The following is my translation of a portion of the Guanzi text entitled "Inner Cultivation", as posted several years ago on a site called "taobums". The book is available on Scribd.
The titles of the "zhang" are mine, to kind of explain what's in them. zhang is a term to mean a block of text within a chapter comprised of verses.
zhang 1 - Jing - Essence
1 The Essence of all things
2 Thru transformation creates life.
3 Below, it brings to life the five grains,
4 Above, it aligns the stars.
5 When flowing among the heaven and earth,
6 We call this the 'spiritual being'.
7 When stored up in the center of the bosom,
8 We call this the Sage.
zhang 2 - Qi - Energy
1 Therefore, regarding 'Energy', it is:
2 Bright! as if ascending the sky;
3 Dark! as if entering into the abyss;
4 Disperse! as if existing in the ocean;
5 Present! as if existing in the self.
6 Therefore this Energy:
7 Cannot be stopped by force,
8 Yet can be pacified by Virtue,
9 Cannot be spoken by voice,
10 Yet can be embraced by the mind.
11 Reverently nurture it and do not let it go:
12 This is called 'developing Virtue'
13 When Virtue develops and wisdom emerges,
14 The myriad things will all be attained.
zhang 3 - Emotional Stress
1 All forms of the Heart
2 Are naturally infused, naturally filled,
3 Naturally generated, naturally completed.
4 They can become lost, out of place
5 Due to sorrow, happiness,
6 joy, anger, desire, or profit-seeking.
7 If you are able to cast off sorrow, happiness,
8 joy, anger, desire and profit-seeking,
9 Your Heart will return to its natural flow
10 The natural emotion of the Heart
11 Is beneficial calmness and tranquility.
12 Do not vex it, do not disturb it
13 And harmony will naturally develop.
zhang 4 - Dao - The Way
1 Clear! as though right by your side.
2 Vague! as though it will not be attained.
3 Indescribable! as though beyond the limitless.
4 The proof of this is not far off:
5 Daily we make use of its inner power.
6 The Way is what fills the body,
7 Yet people are unable to fix it in place.
8 It goes forth but does not return,
9 It comes back but does not stay.
10 Silent! none can hear its sound.
11 Present! it exists within the heart.
12 Obscure! we do not see its form.
13 Manifest! it arises with us.
14 Look at it and not see its form,
15 Listen to it and not hear its sound.
16 Yet there is a course to its accomplishments.
17 We call it the Way.
zhang 5 - Fei Chang Dao - The Way has no fixed position.
1 The Way has no fixed position;
2 In the cultivated Heart, it gracefully abides.
3 When the heart is calm and Energy aligned
4 The Way can thereby repose.
5 The Way is not distant from us;
6 When people attain it they are fruitful
7 The Way does not leave;
8 When people are in tune with it, they understand.
9 Thus it is present! as if you need but ask for it.
10 Remote! as if dissipated and is nowhere to be found.
11 The Way's sensation:
12 How can you be in tune with its sound?
13 Cultivate your Heart and you will resonate in tune.
14 The Way thereby can be attained
zhang 6 - Wuming Dao - The Way is Nameless
1 As for Dao,
2 The mouth is not able to speak of it
3 The eyes are not able to see it
4 The ears are not able to hear it
5 It is that which cultivates the Heart and aligns the body.
6 When people lose it they die
7 When they attain it they flourish.
8 When endeavors lose it they fail;
9 When they attain it they succeed.
10 Thus Dao is always without root without trunk
11 Without leaves without flowers.
12 The myriad things are generated by it;
13 The myriad things are completed by it.
14 We declare it 'Dao'.
zhang 7 "Ruling Principles"
1 Heaven's ruling principle is to be aligned.
2 Earth's ruling principle is to be level.
3 Humanity's ruling principles are grace and tranquility.
4 Spring, autumn, winter, and summer
5 These are heaven's seasons.
6 Mountains, hills, rivers, and valleys
7 These are earth's features.
8 Pleasure and anger, taking and giving
9 These are human devices.
10 Therefore the Sage
11 Changes with the seasons and doesn't transform them,
12 Yields to things and does not change them
zhang 8 "Alignment"
1 If able to be aligned, able to be calm,
2 Only then can you be stable.
3 With a stable heart within your bosom,
4 Eyes and ears acute and clear,
5 Four limbs firm and sure,
6 You can thereby make a dwelling-place for Essence.
7 As for Essence:
8 It is the Essence of Energy.
9 Energy's Dao is to flourish,
10 To flourish is to think
11 To think is to know
12 To know is where to stop.
13 All forms of the Heart
14 Crossing over to knowledge lose life.
zhang 9 "One"
