Under One Person: The Seeker of the Dao in the Lü Family

Chapter 97 Wukong, Emptiness, Opening the Heavenly Gate

The yellow-robed Taoist on the stone platform smiled without saying a word, a kind smile appearing on his face, which resembled Lü Qian's.

"good!"

He waved his whisk as if nothing had happened.

Here they were still in that beautiful mountain forest, and the two of them were still under that pine tree.

Under the shade of the trees, on the stone platform, sat the same yellow-robed Taoist priest, and in front of the stone platform sat Lü Qian on a futon.

At this moment, Lü Qian closed his eyes and carefully sensed everything around him.

You can feel everything in the mountains and forests: the gentle breeze, the babbling brook, and the swaying grass and trees.

But in the scenery that one looked closely at, there was no sign of the yellow-robed Taoist; the stone platform in front of him was completely empty.

A gentle breeze blew, leaves fell, and the yellow-robed Taoist seemed to vanish from this world.

But when Lü Qian opened his eyes, the yellow-robed Taoist priest with a whisk in his hand and a smile on his face was still sitting on the stone platform in front of him.

Lu Qian's eyes were calm and still, like a deep, unfathomable pool of still water. He smiled and gave a Tai Chi salute to the yellow-robed Taoist on the stone platform.

Upon seeing this, the yellow-robed Taoist on the stone platform seemed to understand Lü Qian's silent answer and nodded in satisfaction.

Lu Qian looked up, a relaxed and calm smile on his face.

The path of the Celestial Immortals is emptiness.

The so-called "emptiness" is a state that is neither truly existent nor truly nonexistent. This state is also the manifestation of the "Dao" in the final stage of "refining emptiness and uniting with the Dao" in Daoist alchemy.

If "ascending to heaven" can be considered "refining emptiness," then "attaining enlightenment and ascending to heaven" is "merging with the Dao," which means reaching the state of "emptiness."

The Dao is the principle governing the operation of Heaven and Earth.

Humans are born from nothingness and should return to nothingness. This is the way of following the will of Heaven and the cycle of birth and death. Practitioners should emulate Heaven and Earth and follow this path.

However, cultivation is a path of defying the heavens, where one seeks adversity within the flow of things and uses the false heavens and earth to cultivate oneself.

Go with the flow to avoid calamity, and go against the tide to achieve great success!

To follow the natural order is to be mortal; to defy it is to become an immortal.

If it were truly in accordance with the will of Heaven, how could there be the saying, "The Azure Heaven is dead, and the Yellow Heaven shall rise!"

If we truly let things take their natural course, how can we "steal the yin and yang energies of heaven and earth, and gather the essence of the sun and moon"?

If one truly leaves everything to fate, how can one claim, "Once a golden pill is swallowed, my destiny is in my own hands, not in the hands of heaven"?

……

If one does not live to be 100,000, what is the point of being a human being in this world?

The path of spiritual cultivation is not only about following the way of "following the will of Heaven" but also about "defying the will of Heaven and changing one's destiny."

A "celestial being" is someone who transcends the Three Realms and is not bound by the Five Elements.

The "Earth Immortal" is one who gathers all aspects of themselves from the past and present, refining the other self, true self, and original self into the "One" true nature of this life.

The Taoist priest doesn't believe in reincarnation or past and future lives!

The Taoist master cultivates this life, this very moment.

Merit and virtue are not for accumulating blessings for future lives, but for shaping oneself in the present and cultivating one's mind, body, and life in this moment.

In my pursuit of truth through spiritual cultivation, I do not know whether past and future lives are real; I only know that I am a true Taoist in this life.

I am a practitioner, but in essence I am still a human being, a tiny thing in the universe.

Since we are human, we should follow the laws of heaven and earth, which is the "Dao" of the universe. However, cultivators also have their own "Dao".

In Journey to the West, when the Bodhi Patriarch met the monkey who came seeking enlightenment, he asked him three questions.

"Where are you from?"

"What's your name?"

Where are you going?

These three questions are not information surveys or philosophical inquiries, but rather the "Three Questions for Seeking the Way" faced by practitioners themselves.

The first question, "Where do you come from?", asks which path of cultivation the monkey took to reach the Golden Elixir Path.

The monkey replied, "We'll come gradually."

The monkey's answer demonstrated its continuous accumulation and progress in seeking the Tao, which aligns with the Taoist attitude of gradual accumulation in cultivation. However, at a deeper level, it reflects the continuous process of the circulation of Qi in the body, so it barely passes muster.

The second question, "What is your name?", isn't simply asking for your name, but rather your life.

