Chapter 11: Coming Of Age [6] (1/2)
”Spiritual training develops the health and strength of the soul. It increases its ability to delay gratification and deny lower impulses in favor of higher ones. Weaknesses and temptations, are conquered by spiritual training. And most importantly, Ju Feng, it helps you to make weighty decisions with dexterous wisdom, and to willingly serve other people.”
Zhang Wang Jing moved her hand to form the shape of a human as she was speaking.
”Your character is built in the course of your soul spiritual training, inner confrontation. Character is a set of dispositions, desires, and habits that are slowly engraved during the struggle against your own weakness. You become more disciplined, considerate, and loving through a thousand small acts of self-control, sharing, service, friendship, and refined enjoyment.”
Waving her hand gently, Zhang Wang Jing manifested fire in the shapes of beautiful fire-flies that captured the attention of her grandson. She watched the mesmerized look on her grandson's face as the fire-flies settled on his body without burning him.
”If you make disciplined, caring choices, you are slowly engraving certain tendencies into your mind. You are making it more likely that you will desire the right things and execute the right actions. If you make selfish, cruel, or disorganized choices, then you are slowly turning the soul inside yourself into something that is fragmented. You can do harm to your soul with nothing more than ignoble thoughts, even if you are not harming anyone else. But if you do behave with habitual self-discipline, you will become constant and dependable.”
With compassionate eyes, she continued to observed her grandson.
””Which brings us to Karma. Do you know what karma is, Ju Feng?”
”Good and bad?”
”Close.”
Zhang Wang Jing nooded her head with a bright smile.
”It's the principle behind the good and bad things we do or say. Everything you do now will have effect on your life in the future. Law of karma is a law of creation. It affects everybody in the universe. Good karma will bring good effects and bad karma will bring bad effects. We cannot escape it. That's why having a proper frame of mind will help in cultivating good karma. Remember that every thing you do, good or bad, you will face the consequences in the future.”
Pointing to the fish in the pond, Zhang Wang Jing smiled assuringly at her grandson and continued with her words.
”Look at the fish in the pond. Do you see the way they move about in the water peacefully? It's in their mind to do that since they were born. Now they do that as part of their living. Everything you put in your mind from young age, will continue to grow there if you continue to nurture it. A seed will germinate and grow if properly nurtured. Now, free your mind as before and let your mind be at peace. After that, start the soul pith technique.”
Ju Feng quickly closed his eyes and freed his mind of any distractions. Gradually, just like the peaceful pond, he felt his mind at peace as he started practicing the soul pith technique. He remembered what he had discovered before, his soul was getting more and more stronger whenever he practiced this technique followed by the astral fetal breathing technique. The two techniques were from the same manuscripts, and no wonder why they complimented each other.
The more stronger his soul, the more clearer he was seeing the universe. He continued to practice as sparse threads of positive energy continued to stream into his soul. Gradually, he was lost in meditation and saw himself being sorrounded by a faint white light and flickers of lightning. After regaining his awareness, he narrated his experience to his grandma who responded mildly.
”That's your astral sphere, Ju Feng. What sorrounded you are your elemental energy. Light element energy and lightning element energy. Although there are four primary elements as you are aware of, these four have many other variant elements. In your case Ju Feng, you have lightning and light, which means that you can use light but not fire, because you need heat and light to make fire. But since your affinity is not attuned to heat, you can only use the light. Same thing with lightning, you can use lightning even if you can't conjure the mystic power of air. Light and lightning are really great energy. I'm really proud of you, my grandson.”
”But no fire grandma.”