Harmonious Emptiness

With wei wu wei, "action" is in one case a noun and the other a verb. So "action is done without action" or "the action of non-action." Essentially, effortless action. In this case, this is made a bit more apparent by the repeated poetic use of how things are done without effort. 為亡為 Action (performed) without action 事亡事 Work obligations (performed) without the obligation 未亡未 Ending (arrives) without termination note: 未 means "not yet" rather than "end." or better yet: With effortless action, be dutiful without it being "your duty." (Be as though) time is almost up without time being "almost up. For the large to become small, many cautions are required when faced with many difficulties.Therefore, wise people plan for difficulty. Since time immemorial, (this has been how to) conclude without difficulty. Though I actually prefer "Thereby winters are without difficulty." I wouldn't be surprised if it played a role there. I'm already fairly convinced that certain radicals played a role almost like poetic NLP - slipping activating words into the poetry which are easily passed over but add to the meaning. thanks for the links DBJ. I'm not sure what to make of those radicals either, but only good things have come from the possibilities

Looking like "winters" may have actually been 终conclusion, and "easy" may have been 惕caution. Where are you getting the Guodian text from DBJ? Not sure what happened to my link of the photos of the full original on bamboo. I would read this as: 大少之多惕必多難 (For the) large (to become) small, many cautions are required (when faced with) many difficulties. 是以聖人猷難之 Therefore, wise people 猷plan for difficulty. 古冬亡難 Since time immemorial, (this has been how to) conclude without difficulty.

Thanks for bringing in the Guodian characters dbj. The last line here is especially different and revealing of origins! my translation: 為亡為 Action (performed) without action 事亡事 Work obligations (performed) without work obligations 未亡未 Ending (arrives) without termination 大少之多易必多難 (Take the) great for small or the many to be easy and 必certainly the many will be difficult 是以聖人猷難之 Therefore, wise people 猷plan for difficulty 古冬亡難 (In this way) the 冬winters of the 古past were not difficult

"stopping the search for knowledge" is true too though. Really, this is what is meant by stopping the thoughts, to some degree, too. Just wanted to say good point on that..

Was a paraphrase from memory, but the idea is in chapter 63 and 64

Ah, and isn't this the fun of translating these things! To say it means "to stop knowledge" could also superimpose some limits on the meaning. "[1] 大學之道、在明明德、在親民、在止於至善。 The way of great learning consists in manifesting one's bright virtue, consists in loving the people, consists in stopping in perfect goodness." The second phrase here is also interesting in it's plurality of potential meanings. 在明明德 is very open for a number of ways to understand it, since ming can mean understanding, brightness, illumination, etc. So "The way of great learning consists in clearly understanding virtue" or "consists in brightly illuminating virtue" or simply "consists in brilliant/radiant virtue." 在親民、在止於至善 Consists in loving (all) people. 在Consists in 止stopping 於after 至reaching/attaining 善righteous goodness I'd say stopping, here, means simply to have contentment in righteous goodness. This could include to stop trying to "figure everything out," but could also mean: stop trying to reach for further "goodness" beyond the radiant virtue of having love for "every walk of people." Be content in/with this radiant virtue and you will know stability, tranquility, and ease; thereby, all under heaven will be sustained in it's harmonious relationships of yin and yang. There is some very obvious crossover of Daoist-Confucian influence in this text. We might look for a literal linear English meaning, but I think the writers often knew that their words had meaning beyond what was written.

Another ingredient to add to the topic is "treat the small things seriously, and the large things lightly. This way nothing becomes unmanageable." (Dao De Jing) Letting things get out of hand because I want to pursue my spiritual path, to me, is more egotistical than "taking out the trash" before someone else has to. Not that actively going around seeking conflict will help anybody. As I see it, people who need to be put in their place are probably causing a lot more people problems than just me, so it's not in anyone's best interest to let people walk over us. That said, the sooner we make it known that we will not let someone walk over us, the less likely they are to try and do so, which means the conflict is more likely to be avoided, or at least far less severe, by immediately standing one's ground. To this I'll add, from King Solomon's Proverbs "sand is weighty and stone is heavy, but who can suffer the provocation of a fool?" You really need to know when you're responding out of fear and anger, ie. weaknesses. Flexibility is strength, but when the bow is fully stretched, something's gonna give. Best not to let it get so far as to be "unmanageable." That's my opinion

