The Tao is one person's understanding, which can only be understood but cannot be expressed in words.
Each of us has different insights, perceptions, understanding and analysis abilities of the world. Although these abilities can also be improved through exercise, that only increases the overall lower limit - the upper limit of talent.
Margins and depth are actually irreversible by human power.
Whether it is Buddhism, Confucianism, or Taoism, at the end of your cultivation, you must pass the level of "enlightenment".
Starting from the very beginning of learning: Learning is for the purpose of knowing. The more you know, the more you will understand. Only when you understand to the extreme can you think, and only when you think about it to the end... can you understand.
Of course, if you are the reincarnation of some kind of god, a god descends to the earth, you will realize things when you encounter them, and you will understand when you are enlightened, and your practice will make thousands of miles... Then you are cruel, and it is not an exaggeration to call you an "innate master".
But most of the people who seek the Tao in this world are still ordinary people. They still have to start with "learning" and move up step by step.
The stone steps in front of the Xuanqi Sect Mountain Gate symbolize this "road of seeking the Tao". The difficulty of climbing up is also different for everyone due to their different understandings.
When I first walked up these stone steps, it was the "learning" stage.
At this stage, every time a person takes a step on the stone steps, he will feel as if he is stepping on an irregularly shaped object. If he is not careful, he will slip. However, looking with his eyes, he cannot see this.
There are any unevenness in the stone steps.
When you gradually adapt to this change, that is, when you reach the node of "knowledge", you will enter the next stage, which is the road to "tong".
In this section, in addition to retaining the "irregular stepping feeling" of the previous stage, the "gravity" on each stone step will also change: maybe when you take a step, you still feel like you are stuck in a quagmire.
It takes a lot of effort to lift your knees, but in the next step, if you use the same force to lift your legs, you will lift them too high and too hard, and lose your balance.
This change of "lightness" and "heavyness" is also random, and requires climbers to slowly understand and adapt to it...
If you are accustomed to this, you can move on to the last section, which is the section from "Tong" to "Si".
From here on, in addition to the abnormalities in the stone steps, the environment around you will also begin to change. There will be a very strong mountain wind blowing around you, and the wind will continue to change directions. The surface of the stone steps under your feet will
, there will also be a thin layer of frost, making it easier to slip when you step on it.
And if you finish this section, you can see the top of the mountain.
Some people may ask, how did you reach the top at the "thinking" stage? What about "enlightenment"?
Nonsense, if you have already enlightened after walking on the mountain road, what kind of teacher do you still want to follow?
Furthermore, in the final analysis, these stone steps are just a tool to test the understanding of beginners. It does not mean that you have really reached the "thinking" stage after walking these stone steps - walking on the stone steps is nothing more than
It is a rough estimate of the realm you can reach and how many years it will take to reach this realm.
In fact, generally speaking, as long as you can reach the "second stage", you have passed. It doesn't matter if you can't go up. If you have almost given up, someone will come to pick you up the mountain.
However, it does not rule out that there are people with really low qualifications... who can't even complete the first stage. There is nothing you can do about that. Even if Xuanqi Sect takes you in forcibly, you won't learn anything.
It doesn't make sense to let you go to the mountains to do odd jobs and waste your life...
For example, Bai Ruhong, the "Yin Dao" back then, got stuck in the "learning" stage; he walked for days and nights, rolled down countless times, and couldn't get up, but he was a very "axis" person.
", refused to give up, and looked like he was ready to die here to express his sincerity... The veterans of Xuanqi Sect had no choice but to make an exception and take him in because of the particularly good "character" he had shown before.
He went up the mountain and taught him a basic set of martial arts and became a registered disciple.
But this is the only special case in so many years, and to be honest, people in Xuanqi Sect don't like Bai Ruhong very much, because Bai Ruhong's character is very inconsistent with the "casual" and "natural" style of Xuanqi Sect.
, so Bai Ruhong only stayed on the mountain for a few years before his master coaxed him to go down the mountain with the excuse that "you are more suitable for joining the world"; before he left, his master repeatedly warned him not to retaliate when he travels in the world.
The name "Xuanqi Sect" means that our sect does not want to have too much to do with the secular world.
