At this time, the Huangpu Port area at the foot of Luofeng is brightly lit, and the streets are crowded with cars and vehicles. The pedestrians are as busy as ants. Only the stars in the sky are watching the world quietly and steadily. The old woman stood alone on the observation platform, looking at Li Changsheng's figure, who had left in spite of her, and lost herself in thought.
Li Changsheng said that non-interference means letting nature take its course. It is Taoist humility that he does not do things beyond his ability. He is willing to do good without seeking reward within his ability, which is exactly what Taoism says that the most beautiful morality and behavior should be like water. Because all living things can't live without water. Water nourishes the living things on the earth, but it never asks for a return. This young man perfectly interprets the thought of the founder of Taoism Laozi . Since he is predestined to be a Taoist, I'd better accept him as a disciple for my father.
The steps of the climbing path in Xiangxue Park are winding in the dark. Li Changsheng walked down the mountain quickly on the steps and just came to the Longevity Pavilion halfway up the mountain. "Stop!" Unexpectedly, a clear cry startled him. A 15-year-old girl jumped out of the pavilion. In the dim night, Li Changsheng saw that she had a meatball hairstyle, and her face was beautiful and delicate. She was standing in the middle of the road with her hands akimbo and eyebrows upside down, blocking the road.
Her hair style and clothes made Li Changsheng recognize her as the granddaughter of the old woman. When the old woman went out to the stall and closed the stall, she would show up to help her Grandma.
Li Changsheng said:“ Hey, what's the matter with you? You scared me!”
"Stop playing pranks! Ruoshui!" Grandma stood up from the pavilion and said to the little girl, "Ruoshui, can you ask this young man to come here and say something？It won't take him too long."
Li Changsheng thought that although there were only a few roads down the mountain, the road he took to the Longevity Pavilion was the shortest. When did Grandma surpass him and wait at the Longevity Pavilion in advance?
Seeing Grandma leaning on crutches, stooping, old and wrinkled, Li Changsheng still couldn't bear to walk into the pavilion.
Grandma handed Li Changsheng a thread bound book. In the dim light, the cover was vaguely three words of Tao Te Ching. "This Tao Te Ching has only two thousand words. Young man, please do me a favor. Please read it now. Granddaughter, light the lantern!”
After giving the book to Li Changsheng, Grandma went back to the pavilion and sat down to rest without waiting for Li Changsheng to answer.
Li Changsheng looked hesitant. He subconsciously took the book with his left hand and the small lantern with his right hand. He sat down on a smooth stone at the roadside and put the book on his thigh. Turn over the cover, and a line of beautiful female brush calligraphy on the cover page:
In Zhongnan Mountain, there is a peak called Qinglong Ridge.
A small temple called Wenshi on the Qinglong Ridge.
I made tea there and waited for my friends to communicate.
Turning to the next page, there are a few paragraphs in small script:
The Wuwei Taoist Priest of the Wenshi Taoist Temple said: "The hope of becoming an immortal is slim, and I don't know how to go to heaven. There are hundreds of millions of Taoist practitioners from ancient times to today, but how many people can successfully achieve immortality?
The followers of Taoism strive to seek Tao all their lives, they are only seeking the way of immortality. These Taoist believers left their families and went into the Taoist temple to practice. They can only focus on their own bodies by giving up the troubles brought about by wealth, power and love in the world.
The Wenshi Temple is the first Taoist temple. For more than 2000 years, ancient sages have made unremitting efforts to explore the way of longevity. Those who are allowed to enter the Wenshi Temple not only have great wisdom, but also have great perseverance, and spend a lifetime practicing and understanding. Are you willing to spend your whole life to pursue the way of longevity? "
The next page is the text of Tao Te Ching.
Although Li Changsheng is a civil engineering major, he spent almost all of his four years in the library of Peking University. He likes to read various biographies and cultural and historical materials. He wants to know how his predecessors spent their short lives and hopes to get guidance and reference from them. And there are many benefits in the library:
First, reading in the library is the least expensive thing. In addition to their homework, young men and women in university can't avoid traveling in groups, or going to the park to enjoy flowers, or watching the moon together in the open air, or cuddling together to watch the sunrise. These activities are not for the students like him who have to calculate how to save a penny for each meal.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Second, he was a student from the countryside, and he could not contact knowledgeable people since childhood. He doesn't understand the meaning of his life, the origin of the world, and what is his future development ? A lot of such problems made him restless. He hoped to get clear guidance from the sages by reading the classics.
So Li Changsheng studied Laozi, Liezi, Shizi and Zhuangzi in the library of Peking University. This book is a rare ancient book, which is quite different from that seen in the library.
Can we focus our mind on our body and not think about anythings?
Can we make our breathing soft and long, like that when a baby sleeps?
Can we sit quietly in a quiet room without thinking about anything?
Then breathe with the kidneys on both sides of the back.
Every sentence is explained in small words,that is:
Laozi explained:
Sit there and meditate, pay attention to your belly button, imagine yourself as a baby in your mother's womb, use the umbilical cord to get black energy from the earth mother, and use your back two kidneys to get gold energy from the sky father.
