[HHC Study] Hua Hu Ching Chapter 10

[Mal]

The ego is a monkey catapulting through the jungle: Totally fascinated by the realm of the senses, it swings from one desire to the next, one conflict to the next, one self-centered idea to the next. If you threaten it, it actually fears for its life. Let this monkey go. Let the senses go. Let desires go. Let conflicts go. Let ideas go. Let the fiction of life and death go. Just remain in the center, watching. And then forget that you are there.

 

Walker's HHC 10

http://brianbrownewalker.com/hua-hu-ching/

 

 

 

"Kind prince," said the master, "suppose a person cuts himself loose from being fooled by the senses. Can he then become attached to the fruits of his enlightenment?"

"No, Venerable Teacher. The one who has succeeded in cutting himself loose from the attachment of the senses cannot then fasten himself to what he has attained. To do so would be to return to the enslavement of the senses, and the reign of the ego would ruin what he has attained. Therefore, one cannot hold any idea in the mind about what one has attained."

"What do you think, kind prince? Suppose a person discovers that his life has been a ceaseless pattern of coming and going. Suppose further that he decides to make this journey his last and sets out to accomplish the final purification in order to live forever in the Realm of Universal Life. Can he become attached to the idea of the culmination of his final journey?"

"No, he cannot, Venerable Teacher. The one who discovers that life is a phenomenon of coming and going also discovers that there is no such

thing as coming and going at the root of integral life. How, then, could he become attached to what is called the last journey of life?"

"Then, kind prince, what do you think? Can one who has achieved the state of desireless happiness presume to have reached the state of desirelessness? Or can one who has transcended life and death to enjoy the Universal Way be happy about his attainment?"

"No, Venerable Teacher. One who has already attained the final transcendence would not think of having transcended life and death. The concepts of life and death would only trap him again in the bondage of duality with its mental framework of self and others, longevity and brevity, life and death.

"Venerable Teacher, you have attested that I have purified myself so thoroughly that no desire or conflict remain and that I have attained the highest possible level of virtue. Yet I never think about having no desires. Because I do not hold anything particular in my mind, I am on the Universal Integral Way. To be completely desireless is to achieve the happiness of agelessness; it is the way of transcendental bliss."

 

Ni's HHC 10

http://www.bookdepository.com/Complete-Works-Lao-Tzu-Hua-Ching-Ni/9780937064009

[Mal]

Not getting many comments on the last 2 chapters.

But they are pretty self explanatory :-)

I always enjoyed the jungle monkey story, but it seems this is only Walkers addition to this chapter

[manitou]

This part of the work really describes a Catch-22. We spend years and years trying to 'achieve' spiritual progress or enlightenment, little knowing how involved our ego gets in this process. I'm of the belief that the more initials or description of 'teacher' we place after our names, the more ego is attached to it.

 

What an incredible quandry. To have read all the books we have read, to have studied under different masters. If this were the normal state of attainment (such as climbing the corporate ladder, or obtaining a degree in some field) it would be understood that certainly Ego could be understood and accepted to some degree, as if Ego is the thing that got you there.

 

But how totally opposite it is within the world of the spirit. Humility is the ultimate prize, as it describes above. There's the catch-22. To 'attain' the knowledge but to do it with the understanding that it is not 'us' that is doing it; it is that which lives within us, that thing that we are all a part of. That understanding is the thing that allows the humility to develop, to drop the ego gratification that wants to be noticed and congratulated because "after all, I got you there".

[Mal]

That is a good perspective to look from. Perhaps this is why a "dark night of the soul" is so common, the realisation that "I" went to all this "effort" to "achieve" yet there is no "I" and nothing to "achieve"

[dawei]

Haven't looked at this section for quite a while...

 

I always enjoyed the jungle monkey story, but it seems this is only Walkers addition to this chapter

 

I think this is Walker's way of using the monkey-mind metaphor to describe Ni's "a ceaseless pattern of coming and going"; the monkey-mind is always unsettled and cannot find rest.