Abundant Mental Energy Is the Buddha; Rest Is the Dharma

One, High Inner Strength Is Buddhahood
High inner strength allows us to see our true nature, give rise to all phenomena, and overcome all demons. High inner strength is the result and proof of diminished karmic obstructions; our true nature then unfolds naturally.
“On Living in the Present” is the answer offered by the philosophy of mind; high inner strength is the answer to living in the present and returning to the realm of the Dao.
Two, Rest Is the Dharma
Rest is the answer to high inner strength, the ultimate answer. Rest means knowing the limits of striving, knowing when to stop and thus avoiding peril, knowing to trust our true nature to unfold naturally—a boat without moorings. It is a philosophy of finitude, nature, and fate; it is “The Core of Daoist Philosophy.”
Say goodbye to “Compulsive Striving.” Make rest, refraining from exertion, and “striving” to heal compulsive striving the only task you need to “strive” at, and you will understand all the more how difficult rest is. “Rest Requires Great Wisdom, Great Courage, and Great Steadfastness.” High inner strength and rest are rare; they are good fortune, gifts of fate.
I say that keeping a diary and taking walks are the only advice I can give people. I do not prescribe rest, because resting is precisely what people cannot do. “Keeping a Diary Is the Only Channel for Communing with Spirits and Paying Homage to the Buddha.” Keeping a diary and taking walks are ways for people to establish a connection with themselves, and with themselves in moments of high energy, when their inner strength is low and their connection with themselves has broken. For people who have yet to overcome compulsive striving, they are ways that resemble striving and therefore feel familiar and comforting, but involve less exertion and inner strain. They are ways toward reality and rest.
Through tranquility, one reaches far. Be upright, still, clear, and empty; the empty room fills with light, and good fortune abides where stillness abides.
Three, the World’s Alienation and Karmic Obstructions
The system suppresses people’s ability to rest and restore high inner strength. The meaningless parts of work—being put through needless trouble and worn down, excessive involution, adding superfluous flourishes, manipulative psychological abuse, and gaslighting—all work to deplete people’s inner strength and interrupt its restoration.
Wearing down the inner strength of the working and peasant classes is a mechanism for systematically suppressing the revolutionary power of the exploited classes.
So-called successful people and highly energetic people do not necessarily have high inner strength. They simply receive more positive feedback. The excitement of playing Tetris is a different matter from high inner strength and heightened awareness.
Four, Low Inner Strength as a Bottleneck to Enlightenment
People struggle to attain enlightenment because “Before Great Attainment, People Spend a Long Time with Low Inner Strength and in a Low State.” Unable to attain enlightenment, they lack the great wisdom, great courage, and great steadfastness needed to rest, and they lack high inner strength. Without high inner strength, they cannot attain enlightenment. This is where karmic obstructions harm and bewilder people, trapping their capacity to heal themselves.
Five, No Delusion, No Attachment, Nonaction, No Deliberate Intent
High inner strength and rest are so good, yet trying to “strive” to rest gets in the way of rest. The moment you exert yourself, you go astray; the moment you act with deliberate intent, you go astray. Only without deliberate intent can you rest; only by letting things follow their natural course can you accord with the Dao.
When the frenzied mind comes to rest, that is awakening. All the little egos come to rest. When the practitioner’s little ego comes to a complete end, when they completely cease practicing, that is the endpoint of practice. Allowing and recognizing the emergence of these little egos is itself proof that our true nature is present and the little ego’s karmic obstructions are growing lighter; it is itself already a movement toward their end. The great Dao follows its course. Karmic obstructions, too, are the Dao.
All fixations are blockages caused by karmic obstructions; the fewer the fixations, the freer and more at ease we are. Our true nature is always doing its utmost. Whatever the ego that takes itself to be real strives to do only adds to the disorder. Only by obeying the arrangements of our true nature and surrendering completely to it can we live a life led by our true nature (divine nature).
The actual course of the inner life: over the past three months, three quarters, and three years, have you been progressing and growing, or remaining mediocre and sinking?
The former indicates that your true nature predominates; the latter indicates that karmic obstructions predominate. This is the basic dialectic of true nature versus karmic obstructions within every person. If it is the former, trust your true nature, trust yourself, and let things follow their natural course.
Fate is something far vaster than the individual mind. The mind’s sole role is to follow fate. Let the mind rest in fate, in seeking truth from facts, and in the present.

Previous pieces: “Low Inner Strength Syndrome,” “Living in a Low State,” “The Real Enemy: Prolonged Tension and Mental Fog,” “After Nora Leaves 3: Van Gogh Syndrome”