Harmonious Emptiness

So then you have the Neiye, but not the Xinshu (2 parts plus commentary) and the Bai Xin. Also, while Original Tao is sort of a must read, it's more about history, whereas Thread of Dao looks at the practices and philosophy. You'll also find a wealth of translated excerpts from other texts in Thread of Dao, like Zhuang Zi, Internal Medicine Classic, Zen writings, etc., and meditation guidance in the back to apply the texts in sitting practice.

Found an interesting take by Jeffrey Yuen who said that Laozi didn't talk about 5 elements because he didn't like naming and categorizing. Zhuangzi made brief reference to them but was similar to Laozi in that he felt one could do away with the need for such things by pure living, inside and out.

Pasting from similar thread.. same answer: You might find what you're looking for here: Includes all the meditation texts from the Guanzi, where the Neiye is found. Includes commentary to connect them with the mediation traditions inspired by Laozi and Zhuangzi, including translations of these texts, and also of Guiguzi (Ghost Valley Master) from Warring States which seems inspired by the Neiye, et al. https://www.amazon.com/Thread-Dao-Unraveling-Traditions-Cultivation-ebook/dp/B078J7XRBX/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1527611992&sr=1-1&keywords=thread+of+dao

It's probably excellent. Rochat and Claude Larre (who she sometimes co-writes with) are generally the best sources for deeper traditions behind Chinese medicine.

You might find what you're looking for here: Includes all the meditation texts from the Guanzi, where the Neiye is found. Includes commentary to connect them with the mediation traditions inspired by Laozi and Zhuangzi, including translations of these texts, and also of Guiguzi (Ghost Valley Master) from Warring States which seems inspired by the Neiye, et al. https://www.amazon.com/Thread-Dao-Unraveling-Traditions-Cultivation-ebook/dp/B078J7XRBX/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1527611992&sr=1-1&keywords=thread+of+dao

