Why the Shaman needs Constant Virtue (Heng Te)

[Stigweard]

In my research for the Etymology of Wu Wei thread I came across this interesting passage:

 

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Wu and yi are compounded in the word wuyi 巫醫 "shaman-doctor; shamans and doctors", translated "exorcising physician" (De Groot 1910), "sorcerer-physician" (Schiffeler 1976), or "physician-shaman" (Mainfort 2004). Confucius quotes a "Southern Saying" that a good wuyi must have heng 恆 "constancy; ancient tradition; continuation; perseverance; regularity; proper name (e.g., Yijing Hexagram 32)". The (ca. 5th century BCE) Lunyu "Confucian Analects" and the (ca. 1st century BCE) Liji "Record of Rites" give different versions of the Southern Saying.

 

First, the Lunyu quotes Confucius to mention the saying and refer to the Heng Hexagram:

 

The Master said, The men of the south have a saying, Without stability a man will not even make a good shaman or witch-doctor. Well said! Of the maxim; if you do not stabilize an act of te 德, you will get evil by it (instead of good), the Master said, They (i.e. soothsayers) do not simply read the omens. (13/22, tr. Waley 1938:77)

 

Confucius refers to a Yijing line interpretation of the Heng "Duration" Hexagram (tr. Wilhelm 1967:127-9): "Nine in the third place means: He who does not give duration to his character meets with disgrace." In Waley's earlier article about the Yijing, he translated "If you do not stabilize your "virtue," Disgrace will overtake you", and quoted the Lunyu.

 

"The people of the south have a saying, 'It takes heng to make even a soothsayer or medicine-man.' It's quite true. 'If you do not stabilize your virtue, disgrace will overtake you'." Confucius adds 不占而已矣, which has completely baffled his interpreters. Surely the meaning is 'It is not enough merely to get an omen,' one must also heng 'stabilize it'. And if such a rule applies even to inferior arts like those of the diviner and medicine-man, Confucius asks, how much the more does it apply to the seeker after [de] in the moral sense? Surely he too must 'make constant' his initial striving! (1933:136-137)

 

Wu (shaman) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

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In short, if you do not stabilize (heng 恆) than an act of virtue (te 德) can bring evil.

 

What is firstly interesting here is the apparent (at least in my eyes) synonymous connection between an act of virtue and the act of divination, which was the principle role of ancient Chinese shamans.

 

What is also interesting is that in my Shamanic training I was informed that, "you must stabilize your personality before you step into power. Because when you have access to power it will manifest in accordance to your personality."

 

Note that stepping into power is synonymous with Daoist notion of embracing or encompassing one's integral self or te 德. It is the deep connection with true nature that empowered the individual to be able to "see," aka spontaneous divination aka clairvoyance, clairsentience etc.

 

I will confirm this with my own experience because I opened my ability to "see" very young and because I was so immature within my personality it most certainly did bring "evil and disgrace".

 

At least to me this reconfirms my enduring sentiment that the study and training of 恆德 heng te, stable virtue, should supersede and precede any attempts for mystical powers.

 

[ChiDragon]

wuyi 巫醫: Witch doctor.

[Stigweard]

wuyi 巫醫: Witch doctor.

Yes AKA Shaman/ess. Were you trying to make a point?

 

[Informer]

Thanks for this post Stig, I don't know if you are directing it towards anyone, but I feel it relates to many things for me.

 

Act of virtue can bring evil, so one does need pay more attention.

 

How do you suggest to stabalize?

[dawei]

At least to me this reconfirms my enduring sentiment that the study and training of 恆德 heng te, stable virtue, should supersede and precede any attempts for mystical powers.

The topic of Heng seems so important to me that I am amazed to rarely see it raised among discussions of Dao. It is about the fourth most frequent character in the old text, yet who talks about it? I am not surprised that you are the one to offer it up

 

One reason it may be overlooked is that Heng (恆) exists in the DDJ oldest manuscripts but is replaced with Chang (常) due to the 'taboo rules' on characters which are the same as the ruler's name; even the first chapter reflects this change. Based on what word is used in a translation, the choice for Heng and Chang can result in opposite meanings!

 

Heng can variously translate as: Constant, certain, fixed, common, enduring, waxing, spreading, based on context.

 

As to the idea of stabilizing virtue in order to precede mystical power; I think that is a 'training' issue. It is a prescribed way for common folks to follow. Life has variation and some naturally don't follow prescribed rules.

