Taoist Texts

weak? gee i donno about that. This is just in

You see Shanlong while your anger is understandable, it is also a bit misplaced. First of all, people in charge of censorship everywhere hate Europe. Second of all, the population of Europe is 740 mln, even if the parasitic immigration reaches 100 mln in 5 years, it will only make the dole run out faster. Imagine, no job, no skills, no mate to procreate, no dole for the offspring, no dole at all and most importantly outnumbered 1 to 7 by the very angry aborigines. In historical terms it will be over sooner than you can say allahu akbar.

reputed yes, proven no.

You see they cut a deal. Mao Tse-tong commies rule by day , Mao-shan sorcerers rule by night. Scary!

Chen Yiren/ Chan Yik Yan/ 陳亦人 The Lokhupbafa paradox is that while according to legend, it predates each of the internal arts of Tai Chi, BaGua and XingYi , it contains elements of all three. http://www.moytaichi.org/lok-hup.html

Oh yes, would not it be nice if we could keep doing what we doing, till something better comes along? Unfortunately the world does not work that way. You can wait for the time, but the time will not wait for you. When you are in a hole, the first thing to do is not to watch others, to see if they can get out. The first thing to do is to stop digging.

Parts (3) and (4) (3)and bring himself into agreement with the obscurity (of others). This is called 'the Mysterious Agreement.' 同其塵，There is no such set phrase, and塵(dust) is almost never used metaphorically so 塵 must be a scribal error. However there is a technical phrase与天下同其利《汉书 - Han Shu》 ‘to have the same purpose with the Underheaven’, which is the most likely reading here. There is also a weak similarity to an analogy in The Book of Songs: 《诗经 - Book of Poetry》[Western Zhou (1046 BC - 771 BC)] 无将大车、祇自尘兮。 无思百忧、祇自疧兮。 Wu Jiang Da Che: Do not push forward a wagon; - You will only raise the dust about yourself. Do not think of all your anxieties; - You will only make yourself ill. 无将大车: 无将大车、维尘冥冥。 无思百忧、不出于熲。 Wu Jiang Da Che: Do not push forward a wagon; - The dust will only blind you. Do not think of all your anxieties; - You will not emerge from imperfect views. 无将大车: 无将大车、维尘雝兮。 无思百忧、祇自重兮。 Wu Jiang Da Che: Do not push forward a wagon; - The dust will only becloud you. Do not think of all your anxieties; - You will only weigh yourself down. But the issue remains moot. 是謂玄同。 ‘'the Mysterious Agreement' remains unexplained in DDJ but is explained in 《文子 - Wenzi》as 万物玄同 ‘a dark unity with all things’ i.e. with own people and the affairs of the state, also as something to do with self-cultivation 《下德》. The part (4) is straightforward: (4)(Such an one) cannot be treated familiarly or distantly; he is beyond all consideration of profit or injury; beyond all consideration of nobility or meanness: - he is the noblest man under heaven. 故不可得而親，不可得而踈；不可得而利，不可得而害；不可得而貴，不可得而賤。故為天下貴。 The king who follows the instructions in DDJ56, and conducts internal cultivation accordingly will survive. What about the king who does not? 《韩诗外传 - Han Shi Wai Zhuan》《卷七》 [Western Han] 180 BC-120 BC 卫懿公之时、有臣曰弘演者、受命而使，未反，而狄人攻卫，于是懿公欲兴师迎之，其民皆曰：“君之所贵而有禄位者、鹤也，所爱者、宫人也，亦使鹤与宫人战，余安能战？”遂溃而皆去。 狄人至，攻懿公于荧泽，杀之，尽食其肉，独舍其肝。 弘演至，报使于肝，辞毕，呼天而号，哀止，曰：“若臣者、独死可耳。” 于是，遂自刳出腹实，内懿公之肝，乃死。 桓公闻之，曰：“卫之亡也，以无道，今有臣若此，不可不存。” 于是复立卫于楚丘。如弘演、可谓忠士矣，杀身以捷其君，非徒捷其君，又令卫之宗庙复立，祭祀不绝，可谓有大功矣。《诗》曰：“四方有羡，我独居忧，民莫不榖，我独不敢休。” In Wei, during king Yi-gong’s rule, there was a minister named Hong-yan, who was sent on a mission and have not come back yet, when the Di barbarians attacked the kingdom of Wei. When Yi-gong wanted to mobilize his army to counterattack them, all his people said: ‘Whom king valued were his nobility and the pet cranes in his park. Whom he loved were his court dames. Well, let the dames and the cranes fight for him, why should the rest of us fight?’ And they all run away accordingly. The barbarians came, engaged the king Yi-gong by the lake Ying, killed him, and ate all his flesh, only throwing away his liver. When the minister Hong returned, he went there, reported to the liver, and, handing back his mandate, cried to Heavens and wailed. Then finishing his mourning he said: ‘Once a minister is left behind - he can die’. Upon that he cut up his belly, put the king’s liver inside, and died. Huan-gong, hearing about this said: ‘The kingdom of Wei was lost because there was no Dao, but now, with such a minister, it can not but survive’. Accordingly, Wei was reinstated at Chuqiu. Thus, the minister Hong could be called a loyal gentleman. Not only his killing self brought victory to his king, but also led to reestablishment of Wei’s ancestral temple, where the sacrifice continued uninterruptedly. Truly a great deed.《小雅 - Minor odes of the kingdom》say: Distant far is my village, And my dissatisfaction is great. In other quarters there is ease, And I dwell here alone and sorrowful. Every body is going into retirement, And I alone dare not seek rest. The ordinances of Heaven are inexplicable, But I will not dare to follow my friends and leave my post.

