Xiang de: reciprocal gainXiang de: reciprocal gain
The spirit brings life
Hiding your world in the world
What is Lao-Zhuang about?
Sovereign contentment
To apprehend without knowing
You: wandering
The benefit of adversity
Near the end of the "Great Treatise" in the Yi Jing (Book of Changes) there is the line:
Yuan jin xiang qu er hui lin sheng.
When far and near detract (qu) from each other self-vexation is
born.
To appreciate this line one has to look several
chapters back where one finds:
Ri yue xiang tui er ming sheng yen.
The sun and the moon give (tui) to each other and
that's how brightness is born.
In contrast to the vexation of the person who has conceptualized "near and far" as being oppositional poles, the sun and moon achieve harmony as complementary poles. Between these two situations are contrasting forms of reciprocity (xiang); one form produces a complementary enhancement, while the other entails mutual subtraction.
When someone mistakenly perceives good and bad as directly correlating with being "near or far" the effect produced is xiang qu (mutual detraction). In contrast to this flawed method of evaluation, the sun and moon, although polar opposites, have achieved xiang tui (mutual giving to). The paradigm of mutual exclusivity gives birth (sheng) to vexation (hui lin), while the complementary model brings birth to a radiant light (ming).
And so the Yi Jing tells us that the way in which we conceptualize the world radically affects the quality of the results we obtain from it. This section might have been fittingly titled "xiang de" (reciprocal gain), a phrase that appears near the end of it. The sage understands that both material increase and decrease are necessary, each is vital to the other and both are required for life to proceed. Both the positive and negative poles of any manifestation of divergence are valued because only a combination of both poles can produce "xiang de," reciprocal gain, (if the mind will only allow this to happen.) Only a visceral/mental realization of the dynamic harmony between positive and negative valences will allow life to flourish and the human being to find complete contentment.
The Yi Jing sums up the idea in a worm:
Zhi chong zhi qu yi lai shen ye
The inch worm contracts in order to extend forward.
Sheng wo zhe shen, sha wo zhe xin
The spirit brings me life, the mind brings me death.
From "The Scripture of Western Ascension"
Spirit (shen) here above is not an entity or a god, but a quality of psychic functioning that is identical to that of the dao, which is to say it is a mode of mentation "that manifests the primordial force of the cosmos." (Livia Kohn)
Mind (xin) here above is a quality of psychic functioning that separates the field of perception into conceptual categories. This "xin-mind" stops the ability of the psyche to observe the continuous flow of the world of phenomena, hence it kills my ability to fully appreciate it. This stopping is called tomaru in Zen.
The "shen-mind" allows a perception of the continuous flow of reality and allows me to effectively respond to it in its dynamic fullness. It lets me be fully alive to the reality that I inhabit. The shen-mind flows with the dao, in Zen it is called tomaranu kokoro (non-stopping mind)
xin jie
Free the heart. Or: Attain liberation from the limits of the conscious mind.
xiao xiao: a perfect contentment, mentioned by Mencius, where one's contentment is no longer subject to material gain or loss.
bu yi ding: not fixed. This is a phrase Zhuang Zi uses to refer
to the ground of knowledge. He says the ground of our knowledge
is not fixed, nothing that is known by human beings can be determined
to be absolute knowledge.
Xu: emptiness/openness
The top row of characters is "bao yi" from chapter ten in the Lao Zi and it also appears in chapter 23 in the Zhuang Zi. It means "hold to the one," that is to say to the "uncarved block," to an undifferentiated experience/perception of your world. "Bao" also indicates "cherish" and "embrace."
The second row of characters (zhu yi)
is from the writings of the neo-Confucian Cheng Yi-chuan. It means
"make unity the ruler." "Making unity the ruler"
recognizes the bi-modal dynamics of the adept's mind, and so this
neo-Confucian formula is (at least to me) a little more refined
than "hold to the one." With the expression "make
unity the ruler" one recognizes that the adept's psyche (body
and mind) are aware of the undifferentiated unity of all things,
and are simultaneously aware of the diversity of the phenomenal
world. "Making unity the ruler" then indicates that
while one is aware of both these paradigms, unity and differentiated
phenomena, unity remains the dominate power and perspective in
the adept's (or mystic's) immediate awareness. With unity in charge
we are able to play both fields to our best ability. To borrow
from Zhuang Zi: Unity is put in charge of the "double walk."
Or as he had it, "in charge of the monkeys."
Autonomous contentment: zi le:
The pivot of heaven: tian ji:
These two above terms are found in the Huainanzi.
