Setting up Host and Guest

[deci belle]

Complete Reality tradition has left behind a strategy for wayfarers who are ready to set up the alchemical furnace and cauldron, who have clarified the foundation and can see the medicines.

 

By that I mean one who can see and assess inner and outer events and hold them clearly while adapting to chaotic situations without getting confused or loosing one's place.

 

In other words, one who can remain calm and unperturbed however serious the situation already has a stable foundation based on impersonal awareness unswayed by their dubious unrelenting fellow creatures who simply don't know any better for the life of them.

 

If you can impersonally harness the potentials of those around you without anyone knowing for no reason at all, you are ready to set up host and guest.

 

It's not a matter of manipulation. If you can see what is really going on in any given situation, you can then adapt to it selflessly. It really boils down to willing an inner openness to see reality in the first place.

 

Reality isn't out there. Seeing reality is seeing through phenomena without denying characteristics. Reality is a matter of a real knowledge arrived at by not following inner feelings based on reactions to externals. When objectivity is accomplished (and you don't do anything with its insight ), the real coalesces, and (if you don't do anything with its potential), you enter the path.

 

This is the result of ridding oneself of desires; of severing the root of fascination. There is already no reason for reality and nothing has ever been decided in terms of the Tao. Gazing into the unborn in ordinary situations is its ultimate expression.

 

Following the Tao is imitating the Tao. If you can't imitate the Tao, you can't follow it. If you don't follow the Tao, then how can you learn the Tao? Unless you can learn the Tao and know its harmony, how can you begin to enter its profound mysteries?

 

The terms host and guest are also used in Chan, where they are used to illustrate multi-faceted relationships (the five ranks) between psychological and nonpsychological awareness; illusory projections of identity and unified selfless non-being in mundane and trans-mundane realities; absolute and relative in terms of contemplating these various relationships through the context of non-attachment to these ranks.

 

In alchemy, the device is recognizing other as host and the self as the guest.

 

Actually, setting up host and guest is an allegorical application of turning the light around to shine back on its source.

 

When setting up host and guest in the midst of ordinary situations, one enters completely without reservation without anyone noticing. In the process of sinking in, one becomes subject to the psychological terrain of ongoing events for the hell of it. Isn't this the nature of practice?

 

I hope so.

 

The whole strategy of this set-up is to dispense with the conventional compulsion to decide. The ramifications of freedom from deciding will shatter not only your world but emptiness itself, when you get to that point in your spiritual evolution.

 

The whole strategy is to be able absorb the most insane abuse the world can seemingly put you through without minding too much. It's not a matter of turning the other cheek, it is simply passing through successive karmic cycles without attachment to outcomes. And that, my friends, is what real practice is because the result is a pure awareness body outside of your body for no reason at all.

 

When you let the world have its way without helping it, nor without hindering it, it gets what it wants (selfish unfulfilling illusory gratification) while you get what you want (absorption of real immaterial potential).

 

The world follows creation while you go in reverse. That's what alchemy is, people. You take shit and turn it into alchemical gold. It ain't about traveling the globe to enter Taoist temples for who the hell cares— leave that to the credit-card divas of de rigueur life-style spiritual materialism.

 

When the compulsive need to manufacture une raison d'être (a reason for being) is eliminated by virtue of leaving that up to your host, you save energy by just going along with your desire (to go along). This frees up your resistance to the dynamic of the situation and ultimately you will find out what happened as if it mattered. The energy you free up is the energy you absorb in the process of going along.

 

And I assure you, not even nothing matters. Not one spec of this circus has a shred of reality. If you steal potential in the midst of a polluted realm it is only because of the fact that you can see it. Nothing more. This is the subtle operation of enlightening being carried out in secret. This secret within a secret has been left behind by pure wisdom, not a person. In fact, this is not even taoism— it is the light of awareness …your true nature.

 

This does not involve thinking. It involves not-thinking. It does not involve complacent speculation on hypothetical outcomes. It involves open sincere intent.

