The Thirty-Six Bagua Formations (Internal Reference)¶
This version preserves the Guide's original texts in full.
I. Definition and Essence¶
There are thirty-six Bagua Formations in the universe.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Chanyuan Chapter · 80 New Concepts of Lifechanyuan, Concept 64)
There are 36 Bagua Formations in the universe, and countless traps in LIFE — only by escaping these traps can LIFE attain true freedom.
(New Era Human 800 Concepts, 4th Edition · Concept 344)
There are 36 Dharma Formations in the universe — they are the source of the game, endlessly fascinating. Power, money, fame, profit, physical attraction, and emotion are all formations of their own. Once deeply entangled, one can barely break free. Only by attaining supreme perfect enlightenment can one "transcend the Three Realms and stand outside the Five Elements."
(New Era Human 800 Concepts, 4th Edition · Concept 462 · Awakening to the Dharma Formations)
I came to realize that the Greatest Creator had laid out thirty-six Bagua Formations throughout the universe. I came to realize that we humans are inside one of the formations set by the Greatest Creator.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Revelation Chapter · The Thirty-Six Bagua Formations That Are Hard to Break and Solve)
The reason the thirty-six Bagua Formations set by the Greatest Creator are so hard to break and solve is that we simply cannot imagine them — and because we cannot imagine them, we dismiss them as fabricated nonsense and groundless fantasy.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Becoming a Celestial Chapter · Categories and Realms of Celestials)
Each of the 36 Bagua Formations in the universe is a lair thick with spider-webs. If you do not walk out of the "Spider Web Lair," you cannot complete your elevation, and you cannot enter a new realm.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Biographical Chapter · A Childlike Thinker in the Jing Style)
You must escape the thirty-six Bagua Formations and break out of the sixty-four traps — this is actually not that difficult, as long as you follow the will of the Greatest Creator and heed the guidance of the celestials, Buddhas, and sages.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Poetry Chapter · Galloping Across the Vast Universe)
This is our destination — where can we run? Where can we go? The thirty-six Bagua Formations form a heaven-spanning net from which no one can escape. Yet the net is always open on one side. There is always a way out for those who seek it: as long as you find the exit and move toward it in advance, you will, at the last moment, board the ship of LIFE and sail toward the ideal shore.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Revelation Chapter · This Place — Revelation No. 87)
II. The Eighteen Formations¶
Formation 1 · The Emotion Formation (Qing Zhen)¶
Emotion is a formation of its own — gods have their divine emotion, demons have their demonic emotion, celestials have their celestial emotion, humans have their human emotion, spirits have their spirit emotion, ghosts have their ghostly emotion, beasts have their bestial emotion, birds have their avian emotion, trees have their arboreal emotion, grasses have their grassy emotion, and flowers most certainly have emotion. Together these constitute the layers and gradations of LIFE, forming a heaven-spanning net that uses emotion to keep each layer of LIFE thriving within its own space in lasting, orderly harmony.
To elevate from human to celestial, one must escape from the human Emotion Formation. Without leaving human emotion behind, one cannot enter celestial emotion — and without entering celestial emotion, one cannot become a celestial.
How to escape? In a word: abandon human emotion and embrace celestial emotion. Specifically: dilute parent-child bonds and deepen devotion to the Greatest Creator and the Buddhas; dilute bonds of siblings and friends and deepen love for all things in the universe; dilute exclusive romantic attachment and deepen the open, free-flowing affection of the celestial realm; dilute teacher-disciple bonds and deepen love of the Dao and truth.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Emotion Formation: Formation No. 1, 2010/8/9)
Of the 36 Bagua Formations, the Emotion Formation is the hardest to escape from. ... It is very difficult to escape the emotion net on your own. To escape, you must draw on an authoritative power — on the guidance of celestials, Buddhas, and sages. ... As long as your heart still clings to someone, yearns for someone, or wishes to maintain a relationship with someone, you are inside the Emotion Formation.
