In the course of practice, however, it is difficult to know if you are making progress, or to see clearly the stages you are passing through. You may be making progress even though you think you are going nowhere. You may even feel you are sliding backwards, and want to give up. Actually, going forward and slipping backward are both indication of progress. When you climb up a mountain, you must walk the path step by step. The next step may not be higher than the last step ─ it may even be lower than the last step ─ but after a while, you will realize you are further along than when you started. If you stop to rest, you may not be ascending, but you are still higher than you were, and when you continue to climb, you will be refreshed. Resting is not bad; it is not faulty practice.

If you swim against the current, you may swim with all your might and not make much headway. The moment you pause to rest, the current will sweep you downstream. But you are not swimming downstream. It is the current that is pulling you back. Say you swim forward ten meters before the current pulls you back twenty. Then you catch yourself and swim another twenty, but the current pulls you back twenty. You may be ten meters behind your starting point, but you have swum thirty meters. As long as you are concerned with the process and not the goal, then you have not wasted any time or effort.

True practitioners do not boast about their attainment, their progress, or even their method. Do not make a big deal over your practice or accomplishments. Practice is your personal business. All you want to do is continue to peel off layer after layer of vexation, which are the "dirty garments" Yung-chia mentions in the song.