Friday, December 3, 2010

Spiritual Energy: 'Righteousness Ch'i' from True Understanding

When we cultivate the understanding of the superior person, we can observe the outside change with detachment. The comings and goings of outside change are just ripples on the surface of a spiritual ocean. When we can achieve this sort of spiritual objectivity we can see the world as it is, without being swayed by desire for pleasure or aversion to pain. It is then that we can feel the wind of the one ch’i blow through this world. From this perspective we can feel free and confident to do what we must do, to practice 'i', righteousness, without attaching to the results, achieving a spiritual energy that Mencius called 'righteousness ch'i'. Our Heaven’s destiny, our frame, is the field of our action. When we take what we cannot or should not change as fate and act on what can or should transform as our destiny, we need not be perturbed by the comings and goings of change. When we can clear away attachments and live accumulating 'righteousness ch'i', accomplishing our daily work, returning to our true life. We can continuously let go of all the aspects of life that we should not use and remain loyal to our destiny. We can let outside people and things go their own way, so that they will naturally move with the changes, moving towards what they are drawn towards without our obstructing them, moving towards what they have attracted into their own lives, leaving them freer, as well as ourselves. Superior people do this by allowing unwholesome influences to pass and moving closer to the good. This way they keep to the constancy of their true path.
Everyday people are coming and going, crossing paths. People are on the move. Different paths, different influences, different desires cross and re-cross each other. Superior people simply return their minds to the root of the principle of change, 'the same source' that is the origin of all paths. Superior people follow the simple and easy, concentrating on their own path as the Way to bring about transformation. When we understand the principle of change and our position in it, then we will understand the value of practicing virtue, as superior people to deal with change.

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