Lessons of the Achievement of Immortality
This day Lao Tse made a long way on His donkey along the mountain trails. On steep slopes He often got off and walked. Thus they climbed very high.
Exhausted, they chose a place to stay for the night.
The donkey got his supper — fresh grass.
Lao Tse gathered some dry brushwood and built a small fire. He was looking at that fire…
Huang Di, too, was looking at it…
Memories again displaced the reality of that moment by a not less vivid reality from the past life…
* * *
Huang Di and His disciples were on the peak of a mountain. A night sky, studded with stars, embraced them from all sides. There was no wind. Silence! Peace!Yet it was cool.
Huang Di reached out His hand — and a huge fire blazed up! It was remarkably beautiful! Tongues of flame seemed to be dancing some sort of special dance, and sparks flew to the night sky, as fiery threads, from which the fire stars were falling down into the space of the night…
Disciples warmed up… They were looking at the fire, which fascinated them with its beauty!
Huang Di began to speak in the transparent stillness of the night. His soft, deep voice united the listeners, the Speaker, and what was said — in one. The understanding was penetrating into the souls as the words sounded.
“Remember this fire! For you it will be enough to recall its image — and, regardless of the situation, you will be able to feel Me, My presence!
“Just as the endless marquee of the sky over the whole Under-Heavenly World can always remind you about My existence — so this fire can remind you about Me and the Great Infinite Power of Tao, Which, like Tao Itself, is everywhere, under all the manifestations of the material world. It is My Creative Fire.
“Nevertheless, you should accustom yourself to seeing and recognizing diverse Manifestations of Tao in everything on your Path. Tao is the invisible Sustainer of all that exists. People come to the Earth, being born, and go away, leaving their bodies that have fulfilled their purpose — but Tao always exists on the other side of the material world.
“The One Who has cognized Tao can’t be entangled by doubts anymore!
“The Wise Who have cognized Tao can serve people as a reference point. These Wise show — by the examples of Their lives — how it is possible to bring order and peace into the world, where discords and hatred reign. They also show how to maintain and multiply love and purity in the midst of the chaos. The Wise can do this because They remain in the Unity with Tao!
“The Wise Who have cognized Tao can show the Path to others.
“They — by Their work — contribute to the process of the perfection of everything and everyone!
“They merge with the Ocean of Tao and enrich Its Infinity with Themselves.
“They obtain the Great Peace of Tao and may come out from It in order to accomplish great deeds.
“Each thing or event has its meaning. The Wises help to the things to occupy better places and to the actions to happen in their due time.
“Tao is Omnipresent! And the Immortals Who have reached the Unity with Tao are omnipresent too!
“For man it is possible to obtain the Immortality, but it is not granted by My miracles. The non-miraculous at all and hard work has to precede the attainment of the great achievements and abilities!
“The one who moves to the cognition of Tao develops oneself through practicing meditation day after day, year after year. And such a person can, eventually, obtain the state of the Immortal.
“It can be said that the life in a body is the cause of a death. But the one who has died — or, rather, left one’s body — knows that it is not the end, but the beginning of another life — life without a body. And such a life can last for centuries. However, the state, in which it occurs, can vary greatly. The soul remains on that level of subtlety or coarseness, to which it was accustomed during the life in a body…
“Those who learn to meditate, following the Path to the Subtlest, also cognize life without bodies. Leaving their bodies during meditation, they don’t die but learn about the life of the consciousnesses free from the material. Returning to their bodies after that, they guard the memory of the Heavenly and learn to maintain and develop their relationship with Te and Tao.
“A developed and strong soul can easily leave its body when it wants to, staying only with a small part of itself in the body. In this case, the body can continue walking, sitting, lying and reacting adequately to the things around it.
“If we do so, then nothing bad can happen to the bodies, as some fantastic stories about the Immortals narrate. Such a body can’t be eaten by animals or buried by shepherds or farmers who found it accidentally.”
… Huang Di proposed to His disciples that they begin filling their bodies with His Creative Fire:
“Fill all the chakras and meridians with this Fire. Let your bodies and consciousnesses become this Fire!
“Each of you can fill with this Creative Flame the whole body and its smallest details as well.”
… After some effort, the bodies and cocoons of the disciples became filled with the Divine Fire.
And a little deeper than this Great Flame, they perceived — as Living, Deepest and Endless Transparent Calm — the Ocean of Tao.
Huang Di helped His disciples to enter It for some time.