1 Those able to transform One thing are called 'Spiritual';
2 Those able to change One affair are called 'wise'.
3 To transform without expending Energy;
4 To change without expending wisdom:
5 By grasping the One only the Master is able to do this!
6 Grasp the One; do not loose it,
7 And you will be able to master the myriad things.
8 The Master acts upon things,
9 And is not acted upon by things
10 Attain to the guiding principle of the One.
zhang 10 "managing"
1 Harness the Heart within your bosom
2 Control the words issuing forth from your mouth,
3 Manage affairs in concert with others.
4 Then it follows, the world will be governed.
5 "One word is attained, and the world submits"
6 So goes the saying.
zhang 11 "Aligning the Body"
1 When the body is not aligned,
2 De will not thrive.
3 When the center is not calm
4 The Heart will not be harnessed.
5 Align the body, collect De.
6 Leave to heaven benevolence and to earth justice--
7 These will naturally thrive on their own.
zhang 12 "Attaining the Center"
1 The Spirit comprehends the Ultimate;
2 Manifest! It understands the myriad things.
3 Hold it within your bosom, do not waver.
4 Do not let external things confuse your faculties
5 Do not let your faculties confuse your Heart
6 This is called 'attaining the center.'
zhang 13 "Stabilizing Jing"
1 The Spirit naturally abides in the body,
2 One moment it goes forward, one moment it comes back,
3 No one is able to think of it.
4 Losing it results in disorder
5 Attaining it results in order.
6 Reverently purify its dwelling-place,
7 And Jing will naturally arise.
8 Jing: put aside thinking of it,
9 Still your effort to control it.
10 Strictly and reverently venerate it
11 And Jing will naturally stablize.
12 Attain it and don't let it go,
13 Ears and eyes not overflow
14 Heart and mind without any scheme,
15 Align the Heart within the breast
16 And the myriad things will attain their full measure.
zhang 14 "The Heart within the Heart"
1 Dao fills all under heaven.
2 It exists everywhere that people are,
3 But people are unable to understand this.
4 One word explains it,
5 Ascending to reach the sky;
6 Descending to the limits of earth;
7 Replete throughout the nine provinces.
8 How can I speak or explain it?
9 It exists in the calm Heart.
10 When my Heart is harnessed, my faculties are ordered.
11 When my Heart is calm, my faculties are calmed.
12 What orders them is the Heart;
13 What calms them is the Heart.
14 The Heart is used to harbor the Heart
15 At the center of the Heart is another Heart,
16 The Heart within the Heart.
17 For awareness precedes words.
18 Awareness then leads to formed reality;
19 Formed reality then leads to words.
20 Words then lead to action;
21 Action then leads to order,
22 To not be ordered invariably leads to disorder.
23 Disorder leads to death.
zhang 15 "The Fount of Qi"