The day will come when your heart has nothing left to cling to, when your mind is unobstructed and unattached, when your emotion fills mountains and rivers and is anchored in the celestial islands — that is the day you will have escaped the Emotion Formation.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Escaping the Emotion Formation, 2020-09-18)
Formation 2 · The Desire Formation (Yu Zhen)¶
Humans have eight great desires: the desire for food, the desire for sex and emotion, the desire for pleasure, the desire for possessions, the desire for fame, the desire for life, the desire to possess and control, and the desire to stand out above others. These eight great desires constitute the Desire Formation. A normal need is not a desire — only a need that exceeds normal requirements is called a desire.
Desire is like a nose-ring on a bull: it leads a person around the Desire Formation for an entire lifetime, never allowing escape from a given level of LIFE space.
Once trapped inside the Desire Formation, a person's life is one of suffering, one without hope or a beautiful future, one destined for pain, exhaustion, and endless dissatisfaction — a life unable to experience joy, happiness, freedom, or bliss, destined to sink and float in the human realm through cycle after cycle.
How to escape? Walk the path of the Greatest Creator — that is, follow the natural way.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Desire Formation: Formation No. 2, 2010/8/24)
Formation 3 · The Ethics Formation (Lun Zhen)¶
Ethics (lun) refers to the relationships between people built on generational rank, social position, seniority, gender, and closeness — relationships such as grandparent-grandchild, parent-child, husband-wife, siblings, employer-employee, teacher-student, and so on.
Being trapped inside the Ethics Formation keeps people within orderly programs and rules of the game, while at the same time keeping them so entangled that they drift aimlessly within the Ethics Net, sleepwalking through one reincarnation after another, unable to escape the bondage of the realm of necessity or the confines of their LIFE tier.
How to escape? Cultivate independent consciousness and a complete personality. Make the will of the Greatest Creator and the Buddhas the governing standard for your life. ... That said, the responsibilities and obligations you owe must still be fulfilled, and the debts you owe must still be repaid.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Ethics Formation: Formation No. 3, 2010/8/18)
Formation 4 · The Belonging Formation (Shu Zhen)¶
Placing someone inside a particular group or circle — causing them to drift within it without realizing it — is the Belonging Formation. Nations, ethnic groups, races, political parties, religions, organizations, companies, families, and clans all constitute Belonging Formations.
People always want a sense of belonging, to be part of something — otherwise they feel unsettled, like a wandering ghost, like a cloud aimlessly adrift. This is the Belonging Formation. The vast majority of people spend their entire lives drifting inside it, never escaping.
How to escape? Think of yourself as a citizen of Earth. Do not let your consciousness attach itself to any nation, ethnic group, political party, religion, organization, or clan. Serve the whole Earth and all humanity — not any particular faction.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Belonging Formation: Formation No. 4, 2010/8/25)
Formation 5 · The Mind Formation (Xin Zhen)¶
The mind (xin) and the heart organ are two entirely different things.
In truth, the mind does not exist — humans have no mind; the mind is simply a Bagua Formation. People become entangled in the formation of the mind without realizing it, believing they have a mind and thereby being constrained by it.
The fully enlightened Buddha Shakyamuni told us: "The past mind cannot be grasped, the present mind cannot be grasped, the future mind cannot be grasped." The mind has never truly existed — where, then, could it be found?
How to escape? The World-Honored Buddha Shakyamuni instructed: "Give rise to a mind that abides nowhere — give rise to a mind that does not abide in form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma. Give rise to a mind that abides nowhere."
In a word: let go of the mind and become a person without a mind. A human without a mind becomes a celestial, becomes a Buddha.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Mind Formation: Formation No. 5, 2010/9/2)
Formation 6 · The Intelligence Formation (Zhi Zhen)¶
"All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow — like dew, like lightning. One should contemplate them as such." — The Diamond Sutra
In the human world, the wise are flowers — but not fruit. Flowers are dazzling and admired, which is why people all want to become wise. Yet it is precisely this desire to be wise that forms the Intelligence Formation, causing people to wander inside it for a lifetime, losing themselves in the pursuit of cleverness.
