Chapter 3 Chapter Three Blessings to the Soul

Staring at the shattered pottery fragments, the slightly drunk young man suddenly became dazed. Seeing Xingyan's reaction, the little girl who swept away the pottery bowl immediately became terrified: "Brother, are you angry?... It's all because of Qiong Xi's clumsy handling, breaking brother's beloved thing." Qiong Xun complained at the side, with tears welling up in his eyes, he squatted down while talking, and picked up the pottery pieces one by one. Although Qiongxu was talking, Xingyan seemed to turn a deaf ear, just staring blankly there.It wasn't until Qiong Xu knelt down to pick it up, blocking his sight, that he suddenly came back to his senses.But now this little sister Qiongxi was crying, and she was about to cry—Xingyan panicked all of a sudden, and quickly squatted down, picking up the broken bowls with her, so as to comfort this sad little girl Girl: "Heh~ This pottery bowl is just an ordinary bowl. How can it be my brother's favorite thing? It's not a pity to break it!"

"Oh? Then why is brother angry with Qiongxu?" "Ahem, that's because—uh! I'm not angry at all! It's just that my brother suddenly thought of a very headache." It turned out that this young man has often studied Taoist classics since he entered Luofu Mountain.On that full moon night, he was enlightened by that strange sword again, and knew the method of extracting the spirit of heaven and earth. very interested.When he was bored, Xingyan would also ponder those Taoist scriptures.Before Qiongxu came to Qianniaoya, he would often think about things that others take for granted to pass the time or help him fall asleep.

Although these days, with the innocent and lovely little girl Qiongxu by his side, the quiet days on Qianniaoya no longer seem so boring; but his mind of studying Taoist scriptures has never been lay down. Just now, it was the fragments of the pottery bowl that had been shattered all over the ground, which suddenly touched Xingyan's mind, and made this young man who had learned the method of "refining the gods and transforming the emptiness" feel that the way of the day is not unpredictable, suddenly became Be transfixed— Many Taoist classics such as "Tao De Zhen Jing" and "Nan Hua Zhen Jing" all say that the origin of heaven and earth is chaos. Like a baby before it is a child", the origin of all things in the world is just the chaos and impermanence that has no meaning and law to follow.However, the scattered fragments just now made Xingyan startled: everything in this world that seems to be thriving and orderly is moving in the direction of chaos and destruction.

The pottery bowl fell to the ground and fell to pieces; the grass and trees are soft, and they wither after death; a hundred years of life will return to dust; even if it seems that the mountains and rivers that have never changed, they will inevitably undergo vicissitudes.Things and creatures in this world seem to have only one final outcome, which is to return to the origin of heaven and earth, to return to the desolate and shattered chaos. Although the sages had the high-spirited spirit of "thinking about thousands of things, and looking forward to the universe", the truth of this universe is: growth, conception, and transformation are not the direction of the universe; death, chaos, and death are the direction of the universe. eternity...

If this is the case, then the "longevity and long-term vision" that the Taoists in this world have been striving for for thousands of years are just nonsense? Just now, he woke up and said that the momentary loss of consciousness was not because he was frustrated with his inability to practice Taoism and longevity, but from the fragments scattered all over the place, he suddenly discovered that the ultimate pursuit of this Taoist school, which is popular all over the world, may be a person at all. The impossible nothingness— At that time, his idea was too shocking, so he suddenly stood on the spot just now, stunned!

Now, the little girl squatting next to him, after listening to the consolation, knew that her brother was not angry, she laughed through tears, but forgot to ask this brother Xingyan why he was in a daze.And the young man next to her, who had just gone through a great chaos in his heart, picked up the pieces of the pottery bowl and said to himself: "Oh, it turns out that this pottery bowl is easy to break into pieces, but it can't be restored by itself." Pottery bowl!" "Hee~ That's natural! Why did brother become so stupid today?" How could this innocent little girl know about the turbulent waves that had just been stirred up in her brother Xingyan's heart!

