Understanding the Way – ACEVS
I wrote about it before. I remember the term "Way" for quite a while,
the articles about "Way" are mysterious and vague.
Introduction#
The character "引" suddenly struck me as the posture of a left-handed person drawing a bow and shooting arrows, specifically with a compound bow. I glanced at the picture, and the direction of the compound bow was wrong.
Starting from mindfulness practice.
About ten years ago, I began studying the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra.
Later, I attended a lecture by Nan Huai-Chin and started learning to meditate.
I initially thought that meditation required sitting with five hearts facing up,
but Nan Huai-Chin said there are many sitting postures for meditation; just find one that you can sit in comfortably and start.
There’s no need to deliberately pursue the standard lotus position, commonly known as the cross-legged sitting method.
After practicing for a while, there was some kind of exam,
and I practiced the crane pose while reviewing.
As a result, I failed the exam for the subject that took the most time.
I passed the other subjects.
Once on a train, I encountered a couple with a child,
in a sleeper compartment, chatting about everything under the sun.
Just before sleeping, his wife started meditating, right there on the lower bunk,
I saw and initially didn’t want to disturb her,
but I wanted to know how long she had persisted? What were the effects?
She had been practicing for five or six years, which was very helpful for emotional management,
and her sleep quality had improved significantly; she felt it was beneficial, so she continued.
She said it just takes a bit of time, no medication or injections, simple and easy to do.
For a while, I wanted to resume meditating,
but I was putting the cart before the horse, trying to fish for something in the tree.
I thought I should first get a meditation cushion, then get a set of traditional practice clothes, and I already had incense burners and everything.
I thought it was expensive, and I still felt I didn’t have time.
So, my meditation practice was interrupted.
Meditation#
Meditation is very similar to sitting. There are many methods.
Note
Meditation methods include concentration meditation, open meditation, and movement meditation, etc. Here are introductions to these methods:
- Concentration Meditation
- Breath Meditation: Breath meditation is the most common form of meditation, requiring individuals to focus on their breathing process. By observing each inhalation and exhalation, it helps reduce distractions and achieve inner peace[^4^]. This method is suitable for beginners as it is simple and does not require any special tools or environment.
- Object Meditation: Object meditation typically involves focused observation of a specific object, such as the flame of a candle or a mandala pattern. This type of meditation helps improve concentration and can guide practitioners into a deeper state of relaxation[^1^].
- Chanting Meditation: Chanting meditation is a method of helping to concentrate the mind by repeating specific words or phrases (called mantras). These words can be any vocabulary with positive meanings, or even simple syllables like "one," "two," etc.[^1^].
- Open Meditation
- Mindfulness Meditation: Mindfulness meditation emphasizes experiencing each moment of the present without judgment, whether good or bad. It encourages individuals to accept all feelings, emotions, and happenings around them, rather than trying to change them[^1^][^3^]. This method is very suitable for coping with stress and challenges in daily life.
- Movement Meditation: Movement meditation refers to maintaining a high state of awareness during daily activities, such as walking, running, or even eating. The core is to focus all attention on the action currently being performed, allowing the mind to rest[^1^].
- Other Types of Meditation
- Body Scan: Body scan is a method of gradually focusing on the sensations of different parts of the body, starting from the top of the head down to the toes. This practice can help relax tense body parts and relieve stress[^1^].
- Visualization Meditation: Visualization meditation requires participants to imagine a scene or image that makes them feel comfortable and safe, and to describe every detail of this scene as vividly as possible. This method is particularly effective for improving sleep quality[^1^].
There are many ways to meditate, akin to creating a flow state, during activities like walking, running, or eating, where mechanical movements occur, and the brain enters a silent state. The main focus is to control consciousness, concentrating on one sensation, such as breathing, cutting off other sensations, allowing your awareness to focus on a single issue without needing to solve it. Gradually, other issues are blocked out.
Whether sitting or meditating, it’s essentially about controlling consciousness or attention. Over time, it may lead to a state of enlightenment.
Enlightenment#
I have read some articles by enlightened individuals and found them very inspiring.
I naively think enlightenment is that simple. I will provide reference articles from enlightened individuals later.
There’s a term called "integration."
I associate it with integrated circuits; understanding a type of circuit, like an amplifier board, is integrating small achievements, and understanding all circuits is achieving great integration.
This diagram is quite crucial.
wheel of awareness
The wheel of awakening should be from a book.
In "Game of Thrones," many characters can see through the eyes of birds and view the world from various animal perspectives.
It reminds me of Zhuangzi's "Free and Easy Wandering," which predates Siddhartha Gautama by nearly 196 years.
Zhuangzi's Free and Easy Wandering might represent a perspective of imagination, with countless momentum; he and Laozi are often referred to as Lao-Zhuang.
Remember this perspective or the switch of lenses.
If you utilize the illustration, you will find that attention is focused on the interconnectedness of all things.
