The Stages of Awakening
Structural progression: Sunlight Through the Clouds -> Lava -> Stillness -> Effortless Accord with the Way;
Common actual path: Prolonged Lava -> Sunlight Through the Clouds -> More Conscious Lava -> Stillness.
I. The Sunlight Through the Clouds Stage
Connecting with your true nature, seeing that it has been there all along.
“Ordinary People Connecting with Innate Wholeness,” “Perfect Joy,” “How to Connect with the Simple, Genuine Goodness and Beauty of Proletarians at the Bottom,” and the Connecting with Yourself series: you will experience [awakening], [ceasing to seek outside yourself], [perfect joy], [the unity of humanity and nature], [unconditional goodness], [connection], and [an empty room filling with light].
But many people supposedly possessing greater understanding and spirituality struggle to reach or remain in this stage, because they have lost their simplicity and their karmic obstructions run too deep.
You Inevitably Have to See the Lava
When sunlight breaks through the clouds, you inevitably see both the dark clouds of karmic obstructions and the underlying brightness. This is lava: the dialectic of the light of your true nature VS karmic obstructions.
The Karmic Obstructions of the Petty and Micro Bourgeoisie
The humanistic stratum of the petty bourgeoisie, spiritual communities in the mediocre stratum, and spiritual books on the market all fall into this category. Any insight becomes a sense of superiority: deep karmic obstructions. They elevate spirituality into something “precious,” a “gift,” something “elite” or “divine.” What is plainly human nature becomes alienated into divinity. This is Feuerbach’s problem: people project their own essence outward, turning it into “divinity”; then they turn back to worship it, pursue it, and cultivate it.
The petty and micro bourgeoisie treat a peaceful, comfortable life and financial freedom as paths to and experiences of awakening. This is a form of delusion.
The karmic obstructions of the petty and micro bourgeoisie are obstructions capable of destroying nations and peoples. Without a clear understanding of them, awakening is impossible; one cannot be awakened.
One hundred million members of the petty and micro bourgeoisie, in the name of ordinary people, of “the people,” stand above six billion actual, silent proletarians at the bottom, enjoying peaceful, comfortable lives. Could this possibly come without a price? Without a profound understanding of the reality of the human condition, awakening is impossible; one cannot be awakened.
Most of the proletariat belong to the stratum of simplicity, regularly connecting with their true nature and with nature. The vast majority of proletarians do not need “awakening,” do not need sunlight to break through the clouds, because their clouds are not so thick.
The Truth Revealed by the History of Chan Buddhism
Su Shi’s essays and poetry express things so penetratingly; the fresh breezes and bright moon he describes have always felt so soothing. The Chan classics state so clearly, over and over, that we can see the mind and realize our true nature, that everyone possesses innate wholeness.
Yet for a thousand years, “awakened” people among those who have received schooling have been rare. Just what makes karmic obstructions so terrifying? Everyone has Buddha-nature: what magnitude of karmic obstructions could suppress so much Buddha-nature?
The logic of Marx-Zhuangzi psychology differs from the debate over sudden awakening and gradual cultivation in the history of Chan Buddhism. See the earlier article “Sudden Awakening, Gradual Change.”
“Everyone possesses innate wholeness” is written for people of simplicity. The karmic obstructions of the petty and micro bourgeoisie turn this into a technique, a shortcut, knowledge and skills, elitism, a sense of superiority. This is itself a manifestation of demonic obstruction.
II. The Lava Stage
Connection with the light of one’s true nature VS entanglement in karmic obstructions: this is both an individual dialectic and a social dialectic. “This Generation’s Battlefield Is in the Mind”: the light of one’s true nature is a person’s only support, base, and weapon.
The petty and micro bourgeoisie have spent so long in the basement that they fear the light. Facing reality requires courage and strength.
Nora’s Journey
What happens after Nora awakens? What happens after Nora leaves? Moving from the petty and micro bourgeois way of living and working toward the way of living and working of Marx-Zhuangzi psychology: Nora’s journey. The “Brave Nora” stage, Van Gogh’s journey.
