On October 14-15, 2023, the 2023 China-Shanghai International Taiji Health Symposium and the 2023 China-Shanghai International Qigong Science Symposium were held in Shanghai. Mr. Jin Hui made a presentation entitled "Human Enlightenment and Spiritual Health of Modern People" in the session of the symposium.

I. The prevailing spiritual problems of modern people have evolved into a serious spiritual crisis

Perhaps one of the major features of the modern world is the unprecedented material prosperity and technological progress, and at the same time, the unprecedented anxiety and confusion of human beings.

According to the World Health Organization, about 1 billion people around the world are suffering from mental disorders. The number of depression patients in China has exceeded 95 million, and the lifetime prevalence rate has reached 6.8% (while the prevalence rate of mental disorders and depression in China 20 years ago was 0.05%, far less than one percent of the current rate). At present, depression has become the second largest killer of human beings and the second largest disease in our country's disease burden.

The 2022 Blue Book of National Depression survey research shows that the incidence of depression group is a trend of rejuvenation, the prevalence of depression in adolescents has reached 15-20%, the percentage of depression patients in the group under the age of 25 years is as high as 65.6%, and 50% of the patients with depression are students in school.

Associate Professor Kevin Xu, Associate Director of the Center for Mental Health Education and Counseling at Peking University, provides counseling services to students and engages in suicide prevention and crisis intervention. In recent years, he has noticed an increasing number of "empty heart disease" among students, which is "not an ordinary depression, but a very serious new situation". Hollow heart disease looks like depression, low mood, loss of interest, lack of pleasure, a strong sense of loneliness and meaninglessness, strong suicidal ideation, but all the drugs are ineffective. He said that as a psychiatrist he had a killer idea that any depressed person who was treated with electro-convulsive therapy could recover quickly in a short time, but it was surprising that none of the electro-convulsive treatments worked for the hollow disease.

Suffering from empty heart disease is mostly the most outstanding students, Kevin Xu has done statistics, first year undergraduate and graduate students at Peking University, there are 30.4% students who hate to learn, and 40.4% students believe that life has no meaning, the most extreme is to give up life.

Seeing that the mental problems of young people are so serious, some people also think that it is a problem of contemporary education in China. However, the overall prevalence of mental illness among Americans is 26.41 TP3T, and the U.S. is number one globally in all World Health Organization statistics. At the back of Xu's article, a reader left a comment: I especially want to know what is the reason for such a high rate of depression in the U.S. The U.S. does not seem to be so utilitarian in education, nor is it so score-oriented, but there is still a lost generation, and in fact, there are also hollowed-out people. What are the reasons for this?

Not only is the incidence of depression and hollowing out already high, but when we look at ordinary people nowadays and society as a whole, the moral slippage, lack of faith, profit-seeking and indulgence, indifference and disorientation, the tearing apart of crowds, the prevalence of hostility, and so on, are all very lamentable and worrying.

Humanity is indeed sick. The general mental problems of modern man have evolved into a serious spiritual crisis.

The World Health Organization predicts that depression will be the number one disease burden globally in 2030.

II. The Root of Modern Human Spiritual Problems Lies in the Loss of Humanity

The drastic transformation of modern society, the mutual agitation of diverse cultures, consumerism and the supremacy of interests submerging people's spiritual pursuits, and liberalism and the proliferation of information making people even more bewildered and unsupported, all of these have a great impact on people's spiritual state.

However, we believe that the root cause of the spiritual crisis of humanity as a whole also lies in the loss of human nature of modern mankind; however, people do not realize that it is human nature that has gone wrong.

That's why we first have to look deeper into human nature:

What is the biggest problem in the world?

-Humanity.

What is the most important thing in the world?

-Humanity.

What is the greatest cost of human modernization?

-Humanity.

Millions of years ago, human beings became aware of their humanity and became adults.

For millions of years, human nature has always been kind and protective of mankind.

What's wrong with people today? What happened to human nature?

For the first time since ancient times, human nature has become an overwhelming issue.

