修道四十九関: The 49 Barriers of Cultivating the Dao

修道四十九関
The 49 Barriers of Cultivating the Dao
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Barrier 4,
The Barrier of Wealth and Profit
財利關

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Main Text based on Liu Yi Ming’s 50 Barriers
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財有世財與法財之分，世財者，金銀珠玉，法財者，功德精誠，積法財者，重功德而輕金銀，以性命為珠寶，以仁義為金玉，以惜氣養神為貨利，以存誠保真為富有，以清淨無為為家業，雖修行，身未離塵世，不能全廢世財，亦當見利思義隨其自然，受之而禳災扶危，修造宫觀，大興教門，用財得當，當積法財，而不可借神詐財，指佛吞金，肥己養私 。

Wealth is divided into the worldly wealth and Dharma wealth. The worldly wealth is gold, silver, pearls and jade, while the Dharma wealth is merit, virtue and absolute sincerity. Those who accumulate Dharma wealth emphasize merits and virtue and belittle gold and silver. They regard one’s Inner Nature and Life-Destiny as pearls and jewels, and benevolence and righteousness as gold and jade. Moreover, they regard the cherishing of Qi and the nourishing of Spirit as commodities and profit, and the preservation of one’s sincerity and the safeguarding of the Truth as the possession of riches. They regard purity, tranquillity and non-action as their family property.

Although one cultivates, as the body has not yet departed from the world of dust, one cannot completely abandon worldly wealth. Furthermore, one ought to comply naturally with [the maxim] ‘on coming across profit –contemplating righteousness’. One ought to receive [a just profit] in order to avert [future] disasters by prayers, to help those in distress, to build palaces and monasteries, [to help] the religious Gate to flourish greatly, and one should employ wealth expediently and appropriately. Moreover, one ought to accumulate Dharma wealth. It is not acceptable to make use of Spirits to swindle money, to point at the Buddha to swallow gold, or to fatten and selfishly support oneself.

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Excerpt of the Commentary by Xing De
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This barrier ties in neatly with the previous one, and together they form a continuum. It deals with wealth in two separate aspects and levels of meaning: one is external wealth, which is represented by money, gold and silver, pearls and precious goods, while the other concerns internal wealth.

外财
External Wealth
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The more possessions you own, the more you will swell up with the feeling of affluence, rank, and honour, and the thicker will be the skin on your face. It is, however, a Daoist requirement that you have no more than two sets of clothing. If you have a third set of clothes, you must give this to someone in need, as you should not be coveting riches. Greed is forbidden both morally and socially, let alone for one aspiring to higher cultivation. Hence the Bible admonishes:

钱在哪里，心在哪里。
Where your money is,
that is where your mind is.

Your life is not truly your own, so you should let go of what needs to be discarded. When the opportunity arises, you must act on it. There should be no sense of what you ‘must’ do, and no exertion of force, since forcing and following the natural course are directly opposed to each other. Just accept any material gain which comes your way, and let it go when you must by having no attachment to it.
When you seek out a place of seclusion in order to cultivate, you will need food to open and pass through this barrier. You will also need a protector, a Daoist friend. Although your needs are few as a Daoist renunciant, you are not wholly free and removed from monetary concerns. You will still need to purchase rice and flour, as your cultivation practice will allow you no time to plant grains yourself. You will also need to procure the utensils of daily life. Lastly, you will have to support the family of your Daoist companion, to save them from worry and help them keep their peace of mind. It is not a question of being greedy for wealth, or whether you should own a large oil mining company. It is about guaranteeing the bare essentials of life. Unlike external alchemy, which requires a great deal of money to purchase ingredients such as gold, with internal alchemy, you only need a simple lifestyle. Everything else that you require is to be found within you. Ask the cultivators in Wu Dang about the truth of the saying:

无财不能养道。
Without money you cannot nourish the Dao.

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PS: The 49 Barriers of Cultivating the Dao are as of now scheduled for early June release. You can find two more Barrier excerpts, the foreword and many appendix entries on purplecloudinstitute.com
The 49 Barriers will be embellished by 49 illustrations as well as the front and back cover of the book by Jen King, whose prints of the Barriers and her Nei Jing Tu can be ordered under: jenniferkingstudio.com.

PPS: The final book will contain many endnotes to further explicate the implicit meanings of text passages and terms.