It was sunny after the blizzard. All the dark clouds had drifted away. The beautiful night sky was showing some scarce stars, but of course, this was not comparable to the gorgeous milky way in summer.
“The soul sits at the Heaven’s Court. Heaven’s court is where all gods reside, the inspiration of all buddhas. Envision the energy of all stars collecting at the top of your head, going down inch after inch, joining the soul, creating all kinds of visions. The soul experiences coolness, heat, sweetness, bitterness. It also sees dancers in heaven, devils in hell, buddhas, gods, saints. Sometimes it feels like it has fallen to the underworld, sometimes it feels like it is fighting in the battlefield. The soul can feel like it is suddenly granted the greatest power in the world, or it is a skeleton rotting in the wild with no one to take care of it. Discard all the illusions. Focus on yourself and what you want. Envision yourself as a buddha sitting at the middle of nowhere, called Amitabha, making Amitabha’s handprint. This buddha is nature of all living creatures in the world. Keep that in mind and all tragedies will go away……”
It was 11 at night. There was no one around, and everything was silent. Hong Yi stood at the center of his patio. He lifted his head and looked at the sparse stars in the sky, like he was about to imprint them in his head. He closed his eyes and started performing the teachings in the sutra.
After one day of reading, he had understood one of the basic methods recorded in the Mituo sutra to strengthen the soul.
He recited the article and felt like he had fully comprehended its meaning.
Hong Yi laid a simple blanket on the ground and sat cross-legged on it. He looked up again, and after only about the time to burn half an incense, he seemed to have remembered all the patterns in the sky. He closed his eyes again and performed the same posture as the buddha depicted in the sutra.
After storing the image of the night sky in his mind, Hong Yi sat there quietly, imagining the light of the stars shining on him, coming through his head and into his brain.
Since Hong Yi had a little bit of experience with the Pagoda Visualization Method, and he was able to calm down fast, he was not very much bothered by the illusions. So it wasn’t so hard for him to use the strengthening technique.
Also, the Dao Scripture, which he had spent a few days reading, had articles explaining how most of the strengthening techniques for the soul were visualisation: basically, pretending fake things were real.
It’s like imagining you have a delicious plum in your mouth; you would salivate despite not having actually having a plum in your mouth.
However, illusions like this can cause changes in the soul, sometimes even in the body.
After sitting there silently for about the time to burn an incense, Hong Yi was getting in the zone.
Once the imagined starlight entered his brain and reached its exterior, Hong Yi felt a sudden cool breeze all over his body, like all of his pores were breathing refreshing, frosty air. He felt like his body was as light as a kite, like it was about to float away in air like an immortal.
Hong Yi accidentally moaned under this comfortable feeling, like he was smoking opium. The comfort reached deep into his bones, like the “opium” quite popular among the past dynasty.
Even the Warriors, like innate masters, could not resist the temptation. Hong Yi felt completely indulged in this feeling.
Luckily, he still remembered the words in the sutra, which stated that visualizing starlight brings a lot of illusions, one of which was the cool breeze, typically the first barrier.
Just when he was about to completely give up control and indulge himself in the cool breeze, Hong Yi was alarmed as he suddenly started being able to visualize a golden buddha, kind, like his previous life hundreds of thousands of incarnations ago.
This is the buddha depicted in the Mituo Sutra.
The sutra says, visualizing the buddha can suppress all the unwanted inner demons, the distractions, and make the person realize who he really wants to be, for thousands of thousands of lives.
Hong Yi knew that the sutra wasn’t exaggerating. The art and technique that went into this painting already included all the teachings in the painting itself.
Aside from the buddha, the painter himself was probably extremely close to Yang God already.
Hong Yi had a feeling that if Bai Ziyue took a peek at this painting, he would probably make big progress without even looking at the scripts.
As soon as the buddha appeared in his mind, all the comfortable feelings had gone away. The only thing left was rationality.
The world was still the world.
There was no starlight entering the body. Everything was just an illusion.