 

It is the perfect incubation ward for the medicines to meet, fuse and quicken the embryo of immortality; the seed of buddhahood; the golden pill; the pedestal of awareness.

 

 

 

 

 

ed note: delete 9th paragraph (refering to s'body's 24/7 meditation thread); add "And that, my friends, is what real practice is because the result is a pure awareness body outside of your body for no reason at all" in 14th paragraph

Edited October 30, 2013 by deci belle

[deci belle]

As one deepens entry into the path of immortality through setting up host and guest, one naturally and effortlessly cuts through worthless cloying petty seductions as if they don't exist and can then find chance-illusions worthy of one's destiny; worthy of one's self-refinement of the indestructible body of awareness; one will find worthy opponents and petty despots to operate the tongs and forge of the inner immaterial alchemical workshop.

 

Arriving at the task of host and guest, one finds an indefatigable device for self-refinement. For those who arrive here, the world is an enlightened teacher.

 

 

 

 

 

ed note~ hi Bagua!

Edited October 5, 2013 by deci belle

[dawei]

I don't know the Complete Reality tradition nor the Host-Guest, so I have a question of comparisons.

 

Everything you say resonates and reminds me of being in a circumstance but not being affected by it; One is both there and not there. I was surprised to find many don't flow in the world in this manner within religious or eastern arts (or who claim to be).

 

I was in very conservative christian circles for many years and finally left more due to people than dogma, and their manipulation of dogma to control others.

 

But one saying(s) of Jesus which has always stood with me is this, and I wonder if this is similar to host-guest:

 

He said he was 'in the world but not of the world'.

 

While most take this as talking about the source of his being (not of the world), I took it as his every moment. This seems supported by his other saying that the followers were also not of this work but needed to be sanctified (know the truth), and be protected from evil (worldly desires--the 'fascinations').

 

IT seems more like an exhortation that they still need the Host-Guest (?)

[deci belle]

He said he was 'in the world but not of the world'.

 

His is a many-layered phrase, but yes, dawei, setting up the process using the strategy of host and guest is precisely the context for enacting enlightening function in the midst of the world deliberately to gather and refine the medicines, enter reality and carry out tasks in secret. What makes this possible is seeing the unborn potential in the very heart of karmic existence.

 

So in sinking into this worldly thing fully, we rest in its potential while not speculating in it as ordinary people do. That's the only difference between buddhas and ignoramuses. The one goes along and the other goes in reverse. Reality itself is just one sameness, one light, one Suchness, comprising creation and its potential. This comes from the Way. Being in the world yet not of it is just following this middle way, the Great Vehicle and enacting subtle function within its seamless unity.

 

While most take this as talking about the source of his being (not of the world), I took it as his every moment. This seems supported by his other saying that the followers were also not of this work but needed to be sanctified (know the truth), and be protected from evil (worldly desires--the 'fascinations').

 

All this true~ isn't it a shame that most people are so quick to leave themselves out of the equation? i.e.: "the source of his being", but not theirs.

 

Knowing the truth is indeed a protection because doubt ceases to be, even if one's realization in terms of its inconceivability continues to fascinate in the aftermath of the sudden. This is the reason for the "ten months of incubation" to solidify the achievement in secret silence and seeking a teacher to certify and help guide the maturity of one's knowledge.

 

Only then can one "empty out openness and enter the tao in reality, physically and spiritually sublimated". Otherwise one forms an attachment to this faint glimmer of the absolute and cannot return to live unified within the midst of the world to carry out advance gradual practice after realization.

 

There is no separate reality. Mind is one. The world is reality itself. It's just that enlightening being doesn't indulge in illusion for self-gratification but instead uses the world to refine one's own potential before helping others.

 

The device of the host and guest enables setting up the world as a venue to actualize an enlightened relationship with it in order to make the world a living aid to self-realization and not a death-sentence.

