Intention
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        Speaking of intention, it just refers to our human mental activities. How do people in the world of cultivation, look at the human intention in the mental activities of the brain? How do they consider the various forms of human thought (intention)? And how are they expressed? It is very difficult to solve many problems about the human brain in modern medical research, for it is not as easy as what the surface of the human body is. In depth, there are different forms in different spaces. But it is not like what some qigong masters have said. Some qigong masters themselves do not know what it is all about, and cannot explain it clearly. They think that they can do some things if they use their brains and their intention. They would say that it is their thoughts or their intention which did these things. In fact, it is not at all their intention that did them.

        Let us first talk about the origin of human thought. There was such a saying in ancient China: "heart thinking". Why is there heart-thinking? Science in ancient China was extraordinarily advanced, because its research was directly aimed at such things as the human body, life and the cosmos, etc.. Some people do feel that it is their hearts that are thinking while others feel that it is their brains. Why do such things happen? It is reasonable to talk about heart thinking, for we see that Yuanshen ( the True Spirit) of ordinary people is very tiny, and the actual message delivered by the human brain is not a function of the human brain itself nor what the brain itself releases, but comes from one's True Spirit. One's True Spirit does not stay only in the Niwan palace, which, by the Tao School, is the pineal body modern medicine has come to understand. If the True Spirit seats itself in the Niwan palace, then we indeed feel that the brain is thinking and delivering messages; if he seats himself in the heart, then we truly feel the heart is thinking.

        The human body is a small universe, and many living entities of the practitioner may bring about a kind of position shifting role. If the True Spirit shifts its position and runs to one's abdomen, then one will feel his abdomen is thinking. If he runs to his calf or his heel, then he will feel that his calf or his heel is thinking. It is guaranteed to be this way but it sounds very incredible. When your attainment level in cultivation is not so high, you may feel the existence of such a phenomenon. Without the True Spirit, his temper, his natural disposition and his personality, without these things, the human body is nothing but a piece of meat. And he could not be an integrated person of independent individuality. Then what kind of role does his brain play? I should say that in the form of our physical space, the human brain is only a processing plant. The real message is delivered by Yuanshen (the True Spirit); but what he sends out is not a language but a kind of cosmic message representing a certain meaning. When our brain receives such a command, it processes it into our present language in such a form of expression. We express it by hand gestures, eye contacts and all body movements. Thus the brain plays such a role. The actual command and thinking come from one's True Spirit. People thus very often think that it is the brain that directly plays an independent role, but in fact the True Spirit sometimes is seated in the heart, and some people will truly feel the heart is thinking.

        Now those who are devoted to the study of the human body believe that the human brain delivers something like an electric wave. We would like to put aside the discussion of what is delivered in essence for the time being. But the researchers admit that is a kind of material existence and is not superstition. What role does this delivered substance play? Some qigong masters say, "I use my intention to move an object by just thinking about it, and use my intention to open your Celestial Eye, and use my intention to treat your disease, etc.." In fact, such a qigong master does not know at all what kind of supernormal capabilities he possesses and nor is he clear about them. He only knows he can do whatever he wants to do by just thinking about it. As a matter of fact, it is his intention that is at work. Supernormal capabilities controlled by the intention of the brain are doing specific things under the command of it, but his intention itself cannot do anything at all. When a practitioner is doing something specific, it is his supernormal capabilities that are at work.

        Supernormal capabilities are the potential capabilities of the human body, and with the development of our human society, the human brain work is becoming more and more complicated, and focusing more and more on the immediate realities and depending more and more on the so-called modernized means. Thus the human natural capabilities are more and more degenerating. The Tao School believes in returning to the origin, and going back to the truth, and in the course of cultivation you seek truth, and finally will return to the origin, and go back to the truth. Only by returning to your original nature can you then reveal these instinctive capabilities of yours. Now we call them supernatural capabilities, which are actually the instinctive capabilities of human beings. Human society seems to be progressing, but in fact it is retrogressing, getting farther and farther away from the cosmic qualities. The other day I said Zhang Guolao rode on a donkey facing backward, and one may find it difficult to understand what it means. Zhang Guolao discovered that moving forward is moving backward and mankind is getting farther and farther away from the cosmic qualities. In the course of the cosmic evolution, especially now after moving into the big tide of commodity economy, the morality of many people is getting from bad to worse and they are moving farther and farther away from the cosmic qualities of Zhen Shan Ren ( Truth Compassion Forbearance). Those who are drifting along with the current tide can not realize the extent of the human moral degeneration. And some people still consider it a good thing. Only when those whose Xinxing has ascended through cultivation look back can they come to realize that the human morality has degenerated to such a terrible level.

