What you grow inside is manifested outside

Lead me from dreaming to waking.
Lead me from opacity to clarity.
Lead me from the complicated to the simple.
Lead me from the obscure to the obvious.
Lead me from intention to attention.
Lead me from what I'm told I am to what I see I am.
Lead me from confrontation to wide openness.
Lead me to the place I never left,
Where there is peace, and peace
- The Upanishads

*note* I have no idea whom Master Ni is...but he talks in terms of Tao,so I assume he is some daoist chinese guy,on the vein of Lao Tzu possible...great talk here about,,the purpose of life,,..quote" Master Ni: Life neither has specific purpose nor is it accidental. It is natural. I believe you are very serious in this question. If I say life has purpose, you would want to know what is the purpose of your life. Believing in a purpose, you would then become religiously fixed in your attitudes and thus increase the conflict between your ego and the world. If I say it is accidental, you would think your life is not your business"and "Mistrust and conceptual images cause one to think that outside forces are what make things happen in a person's life. People do not know the strength and power of the inside harmony which can alter outside circumstance to create phenomena in the spiritual sphere. If personal spiritual experience makes a person more superstitious or self-indulgent in spiritual pursuit, it is because he does not understand that the balanced mind, spirit and body is the brightness of universal nature within his life being"
-added by danny-
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Discussion between Master Ni and some students

Student: Master Ni, does life have a purpose or is it accidental?

Master Ni: Life neither has specific purpose nor is it accidental. It is natural. I believe you are very serious in this question. If I say life has purpose, you would want to know what is the purpose of your life. Believing in a purpose, you would then become religiously fixed in your attitudes and thus increase the conflict between your ego and the world. If I say it is accidental, you would think your life is not your business. So let us review the achievement of the ancient natural developed ones; this will help to answer your question.

The discovery and spiritual achievement of the developed ones is a spiritual method and practice by which one can achieve or mature oneself and become enlightened through means that are self-evident. Life itself is a convergence of natural energy. This means that life is a formation of different energies that occur through a specific process in time and space and converge. It is this convergence of many subtle and apparent elements and conditions that comprise a Life. Once those elements and conditions, both subtle and obvious, are disassembled, life no longer exists. The cessation of life is the retreat of all-supportive elements and conditions. The unnatural death of a human being is the same as the dissolution of any other event or object, which is an assemblage of a group of conditions. Some of the conditions, which assemble, are apparent and some are hidden, but the event still comes under the law of assembly and disassembly. It is simply an aspect of the process of disassembly.

The entire universe is an assemblage of all matter and is subject to change. All units of the universe, such as galaxies, stars, planets and the earth keep shaping or forming themselves; there is a correspondence to this in the smaller life of a human being. All are subject to change. The understanding of the basic pattern of changes of all things has been abstractly described by The Book of Changes. During any moment of the convergence or integration of the conditions that comprise an object or event, its significance or meaning is established. Once it is dissolved no other important or unimportant significance or value can be added to it. Therefore, watching and valuing this moment of life and not the next moment is the correct expression of the existence of life. This means that the integral path of Life is right in front of you! It is where you walk. Movement and activity in a life are what present the reality of life. There is no future reward that can dignify or sublimate the essence of life in the reality of this moment, because the next moment will be a new assemblage of many conditions. In other words, life is a process, and truth is also a process. Life cannot be caught or captured in the moment of self-presenting by any force aside from itself. Any attempt catches only the change and not the permanence of a situation.

From this understanding, and through spiritual cultivation and discipline, one can strengthen and fortify the integration or convergence of different energies in a life by changing one's patterns. One must first have correct understanding, which involves subjective proof (experience and knowledge) that Life, whether in the subtle level or in solid form, continues to integrate, reintegrate and refine itself by the growing and increasing subtle essence within. Different physical and spiritual elements comprise your life; you are constantly organizing and reorganizing yourself. You are born in this moment and continue in each moment to have a rebirth of your life. Spiritual reward is not brought about by externals; it is accomplished internally. Because spiritual reward itself is internal, this very moment is what affects the next. This moment gives birth to the next moment. This section of time in your life grows the fruit that you will enjoy in the next section of your life. What you sow spiritually, you will eventually harvest. No awakened soul can afford to damage himself spiritually by doing evil. Evil actions are equivalent to a person cutting his own throat with a sharp knife; however, he cannot see what he is doing because on the spiritual level it is invisible. When a person commits evil actions, perhaps no one has seen what was done, but the person himself knows what happened.

