Taoist Philosophy - Chapter 84

[Marblehead]

All Excess Life Is Ill-Omened

 

A man endowed with plentiful Te
Is comparable to a newborn infant.
Poisonous insects will not sting him,
Wild animals will not seize him in their claws,
Birds of prey will not carry him off in their talons.
His bones are weak,
His sinews supple,
But his grasp is firm.
He knows nothing about the union of the sexes,
Yet his little penis stands on end;
What perfect concentration of spermatic energy!
He can scream all day without getting hoarse;
What perfection of harmony!

He who knows harmony is permanent.
To know harmony is called “the constant”;
To know the constant is called “being wise”.
To be excessive with life is called a “bad omen”.
When the mind is used to control the breath
It makes it rigid;
That’s called “forcing things”.
Forcing things would be against Tao
And he who is against Tao perishes young.


On Traveling Outwardly

Your concern is with traveling outwardly. You do not know how to go about inward contemplation. When traveling outwardly, we seek in things that which we lack; by means of inward contemplation, we find satisfaction within ourselves. This second way of traveling is the perfect one, the other is imperfect. The perfect traveler does not know where he is going; the perfect contemplator does not know what he has before his eyes.


(Some of the most favorite sayings of the Taoists touch upon “the wholeness of Nature”, “the wholeness of Character”, “the wholeness of talent”, and “the wholeness of bodily form”. These ideas correspond to the idea of keeping the unspoiled nature or the source of power. The philosophers use the new-born child and sometimes the new-born calf as a symbol of unspoiled innocence of Character. They sometimes use the example of an ugly or deformed person to show the contrast between imperfection of bodily form and perfection of the soul.)


The Fighting Cock

The King had in his service a trainer of fighting cocks who had an excellent talent. He was training a fine bird. The King kept asking if the bird was ready for combat.

“No yet,” said the trainer. “He is full of fire. He is ready to pick a fight with every other bird. He is vain and too confident of his own strength.”

After ten days, he answered again, “Not yet. He flares up when he hears another bird crow.”

After ten more days, “Not yet. He sets that angry look and ruffles his feathers.”

Again ten days and the trainer said, “Now he is nearly ready. When another bird crows, his eye does not even flicker. He stands immobile, like a cock of wood. He is a mature fighter. His Character is whole. No other cock will dare to fight him but will run away at first sight.”


The New-Born Calf: The Art Of Concentration

“Keep correct your form, concentrate your vision, and the Heavenly harmony will come to you. Control your mind, concentrate your thinking, and the Spirit will come to reside in you. Te shall be your clothing and Tao shall be your shelter. You will stare blankly like a new-born calf and will not try to find out the reason.”


The Shadow, The Body, And The Soul

The Soul said to the Shadow, “At one moment you move; at another you are at rest. At one moment you sit down; at another you get up. Why this instability of purpose?”

“Perhaps I depend”, replied the Shadow, “upon something which causes me to do as I do; and perhaps that something depends in turn upon something else which causes it to do as it does. Or perhaps my dependence is like the unconscious movements of a snake’s scales or of a cicada’s wings. How can I tell why I do one thing, or why I do not do another?”

(There is a more elaborate version of the same parable of a dialogue between the skirts of a shadow and the shadow. The former depends upon the latter. The latter depends upon the body, and the body itself is dependent upon the soul which moves it. In the other version, the shadow says, “I am like a snake’s or a cicada’s shedded skin, an empty form which resembles the body”, which seems an improvement upon the above version.)


On Not Improving Upon Life

“By a man without passions I mean one who does not permit likes and dislikes to disturb his internal economy, but rather falls in line with Nature and does not try to improve upon the materials of living.”

Edited March 5, 2013 by Marblehead

[manitou]

A man endowed with plentiful Te

Is comparable to a newborn infant.

 

I have often wondered why this is so. I am currently equating this with vibrations. (I know elsewhere in the writings it lauds standing here like a blank-eyed calf and not looking for the reason). But looking for the reason is just too much fun - otherwise, why are we here on this forum?

 

Vibrational energy. A newborn baby would send out no vibrational energy that would be anything but pure - no contrivance, no agenda. Maybe it's the interaction of vibrational energy that determines the setting for interrelation with each other. I've never been really comfortable in a room full of people. If I am not mindful of the Tao, I will walk into that room and bounce all over the place in bizarre snippets of conversation that leave me exhausted and unsatisfied. If I go into the room in the state of Do Nothing, being mindful of the Tao, the conversations come to me and it seems to soften the egoistic edge I would normally have with me in a state of non-mindfulness.

 

The other day I was sitting on the floor meditating. I was in the void. My dog happened to walk slowly by and it was the oddest thing: it seemed like I felt the molecules from her passing through my body, like little tingly specks of light. It almost felt like a frisbee going through my body.

 

The point I'm making is that I was putting out a much different vibration in meditation than if I were just sitting there eating a cookie. Maybe I was putting out a vibrational field that didn't conflict at all with her vibrational field and my field yielded to it when she came walking by. Maybe a baby's vibrational field generates no karma (or cause and effect) until it starts to be "instructed" away from its original way of being.

Edited November 22, 2010 by manitou

[Vajrahridaya]

 

 

The other day I was sitting on the floor meditating. I was in the void. My dog happened to walk slowly by and it was the oddest thing: it seemed like I felt the molecules from her passing through my body, like little tingly specks of light. It almost felt like a frisbee going through my body.

 

Wait until you have this experience constantly.

 

Maybe a baby's vibrational field generates no karma (or cause and effect) until it starts to be "instructed" away from its original way of being.

 

They have their past life impressions yet to be manifest in their spine and cerebral cortex or cerebrum. A baby does let out a vibration which attracts various circumstances that reflect their past life karmas which then shape their brain in accordance with these karmas. But yes, at first... they do seem most pure!

[Marblehead]

Hi All & especially Manitou,

 

Vibrational energy. I call this Chi. There is a universal Chi and there is an individual Chi within all living things.

 

Universal Chi permiates all things, living and not. It is Chi that gives 'things' their 'thusness'.

 

We all absorb universal Chi, it is slightly altered by our personal Chi and continues passing through us into unknown distances.

 

Your dog's Chi and your Chi interacted.

 

Yin and Yang are the polarities of Chi Energy. Sometimes it is more negative and othertimes more positive.

 

A new-born babe has neutral Chi. That is, its original Chi (nature) has not yet been altered. When universal Chi passes through a new-born babe it remains unaltered. Same with the Sage, Chi passes through without alteration. As with a good mirror, he reflects a perfect image.