 

 

 

 

ed note: change "seek" to "seeking" in 6th paragraph

Edited October 6, 2013 by deci belle

[Brian]

Thank you, deci. The words are good but still observation is beyond them. I appreciate what you have shared.

[deci belle]

❤!!

 

dawei said:

 

 

I don't know the Complete Reality tradition nor the Host-Guest, so I have a question of comparisons.

 

Everything you say resonates and reminds me of being in a circumstance but not being affected by it; One is both there and not there.

 

Well, I am affected by the world's pounding so I have to tune it out~ especially here. It's not easy being in the coocoo's nest. But it is necessary to be absolutely vulnerable and wide-eyed in terms of being subject to circumstances in order to absorb it fully.

 

One cannot be an "absentee buddha". Assessing chaos in a single turn is all fine and dandy, but the world doesn't get it immediately (if at all). That's not its job. One must step right up to it and meet it on its terms spontaneously without reservations. There is no time to reflect in the insanity, but a subtle sobriety must permeate the response. It's like stretching the fabric of stillness to match the pattern of neurotic speed in terms of the situation. It's NOT easy!!

 

But the part about about it not being easy isn't in the moment of response, it is in its aftermath.

 

In terms of host and guest, where other is primary and self is secondary and one has absorbed the potential of the temporary event, this is when the leading edge of the killing yin energy has initiated its cycle. What is difficult is eliminating intellectualism and withdrawing into innocent silence to refine the gathered potential. This is where not entertaining feelings and thoughts comes to the fore when describing alchemy. Spiritual alchemy is a constantly alternating process of advance and withdrawl.

 

Not minding too much comes before, where one uses a balance of psychological and nonpsychological awareness leading up to the yin convergence; not minding at all comes after, where one forgets feelings and thoughts and calmly nurtures the elixir in the silent harmony of the empty vessel formed by sincere open intent.

 

Before and after are not to be mixed up!

 

 

 

 

ed note: add text below the heavy heart I left for Brian

Edited October 6, 2013 by deci belle

[Harmonious Emptiness]

One of many examples from the Chuang Tzu, illustrating the relevance of this practice to early Taoist teachings, can be found in Chapter 11:

 

 

Master Kuang Ch'eng sat up with a start. "Excellent, this question of yours! Come, I will tell you about the Perfect Way. The essence of the Perfect Way is deep and darkly shrouded; the extreme of the Perfect Way - is mysterious and hushed in silence. Let there be no seeing, no hearing; enfold the spirit in quietude and the body will right itself. Be still, be pure, do not labor your body, do not churn up your essence, and then you can live a long life. When the eye does not see, the ear does not hear, and the mind does not know, then your spirit will protect the body, and the body will enjoy long life. Be cautious of what is within you; block off what is outside you, for much knowledge will do you harm. Then I will lead you up above the Great Brilliance, to the source of the Perfect Yang; I will guide you through the Dark and Mysterious Gate, to the source of the Perfect Yin. Heaven and earth have their controllers, the yin and yang their storehouses. You have only to take care and guard your own body; these other things will of themselves grow sturdy. As for myself, I guard this unity, abide in this harmony, and therefore I have kept myself alive for twelve hundred years, and never has my body suffered any decay."

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Another example, from Chuang Tzu, Chapter Four:

 

"That's all there is to it," said Confucius. "Now I will tell you. You may go and play in his bird cage, but never be moved by fame. If he listens, then sing; if not, keep still. Have no gate, no opening, but make oneness your house and live with what cannot be avoided. Then you will be close to success.

 

"It is easy to keep from walking; the hard thing is to walk without touching the ground. It is easy to cheat when you work for men, but hard to cheat when you work for Heaven. You have heard of flying with wings, but you have never heard of flying without wings. You have heard of the knowledge that knows, but you have never heard of the knowledge that does not know. Look into that closed room, the empty chamber where brightness is born! Fortune and blessing gather where there is stillness. But if you do not keep still - this is what is called sitting but racing around. 6 Let your ears and eyes communicate with what is inside, and put mind and knowledge on the outside. Then even gods and spirits will come to dwell, not to speak of men! This is the changing of the ten thousand things, the bond of Yu and Shun, the constant practice of Fu Hsi and Chi Ch'u.7 How much more should it be a rule for lesser men!"