1 When Jing is preserved, it naturally grows.
2 Externally it will emanate.
3 Hidden inside, it becomes a primal spring
4 Abounding like a flood, it harmonizes and equalizes
5 It becomes a fount of Qi.
6 When the fount is not dried up,
7 The four limbs are firm.
8 When the spring is not drained,
9 The nine apertures freely circulate [Qi]
10 Then you are able to exhaust the universe,
11 And cover the four seas.
12 Within, when your mind is unconfused,
13 Without, there will be no disasters.
14 When your heart is whole within,
15 Your body will be whole without,
16 And you won't encounter natural disasters,
17 Or receive harm from others;
18 Call such 'Shengren'.
zhang 16 - Inner Virtue
1 If you are able to be aligned and tranquil,
2 Your skin will be supple and smooth,
3 Your ears and eyes will be acute and clear,
4 Your muscles will flex and your bones strong,
5 You will then be able to bear the Great Circle of heaven,
6 And tread over the Great Square of earth;
7 You will abase yourself with great purity,
8 Perceiving with great clarity.
9 Be reverently aware without wavering,
10 And you will daily renew your Virtue,
11 Completely comprehending the world,
12 Drawing from the Four Directions,
13 Reverently developing your wholeness.
14 This is called Inner Virtue.
15 However, should you not return to practice,
16 This will increase your instability.
zhang 17 - Practicing Dao
1 To be wholly in accord with Dao,
2 You must practice, you must focus,
3 You must expand, you must relax,
4 You must be firm, you must be regular.
5 Hold fast to excellence; do not let abandon it.
6 Chase away excess, let go of the trivial.
7 Once you know the Ultimate
8 You will return to Dao and De.
zhang 18 - Manifest Qi
1 When the whole Heart is centered,
2 It cannot be concealed or hidden.
3 It is apparent from your body's appearance,
4 It is visible by your skin color.
5 With good Qi, when you greet others,
6 They will be kinder than brothers and sisters.
7 With bad Qi, when you greet others,
8 They will harm you with force and weapons.
9 The sound of 'no-words'
10 Is louder than the thunder of a drum.
11 The perceptible form of the Heart's Qi
12 Is brighter than the sun and moon,
13 And more concerned than parents.
14 Rewards are not sufficient to encourage the good;
15 Punishments are not sufficient to discourage the bad.
16 The mind attains Qi,
17 And the world submits.
18 The Heart and mind stabilized,
19 And the world listens.
zhang 19 - Concentrating Qi
1 When you concentrate Qi like a spirit,
2 All things will support your existence.
3 Are you able to concentrate, able to be one with them?
4 Are you able to be without divining or counting stalks,
5 Yet know bad and good fortune?
6 Are you able to stop? Are you able to be yourself?
7 Are you able to not demand from others,
8 Yet attain it within yourself?
9 You think about it and think about it.
10 And again, deeply think about it.
11 You think about it, yet you can't fathom it.
12 A Spiritual Being will fathom it,
13 Not due to the Spiritual Being's power,
14 But due to the ultimate of Jing and Qi.
15 When your four limbs are aligned
16 Your blood and Qi are tranquil;
17 When your mind is one and your heart concentrated,
18 And your ears and eyes not distracted;
19 Even that which is most remote will be accessible.
zhang 20 - Self-Realization
1 Thinking and searching generate knowledge.
2 Laziness and ease generate worry.
3 Cruelty and arrogance generate resentment.
4 Worry and grief generate disease.
5 Disease then causes death.
6 When you think about it and don't let it go,
7 You will be internally distressed and externally weak.
8 Dont let little things become big plans,
9 Else life will abandon you.
10 Eat, but do not exceed your appetite,
11 Think, but do not overanalyze.
12 Temper and put these in balance,
13 And you will attain self-realization.
zhang 21 - Balance and Alignment
1 As for all human life,
2 Heaven brings forth its Jing/essence,
3 Earth brings forth its bodily form.
4 These join in order to make a person.
5 When in harmony, then there is life;
6 When not in harmony then there is no life.
7 In examining the Dao of harmony,
8 You cannot sense it by sight,
9 You cannot summon it by a chance meeting.
10 When balance and alignment fill your chest,
11 And respiration is governed within the heart,
12 This results in enhanced life.
13 When fondness and resentment cause you to lose stability,
14 Then make a determination
15 To restrict the five desires,
16 To remove these two misfortunes.
17 Do not be fondly attached, do not be resentful,
18 Let balance and alignment fill your chest.
zhang 22 - Stabilizing Your Nature
1 As for all human life,
2 It must flow from balance and alignment
3 Where we lose these,
4 Must be by fondness, resentment, worry and anxiety.
5 Therefore, to stop resentment there's nothing like poetry;
6 To cast aside worry there's nothing like music;
7 To temper music there's nothing like ritual;
8 To keep to ritual there's nothing like reverence;
9 To keep to reverence there's nothing like stillness.
10 When inwardly still and outwardly reverent
11 You are able to return to your nature
12 Your nature will become greatly stable.
zhang 23 - Dao of Eating
1 As for the Dao of eating,
2 Overeating harms the body
3 And brings misfortune
4 Undereating dries up the bones
5 And congeals the blood
6 The point between overeating and undereating:
7 This is called harmonious completion.
8 It is the where jing abides
9 And where wisdom is generated.
10 When hunger and eating lose balance,
11 Then make a determination
12 When full, move away from gluttony;
13 When hungry, expand your thoughts beyond food;
14 When old, abandon anxiety.
15 If you don't move away from gluttony,
16 Qi will not circulate within your extremities.
17 If when lusting food you dont expand your thoughts,
18 When you eat you will not stop.
19 If when old you dont abandon anxiety,
20 This will cause your alertness to be exhausted.
zhang 24 - Recycling Qi
1 Enlarge your Heart and release it,
2 Expand your Qi and increase it,
3 Your body calm and unmoving;
4 You're able to hold to the one
and abandon the myriad distractions.
5 You see profit and are not tempted,
6 You see harm and do not fear;
7 Detached and relaxed, yet compassionate,
8 In solitude enjoying yourself,
9 This is called recycling Qi,
10 Your thoughts and actions are like heaven.
zhang 25 - Not Forcing
1 As for all human life,
2 It thrives within serenity.
3 Worry results in the loss of disipline,
4 Resentment results in the loss of equilibrium.
5 When worried or sad, fondly attached or resentful,
6 The Dao then is without abode.
7 Fondness and desire: still them,
8 Folly and confusion: correct them.
9 Do not pull, do not push,
10 Good fortune will naturally return,
11 The Dao will naturally come.
12 By this means you can rely on it.
13 Tranquility results in attaining it,
14 Impatience results in losing it.
zhang 26 - Dao of Tempering Desire
1 The ephemeral Qi within the Heart:
2 One moment it comes, one moment it departs.
3 So minute, it is without interior;
4 So great, it is without exterior.
5 Where we lose it
6 Is due to our impatience causing harm.
7 When the Heart maintains stillness,
8 Dao will naturally stabilize.
9 For people who attain Dao,
10 It pervades their structure to the tip of their hair.
11 At the center of their chest, nothing is lost.
12 Temper desire with Dao
13 And the myriad things will not trouble you.
translation © 2005 - shazi daoren
Notes:
some of these phrases were very difficult. some of them didn't quite align with philosophical taoism as we understand it today, but it certainly aligns with Huanglao thought.
it's very difficult to be unbiased in translation.
