FuSheng Message
15th Day, 9th Lunar Month, Year Xīnsì (1941) · General Planchette
PART ONE — THE COMPLETE TEXT · 全文
A. Title and Occasion · 題名與時機
孚聖訓 辛巳九月十五日 統科
Transmission of the Trustworthy Sage · 15th Day, 9th Lunar Month, Year Xīnsì · General Planchette
B. Opening Verse · 詩偈
霜清露冷樹蕭蕭，
The frost clears, dew chills - the trees stand sparse and bare;
菊釀疏籬酒一瓢。
Chrysanthemums brew through the open fence - a gourd of wine.
我比黃花清更淡，
I am purer and more limpid than the yellow flower itself;
秋風多厲怯登高。
The autumn wind is fierce - I hesitate to climb to the heights.
Commentary on the Opening Verse
The verse is a seven-character quatrain (七言絕句) composed in the classical late-autumn – the 9th lunar month, when frost clears and vital energy begins its inward movement. Autumn is the season of contraction, introspection, and return: the time when the external world strips away its ornament and the contemplative is most naturally drawn toward stillness.
The chrysanthemum (菊 / 黃花) is the supreme emblem of the recluse and the purified spirit in tradition: it blooms in the cold when all other flowers have retreated. The Sage Fu Sheng declares himself 清更淡 – ‘yet purer and more limpid than even the chrysanthemum’ – a statement of spiritual transparency, not pride.
The final line – 秋風多厲怯登高 – carries the message’s paradox before even a single word has been spoken: genuine spiritual attainment involves the continued recognition of difficulty, the refusal of spiritual arrogance. The fierce autumn wind that deters is also the force that purifies. The teaching is encoded in the image: the very conditions that make the heights difficult are the conditions that make the ascent meaningful.
C. Main Address · 正文
It is often heard: to travel far, begin from near; to climb high, begin from low. From this, take the awakening. In all things under heaven, none fail to move from shallow to deep; difficulty preceding attainment. It is certainly not something that can be fortunately achieved by rushing through shortcuts or leaping over stages.
大道之旨，重在化渡，亦盡人而知之已。化渡之端，惟在乎修。修之之要，不外乎於其心身性命。循其自然，盡所當然。由邇而遠，由卑而高。修人道以求天道，培後天而返其先天也。
The essential intent of the Great Way lies in transformation and deliverance of salvation – this is known to all cultivators. The initial step of transformation and salvation deliverance lies solely in cultivation. The crux and essentials of cultivation do not go beyond the mind, body, nature, and life. Follow the state of the natural order; fulfil what is proper with due diligence. From near, proceed to far; from low, proceed to high. Cultivate well the humane way in order to seek the celestial Way; nurture well the post-cosmic in order to return to the pre-cosmic.
茍或舍本而逐末，好高騖遠，躐級以求佛，出俗而求仙，則愈修愈遠，愈進愈迷，鮮有不墮於歧途者。
Should one abandon the root and chase after the branches – reaching too high, grasping for the distant – leaping over stages to seek Buddhahood, departing the ordinary in order to seek the Immortal: the more one cultivates, the further one drifts; the more one advances, the deeper one sinks into confusion. Rarely does one fail to fall upon a diverging path.
師道化世，普渡大開，在修諸子，生值其機，躬逢其盛，而得道也最易。不過昨日進修，今日即欲成道，今日種因，明日即欲收果，是弗能若此之速耳。
The Way of The Most Holy One transforms the world; universal deliverance is broadly opened to all. For the disciples in cultivation, born at this juncture and present at this flourishing time – to attain the Way is most readily possible. Yet it will not do to pursue progress yesterday but desire to complete and achieve attainment of the Way today. To plant the cause today and desire to harvest the fruit tomorrow – it simply cannot proceed at such speed.
大道至公，大化至中。修之要訣，惟在治本。本固而後枝榮，功至而後果成。循序以進，又何難登峰造極哉。
The Great Way is utterly impartial; the Great Transformation is utterly centered. The essence of cultivation lies only in careful tending of the root. When the root is deep and firm, the branches flourish; when the effort reaches completion, the fruit ripens. Advancing in a proper ordered sequence – how difficult is it to reach the summit and the pinnacle?