External religions can serve as a metaphor for this spiritual truth, as in one's waiting for judgement or reward and in being a good person. However, realistically, reward or punishment is in this moment: are you watchful in coordinating your movements and activities with your developed intellectual mind, which cooperates and associates with the developed spirit of your being? Whoever neglects this fundamental discipline will have no spiritual future, and the spiritual foundation they have built on religious forms is not real.

Therefore, it is important to understand this moment. When you are aware of the truth of life, you establish yourself in this moment and you recognize the value, significance, dignity and spiritual position of your life as completion. The next step of life with this new circumstances is just that: new. You need new integration, new adaptation and new refining; you go one step further into new spiritual evolution. Perhaps this leads you to think, "Physically we become old and worn out after reaching the peak of life." This is true. All life follows a pattern of growth and decline. But the one that who is subjectively aware that his life is on the channel of correct spiritual evolution will know that he is not going to become older and worn out. He is renewing his life all the time. He will transform his physical energy into a higher spiritual essence that can bring him to another, more enduring life. Those who have a different understanding of life than most people, make this choice. The most fundamental thing you need to understand to make this choice is that life is the result of the convergence of many different supportive elements. If even one element is not supported, especially with regard to mental or spiritual elements, a fall will occur. Higher vision most profoundly serves human life, especially in mental and spiritual aspects, which are closely associated.

Since life is a matter of convergence, then what is its purpose? One viewpoint holds solely that life is a function of material things with different pieces and parts together forming the machine of life. Eventually one part or another wears out. When the life machine cannot be repaired, the life machine is finished. Given this mechanistic point of view, there is no higher purpose to life. An opposing metaphor, however, describes life as a piece of music composed from the organization of different notes. In this view there is a super-mind or master plan behind the organization of the music. If this is the case, then each life must have a purpose.

Confusion also arises because of certain teachings. On one hand, people are taught that there is karma and reincarnation and that peace can come to a person who has understood the emptiness of life and nature. This way of thinking implies that life is a reincarnating essence, and that the karma accumulated in past lifetimes is the reward or punishment for the new life. This way of thinking teaches people to become more responsible for their actions and their lives and to recognize something higher than predetermined destiny or physical reality. On the other hand, there is a different way of thinking. Some people are taught that life is merely an accident; that everything is meaningless, and nothing is worth thinking about. This negative teaching implies that whatever you do is right and helps you relax about the circumstances you are in, whether lofty or lowly because, after all, everything is an accident. So what is there for you to worry about? Why be anxious about anything? Not only is your life incidental, but all human, animal and other life is incidental and has no purpose. My friends, if you take this view that life is accidental, then life will indeed be a big accident. Why bother taking responsibility for yourself or anything else, for that matter? Where is the music of life and spiritual dignity? Is there no God, Buddha or any being higher than greedy or aggressive people looking to restrain other people in a world devoid of meaning? Is that what life is all about? Allow us to probe more deeply into this.

Life can be expressed in many different ways. You might take the view that life is conditioned, i.e., that the environment determines the species. For example, it is only in trenches that mosquitoes are produced. It is only in trees that bird are produced. Different kinds of natural environments produce different forms of Life. Thus, it would follow that people born of a gifted family would have a higher level of education, better manners and a greater opportunity to be achieved, etc., and that people born into ordinary family environments would tend to have more struggle and suffering in their lives. However, in the human sphere, which is a complete triangle of physics, mind and spirit, life does not work this way. It is not always true that people born into a good family are good people or can make positive use of their opportunity to achieve themselves. Quite the opposite can occur. Different levels of background provide different freedoms that allow the development of life. While this holds true in both the social and material spheres, supportive conditions are especially obvious in the material sphere. When, for example, there is the establishment of a new relationship or behavior—except natural ones like blood relationships—its occurrence has been conditioned beforehand. You might believe the new relationship or behavior to be accidental; but if you look deeply into your inner being, the attraction or behavior has long been in existence, but only now manifests. The behavior or attraction has been waiting a long time for the ripeness of the situation and conditions to come together.

