sufidao

So, 若若 refers to dangling or a state of being hanged. How about 啧? I couldn't find any proper meaning in the dictionaries I know.

In my opinion, here, in the context of 鬼神, "gods" for 神 must be differentiated from " the Spirit" or "God" for 神 as a designation of Dao in "故曰天、曰命、曰神、曰玄；合曰道".

Thank you very much for this translation. It solved most of the problems I had. However, I'm still wondering why 若若 is translated as "thick", or 啧 as "containing". As for 言之如... I think it cannot be so generalized. It's about Dao again and it has an object because of 之. "Speaking of it is like ...", "Thinking of it is like...". Therefore, it is Dao that cannot be understood even by ghosts and gods. Thanks again

I found the very verbal understanding of the opening words of the Guanyinzi very difficult: 非有道不可言，不可言即道；非有道不可思，不可思即道。天物怒流，人事錯錯。若若乎回也，戛戛乎鬭也。勿勿乎似而非也。而爭之，而介之；而哯之，而嘖之；而去之，而要之。言之如吹影，思之如鏤塵，聖智造迷，鬼神不識。惟不可為，不可致，不可測，不可分。故曰天、曰命、曰神、曰玄；合曰道。 The challenging part, for me, specially begins from "若若乎回也...". Can anyone help me with a translation of it? Thanks

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Thanks Walker 【論語】夫仁者。 Now, what should be the translation of "夫仁者"? should it be translated at all? Here is the full sentence from the Analects: (punctuation by Charles Muller): 子貢曰。如有博施於民而能濟衆、何如 可謂仁乎。子曰。何事於仁 必也聖乎。堯舜其猶病諸 夫仁者、己欲立而立人、己欲達而達人。能近取譬、可謂仁之方也已。 How about "夫道者" that is frequent particularly in Wenzi and other Daoist and even non-Daoist texts?

If you get accustomed to do spiritual practices in solitude you never can do it in public. Sufism teaches that solitude temporary can help a lot but one should not prolong it more than three months.

I prefer to talk about personal matters privately. As to Sufism, yes, it has lots of things, metaphysically and practically, in common with Daoism and Mahayana Buddhism. Sufi practices can be categorized in five divisions: 1-Contemplative (tafakkur) 2-Meditative (muraqiba) 3-Mantric (dhikr) 4-Devotional (awrad) 5-Calculative (muhasiba) The end, in Sufism, is to become free of individuality and full of the Divine. 1001 Divine Names play a prominent role is Sufi practices.

OK I expressed my thoughts and you spoke your mind. That's it.

I've never wanted to discuss these matters. Let me, just mention in passing that you modern Westerners are extremely mannerless. Once in the name of colonialism you enter the sacred East and harm people. Once in the name of missionary you come and destroy all believes and replace yours. Once through your satanic media come to the East to implant your own ideologies whether fundamentalism or modernism ... All your sciences and academic researches are biased and based on temporary paradigms, always prone to changes (according to political matters). Besides, in recent academic atmosphere of the West, so many scholars have come to discern falsehood of the ideas such as "post-Chuang-Tzu Religion" or "Philosophical Taoism" and so on. Just take a look at the works of Livia Kohn, Louis Komjathy, James Miller, Sarah Alan, Russel Kirkland, Anna Seidel and many others. Komjathy says,"outside of the modern world, there is no form of Daoism that is not “religious.” Although there are aspects of Daoism that are “philosophical,” “philosophical Daoism” fails to consider the centrality of embodied practice (way of being), community, and place in Daoism, especially in “classical Daoism.” It is based on a systematic mischaracterization of the inner cultivation lineages of Warring States Daoism and a misreading of the earliest Daoist texts, namely, the Laozi (Lao-tzu; a.k.a. Daode jing) and Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu), among others."

May someone explain it clearly for me, what is this "philosophical Taoism". Is it something newly invented?

Lots of thanks to you, Here is the text: http://philosophy.sysu.edu.cn/jdjsx/info_Print.asp?ArticleID=383 And it's full of "凡夫", usually at the beginning of sentences. If the mentioned translation is available online, please share the link with us too.

Yes, Logically it's coming and I believe it. But if you have no earthly master, how did you come to learn practicing Daoism? And the last question, I promise, what's your nationality? If you don't want to answer this too, just let me you whether you're Asian or not. Thanks

Interesting! Power of celestial great Immortals... I think I read some apocalyptics warned by you. May I ask how old are you and who is your earthly master?

That's right. Surely, Fu is interpreted as "Universal Man" in that text, but the problem is that in the main text it's but a grammatical particle. 夫，人神好清；而心擾之。 Anyway, in olden times language was not as dead as today to be understood mechanically.