(I a missing the commentary I wrote for zhang 1-5). At the time I wrote this translation, my posts were all short lines, hence the way these comments are formatted below. Shazi Daoren is my pen name for commenting and translating chinese text. It literally means "Idiot Taoist", or "wayfaring fool".
zhang 6this is close to a literal translation
Heart is xin - heart/mind
zhang 7
the first three lines are quite terse
in chinese heaven-rule-align, etc.
i followed a bit of roth's approach
to solving this obliqueness.
zhang 8
this verse seems core to neiye
and equates jing and qi as the
object of alignment. such alignment
focuses on calmness, centered heart,
a specific awareness of eyes and ears,
and posture. then jing is able to
dwell and qi is able to flourish
(grow, flourish, be born, etc.) this
doesn't seem to result in emptiness
but rather a level of thought that
stops short of knowledge.
zhang 9
this is a very interesting verse.
the first two lines don't convey
the One theme as well as in the
chinese, where line 1 starts 'One thing'
and line 2 'One affair'. This focus
on 'One' is replete in this zhang.
The Master - junzi, is the same word
konzi uses as the 'superior man'.
i felt that the use of Master in 9.5
juxtaposed against the verb 'master' in 9.7
works very well.
I really like the concept the master
acts (not wei, but rather, shi) upon
things and is not acted upon was
an interesting concept. Although
the 'One' concept seems quite daoist,
the use of junzi and some of the
act on things don't be acted upon
may be a bit confucian.
zhang 10
harness, control, manage, govern
are all the same word in chinese.
yet the idea conveys better as
multiple words appropriate to the
object of each line.
The last two lines are a bit
enigmatic, and i've translated it
as close to the text as i could.
it's a powerful statement, perhaps
a bit of hyperbole, but yet the
idea of attaining dao in later
daojiao does empower the Master.
zhang 11
the Roth translation seems to ignore
line 6 which is 'tian ren di yi'
'heaven benevolence earth justice/righteousness'
roth has:
5 Align your body, assist the inner power,
6 Then it will gradually come on its own.
true, benevolence and righteousness
are distinctly confucian thoughts, yet
it makes more sense to contrast these
with the last line having a form of
'ziran' but not exactly 'self so'.
zhang 12
This is where the 'spirit' begins to take
some central importance in the neiye.
i spent two days thinking about one word
here - guan - "Government", translated in
line 4 and 5 as 'faculties'. roth translates it
'senses', which isn't quite it, as i see it,
it would be the government or constitution
of the body, your general health/faculties.
zhang 13
i left more words in this cut untranslated,
especially Jing, De, and Qi, meaning:
jing - the essence
De - Virtue
Qi - well, Qi, ch'i, Energy.
but some words, spirit/shen, heart/xin
i have translated. i'm just inconsistent
that way - dao ke dao.
zhang 14
this zhang is amazing, and amazingly
difficult to translate.
1-7 portray the 'dao is everywhere' concept
8-9 introduce the core teaching, that
dao is accessible only by what's in the Heart.
I did not translate Heart as Xin, although it
isn't quite heart either. it's heart/mind.
10-16 may be some of the most powerful
words I've read in daojia regarding the
centrality of what's in the heart/mind.
even to the point that the writer is
juxtaposing the conscious heart/mind
with the unconcious heart/mind, that
one, not sure which, controls the other.
17-23 show a descent from awareness
'mind'/yi through the embodiment
of ideas into actions and order.
i'm not sure this isn't more confucian
than daojia. there's definitely no wuwei
here, and sort of an exalting of order
and action.
zhang 15
i can't begin to express the beauty of the language here.
zhang 16
most of these lines are without pronouns.
hence, i could have said 'if i am able to...'
it's hard to tell whether 2 3 and 4 are
consequences of alignment and tranquility
or additional conditions to be met for 5 thru 8.
basically, 1-4 may set the stage for the
four 'greats' in 5-8.
in 4 and 6, there are references to
'great circle' and 'great square'.
roth puts 'of the heavens' and 'of the earth'
in brackets, but i simplified a bit here
in order to easily get the reference.
i still haven't made up my mind whether
it's better to say 'de' or 'Virtue'.
for some reason 'Virtue' in this zhang
feels better to me.
in 7 there's a word 'jian', which means
cheap or lowly, which i interpret as
abasing or humbling oneself.
in 12 there's a word 'qiong', which
means exhaust or poor, roth used 'exhaust',
but it doesn't seem to make sense in
context. draw from is a way to exhaust
something, which is what i used.