“The illusions are strong. Thank God I have the help from the buddha painting. Or I would indulge myself in it and never come back.”
Hong Yi knew that it was a close call. If he hadn’t visualized the buddha in time, he would fall to the nether region of cool breeze and never be able to come back. He’d probably be crazy for the rest of his life.
In practicing spiritual cultivation, concentration, calmness, and rationality were all needed. Reality and illusions crossed. If he were to get confused, there would be no way out. It was much more dangerous than martial arts.
“With that experience, I shouldn’t be afraid to try again.”
Hong Yi performed the posture again, and imagined starlight entering his brain.
As soon as the starlight reached his body, he felt the cool breeze surrounding him again.
Now Hong Yi already had the experience and disregarded it. Instead, he focused on himself and continue with the method. After a while, the illusions changed. It was as if he was in hell. He had a headache like his head was about to explode. Then all of a sudden, all kinds of extreme emotions rushed into his head.
He still kept focusing on himself.
After a while, the illusions changed again. He could see ghosts and devils flaunting their weapons at him, like they were about to come at him and devour him alive, drink his blood and eat his flesh.
He could hear horrible shrieks revolving around him, like atrocities were happening right in front of him.
He pretended that he did not hear a thing.
Suddenly, he was surrounded by beautiful women, their private parts showing. They sang and danced to please him.
He resisted the temptation again.
And the vision changed again: he was at the center of a battlefield, cadavers laid up like a mountain, blood piled up into a river.
He kept his sanity.
Suddenly, his body started rotting, covered in flies and larvae, with his bones sticking out.
Hong Yi still kept to himself. He understood the uncertain nature of life and death. He was not afraid of death any more.
The illusions varied, and all of a sudden:
Hong!
The starlight of his imagination seemed to have combined with his soul; he felt the irresistible power dragging his soul out of his body, joining the origins of stars in the heaven.
It felt incredibly realistic, and good, like he had finally reached the destination after endless troubles and hardships. He was done. He had arrived.
Hong Yi’s soul couldn’t resist the attraction. His soul wavered, about to follow its calling.
At this very moment, the buddha, the buddha of his previous life, showed up in the air again.
His wavering soul calmed down again.
After Hong Yi regained his sanity, he was scared to the core.
“I was not aware that the last step was so hard to take! That makes sense–who can resist the urge of becoming a god and going to heaven, after so many hardships they have been through to get there?”
Hong Yi knew if he had followed the attraction and left his body, his soul would have been completely destroyed by the fierce wind on the high sky.
The feeling of reaching the destination was just an illusion.
Hong Yi sat tight and tried the method again.
Having even more experience, he overcame all the various illusions rather easily, and he once again feel the giant attraction that pushed his soul out of his body.
He did his best to fight the power.
His soul bounced around in his body, like a person who was fighting not to drown.
Finally, Hong Yi had used up all his willpower. His will completely collapsed, and drowsiness hit him hard like a truck.
He knew that he had overused his spiritual power, like dwelling too much on the contents of a book.
“I can’t sleep out here on the patio. I will freeze to death.”
He tried his best to move his body into the room, basically crawling, and fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.
It was a quiet night with no dreams.
When he woke up, it was already all bright outside.
Warm sunshine shone on him through the window. Hong Yi felt refreshed and quick; his body so energized he wanted to sing!
For five nights in a row, Hong Yi had been practicing the visualization in the Mituo Sutra.
One night, Hong Yi had decided to light an incense and perform mortal shedding.
As soon as his soul had left his body and had entered the outside world, it was like a swimmer seeing water. He had a strong urge to go down and take a dip.
The Dao Scripture had records, and Bai Ziyue had mentioned the situation as well. This was what the Night Roaming stage should feel like after the soul left the mortal shell.
Hong Yi tried to walk outside of the incense fume.
He was not feeling at all chilled or powerless, but rather comfortable, like a fish in a sea.
In a good mood, Hong Yi’s spirit decided to wobble out of the door.
Night Roaming!
Finally, he has reached Night Roaming!
