Wu Ming Jen Posted March 13, 2016 Simplicity is treasured in the Tao. "The Tao follows nature" is a good translation and a basic definition of zi ran. It is also more meaningful. The phrase tells us that the functioning of the Tao must always be consistent with natural laws and universal principles. Miracles in the Tao are not impossibilities resulting from supernatural intervention. Instead, they are achievements within reach of human beings who understand how to work with nature rather than against it. 7 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wu Ming Jen Posted March 13, 2016 If you are able to meditate, to leave your stressful life, return to original simplicity and reconnect with the root of the Tao; If you can find stillness and joy, then you have a chance to balance your body and your spirit. If you're free of illness and are natural like an infant you can let your body and spirit unite with the cosmos as one and achieve the stage of the void. In this stage motion comes out of the stillness. Yang Qi is born and creates preheaven qi, opening up your intuitive energy, the micro cosmic orbit smooths and forms the sprout of the elixir which eventually leads to the formation of the seed of Immortality. This is what internal alchemy describes as transmuting Jing to Qi, transmuting Qi to Shen, returning Shen to the void and uniting the void with the Tao. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marblehead Posted March 13, 2016 Nice thread. I hope it grows a nice discussion. Miracles that have already happened were not impossible, perhaps they just don't happen very often. Miracles that haven't happened yet may not be possible. But they could be. But yes, the simple life, if possible, is the ideal, IMO. The less structure we need the more spontaneous and natural we can become. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wu Ming Jen Posted March 18, 2016 Such a peaceful topic when we return to simplicity does not leave a lot for discussion. The tao is easy and relaxed that is when it is the most fun. To truly unite we lose ourselves in ecstasy. words melt away and communication is open and unrestrained. Feeling mind and body, spontaneous, no agenda, uncontrived, Yin and Yang melt together and give birth to the dance of life unfolding like a flower not forced to bloom the sweet nectar drips filling the empty and emptying the full. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marblehead Posted March 18, 2016 I lived the simple life yesterday. Spontaneously. Waited for inspiration to do something. Nothing happened. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Geof Nanto Posted March 18, 2016 AT FLOWERING-BRIGHTNESS MONASTERY IN YUNG-CH'UNG DISTRICT It's late summer weather, time bitter heat begins to ease: windblown trees murmur under skies promising rain, and at dusk, cicadas cry on and on. Narrow Yung-ch'ung streets quiet, temple gardens all isolate mystery, no one visits. Autumn scholartree blossoms blanket the ground. Here, the lit years pass, careless and slow, the world's great dramas far away. Why wait until I'm feeble to realize our life's elusive, our death repose? A true recluse need not live far away knowing Tao is groping in darkness: even in the world's bustle and dust a mind of emptiness never wanders. Fresh vegetables for dawn hunger and fur-lined robes for chill nights: such luck to elude hunger and cold. What more could I ever ask? Simple and hardly sick— this is all I want. Rejoice in heaven, resent nothing: how could I explain such resolve? An I Ching's lying beside the bed. - Po Chü-i (772-846 CE), translated by David Hinton. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kongming Posted March 18, 2016 Miracles in the Tao are not impossibilities resulting from supernatural intervention. Instead, they are achievements within reach of human beings who understand how to work with nature rather than against it. In Thomas Cleary's anthology of Daoist teachings under the title Vitality, Energy, and Spirit, there is a work attributed to Lu Dongbin (the name of which escapes me at the moment) but in that work the same truth is expressed in this way: THE MYSTERY OF NATURAL LAW The mystery of natural law is learned from a teacher, but it is based on the celestial order, which circulates throughout the earth. Once the Great Way is accomplished, then miracles, at the extreme end of natural law, are manifested at will, and supernatural powers are unfathomable. Then sky and earth are like a pouch, sun and moon are in a pot, the minuscule is gigantic, the macrocosm is minute; you can manipulate the cosmos at will, looking upon the universe as a mote of dust. Now integrating, now vanishing, now detached, now present, you enter the hidden and emerge in the evident; space itself disappears. You can even employ spirits and ghosts and make thunder and lightning. You might call this emptiness, but there is nothing it doesn't contain; you might call this substantiality, but nothing in it really exists. When you attain it in the mind, activity corresponds; mind and activity reflect each other. The mind has no such mind; nothing is added by action. It is not attained in action, but operates in accord with the mind, changing unpredictably like a dream. Heaven and earth are the witnesses; it is most subtle, endlessly creative. Only when you penetrate the mystery of the Way do you then arrive at this essence; thereby you penetrate the mystery of natural law, and then the Way is completed. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wu Ming Jen Posted March 18, 2016 Beautiful poems, songs and words thank you. I am a Thomas Cleary fan for the English translations Vitality Energy and Spirit is one my favorites. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