The breathing is light, thin and long, soft and gentle, like the sleeping state of a baby.
Get rid of distractions in your mind, breathe soft and deep.
The versions of Tao Te Ching that Li Changsheng saw before are not only quite different from the contents of this book, but also completely different in interpretation and annotation. The versions in the library are all interpreted as philosophy books. In this book, every chapter and sentence is the way that Lao zi teaches his students how to practice immortality. Historical records show that when Laozi left Luoyang, the prosperous capital, on a black water buffalo, a general named Yin Xi stopped him on the road. Yin Xi said: Sir, you are the most knowledgeable person in the world. Why don't you write your wisdom in a book to inspire future generations before you retire?
Lao zi spent three months at Yin Xi's house writing a book, which is called Tao Te Ching. Lao zi left this book to Yin Xi and explained it to Yin Xi in three days. Yin Xi wrote Lao Tzu's explanation below every sentence in the Tao Te Ching.
After Laozi left Tao Te Ching, he left Yin Xi and headed west. No one has seen him since then.
After learning Tao Te Ching, Yin Xi immediately sent his wife and children back to his hometown. Then he resigned from his official position and walked to the south along with the book. Yin Xi came to a desolate mountain, found a cave to live in, and practiced according to the contents of the book every day. In this world, if a man do not want to be an official, not want money, not want beautiful women, there is only one condition: immortality!
The following is a quote from the Tao Te Ching: "The immortal Valley God is called the Mysterious Female. The door of the Mysterious Female is called the root of heaven and earth. If it is continuous, it is not used frequently." Laozi explained that there is also a place in the human body that is empty like a valley, just an inch inside the belly button. We call it Dantian. Put your attention on this valley and don't think about it, then you can communicate the black energy of the earth. The opening of this valley is right between the two kidneys on the back, where the golden energy of the human body is stored. Let the black energy in the valley mix with the gold energy there to produce the vitality of life.
Laozi said: All creatures in the world, including human beings, are formed by black energy and gold energy. Because black energy has these characteristics: cold, shrink, soft. The characteristics of golden energy are opposite: heat, expansion, hardness.
So the black energy forms the muscles of the human body. The muscles are soft and contract inward. The golden energy forms the hard skeleton of the human body and supports it outwards. Muscles wrap around bones. All biological bodies have black energy outside and gold energy inside. So the vitality in the body is a small ball of black energy wrapped with gold energy.
This book is only the first volume of Tao Te Ching. In less than five minutes, Li Changsheng quickly read it through. He felt suddenly enlightened and saw a world he had never seen before. In the first volume of the Tao Te Ching, there are nine complete sets of training course about practice taoism, namely, foundation building, Qi transforming, valley breaking, golden pill, Yuanying, Dongxu, Kongming, Doom crossing, and Dacheng. Each set of exercises can be divided into three stages: the initial stage, the middle stage and the later stage. It is true that there is no end to learning.
Foundation building also known as absorbing cosmic energy into the body, is to introduce black and gold energy from heaven and earth into the body. Let these two kinds of energy strengthen the muscles and bones of the body. When your body is strong enough, you can get ready for the next practice lesson.
Guo Xian of the Han Dynasty wrote a book called The Biography of Dongfang Shuo. There is a record in the book: "A Taoist said that I was nine thousand years old now, just practicing the foundation building and absorbing the two kinds of energy from heaven and earth. Now I can see far with two eyes, and I can see clearly what others cannot see. I have used 3000 years to strengthen my bones, and 2000 years to strengthen my muscles. I have done three times to strengthen my bones and two times to strengthen my muscles in my life."
If the level of the most excellent fighter in China for thousands of years is divided according to the training courses in the Tao Te Ching, it is in the initial stage of the foundation building. Because they have no real training method, they can't get more progress. Just as it is impossible to travel across the oceans to the New World without a compass.
The real masterful skills are very simple, just a few words. Like Einstein's equation of mass and energy, it looks simple. But getting the mass energy equation requires very complex physical and mathematical calculations.
Li Changsheng was shocked by the extensive and profound annotation. After he hurried over, he could not help starting again from the beginning and planned to read it again.
Ruo Shui jumps over and grabs the book at this time, she looks at Li Changsheng reproachfully and says, "My grandma said, you can only watch it once. You just need to remember the first training course and then you can practice yourself. The training course behind is too complicated and profound. It's useless for you to read it now. You can't train successfully without the guidance and explanation of the master."
Grandma then walked out of the pavilion with a crutch. She took the Tao Te Ching from her granddaughter, Ruoshui, and carefully put it in her arms. Then she said, "I will go back to my hometown in the north tomorrow. If you are interested in Taoist training course in the future, you can come to see me at Wenshi Temple in Qinglong Mountain of Zhongnan Mountain." After saying that, the old woman turned and took her granddaughter Ruoshui down the mountain and disappeared in the dark.