and the 'four directions' is an
idomatic expression, it actually says
the 'four ji' as in four ridgepoles or extremes.
we might say in archaic engllish,
'the four corners of the earth.'
this is all called 'inner virtue' neide.
what a concept! inner cultivation
results in inner virtue...
line 15 has 'ran er' so yet...
which together mean 'however'
in modern chinese. i felt this
combination made better sense,
yet these two last lines are
difficult at best to translate.
zhang 17
this starts, literally, 'all dao'
which can also be entirely dao.
to make sense of this in context
there are a set of six practices
that 'must' be one's discipline.
hence, i came back to
to be wholly (one with)
in accord with dao.
line 5 'excellence' is shan, good, good-at
i felt excellence a better fit,
the attribute of disciplined practice.
to say 'hold fast to the good'
would simply not fit.
Ultimate is 'ji' as in taiji, wuji.
the ridgepole.
once you know the taiji/wuji,
or in other words, the 'jis',
you return to daode.
very interesting thought.
zhang 18
line 1 could be entire heart exists in center.
but it seems to make better sense
in the light of earlier use of zhong/center,
to focus on the centered heart.
lines 2-8 are easy translations, quite literal.
lines 9-10 are quite close to literal,
line 10 first word is 'ji'
which might mean spreading hate or sickness
but in context, it seems better to say 'is louder than'
i suggest that ji is just a metaphor for being
disruptively loud. this would appear to
be an idiomatic axiom.
13 is a difficult translation.
16 and 18 have 'yi' - mind, idea, intention,
and given that 18 has both yi and xin,
i feel comfortable translating yi as mind
in most places here. Yi seems to be
the rational thinking mind.
the promises of all the world submitting
or listening are a bit hyperbolic here.
i think the writer is trying to get across
that by concentrating qi and aligning
the heart/mind, whatever an individual
can do naturally thereafter happens,
whereas forcing things without the
internal de/qi is simply a waste of
energy.
zhang 19
this is an amazing verse.
i don't have much to say about
the translation, for the most part
it came easily and is straightforward.
line 1 'like a spirit' is literally what it says.
then in lines 12 and 13, guishen
reappars 'spiritual being' - ghost spirit.
this is the disembodied jing in chapter 1.
in other words, no matter how much
one thinks about something,
you won't get it.
having qi concentrated from jing,
as would a spiritual being, one
simply understands stuff.
how does the human being do this?
aligning the body, calming the blood
(heart-beat) and breath, centering
the heart and mind through some
form of meditation (the neiye is
not specific as to what). this
will collect energy/qi, and align
the person's spirit with dao, attaining de.
in such a state, one can 'see the world'
without leaving his/her village.
zhang 20
the first four lines are causal pairs
of things resulting in something 'bad'
notice that 'knowledge' is in the
same class as worry, resentment, and disease.
the four 'bads' escalate to death.
it may be innocent enough to think and search,
but if you think about it, it will burn you up.
line 8 is quite funny, literally,
'no flea makes plans', which
also must be some sort of
idiomatic expression. seems more
appropriate to 'nip little things in the bud',
like several zhang of ddj.
lines 10 and 11 have dual negatives
in them, and it's easier to understand
in chinese than translate.
the idea is to eat and think moderately,
not as if (literally) you can't get enough.
line 13 literally says 'you will self realize'
it's a very powerful statement.
zhang 21 - 7-9
there's a theme here that i cannot quite translate
accurately. the theme is around the harmony
of dao, that its 'emotion' cannot be 'seen'
and it's 'note of chinese scale' cannot be 'completed'.
i'm sure red will see in this something about
sound meditation, and perhaps there is a
sense of how the harmony of dao isn't
quite like traditional sound or music.
the idea, however, conveys to me that there
is a futility in trying to see dao with one's eye's
or hear it with one's ears.
there is a translation of the chinese note
as a summons, summon it by a chance meeting
is an accurate translation. it also is similar
to some phrases in sunzi bingfa around summoning
information. in the end, i like where this landed.
fondness and resentment are also joy and anger
and were translated such in a previous zhang.
however, the joy here is really a fondness,
an attachment to people and things, not
the ecstasy found in meditation or 'true
happiness' whatever that may be.
given that fondness has its opposite in
resentment, and this anger is truly the
type directed toward others, then fondness
and resentment seem to translate better.