Yes. No clue.

Part (2) (2)He (who knows it) will keep his mouth shut and close the portals (of his nostrils). He will blunt his sharp points and unravel the complications of things; he will attemper his brightness, 塞其兑，閉其門，挫其銳，解其分，和其光， Note that the diversity of notation in different variants of DDJ means that by the time it was written down, the scribes did not understand the meaning exactly. To compensate for that they concatenated the phrases which they felt mean the same thing, hoping that the point will be somehow preserved by the redundancy. Also note that 銳=兑. Therefore the first 3 phrases mean the same instruction: close your organs of sense. But how and for what end? DDJ does not explain that because it is a garbled text written down in a short-hand, by which time the meaning was almost forgotten in the milieu this text was circulating. Luckily, the meaning has been preserved by the ruists. It is explained in Xunzi and a number of other texts. One example will suffice. 《荀子 - Xunzi》[Warring States (475 BC - 221 BC)] 故先王圣人为之不然：知夫为人主上者，不美不饰之不足以一民也，不富不厚之不足以管下也，不威不强之不足以禁暴胜悍也，故必将撞大钟，击鸣鼓，吹笙竽，弹琴瑟，以塞其耳；必将錭琢刻镂，黼黻文章，以塞其目；必将刍豢稻粱，五味芬芳，以塞其口。然后众人徒，备官职，渐庆赏，严刑罚，以戒其心. The former kings and sages: by knowing they become the highest of men, so they never embellished themselves but were one with their people. That is why, they closed their ears to the sound of music instruments; blocked their eyes to decorations; blocked their mouths to rich foods and aromas. Therefore the multitudes followed them… This is the gist of the 56: the kings had to be moderate, they had to engage in inner work (meditation) by blocking off the temptations, so their people follow them. Why do they kings needed to be followed and be one with their people? To survive physically. This is what the DDJ is all about, ultimately it is a manual on king’s personal survival. Moving on to the last 2 phrases of part (2)… 解其分， means ‘to untie the fetters’ here 分 (紛) =縛. The metaphorical sense of it was preserved in ZZ: 解其桎梏 Lao Dan said, 'Why did you not simply lead him to see the unity of life and death, and that the admissible and inadmissible belong to one category, so freeing him from his fetters? While the literal format of解其縛 was preserved in Han Shu and elsewhere. Finally, 和其光，here 光 does not mean some kind of inner light shining in meditation (which does not preclude it from being germane to the latter). It is a technical term meaning the glory of a king. Of course in archaic time the kings did literally radiate light in the eyes of their people. Preserved meaning: 《問神卷第五 - Asking About Shen》 為之而行，動之而光者，其德乎？或曰：「知德者鮮，何其光？」Those who handle affairs capably and display honor through their actions—do they not have de? The other said: Confucius said, "Those who recognize de are few." What about honor? 《孝至卷第十三 - The Priority of Filial Devotion》 堯、舜之道皇兮，夏、殷、周之道將兮，而以延其光兮。The dao of Yao and Shun was august! The instruction to the king here is to dial down the glory he radiates. Naturally some introspection (inner work/meditation) was required for that on his part. …………………………………………………………………………………………………. So much for the part (2) of 56. Of course here I am stating the obvious, the simplest things other folks figured out long ago. They just kept mum about it. Wink-wink, nudge-nudge.