Note
Zhuangzi's Free and Easy Wandering
In the northern sea, there is a fish, its name is Kun. The Kun is so large that no one knows how many thousands of miles it is; it transforms into a bird, its name is Peng. The back of the Peng is so large that no one knows how many thousands of miles it is; when it flies in anger, its wings are like clouds hanging from the sky. This bird, when the sea is in motion, will migrate to the southern sea. The southern sea is the heavenly pool. "Qi Xie" is a work of strange tales. The words of "Xie" say: "When the Peng migrates to the southern sea, the water strikes three thousand miles, and it rises up with a whirlwind to ninety thousand miles, leaving with the breath of June." Wild horses, dust, the life of beings is blown by breath. The sky is vast; is its true color wrong? Is it far and has no limit? Its view downwards is also like this. Moreover, if the accumulation of water is not thick, it cannot carry a large boat. If you pour a cup of water on the surface of a flat hall, then a mustard seed becomes its boat; if you place a cup there, it becomes glue, the water is shallow and the boat is large. If the accumulation of wind is not thick, it cannot carry a large wing. Therefore, at ninety thousand miles, the wind is beneath it, and only then can it cultivate the wind; it bears the blue sky, and no one can hinder it, and only then can it aim for the south.
At that time, there was no VR virtual reality technology; Zhuangzi read many books and encountered many strange tales.
I cannot assert that Zhuangzi did not experience the feeling of birds flying in the sky because the sensitivity of brain waves varies; some people can indeed receive signals from other species and understand some, like dolphins.
Enlightenment is a Virtual Experience#
Ancient people who read extensively had the opportunity to experience it.
Or they may have experienced it, such as diving, swimming, or other sports.
It is the same now. Watching videos or playing VR games can also work.
However, this is still somewhat different from enlightenment.
Enlightenment uses one’s consciousness to create a world in a fully unperceived, immersive, holographic manner.
Just like PVE and other virtual machine systems, simulating various operating systems. Creating a virtual operating system to continue installing a virtual machine, isn’t it like the dream within a dream in "Inception"?
The perspective can be as vast as overlooking the entire universe or as small as acting like a red blood cell transporting oxygen, as depicted in the anime "Cells at Work." It can also be smaller, down to particles.
The scale expands, and the details become refined. It’s indescribable, causing a tingling sensation on the scalp, which may arise.
Reading extensively (mainly constructing a universe with imagination)
Or having many experiences through videos (various modeling software making it more intuitive) will gradually produce this feeling.
For example, when the water droplet attacks the Earth Alliance fleet in "The Three-Body Problem," the images you imagine and those constructed by others will definitely differ.
The creator, to make their video or image look more stunning and realistic, will incorporate a lot of data for simulation; it’s not casually created. When you look at the details, you will also be amazed, just like seeing some carvings from a thousand years ago, complex and exquisite. Perhaps that was something another person dedicated their life to, and you were fortunate enough to witness it.
Returning to the virtual machine, everything interconnected within the virtual machine is calculated through hardware like CPU, GPU, memory, etc., using binary 0101, so the virtual interconnectedness of all things is expected.
The virtual machine in your mind operates on the same principle.
You can understand "Foundation" and "Hyperion" as the authors' virtual universes or worlds. They are all enlightened; their virtual worlds operate at high complexity and speed, recording everything each person says, their expressions, and demeanor. Each person's character is also virtually established. No need to elaborate too much. Reading extensively means visiting the virtual world more often.
Then, the distance between you and the virtual world becomes closer. Once you become familiar with the virtual world, it’s very likely that you will set up your own server and open a virtual machine.
Think of your consciousness as a character; sometimes it’s a plankton, sometimes a star, sometimes a Kunpeng, and sometimes just a dark matter space next to a black hole, sometimes nothing at all, not even air, not even transparent. Sometimes it’s quite complex; your hand is an empire, your foot is a city-state, or it could be an unnamed galaxy cluster, just as some describe the universe as a giant corpse beginning to decay and disintegrate. All the stars are moving away from us, further and further.
What enlightenment sees and understands is what you have known and the unknown.
Why is there a relationship between virtual experience and reality?
Everyone has moments of great realization, seeing and understanding differently; most people may not care at all.
Geometry is virtually created. You still have to frequently calculate shadow areas.
The discovery of the benzene ring in a dream was like divine assistance, hypothesizing without a microscope or any advanced instruments, and it was correct.
Newton saw an apple fall.
A frog dissection experiment revealed that the legs of a dead frog twitched. Discovering the basic principles of batteries and electric current.
Understanding the Way requires research and contemplation; when you are puzzled and forget to eat and sleep, there is a kind of obsession.
Thinking of this passage.
Therefore, when heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on a person, it must first temper their mind and will, labor their muscles and bones, starve their bodies, and expose them to poverty, disrupt their actions, so as to stimulate their heart and enhance their capabilities.
Whether enlightenment occurs or not is no longer important.
Controlling consciousness is indeed very important.
Writing a small essay is a small process of construction, turning the sand you know into a brick or a block of building blocks; you may not know what this peculiar or ugly brick can do, but it must be useful. At the moment of enlightenment, it might just take the impact of a brick, which is not impossible.
References
mp.weixin.qq.com/s/NoHAsOyh8RtJaENkxyjAxg
Awakening 01 Trigger Wheel of Enlightenment