Disappearing for Long Periods of Time...

[Shi Da Dao]

Cao Dong Enlightenment - The Five Positions of Ruler and Minister

There is nothing inherently wrong with disappearing from regular circulation from time to time. Master Xu Yun (1840-1959) would disappear for years or even decades before he accumulated the worldly responsibilities of leading and guiding communities in their self-cultivation. He was probably at his busiest in this regard during the last decade of his life (109-119-years-old)! Disappearing into the remote mountains is something many Daoist and Buddhist routinely did with little regard for the world they left behind. Even so, as the biography of Master Xu Yun demonstrates, even his former wives (who had become nuns when he left home) still sought him out many decades later to tell him of their experiences! This is interesting as Master Xu Yun exercised the usual approach of completely ‘giving-up’ all emotional links and physical contacts with the external world – including family! This is a serious attitude from which there is no return – at least at the time of endeavouring to ‘look within’ with a greater clarity! What sometimes happens is that the worldly life re-emerges in one way or another, as concerned relatives strive to make contact and work-out what has happened to you! The ‘bliss’ of isolation must not be under-estimated. It is through this voluntary embracing of outer ‘emptiness’ that inner ‘emptiness’ manifests all the stronger! Even if the expedient world of dust does re-emerge at a later date, it is usually the case that it no longer disturbs the depth, clarity and stability of realised ‘inner’ emptiness! Whatever the case, the Ch’an path usually specifies that a practitioner must withdraw for a suitable time to fully realise the ‘void’ aspect of existence – before one re-engages with the physical world to ‘integrate’ void with form! These positions of the varying depth of the penetration of emptiness (and integration with form) can be seen in the five-roundel schematic preserved within the Cao Dong lineage...