Awareness hints at the idea of a mind within the mind, a presence within us known as the numinous mind. This spiritlike aspect is our vital energy, guiding us through what’s called inner cultivation and connecting us to spirit. 
This is the same spirit that guided the earliest shamans and shamanesses as they helped people recognize their connection to the stars and the natural world. That there are a power and intelligence radiating from each of us, which we now call an aura. This aura radiates and connects with what can be call a universal spirit that radiates from all myriads or living things.
It is from this numinous mind our highest endeavors unfold. It is from this place that when we have a properly aligned mind residing within us, that the myriad things will be seen in their proper perspective. It is believed that within this “mind within the mind” there is an awareness that precedes words and that only after this awareness is achieved does it appear and take shape.
That only after it takes shape is there a word to describe it, after the word appears can it be implemented, and that after it is implemented is there order. This is taken from verse thirteen of Inward Training. This could also be taken directly from the methods I used when I was the Neighborhood Specialist doing master plans in Florida years ago.
Ultimately, it’s our connection to spirit that aligns and guides us to a place where achieving inner tranquility becomes both our compass and our way of life. 
As we continue in the final entries here in My travels with Lieh Tzu, the goal is to see the wisdom spoken here as the way to speak from our heart, mind, and actions.
Finally, the paragraphs below speak of kung fu and the Shaolin Temple where it was made famous. I visited the Shaolin Temple south of Luoyang and spoke with the monks. There were 50,000 school students there that day performing on the practice fields.
A favorite scene in the Netflix series “Marco Polo” is when the kung fu master One-hundred eyes, describes the true meaning of kung fu. I like it a great deal. It means any great achievement lies in both effort and hard work as told below.
“It is like in kung fu we say one hand lies and the other hand tells the truth.
In the west we often equate the meaning of kung fu to fighting or would you say like a monk from Shaolin to summon the spirit of the crane and the tiger? Kung fu means “supreme skill from hard work”.
A great poet has reached kung fu. The painter, the calligrapher, they can be said to have kung fu. Even the cook, the one who sweeps the steps… or a masterful servant can have kung fu. Practice, preparation, endless repetition. Until your mind is weary and your bones ache. Until you are too tired to sweat, to wasted to breathe. That is the way, the only way, one acquires kung fu.”
My travels with Lieh Tzu / Interpolations along the Way
Chapter Eight – Explaining Conjunctions
151. When a white silk coat becomes a dog’s best friend
Why should one care about reputation when it can only lead to contention? Is not reputation but an illusion we hope others will see that leads to our benefit? 
If benefit only occurs when we are in contention with others, what good is whatever reputation that follows? Yang Chu explains the problem of making judgments with the following story.
My younger brother Yang Pu decided to go out to visit some friends wearing a white silk coat. It was expensive and once out, he decided to leave the coat at his friend’s house before going on to the marketplace and borrowed a black coat from his friend in its place.
Later he returned home wearing his friend’s black coat, having left his expensive white silk coat at his friend’s house, planning to return to get it later.
Upon arriving home, his dog did not recognize him and barked when it came to welcome him. Yang Pu, angry at the noise made by the dog took a stick and was going to beat the dog. Being home at the time, I watched these events unfold and chastised my brother and told him not to beat the dog and explained that if the dog had gone out white and came back as black, wouldn’t you have been surprised? Yang Chu continued by telling Pu that he should not jump to conclusions and that he should think things out fully before acting impetuously and told him that if he didn’t, his reputation would proceed him wherever he went. 
Yang Chu concluded by admonishing him that:
“It is not for the sake of reputation that you do good, but reputation follows. You expect reputation without benefit, but benefit comes. You expect benefit without contention, but contention arrives. Therefore, a gentleman must be careful when he does good.”
Yang Pu was confused by all this and asked what good it was to have the silk coat if his only benefit was contention when he wore it. He decided he would let his friend keep the expensive coat and stay home to get better acquainted with his dog. 9/1/95
Number one hundred fifty-one of one hundred fifty-eight entries.
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