Zen and The Ten Stages leads to an inner awakening which is given priority

Zen and The Ten Stages leads to an inner awakening which is given priority, and then leads naturally to the transformation of our world—much as the child within first transforms him or herself, and then seeks to transform the outer world, or how the child within first awakens the inner higher self, and then interacts with the more elemental energies and spirits. The idea was well illustrated in a Chinese fable once relayed by Richard Wilhelm, concerning a Taoist monk and a Chinese village suffering the effects of a prolonged drought. The village councillors, desperate for rain, sought the aid of the monk to bring about rain by some ‘supernatural’ method. The Taoist simply asked for a private room and shut himself in for three days. At the end of the third day, rain fell. The monk emerged from his room, whereupon Wilhelm asked him what he had done. The monk replied that prior to visiting the town he had been merged with the Tao. When he arrived in the town, he was not connected to the Tao, but after three days of meditating in the room, he was once again merged with the Tao. He then added that it would be natural for that which was around him (the immediate environment of the town) to also be in Tao.