        Some qigong masters say: I will help you develop your supernormal capabilities. What supernormal capabilities could they develop? One's supernormal capabilities will not work without energy. Could you bring them into play when they have not come out yet? Could you develop them when they have not yet been strengthened into shape by his energy? It is totally impossible. What they mean by developing supernormal capabilities is no more than an association of his already formed supernormal capability with your brain, and under the command of the intention in your brain it will function. That is what they mean by developing supernormal capabilities. Actually they have not developed one's supernormal capabilities, but they only did such a little bit.

        For a practitioner, his intention commands his supernormal capabilities to do things; for an ordinary person, his intention commands his arms and legs and organs of senses to work, just as the production office in a factory or the factory director's office issues instructions to all the specific departments of different functions, who will carry them out. It is just like the headquarters of an army, which give orders to direct the whole army to fulfil a mission. I often discussed such an issue with the local leading members of the qigong research society when I was away from home to give lectures there. They found themselves very surprised: We have been studying all the time how much potential energy and potential consciousness the human thinking has. In fact it is not so, and they have gone deviating from the very beginning. I say that a revolution should take place in the human thinking in order to study the science of the human body. The methods of reference and understanding used by ordinary people should not be applied to understanding something supernormal.

        Talking about intention, there are several forms of it. For example, some people speak of subconsciousness, underconsciousness, inspiration, dreams, etc.. Speaking of dreams, no qigong master would like to explain them. When you were born, you were born into many spaces of the cosmos simultaneously but all the you are integrated as one and have mutually interconnected, and have tied together in thinking. And you have your own Zhu Yuanshen (Chief Spirit), Fu Yuanshen (Assistant Spirit) and such images of other various living entities existing in your body. Every cell and the internal organs of the body reflect your image messages which are all the existing forms in other spaces, so they are very complex. While you are dreaming, sometimes this happens and sometimes that happens, and where indeed do they come from? It is said in medical science that our cerebral cortex has changed. This manifests the reflection in the form of matter, and it is actuated by the messages from other spaces. So you feel muddleheaded when you are dreaming. This has nothing to do with you and you need not worry about it. There is a kind of dreams that is directly related to you, but we cannot say such dreams are dreams. Your Main Consciousness, which is your Chief Spirit, saw your close relatives coming to you in the dream; or you really experienced an event; or you saw something or did it. So it is your Chief Spirit who really did something or saw something, and did it in other spaces as well. Your consciousness is clear and real; such a thing indeed exists but only in another physical space, and you did it in another timespace. Can you regard it as a dream? No. But your physical body here is really sleeping and you can only say it is a dream. It is only this kind of dreams that is directly related to you.

        Talking about human inspiration, underconsciousness and subconsciousness, etc., I should say that such terms are not used by scientists, but invented by men of letters who make them based upon a habitual condition of ordinary people. They are not scientific. What does it mean by subconsciousness after all? It is difficult to make it clear and is too general. Because all sorts of information received by man are so complex that they are just like bits of vague memory. As for underconsciousness he refers to, we find it easier to explain. According to the given definition of such a state, underconsciousness usually refers to a person who did something muddleheadedly. Then it is often said that he did it underconsciously, or he did not do it intentionally. Such underconsciousness is just like the Paraconsciousness we have talked about. While one's Main Consciousness is relaxed and does not control his brain, one seems to be sleeping muddleheadedly or dreaming, and he is easily dominated by the Paraconsciousness, which is the Assistant Spirit, in the unconscious state. At that time, the Paraconsciousness can do some things, that is to say, the person did it muddleheadedly. However, such things are not done wrong easily, for the Paraconsciousness in other spaces can see the heart of the matter, and will not be misled by the society of ordinary people. So after he comes to himself, he will find out what he did: Why was such a thing done so badly? If I had had clear understanding, I would not have done it this way. You say it is not good now, but after ten days or half a month when you look back: Well, this thing was done so smartly! How was I able to do it at that time? This usually occurs. Because the Paraconsciousness did not care about the role it might play at that time, but it will play a good role for the future. And also something may have no results, but it did play a role at that time. And that shows the Paraconsciousness did something at that time, and it possibly did it very well then.