However, hearing Qiongxu's words like a new bird's melodious voice, he woke up and said with a smile, "Ha~ what my sister said is the same. There is nothing in the world, let people disturb themselves, just let nature take its course. And Why think so much!" "Ok!" This turmoil, which was not a turmoil, ended with such a simple nasal voice from the little girl. Now, Qiongxu is busy with the most important work of her day: before the sun goes down, wash this stone flat with clean water.Firstly, it can wash away the leaf dust on the stone flat; secondly, it can also eliminate the scorching heat on the stone flat in midsummer.In this way, the elder brother of the hall master can have a cool and clean place at night, so that he can concentrate on absorbing the colorful light that day!

Speaking of which, in Xingyan's eyes, the colorless aura of heaven and earth was reflected in the eyes of this little Qiongxi as a stream of colorful light that twisted and flowed all over the sky.It seems that this little girl transformed from a strange beast cannot be treated with common sense. Of course, her careful hall master brother gave her another order not to tell others about this matter.And this Qiongxu knew that what he saw was different from what his elder brother saw, but he was sad for a while, thinking that because he was a monster, there was such a difference, and in his small eyes, he just felt very sad.In the end, it took a long time for the young man to coax her into laughing through tears——During the time spent with Qiongxi, Xingyan's eloquence has been greatly improved again!

Now, the clever little girl looked around and saw that there was no one else, so she performed the tricks she did on the streets of Luoyang a few days ago, suddenly summoned a ball of clear water from mid-air, and then smashed it on the stone lawn , this cool water overflows everywhere. When Qiongxu was cleaning the stone surface, Xingyan stood beside the cold spring, watching the clear water flow over the stone surface which was whitened by the sun. Looking at the clear water flowing everywhere, the young man couldn't help sighing in his heart: "Alas! Just look at this water, it always tends to go indefinitely!"

Looking back at the cold spring, the round water droplets condensed by the water vapor between the rocks are dripping down from the tip of the stalagmite, crashing on the smooth bluestone below, and splashing crystal water everywhere. It is the feeling in the heart that makes the eyes become emotional.Now Xingyan is always haunted by the idea that all things return to chaos, looking at everything in front of him, he makes associations following this principle. When the young man was feeling emotional, he suddenly felt a chill in front of him, and then he saw the water drop that was leisurely and about to fall on the stalagmite in front of him, but suddenly froze, stuck there, and then Like the tears of the merman, it has condensed into a crystal clear ice bead!