蓋以道也者，以天地之體為體，以天地之用為用。天地之道，其所以博厚高明悠久而覆載生成者，不外乎至誠無息。由此以觀，是大道之修也。自成己以至於成人成物，參贊化育，其終其始，其本其末，亦不外一誠之運而已。
For the Way: it takes the substance of heaven and earth as its own substance; it takes the function of heaven and earth as its own function. The Way of heaven and earth – through which it is so broad and deep, so high and bright, so enduring and long-lasting, so encompassing and sustaining in its production – consists in nothing other than utmost truth and sincerity without cessation. Viewed from this, the cultivation of the Great Way – from the completion of oneself to the completion of others and of all things, participating in and furthering the transformation and nourishment of creation – from its end to its beginning, from its root to its branches, also consists in nothing other than the operation of Truth and Sincerity.
Therefore: one who wishes to cultivate the self must first rectify the heart-mind. One who wishes to rectify the heart-mind must first be truly sincere. The intention of being truly sincere is grounded in vigilance in solitude (慎獨). And the work of vigilance in solitude – where else can it be found but in seated meditation (坐)?
D. The Seven-Stage Progression in Meditation · 靜坐七候
坐之要旨，在乎寡慾。慾寡則心正。心正則念空。念空則氣平。氣平則腦充。腦充則神清。神清則靈明。
The essential crux of seated meditation lies in the fewness of desires. When desire is few, the mind is rectified and upright. When the mind is rectified and upright, thought is ‘emptied’. When thought is ‘emptied’, the breath is balanced. When the breath is balanced, the brain is replenished. When the brain is replenished, the spirit is clear. When the spirit is clear, luminous awareness of Creativ4e Intelligence arises.
主要詳情
Chinese Term · Pinyin · Concept - Spiritual Significance and Instruction
Stage 1 - 寡慾 guǎ yù Fewness of Desire
When desire thins, the mind naturally rectifies itself — returns to its proper, undistorted upright condition. This is the Confucian term for the mind restored to what it inherently is when not bent by excessive desire. It does not require effort in the sense of striving; it is the natural result of Stage 1, as a muddy pool clarifies when agitation ceases. The Great Learning sequence (格物致知誠意正心修身) is explicitly operative here.
Stage 2 - 心正 xīn zhèng Rectification of Mind
对“道”作为自生、无私、无所不在之本源的宇宙论阐述；广泛汲取自《道德经》第二章、第三十四章、第五十一章以及《淮南子·原道训》（道论）。
Stage 3 - 念空 niàn kōng Emptying of Thought
With the mind rectified and upright, individual thoughts – 念 (niàn), the stream of conceptual, discursive, and associative mental activity – cease to manifest and proliferate. 念空 does not mean the mind becomes blank or unconscious; it means the compulsive generation of thought-chains stops, and awareness rests in its own inherent openness. This is the beginning of genuine stillness (靜) rather than its simulation – the first threshold of authentic seated meditation.
Stage 4 - 氣平 qì píng Balancing of Vital Breath
When thought ceases its turbulence, the vital breath (氣 / qì) – the subtle energy mediating between mind and matter, circulating through the Du meridian (督) and Ren meridian (任) – naturally settles into equilibrium. 氣平 is the physiological expression of mental stillness: the breath becomes long, slow, even and imperceptible; internal energy ceases its erratic fluctuation. This stage marks the entry into genuine psycho-somatic integration.
Stage 5 - 腦充 nǎo chōng Replenishment of the Brain
When vital breath is balanced and flowing without obstruction, it nourishes and replenishes the brain (腦) – understood in the classical cultivation as the reservoir of the spirit (神) and the storehouse of the most refined pre-cosmic 炁 (post-cosmic qì having been transformed). Excessive mental activity at Stage 3 depletes this reservoir. The stilling of thought and the even balancing of breath allow it to fill again, producing the condition for the next stage.
Stage 6 - 神清 shén qīng Clarification of Spirit
With the brain replenished, the spirit (神 / shén) – the most refined level of consciousness, the intersection of the individual and the divine, the Creative Intelligence (靈) in its particularised form within the human being – becomes clear. The opacities introduced by desire, discursive thought, and vital depletion dissolve. The spirit is not made nor something new; it recovers its inherent luminosity, as a lantern whose glass has been cleaned.