To follow the collective effort towards immense populations living in harmony, one models one's self on the expectations, and thus obligations, of one's society, parents, teachers, etc.. This was considered "considerate," towards social harmony, your parents, and the emperors. To always do as they expect you to do was the basis of moral considerations towards others, from which all other moral actions would follow. Following the rules, as such, was revered as "benevolence, and humanity." It is interesting to note that, in the Chuang Tzu, this was not the way of the True Man of Dao. from section 31, The Old Fisherman (trans. Watson) Tzu-lu was still framing his reply when Tzu-kung answered, "This man of the K'ung family [Confucius] in his inborn nature adheres to loyalty and good faith, in his person practices benevolence and righteousness; [note that these are distinguished. The most important thing in his heart is loyalty, and thus benevolence is his action] he brings a beautiful order to rites and music and selects what is proper in human relationships. Above, he pays allegiance to the sovereign of the age; below, he transforms the ordinary people through education, and in this way brings profit to the world. Such is the occupation of this man of the Kung family!" [...] The stranger then laughed and turned to go, saying as he walked away, "As far as benevolence goes, he is benevolent all right. But I'm afraid he will not escape unharmed. To weary the mind and wear out the body, putting the Truth in peril like this - alas, I'm afraid he is separated from the Great Way by a vast distance indeed!" [....] Confucius looked shamefaced and said, "Please, may I ask what you mean by `the Truth'?" The stranger said, "By `the Truth' I mean purity and sincerity in their highest degree. He who lacks purity and sincerity cannot move others. Therefore he who forces himself to lament, though he may sound sad, will awaken no grief. He who forces himself to be angry, though he may sound fierce, will arouse no awe. And he who forces himself to be affectionate, though he may smile, will create no air of harmony. True sadness need make no sound to awaken grief; true anger need not show itself to arouse awe; true affection need not smile to create harmony. When a man has the Truth within himself, his spirit may move among external things. That is why the Truth is to be prized! "It may be applied to human relationships in the following ways. In the service of parents, it is love and filial piety; in the service of the ruler, it is loyalty and integrity; in festive wine drinking, it is merriment and joy; in periods of mourning, it is sadness and grief. In loyalty and integrity, service is the important thing; in festive drinking, merriment is the important thing; in periods of mourning, grief is the important thing; in the service of parents, their comfort is the important thing. In seeking to perform the finest kind of service, one does not always try to go about it in the same way. In assuring comfort in the serving of one's parents, one does not question the means to be employed. In seeking the merriment that comes with festive drinking, one does not fuss over what cups and dishes are to be selected. In expressing the grief that is appropriate to periods of mourning, one does not quibble over the exact ritual to be followed. "Rites are something created by the vulgar men of the world; the Truth is that which is received from Heaven. By nature it is the way it is and cannot be changed. Therefore the sage patterns himself on Heaven, prizes the Truth, and does not allow himself to be cramped by the vulgar. The stupid man does the opposite of this. He is unable to pattern himself on Heaven and instead frets over human concerns. He does not know enough to prize the Truth but instead, plodding along with the crowd, he allows himself to be changed by vulgar ways, and so is never content. Alas, that you fell into the slough of human hypocrisy at such an early age, and have been so late in hearing of the Great Way!" [...] The Fisherman goes on to say that Confucius cannot follow him because he is not yet "True." Confucius then almost comically goes on to prove this by admonishing his followers for not following the rules of "benevolence," not doing those things which are accepted as "the proper things to do." "Confucius leaned forward on the crossbar, sighed, and said, "You certainly are hard to change! All this time you have been immersed in the study of ritual principles and you still haven't gotten rid of your mean and servile ways of thinking. Come closer and I will explain to you. To meet an elder and fail to treat him with respect is a breach of etiquette. To see a worthy man and fail to honor him is to lack benevolence. If the fisherman were not a Perfect Man, he would not be able to make other men humble themselves before him. And if men, in humbling themselves before him, lack purity of intention, then they will never attain the Truth. As a result, they will go on forever bringing injury upon themselves. Alas! There is no greater misfortune than for a man to lack benevolence. And yet you alone dare to invite such misfortune!" What seems obvious to me here, is that Confucius was shunned by the True Man because his dedication to benevolence made him insincere or not whole. His inner Truth was not the guide of his outer actions. He couldn't be honest with the True Man because his adherence to conformity, "benevolence," was always the important thing for him. Thus, the simple, honest, True Man couldn't be bothered. Note that 仁ren depicts 3 people, and gets its meaning in suggesting the way that people interact with one another, ideally in a humane and benevolent way. But what this meant, especially during the times of Chuang Tzu and Lao Tzu, and Confucius, in terms of comportment of behaviour, was to "conform" to the expectations of parents, leaders, teachers, older siblings, etc.. If you did not do this, you would be considered someone with no regard for others, thus "inhumane." To make this sacrifice, of conforming to the expectations of your parents and the "greater good of society," ie., the success of the emperor, that was "benevolence" - the obligations of all people towards their elders and emperor. This sort of behaviour towards authority was admonished in this chapter as well: "Moreover, there are eight faults that men may possess, and four evils that beset their undertakings - you must not fail to examine these carefully. To do what it is not your business to do is called officiousness. To rush forward when no one has nodded in your direction is called obsequiousness. To echo a man's opinions and try to draw him out in speech is called sycophancy. To speak without regard for what is right or wrong is called flattery[...]" I think this chapter, especially, shows the Daoist's consideration of benevolence and how they understood it, and thus, how the reference to it in chapter five of the Dao De Jing was meant to be understood.

Hi old friends, Passing through and enjoying this thread, so will share one of my own: Used to live half a block from a subway station. Every morning before work, last thing I’d do before leaving is qigong practice for 20-45 minutes and then leave without looking at the time (so as not to feel rushed). Would get to the light at the corner, find a good beat in the traffic to jaywalk, and then fly down the escalator and a flight of stairs as fast as possible. For about three weeks straight I slid through the subway doors with less than 3 seconds to spare, and otherwise did the same thing 90% of the time. Once heard a newspaper guy near the turn-style say “I don’t know how he does it” after a couple of weeks of this. I’ve found such things to be like exotic birds. Strange and beautiful, but entirely natural.

In more than one way I would really like to say Five hundred pages

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a pity indeed five hundred pages of feed takes so long to read

Wouldn't 無實無虛 just mean dharma is "without reality and without emptiness (unreality)," making 虛 rather than 無 stand for non-being? Also, just to be clear on my own position, 所 is less a pronoun here than it is a modifier which makes 得 into a noun.

Interesting dicussion. My sense of the line in question is that 所 specifies a noun rather than a verb. So it's not that there is no accomplishment (verb) but that there is no thing (noun) which is gained in the process.

