When One Has Cultivated to a Certain Point, One Must Repay Karmic Debts.

Ru Chun: During this period I wanted to properly build up my meditative concentration (samādhi), so I reduced my contact with people and affairs quite a bit. For a while the results were quite good—my mind was fairly pure, my meditative concentration improved somewhat, I sweated a lot, and my body felt much lighter. But over the past half month or so, things have been terrible. Within less than half an hour of sitting, my legs hurt badly. Sitting for about an hour morning and evening, I barely managed to get through by switching legs midway. As you can imagine, the results were very poor—not even a shadow of meditative concentration, with scattered thoughts flying everywhere, and I was also very drowsy, heavy, and my ankles became swollen.

The doctor said I have heavy cold-dampness. I tried acupuncture, moxibustion, and medicine, but none worked well. I was very anxious, so I recited the Kṣitigarbha Sūtra and the Śūraṅgama Mantra, hoping for the Buddha's blessings. I also spoke with my manas: No matter how you object, I can never go back to chasing after worldly dharmas like before, exhausting myself in the struggle—you and I should both understand that it is a road of no return. If things don't improve, I'll have no choice but to start fasting; the feeling of hunger is not pleasant. When afflictions arise, I reconcile with myself and with others, thinking that we are all ordinary beings (pṛthagjana), all selfish, all prone to mistakes—there is nothing worth blaming. I examine myself to see whether a mind of anger is obstructing the Path. I wonder if any fellow practitioners have had similar experiences, and whether there are any good methods to deal with this?

Comment: This is a phenomenon that occurs when the qi channels move down to the legs and begin adjusting them. Because the legs carry heavy dampness, it affects meditative concentration; advancing and retreating in meditative concentration is a normal phenomenon, and once the qi channels pass through, it will be fine. Combining treatment with traditional Chinese medicine methods can speed up the process of regulation, and visualization methods can also be used.

Working on the body—that is technique; working on the mind—that is the Path. Having technique does not necessarily mean having the Path, but if one has the Path, there is no need to worry about technique. Working on the mind means correctly recognizing that the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) of self and others are false and unreal—suffering, empty, impermanent, and without self; correctly recognizing the dialectical relationship between cause and effect; understanding the prior causes of self and others, willingly accepting the later results; understanding the cause and extinguishing the result, no longer creating new misdeeds—only then will there be a day of escaping suffering. If one does not do this, whenever karmic obstructions arrive, they will knock all the technique one has cultivated back to its original form; what has been cultivated will be nearly exhausted, and one will return without achievement. With prior causes, how can one not receive the later results? Who can receive retribution and results on one's behalf? If the mind does not change and karma is not severed, can the retributive results ever be fully received? 

Ru Chun: The next night, before sleep, I was thinking about karmic obstructions and how to eliminate karma, and as I thought, I fell asleep. I dreamed I was taking my child to school when it started to rain, so I went back to get an umbrella. By the time I brought the umbrella back, heavy snow had begun to fall instead—such big, big snowflakes, like popcorn or like shaved wood shavings, drifting down from the sky strand by strand. The rain and snow formed a puddle on the ground. I thought, how icy this water must be, but I still ran over barefoot and soaked my feet in the icy water; the water was almost up to my knees. After a while, I saw a red plum tree by the water. Though pressed down by the thick snow, its red petals were still visible. I found it so beautiful to look at, so I came up out of the water and wanted to take a photo, but I couldn't find my phone, and then I woke up.

Comment: This is a dream of imagery. The rain and snow in the dream represent water-dampness; stepping one's legs and feet into the puddle represents severe dampness in the legs and feet that needs to be removed. How to remove it? First, one must come out of the puddle and stop soaking in the water, so the red plum by the water drew oneself over and out of the puddle. But this is not yet finished; we do not know how this karmic obstruction problem will be dealt with later in the dream. When cultivation reaches a certain point, one will certainly have to repay the debts of cause and effect.