, and sensual pleasures. The principle: use objects to serve people, not let objects enslave people.
New-Era Human Eight Hundred Concepts, Fourth Edition · Entry 749
Composure before honor and disgrace allows the liver's wood energy to settle naturally; reverence in motion and stillness allows the heart's fire energy to stabilize naturally; moderation in diet keeps the spleen's earth energy from leaking; regulating the breath and speaking little preserves the lung's metal energy; serenity without craving allows the kidney's water energy to suffice naturally. Eat before hunger; stop before fullness. Overeating harms the spleen; undereating harms the stomach. Too much thirst harms the blood; too much drink harms the qi. Eat and drink in moderation; avoid distension that harms the heart and lungs. When sitting or lying, guard against wind reaching the back of the head — wind at the back of the head shortens life.
III. Minimal Desires and Physical Health¶
Xuefeng Corpus · Chanyuan Section · "Doctors and Hospitals Will Disappear: On the Lifechanyuan Era, Part Six"
Generally, people who are physically healthy are those who are open-hearted and upright, kind and cheerful, with minimal desires — who feel grateful for their lives, are content, and move spontaneously. Ultimately, physical health is directly related to the quality of one's antimatter life-structure.
IV. Bare the Simple, Embrace the Plain — Laozi's Teaching¶
Xuefeng Corpus · Soul Section · "Breaking Spells for Everyone, Part Five"
Jesus Christ taught that it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. The Buddha's teaching was not to accumulate wealth, but to live on alms and ferry beings across to liberation. Laozi's teaching was: "Gold and jade filling the hall — none can keep them." "Bare the simple, embrace the plain; minimize private motives, reduce cravings." "Discard the extreme, the excessive, the extravagant." "First: compassion; second: frugality; third: do not presume to be first under heaven." Zhuangzi counseled: pure heart with few desires, tranquil and empty.
The teachings of the divine, the Buddha, the immortal, and the sage are not wrong. For once people are attached to material wealth, they not only easily fall into the endless abyss of suffering but also lose the hearing of their spiritual nature, drift from the great Tao, and have no opportunity to elevate their lives.