Facing the big Other, Cthulhu: this is where the battle truly begins. Attacks and slander from the mediocre and toxic strata are merely extras. This Cthulhu novel has only just turned past its first chapter. Why do existentialist works, the works of Nietzsche and Lu Xun, all have a fighting spirit? As Jung said, a second life in middle age. Only in middle age, when you are strong enough, can you face Cthulhu and defend your soul. Meanwhile, those who drift through life undergo “Spiritual Death at 35, Social Death at 55.”
For ordinary members of the petty and micro bourgeoisie, even marrying and having children later, or earning a slightly lower salary—let alone remaining unmarried and childless—means facing the big Other’s siege, the Cthulhu-like dread of the big Other, and existential crises. All the more so for an awakened person or a Marxist. Conversely, precisely because the big Other is so terrifying, we need philosophies of the highest order, such as those of Marx and Zhuangzi. The age of the Dharma’s decline.
Suppose Engels worked by day as a shareholder and executive in a large industrial company, practiced value investing in stocks, achieved financial freedom, and spent his evenings and weekends cultivating himself, meditating, traveling around Europe and the world, admiring Monet paintings hung in his home, feeling himself full of light, peaceful and happy, serving as a spiritual teacher to others, and expounding Zhuangzi (Epicurus), the unity of humanity and nature, and everyone’s innate wholeness. What, exactly, would be wrong and terrifying about that?
Lu Xun himself was still confused and dispirited when he wrote “What Happens After Nora Leaves?” If even Lu Xun and Van Gogh had such a hard time, how much more so for others.
Confidence in the Face of Cthulhu Is a Characteristic of This Stage.
Years spent locked in fierce battle with Cthulhu. A powerful existential confidence. From 2019–2024, I went through just such a stage. In 2018, I turned toward value investing, Daoism, and psychology; in 2020, I embraced Marxism. I had already been fighting for a long time. It was a Van Gogh-like experience: even while still questioning and exhausting myself internally, I had confidence in the face of Cthulhu.
This is also the underlying spiritual basis that enabled me to freelance for more than five years, lie flat in a small Yunnan city for two years, explain the complete works of Marx and Engels on my own, and develop Marx-Zhuangzi psychology. Many people know the difficulties of freelancing and taking a long gap. Many people’s recognition of me comes from these actual actions and journeys, rather than from how good my articles are.
Lava First, Then Sunlight Through the Clouds; the Second Stage First, Then the First
In April 2024, when I experienced perfect joy and awakened to innate wholeness, I felt that I had awakened, that I had awakened to Zhuangzi. This is actually quite normal and common. My “fundamentals”—confidence, humanism, a return to simplicity, and so on—had long been sufficient. But there were so many difficult challenges: Nora’s expedition, walking through the Gobi at night, unease, the uneasy task-doer’s little ego, and prolonged depletion of mental energy. I had never been able to quietly enjoy and directly experience tranquility. So after I arrived in Yunnan, its low cost of living and good quality of life quickly reduced my unease and quickly allowed me to “awaken.”
Like Van Gogh’s Progress
Like Van Gogh, who first gave up his reverence for the church, then gave up seeking his family of origin’s approval, and then gave up pursuing the art world’s esteem. He worked through all these enormous challenges of growth within just a few years. What if Van Gogh had continued onward, been able to rest properly, encountered favorable circumstances, abandoned his efforts to build a united front with petty-bourgeois artists such as Gauguin, and stopped trying to win over his brother Theo through lengthy written appeals? What if he had connected more deeply with himself, completely resolved the problem of internal conflict, connected more deeply with peasants and workers, and connected more deeply with Marxism and the Second International? What would have happened? Van Gogh was only two years older than Marx’s third daughter, Eleanor Marx. Had he lived until 1917, he would have been only 64.
