Being

In your moment of a heart pure as diamond, unbreakable and crystal-clear

Scripture

Ten thousand dusts pile into a prison; one diamond is pressing.

A thousand jun wrap themselves; light-edges stab each other.

Being is congealing, is splitting; being is purifying, is suffocating.

Being is in grime, is in briskness; being is in murk, is in slaying.

Purified to no seam, the dust-prison collapses.

Neither carbon nor fire—one lone crystal like a nail.

Wenzi · On Being

You feel yourself buried in a prison of worldly dust. Not a cell—a great mountain piled from countless dust-mote thoughts, judgments, desires, and memories, pressing the breath out of you (ten thousand dusts pile into a prison). You want to breathe, and breathe in more dust. You want to break free, and are wrapped ever tighter by the soft ash.

In the depths of this suffocation, you feel a point inside beginning to resist. Not struggling—an extreme inward, downward “compression.” As if your whole life, all the pressure, were being forced to collapse toward an infinitely small core point (one diamond is pressing).

“A thousand jun wrap themselves; light-edges stab each other.” The pressure of a thousand jun “wraps itself” (a thousand jun wrap themselves), squeezing and colliding at that core point. Between the edges of the pressure, sharp “light-edges” burst out, “stabbing” and cutting each other (light-edges stab each other). You are in the midst of “congealing” and “splitting,” “purifying” and “suffocating” (being is congealing, is splitting; being is purifying, is suffocating).

This is not a comfortable process. It is extreme pain and pressure. But do not resist this compression. Instead, throw your awareness completely into that crazily compressed “core point.” Feel the unimaginable pressure; listen to the soundless scream of matter compressed to its limit.

“Being is in grime, is in briskness; being is in murk, is in slaying.” You dwell in grime, yet feel a transparent “briskness” (being is in grime, is in briskness). You dwell in murk, yet carry out a merciless “purging” (being is in murk, is in slaying). This pressure is not to destroy you—it is to “slay” and squeeze out every non-essential impurity in your life.

“Purified to no seam, the dust-prison collapses.” When this purification (purifying) reaches its extreme, reaching a density with “not a single seam” (to no seam), the miracle happens: the dust-prison piled outside, because the object it oppresses has become too hard and too pure to be penetrated, loses its point of leverage, and collapses with a roar (the dust-prison collapses). The pressure has created the diamond that can bear all pressure.

“Neither carbon nor fire—one lone crystal like a nail.” And so you are no longer the original carbon body (neither carbon), nor the burning flame (nor fire). You have been compressed and purified into a one-of-a-kind “crystal” (one lone crystal), hard, transparent, with perfect edges—like an eternal “nail” driven into existence (like a nail).

The dust settles; the world clears. You stand at the center of the ruins, transparent through and through, unbreakable. The ten thousand dusts that once oppressed you are now insignificant ash beneath your feet. You are not a prisoner buried in dust—you are that one-of-a-kind, undying crystal diamond, tempered by the pressure of ten thousand jun. Being-Purity: you are not the sufferer—you are that crystal of utmost purity itself, the eternal existence forged together by pressure and light.