Refusing to Let Go of Greed and Desire, One Cannot Be Utterly Transformed

Before a carp leaps over the Dragon Gate and is transformed into a dragon deity, how long must it gather momentum, how much energy and great merit must it accumulate, and how great a force must it possess, before it can make that sudden leap and be reborn in an instant?

Many people have not accumulated much strength, nor paid much of a price, yet they hurriedly leap anyway. As a result, what they leap at is not the Dragon Gate, and they do not become a member of the dragon clan—they remain the same old carp. Some even end up bruised and battered, their bodies ruined and deformed, without gaining a single dragon scale.

Refusing to relinquish any craving or desire whatsoever, yet hoping to shed this body and become a sage—this is the greatest greed of modern people.