A lot of exercises help to build the will and strength of intent. What greater advantage than to have a greater will and strength of intent? How you direct that will and intent is equally as important, as also is "knowing when to stop," but sitting around meditating 24/7 might not develop this as needed for the trials of spiritual aspiration, at least at the earlier levels. If you feel that you're doing it for the wrong reasons, then that's something to be aware of, maybe step back for a while from it, but I wouldn't write endurance exercises off entirely.

I suggest starting with this warm up: "shake the tree" helps to unblock stagnation and the flow of qi. "swing arms, twist waist" helps to get the chi moving, and also loosen up the waist which is an important junction of chi flow. "holding the chi" will then be more effective and should get you started in sensing a bit of warmth, or at least a nice pleasant sensation, in your dantien. Be sure that your mind is clear and patient before beginning. You may want to sit down with some green tea before hand to ensure that you can deal with "doing nothing" for a while. Don't look for results. Just enjoy the journey. I'd suggest doing the entire Five Treasures form, as it's very well designed in it's simple efficacy. It's a bit like a short form of Hunyuan qigong, and Five Animals qigong combined, or at least appears to be borrowing from these styles but patterned for a particular direction. I find Chia's stuff to be a bit more of the "finishing" details. It's easier to detail the statue after the basics are taken care of, so, best to start simple. good luck

I have a hard enough time figuring out what Chinese Buddhism is still Indian based rather than than Daoist and Confucian teachings augmented by Buddhist theory. At the same time, it's difficult to know how much of Daoist teaching is not influenced by Daoist influenced Buddhism. I'd say they are all mutually complementary. There are rare instances of fundamentalism which would disallow mixing, and if your path is one of them, so be it. Perhaps fundamentalism is the way to go. Who knows.. not me!

In meditation progress, I've always felt the following from the Tao Te Ching to be highly relevant: 10. Therefore the Sage dwells in nonactive affairs and practices the wordless teaching. 11. The ten thousand things arise, but he doesn't begin them; 12. He acts on their behalf, but he doesn't make them dependent; 13. He accomplishes his tasks, but he doesn't dwell on them; 14. It is only because he doesn't dwell on them, that they therefore do not leave him. I would just suggest meditating on this for a while until it's understood at a deep level.

The following link has a rather complicated explanation of how to determine trigrams and hexagrams that accord to the moons to phases: http://www.ralph-abraham.org/articles/MS%23104.Moonhex/moonhex.pdf The following page provides all lunar details, including the altitude and azimuth coordinates which are needed to use tables 4 and 5 of the former link: http://www.calsky.com/cs.cgi/Moon/1 for example: Altitude: -3.89° [for table 5 above] Azimuth: 104.43° [for table 4 above] Direction: East-Southeast ESE which equals Lake over Earth I had read that the yin-yang symbol mapped the lunar cycle and had seen a few other connections with this, but don't know much about it otherwise, so I"ve posted some basics in hopes other people might be able expand on them some more. Apparently there are seasonal considerations as well? Thanks Edit to add: thanks Daeluin for bringing this up in other threads. Hopefully you'll have some more time to share some of what you've learned on the subject....

Okay, I thought you were also referring to the accomplishment being/meaning virtue

The first and most obvious side of it is reverting the awareness to stability in inner virtue. When drawn by beautiful forms, startling sounds, etc., one can lose awareness of the inner stability of virtue in favour of other desirable things.

Just curious -- where have you seen this as the consensus? Though intuitive/common sense, it doesn't seem to be common knowledge..

"成而弗居 Succeeds and does not dwell; 夫唯弗居也 是以弗去也 Not to dwell means not to leave" I prefer "accomplishments are not dwelt upon. It is because they are not dwelt (upon that they do) not depart." The reason I prefer "accomplishments" is because, to me, the accomplishment is virtue. Thus, "It is is because the sage does not dwell on his virtue that it does not leave him." "focus on the high, and the low appears" et cetera... (and no, just because I say this doesn't mean I know it..)