[voidisyinyang]

o.k. it's the goal as the process. slowest method but stays on target

 

master nan writes on that host/guest stuff a lot.

[Marblehead]

The following statement is being made willingly without any guidance or pressure from Sean or the Moderators and it will be as honest and sincere as I can possibly make it.

 

I acted very unfairly toward Deci in this thread. I had a purpose but that matters only to me and no one else.

 

I apologize to Deci and to any member who was trying to gain any value from reading the thread.

 

Yes, sometimes I can be an ass. This thread is an excellent example. I am the person I am as a result of many factors. I cannot apologize for being me. But I do need apologize when I have intentionally been an ass.

 

Yes, I am a Philosophical Taoist and I believe that this is the only true Taoism that is not polluted by other belief systems. But it is totally wrong for me to keep reminding others of my opinions regarding this.

 

I will try to be more accepting in the future but I cannot make any promises because I don't make promises I am not absolutely sure I can keep.

 

So anyhow, Y'all go ahead and talk about Religious Taoism and I will do my best to keep my nose and mouth out of the discussions.

 

Happy Trails!

[deci belle]

mr lotus said:

 

 

master nan writes on that host/guest stuff a lot.

 

how about a link, dear?

 

 

(from a PM resonse):

 

 

Looking at it from the inside-out, alchemically speaking, essence is the host of the body and the body is the guest.

 

Since conditioning has turned everything upside down, what originally was the host has lost its power. So whatever we want to nurture, we let that be the guest to take advantage of the situation we're in. So to nurture the essence, we let the body be the host (another example of reversal). Body=created karmic reality becomes the host; essence=nonpsychological awareness acts as guest.

 

Actually, taking the position of guest is the personality's (ego's) cue to kick back and enjoy the show without being drawn into its habitual compulsions. Since it has no need to choose, the confusion of incessant occupation with conflicting mental and emotional activity is dispensed with altogether and the result is a seaside holiday balcony view of insanity, hence essence is nurtured by psychological and emotional fasting in the midst of ordinary affairs. This is the same method to quell desire (by removing the stimulus to choose) and anger (by failing to become involved) symbolized by the 41st hexagram Diminishing.

 

Desire and anger ARE valid but habitual patterns of compulsion are what have to be eliminated to nurture essence in terms of the gradual work of self-refinement.

 

I must have adapted the relationship to express my own experience in ordinary situations~ but I didn't make up the terms or even the application myself, I thought… but I can't find anything in my little library. Perhaps someone with a bigger library can make relevant applications (not just any, please) of taoist usage of host and guest available to the bums on this thread.

 

The buddhist development of the terms can be studied as well in the writings of Shitou Xiqian (who emphasized the need to detach from ultimate experience in order to integrate the substance of awareness into its function in terms of phenomenal evolution which is the true expression of nondual awareness), Dongshan Liangjie (who fully developed host/guest=absolute/relative in terms of five ranks or categorizations of ontological aspects of awakened mind), Hongzhi Zhengjue (further expounded on realization's application in the relative), Eihei Dogen (brought this to Japan in the 1200s and whose current popularity overlooks an indebtedness to Hongzi)~ not that Dogen did!

 

I do have a book called Cultivating the Empty Field, by Hongzi. ISBN 0-86547-475-0

 

I'm reading it again now. It was the first Chan material I studied after seeing my nature (the five years previous had been spent just pondering what the fcuk had happened to me with no words to say and nobody to tell). Taoist tradition does not make the transition so apparent~ they only say "See essence on your own, then seek a teacher". Hongzi became my teacher in this regard.

 

But as for my treatment of the terms host and guest… perhaps I'm writing that book?