[Wuji108]

I think you have raised an important aspect of the development of Virtue which is the aspect of Xing development or development of essential nature. Until and unless we've peeled back the layers of egoic accumulation our virtue is still subject to the ego's vagaries. So if we try to do acts of virtue out of the desire to be a hero, or to accrue credit, then the virtuous act is not virtuous. For an act to be truly virtuous it is done because it is our stable and true nature to act/behave in this way without seeking credit or other personal benefit. In that way perhaps the virtue is stable.

 

What do you think?

[Marblehead]

Great discussion Y'all. Most is over my head (beyond the reach of my knowledge) but I can at least follow the discussion.

 

I have on occasion commented that I may be wrong but at least I am consistent. And I do agree, consistency (reliability) is a very important character trait for all of us.

[C T]

I think you have raised an important aspect of the development of Virtue which is the aspect of Xing development or development of essential nature. Until and unless we've peeled back the layers of egoic accumulation our virtue is still subject to the ego's vagaries. So if we try to do acts of virtue out of the desire to be a hero, or to accrue credit, then the virtuous act is not virtuous. For an act to be truly virtuous it is done because it is our stable and true nature to act/behave in this way without seeking credit or other personal benefit. In that way perhaps the virtue is stable.

 

What do you think?

I very much agree with this post.

 

Acting out of spontaneous goodness, for a true cultivator (aka bodhisattva in buddhist lingo) can become a reflex, just like pulling one's hand away from a fire. There is no analysis involved, either before, nor any need to reinforce it with more analysis post-action. One simply goes about one's business safe in the knowledge that no harm was done to the flames... (just kidding )

 

May i know, in your path, what is the recommended practice to attain to this stable and true nature which you have mentioned?

[Seth Ananda]

In my research for the Etymology of Wu Wei thread I came across this interesting passage:

 

----------------------------------------

 

Wu and yi are compounded in the word wuyi 巫醫 "shaman-doctor; shamans and doctors", translated "exorcising physician" (De Groot 1910), "sorcerer-physician" (Schiffeler 1976), or "physician-shaman" (Mainfort 2004). Confucius quotes a "Southern Saying" that a good wuyi must have heng 恆 "constancy; ancient tradition; continuation; perseverance; regularity; proper name (e.g., Yijing Hexagram 32)". The (ca. 5th century BCE) Lunyu "Confucian Analects" and the (ca. 1st century BCE) Liji "Record of Rites" give different versions of the Southern Saying.

 

First, the Lunyu quotes Confucius to mention the saying and refer to the Heng Hexagram:

 

The Master said, The men of the south have a saying, Without stability a man will not even make a good shaman or witch-doctor. Well said! Of the maxim; if you do not stabilize an act of te 德, you will get evil by it (instead of good), the Master said, They (i.e. soothsayers) do not simply read the omens. (13/22, tr. Waley 1938:77)

 

Confucius refers to a Yijing line interpretation of the Heng "Duration" Hexagram (tr. Wilhelm 1967:127-9): "Nine in the third place means: He who does not give duration to his character meets with disgrace." In Waley's earlier article about the Yijing, he translated "If you do not stabilize your "virtue," Disgrace will overtake you", and quoted the Lunyu.

 

"The people of the south have a saying, 'It takes heng to make even a soothsayer or medicine-man.' It's quite true. 'If you do not stabilize your virtue, disgrace will overtake you'." Confucius adds 不占而已矣, which has completely baffled his interpreters. Surely the meaning is 'It is not enough merely to get an omen,' one must also heng 'stabilize it'. And if such a rule applies even to inferior arts like those of the diviner and medicine-man, Confucius asks, how much the more does it apply to the seeker after [de] in the moral sense? Surely he too must 'make constant' his initial striving! (1933:136-137)

 

Wu (shaman) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

----------------------------------------

 

In short, if you do not stabilize (heng 恆) than an act of virtue (te 德) can bring evil.

 

What is firstly interesting here is the apparent (at least in my eyes) synonymous connection between an act of virtue and the act of divination, which was the principle role of ancient Chinese shamans.

 

What is also interesting is that in my Shamanic training I was informed that, "you must stabilize your personality before you step into power. Because when you have access to power it will manifest in accordance to your personality."

 

Note that stepping into power is synonymous with Daoist notion of embracing or encompassing one's integral self or te 德. It is the deep connection with true nature that empowered the individual to be able to "see," aka spontaneous divination aka clairvoyance, clairsentience etc.