Of course many people do that, they just keep vewy vewy quiet about it for some reason. May be the reason is that they do not exist? You see it is so very obvious that i am the only one who put this into writing. To all the others it was so obvious that they never did that. They just winked at each other and moved on. Or may be they did not have a clue. Find for a fee. Ask for a fee. Then realize that if these ppl need fees - they achieved nothing. Or may be realize it before, not after being ripped off. Or may be not realize that at all. To every one his own.

There are three kinds of people who are interested in DDJ. The first one are numerous visitors from outer space. The DDJ is written by the shamans for the shamans; it is a neidan manual; it is not comprehensible without paying a fee into an MLM teaching pyramid, etc. There is really no arguing with such folks. The second one are honest amateurs who are trying to translate the DDJ without being informed by the huge contemporaneous literature. They substitute word for word using a basic dictionary, which does not include the technical language of that era. Sometime they get the gist of a passage right, most of the time they don’t. Intriguingly, I am the only one (including the academic community), who translates DDJ by cross-referencing it to the received contemporaneous corpus. So… 道德經: 56 The DDJ56 is a short essay in 4 parts (using Legge for initial bearings): (1)He who knows (the Dao) does not (care to) speak (about it); he who is (ever ready to) speak about it does not know it. 知者不言，言者不知。 (2)He (who knows it) will keep his mouth shut and close the portals (of his nostrils). He will blunt his sharp points and unravel the complications of things; he will attemper his brightness, 塞其兑，閉其門，挫其銳，解其分，和其光， (3)and bring himself into agreement with the obscurity (of others). This is called 'the Mysterious Agreement.' 同其塵，是謂玄同。 (4)(Such an one) cannot be treated familiarly or distantly; he is beyond all consideration of profit or injury; beyond all consideration of nobility or meanness: - he is the noblest man under heaven. 故不可得而親，不可得而踈；不可得而利，不可得而害；不可得而貴，不可得而賤。故為天下貴。 The part (1) 知者不言，言者不知 (the knowledgeable do not talk, the talkers do not know) sounds mysterious but only to those who are ignorant of ZZ and Kong-zi. It’s a simple and widely accepted in those times idea that speech is an inadequate tool for governing. There are better tools. Which ones exactly? They are specified in the rest of 56. Two examples would suffice:

If by meditation you mean an inner work in general then your interpretation is correct. That work is not limited to sitting empty but includes it among other types of inner work. Also this inner work was conducted not only for personal betterment but for the purposes of governing the state. Good work on the notes too.

Excellent. So you are another non-Chinese who claims to know classical Chinese better than a highly educated native Chinese woman, who is an internationally acclaimed translator and a true Taoist. Such a claim is patently absurd, but then again you must be an initiated taoist too. You guys sell, live and breath absurdities. Good for you. Because this old ronin is amused by absurdities. Please take no offence, its all in good fun.

Hi Walker;) What about Eva Wong's translation of this bit? Wong is Wrong? hehe;)

Ah you see those two are actually one and same thing.

Like i always said these guys have no clue to a true tradition. No, I and Yamamoto do not know that it is bad to lie. Yamamoto Jin'emon always said to his retainers, "Go ahead and gamble and lie. A person who will not tell you seven lies within a hundred yards is useless as a man. " Hagakure | The Way of the Samurai 1716 | Yamamoto Tsunetomo RIP? Is this how the initiated daoists wish death on their opponents? Talk about the 'yin-beings in human bodies'.

The insults and the rage is explained by the loss of an important sales tool. They used this phrase about the terrible fate awaiting the ghost immortals to attack all other schools and to drum up their seminar sales. Now, it is demonstrated that, due to their Chinese illiteracy, the phrase never meant anything scary, and a ghost immortal is just a regular ghost. They can't use it anymore to attack; they are scared for their sales. Hence the insults and the rage. Sad really. But still ok, nothing to worry about.