 

Ya, so my so-called version of host/guest is to save energy/absorb potential as a fundamental entry into everyday ordinary working the firing process of spiritual alchemy. I just stumbled onto this over twenty years ago and I haven't changed anything about it since then. Advance, withdraw, eat, sleep, work, play, etc… of course, all the other aspects are already included, but I don't do them. Host/guest is the day-job and all that spiritual alchemy stuff just sorta takes care of itself naturally.

[deci belle]

So one who can see and assess inner and outer events and hold them clearly while adapting to chaotic situations without getting confused or losing one's place is one who forgets feelings and thoughts and calmly nurtures the elixir in the silent harmony of the empty vessel formed by sincere open intent.

 

As with anything else, especially the alchemy of Complete Reality practice, timing is the crux of the matter when dealing with one's affair with Power. Neither hurrying nor lagging, one can then compress or expand time itself when one sees potential whereby response to the timing can be powerfully precise in concert with and in influencing the course of events.

 

A good host always has something waiting in the wings. And a skilled guest isn't passive. The relationship of mutual arising is impersonal and exacting. A good host always has more than enough. An impeccable guest finds ways to lead into any situation. Profound study of the 10th hexagram Treading will provide insight into this relationship. Anyone interested in penetrating the façade of the I-Ching should put their Wilhelm-Baynes volume in the compost pile and turn it into damp dust. By that time you may apply a few other, albeit less pedantic volumes to the work, thereby to properly put that little Euro-latinate curiosity in its staid place.

 

The most useful application of the I-Ching for an immortalist is as a glossary and code-book of supreme alchemical insight; that and the most transparent translation you can find of The Art of War will (with the right approach) take you far and let you see precisely from wherever you are right now by the ability to objectively assess the conditions of self and other and respond impersonally without confusion. This is not a matter of prognostication. This is application of deep insight by impersonal psychological fasting whereby the strength of concentration results in a corresponding effect of clarity. Following through on these developments is a matter of "having the heart to take hearts".

 

Other than that, the self-refinement of audacious wayfarers intent on dealing with the world on its terms by activating the strategy of willing an inner openness to see reality in the first place— THERE IS ONLY THAT WILL AND PATIENCE to see you through to the end of the world itself which is what has always constituted your human mentality.

 

THE ONLY PURPOSE OF ESTABLISHING HOST AND GUEST IS TO WITNESS THE OBLITERATION OF THE DYNAMIC, which must paradoxically always be driven by you: sometimes actively, sometimes passively. It is only you who sees into the potential of any situation. No one else sees what you see. And by that I mean whatever you do see, you see through it completely. Others may share a partial impersonal aspect (which depends on the power of nonpsychological awareness) to a point~ but only you see through it. Why? Because only you know what you are waiting for. That is the power of subtle intent.

 

One only waits in order to find out what happened in the situation, nothing else. One never waits for anything else. THERE IS NO THING. You only see the aspect of relationship— and that in terms of host and guest~ but it doesn't really exist. Certainly nobody else sees it. Self-refinement is using the world to interrupt conscious awareness in secret.

 

I do not use the term audacious lightly. It is totally up to you to use the world by adapting to its spontaneous terms and conditions. No one else can do this but you. This is what alchemy calls taking over creation. It is a game. I call it the end game because not only does it mesh tacitly with the matter of life and death, it sees through the totality of creative evolution, which is a strategy of mastery.

End Game

 

What makes this a strategy of compassion is that not only do you commit fully into the situational relationship, YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN AT ANY POINT, nor do you imply anything yourself because to do so would be no different than the current habitually circumstantial speculatively complacent relationship you and everyone else already has with our impersonally inter-related illusional karmic existence. The will to enlightening being then, is the will to see, know and be the expression of a selfless freedom of awareness. Karma is reality, but until you see your nature for what it is, you will never see reality for what it is. If this is not that important to you, then admit it and get out of your own way immediately without standing on ceremony.