"what?" Looking back, it was the little girl Qiongxu who was making a face at her, and said with a giggle, "I saw my brother in a daze again, so I came to scare you!" It turned out that it was Qiongxu who had cast the freezing technique just now.Knowing the whole story, Xingyan didn't take it seriously.Looking back at the appearance of this small crystal ice bead, which seems to be dripping but not dripping, it is very interesting—— Suddenly, the originally leisurely young man suddenly turned around, grabbed Qiong Xun who was giggling there, and shouted excitedly: "I got it!~ I got it!~~" Suddenly seeing her brother's crazy appearance, this petite girl who was being shaken couldn't care less about the pain in her shoulders, she just kept asking, "Brother, what's wrong?" Seeing that the hall master's elder brother seemed a little weird since he broke a pottery bowl by himself just now; now seeing him like this again, Qiong Xi was very worried, not knowing what happened, so he stood there Urgent inquiry. "Uh!" This joyful young man woke up after hearing the series of hurried questions from the girl. He quickly let go of his hands, apologized endlessly to Qiong Xi, and explained why he lost his composure just now. It turned out that this incident was really caused by and benefited from Qiongxu.When he saw the broken pottery bowl for the first time, he woke up and worried that the manpower would be limited, and everything would return to chaos; just now when he suddenly saw Qiongxi's little prank, the young man's mind flashed again—— In an instant, it seemed that all the dark clouds for thousands of miles had dissipated, and the sky was full of stars and moons! This is exactly what the young man thinks now: Since the water droplets can drip into scattered sprays or condense into static ice beads, so the pure chaos that has always been regarded as the mother of heaven and earth and the origin of all things , shouldn't there also be a corresponding opposite?In other words, if "chaos" is regarded as positive, is there also a "negative" chaos?If "Chaos" is regarded as Yang, shouldn't there be a "Yin" Chaos? As the so-called happiness reaches the soul, it is natural to wake up now, thinking of the questions that have been bothering me these days: "What is the aura of heaven and earth? What is the essence of the sun and the moon? What is my refining spirit?" Now, he thinks he has the answer: The aura of heaven and earth, the essence of the sun and the moon, and the "fairy spirit" that Taoism considers are the negative "chaos" and yin "chaos"!And that refining deity and transforming the void is to refine the negative chaos that fills the space between heaven and earth into a negative chaos that can exist in one's body and be used by one's own body—that is, the "Taihua Dao Power"! Now, a series of thoughts, like a revolving lantern, kept flashing through the young man's mind: "The mother of heaven and earth, the origin of all things, why must there be only a single chaos? Maybe the one positive one negative, one yin one Yang is the complete origin of heaven and earth!" "Perhaps, there is no need to stick to the number of the origin of heaven and earth—the Dao generates one, the first generates two, the two generates three, and the three generates all things—it doesn't really matter whether it is one or two. what!" "Although that life will eventually end, why can our beings still survive in this world? The reason should be that before that life ends, the creatures in the world are constantly absorbing the negative chaos! Is it the thousand-year-old toon, or the fleeting mayfly, it is because of the ingestion of the negative chaos that it can survive in the world!" "The prosperity and withering of vegetation is the law of chaos absorbed by vegetation; the drinking and pecking of people at the time is the law of chaos absorbed by our generation; the nirvana of the phoenix is ​​the law of chaos absorbed by immortals and birds. And The sects of cultivating immortals and seeking the Tao in the world, at their origin, are all seeking the law of absorbing the chaos of negativity, transcending life and death, and turning a hundred years of life into thousands or ten thousand years!" Now in the Lingtai of Xingyan, there is an unprecedented clarity and emptiness: "Now I finally understand that the 'intent and inaction' emphasized by the 'refining the gods and transforming the emptiness' is not only the method of summoning the 'Taihua Taoli', but also the The ultimate principle of cultivating the Tao in the world. If you stop doing nothing, you will at most slow down the arrival of chaos, and you cannot truly "do everything". Quiet and inaction can only preserve health, and it cannot live forever." "Only by following the 'consciousness and inaction', and actively refining the 'negative chaos', is it really possible to achieve the highest state that my Taoist sect pursues: longevity and long vision!" ... "Uh?!" But when he was waking up, meditating with his eyes closed, and excited about his discovery, he suddenly felt a dimness in front of his eyes—this young man who was immersed in contemplating the righteousness of heaven and earth suddenly cried out in shock: "That's not good!" ! Could it be that God will not allow me to enlighten me to the way of heaven, and will punish me to destroy me?!" Panicked, he quickly opened his eyes to take a look—only to see the little Qiongxu girl stretching out a small hand like fat jade, shaking it in front of his eyelids! Before waking up to speak, Qiong Xun said in surprise: "Eh? My brother is not asleep?" "..." "Hey~ as the saying goes, 'Tao can be said, it is very Tao', but the most Tao is speechless - how can I realize the truly powerful way of heaven? Heh~ why worry about being punished by heaven? !" However, after less than half an hour of ups and downs in thoughts, it has strengthened his determination to persist in refining the Yuanling of that day every night! The days on Thousand Bird Cliff passed by in such a calm way.It seems that the years in the mountains will continue like this.Until one day, when the Master of the Hall of Four Seas went down the mountain to inspect the property of the Shangqing Palace, he heard a farmer say that at the foot of Luofu Mountain where the Shangqing Palace is located, there have been snake demons appearing recently!

---

Notes: Nearly two thousand years after the time of Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Zhang Xingyan, only Westerners put forward a theory similar to "chaos", the theory of "entropy". The lamp of ancient Chinese philosophy has illuminated China for thousands of years, and its light is still dazzling and unstoppable.In the field of philosophy, we, the descendants of Yan and Huang, seem to have been stuck for a long time. This is the second focus on the Tao in this book.