Shen Ming/Spirits of Light are spoken of in ancient Chinese texts of all pre-Buddhist schools. They protect and guide those who deserve (merit) their protection and guidance. Cultivating virtue, both internally and in interactions with the world, acts of charity and kindness, purifying the heart and mind, abandoning desires and the six emotions - these sorts of things will bring aid from the Shen Ming. It's more of a "don't call us, we'll call you when you're ready" affair, and they won't make their presence known. They will simply influence you, and things around you, while you find things happened "as a matter of course." One comprehensive source of guidance on this is Heshang Gong's commentary on the Dao De Jing.

Sad to hear of this news. I seem to recall her mentioning having inherited some health difficulties. She was a kind and generous soul indeed.

Everyone needs to see this documentary: Hidden Colors http://viooz.co/movies/12602-hidden-colors-2011.html Perhaps 10-15% of the info is widely open for debate, however, there are some very important facts to learn there about the relationships that Europeans had with African people before the post-Columbus slave trade. Modern society needs to look at the reality of history and realize that Africans are the elder brothers and sisters of humanity. Africans are likely about 200,000 years ahead of the other races in terms of showing up as homo-sapiens, and they are about 3000 years ahead of the other races in terms of living in advanced societies with maths, sciences, medicine, and all the advancements that other societies were built off of. I think this is very important for humanity know so that humanity can move forward together and solve our collective problems in a way that recognizes the potential of all peoples and cultures. Enjoy the video. Comments are encouraged, though of course if you are going to say "this isn't true," you need to provide evidence which counters that of the video. "But maybe possibly" is not evidence.

Just letting you all know, this was basically a social experiment to make people think about how it feels to hear the same nonsense that White supremacism has ingrained into Western society (not to say that none of the above history is true); and also to surface what I felt was lurking on the forum. My first foray into trolling.. haha.. all the best he

There may be no English word, or perhaps any word, which properly encompasses the meaning of De in the Dao De Jing. But looking at a sentence like By virtue of the Dao's virtue of De, it seems to be virtuous.. there are four different meanings from the same word, yet all of them would be needed to show what De is to Dao (and then some, of course). We can at least know some things about De and what De does, that only De "is" and does. For example, it has existed since before Heaven and Earth. It nurtures the myriad things and extends their lifespan without having any actual form, colour, sound, etc., of its own. Does it feel like anything? Well, it brings peace to people, but that's how it makes "them" feel. That still doesn't really point to what De "is." So, maybe we only know De by what it does, and not by what it "is." It "completes its work without renown."

An enemy is usually lost and looking for company. Just let them know "I'm going this way. You can join me, but I'm not joining you." You have no obligation to let lost boats take you over the waterfall. On the other hand, you may have an obligation to help them.

Voila

jump before the push propelled into pleiades found a seat up there

Wondering if people would be interested in discovering the appearance, use, and meaning of Xing性 and Ming命, Essence and Life, in the Dao De Jing. These terms were very central to some Quan Zhen Taoist writings. The only instance I know of currently is the description of Ming in Chapter 16. Does anyone know of others, or perhaps even have some type of search engine that can find these characters in the chapters? thanks he

This is too important and prevalent an error to bury in the DDJ section so I have put it here. In Chapter Five of the Dao De Jing, there is this 姓 character which is usually translated as "people" but actually means: "surname / one's family name / a clan / a family / people" 以thus, 百 numerous, 姓 surnames, 為 acted upon, 芻狗 straw dogs In the chapters preceding this one, Lao Tzu speaks to errors of trying to stick out and be comptetive rather than working for the collective effort. What he is saying here is that "The sage doesn't judge by family lineages" (姓 is a picture of "woman" on the left and "birth" on the right, as ancient Chinese society was matrilineal) Here is my translation from the beginning to this line: Chapter Five 01 天地不仁, tiān dì bù rén, Heaven and Earth do not distinguish between one man and another 02 以萬物為芻狗。 yǐ wàn wù wéi chú gǒu。. Therefore, the myriad creatures are treated like straw dogs 03 聖人不仁, shèng rén bù rén, The wise do not show their favour 04 以百姓為芻狗。 yǐ bái xìng wéi chú gǒu。 Thus, all the clan affiliations and names are treated like straw dogs 05 天地之間, tiān dì zhī jiān, There is Heaven, and there is Earth, and thus there is the shining space in between them

Whoops.. the last addition there was referring to a comment I made in another topic: "when talking about ren, it’s not what it’s definition is, but how it was perceived by sages, which is that it was over-systematized. Heaven and Earth’s behaviour doesn’t follow these precepts. Dao follows it’s own way."

More support of the meanings I was getting from the text here: Franklin Perkins, Heaven and Earth Are Not Humane: The Problem of Evil in Classical Chinese Philosophy