The deepest understanding reveals that an accident is not an accident. It is a necessity; it is purposeful. The movement of the entire universal nature has a subtle law above it which governs all movement. Without deep vision, one does not have the understanding that any movement by itself is both an event and a spontaneous occurrence. It takes deep understanding to realize that any movement in the world is both previously arranged as well as spontaneous. The fact is that in one way life is conditioned, which leads to things happening of necessity; and in another way it is accidental, which leads to randomness. In one way it is mechanical; in another way it is haphazard. How can a human mind adapt to these diverse situations with distinctive understandings? By developing the third aspect, that's how: developing the spiritual growth of nature to evolve from the mechanical, physical sphere to reach freedom. It takes a million years to develop Life or consciousness a little bit. Freedom is a gift of achievement, on whatever level of life, given the limitation or bondage being dealt with. We, through living wrong and doing wrong, cause our own souls and the souls of other people to suffer sickness. Our organic being was originally endowed by nature. Although all life is endowed by nature, human life resembles nature in completeness with all three spheres: physical, mental and spiritual. We must learn how we can use the freedom of the more subtle level, i.e., the spiritual, to assist the levels of lesser freedom. It is valuable for your life and well worth looking into.

The ancient developed ones understood that life can be both conditioned and also accidental. It was not necessary to define it one way or another. For example, a peach tree gives peaches in the late spring. It can give good peaches in a good season or in a good natural cycle, with correct warmth and moisture, air and nutrition from the earth. But in the same peach garden, some trees will do better than others. Some need more care than others. Human life is just like that. Some do better, and others do not do as well, but the human mind reacts differently than a tree. A peach tree does not have a developed sense of itself. It is not bothered by doing better or worse than another tree, or by doing better at one time and worse at another time. It follows nature, so it does not have anything like trouble in the mind. Humans are different. They have feelings about themselves. They watch others, and they can be jealous of others who do better or feel dismayed if they cannot do as well. They can also feel pride that they do better than another. But they cannot objectively look at themselves as natural, which is a condition starting pre-natally.

There is not much about your limitations that can be changed. The thing to do is to live naturally and change what you can. Some people, however, develop or follow religions instead of realistically improving themselves and their lives. They steep themselves in deep meditation or invent profound ideologies which cover their failures and only serve to keep them from taking responsibility for themselves. The achieved ones know what the nature of life is, not only outside but also inside. The most valuable thing is to follow the life-nature inside and harmonize with the outside. This is the teaching and achievement passed down by our spiritually developed forefathers. It is not a psychological approach that transfers one's focus away from the pressure of day-to-day living or the immediate environment. It is the self-truth of taming one's own evil temper and ambitions and turning them into a life of spiritual well being. Spirituality cannot be separated from life itself. The subtle, essential sphere of life is still associated with the general patterned life of eating, sleeping, working, etc. Big and small grow equally under the light of spiritual health. There is a great need for the spiritual development off all people. The best thing you can do for the world is to develop yourself spiritually.

People ask about destiny. Destiny is internal. What you grow inside is manifested outside. You can, however, look at the general external conditions to see how your destiny is manifesting. Let us take, for example, a person who lives in China and a person who lives in the United States, both born at the same hour but in different societies. Their fortunes and lives will be different, not because of geographical differences, but because of the differences in the political systems. The personal destiny that people are sentimental about is changeable. In order to characterize the smallness of an individual Life being, the science of astrology originated. By using the rotation of the sun, earth and moon along with other information, astrology metaphorically illustrates a personal destiny or energy formation. In reality, a natural life needs to be aware of its true relationship with the heavenly bodies. Heavenly bodies are used as illustration of the combination of energies in an individual life. The objective value in seeing a Life externally through astrology is to adapt, yourself better to the conditions affecting the circumstances of your life. However, the outer circumstance cannot be sufficiently or accurately described in a book, because each individual will experience it differently in their life. Some people spend many long years studying astrology. It can truly tell one something about the external conditions of a person's life, but the benefit of its service depends on how you use the information: whether you face it or run away from it.