Lao Tse heard the words of Huang Di seemingly addressed only to Him:
“While everything superfluous in You hasn’t been burned by this Divine Creative Fire, and while the one who enters and becomes this Fire exists — these are just training meditations.
“But when the one who does this disappears — only the true United Existence of all Te in the Infinity of Tao will remain.”
… Lao Tse submerged himself into the Boundless Peace of Tao and dissolved himself in It.
Huang Di continued:
“We — as souls — can live being immersed in the Flame of Te or in the Transparent Calm of Tao.
“Let’s enter the Transparent Calm all together! Now let’s try to look from there at our bodies, and let’s begin to fill the chakras and meridians with the state of Tao.
“Through this, you can start learning to control your bodies from Tao, replacing gradually that part of the consciousness that you have left there to control them.
“And it’s worth mentioning that against the background of the Transparency of Tao, you will be able to see clearly all the energies of the consciousness that are not identical to the Subtlest yet!”
“How many years will this work take?” — one of the disciples asked.
“About 100 years, not less, and for the lazy — even more. Therefore, not all the spiritual practitioners live until the Immortality of their material bodies,” — Huang Di joked. — “Yet the most important thing is the immortality of the soul, which obtains properties and qualities of Tao and Te.
“Only very big Te can disappear fully in Tao and then manifest Themselves again in the Creation.
“The Transparency of Tao is completely immune to any negative influences! So, learn to be transparent!
“It’s possible, by rotating the energy of the consciousness through the microcosmic orbit, technique that I’ve already taught you, to cast out from the bodies everything that differs from the Transparent Peace of Tao. Then only Tao will be present in the body, replacing it by Itself more and more.
“Remember this moment! Now you are in the state of Te Who exist in the Mergence with Tao! You are ‘tasting’ the Immortality!
“However, in the future, you will have to learn all these gradually by yourselves!
“So, let the deepest Depths be for you now the only perceived world! Listen and feel here: inside the Ocean of Transparent Calm! From this state, you will be able to hear if someone calls you from the Earth for the help! You will be able to appear before the incarnate people as the Souls rising like Light-Fire Mountains from the Ocean of Tao!
“Afterwards, I will teach you how you can transport yourselves together with your bodies.
“Remember, too, that our aim is not to teach people to believe in miracles. Without us, there are enough writers of fairy tales about the immortals who can do whatever they want. This is a dream of many: to be able to fulfill any of their whims and desires.
“But the one who serves Tao never fulfills one’s own desires! For that person only the Desires of Tao and Te are the guide for action!
“The real Taoist won’t try even to save from the death one’s own body if there is not the Will of Tao for this… Such a Taoist will just accept, being in great peace, the death of his or her body and merge — as Soul — with Tao in the universal Abode of all the Perfects.
“Having left forever their worn-out bodies, Te serve Tao and people, showing Their Divine Appearances for the contacts with the embodied seekers of Tao, giving advice and controlling the courses of the destinies.”
* * *
Lao Tse again found himself sitting near the small fire. His white donkey was eating grass near Him peacefully.Now for Lao Tse it was already easy to maintain himself in the Great Ocean of the Transparency of Tao for a long time.
Huang Di continued the conversation, as if it was not interrupted by a gap between the incarnations of Lao Tse:
“Let’s continue the lesson that we didn’t finish in Your previous incarnation.
“I’ll tell You a little more about such Unity with Tao which is called the achievement of Immortality.
“At the beginning, the soul archives the Great Oneness with Tao. Leaving on the Earth its material body for the time of meditation or forever, the spiritual warrior merges easily into the Boundless Ocean of Tao.
“But, as I’ve said already, it’s also possible to make the body immortal. This requires new efforts and a long life of the soul in the Unity with Tao. A human body can become then like a wonderful vessel, which is always filled with Tao and carries Tao in itself!
“This is the Property that is really worth obtaining!
“A usual human body is fragile and subject to all possible influences; it can be easily damaged; it gets old and dies.
“However, You can create an immortal body, filled with the Immortality of Tao. Such a body carries Tao in itself, and Tao easily projects Its Power through it. This body is not subject to aging and diseases; it can be easily dissolved and recreated again.
“Yes, it is possible to live in such a deep Mergence with Tao and still have a material body.
“Living so, you can easily explore the mechanism of the creation of any forms from the formless*, and, conversely, the mechanism of their dissolution in the formless. Then You can participate — with the Power of Tao — in these processes.”
* That is, protoprakriti — the cosmic building material from which the matter (prakriti) is formed. (You can find more details in the book Ecopsychology by Dr. Vladimir Antonov).
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