It was sunny after the blizzard. All the dark clouds had drifted away. The beautiful night sky was showing some scarce stars, but of course, this was not comparable to the gorgeous milky way in summer.
“The soul sits at the Heaven’s Court. Heaven’s court is where all gods reside, the inspiration of all buddhas. Envision the energy of all stars collecting at the top of your head, going down inch after inch, joining the soul, creating all kinds of visions. The soul experiences coolness, heat, sweetness, bitterness. It also sees dancers in heaven, devils in hell, buddhas, gods, saints. Sometimes it feels like it has fallen to the underworld, sometimes it feels like it is fighting in the battlefield. The soul can feel like it is suddenly granted the greatest power in the world, or it is a skeleton rotting in the wild with no one to take care of it. Discard all the illusions. Focus on yourself and what you want. Envision yourself as a buddha sitting at the middle of nowhere, called Amitabha, making Amitabha’s handprint. This buddha is nature of all living creatures in the world. Keep that in mind and all tragedies will go away……”
It was 11 at night. There was no one around, and everything was silent. Hong Yi stood at the center of his patio. He lifted his head and looked at the sparse stars in the sky, like he was about to imprint them in his head. He closed his eyes and started performing the teachings in the sutra.
After one day of reading, he had understood one of the basic methods recorded in the Mituo sutra to strengthen the soul.
He recited the article and felt like he had fully comprehended its meaning.
Hong Yi laid a simple blanket on the ground and sat cross-legged on it. He looked up again, and after only about the time to burn half an incense, he seemed to have remembered all the patterns in the sky. He closed his eyes again and performed the same posture as the buddha depicted in the sutra.
After storing the image of the night sky in his mind, Hong Yi sat there quietly, imagining the light of the stars shining on him, coming through his head and into his brain.
Since Hong Yi had a little bit of experience with the Pagoda Visualization Method, and he was able to calm down fast, he was not very much bothered by the illusions. So it wasn’t so hard for him to use the strengthening technique.
Also, the Dao Scripture, which he had spent a few days reading, had articles explaining how most of the strengthening techniques for the soul were visualisation: basically, pretending fake things were real.
It’s like imagining you have a delicious plum in your mouth; you would salivate despite not having actually having a plum in your mouth.
However, illusions like this can cause changes in the soul, sometimes even in the body.
After sitting there silently for about the time to burn an incense, Hong Yi was getting in the zone.
Once the imagined starlight entered his brain and reached its exterior, Hong Yi felt a sudden cool breeze all over his body, like all of his pores were breathing refreshing, frosty air. He felt like his body was as light as a kite, like it was about to float away in air like an immortal.
Hong Yi accidentally moaned under this comfortable feeling, like he was smoking opium. The comfort reached deep into his bones, like the “opium” quite popular among the past dynasty.
Even the Warriors, like innate masters, could not resist the temptation. Hong Yi felt completely indulged in this feeling.
Luckily, he still remembered the words in the sutra, which stated that visualizing starlight brings a lot of illusions, one of which was the cool breeze, typically the first barrier.
Just when he was about to completely give up control and indulge himself in the cool breeze, Hong Yi was alarmed as he suddenly started being able to visualize a golden buddha, kind, like his previous life hundreds of thousands of incarnations ago.
This is the buddha depicted in the Mituo Sutra.
The sutra says, visualizing the buddha can suppress all the unwanted inner demons, the distractions, and make the person realize who he really wants to be, for thousands of thousands of lives.
Hong Yi knew that the sutra wasn’t exaggerating. The art and technique that went into this painting already included all the teachings in the painting itself.
Aside from the buddha, the painter himself was probably extremely close to Yang God already.
Hong Yi had a feeling that if Bai Ziyue took a peek at this painting, he would probably make big progress without even looking at the scripts.
As soon as the buddha appeared in his mind, all the comfortable feelings had gone away. The only thing left was rationality.
The world was still the world.
There was no starlight entering the body. Everything was just an illusion.