 

I will confirm this with my own experience because I opened my ability to "see" very young and because I was so immature within my personality it most certainly did bring "evil and disgrace".

 

At least to me this reconfirms my enduring sentiment that the study and training of 恆德 heng te, stable virtue, should supersede and precede any attempts for mystical powers.

 

Very Interesting, Thanks stig

 

Can you tell me more about Te and more about stabilizing?

[joeblast]

http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Clubs/buddhism/nhj/

[Harmonious Emptiness]

http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Clubs/buddhism/nhj/

 

Excellent.

 

Thanks.

[joeblast]

/\

[Stigweard]

Thanks for the responses and the inquiries

 

As briefly mentioned in the OP, heng 恆 is the name for Hexagram 32 of the Yijing:

 

 

GUIDANCE: "Be constant; it is right. Now is the time to be persevering and undertake something."

 

The inner/lower trigram is ☴ = 巽 = xùn = wind; the outer/upper trigram is ☳ = 震 = zhèn = thunder.

 

Neither Thunder nor Wind has the attribute of constancy, so why is this hexagram called Constancy? Wind and Thunder often occur together, but only at particular times and under certain conditions. Neither Wind nor Thunder alone connotes constancy, but the laws and conditions under which they operate are constant and eternal. If the universe were completely still without the generative energy of Thunder or the persistent action of Wind, there would be no life. It is the movement of all the heavenly bodies and the incessant flow of energy that reflects the constancy of the universe. On earth, it is the change of the seasons which expresses this constancy.

 

The energy cycles of all life are based on an invariable Subtle Law. All natural phenomena are in continuous process of change, with constancy as the underlying principle. On the human level, one's attitudes and disposition should be supported by the constancy of one's virtue. Without a stable axis, neither nature nor civilized human life can endure.

 

The natural principle expressed by one who is whole

is the enduring spirit of life.

In the midst of all changes,

remain undisturbed.

Whether the days are good or bad,

whether dealing with virtuous or unvirtuous ones,

do not forsake the wholeness of your spirit.

 

What is the enduring spirit of life?

It is the same as the spirit of the universe,

which is governed by constancy,

regularity and spontaneity.

With its eternal virtuous nature,

it nourishes and cares for all things.

 

Virtue is the inherent nature of life.

That which is inherent in the nature of life

is inherent in your own nature.

In order to restore the enduring spirit,

we have to practice its subtleties.

Nature endows people with discernment.

You can actively change the rigidity of your mind,

dissolving destructive tendencies and false images

by practicing this constant virtue.

Thus, you arrive at the delicacy of your spirit,

which is creative, useful

and beneficial to all.

 

p 393-397, Ni, Hua-Ching, "The Book of Changes and the Unchanging Truth", Sevenstar Communication Group Inc., 2002

 

[Informer]

Interesting.

 

There does seem to be a constant in the fact that niether reflect light to be perceivable by the eyes.

 

Eye's which stem materialism, and objectivity, are not seeing it. Through the allocation of the other of the senses it becomes perceivable.

 

Thunder exists to a deaf man as wind does to a blind man.

 

By being felt.

[Stigweard]

I think you have raised an important aspect of the development of Virtue which is the aspect of Xing development or development of essential nature. Until and unless we've peeled back the layers of egoic accumulation our virtue is still subject to the ego's vagaries. So if we try to do acts of virtue out of the desire to be a hero, or to accrue credit, then the virtuous act is not virtuous. For an act to be truly virtuous it is done because it is our stable and true nature to act/behave in this way without seeking credit or other personal benefit. In that way perhaps the virtue is stable.

 

What do you think?

I think I like ... +1

 

A point of variance though, and in tune with the topic, is that instead of "peeling back layers" of the ego Heng is telling us to stabalize and harmonize our personality.

 

I have outlined a simple Shamanic model of the self over in How to handle the unknown. Using the same basic model, our personality comprises of various elements and features, synomonous to the landscape features that you may find on an island.

 

Now what happens in many cases is that certain features of ones personality maybe overemphasized, some elements maybe creating "leakages" in terms of addictions etc, and some features may in fact be warring against each other. The result is an island that is wracked with earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes, civil war and all manner of discordance.

 

In all a gross waste of life force ... life force which could be better used instead for the evolution of the soul.