Autonomous contentment is a personal satisfaction that is not
contingent on material loss or gain. It is continually self-generated
by the adept who has found the "pivot of heaven" within
her. The ability to employ the pivot is developed through a discipline
of viscerally grounded kataphatic and apophatic practice.
Contentment is an interesting spiritual end. Unlike the goals listed in traditional religious writings, contentment is a natural goal that bestows no moral superiority: neither honor, nobility, nor sanctity. Surprisingly, the apophatic sage is interested in attaining something no different from the object of a hedonist: personal satisfaction. The apophatic simply grasps a far more effective method to achieve it.
The sage understands that any idea which would differentiate the value of the sage's fundamental motives from those of a hedonist would be a delusion. Such a delusion would jeopardize spiritual clarity and thus hinder her from attaining her desire.
With clarity, one realizes that establishing a normative hierarchy for determining comparative values for various human motivations is implausible, for everyone is doing the same thing: each is doing the best he can with the information he has in an attempt to get what he wants. No person's motives are holier than those of another person in any fundamental sense. Zhuang Zi recognizes this fact and therefore evaluates the sage no differently than he would a dog who exercises his natural skill: "The dog is not judged to be superior (shan) merely because it barks."
Autonomous contentment does not make you better than anyone else, just happier more often.
"Why does she (the sage) give up her own
intentions? Simply to fulfill her best interest." Laozi
liang xing: the double
walk, the mystics ability to perceive and respond to the unity
that is present in all things (objects and circumstances) and
to simultaneously respond to specific parts of the whole.
"Shi qi suo bu zhi"
Rely on what you don't know.
Zhuang Zi
Hiding your world in the world
Through the remarkably creative power of "de" the entire world of circumstance, both gains and losses, accrue to the mystic's benefit. Zhuang Zi describes this mystical transfiguration of reality:
"Although you can fit a small thing placed within a big thing, it still can be lost there. But were you to keep the entire world stored within your world, there could be no loss. This not-lose-able is the immutable attribute that is found within all (transient) things; it is their transcendent quality (da qing)."
I would dare say: The full actualization of the potential which is present in both world and self. Zhuang Zi: "the happiness of being whole."
"Who fathoms the universal destiny follows where it takes him, who fathoms a little destiny is the creature of his luck." Zhuang Zi, translation: A. C. Graham
Ming in daoism is not simply fate, it rather means attaining the best possible interaction with fate. Fate is what you find, destiny includes what you make of it. To achieve one's destiny (ming) is to achieve actualization of the complete potential present in both self and the field of circumstances one is given. (The given field is both the immediate field, and the field of an entire life)
The human being is prone to adopt such ideas as karma in order to explain the occurrence of bad fortune. In sharp contrast, the classical daoist is not interested in explaining bad fortune, but rather in turning it around and achieving the full measure of her destiny.
yan xi qi
ruo ke: Differential, like a guest.
Laozi
The River Lord asked: When you say "tian"
and you say "man," what do you mean?
The North Sea Being said: Horses and oxen have four feet, that's
what I call "tian." Haltering a horse
and piercing the nose of an ox, that's what I call "man."
I advise, don't let man obliterate tian, don't let intentionality
(gu) obliterate destiny (ming). Zhuangzi
Bu duo ren
en.
"Don't be ostentatiously benevolent or beneficent." Laozi
Jian
huai wan wu
"Embrace every one of the ten thousand things." Zhuangzi
She makes it springtime with all beings and at every circumstance; this is to invite every moment to bring a new birth within her heart. Zhuangzi
"The self-arising good"
The benefit spontaneously generated, received, and then given; and the fondness expressed toward all other beings. It arises naturally (zi ran) when the adept is able to line up (shun) her mind and body with the fundamental dynamics (dao) that underlie this world of phenomena.
Tian ji: the heavenly dynamic
qian: modesty or humility
Qian is usually translated as "humility" or "modesty." But the English word "humility" suggests a degree of self-depreciation that is not present in the meaning of the Chinese "qian." Qian indicates neither an under nor over-self-estimate. Qian rather indicates an attitude and behavior based on a cooperative understanding of one's own role within a field of other interdependent actors. It is interesting to consider another Chinese word, Jian, which is phonetically related to Qian:
jian
Matthew's dictionary says jian is "a fabulous bird with only one eye and one wing, a pair must unite in order to fly." For such a bird to be successful would require qian, an attitude allowing for mutual resonance.
Wu xing zhi xiang
This is the "image without fixed substance." Since the
wu xing zhi xiang has no fixed substance, the adept
complies (shun) with it and applies its dynamic
pattern only by freeing (jie) herself from all fixed
ideas. Its other name is dao.