The main problems of mankind are all problems of human nature.

The greatest crisis of mankind lies in the crisis of human nature.

Modernity thrives on deconstructing ideas; all conceptual deconstruction sets fire to human nature.

Having deconstructed and lost its humanity, how far can humanity go on its stormy evolutionary journey?

-We don't know.

Human beings, historically, have been human because of their original humanity and their identity.

Is there a future for modern mankind, far from our common origin and unaware of our common future?

-We don't know.

Conference Organizer and Venue--Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SUTCM)

Third, the hollow patients are not only the human nature is lost, but also the soul lost heart dead

Human nature is the essence and provision of the human being and the guardian of the human heart. Throughout history, it is human nature that has basically ensured the spiritual stability of mankind, and it is human nature itself that has been largely and completely inherited.

However, in modern society, especially over the past generation or two, the social realm has changed too much and too quickly, making it difficult to maintain traditional human nature and make traditional methods effective. Moral construction, the appeal to humanity, education in the three values, including the external constraints of the rule of law, are all becoming more and more ineffective.

And with the rise of science and the strength of rational thinking, religious beliefs have been declining, making it difficult to truly solve people's spiritual problems.

The root cause of the unprecedented confusion and loss of human nature in modern society is also closely related to the theoretical deconstruction of modernity. The increasing diversity of thought and culture and the proliferation of various theories have made it possible to find reasons and grounds for people's various behaviors and interests, except for human nature, which is losing its fundamental standards and unified values.

The popular deconstructive demystification of modernity has finally come to fruition as desired. As spiritual beings, human nature and self-knowledge are the important foundation of personality and psychology. When the absurd replaces the sacred and the vulgar overrides the sublime, the spiritual world of human beings is reduced to a garbage dump, and an overall spiritual crisis of human beings is of course unavoidable.

The name "hollow heart disease" is both figurative and accurate, and it is more difficult to treat than the usual depression because of the emptiness and deadness of the heart.

Get empty heart disease are the best students in prestigious schools, they have been studying from childhood, living a privileged life (even if the family conditions are not very good, the child must be the whole family's focus on protecting and safeguarding the object), in addition to learning the parents to do everything. Perhaps because of this, the child becomes a learning tool and test machine, heart and mind seriously imbalanced: although excellent results, but the human nature atrophy, really become a learning robot. Not only human nature is lost, and the soul lost heart dead. But after all, people are not robots, once the heart is lost, will inevitably encounter the biggest life crisis.

Kevin Hsu tells a case study of a brilliant PhD student in science and engineering who completed his research in the second year of his PhD and was considered by his supervisor to be at the doctoral level, but repeatedly tried to give up on life. He was hospitalized twice, with all the medications, all the treatments for electric convulsions. When Xu asked him how he was doing after he was discharged from the hospital, he said that the psychiatrists were childish and ridiculous, and that if I acted happier, they thought I was better off if I was depressed.

--He seems to understand it better than a psychiatrist, but just can't take ownership of his life.

The condition is such that there is no alternative to a "change of heart".

October 14, 2023, a.m. Seminar Sessions

IV. Human awakening: the way out and hope for rebuilding the spiritual world and spiritual health of mankind

What to do in the face of such an unprecedented crisis of the human spirit?

We propose a new path and approach: human consciousness.

1. Brief description of the philosophy of consciousness

Mental illness, it is logical that mental rehabilitation should be the main focus.

Internal factors are predominant and must be activated to mobilize them.

Traditional culture has always emphasized the inherent goodness of nature and the fact that all people have a conscience, which is the foundation and philosophical basis of human nature that can lead to a new life through the return of enlightenment to one's roots.

The essence of traditional Chinese culture, the return to the original way of life as advocated and pursued by the three schools of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, is referred to here simply as "Enlightenment".

Enlightenment is the principle of the realm: the return of existence to nothingness. That is to say, from the confusion of all perceptions, one returns to the clear and clear nature of nothing.