The third question, "Where do you want to go?", asks what level the monkey wants to reach on the Golden Elixir Path.

The monkey answered the second question with, "Nameless and without surname, born and raised by nature."

Subsequently, the Bodhi Patriarch bestowed a name upon the monkey, thus establishing the foundation for the monkey's spiritual practice—its very nature and destiny.

The monkey's surname is Sun, which means child or youth. According to the Four Symbols of Life, it belongs to the Lesser Yang.

Sun Wukong's name is Wukong, which is the answer to the third question posed to him by the Bodhi Patriarch, that is, the determination of his own "Tao", which is "emptiness".

In the beginning of time, there was no nature; to break through the stubborn emptiness, one must awaken to emptiness.

Sun Wukong symbolizes the "mind monkey," which is restless, fickle, and full of thoughts. Therefore, he needs to comprehend the concept of "emptiness."

【Emptiness】is both the goal of 【Mind Monkey】's cultivation and the highest realm of 【emptiness and nothingness】 in Daoist alchemy.

Those who cultivate themselves descend to the world in accordance with the will of Heaven, and should also return to emptiness in accordance with the will of Heaven; only in this way can they achieve perfection.

If an Earth Immortal achieves the Dao Fruit of Refining Emptiness, then if they wish to ascend to the Dao of Integration, they must first empty themselves and perfect their cultivation.

I came empty-handed, and I should leave empty-handed as well.

However, this does not mean that practitioners should abandon their path and commit suicide. On the contrary, it means to "reduce and seek emptiness," embarking on a new path of practice and pursuing a more perfect "fruit of the Way."

As for how to achieve "emptiness", Lü Qian was somewhat confused, but he was able to deduce a thing or two from the states of Lü Zu and Chongyang Zushi.

"Who am I? For whom do I belong?"

Standing on the stone platform beneath the pine tree, Lü Qian looked up and saw the clouds drifting across the sky through the gaps in the pine branches.

Hearing Lü Qian's self-questioning, the yellow-robed Taoist on the stone platform smiled, pointed at Lü Qian's heart, and then moved from his heart to the spiritual altar between his eyebrows.

"That's a question for the traveler to answer."

Lu Qian lowered his head and looked at the [Chongyang Patriarch] opposite him with some surprise, his eyes filled with confusion.

Although the other party did not give a direct answer, this action was tantamount to an explicit statement.

This is tantamount to directly pointing out the final step of the path to immortality to Lü Qian. Shouldn't we take into account the existence of the [restriction]?

"Hahaha......"

Seeing Lü Qian's surprised expression, the yellow-robed Taoist seemed to find amusement. He swept his whisk and said with a smile, "No need to be surprised. The [restriction] was originally left by us so-called [ascended beings]."

"Moreover, the so-called 'celestial being' is merely the beginning of the path to enlightenment. Who can claim to have completely reached perfection on the long road of cultivation?"

"My guidance to you, my junior, is merely a way to find a companion on my path, someone with whom I can mutually validate my own path."

"But why did you choose me, senior?"

"Because you have great fortune and the potential to ascend to heaven."

The yellow-robed Taoist winked at Lü Qian and said mischievously, "As for why various Taoist lineages are passing on their traditions to you, it's because they are also on the path of Taoism and share the same aspiration."

Lü Qian was somewhat puzzled. "A wish?"

"Yes, that is my wish."

The yellow-robed Taoist nodded. "What do you think an Ascended Person means to a particular lineage?"

"The Patriarch? The Pure Yang Emperor?"

"No, none of these are the most important thing. The most important thing is the [Path to Heaven]."

"This is the most precious yet the least valuable thing left behind by an Ascended Being."

The yellow-robed Taoist shook his head. "Many people can walk the Path to Heaven, but very few can truly traverse it."

"Everyone has their own 'path'; different 'paths' naturally lead to different paths."

"But that doesn't matter. After all, there will always be brilliant people in the world, even if they are the ones who continue the broken path."

"Most importantly, it's about Heaven and Earth!"

The yellow-robed Taoist on the stone platform raised his finger to the sky, then lowered it to the ground.

"The universe is constantly evolving and changing, the climate is gradually changing, and the environment for cultivation is also slowly changing."

"The world changes like the shifting sands of time..."

"The most important aspect of the 'Road to Heaven' is that it must conform to the current era's natural environment; in layman's terms, it's about opening the gates to heaven!"

"When the environment is suitable, the Heavenly Gate naturally opens wide, and the 'Road to Heaven' exists, and there is no shortage of people who can traverse it."

"But what if the environment changes?"

"With the Heavenly Gate closed, how can this road lead to Heaven?"