 

What makes this a ruthless strategy is that there is no emotional clinging to anything. Why? Because there is no thing that is real save for aware nature itself. Until you actually see your nature and then in the aftermath of experiencing the ultimate you then endeavor to assimilate the unattributable light after a long period of maturation of the achievement, how would you ever have the objectivity to determine for yourself what constitutes the real?

 

Until you do achieve the objectivity of a Tathagata, how could you then dare to presume to act on that impersonal (selfless) objectivity with perspicacity?

 

The fact is, buddhas don't act. The Virtue of the Receptive is the subtle function of enlightening being which responds effortlessly beyond one's own power by the power of unborn potential inherent in the situation itself. Therefore activating the device of host and guest is only recognizing a situation ripe for the relational dynamic whereby one lets other be the host and takes self as the guest unbeknownst to anyone in order to practice just this subtle functioning in enlightening being void of self-directed effort; only adapting impersonally to ordinary situations.

 

A good host always has something waiting in the wings. And a skilled guest isn't passive.

 

 

 

 

 

ed note: typos 1st & 7th paragraphs

Edited October 29, 2013 by deci belle

[joeblast]

[deci belle]

Thank you, my friends.❤

[Wu Ming Jen]

Real knowledge and conscious knowledge, host and guest.I spontaneously experienced turning the light around many years ago with absolutely no effort on my part it just happened.

 

The culture I was born in had no point of reference or any system for understanding what happened to me and how I should proceed. I have much appreciation for the complete reality school Thank you Deci for posting content that is useful.Thats all

[deci belle]

Yay! That's wonderful, Wu!!

[dawei]

How about this?

 

Zhuangzi, Ch. 11 -- Tr. Burton

 

What is this thing called the Way? There is the Way of Heaven, and the way of man. To rest in inaction, and command respect - this is the Way of Heaven. To engage in action and become entangled in it - this is the way of man.

 

The ruler {HOST} is the Way of Heaven; his subjects {GUEST} are the way of man. The Way of Heaven and the way of man are far apart. This is something to consider carefully!

[deci belle]

Well it's true. And establishing this order after recognizing the imbalance of conditioning's influence is the work of self-refinement. But just pondering the reality that the difference, by recognizing the one as it is and the other as it becomes or not, is to analyze one's orientation towards the nature of the light going along as well as reversed. And when their places are properly established in one's life, their effects are discovered to be naturally ordered.

 

In terms of the mature activation of enlightened activity, their functions alternate seamlessly when applied in actual situations because the light is one. The proper functioning of enlightening activity in terms of Chan's five ranks teaching is called "arriving within both together".

 

But in terms of Zhuangzi's treatment in this particular chapter, the human mentality is seen in its habitually cloying aspect.

 

The Yin Convergence Classic really digs deeply into both the psychologically mechanical and impersonally celestial aspects of mind in its analysis of their functional attributes. It is not very long at all. I have seen it with commentary by Liu I-ming in Thomas Cleary's Vitality Energy Spirit, Shambhala 1991. ISBN 0-87773-519-0. That volume possibly exists in a current re-itteration as Shambhala has re-packaged their Dragon Editions series over the last ten or fifteen years for some reason.

 

What is important to note in Zhuangzi's lesson that it is necessary to actually see the Way of Heaven to also put the way of man into the relative and ultimate contexts of mental capacity in order to recognize the true mind and consequently, the true self independent of the relative, or conditional aspect of mind.

 

The state of unalloyed egohood would, in the Five Ranks system of Chan buddhism, be categorized as the Guest within the Guest~ not that this category is expressed in the buddhist device, because it is a teaching device— not a condemnation of the human mentality. The relational terms guest/host used in Chan is as the relative within the absolute to describe "…seeing phenomena against the backdrop of the ultimate void". This is from Hongzi's Cultivating the Empty Field, Northpoint Press 1991. ISBN 0-86547-475-3

 

So Chan has a way of stripping the psychological-nonpsychological identifications from a self-reflective/impersonal dual-perspective to one of pure objective phenomenological observation.