Hmm, let me get this straight. A non-Chinese somebody claims that he knows Chinese language better than a native Chinese woman. That native Chinese woman also happens to be a genuine Taoist, who published dozens of highly regarded translations. And yet this non-Chinese guy claims that he knows her native language better than her. Strange. I dont really know whom to believe, but i think this has something to do with the sales link in his sig.

That is a good hunch;). To say that ghost immortals do not reincarnate is completely incorrect. They cant even read the basic Chinese they offer as evidence. the phrase 终无所归，止于投胎就舍而已。means 'In the end, having nowhere to go, the ghost immortals just enter a human embryo again to take abode there and that's it." 止 here stands not for stopping but for 'only/just'. This is my xmas present to these guys, god save their poor souls. Eva Wong also translates this passage along these lines, (with minor mistakes)

Broadly speaking the whole universe is one thing. The 3 things are spoken about as one when pointing out their unity is serving didactic purposes. It is true in some sense but useless out of the didactic context. Qi is a flashdrive, the mind is a file stored on it. Of course it is a consciousness. Shen means a spirit. And a spirit is defined as spir·it ˈspirit/ noun 1. the nonphysical part of a person that is the seat of emotions and character; the soul. "we seek a harmony between body and spirit" synonyms: soul, psyche, (inner) self, inner being, inner man/woman, mind, ego, id; pneuma "harmony between body and spirit" To say that shen/spirit is not consciousness is absurd. But then in western commercial daoism absurdities are the name of the game.

According to CBS’ L.A. affiliates, neighbors of Muslim mass murderers Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik noticed some very suspicious things going on at the couple’s apartment in the days and weeks leading to the horrific massacre that took fourteen lives, but they chose not to report anything, for fear of being labeled “racist.” http://takimag.com/article/sum_ting_wong_david_cole/print#ixzz3vh4RJfiX The media and the Democrats can’t do all the work themselves; average “victicrats” must do their part too. Working together, this coalition has succeeded in creating the situation we have now, in which risking a mass-murder spree is actually considered the lesser of two evils compared to being seen as racist. http://takimag.com/article/sum_ting_wong_david_cole/print#ixzz3vh4x5WoM

Thesiger waited a decade to write up his Arabian adventures, which included climbing and crossing sand dunes 700 feet high, murderous threats from warring Arab tribes Autumn 1974[edit]It is announced that another attempt to overthrow the regime has been discovered and quashed; its leader has been executed and 11 participants imprisoned. Shortly afterward there is trouble in Takhar province, where the Muslim Brotherhood, which dislikes President Daud's secularizing policy, is very influential. The government is obliged to take stern action; 70 members of the brotherhood are arrested, along with the governor of the province, the Revenue Commissioner, and the Superintendent of Police, and all are brought to trial on charges of plotting against the state. Those 3 nations were secular, with islam kept firmly in check then.

Would that be the case there would not be 3 names Yes, no, no.

Countries where in some cases a woman's testimony is worth half of that of a man: Algeria (in criminal cases)[13] Bahrain (in Sharia courts)[14] Egypt (in family courts)[15] Iran (in most cases)[16] Iraq (in some cases)[17] Jordan (in Sharia courts)[18] Kuwait (in family courts)[19] Libya (in some cases)[20] Morocco (in family cases)[21] Palestine (in cases related to marriage, divorce and child custody)[22] Qatar (in family law matters)[23] Saudi Arabia[24]

what ZYD just said. Also the term itself as i have found out today comes from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zosimos_of_Panopolis who says Démocrite, distingue lui-même et dit : « Reçois cette pierre qui n’est pas une pierre, cette chose précieuse qui n’a pas de valeur, cet objet polymorphe qui n’a point de forme, cet inconnu qui est connu de tous, qui a plusieurs noms et qui n’a pas de nom:[39] "This stone is not a stone, and has nor name nor shape" From Gnostics the term was passed on to early Christianity and was adopted by the western medieval alchemists. As to what it is and what he does Zosimos says "C’est là le mystère incommuniqué, qu’aucun des prophètes n’a osé divulguer par la parole" Its a secret.