We have talked about astrology, religion and spiritual development. To avoid the complication of too much conceptual activity, I want to return to the basic recommendation of following nature. By nature, I mean the virtues of nature. Astrology, religion and spiritual development all arrive at the same point: they each tell you to follow nature, to attain natural health in all three spheres of your being and to grow or develop your own vision above all of them. Give up all the mental contamination and cultural pollution which is self-generating. Gather essence from all your external learning. A peach can grow well when it is exposed to sunshine, wind, air and warmth. If, however, we wrap it up and take it away from the garden, it will not grow well. Human nature is already enveloped in too many layers of plastic; even now you can be nursed by glass tubes. The new lives in the future may be brought in through glass tubes, but the basic life still needs to respect its natural health. It is not enough to merely respect the health of nature; we also need to respect and harmonize our healthy natural Life with the harmonious order of universal nature. Our life nature is one with the universal life nature. The troubles of a family, an individual, a group or different nations are basically the same disharmony; they reflect a conflict with the basic nature of life. The problem is created by people themselves and sometimes others. Disharmony is created by lack of understanding about nature, by many false concepts which stem from incorrect teaching and thinking. One who cannot remove the false concepts cannot enjoy either himself or nature.

People who deeply observe the human world know it is pulled by the past, which keeps human society from further development. If people wish to develop further, they must first restore their knowledge of natural health which is the essence of natural life. People's moral well being is natural in the beginning. Immoral behavior, such as stealing, is a poor solution or adaptation to handling one's own needs in society. Once a person's original health is lost, healing is then applied. Support is given from the spiritual medicinal systems when a person is sick, weak, too old or undeveloped. Religious teachings are important only when you are morally, emotionally or intellectually sick. Although they are not unnatural, they are for sick people in a particular stage of evolution. But if you stay with these conventional religions, you cannot grow any more. Do not continue to take their poison. A healthy being does not need to rely on medicine, because the spiritual self-cultivation of the integral way develops and covers all spheres of one's well being. The integral way is for people who achieve their spiritual independence from the mass treatment offered by the big religious hospitals for the sick. Once you restore your strength, you come back to nature. Only natural vitality can cure all wounds and grow new, flesh. There is nothing better to pass on to your sons, daughters or good friends than to support them with nature, follow nature and enjoy nature. You need look no farther than the universal nature which resides inside us.

Nature is health. Nature is normalcy. Even if we live in the natural world, we still need to guard against abnormally timed natural cycles. When people lose their sense of humor in life, they can become stiffly religious. People of spiritual self-cultivation do not stiffen their minds by using previously programmed practices which support their well being only at certain times or are used for spiritual amusement. Religion may be a good tool to teach children through bedtime stories, but all children must grow . The world cannot be managed by bemused children. It needs to be guided by people who have reached spiritual maturity and independence, who can keep guiding themselves by the natural subtle light.

When people are children, they marvel and wonder about spiritual phenomenon without attaining true knowledge about it. They do not know that the subconscious level of the mind gives off a spiritual response like echoes, such as in dreams and unconscious reactions to external stimuli. All the marvelous or terrifying spiritual phenomena that you see in the world comes from you: you're enhanced or intimidated soul. The value of your self-cultivation is in knowing how to remain in peace and in one piece: mind, spirit and body together. Can you practice that? We are most powerful when these three partners are together. There are small partners among them too, but most of the time, the mind wanders away. It is marvelous what the mind can do, but people do not understand this. Mistrust and conceptual images cause one to think that outside forces are what make things happen in a person's life. People do not know the strength and power of the inside harmony which can alter outside circumstance to create phenomena in the spiritual sphere. If personal spiritual experience makes a person more superstitious or self-indulgent in spiritual pursuit, it is because he does not understand that the balanced mind, spirit and body is the brightness of universal nature within his life being.

Even after this long discussion, this may still be an inadequate answer. However, all of you have the opportunity to prove these words and what is between the lines and find your own answer: Is life with purpose or is it accidental? Can anyone answer me now?

Student: Life is natural.

Master Ni:

No matter whether life is with purpose or accidental, there is tea and refreshment on the table in the next room, so please enjoy them and give yourselves the real answer from the enlightenment of a healthy tummy .