The Doomed Aryan Race, a book by Samael Aun Weor

Story of the Chinese Master Kao Feng

Written by Samael Aun Weor

The Chinese Master Kao Feng entered the priesthood at the age of fifteen and was ordained at the age of twenty in the monastery of Chin Tzu.

Kao Feng comprehended that all human beings are miserable, sleeping automatons. Therefore, he proposed to “awaken his Consciousness” as soon as possible by means of the science of meditation.

Kao Feng performed his first works under the intelligent and wise guidance of the Master Tuan Chiao, who taught him how to work with the Hua Tou (mysterious phrase), “Where was I before birth? Where shall I be after death?”

Kao Feng decided to work with this Hua Tou. However, he was unable to concentrate his mind on it due to the bifurcation of this phrase. This Hua Tou divided his mind into many opinions and opposite concepts, and Kao Feng suffered unbelievably. He yearned with all of his heart and all of his soul to liberate himself from mental dualism.

It is impossible to experience Reality as long as the Essence, the Buddhata, the Soul, continues bottled up within intellectual dualism.

Opposing opinions, the struggle between opposite concepts and antithetic ideas, correspond to the different illusory functions of the mind.

Thus, Kao Feng grievously wept tears of blood; he only aspired to free himself from the bottle of mental dualism, but he failed with the Hua Tou of Master Tuan Chiao.

The story goes on to tell of Kao Feng’s terrible anguish and desperation. He sought Master Hsueh Yen who, feeling compassion for his pain, taught him the powerful mantra Wu. Master Hsueh Yen demanded daily reports from him about his work.

The mantra Wu is chanted with a double woo, woo… as if imitating a howling hurricane, amongst the boisterous waves of the furious sea.

During this exercise, the mind must be absolutely quiet and in a profound and frightful silence (both in the exterior as well as in the interior); not even the slightest desire, nor the most insignificant thought must agitate the profound lake of the mind.

The explanations of Master Hsueh Yen were indeed so simple and clear that his disciple Kao Feng fell into negligence and laziness, because he frankly did not need to make any effort to comprehend them.

However, Master Hsueh Yen, in spite of his accustomed sweetness, also knew how to be very severe when necessary.

One day, Kao Feng entered Master Hsueh Yen’s room as usual; his Master very severely asked, “Who has brought this corpse in your name?” He was barely finished with the question when he threw Kao Feng out of the room.

Soon, Kao Feng followed Chin Shan’s example and sought refuge in the meditation room.

The exercises of inner meditation gradually provoke the “awakening of the Consciousness,” the awakening of the Buddhata.

Before the internal supersensible representations, the neophyte begins to react in a very distinct, very different manner than usual. He begins saying, “I am dreaming. This is a dream.” Later, happily he exclaims, “I am out of my physical body; my physical body is asleep, but I am out of my physical body, totally cognizant and awake.”

On one occasion, while Kao Feng was out of his sleeping body, he remembered with total meridian clarity the Koan that asks, “If all things are reduced to a unity, then, unto what is unity reduced to?”

Chinese traditions tell us that at that moment, his mind was filled with terrible confusions, to the point that he could no longer distinguish east from west, or north from south.

On the sixth day, while enduring such an unhappy mental state in the Lumisial of meditation, with infinite devotion Kao Feng whispered the collective prayers. Then, when he lifted his head, he clairvoyantly saw those last two mysterious phrases of that oriental poem composed by the Fifth Patriarch, Hui Yin:

Oh, it is thou, whom I have always known, thou who comes and goes in the thirty thousand days of a century.

Immediately, Kao Feng began to work with the mysterious and enigmatic phrase, “Who has brought this corpse in your name?” It had remained recorded within his mind ever since the day Master Hsueh Yen had pronounced it; it was impossible to forget.

He felt as if his mind and his personality had perished, and as if his Divine Spirit had resurrected after death. He felt happy, as if a huge load and an enormous bundle had been lifted from his shoulders. He achieved his goal; he attained the awakening of his Consciousness in three years; he was then twenty-four years old.

When Kao Feng was asked, “Can you dominate yourself in plain daylight?”

He answered with firmness, “Yes, I can.”

“Can you dominate yourself when you are dreaming?”

His answer was again, “Yes, I can.”

“Where is the Master when you sleep without dreaming?” Kao Feng was unable to find the answer for this last question; thus, new inner sufferings afflicted the depth of his soul.

Then the Master told him, “From now on, I do not want you to study Buddhism, nor Dharma; I do not want you to study anything, neither ancient nor new. I only want you to eat when you are hungry, and to lie down when you are tired. As soon as you wake up, make your mind alert and ask yourself who is the master of this awakening, and where does his body rest, and where does his life lead?”

Kao Feng was certainly a man of Thelema (willpower). Thus, he decided with total firmness that in some way he had to understand this, even if his determination might make him look like an idiot for the rest of his days.

Five years of intensive work elapsed. One ordinary day, when he was working in this matter in the middle of his sleep, a fellow monk who slept beside him in the communal dormitory of the monastery unconsciously pushed his pillow and it fell noisily on the floor. In those moments, his doubts immediately disappeared. He felt an immense joy, knowing that he had managed to jump over another trap. All of the mysterious phrases of Masters and Buddhas and all of the multiple problems of the past, present, and future became clear to him. At that moment, Kao Feng became enlightened.

There exist two types of enlightenment: the first is usually called “dead water” because it has attachments. The second is praised as the “great life” because it is enlightenment without attachments: the Illuminated Void.

The first type of enlightenment is awakened Consciousness, Self-cognizance.

The second type of enlightenment (even when in the Fourth Way) is called objective knowledge, objective Consciousness; indeed, it transcends that which is called Consciousness.

Therefore, the second type of enlightenment has nothing to do with the Consciousness; it is the Being, and the reason for the Being to be is to be the same Being.

Kao Feng became, in fact, a Turiya, because by means of in-depth meditation he achieved absolute independence from his mind.

The world is crystallized mind; this is why it is Maya (illusion). Therefore, this world, an illusory form of the mind, will be reduced to cosmic dust at end of the Great Cosmic Day.

Indeed, my person, your person, people, things, and creatures of all kinds do not exist. They are merely illusory mental forms that must be reduced to cosmic dust.

The only Reality is Brahma, the Spirit-Infinite-Space, within which the eternal feminine and the sacred Monad are contained. All else is illusion.

In the end, we must become lost within something... millions of human beings become lost within the Infernal Worlds. But, the Gnostics, we prefer to become lost within Brahma.

It is urgent to stop the mental contents (chitta) from acquiring diverse forms (vrittis) during profound inner meditation. When our mental waves have ceased and our intellectual lake has become calm, then the illusion produced by the waves of the opposites also ceases within us; thus, the experience of Reality arrives.

When the Spirit-Infinite-Space called Brahma assumes any shape in order to speak with his Avatars, he is then Ishvara, the Master of all Masters; he is a very special Purusha, without mind, exempt of suffering, actions, results, and desires.

Unfortunately, the only thing that the Luciferic intellect does is torment us with the incessant battle of the opposites. Kao Feng liberated himself from the mind and became a Turiya.

This chapter is from The Doomed Aryan Race (1967) by Samael Aun Weor. The print and ebook editions by Glorian Publishing (a non-profit organization) are illustrated to aid your understanding, and include features like a glossary and index. Buy the book, and you benefit yourself and others.