Teacher Zhong: The first stage of gas refining takes about 10 to 15 years, and the second stage takes about 5 to 8 years. These two stages represent the integration of body and mind respectively. Refining qi is to cultivate one's self-cultivation, while refining qi is to cultivate one's mind and cultivate one's nature. For the ancients, the body was difficult to repair, so after so many years, the heart was easier to repair, so it was less. Maybe we will find it strange. 12 Isn't the Mahayana Buddhist monk talking about returning to his true heart by hook or by crook? Isn't the heart as difficult to control as the spirit? Why is it easier to repair the heart? That's because, in the way of Confucianism and Taoism, they all cultivate their bodies first and then their hearts. The human body with life intention has a strong animality, which takes a long time to wear off. Refining gas can be said to be a person's basic training, that is, after this procedure, people can be called. Without this program, they will not be called people, but people who have been in a daze all their lives. Confucius said, "People can make it happen, but they can't make it known." This is such a person. People after practice are real people, also called real people. Because the endocrine and animal parts of the body can achieve a high degree of coordination, people in reality can turn animal nature into a good driving force. Animal nature is the devil, secular desire, five elements and five poisons are also called. People have all kinds of ups and downs, such as secular desires, five clouds and five crossings, eighty days, and there will be situations at any time. If the refined gas is not enough, just like the space rocket itself is not well studied, the natural materials inside are not selected, the hull is not installed well, and the pipeline is not equipped well. As a result, eight odd meridians, seven middle meridians and the twelve meridians are blocked, and the meridians are blocked, which naturally leads to obstacles. So it takes a long time to refine refined gas. It takes a long time to shape the body, gradually establish the outline and integrate the body and mind to become a complete person. Modern people emphasize reading rather than cultivation. Modern people study mostly to get diplomas and use reading as a tool, so self-cultivation doesn't matter. In modern language, self-cultivation is personality education, which is a gathering of family education, literacy, sentiment and education. The education of the ancients focused on people-oriented education, which was the first step to establish peace of mind. Therefore, the ancients said, "cultivate one's morality, keep the family in order, govern the country and level the world", and cultivate one's morality is the first step, but before cultivating one's morality, it is a sincere and upright tone of life, and only this attitude can cultivate one's morality. Only when you practice your body well can you do other things. Knowing the truth of self-cultivation, you can lay a good foundation for your life from the level of refining qi, and then you can get ready and put it aside. If you are clear, you will be carefree, that is, if you fix it, you will naturally let it go, and you will reach the attitude of life that you are not stained, know what it is, and do nothing. Like Zhu Gekongming, Liu Bei came out of the mountain after three visits to the cottage. On the other hand, modern people must volunteer to serve themselves, go anywhere and help this and that, all in order to find opportunities. Of course, there will be some differences in practices due to different social forms in ancient and modern times, but the basic things should be the same, that is, the basic practices are insufficient. If we deal with various problems, our relative ability will be lacking. Even if you are a genius, there are still many things that will not be enough. What is not enough? Gas is not enough, like a rocket, fuel is not enough, and the body is not strong enough. As a means of transportation, it is easy to have a situation, and the situation cannot be solved, and life stays in place. It takes more than ten years to refine the essence into essence and cultivate one's morality. Although self-cultivation is called self-cultivation, it is actually cultivating the mind, and spiritual cultivation is cultivating the mind. So why not practice the spirit directly and spend so much time practicing the spirit? That's because if you directly enter the refined gas without refining, there is no power, that is, there is not enough storage and power, and the realm is not high, just like the highly volatile fuel in a rocket, which will soar into the sky and gradually enter the orbit after being filled stably and harmoniously, otherwise it will explode halfway and fall to pieces. If people don't cultivate themselves, or cultivate themselves without tolerance, they can't show their sentiments and temperament, and they can't see their tolerance. After a long time, they just taught themselves, so it is not easy to practice gas! If the body is not repaired, people's persistence and obstacles can't be put down, let go, and can't be realized. Because the meridians of the body are blocked, the heart will not burn completely, just like the charcoal accumulated in the wick, it will not burn, and the fire will become smaller and smaller. If your heart is blocked, you can't see it clearly. There are many things you can't understand, you can't remember what you want to remember, you can't integrate what you want to internalize, you can't transform what you want to transform, and you can't improve what you want to improve. Your life will be like this. This is what I just said about ordinary people. You can't be a real person. Real people must break through all kinds of obstacles and be able to gather their sincerity from the heart. A person who can be honest with himself, in modern words, is worthy of himself, the whole world and a clear conscience. That is, Mencius said, "I am good at cultivating my integrity, and I am not harmful to the world." Such people radiate great light all over their bodies. Without practicing to that level, he could not produce that kind of light and energy. The less smooth the body qi used in the next method, the deeper the persistence, and the more obstacles. Even if you travel all over Qian Shan, you can't find wisdom. You can paddle to the other side, but you can't see the promised land. Many practitioners, especially those destined to practice Buddhism and Taoism, have the same dilemma: they almost never practice their bodies, but only practice things with their bodies. Directly get on the horse and practice some so-called magical powers. In fact, they are "using" their bodies, not exercising. What the ancients did was to really cultivate the body, so that the twelve meridians, the seven chakras and the eight odd meridians were all accessible, and life became a light body. Buddhism's compassion is not only a concept or a noun, but also an extremely powerful energy of life, which can cover all beings and take care of everyone. In other words, if you are cultivated to the extreme, you will show a basic lifestyle of compassion. If your blood vessels are blocked and you don't have enough energy, there is no way to generate compassion energy. Even if you want to do it, you can't. If you want to achieve it, you will get stuck in the middle. Why is it difficult to cultivate one's morality? Actually, it's because people are too persistent. Children are not persistent, children are just animals, and it is relatively simple to adjust their animality. But with the growth of age, I gradually accumulated persistence and obstacles, and my mind was filled with some foreign programs, and then I had demons and locked people up. After being locked up, you can't see your heart, you can't see the truth, and it's hard to cultivate yourself again. The purpose of the ancients' talking about self-cultivation is to make our body an accessible light body, which can be entangled and mastered freely in the room. If you can understand life, you can see heaven even in hell. This is not a matter of will in modern psychology, but a matter of body. If the body is strong enough, the mind will be strong. It is not enough to rely on strong consciousness, that is, when you have enough physical energy, the energy of your heart can really be opened, just like a rocket rushing to the highest point, and you can see the whole world. The reason why you can see heaven in hell is because your life has reached the highest point. You can go up, you can let go, and you can be different, but only if you have enough physical strength, not if I "want" to see it, I can see it. It is a joke if we think that our thoughts, emotions and consciousness can travel through time and space. We are too arrogant to see our own blind spots and have greater persistence. The more persistent we are, the easier it is to arrange things without corresponding head and tail, and the heart and hand are not connected. As soon as you connect to the east, you will leak to the west. There will be a lot of confusion in dealing with it, more obstacles in your heart, and more physical and mental energy consumption. Once the foundation is laid, it can be understood. If you bow your head, you will see the horizon of water. When you take a step back, you will see the realm of Nanshan. With little effort, poor understanding and short journey, how can you see footprints and walk too fast, how can you reach the other side? I don't know if it is Prajna Paramita when I see it. (2004.03.03) Produced by Taipei Qigong Culture Society.