There is nothing in the original, and all the troubles, doubts, confusion, etc., will all be relieved when they return to the original, but in fact, they will not be relieved.

Something returns to nothing and nothing is born again, and the new system of knowledge is well organized, wise and understandable.

Enlightenment is a change of body, a new birth in a higher realm, a transcendence into sainthood - it is like a "change of heart", so it is called the Sacred Heart.

To use a modern analogy, after the program has gone haywire, it is formatted, zeroed out, and restored to factory settings - factory settings that are rebooted, then it has been upgraded to a super program.

2. Human awareness goal-oriented

Often there is either a lack of understanding or a misunderstanding of enlightenment: mystical interpretations, fallen phase interpretations.

And as an elevation of traditional culture, enlightenment and seeking the Way have been the supreme spiritual pursuit of successive generations of Eastern elites for more than two thousand years.

A sage such as Confucius, speaking of the meaning of enlightenment can be said to end with a single word: when one hears of the Way, one can die in the evening!

Siddhartha Gautama was the son of King Jodo, but he did not become a king, abandoning all the glory and riches, and pursuing liberation and understanding with all his heart.

Hui Neng was originally an uneducated woodcutter in the mountains, but once he heard the scriptures and realized the Way, he became the Sixth Patriarch, the master who started the Chinese Zen Sect.

--which all exemplify the value and realm of enlightenment.

Human nature is self-sufficient, and conscience is always there. The so-called heart is dead because there is a heart; he feels that everything is meaningless and worthless, but in fact the true value of his heart is still there, and at the same time, this itself is a projection of his conscience. The interference of external factors has caused his internal factors to lose their basis, and only by activating and mobilizing the internal factors from the root can he finally regain his spiritual health.

So find a way to evoke, in the true sense of the word, to inspire, to enlighten him as to the purpose of his life, toIt made him realize that there is indeed a true path to self-help and renewal - human enlightenment.

The realization of the human nature of the ordinary people, the same can be a new life, have a transcendent life in the chaotic world, to obtain a new realm of the second life.

3. Understanding the Realm of Enlightenment

The reason we call it human enlightenment is that it is both similar and different from traditional enlightenment.

First, let's look at Siddhartha Gautama's path to enlightenment. Legend has it that when Shakyamuni sat under the Bodhi tree, he finally realized the Way after seven days and seven nights, and he exclaimed, "It is strange! All sentient beings have the appearance of the Buddha's virtue, but only because of delusion and clinging can not be realized.

From this statement, the two major stages of Buddha's enlightenment can be seen:

One is the realization of the original. When a Buddha realizes that he has seen the original, he enters the realm of no-phase, where there is no I-phase, no human-phase, no sentient-being-phase, and where all Buddhas and all sentient beings are one and the same, so he knows that everyone has the Buddha nature. This can be said to be the first stage of enlightenment. But why are sentient beings still lost beings? The Buddha further realized that it is because attachment separates one's original mind from one's knowledge and takes concepts seriously that one becomes delusional and confused by delusional worries. All beings are imprisoned in the realm of living beings because of their attachment to concepts, and therefore they are called living beings. --This is the second stage of Buddha's enlightenment: the reasoning through the original.

The traditional Taoist-Buddhist concept of enlightenment actually encompasses the full realm of the two steps mentioned above. However, because the first step of clearing away the phase and breaking down the insistence, i.e., transcending the common and reaching the sky in one step, is so difficult that it obscures the whole line behind it, all of them talk about enlightenment in a generalized way. But let's look at Buddha and Laozi, Huineng and Wang Yangming, they not only became saints of enlightenment, but also preach and teach all sentient beings, because they are from enlightenment to rationality, the realm of the complete circle. And some of the historical records of the seeker's words of great enlightenment, a thought to see nature, etc., some of them may indeed be enlightened, but probably only enlightenment this step; perhaps the realm is not complete, so do not see to leave the wisdom of the wisdom of the Taoist wonderful presentation.

