In the Dao Without Cultivating the Dao

[EnergyGem]

"Cultivation is named as such because it provides a method of cultivating oneself, a path to walk. There was a saying in the past to the effect of, “This person doesn’t cultivate the Dao, and yet he is in the Dao.” While following a lesser path, he values “nothingness,” or “emptiness.” He lives out his life in this world by following the course of fate. He is at peace with the world. He thinks, “Give it to me if it is meant to be mine, and if it is not, I don’t want it.” He does not follow the typical forms of cultivation. He doesn’t even know what “cultivation” is. Yet there are masters taking care of people like him. And he seldom gets into disagreements with others.

This is what people used to call “In the Dao without cultivating the Dao.” Ordinary people can also, like them, manage to refrain from seeking things, but ultimately they will not gain a celestial rank. Such a person will not gain gong (spiritual energy), and can merely store up limitless virtue, a large sum. And many people will do harm to him, for a good person does not have it easy. But this results merely in a large amount of virtue. If he takes up a practice, it will naturally turn into a great deal of gong. If he doesn’t take up a practice, he will probably be blessed in his next life, becoming a high-ranking official or making a fortune.

By contrast, most of the people who are in the Dao without cultivating it have special backgrounds, of course, and there are people looking after them. He’s in a state of not cultivating the Dao, and yet his thoughts, his realm, are in the Dao, and so in the future he will return to his original place. Without cultivating the Dao, he is cultivating it—someone is transforming gong for him though he doesn’t know it. His life is full of misfortune, and he suffers and pays off his karma. His xinxing (heart and mind nature) quietly improves over the course of his life, and such is always his state. These are people with special backgrounds. It is hard for an ordinary person to do this.

Confucius left to man a way of acting that is befitting a human—the Doctrine of the Mean. Lao Zi taught a method for cultivation. But as it turns out, Chinese people combined Confucian ideas with those of the Daoist school. And, beginning in the Song dynasty, Buddhist ideas started to find their way in. Thereafter Buddhist thought thus changed beyond recognition. And after the Song dynasty, Buddhism incorporated things from Chinese Confucianism, such as filial piety and the like—much content of the sort. But the Buddhist school doesn’t actually contain anything like that.

The Buddhist school takes human matters lightly, and in its view, who knows how many parents a person has had over his many lifetimes. Only when you let go of all such attachments and cultivate with a quiet and calm mind can you meet with success. They are attachments. So, after Confucian thought was introduced [into Buddhism], the attachment of familial affection arose."

- from Zhuan Falun Volume II : https://falundafa.org/eng/eng/html/zfl2/zfl2.htm