Zi ZhengGetting it right: zi
zheng
How would I know that
Heng fu: continuous surrender
Wu xin: no intentional mentation
When exactly in accord with the moment
one is able to match change
Zhi zu: the realization that one has
enough to be satisfied with
The "double walk" and the
"one and not one"
Getting it right: auto-correction: zi zheng
The claim is sometimes made that to practice daoism correctly one has to be fluent in ancient Chinese, or that one has to be sure the text one is using employs the correct (original author's) Chinese characters, or that one has to have the right lineage and teacher. As Owl Clan Recluse has said, the validity of these purported prerequisites largely depends on whether one intends to practice within a specific Daoist sect, or on the other hand, whether one is simply trying to cultivate one's relationship with the dao. We might call the latter cultivation, as Matthew Cheng refers to it, "daoing."
Those of us like myself who are merely daoing, are simply cultivating a greater intimacy with a generic dao, (as best we are able to understand what that means); it is not preemptively vital for us to determine the authenticity of the external resources we provisionally use, e. g. texts, teachers, historical proofs, etc. We look at the daoist texts, not as sacred unalterable books, but as kinds of engineering texts, that is to say, they tell us, as best they are able, how the principles of the phenomenal world function and how then to best apply those principles to an individual life. Fung-Yu-lan says the texts present "...what the Taoists believed were the natural laws underlying phenomenal change.."
Since the principles which the texts treat are located in the world, they can be found there directly ("without going out your door" Lao Zi); reading texts based on these principles can provide an opportunity to get started quicker and to take short-cuts toward grasping the subtlety of the underlying principles. And if there are errors in the texts, mis-translations, misunderstandings, etc., this is not critical, for what works in the end will be found in the correctives discovered by the individual's own empirical testing. When the adept measures her actual experience against the authorities, the unity of direct experience trumps texts and teachers. (Lao Zi: The dao is "xin", something that can be empirically verified)
How can one secure what I have called these "correctives discovered by the individual's own empirical testing"? The answer is found in Zhuang Zi's "Zi zheng." Zi zheng, or "auto-correcting," is the phenomenon that describes every individual natural system's ability to autonomously correct its mistakes and fully reach its destiny (ming), if it is allowed to function without unnatural interference. Getting free (jie = liberation) of this "unnatural interference" is the thing we daoingists focus on. Free of such underbrush (peng) we, as individual systems, will be able to spontaneously cultivate and maintain that uncanny psycho-visceral-spiritual disposition (de) from which unity with the dao (tong dao) naturally arises.
Zhuang Zi on "zi zheng":
"The heart of the perfect method is covered within darkness, its fullest potential is darkly obscured. Don't look for it, don't listen for it, hold the spirit in tranquil flux and the body will correct itself (zi zheng). Be calm and transparent, viscerally at ease, unvacillating at your core (wu yao nu jing), and you will thrive long. Without an eye that looks for it, or an ear that tries to listen for it, or a mind that tries to think it, the spirit** will guard the body and it will last long." (Chapter eleven)
And so, if like me you are merely daoing, while I would respect the traditional systems and teachers; I wouldn't worry much about the authenticity of your own provisionally chosen tools, they can work just as well for clearing out the underbrush:
"If you carefully (jing) clear its home,
The essence will come in by itself."
Guan Zi, Chapter Forty Nine
** In my opinion this term "spirit" (shen) that Zhuang Zi says will "protect the body" does not refer to a thing, but to a dynamic: the auto-correcting behavior of every natural system. This amazing (miao) dynamic spontaneously (zi ran) proceeds when we are able to get out of its way and let it work.
Zhuang Zi: How would I know that?
This phrase appears a number of times in chapter two of the Zhuang Zi. It expresses the thought that nothing can be known for sure, and therefore there is no reason to speculate what the fundamental nature (or ultimate truth) of any phenomenon is. A mind free of speculation is free to fully participate in the immediate moment of world. A mind free of speculative a priori assumptions is better able to accurately and objectively perceive and evaluate events which are occurring and therefore respond more effectively.
Most of our unwarranted assumptions about life have become unconscious, and are therefore refractory to being rooted out.
heng fu (From the Zhuang Zi, chapter
13, "continuous surrender")
Zhuang Zi: "Wu fu ye heng fu, wu fei yi fu you fu."
"My surrender is continuous, I don't only submit when forced
to."
The art of the dao is to defer until if and when, it is the auspicious time and place to release the trigger (ji) of the dao. This psycho-spiritual disposition, ("spiritual" because it entails an emptiness which is able to allow collaboration with the entire surrounding field), is described by many terms in the Zhuang Zi. "Da shun" is the great compliance, "chu shun" is to "dwell in compliance," "sui" is to follow.