 

The five ranks are as follows: the relative in the absolute; the absolute in the relative; coming from within the absolute; going within both absolute and relative; arriving within both together. These are not portrayed as levels of achievement but as ontological aspects of awakened mind-function in terms of host/absolute and guest/conditional (re-phrased from Hongzi's book, above).

 

In my experience, the traditional taoist usage dichotomizing the Celestial and the Conditional aspects of mind were much easier to deal with as just hearing that the two properties are to be realized, ultimately, as the same substance with differing valid functions. It is then logical to introduce in simplest (taoist) terms, the possibility of refining the one into the other without losing the capacities of the particular while recognizing and stabilizing the benefits of other, or impersonal immediate knowledge to constitute the real whole human being.

[deci belle]

The title of this thread is a bit of a misnomer. Actually nothing at all is set up. The situation itself is already set-up when you recognize its potential. It is all a matter of following desire without stepping over the line in terms of entertaining speculative intent.

 

True intent itself is just open and sincere; willing vulnerability on one's own behalf in terms of the true, which is just commitment to now as is. This is how one begins to see through everyday ordinary situations neither moving nor still …beckoning evolution through selflessness, which is none other than activating purity of nonpsychologically aware perception, void of bias and inclination; able to adapt spontaneously without leaving the pivot of non-self-conscious equipoise.

 

Enlightening selflessness has nothing to do with the conventional term evoking diminishing one's ego-reflective speculations. Since there are none when nonpsychologically aware, the definition of selflessness can hereby convey the essence of that which does not rely on one's own power. This is transcendent function outside of karmic influence neither ordinary or holy. That is, neither relative nor absolute. This is the function within the activation of the Great Vehicle, the Middle Way of adepts having entered the workings of the Way of nonresistance. This has nothing to do with the sudden at all.

 

Enlightening being is just now. It has never existed before or after as there has never been such a time outside of delusion, therefore it does not depend on a singular moment outside of time as IT IS THE ENERGY OF SINGULARITY IN TERMS OF POTENTIAL. ENLIGHTENING BEING CONSISTS OF NOTHING OTHER THAN THIS POTENTIAL. ENTERING INTO THIS POTENTIAL IS WHAT SELFLESSNESS IS. IT DOES NOT REFER TO THE EXULTATION OR DENIAL OF EGO.

 

Therefore, setting up host and guest is none other that having the wherewithal to recognize the appropriate potential within any situation and then riding the energy of this potential for the love of it. As for those who have seen their nature, they know that this very uncreated energy is what love is, know that this potential has no origination, and that awareness is itself just one's own selfless identity.

 

For those who are able, this is what constitutes practice leading to the sudden as well as practice after the sudden. It is not that people only enter the Tao in Reality after experiencing sudden enlightenment.

 

 

 

 

 

ed note: add "speculative" at the end of the first paragraph

Edited November 8, 2013 by deci belle

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

 

Marvellous work deci belle!

 

You comin' in loud an' clear!

 

Thank you for your time and effort in providing this material.

 

"In In Action Art all Things done!"

Said Satyr to Hyperion.

 

...

Edited November 8, 2013 by Captain Mar-Vell

[deci belle]

Bonjour Capitain!!❤

[deci belle]

In response to a PM about Awakening to Reality (Wu chen p'ien), by Chang Po-tuan:

 

 

oh duh!! "Understanding Reality"!! (Thomas Cleary) haha!!

 

I did look through that volume trying to find where I'd come up with my usage of host/guest when I was writing this thread, but I could not find any correlate there. I just looked back on how I dealt with situations and saw how the host/guest device as I had been understanding it from perhaps the "400 Words on the Gold Elixer", also by Chang Po-tuan. But I couldn't really see that I had gotten it from there either.

 

I just use it in the context of the guest dealing with conditions on the host's terms, not reflecting the habitual views of the personality (guest). So this is using reality itself to transcend ego-consciousness and saving energy to boot.