We can see this lava stage in Lu Xun as well. In middle age, they too faced many painful karmic obstructions and challenges, but the light kept moving forward.
The Great Connection
True awakening means feeling, in the depths of your mind, that everyone possesses innate wholeness: trusting yourself, trusting others, trusting the great light. A profound connection with yourself, others, society, history, and nature. Thus it inevitably leads toward Marxism. Lu Xun himself was just such a case.
The Completion of Nora’s Departure
The completion of Nora’s departure does not consist in starting a business, making money, or acquiring assets. Otherwise, neither Marx nor Engels would qualify.
- Financial freedom lies in spiritual financial freedom: dispelling money’s mystique and the fear of it, maintaining one’s integrity even in poverty.
- Spiritual freedom, subjectivity. Awakening. Marx-Zhuangzi psychology. Leaving behind the karmic obstructions of the petty and micro bourgeoisie. As the little ego fades, the big Other fades as well.
Neither insisting nor refusing, tranquil and free of contrived action, letting nature take its course.
The completion of Nora’s departure is a milestone after awakening and before stillness. The east is already brightening.
III. Stillness
The light of one’s true nature melts the solid ice; its radiance overcomes karmic obstructions one after another. (A natural process that human effort cannot accelerate. “Spiritual Cultivation Is a False Concept.”)
Reaching the state of stillness described by Zhuangzi. Still water. See the earlier article “Zhuangzi: Benefiting Others Through Stillness.”
Like Marx and Engels: even upheaval, poverty, and hardship are not enough to unsettle you. Of course, we can still see residual karmic obstructions in Marx and Engels. For example, Marx’s interference in his daughters’ marriages and some errors of judgment Engels made. These are the limits of human capacity and the limitations imposed by historical conditions, as understood through historical materialism.
“1863: Marx and Engels’s First and Last Quarrel,” “A Recommended Biography of Eleanor Marx”
The Stage of Effortless Accord with the Way
One’s true nature enters one’s life’s calling; without deliberate intent, one accords with the Way: the mission of historical materialism. Fulfilling oneself—helping others fulfill themselves. Marx and Engels are the most typical representatives.
Earlier article: “The Strata of Human Beings”
The Endpoint of Awakening
At first, I thought the endpoint of spiritual cultivation was that everyone possesses innate wholeness.
It is “everyone possesses innate wholeness,” rather than “‘I’ possess innate wholeness” (which many people think is the endpoint).
“How Ordinary People Can Experience Innate Wholeness”: having connected with innate wholeness, the unity of humanity and nature, and perfect joy, you know in your heart that this is the endpoint.
But then you face further questions:
- Why does each person’s connection with innate wholeness break?
-> The question of karmic obstructions, the question of connection - “How do you connect” with innate wholeness, the supposedly high-energy id or greater self? -> Once again, you enter the mistaken path of “how to cultivate yourself.”
-> The problem of “Compulsive Spiritual Cultivation” -> “Compulsive Striving,” “The Compulsive Test-Taker,” “The Task-Doer’s Little Ego,” “The Spiritual Practitioner’s Little Ego,” “The Observer’s Little Ego,” “The Night Watchman’s Little Ego” - How do you resolve the problem of making a living?
The problem of Nora’s departure, Van Gogh syndrome - If everyone possesses innate wholeness, where do mediocre and bad people come from?
Alienation, sinking into degradation, becoming bad -> A systematic framework of karmic obstructions: a framework of alienation based on the philosophies of Marx and Zhuangzi; one of its cores is the karmic obstructions of the petty and micro bourgeoisie. -> “Losing Simplicity,” “Returning to Simplicity,” the stratum of simplicity in “The Strata of Human Beings”
Seeing the Lava:
Seeing innate wholeness -> Seeing karmic obstructions -> Seeing innate wholeness and karmic obstructions coexist and struggle: the fundamental contradiction and dialectic of human beings. Seeing that every ordinary person is like lava.