Stage 7 - 靈明 líng míng Luminous Awareness
The culmination. 靈 encompasses numinosity, spirit-intelligence, and the specifically human capacity to be the mediating point between heaven and earth. 明 is brightness and illumination. Together: the condition of consciousness fully restored to its original transparency. The Spirit’s platform (靈台) within the heart-mind – the innermost chamber where the spirit is housed – becomes pellucid and profound, like the autumn moon in an ancient pool: not a speck of sediment, not a thread of obstruction (無點纖之渣滓，絲毫之障翳).
E. The Three Dissolutions and Union with Heaven and Earth
清明在躬，靈台湛湛，猶如古潭秋月。無點纖之渣滓，絲毫之障翳。功至此候，則心與形忘，氣與息通，靈與神接。久久則一片妙靈，不期而與天地之清甯相融。不思而中，不勉而得，與天地參已。
心與形忘
xīn yǔ xíng wàng
Mind and Form Forgotten
The felt boundary between mind and bodily form – the dualism of inner and outer, observer and observed – dissolves. Not loss of consciousness but the dissolution of the self-referential knot.
氣與息通
qì yǔ xī tōng
Vital Breath and Cosmic Breath United
The practitioner’s internal energy (post-cosmic qì, 後天氣) aligns with the cosmic breath – the individual’s circulation rejoins the cosmic Microcosmic Orbit and its larger celestial counterpart.
靈與神接
líng yǔ shén jiē
The Numinous Meets the Divine
The Creative Intelligence (靈) – the human spirit in its pre-cosmic aspect – makes contact with the divine spirit (神). The finite touches the infinite; the individual participates in The Most Holy One (老祖).
F. The World in Crisis · 浩劫
Alas – mirroring the rivers and streams daily flow downstream, the human heart are drowning in its own depths, with propriety and righteousness no longer subsisting, the Way and its virtue fallen away: among the teeming multitudes, the strong are bent on plunder and the weak tumble into ditches and gullies. A condition of cruel devastation has formed into a great catastrophe (浩劫). Hence, weapons of war arise in all four directions; disasters and pestilence appear throughout the world. Without transformation through the Way, without restraint through compassion, the course of this world’s progress will find it difficult to return to the right track. When one’s thoughts turn to this, how can one suppress the great lament?
G. The Most Holy One's Exhortation and the Disciples' Response · 師道化渡
幸吾師藉木沙之靈，與濁世相周旋者，已念易寒暑已。各堅誠弟子，亦更能上體聖懷，努力修渡，深可嘉尚。
Fortunately The Most Holy One – through the spirit of the planchette medium – has been actively engaged with the turbid world; across the many alternations of cold and warmth seasons. Each firm, steadfast and sincere disciple has also been able to embody the Divine’s sage-intent and strive in earnest cultivation and perform deliverance in salvation. This is deeply praiseworthy.
惟其冥頑難化者流，非第不能醒悟，且對於院會，誹笑之，毀謗之，又復思有以傾覆之以自絕也。
Yet there are those obstinately unreachable who are not only unable to awaken, but who mock and slander the Dao Yuan and The World Red Swastika Society (院會), and repeatedly scheme to overturn them – thus cutting themselves off.
所幸吾各堅誠弟子，益勵精誠，大發覺悟，雖處乎橫流急湍，復能乘風破浪，勇往直前，以盡夫道慈化渡之責。是使大好基礎，不致為障所礙，良可喜也。
Fortunately, each firm and sincere disciple has intensified in refined sincerity, and greatly manifested awakening. Though dwelling amidst surging currents and rapid turmoil, they are still able to ride the wind and cleave the waves, pressing forward with courage, to fulfil the responsibility of Dao-Ci and transformative deliverance in salavation. This ensures that the magnificent foundations are not obstructed by impediments – truly a cause for rejoicing.
H. Closing Exhortation · 結語
尚望隻子於道慈化渡之旨，根本推求，由獨善而達乎兼善，以慈功而求乎至仁，庶大道前途，有攸賴焉。
It is further hoped that the disciples will seek out the root of Dao-Ci and transformative deliverance – proceeding from the perfecting of oneself (獨善) to reach the perfecting of all (兼善); through the meritorious works of compassion (慈功) to seek the utmost humaneness (至仁) – so that the future course of the Great Way will have that upon which to rely.
故曰：君子之修道也，放之則彌於六合，卷之則退藏於密。窮則獨善其身，達則兼善天下。明乎此，則可悟乎大道之妙用已。各各悟之。勗哉。勉旃。