The reason why traditional enlightenment is so difficult -- even the Buddha speaks of "rare people" -- is directly related to the fact that the philosophy of the realm of enlightenment is not clearly explained. First of all, because there is no philosophy, we can only talk about enlightenment; and enlightenment is all concrete, and can only be compared with having a phase. Therefore, when the Taoist speaks of the Dharma, once it is spoken, it is not, and when it is spoken, it must be denied. Secondly, for the study of Taoism, there is no reason, there is no road, there is no understanding, you can only grope; the problem is even more in what you think is not (our "thought" are falling phase), the teacher can only say no, that is in the end how it is, rely on their own chance to stumble upon. Therefore, it is called "going up the mountain in the dark" and "jumping over the wall in a hurry".

The philosophy of the realm of enlightenment can be briefly described in this way:

Speaking from existence, there is returning to nothing to nothing giving birth to something;

In terms of realms, the relative realm to the absolute realm;

In terms of existence, there is a return of phase to no phase;

Cognitively speaking, the concepts are separate to one-person perception;

Speaking from the heart and brain, conceptual thinking to heartfelt experience;

In terms of process, the conscious mind to the rational mind.

For seeking the Way, philosophical understanding is critical. With modern man's predominantly rational thinking, understanding at the beginning is even more important. If one does not know why and how, it is also difficult to act consciously. In fact, enlightenment means to realize the mind to the rationality, i.e., the body of consciousness and rationality. Clearly the realm of philosophical, then know just talk about awareness, and even think that awareness must be practiced, etc., is misleading.

4. The key entry point for human enlightenment: the conscience and the heart.

There is a huge twist and gap between the realization of the clear mind and the common. All human beings have a mind, but usually they just don't know it, they can't feel it at all. The realization of the clear mind is the opposite of the common, and often the harder one tries to think, the less one understands. The Taoists talk about turning around, breaking the appearance, not clinging, and letting go ...... seem to understand what that means, but they just don't know what to do. The realization of the matter, difficult to difficult, otherwise Confucius would not have been the holy sigh of hearing the death of the night.

Here, we focus on human enlightenment and point out its critical entry points.

① Traditional enlightenment is in wisdom, and the key is in breaking down the concept of enlightenment and clearing the mind;The point of entry for the realization of human nature is directly from the conscience to the heart.The

② Conscience is for everyone. Mencius said, "Compassion is common to all; to know without thinking is to have a good conscience.

③ Conscience for allThe idea of birth, the response of a matter. The birth of a thought, the response of a matter, if it is away from the good whereabouts, the slightest violation of the heart, one knows immediately, and is clear.

④ Often, if they are not realized, they cling to the fallen form and are not aware of it; but even the so-called obsessed beings.Conscience is always on its own.. Conscience prompts instantly when you may be overstepping or are on the threshold.

⑤ Conscience is the heartbeat. All thoughts are movements of the mind, but the thought of conscience is different from all thoughts. Because the nature of the heart is related to the fate of life, the conscience is the highest level of spiritual alarm. It is a thought, subtle but strong, swift and alarming. Everyone who looks into his heart and remembers can recall more than once the uneasiness and guilt that he has felt as a reminder of his conscience, an indelible memory engraved in his heart.

(vi) It is easiest to perceive the heartbeat directly from the conscience.The only thing is that one does not know that this is the heart's movement and that this movement is the heart. It's just that people don't know that this is the movement of the heart, and they don't know that this movement is the heart. Once you see the heart from the conscience, it turns out to be so! --When I look back, the heart is in the place where my conscience reminds me of it!

⑦ From conscience to heartThe

If you see the mind moving, you see the original.

The same state of mind as that of conscience and enlightenment.

Therefore, conscience is the thoroughfare to enlightenment.

Conscience is the direct vehicle of the clear mind.

To be in the confirmation of this mind, to be in the seeing of the mind without doubt (the one who sees does not doubt, the one who doubts does not see):

The heart of conscience and insight, i.e., the heart of clarity and insight, i.e., the original heart.

⑧ The Way is Simple. It was all there originally, so realization would have been simple.

