Under One Person: Starting with the Dual Cultivation of Body and Soul

The state of greedy meditation is very comfortable, and one can forget the darkness and unease of the outside world.

In the current situation, this is undoubtedly a good option.

However, Li Chang'an saw with his intermediate state awareness that after entering the state of greedy meditation, his mind was filled with many hallucinations, as if he were dreaming, which in turn gave rise to many random thoughts that had never appeared before.

If one becomes addicted to it, even though greed for meditation is a phenomenon that only appears in the third stage of meditation, the tranquility it brings is not even as good as that in the first stage of meditation.

Practicing in this state is essentially the same as not practicing at all.

Therefore, there is no such thing as a perfect combination of enjoyment and spiritual cultivation.

However, Li Chang'an's current state of indulging in meditation reminded him of lucid dreaming.

After his mother passed away in his previous life, he was particularly obsessed with lucid dreaming for a period of time, which means he remained in a lucid state while dreaming.

In this state, he can explore the world of dreams, even control the dreams he wants to have; he can reunite with deceased relatives, and he can fly and travel through the earth...

This was a great comfort to him at the time. After studying some experiences in lucid dreaming forums, he even mastered a method for entering lucid dreaming.

That is to set a low-volume alarm at a certain time in the morning to wake yourself up briefly, but not so much that you are startled awake, leaving you in a half-awake state, and then go back to sleep.

In this state, the chances of entering a lucid dream are much higher.

Through deliberate training, he was able to enter almost every day.

The prolonged lucid dreaming inevitably had some impact on his reality...

In Li Chang'an's view, the current state of greed for meditation, and even the inner vision state that the sorcerer enters, is actually very similar to lucid dreaming.

Li Chang'an had extensive experience dealing with lucid dreams, and with the intermediate state of consciousness allowing him to see himself clearly, it was actually quite simple for him to get rid of the state of greedy meditation.

The appearance of a state of greedy meditation is ultimately just a result of insufficient stillness and the presence of distracting thoughts.

Under Li Chang'an's deliberate control, the pleasurable feeling brought about by greedy meditation disappeared.

He entered a state of pure meditation once again.

However, this state is stuck between the second and third levels of stillness practice.

To enter a state of complete absorption in the external world.

In Li Chang'an's view, one must at least reach the fourth level of the meditation technique.

The fourth stage of meditation is called "abandoning thoughts and achieving purity," which means that even the pleasure brought by purity has been abandoned.

However, this state only abandons the feelings of a state of tranquility, but does not abandon "things" and "self".

Therefore, Li Chang'an guessed that the state of forgetting oneself and the external world is above the fourth level of stillness cultivation.

Perhaps it is precisely because the forgetting of self and external things transcends the four realms of stillness that it is called sudden enlightenment.

A kind of enlightenment that can only be encountered by chance.

"In that case, I was really lucky before. Because I never considered this state, I stumbled into it by accident. Once I realized this state, it became much harder to enter," Li Chang'an thought to himself.

This is somewhat like daydreaming. Because you don't realize you're daydreaming, you can daydream.

When you realize you're daydreaming and want to daydream again, you can't daydream anymore.

Thinking of this, Li Chang'an ended his meditation and opened his eyes.

It was pitch black all around.

He did not rush to enter meditation again, but instead gazed quietly into the darkness.

Do nothing, just watch quietly.

Not only his physical body is watching, but his intermediate state (bardo) is also watching.

I watched it for a long time.

There was clearly nothing in the darkness.

"If there's nothing there, why be uneasy?"

"Originally there was nothing, so where can dust settle?"

With this thought in mind, Li Chang'an once again entered a meditative state.

Having confronted his unease and fear, he was much calmer this time and did not fall into a state of greedy meditation again.

He began to try, as Lu Jin had suggested, to return to his mother's womb and become a baby again.

But he soon felt somewhat lost.

What is the baby's condition like?

He doesn't have the experience of being an infant in the womb, so he can't empathize with the situation.

He only felt like a corpse.

"etc……"

"A corpse!"

A sudden inspiration struck Li Chang'an.

"If a baby won't do, how about a corpse?"

At this thought, he began to imagine himself as a corpse.

He had no experience with infants, but Li Chang'an had extensive experience with corpses.

"As for a corpse, the body is dead, the consciousness is chaotic, suspended between life and death, unable to reach either side."

Li Chang'an began to immerse himself in the role. Because of his rich experience, he quickly entered the state of the corpse and entered a deeper state of meditation.

He is now a corpse.

Isn't this darkness, this cave, just a tomb?

The initial unease has now turned into a sense of peace.

They're all dead, they're all corpses now.

What are you still afraid of? What are you so uneasy about?

Why care about quiet? Why care about your health?

What Li Chang'an has now is unparalleled relaxation and eternal tranquility.

He cut off all physical sensations of tranquility.

Only a few faint thoughts still lingered in my mind.

He is now a corpse, but he is still alive, living out his true self as a corpse, as a dead person.

In this strange state, Li Chang'an broke through his meditative skill.

The "abandoning thoughts and purifying the mind" in the four realms of meditation is simply abandoning the concept of tranquility.

But now, Li Chang'an has not only given up even peace and quiet, he has even given up his own body.

He reached a level even higher than the fourth stage of meditation.

Although he has not yet forgotten himself and the world, he has forgotten his body as a "thing," but he has not yet forgotten "self."

However, Li Chang'an was hesitant to continue.

His intermediate state gave him an intuition.

If he forgets "I" in this state, he might perish and become a true corpse.

So he didn't want to try it, but even so, it was still a breakthrough.

In this state of being a living dead, the speed at which his life cultivation improved reached an incredible level.

Of course, he is not aware of this yet.

Because he is now a corpse, he has no delusions and no emotions.

He lost track of time, sitting there quietly, his own presence almost imperceptible.

until……

"Boom!"

A loud bang was heard.

The large rock at the entrance of the cave was moved.

The light pierced through, like a knife cutting through the darkness.

Footsteps echoed through the cave walls.

Lu Jin walked in, his eyes gleaming with white light. Seeing Li Chang'an still meditating calmly in the cave, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief and said:

"Chang'an, do you know how much time has passed?"

"have no idea."

Li Chang'an opened his eyes and shook his head.

He was a corpse.

He has no concept of time...

Two days and one night have passed.

Lu Jin stared at Li Chang'an's expression and found him to be unusually calm.

In fact, Li Chang'an had been cultivating in the cave for a whole day and night, and he had been sitting in front of the mountain wall the whole time without leaving.

After all, being locked in a dark room is a form of torture. If someone is locked up for more than three days, most people will experience severe psychological symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, confusion about their self-perception, and extreme panic.

He didn't want this ordeal to cause Li Chang'an any psychological trauma.

If anything seemed amiss with Li Chang'an inside, he would immediately move the large stone.

He originally thought that Li Chang'an would only last a few hours before becoming impatient and starting to pound on the wall, begging him to open the door.

Unexpectedly, he sat at the cave entrance for two days and one night.

Inside the cave, however, there was no sound at all.

This made Lu Jin a little impatient.

Fearing something might happen to Li Chang'an, he quickly moved the boulder away.

After moving the object, Lu Jin saw Li Chang'an sitting cross-legged on the ground, meditating peacefully. When he came in, Li Chang'an blinked at him.

His eyes were so clear that they left him a little bewildered.