 

So the guidance of Heng Te is to resolve and dissolve these extremes of personality. Of course the next question is "How?"

 

As a side note, Master Ni Hua Ching gives a wonderful Daoist parable in his book "Story of Two Kingdoms" which describes this process very nicely. I don't have it on hand at the moment so I will annotate it in a subsequent post.

 

Firstly though we need to ask: What sustains our personality complexes?

 

The answer there is: Self-narration.

 

Our incessant self-description (aka You ming 有名 in Daoist parlance) upholds and perpetuates our personality structure. Therefore it follows that if we can cessate, or at the least decrease, our self-narration then the extremes of our personality will correspondingly start to smooth out and stabalize.

 

The challenge there is that we can't use the mind to work on the mind. This would only create further internal seperations and frictions.

 

So we must refer to Laozi's advise in Ch 4:

 

It erodes sharpness,

It dissolves obstruction,

It softens glare,

It settles dust.

 

Sharpness, obstruction, glare, and dust - these are the characteristics of a personality that is unbalanced and extreme.

 

Erode, dissolve, soften, settle - these are the water-attributes we need to utilize to acheive a constant or stable virtue.

 

Daoist ontology is essentially an awareness of the integral energy reality of the universe. On a personal level it is the awareness that mind and body are one energy manifested in different forms of use (i.e. Jing, Qi, Shen).

 

Thus the "sharpness, obstructions, glare and dust" of the unsettled personality are simultaneously the "sharpness, obstructions, glare, and dust" of the physical body. Thus also if we erode, dissolve, soften and settle the obstructions and artificialness of the body we likewise do the same for the personality.

 

SO, coming back to the "How?", the answer is the quietude of the mind and the gentle movement of practices like neidan, qigong, and taijiquan etc.

 

[JustARandomPanda]

SO, coming back to the "How?", the answer is the quietude of the mind and the gentle movement of practices like neidan, qigong, and taijiquan etc.

 

 

So...is Laotzu saying that as the mind quiets true Virtue will begin to manifest spontaneously?

[Stigweard]

So...is Laotzu saying that as the mind quiets true Virtue will begin to manifest spontaneously?

As I understand it that would be a fair conclusion

[on the path]

I don't think the word 'virtue' exist in Daoism it is a man made concept. the Dao does not have any concepts and the shaman doesn't need concepts nor virtue to exist. good and evil only exist in the minds of men but not in the Dao. The shaman emulates the Dao so he/she does not have virtue only Dao. Their actions are guided by Dao not virtue whatever this means. This brings us back to the concept of 'wu wei' and the root of the shaman dancing. Dancing with no mind of no action of no virtue of being at one with the Dao. No concepts! This is what I feel anyway.

[C T]

I don't think the word 'virtue' exist in Daoism it is a man made concept. the Dao does not have any concepts and the shaman doesn't need concepts nor virtue to exist. good and evil only exist in the minds of men but not in the Dao. The shaman emulates the Dao so he/she does not have virtue only Dao. Their actions are guided by Dao not virtue whatever this means. This brings us back to the concept of 'wu wei' and the root of the shaman dancing. Dancing with no mind of no action of no virtue of being at one with the Dao. No concepts! This is what I feel anyway.

This too is a concept, yes?

 

 

 

(Virtue has more than one connotation. In some instances its associated with what is good and right. However, 'virtue' can also reference the true nature of things. For example, by virtue of energy we get light and heat etc.)

[Stigweard]

[on the path]

This too is a concept, yes?

 

 

 

(Virtue has more than one connotation. In some instances its associated with what is good and right. However, 'virtue' can also reference the true nature of things. For example, by virtue of energy we get light and heat etc.)

 

 

Hi I feel the example you used there is not the same 'virtue' that say Lao Tzu may use to mean 'guidance' from within, especially from the heart.

[joeblast]

So...is Laotzu saying that as the mind quiets true Virtue will begin to manifest spontaneously?

that's been my experience, more quiet, more virtue naturally arises...generally speaking

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Here is a recent discussion topic on Daoist De from the Dao De Jing forum. It's a long one (inside joke.. u'll see )

 

http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/19499-laozis-de/

[dawei]

(Virtue has more than one connotation. In some instances its associated with what is good and right. However, 'virtue' can also reference the true nature of things. For example, by virtue of energy we get light and heat etc.)

Nice point. It depends on who is using the word... Lao Zi or Confucius... or Stig

[Stigweard]

Bump