5. The truth of the matter is the truth of the name.

All our thinking is conceptual - nominal thinking. We name all things with concepts, define them separately with different concepts, and recognize existence indirectly through the correspondence and substitution of concepts with existence.

Cognition is easier and self-contained with concepts instead of existence;

But treating concepts as existence, this name-reality split and conceptual obsession, is also the root of the spiritual dichotomy of man.

And the perception of our mind does not use concepts, for the realm of universal sensation without distinction.

Enlightenment that is, if you can put down the conceptual thinking to return to the original heart, from the separation back to the one, will be self-clear, liberated and self-contained.

The reason why conscience is through the mind is that at the point of the realm of the original mind and conscience, there is still basically no distinction arising, and the name and the reality are roughly one and the same. Therefore, the mind can be perceived directly from the conscience, and the conscience is the mind.

When you realize the original, you can feel and then understand, and when you have the experience of the unity of name and reality, you can learn by example and be consistent, and from this point of origin, you will be able to penetrate through all the names and realities, and you will be able to realize the freedom of the body of thought.

To the state where the name and the reality are connected is actually the traditional wisdom enlightenment. From this, it is logical to go from the realization of human nature through conscience and heart to the realization of wisdom through name and reality. This is because it is in line with the evolutionary history of human life, i.e., to first understand human nature and establish the human heart, and then to open up wisdom and create the conceptual world. The reason why traditional enlightenment is extremely difficult is that it is a leap directly into the realm of conceptual wisdom, which transcends the realm of mental development of the human spirit.

6. Why human awareness in particular

Since the crisis of human nature has become the common spiritual problem of the whole human race, the realization of human nature will surely become a compulsory course for modern human beings.

While traditional enlightenment is mainly in understanding conceptual wisdom, human enlightenment is in understanding the human being as he or she is.

Humanity is enlightened and aims to truly know who I am, where I come from, and where I am going. --Once human nature is realized, the so-called ultimate question becomes common sense.The

The nature of man is neither good nor evil, but the most good and evil. --Understanding the Absolute of the Supreme Good as the constant standard of human enlightenmentThe

The essence of man, the realm of the true one, that is, the Tao gives birth to a one, which is the true one, not the so-called nothing, so it connotes the most good. --With a little bit of spiritual brightness within the connotation of the highest good, a person finally becomes a human being.

At the beginning of man, nature is good; at the end of man, it returns to the good, and this is what is meant by: a good beginning - a good end.

Of course, only by realizing human nature can we truly know the fundamentals of human beings and the mysteries of human nature.

In fact, human nature is in the human heart, is the human heart, so the so-called sex is good and sex is bad, not in the rhetoric. If you want to know what it is all about, just ask the heart, and the heart will know what it is all about.

Simply put, even for the extreme sexual evil theorist, he would never want to live in hell himself, and would never want his loved ones to become victims of hatred, violence, terror, and nightmares. --This is the sexual goodness of his heart.

Lamentable modern people are completely confused by various concepts of reasoning, even their own nature is good or evil are not clear, human nature is so lost, so the spiritual world is chaotic.

It is necessary to realize human nature, return to the original human nature, set up the heart to correct the origin, and rebuild the spiritual world.

Man's strength is in the spiritual world, and man's trouble is in the spiritual world.

The existence of a thousand, the realm of multi-dimensional, cause and effect, fate is unpredictable; and the heart of the ten thousand phases, the virtual reality of the mysterious, trance, illusion, the spiritual realm of the complexity of the unknown and unpredictable defensible, upside down dream a thousand times, the strange force of the devil is high, so three generations of saints would have been a prophet:

The human heart is in danger.

Fortunately, creation helps people, the way of heaven is constant, the best human nature is the highest crystallization of the natural protection mechanism of life, but also the ultimate protector of the spiritual world of mankind, therefore, the classic clear peace of mind the way of goodness alone:

A benevolent person has no worries (The Analects);

Dequan is not dangerous (Huangdi Neijing).

--This is yet another value and significance of human awakening.