How to escape? The sage Laozi told us: "Abandon sageliness; discard cleverness." "Return to simplicity and truth; revert to the state of an infant." Follow Christ Jesus's teaching: "Become like a little child."
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Intelligence Formation: Formation No. 6, 2010/9/18)
Formation 7 · The Time Formation (Shijian Zhen)¶
Does time really exist? What is time, really? Why do things go through arising, abiding, decaying, and passing? Why do humans go through birth, aging, illness, and death?
Time does not exist — it is only a human illusion. Or we might say: time is merely a recorder of the state of material motion; time itself has no causal effect on how things develop or change.
The entire universe, the entire course of human development, has already been written into a script — with locations, characters, events, and plot all pre-written. Everything is unfolding according to that script. Even every person's birth, aging, illness, death, and life's joys and sorrows have already been arranged, all within fixed numbers, all within a program.
How to escape? Mentally place yourself in the Thousand-Year World, the Ten-Thousand-Year World, or the Celestial Islands Continent of the Elysium World — then watch the self in the human realm as if watching a film. This is the wonderful method for escaping the Time Formation.
The self in the drama is the self reading about this Time Formation at this very moment. The true self is the self described in the Heart Sutra — the self on the Celestial Islands Continent of the Elysium World. That self is Buddha! Is xing (nature)! Is a Celestial!
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Time Formation: Formation No. 7, 2010/9/29)
Formation 8 · The Thinking Formation (Siwei Zhen)¶
Confining each layer of LIFE to a certain dimensionality — causing its thinking to be unable to transcend the space-time of its existence — and thereby producing the spectacular diversity of the great world while maintaining the orderly hierarchy of LIFE: this is the Thinking Formation.
The Thinking Formation can never be fully escaped. The only solution is to elevate one's lower-level thinking to a higher tier. If a human thinks, contemplates, and reflects in the manner of a celestial — abandoning human thinking — they can escape the Thinking Formation assigned to humans and enter the celestial world; then the pain and suffering of being human will disappear.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Thinking Formation: Formation No. 8, 2010/9/30)
Formation 9 · The Space Formation (Kongjian Zhen)¶
The location and range of motion of matter and antimatter is called space.
To preserve the symmetric balance of LIFE spaces throughout the universe, the Greatest Creator set up the Space Formation: placing each LIFE within a defined space to complete its cycle of growth and decline, thereby maintaining the symmetric balance of LIFE throughout the universe.
Space is a form of limitation. The greater the space a LIFE inhabits, the greater its freedom.
A prisoner is confined to a space of a few square meters. Pigs are confined to the pigsty, fish to water, earthworms to soil, eagles to cliffs and sky, tigers and leopards to forests, plants to the ground, and humans to home (family, nation). This is the Space Formation.
How to escape? First and foremost, it is a matter of consciousness and thinking. Without transforming consciousness, without shifting thinking, one can never escape the Space Formation. To escape, a human must first resolve: I will no longer be human.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Space Formation: Formation No. 9, 2010/10/11)
Formation 10 · The Structure Formation (Jiegou Zhen)¶
Everything has a structure. Structure is the determining factor of a thing's shape and nature. Without structure there are no things, no universe, no LIFE, no anything.
All things and LIFE forms are confined to a particular spatial environment by their structure. Humans live in the human world and cannot live in the celestial realm — this is the constraint of the Structure Formation. To leave the human world and enter the celestial realm, humans must escape the Structure Formation.
How to escape? Simply change the nonmaterial structure of the human LIFE to the nonmaterial structure of a celestial LIFE. How? Format out human consciousness and install celestial consciousness. For LIFE, once consciousness transforms, the LIFE's nonmaterial structure transforms with it.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Structure Formation: Formation No. 10, 2010/11/1)
Formation 11 · The Fate Formation (Ming Zhen)¶
The Fate Formation is fixed numbers: it is the arrangement of rewards and punishments made by the Dao according to each person's karmic information from past lives — the final accounting of all merits and transgressions committed before one's current birth. Everything in this life that one cannot choose or control is the karmic result of past actions — the cause of past lives, the fruit of this life.
