dawei

It is a full time job

I might say... to counter your right to talk, is my right to not listen In this case, I did listen to you and decided to counter with some talk. Balls in your listening court

My general key is that it is not about dualistic opposites; this is about a spectrum or continuum of the same thing. The daoist farmer story as told by Alan Watts in The Watercourse Way:

I find this the essence of meaning: attachment = suffer Sounds a bit buddhist but I get the point.

Here it is: https://www.thedaobums.com/forum/553-siryuri/

Realize all explanations are from yin and yang perspective, for the most part. It is like a camera focus that can only show clearly the foreground or background but not the entire picture (ie: unfolding). What one sees is accompanied by what one doesn't see.

Until we can get to a point where there is not even any separation in our thought and practice and living between heaven, earth and man... here is how I tended to view it when I was doing Qigong and Medical Qigoing, regardless of position: My Crown was heaven and my root was earth. I never separated that to 'where is heaven and earth'. That may be a good first step to non-separation to try. In Medical Qigong, we would then use the Taiji Pole (think a central connector from crown to root) and we would see heaven washing down with earth in an inner ripple washing up... then we'd let there be no separation between the two ripples and when they mixed it spreads through the body and out every inch of your skin back to a combined source. So a few steps can be tried to get to more non-separation ideas. My current practices would likely have a different perspective but seems best to just share Qigong ideas for this thread. Nice question. Never seen it raised.

I rather align with Von but view it as he writes in his second line: That the 'three' are the result of the polarity of Yin and Yang. I've seen some explain it as thus, Yin + Yang + their interactive result. It may be that Von is saying the interactive results are three and to be considered the three.

I made a comment in Chapter 43 but here is a document that looks at comments on some of Hansen's views: http://www3.nccu.edu.tw/~kangchan/readings/Laozi/Tanaka_2004.pdf

Chad Hansen is a bit unorthodox for sure. His A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought: A Philosophical Interpretation was quite a sensational book in 2000. I would highly recommend reading it to understand his point of view. https://www.amazon.com/Daoist-Theory-Chinese-Thought-Interpretation/dp/0195134192/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535245956&sr=1-1&refinements=p_27%3AChad+Hansen&dpID=51AcOb8yDTL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch He and Hinton don't tend to use the word 'Dao' so they are included for such variations that exist.

I can see some confusion in that the topic was Wei Wu Wei but then you did ask a question as 'How does one complete a task ignorant of the process of completing the task?' I think like myself, I thought you were confusing two ideas but it appeared to be about Wei Wu Wei... but it seems you want to know more about this question idea and leave Wei Wu Wei behind ? I think some context may be needed. To complete the building of a rocket likely requires training and knowledge of the process. But if we're talking general living, that is the beacon of Light that resides in us all, that can point one in a direction or path. We don't need to know about the process of it or why it is happening. On a very simply level, you turn down a dark alley and something tells you to not go there... You are likely better off listening to that 'voice' than questioning what process is there that will cause me to complete the task to not go down the alley. I may be missing your mark but I like the topic... so please carry on.

He may not be a well known chinese author and translator but is in the academic and philosophical vein of Wing-Tsit Chan (east) and Hendricks (west). His book has the chinese character and pinyin on left page with english translation on right. A few notes are provided as he translated just after the Guodian was discovered and includes a translation of The Great One Begot Water (太一生水), which was discovered among the Guodian documents. Each page carries a background image that adds a nice touch to the book. His introductory notes are a good read. he is (was) a professor at Peking University. Looking at Amazon, they have this book in a few releases but not one that I have of his, on The Three Character Canon (三字经) often translated as Classic which includes also The Essay on One Thousand Characters (千字文).

Yes, and I'm glad you asked for it but not sure it is going as you hoped. In any case, it beats repeating another round of getting pedantic on individual words and try and just get an overall impression, feeling and sense of the meaning of a chapter(s).

Not sure why this text is supposed to be viewed as a counter to non-duality... a counter to non-duality is DUALITY ! So, I guess it would be a counter ! LOL We should be careful about trying to suggest texts were meant to suggest it was for or against something only we as asking.

ok, but below the box is an opinion but not of Mencius.

I sent him an email... he kind of responded like, S.O.S. I thought I reset his name back to original... I am be sending the next S.O.S...

You may of changed righteousness to righteous acts... one can be a state of mind and the latter doing stuff. Just saying.

I agree. The meaning is one of ONENESS. IF you are one, there is no reversion nor weakness. The mind plays that game.

seems the circle of life to me

IMO, Sifu Flowing Hands said it right from the start... "NOT AWARE" . Ni said, not conscious is true but less elegant. The rest are too transliterate.

EXACTLY.. I have many of his poetry books...

I disagree... ask Flowing Hands ....

I don't think I said pure...

My original comment was 'modern alchemy' which should logically be contrasted with ancient... so I don't understand why the seemingly negative questions about 'authentic' and 'duped'... I'm just talking a time shift or change. I think the less mix the better. I just find it interesting that neidan is always talked about with the Buddhist mix and there was 1000 years before it without it. It seems to have moved things from inner spirits to more physical accomplishment of xing and ming. Of course, that is just my opinion and not saying I'm 100%, but my point of view.

I don't want to go too far astray on the topic but maybe my personal point would be no other influences like Buddhism. Just a Daoist practice. And I often get in trouble in commenting on these issues as when I mention that I'm thinking of the inner gods and spirit practices which folks will usually quickly point out that was not neidan. That seems a convenient argument to simply solidify the later mix. 500 AD was just a date I pulled out of a hat as a rough comment. Curious that this text in question dates to 700.