{"id":868,"date":"2020-10-15T08:52:09","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T16:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/?p=868"},"modified":"2020-12-03T10:22:22","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T18:22:22","slug":"identity-spiritual-cultivation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/2020\/10\/15\/identity-spiritual-cultivation\/","title":{"rendered":"Identity &#038; Spiritual Cultivation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-869 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/WuSi-NoSelfInterest-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"WuSi-NoSelfInterest\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/WuSi-NoSelfInterest-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/WuSi-NoSelfInterest-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/WuSi-NoSelfInterest-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/WuSi-NoSelfInterest-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/WuSi-NoSelfInterest.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t have to build an identity around spiritual cultivation. \u00a0Actually, if we\u2019re doing that, we\u2019re not practicing wuweidao. \u00a0Wuweidao means relaxing our identification with a generated self \u2013 this is the heart of practice.\u00a0 Transforming this self from a so-called \u201cdeluded mortal\u201d to an \u201cenlightened sage\u201d \u2013 that might have some value in other paths, but it is not wuweidao if our experience centers around self-reference.\u00a0 Cue the Buddhist Diamond Sutra, which says: \u201cThe Bodhisattva who considers himself a Bodhisattva is not a true Bodhisattva.\u201d\u00a0 Laozi likewise defines sagehood as \u201cdiscarding self\u201d and \u201cwithdrawing into the unborn\u201d.\u00a0 So my wuweidao lineage teacher didn\u2019t give us Daoist names.\u00a0 In some sense he took away my own Daoist name.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t want us to identify as Daoists or sages or Buddhas. \u00a0Just to practice and surrender all names to the great Immortal Stream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We don\u2019t have to build an identity around spiritual cultivation. \u00a0Actually, if we\u2019re doing that, we\u2019re not practicing wuweidao. \u00a0Wuweidao means relaxing our identification with a generated self \u2013 this is the heart of practice.\u00a0 Transforming this self from a so-called \u201cdeluded mortal\u201d to an \u201cenlightened sage\u201d \u2013 that might have some value in other &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/2020\/10\/15\/identity-spiritual-cultivation\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Identity &#038; Spiritual Cultivation&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":906,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions\/906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}