14 - make a determination - is actually
'make a plan', or lay it out on paper in
form of a diagram. i could argue that
daojia seems to be against making plans,
but in fact there are several zhang
in ddj around planning things when
they're small. so, instead of an elaborate
plan, which this isn't really talking about,
it's more about commitment.
a determination to do the type of
inner cultivation that rectifies the
dificiencies of one's training.
zhang 22 isn't hard to translate, i just
have a hard time with the premise
that one can use music and ritual
as a means of attaining stability.
that's a personal matter -- not that
i don't participate in ritual or music,
but rather whether such are consistent
with daojia. it really doesn't matter,
because in the context of these
writings, daojia and rujia are not
in conflict within neiye.
zhang 23 clearly is about balanced
diet between over- and undereating.
the problem lies in line 4, where the
words at the beginning, da she, is
really mean 'great absorbtion'.
all i can say is that it must be
idiomatic for undereating or great
fasting of some sort. the context
all clearly points to a mean between
overfilling and something else.
in line 15, the phrase begins with
'abalone', implying that when one
is in the presence of a food delicacy,
one has to be able to move away
from a type of sick envy. literally:
abalone - as a rule/result - sick envy - move.
in other words, don't let the lust for
fine food absorb you into a sick envy;
move away from it! All that is just
easier said move away from gluttony.
the last two lines might be better said,
but the translation here is pretty much
as written - this will cause (ci jiang).
zhang 24 is nearly a perfect
description of the result of neiye.
what is neiye? in my opinion,
any type of meditation where the
body maintains a relaxed alignment,
the chest expanded to allow for
deep breathing, an awareness yet
ability to detach from distraction.
to do this, one balances eating
sleeping, and the sense desires;
drawing upon Jing to cultivate
Qi, and Dao to cultivate De.
When you do this, when you're
with others you can be detached
and relaxed yet compassionate,
and when alone you can truly
enjoy yourself.
zhang 25 - so can all this be
trained? forced? hell no.
no pulling no pushing no
forcing at all. just let it flow
tranquility and serenity allow
'it' to stabilize. impatience,
literally, causes you to lose 'it'.
zhang 26 - ephemeral could
also be mysterious - it's kind of
like a dead spirit in the etymology
very temporary, but not necessarily
fleeting. i think 'ephemeral' captures
the idea.
line 6 hits impatience again.
key thought.
line 9 and 10 - those who 'attain',
dao pervades everything from
structure through hair. i could
ask 'how can one attain something
that is already everywhere?'.
yet there is no exact distinction
in neiye between dao/de/jing/qi.
whatever 'it' is, 'it' is forever
nameless, so these labels tend
not to be precise in their meaning
in the original, nor in translation.
the last two lines are poetic
without grammar
"Dao of tempering desire [resuts in]
10K things no trouble"
The titles of the "zhang" are mine, to kind of explain what's in them. zhang is a term to mean a block of text within a chapter comprised of verses.
zhang 1 - Jing - Essence
1 The Essence of all things
2 Thru transformation creates life.
3 Below, it brings to life the five grains,
4 Above, it aligns the stars.
5 When flowing among the heaven and earth,
6 We call this the 'spiritual being'.
7 When stored up in the center of the bosom,
8 We call this the Sage.
zhang 2 - Qi - Energy
1 Therefore, regarding 'Energy', it is:
2 Bright! as if ascending the sky;
3 Dark! as if entering into the abyss;
4 Disperse! as if existing in the ocean;
5 Present! as if existing in the self.
6 Therefore this Energy:
7 Cannot be stopped by force,
8 Yet can be pacified by Virtue,
9 Cannot be spoken by voice,
10 Yet can be embraced by the mind.
11 Reverently nurture it and do not let it go:
12 This is called 'developing Virtue'
13 When Virtue develops and wisdom emerges,
14 The myriad things will all be attained.
zhang 3 - Emotional Stress
1 All forms of the Heart
2 Are naturally infused, naturally filled,
3 Naturally generated, naturally completed.
4 They can become lost, out of place
5 Due to sorrow, happiness,
6 joy, anger, desire, or profit-seeking.
7 If you are able to cast off sorrow, happiness,
8 joy, anger, desire and profit-seeking,
9 Your Heart will return to its natural flow
10 The natural emotion of the Heart
11 Is beneficial calmness and tranquility.
12 Do not vex it, do not disturb it
13 And harmony will naturally develop.
zhang 4 - Dao - The Way
1 Clear! as though right by your side.
2 Vague! as though it will not be attained.
3 Indescribable! as though beyond the limitless.
4 The proof of this is not far off:
5 Daily we make use of its inner power.
6 The Way is what fills the body,
7 Yet people are unable to fix it in place.
8 It goes forth but does not return,
9 It comes back but does not stay.
10 Silent! none can hear its sound.
11 Present! it exists within the heart.
12 Obscure! we do not see its form.
13 Manifest! it arises with us.
14 Look at it and not see its form,
15 Listen to it and not hear its sound.
16 Yet there is a course to its accomplishments.
17 We call it the Way.
zhang 5 - Fei Chang Dao - The Way has no fixed position.
