What is self cultivation?
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The aim of self cultivation is to harmonize one’s personal existence with that of humanity and nature. The origins of disturbance of this harmony are seen in people’s minds as the ego is a major source of misconduct. From an egoistic point of view, most situations can be interpreted in the favor of everyone despite being only for one’s personal advantage. Virtue (De, 德) is the reference of conduct proposed by Lao-Tse and Confucius summarizes it in the following story:
Adept Kung asked: “Is there any one word that could guide a person throughout life?”
The Master replied: “How about ‘shu’: never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself?”
Most of us probably remember one or more situations where this golden rule has been broken “just for once” or with the argument “yes, but this is (I am) different…”. Why is this so? Why are we not able to comply to such a simple rule? There is no single answer to this question as everyone’s history and character is different. However, it is the aim of self cultivation to overcome this incapability. In everyday life this means to reflect ones actions and their consequences for humanity and nature. Wherever you find a possibility to improve – do so!
Qigong offers a further tool for self cultivation. By reaching wu-wei during deep meditation the mind clears and does no more discriminate good or bad from a personal point of view. It is a state of mind in which one realizes one’s own dependence of the wide world, and it is a state of inner peace and self confidence. In fact this is the natural state of the mind before thoughts came to cause trouble. This is closely related to the natural state of the rest of the body, i.e. if the body is not in equilibrium neither can the mind. Therefore many sets of movements have been developed to help people reaching their natural and healthy state. In the western society sports could be generally regarded as the physical aspect of qigong, but with the lacking integration of mental cultivation, this way of self cultivation is limited. It does not matter which path a person takes in self cultivation, eventually all have the same goal, however the most rapid progress can be made if the three aspects, good conduct, meditation and physical exercise, are practiced together.
