Six Steps of Spiritual Cultivation
Cultivation involves reciting mantras while focusing one's mind and heart with reverence and utmost sincerity and devotion to the purpose of attaining spiritual mastery. To do this, one should deeply settle your body and mind, and then gather your spirit to closely attend to Sangje while refining that spirit and energy in your lower dantian ('elixir field,' danjeon). This process of cultivation practice (Sudo Gongbu) can be explained as consisting of the following progression of stages: Bongchuk (奉祝, the presentation of offerings and invocation), Beonnoe (煩惱, the awareness of unease), Shingo (身苦, the awareness of physical suffering), Nanip (亂入, the entry of disturbances), Chwijeong (聚精, the accumulation of essence), and Gae-an (開眼, the opening of the divine-eye).