From the moment of birth, a person falls into the Fate Formation. No matter how hard they strive or struggle, they cannot escape its management.
The Fate Formation is the most complex of the thirty-six Bagua Formations and the hardest to escape, because everything was already arranged at birth — nothing can be fundamentally changed.
Toward the Fate Formation, we can only accept it calmly and submit. Any complaining, resisting, or struggling is not only futile but generates needless worry and sorrow. Accept your fate! Since this life's Fate Formation is fixed, one can only work toward a better fate in the next life.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Fate Formation: Formation No. 11, 2010/12/3)
Formation 12 · The Gravity Formation (Yinli Zhen)¶
Everything is bound by gravity — or one might say, protected by gravity. Without gravity there would be no world, no universe, no things, no phenomena, no LIFE of any kind.
Using gravity to confine and protect matter or antimatter within a defined space-time — preventing it from escaping — is the Gravity Formation.
Humans are simultaneously bound by both material and antimatter gravity, preventing them from escaping reincarnation in the human realm. The magnitude of antimatter gravity between two parties is proportional to the mutual debt between them, and inversely proportional to the favors and blessings exchanged.
Wherever gravity is strongest, matter moves toward it; wherever gravity is strongest, LIFE reincarnates toward it. Antimatter gravity on LIFE is latent, imperceptible, independent of will, and governed by the program of the Dao.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Gravity Formation: Formation No. 12, 2010/12/8)
Formation 13 · The Nature Formation (Xing Zhen)¶
Humans exist within xing (nature) as fish exist within water. Humans come from xing, live within xing, and return to xing. Without xing there are no humans. Without xing there is no great world. Xing is Buddha. To live within xing is to live within Buddha.
Giving all things their xing and causing them to exist within a defined environment — thereby producing the splendid, orderly, teeming diversity of the great world — is the Nature Formation.
How to escape? In terms of fundamental attributes, humans cannot escape the Nature Formation, because humans themselves are xing and cannot transcend it. To "escape the Nature Formation" means: overcome habitual nature, set aside innate/dispositional nature, and restore heavenly nature.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Nature Formation: Formation No. 13, 2010/12/13)
Formation 14 · The Sloth-and-Pleasure Formation (Duoyu Zhen)¶
People all have a lazy streak, pursuing ease and comfort, even indulgence and excess — until the inevitable reversal, a return to poverty, completing one cycle from poor to rich to poor again, from lowly to noble to lowly again. This is the Sloth-and-Pleasure Formation.
Ninety-eight percent of humanity can barely escape the Sloth-and-Pleasure Formation. Historical examples — the fall of civilizations, the decay of flourishing peoples, the corruption of once-great individuals — are countless, yet people still march headlong into the same trap. That is the power of this formation.
Without constant vigilance, without steadfast adherence to one's original intention, no one escapes the Sloth-and-Pleasure Formation.
How to escape? There is no other way besides upholding the New Era Human 800 Concepts and building your own soul garden as quickly as possible.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Sloth-and-Pleasure Formation: Formation No. 14, 2010/12/17)
Formation 15 · The Fixed-Number Formation (Dingshu Zhen)¶
The arising, development, turning points, and passing of all things in the world all have fixed numbers.
Giving all things defined fixed numbers — causing them to arise, develop, change, and pass within those numbers, so as to maintain the orderly operation of the great world — is the Fixed-Number Formation.