I don't know about computer programming, but I'd say that the internet is an advantage, and, wisely used, advantages are an important part of listening to Dao.

The two are not the same, but the two exist in Taoist lore. Let's not forget that. That is all....

I meant to post this in Taoist discussion, if a mod wants to move it there.. Also, meant that so much focus on the forum seems to be on trying to become a mystical Immortal, as though there's nothing to being an earthly sage, or seemingly to say that the Dao De Jing didn't even speak about wisdom, but that it's all just a metaphor for something else. I feel like people talk too much about all the mystical trappings and miss the opportunity to learn the earthly wisdom. This seems almost like a slight (insult), as though the wisdom of these teachers is of no value unless you become an immortal; as though people have it all down pat simply because they have a meditation path. Don't people care about living well with other people? About setting one's self right in balance with the world? Is it all just about becoming spirit fairies? If you don't develop virtue, character, and wisdom in the world, what good are you going to do with your power? first remarks starting fire dance of forum debate incendiary....

forget it.

While responding to the chapter discussion on 46, I noticed an interesting use of heng "eternal, enduring" in the Guodian text, which made me reflect some more on it's use in the second line of chapter one. In the lines "Dao can be spoken, not eternal Dao," heng could also (in the all encompassing poetic style of the DDJ) be talking about how Dao not only endures forever, but also brings life - existence, endurance, continuity, time, .... Dao not only endures, it brings endurance, gives endurance, is endurance.

"The greatest transgression is abundance of desire. No greater punishment than the accumulation of desires." There's a lot in there. The English grammar is too finite to encompass all the simultaneous ways meanings that are possible in Classical Chinese words and grammar, but I think this is the meaning being construed. "No greater turmoil than not knowing one has enough Creating sufficiency by knowing sufficiency This (is how to bring about) enduring sufficiency." note that 之 usually turns the sentence around, so that what precedes, is the description of what follows it. So from the English linguistic mind, it would be like "為create/made 足sufficiency of knowing sufficiency." The last line is really interesting to me because of the way "heng 恆" (later replaced by chang, ex. "eternal Dao," ch. 1) seems to be used as a way of saying "this brings endurance to sufficiency." This made me reflect some more on it's use in the second line of chapter one. In the lines "Dao can be spoken, not eternal Dao," heng could also, poetically, be talking about how Dao not only endures forever, but also brings life - existence, endurance, continuity, time, .... Dao not only endures, it brings endurance, is endurance.

This video does not attack anyone, but simply brings much needed awareness to the total unawareness that exists in regards to the differences in social privileges between European and African descendents in the West. How can our Black brothers and sisters be unburdened of this under-privilege so long as the lack of information on it allows the rest of society to comfortably deny it? If you don't believe this privilege exists, find out what you don't know here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN8pmhQwcnY (start at 2:45 to skip the introduction if you want) Note, this is not a topic on the rules of ttb. If you would like to discuss the rules of ttb, please start a new thread. Thank you. And remember, if you want to start a counter thread on minority-privilege, that you must not try to justify oppressive discrimination. While this is showing "how hard it is for Black people," if you want to try and show "how hard it is for White people," be my guest, but I hope you'll watch this first:

Btw, I just posted this at the time I did because it was looking there was going to be a total black-out on discussing systemic social inequalities regarding race. This would be unacceptable - for ttb to be a place where "we just don't talk about racism. We can't upset the comfortable denial of the privileged class," so I posted it right away. It was then moved out of the General Discussion because some think racial injustice has nothing to do with one's spiritual realities, only proving how far from reality they are in regards to the suffering in the world that is not theirs. Anyways, we'll see if my fight against this type of thing gets me banned or suspended, for being "too controversial." That's right, being against racism and racists is "controversial" here. smfh.

Well said. I believe this chapter is supposed to be read as a continuation or part of chapter two.