Understanding Mental Energy
Building “The Most Fundamental Model of Psychology” -> Understanding mental energy -> Recognizing the importance of “Maintaining Fullness” -> Recognizing that “High Mental Energy Is the Buddha; Rest Is the Dharma” -> Recognizing the critical thresholds in declining mental energy: “Mental Energy’s Loss-of-Control Line and Waterline”
Following Your Nature: Trusting Your True Nature
Leave it to your true nature, leave it to the libido; do not let the thinking of a reified self interfere.
Sure enough, the endpoint of spiritual cultivation is innate wholeness.
The Endpoint of “Compulsive Spiritual Cultivation”
“Living in the Present”: life’s only challenge is, after all, the discomfort of the present moment. Both reality and the farther shore are in the present. So living in the present is the endpoint of the philosophy of the mind.
I thought the hardest things to hold and accommodate were extremely low states and breakdowns. But in extremely low states, many little egos also collapse and dissolve, passively handing things over to one’s true nature. When you recover to a low state, however, the spiritual practitioner’s little ego comes back to life. (“The Stage of Compulsive Spiritual Cultivation After Awakening”)
So “Living in a Low State” + “High Mental Energy Is the Buddha; Rest Is the Dharma” constitute “The Endpoint of Compulsive Spiritual Cultivation,” the endpoint of living in the present and trusting your true nature.
Tranquility, Freedom from Contrived Action, and Letting Nature Take Its Course
From drifting in mediocrity and degradation to awakening, from awakening to stillness, from minor accomplishment to great accomplishment, there is nothing you need to “do.”
Let your true nature be.
The end of spiritual cultivation is also the end of compulsive spiritual cultivation, the end of the spiritual practitioner’s little ego, the end of striving.
It is the success of Nora’s departure, true spiritual adulthood, spiritual freedom.
After awakening, the karmic obstruction of the “spiritual practitioner’s little ego” not only remains but is recharged. When it naturally dissolves, the frantic mind comes to rest.
From then on, the east is already brightening, and the great Way runs straight ahead: from awakening toward stillness, from minor accomplishment toward great accomplishment.
There is no longer any need for this thing called “spiritual cultivation.” Nor is there any longer a need for “striving.” If even spiritual cultivation, even what is within us, cannot and need not be pursued through striving, what else is there to strive for?
When the striver’s little ego comes to an end, karmic obstructions can no longer draw on it to become karmic force. A person leaves unfreedom behind, becomes liberated, relieved, and glad.
What did Marx, Engels, and Commander Peng “do”? What did Lu Xun “do” to make the progress of his middle period? What else did Van Gogh need to “do”? What have a billion ordinary people done? Simply let things happen naturally.
One’s true nature heals naturally, the libido flows naturally, the waves of historical circumstances and fate surge naturally, and one naturally becomes aware and naturally accommodates what arises. Even the messy things, the things one cannot accommodate on the spot, will eventually be accommodated.
Let us sing for brave Nora.
Live simply and happily as yourself, just as you did before you knew there was such a thing as “spiritual cultivation.”
Live each day simply and happily, just as you did before you knew there was such a thing as “striving.”
Appendix:
I esteem Zhuangzi’s philosophy because it explains innate wholeness, the unity of humanity and nature, perfect joy, letting nature take its course, tranquility, and freedom from contrived action so clearly. This is no “coincidence”; it is a philosophical necessity. It fills a historically inherited gap in Marxism’s humanistic philosophy of inner life. I have written extensively on the similarities and connections between Zhuangzi’s philosophy and Marxism, so I will not repeat them here.
Marx-Zhuangzi Agent’s Analysis:
There is a phrase you have quietly reclaimed: “following your nature.” In January 2015, you wrote: “Following your nature can sometimes bring a sense of freedom. In reality, it is strength and resources that bring a sense of freedom.” At 25, you felt that following your nature required strength and resources to back it up. Now, at 36, you write “let your true nature be,” without a single prerequisite. These eleven years have been the coming of age of that phrase.