The method for escaping the Fixed-Number Formation: replace human consciousness with celestial consciousness. Once replaced, the fixed numbers of being human end, and the fixed numbers of being a celestial begin.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Fixed-Number Formation: Formation No. 15, 2010/12/20)
Formation 16 · The Instinct Formation (Beneng Zhen)¶
Instinct is the innate survival ability that individual LIFE displays naturally, according to programs set by the Greatest Creator, without any thinking, learning, practice, experience, or simulation — such as bees making honey, birds building nests, hens incubating eggs, spiders spinning webs, migratory birds traveling, lambs nursing, butterflies emerging from cocoons, mice digging burrows, roosters crowing, cats catching mice, pigeons courting, peach trees flowering, pear trees bearing fruit, mimosa plants curling their leaves, and animals fleeing danger.
Causing each layer and type of LIFE to instinctively maintain its own and its category's survival and reproduction according to set programs is the Instinct Formation.
Instinct both protects and constrains LIFE. Because of protection, LIFE is born with survival capabilities; because of constraint, LIFE finds it hard to transcend its category and elevate to a higher tier.
The weaker the instinct, the closer to a celestial; the stronger the instinct, the closer to an animal.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Instinct Formation: Formation No. 16, 2010/12/27)
Formation 17 · The Wisdom Formation (Zhihui Zhen)¶
Giving humans a degree of free will, then allowing them to use that free will and wisdom to create a more comfortable life and state of mind — satisfying their various desires and greed — in order to sustain the interesting and effective unfolding of the cosmic script: this is the Wisdom Formation.
Wisdom is a golden treasure — one cannot be without wisdom. Yet wisdom is simultaneously a devourer of a life's precious time. Played poorly, it ruins and harms one's life and LIFE without limit. ... A lifetime spent pursuing knowledge and wisdom is the most unnatural life possible, a detour and a tragedy. The highest realm of wisdom is to have no wisdom — "Hundun Wisdom."
How to escape the Wisdom Formation? After long reflection, the method I arrived at is: hold the Greatest Creator in your heart, keep your consciousness in a state of clear emptiness (kongling xiu), and then respond to whatever comes — with equanimity in circumstances, with transformation as affinities arise, moved by nature, acting as the moment calls.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Wisdom Formation: Formation No. 17, 2011/1/12)
Formation 18 · The Life-Death Formation (Shengsi Zhen)¶
Ceaseless generation and ceaseless turning: prior-life memories erased, reappearing as a "new self" in a designated space-time region, tirelessly, hope ever-present, all things flourishing, LIFE cycling without end, the drama constantly unfolding, the game never stopping — this is the Life-Death Formation.
Every person is inside the Life-Death Formation. Without escaping it there is no way out; without escaping it one cannot break free from the "six realms of reincarnation"; without escaping it one must endure the suffering of the mutual generation and conquest of the Five Elements; without escaping it one can never reach the sacred realm of the celestials.
How to escape? ... All things are but a game — only xing (nature) and ming (LIFE) are real. Treat everything as a game to be played. Hold fast to the hand of the Greatest Creator. Resolve this life's affinities and forge celestial ones.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Thirty-Six Bagua Formations · Life-Death Formation: Formation No. 18, 2011/1/4)
III. The Master Key to Breaking the Formations¶
To escape any formation, you need the method to do so. Without a method, charging blindly, crashing around, relying on luck — none of that will work.
For any formation, there is one master key: first, have a clear head — amid complex, confusing appearances, grasp the essence of things. To have a clear head, you must cultivate independent consciousness.
Independent consciousness means having a clear standard within your own consciousness — a standard by which you can independently and accurately judge complex, confusing phenomena, without being swayed by others' words, by immediate interests, by emotion, or by authority.
Nothing that obstructs our attainment of a joyful, happy, free, and blissful life — nothing that obstructs our journey to the Kingdom of Heaven in the Thousand-Year World, Ten-Thousand-Year World, or Celestial Islands Continent — whether power, status, money, fame, beauty, emotion, friendship, acquaintance, scripture, authority, a master, parents, a spouse, children, friends, a teacher, a confidant, supernatural powers, gods, or the Jade Emperor himself — none of these can be allowed to move us.
(Guide's Other Articles · 2009 · Independent Consciousness Is Needed to Walk Out of the 36 Bagua Formations)