Practice is not about collecting techniques or memorizing explanations. They are about stepping beyond words. A wise person once said: words only open the door. But after the door opens, you must walk inside.
Inside, there are no concepts, no labels, no explanations. If you hold onto what you experienced yesterday, or what you think should happen tomorrow, you are already outside again. It is like crossing a river-you must leave the boat behind. Or like walking-you use the stick until your legs are steady, then you set it down. All tools, all words, must eventually be forgotten.
What remains? Pure awareness. Not logical understanding, but life understanding.
But life habits are strong. The world pulls like a rushing river, shaking our balance. The teaching is clear: relax, but do not lose initiative. Relax, but do not lose focus. Fake relaxation drifts away. True relaxation nourishes you, brings energy, and roots you deeper in stillness.
Practical life brings its own tests. A flight to catch, a friend who is always late, the push and pull of family and society. These moments reveal where we stand. Do we lose our center and get carried away? Or do we prepare early, act with clarity, and let life itself be the teacher? Others have their own karma, their own field. We cannot change them with words. We can only walk our own way, steady in initiative and focus.
The heart of practice is simple:
- Overcome concept. Concepts are useful, but dangerous if we cling to them.
- Release obsession. How much form you hold, that much obsession you carry. How much you let go, that much space you have.
- Transform. Even negative emotions can become a bridge when carried into open awareness.
Sometimes in practice, a student feels as if falling asleep-yet still aware. Teacher Xie calls this qi coma-not confusion, but a merging with the essence of life. A deep nourishment, where nothing is missing.
The trap is always incarnation, image, label. To see a dragon or crane as spirit, but then to cling to its form, is another trap. The point is not form but formless-the potential that is always alive within us.
Practice is effortless, yet requires initiative. Simple, like cleaning a floor. Clear, like sitting upright, spine tall. No expectation, no fixation-just awareness that is steady, relaxed, and alive.
The teaching returns again and again: external means being pulled outside by words, labels, and habits. Internal means no concept, no block-just inner connection.
In the end, there is nothing to achieve, nothing to hold. Only the gentle return to awareness itself.