Of course, Bai Ruhong also followed his master's teachings carefully. In the past decades, he had never mentioned to anyone where he learned his martial arts.
It’s a bit far-fetched... Let’s go back to Huangdong.
Brother Huang is indeed not stupid. Not long after walking up the stone steps, he figured out the rules of the first stage.
But knowing the rules doesn't mean you can get by. Adaptation requires a process. You have to practice. As for how long it takes to master it, it depends on your talent.
Huang Donglai and Sun Yixie both belong to the kind of people who think that they are very talented, but they are slightly different in this area——
When Sun Yixie is learning something, he will usually eagerly say "I understand" to something he knows only a little about, and then deceives himself. Then he goes further and further down a wrong path, and reaches a point where he may not even teach him.
A strange realm that no one of his has ever been to...
As for Huang Donglai, he is the type whose body cannot keep up with his brain, and what is easier said than done is difficult. When he learns something, he may "understand" it really quickly, but what he has understood theoretically is not practical.
When he did it, it was difficult for him to do it.
This is similar to the feeling you have when watching professional e-sports players play games live. Maybe as a bystander, your thinking is very clear, your awareness is higher than that of a master, and you can give guidance to a master group player from a god's perspective, but in reality
When you go up to play by yourself, your mind is blank and you add bronze group operations. Someone from the gold group can defeat you.
In the end, I could only comfort and convince myself with the words "I just don't have time to practice, if I had practiced hard I would have been invincible."
However, one thing about Huang Donglai is worthy of recognition. When he is really willing to work hard to practice, or when he has to practice, he can still slowly let his body catch up with his brain.
At the moment, anyway, he has drank the "Guiyuan Dew" and is very energetic, and has already reached the mountain gate. It is absolutely impossible for him to give up this opportunity to "cultivate immortality" and go back. In that case, he has suffered a lot.
It's all in vain.
So, he bit the bullet and started his journey to the "top".
One day, two days...
On the third day, Huang Donglai's eyes had changed.
In the process of constantly slipping, rolling, climbing, and falling again, his mentality was repeatedly polished between collapse and revival.
Gradually, he no longer becomes frustrated by slipping, nor does he suffer too much emotional fluctuations due to upward breakthroughs. To use a more elegant and concise term, this is called "not surprised by favor or disgrace". To use a more popular and down-to-earth term,
The saying is - a "trembling M" is awakened.
Finally, at dusk on the third day, relying on muscle memory, that is, the tactile response that has penetrated into the bone marrow, Huang Donglai completely adapted to the first stage of the stone steps, and thus started the second stage...
Ordinarily, if he chooses to give up anytime after this, someone will come to pick him up the mountain.
but……
Due to the change in his mentality, Huang Donglai had no intention of giving up at this moment.
The sudden appearance of gravity rules did not waver him. He just started a new round of exploration and practice more cautiously.
Chunchen Zixin, who was observing him on the mountain, said: "It's broken. I shouldn't have given him Guiyuan Dew. Judging from his posture, he is preparing to walk for seven days and seven nights."
He was right...
Huang Donglai continued walking like this, and at noon on the sixth day, he successfully reached the third stage, which was the last section.
In fact, he is really lucky. Most people can walk up these stone steps for three days at most. If they don't give up, they will die of exhaustion or thirst. But Huang Donglai has more than four days longer than others to challenge, and it has always been
In a state of full physical strength.
The key is that his mentality has never collapsed, or that he has not given up completely even if he collapsed. He can pick himself up every time, which is another important reason why he can keep going.
However, he was not able to complete the stone steps after all.
At dusk on the sixth day, Chun Chenzi couldn't stand it any longer, so he simply parachuted over and carried Huang Donglai up the mountain, lying to him and saying, "You have actually passed the test when you got here, and there is no need to continue."
Huang Donglai also believed it. After all, he didn’t know what would happen further up. If he had known, maybe he would have said, “Uncle, I should be able to hold on for a day and a half. Let me try to climb to the top.”
How about it?" This kind of request comes...
No matter what, at this point, Huang Donglai finally "successfully became a disciple" and officially entered Shushan - Xuanqi Sect.