“The illusions are strong. Thank God I have the help from the buddha painting. Or I would indulge myself in it and never come back.”
Hong Yi knew that it was a close call. If he hadn’t visualized the buddha in time, he would fall to the nether region of cool breeze and never be able to come back. He’d probably be crazy for the rest of his life.
In practicing spiritual cultivation, concentration, calmness, and rationality were all needed. Reality and illusions crossed. If he were to get confused, there would be no way out. It was much more dangerous than martial arts.
“With that experience, I shouldn’t be afraid to try again.”
Hong Yi performed the posture again, and imagined starlight entering his brain.
As soon as the starlight reached his body, he felt the cool breeze surrounding him again.
Now Hong Yi already had the experience and disregarded it. Instead, he focused on himself and continue with the method. After a while, the illusions changed. It was as if he was in hell. He had a headache like his head was about to explode. Then all of a sudden, all kinds of extreme emotions rushed into his head.
He still kept focusing on himself.
After a while, the illusions changed again. He could see ghosts and devils flaunting their weapons at him, like they were about to come at him and devour him alive, drink his blood and eat his flesh.
He could hear horrible shrieks revolving around him, like atrocities were happening right in front of him.
He pretended that he did not hear a thing.
Suddenly, he was surrounded by beautiful women, their private parts showing. They sang and danced to please him.
He resisted the temptation again.
And the vision changed again: he was at the center of a battlefield, cadavers laid up like a mountain, blood piled up into a river.
He kept his sanity.
Suddenly, his body started rotting, covered in flies and larvae, with his bones sticking out.
Hong Yi still kept to himself. He understood the uncertain nature of life and death. He was not afraid of death any more.
The illusions varied, and all of a sudden:
Hong!
The starlight of his imagination seemed to have combined with his soul; he felt the irresistible power dragging his soul out of his body, joining the origins of stars in the heaven.
It felt incredibly realistic, and good, like he had finally reached the destination after endless troubles and hardships. He was done. He had arrived.
Hong Yi’s soul couldn’t resist the attraction. His soul wavered, about to follow its calling.
At this very moment, the buddha, the buddha of his previous life, showed up in the air again.
His wavering soul calmed down again.
After Hong Yi regained his sanity, he was scared to the core.
“I was not aware that the last step was so hard to take! That makes sense–who can resist the urge of becoming a god and going to heaven, after so many hardships they have been through to get there?”
Hong Yi knew if he had followed the attraction and left his body, his soul would have been completely destroyed by the fierce wind on the high sky.
The feeling of reaching the destination was just an illusion.
Hong Yi sat tight and tried the method again.
Having even more experience, he overcame all the various illusions rather easily, and he once again feel the giant attraction that pushed his soul out of his body.
He did his best to fight the power.
His soul bounced around in his body, like a person who was fighting not to drown.
Finally, Hong Yi had used up all his willpower. His will completely collapsed, and drowsiness hit him hard like a truck.
He knew that he had overused his spiritual power, like dwelling too much on the contents of a book.
“I can’t sleep out here on the patio. I will freeze to death.”
He tried his best to move his body into the room, basically crawling, and fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.
It was a quiet night with no dreams.
When he woke up, it was already all bright outside.
Warm sunshine shone on him through the window. Hong Yi felt refreshed and quick; his body so energized he wanted to sing!
For five nights in a row, Hong Yi had been practicing the visualization in the Mituo Sutra.
One night, Hong Yi had decided to light an incense and perform mortal shedding.
As soon as his soul had left his body and had entered the outside world, it was like a swimmer seeing water. He had a strong urge to go down and take a dip.
The Dao Scripture had records, and Bai Ziyue had mentioned the situation as well. This was what the Night Roaming stage should feel like after the soul left the mortal shell.
Hong Yi tried to walk outside of the incense fume.
He was not feeling at all chilled or powerless, but rather comfortable, like a fish in a sea.
In a good mood, Hong Yi’s spirit decided to wobble out of the door.
Night Roaming!
Finally, he has reached Night Roaming!
