Stepping Stones for Spiritual Success

The custom of foot binding originated in Northeastern Asia with the favorite wife of an emperor long ago. The binding enabled her to walk so gracefully that she was highly praised for it by the emperor, with the result that many women then imitated her and bound their feet so that they could walk gracefully also.. Women bound their feet in this way for close to a thousand years, but the historical fact does not convey the pain suffered by these women. Nevertheless, they were obviously willing to endure such pain in order to look beautiful according to a set fashion. . In the West, people did not bind their feet but rather their thoughts, for at least 1500 to 1700 years. The result was a painfully restricted mind, especially regarding spiritual development. In fact, the mind of Western society with regard to spiritual development is just like the bound feet of the Chinese women.. The bound mind of the West, however, is beginning to look for liberation. It is finding some success, even though it has not yet found the originalness of the natural mind. The end of foot binding in China should be an inspiration for Western Society to begin the process of untying its unnatural bounds and restoring the health of the natural mind. . Unnaturalness expresses a state of confusion in which people no longer know what is right. With naturalness comes clarity and progress. Master Ni invites his readers to unbind their minds. In this volume, he takes the best of the traditional teachings and puts them into contemporary language to make them more relevant to our time, culture and lives.