This deferential posture amounts to a constant surrender to almost everything in the volatile flow of phenomena that continuously whirls around the psyche (body/mind). This spiritual disposition is called "heng fu," constant submission. When this internal deferential disposition is constant, and then the time of action is ripe, the action taken will be flawless (wu guo). This is to have de, creative power. It is hard to obtain power because it is hard for ego intentionality (gu) to submit. Philosophical comprehension alone will not work, a neuro-emotional letting-go needs to be cultivated.
It is not too relevant whether we call this letting go "psycho-emotional", "neuro-visceral," "spiritual," "mystical," or "religious." It can be a mixture of any of these.
Literally this phrase means "no mind," it indicates a psychic state in which intentional mentation is subordinated to intuitive mentation.
When exactly in accord with the moment,
one is able to match change
(from the Huainanzi: Yuan dao xun)
he yu shi ye: exactly in accord
with the moment
ou bian: matching change
ru: as if
ruo: as if
"Ji shen ru shen zai": "I sacrifice to the spirits as if the spirits are here." (Confucian Analects Book Three, Chapter Twelve)
"You you hu ruo ji zhi you she": "Be as self-composed as if offering a sacrifice to the gods of the earth." (Zhuang Zi, Chapter seventeen)
Ke ji fu li wei ren
Confucian Analects, Book 12 Chapter one: Virtue is achieved by denying self and returning to propriety.
Hua er yu zuo, wu
jiang zhen zhi yi wu ming zhi pu.
Lao Zi, Chapter 33: "If transformation causes particularized
desire to arise I will suppress it with nondescript primal unity."
Alternative: I will suppress it with undifferentiated awareness.
(Here we may possibly have an example of spiritual transformation
causing the reemergence of attachment (desire), albeit attachment
at a more refined level. This new attachment, perhaps an attachment
to a particular spiritual ideology, must be suppressed as was
done previously with material attachment.) "Nondescript primal
unity" is the state of undivided mentation, sometimes called
intuition, here perhaps better described as a concentrated physical/mental
disposition that is raptly attentive and free of discursive thinking.
Zi zhi: auto-realization
This term appears in Lie Zi's chapter four. Zi zhi results after "the body is in accord with mind, mind with energies (qi), energies with spirit, spirit with nothing." This indicates that zi zhi is a knowing that has not been consciously thought out, but rather consists of an awareness that rises from a pre-conscious process. This uncanny process most effectively arises when the psyche is in the state of "primal unity" (see above)
Pu: primal unity
Pu is often translated as the "uncarved block." It refers to the psyche when it is in the state of undifferentiated awareness, not processing any discursive thought.
The double walk and the "one and not one"
The horse and rider is the ideal demonstration of the integrated "double walk" (liang xing) . The good rider knows how to blend gu (intentionality) with zi ran (self-soing). (or we could say: blending ren and tian: the human and the heavenly) The rider's intention (gu) is to go up a rocky hill on the horse, but she does not micromanage the exact path. She subtlety communicates to the horse where she wants to go and the horse (zi ran) finds the exact path, avoiding some rocks, avoiding some surfaces, guaging the best speed-- things it knows better than the rider. Zi ran is a natural system found working in both the horse and the rider; if the rider allows zi ran (tian) to dominate her receptive and decision making processes, her will and the horse's will become unified.
Within the psyche of the rider the intentional (gu
or ren) is also know as "bu yi":
"not one."
Zi ran (or tian), the non-intentional,
is also known as "yi": "one."
The perfect horse rider blends both psychic modes into an integrated whole, this is the same as the adept (zhen ren) described by Zhuang Zi:
qi yi ye yi, qu bu yi ye
yi
Here are a few possible interpretations:
Her being one was one, and her not being one was also one.
Her being one was integrated with her not being one.
Her being one and not being one were One.
zhi zu: The realization that one
has enough to be satisfied with.
ren: human.
Zhuang Zi's word "ren" (human) is not understood the same way it is in Confucious. In Zhuang Zi "ren" has the additional esoteric meaning "conceptual mentation" (zhi), which is contrasted with intuitive mentation (bu zhi). This contrast is the very central paradigm in the whole of Zhuang Zi. Also "tian" usually translated as "heaven" or "heavenly" has a special meaning in Zhuang Zi, I leave it untranslated in the following:
Zhuang Zi chapter 6: "To realize (zhi) what is tian's doing and what is man's (ren) is the highest knowledge. Knowing what tian does is to be (to have one's doings) generated by tian. Knowing what man does is to use knowing (conceptual knowledge) to cultivate the knowing which is not knowing (intuitive knowledge)."
"To be generated by tian" means to allow intuitive thought (bu zhi) to proceed. Intuitive thinking is "tian". On the other hand, to conceptually think is "ren". We humans use both ren and tian, Zhuang Zi says we are best to let "tian" dominate.
Tian is almost identical to "zi ran"; it is generated by the inner mind: "nei xin" or "wu xin".
ji auspicious