1 The Way has no fixed position;
2 In the cultivated Heart, it gracefully abides.
3 When the heart is calm and Energy aligned
4 The Way can thereby repose.
5 The Way is not distant from us;
6 When people attain it they are fruitful
7 The Way does not leave;
8 When people are in tune with it, they understand.
9 Thus it is present! as if you need but ask for it.
10 Remote! as if dissipated and is nowhere to be found.
11 The Way's sensation:
12 How can you be in tune with its sound?
13 Cultivate your Heart and you will resonate in tune.
14 The Way thereby can be attained
zhang 6 - Wuming Dao - The Way is Nameless
1 As for Dao,
2 The mouth is not able to speak of it
3 The eyes are not able to see it
4 The ears are not able to hear it
5 It is that which cultivates the Heart and aligns the body.
6 When people lose it they die
7 When they attain it they flourish.
8 When endeavors lose it they fail;
9 When they attain it they succeed.
10 Thus Dao is always without root without trunk
11 Without leaves without flowers.
12 The myriad things are generated by it;
13 The myriad things are completed by it.
14 We declare it 'Dao'.
zhang 7 "Ruling Principles"
1 Heaven's ruling principle is to be aligned.
2 Earth's ruling principle is to be level.
3 Humanity's ruling principles are grace and tranquility.
4 Spring, autumn, winter, and summer
5 These are heaven's seasons.
6 Mountains, hills, rivers, and valleys
7 These are earth's features.
8 Pleasure and anger, taking and giving
9 These are human devices.
10 Therefore the Sage
11 Changes with the seasons and doesn't transform them,
12 Yields to things and does not change them
zhang 8 "Alignment"
1 If able to be aligned, able to be calm,
2 Only then can you be stable.
3 With a stable heart within your bosom,
4 Eyes and ears acute and clear,
5 Four limbs firm and sure,
6 You can thereby make a dwelling-place for Essence.
7 As for Essence:
8 It is the Essence of Energy.
9 Energy's Dao is to flourish,
10 To flourish is to think
11 To think is to know
12 To know is where to stop.
13 All forms of the Heart
14 Crossing over to knowledge lose life.
zhang 9 "One"
1 Those able to transform One thing are called 'Spiritual';
2 Those able to change One affair are called 'wise'.
3 To transform without expending Energy;
4 To change without expending wisdom:
5 By grasping the One only the Master is able to do this!
6 Grasp the One; do not loose it,
7 And you will be able to master the myriad things.
8 The Master acts upon things,
9 And is not acted upon by things
10 Attain to the guiding principle of the One.
zhang 10 "managing"
1 Harness the Heart within your bosom
2 Control the words issuing forth from your mouth,
3 Manage affairs in concert with others.
4 Then it follows, the world will be governed.
5 "One word is attained, and the world submits"
6 So goes the saying.
zhang 11 "Aligning the Body"
1 When the body is not aligned,
2 De will not thrive.
3 When the center is not calm
4 The Heart will not be harnessed.
5 Align the body, collect De.
6 Leave to heaven benevolence and to earth justice--
7 These will naturally thrive on their own.
zhang 12 "Attaining the Center"
1 The Spirit comprehends the Ultimate;
2 Manifest! It understands the myriad things.
3 Hold it within your bosom, do not waver.
4 Do not let external things confuse your faculties
5 Do not let your faculties confuse your Heart
6 This is called 'attaining the center.'
zhang 13 "Stabilizing Jing"
1 The Spirit naturally abides in the body,
2 One moment it goes forward, one moment it comes back,
3 No one is able to think of it.
4 Losing it results in disorder
5 Attaining it results in order.
6 Reverently purify its dwelling-place,
7 And Jing will naturally arise.
8 Jing: put aside thinking of it,
9 Still your effort to control it.
10 Strictly and reverently venerate it
11 And Jing will naturally stablize.
12 Attain it and don't let it go,
13 Ears and eyes not overflow
14 Heart and mind without any scheme,
15 Align the Heart within the breast
16 And the myriad things will attain their full measure.
zhang 14 "The Heart within the Heart"
1 Dao fills all under heaven.
2 It exists everywhere that people are,
3 But people are unable to understand this.
4 One word explains it,
5 Ascending to reach the sky;
6 Descending to the limits of earth;
7 Replete throughout the nine provinces.
8 How can I speak or explain it?
9 It exists in the calm Heart.
10 When my Heart is harnessed, my faculties are ordered.
11 When my Heart is calm, my faculties are calmed.
12 What orders them is the Heart;
13 What calms them is the Heart.
14 The Heart is used to harbor the Heart
15 At the center of the Heart is another Heart,
16 The Heart within the Heart.
17 For awareness precedes words.
18 Awareness then leads to formed reality;
19 Formed reality then leads to words.
20 Words then lead to action;
21 Action then leads to order,
22 To not be ordered invariably leads to disorder.
23 Disorder leads to death.
zhang 15 "The Fount of Qi"