Ci: Right here, right now; the irreducible experience of immediate awareness.
Zhi chang yue ming. Laozi
Perhaps: "To understand eternality is called realization."
Zhi chang rong. Perhaps: "To know eternality is to embrace all things."
le: contentment
Contenment is the most pervasive single theme in Zhuang Zi. His book is a guide to finding a contentment with life that transcends material events and conditions.
zhi le:
perfect contentment, a contentment that is sovereign, not depending
on circumstance. Zhi le is the title of the 18th
chapter in Zhuang Zi.
gu zhi de
dao zhe qiong yi le tong yi le
"Those who grasp the tao are content when
they fail and content when they are successful."
This is Zhuang Zi's description of a contentment which is sovereign.
Neng zhi wu zhi dao zhi shu ji
From "The Scripture of Western Ascension"
"To be able to apprehend without knowing is to be at the pivot-trigger of the dao."
The "knowing" (second "zhi") here represents an attempt to hold definitive (ding = fixed) knowledge. But to hold anything definitively is to be inflexible when what was thought to be known is no longer accurate information. At the pivot -trigger of the dao one is able to adjust one's aim (to hit a the moving target) and act (pull the trigger) in accord with the ceaselessly changing field of the world of phenomena. A fundamentalist wants to fix knowledge and be able to hit and capture what he mistakenly insists is a never changing target. A zhen ren wants to apprehend (grasp and utilize) that which he will never be able to definitively comprehend.
Yi dao guan
zhi, wu wu gui jian
From the dao's viewpoint, beings
are neither noble nor despicable. Zhuang Zi
(The purpose of rules) is not consistent justice but to keep order. Zhuang Zi
Sheng
ren yan ran ti shi er zhong yi.
"By dispassionately embodying the onward course of change the adept survives until completed." Zhuangzi
Quan ren wu tian: "The completed one hates heaven." Zhuang Zi.
Or: "The quan ren (completely effective person) hates the idea of heaven as being the normative index of ideal human behavior."
The index of effective behavior for the quan ren is simply that psycho-spiritual disposition which allows her actions to be coordinated with all the forces (heavenly and human) of the "bu de yi" (the inevitable). In other words when you see a train coming at you in a tunnel (an inevitable) it is not useful to think: "No problem, everything is one (heaven), I will just stand here in stillness because no "I" actually exists." (That would be aiming at heaven, indeed, both figuratively and literally) You also are best not to rule out jumping onto the front of the train, for there may be no space between the train and the tunnel walls. (A person whose mind is completely immobilized by the human fear of dying often does not see radical alternatives: having a mind with only a limited reactive perspective would be called "aiming by the human standard.")
To hit the mark (effective responsiveness) one must neither aim purely by heaven (in which case you would do absolutely nothing) nor be immobilized by the fears of man (aiming by employing a purely reactive human impulse). Instead one is best to allow every response to be naturally gauged by the "bu de yi" of the given situation. Following (yuan yu) the "bu de yi" means forgetting both the thought of heaven as an ideal, and also subordinating those motivations engendered by pure human reactivity.
Forgetting both heaven and one's narrow human motivation as being the only target criteria to aim by (neither should be taken as the intrinsic ideal), one will obtain an effective blend of both of these dynamic forces/principles: this is Zhuang Zi's double walk (liang xing) that employs both heavenly forces and human intentionality (gu). To execute effective behavior, neither the human nor the heavenly is to be idealized or trivialized. As Zhuang Zi says, Burton Watson translating, "To be skilled in Heavenly affairs and good at human ones as well - only the Complete Man can encompass that."
xie xie: "Thank you" (modern Chinese)
xiu shen: cultivate the self, the body/mind
The "you" dynamic is
to be cultivateted both on the level of interaction with the external
world (looking everywhere for useful information) and on the neurological
level (a psycho/emotional disposition that allows nothing to block
the qi (wu suo yin: nothing to block
it up). Acquiring such a dispostion requires a surrender (shun
= following), a psycho-dynamic "killing the Buddha."
(you is pronounced "yo")
"I deeply probe whatever lies within me so that I won't lose the path (dao). I intimately embrace my adversity so that I won't lose the benefit of its creative power. It is when the cold season comes and the snow and frost fall, that I am able to grasp how the pine and cypress thrive. The emptiness I endured from my peril in Chen and Cai has brought me a most profound blessing." Zhuang Zi
Ming: fate,
destiny
you: wandering