        There is another form which usually refers to those of us who have very good inborn qualities. They are likely to do some things under the control of intelligent beings. Of course, that is a different issue which is not going to be discussed here. And I am in the main to explain a kind of consciousness originated from our human beings ourselves.

        Concerning inspiration, the term is also invented by men of letters. It is generally considered that inspiration is the accumulation of knowledge in one's life which may burst out like a spark at the fleeting moment. I say according to the materialist point of view, the more knowledge one accumulates in his life, the more flexibly one's brain uses it. Once used, the knowledge should come out continuously, and there is nothing to say about the issue of inspiration. But all that can be called inspiration or the coming of inspiration is not in such a state. It usually happens that when one uses his brain on and on till he feels the exhaustion of his knowledge at last and he seems to be at his wits end; he finds it difficult to go on writing, has no train of thinking in composing a song, and finds it hard to continue a scientific research project. It is usually at this moment that he feels himself extremely exhausted; with his brain bursting out, dozens of cigarette ends scattering the floor, and a painful headache. He still can not get any idea. Finally his inspiration comes. Under what kind of condition does he get his inspiration? It goes like this: Feeling tired, he thinks, "Well, have a rest." Because the Main Consciousness controls his brain very much, other living beings can not interrupt. With such a rest, his mind is relaxed and stops thinking about it, and he gets something unconsciously during the rest. It comes from his brain. So this is mostly how the inspiration comes.

        Why does the inspiration come out at this moment? Because the human brain is controlled by the Main Consciousness, and when one is thinking hard, the Main Consciousness controls the brain so tightly that the Paraconsciousness can not get in. When he thinks hard and his head aches terribly and feels so bitter that he cannot think of anything, his Paraconsciousness shares the headache, also feeling terribly bad and bitter. Being born together, the Paraconsciousness was also part of the body and it controls part of the body. But when his Main Consciousness is relaxed, his Paraconsciousness will reflect what he knows about the matter to the brain, because he can see the essence of the matter in other spaces, and thus he has made it, written it and composed it.

        Some people say: Why don't we use the Paraconsciousness to do things? It is just like what someone asked in his note: How can the Paraconsciousness be contacted? You cannot do it, for you have just started your cultivation and have no capability by yourself. You'd better not contact and if you do, you are bound to have an attachment. Some people may think: Let us use the Paraconsciousness to do more valuable things and to advance the social development of human society, shan't we? No, you shall not. Why? Because what your Paraconsciousness knows is also quite limited. The structure of this universe is so complex, the spaces are so complex and there are so many dimensions and planes that the paraconsciousness can only know what exists in the space it stays in. It knows nothing beyond the space it exists in. Besides, there are also many vertical spaces of different dimensions and planes. The development of mankind can only be controlled by the intelligent beings in the very high dimensions and it is going on following the law of development.

        Our society of ordinary people develops in accordance with the law of history. You want it to develop in a certain way and to achieve a certain aim. However, the intelligent beings do not think in the same way. Didn't the people in ancient times think of aircraft, trains and bicycles? I shall say it is unlikely that they did not think of that. Because history did not develop to such a level, they could not invent anything like that. Superficially speaking from the theories and the understanding to which our ordinary people are accustomed and from the angle of present human knowledge, mankind could not invent them because history had not developed to such a level. In fact, the way human science develops also follows the arrangements of history. You want to achieve a goal with human efforts, but you cannot make it. Of course there are people whose Paraconsciousness can easily play a role. There is a writer who says: I can write more than ten thousand words a day for a book and do not feel tired at all. If I want to write, I can quickly do it and others may find it well-written after reading. Why is it this way? It is the result of the joined efforts made by both his Main Consciousness and Paraconsciousness, half and half. His Paraconsciousness can also play half of the role. But this is not always the case. Most Paraconsciousness does not get involved at all. You want him to do something, but it is not good, and it may run counter to your desire.