Excerpt from Step 12: Water plus Heaven plus Well

The Faith that Transforms

When faith establishes the grounding, the right intention becomes both the mental awareness and physical engagement. When trustworthiness fills the empty heart, the right action pervades. In return, there is no contrast between the right intention and right action. Rationally, it becomes very simple -- there is no disagreement between the intention and the engagement, and no confrontation between the right intention and right action. Yet, practically, this is the most difficult thing to accomplish. Why? Because:

1) Complete transformation of ego-reality must be achieved. The ego-reality is derived from the situation where being a survivor and possessing material satisfaction are more important to you than the structure of pure heart and the essential trust of self. When the cultivation practice is enhanced to the degree where there is no attachment to material possession or mental obsession, the ego is transformed into the complete understanding, full acceptance, and mutual embracement.

Ego uses the spiritual intelligence, the emotional experience, and biological instinct to exploit the meaning of life in one respect, and to extinguish the vital force in another. According to Taoist tradition, the word "ego" or "I" is a subjective awareness of the soul's existence upon the objective evaluation of body through instinctive drives. It is the combination of liver Qi and spleen Qi. Ego is both conscious and obsessive at the same time. When all the organs are required to live mutually with each other in order to exist, ego steps into the realms of the sensational, experiential, and analytical world. Before the five elemental Qi are unified and the thymus gland reactivated, the heart becomes distracted and love is always selfish. Before the earth's Qi of spleen is changed into the Yellow Court's vibration, trust is always situation oriented and faith is its reward. This is one of the major elements in Taoist cultivation practices, aside from family responsibility, social anticipation, and cultural adaptation.

2) There must be a complete transition of the karmic path, assuring that all the karmic debt is obliterated. In the world of reality, the result of the karmic energy pattern sustains itself again and again. The karma is environmentally altered, spiritually determined, biologically constructed, personally detected, and interpersonally experienced. Within this addictive and vulnerable situation, the only method to alter its course is to work and clear the path by submitting oneself to the Power of the Tao, or the God's light. To purify and distill oneself internally is the only path. When one's lower and condensed energetic patterns and forms are dissolved expansively, they will become meaningless and cease to exist. When the body becomes clean and the mind remains still, the self is then trustful. The world is loveable, the Tao is dear, and the Action is near.

3) There is a complete shift from the earthy watery existential life to the holy watery eternal life. This holy watery eternal life is a true spiritual life that enlivens itself upon the holy water, is guided by God's power, and channeled by the pure light in the cosmic realm. In its essence, Love is the Holy Watery eternal life, and light is God's spiritual power. Love is goddess and light is god. The light shines, penetrating with force. Love embraces it breathlessly, enduringly. Together, it is the union of Tao, the harmony of action, the balance of opposition, and integrity of understanding.

This has been explained fully in this 12th chapter in the couplet, which is antithetical with the 5th character in the first part of the couplet: one is perennial and the other is immortal; one indicates the cyclical eternity and the other deals with the formless eternity. Since earthly creatures are counted yearly, there is no better way to calculate the time of presence other than accumulating it annually and conclusively. While this character deals with the essential destiny and natural process of spiritual life form, which is immortal, it is in contrast to the mortal beings' physical process from birth to death and to rebirth. It is the way of the oneness of the spiritual life.