1 When Jing is preserved, it naturally grows.
2 Externally it will emanate.
3 Hidden inside, it becomes a primal spring
4 Abounding like a flood, it harmonizes and equalizes
5 It becomes a fount of Qi.
6 When the fount is not dried up,
7 The four limbs are firm.
8 When the spring is not drained,
9 The nine apertures freely circulate [Qi]
10 Then you are able to exhaust the universe,
11 And cover the four seas.
12 Within, when your mind is unconfused,
13 Without, there will be no disasters.
14 When your heart is whole within,
15 Your body will be whole without,
16 And you won't encounter natural disasters,
17 Or receive harm from others;
18 Call such 'Shengren'.
zhang 16 - Inner Virtue
1 If you are able to be aligned and tranquil,
2 Your skin will be supple and smooth,
3 Your ears and eyes will be acute and clear,
4 Your muscles will flex and your bones strong,
5 You will then be able to bear the Great Circle of heaven,
6 And tread over the Great Square of earth;
7 You will abase yourself with great purity,
8 Perceiving with great clarity.
9 Be reverently aware without wavering,
10 And you will daily renew your Virtue,
11 Completely comprehending the world,
12 Drawing from the Four Directions,
13 Reverently developing your wholeness.
14 This is called Inner Virtue.
15 However, should you not return to practice,
16 This will increase your instability.
zhang 17 - Practicing Dao
1 To be wholly in accord with Dao,
2 You must practice, you must focus,
3 You must expand, you must relax,
4 You must be firm, you must be regular.
5 Hold fast to excellence; do not let abandon it.
6 Chase away excess, let go of the trivial.
7 Once you know the Ultimate
8 You will return to Dao and De.
zhang 18 - Manifest Qi
1 When the whole Heart is centered,
2 It cannot be concealed or hidden.
3 It is apparent from your body's appearance,
4 It is visible by your skin color.
5 With good Qi, when you greet others,
6 They will be kinder than brothers and sisters.
7 With bad Qi, when you greet others,
8 They will harm you with force and weapons.
9 The sound of 'no-words'
10 Is louder than the thunder of a drum.
11 The perceptible form of the Heart's Qi
12 Is brighter than the sun and moon,
13 And more concerned than parents.
14 Rewards are not sufficient to encourage the good;
15 Punishments are not sufficient to discourage the bad.
16 The mind attains Qi,
17 And the world submits.
18 The Heart and mind stabilized,
19 And the world listens.
zhang 19 - Concentrating Qi
1 When you concentrate Qi like a spirit,
2 All things will support your existence.
3 Are you able to concentrate, able to be one with them?
4 Are you able to be without divining or counting stalks,
5 Yet know bad and good fortune?
6 Are you able to stop? Are you able to be yourself?
7 Are you able to not demand from others,
8 Yet attain it within yourself?
9 You think about it and think about it.
10 And again, deeply think about it.
11 You think about it, yet you can't fathom it.
12 A Spiritual Being will fathom it,
13 Not due to the Spiritual Being's power,
14 But due to the ultimate of Jing and Qi.
15 When your four limbs are aligned
16 Your blood and Qi are tranquil;
17 When your mind is one and your heart concentrated,
18 And your ears and eyes not distracted;
19 Even that which is most remote will be accessible.
zhang 20 - Self-Realization
1 Thinking and searching generate knowledge.
2 Laziness and ease generate worry.
3 Cruelty and arrogance generate resentment.
4 Worry and grief generate disease.
5 Disease then causes death.
6 When you think about it and don't let it go,
7 You will be internally distressed and externally weak.
8 Dont let little things become big plans,
9 Else life will abandon you.
10 Eat, but do not exceed your appetite,
11 Think, but do not overanalyze.
12 Temper and put these in balance,
13 And you will attain self-realization.
zhang 21 - Balance and Alignment
1 As for all human life,
2 Heaven brings forth its Jing/essence,
3 Earth brings forth its bodily form.
4 These join in order to make a person.
5 When in harmony, then there is life;
6 When not in harmony then there is no life.
7 In examining the Dao of harmony,
8 You cannot sense it by sight,
9 You cannot summon it by a chance meeting.
10 When balance and alignment fill your chest,
11 And respiration is governed within the heart,
12 This results in enhanced life.
13 When fondness and resentment cause you to lose stability,
14 Then make a determination
15 To restrict the five desires,
16 To remove these two misfortunes.
17 Do not be fondly attached, do not be resentful,
18 Let balance and alignment fill your chest.
zhang 22 - Stabilizing Your Nature
1 As for all human life,
2 It must flow from balance and alignment
3 Where we lose these,
4 Must be by fondness, resentment, worry and anxiety.
5 Therefore, to stop resentment there's nothing like poetry;
6 To cast aside worry there's nothing like music;
7 To temper music there's nothing like ritual;
8 To keep to ritual there's nothing like reverence;
9 To keep to reverence there's nothing like stillness.
10 When inwardly still and outwardly reverent
11 You are able to return to your nature
12 Your nature will become greatly stable.
zhang 23 - Dao of Eating
1 As for the Dao of eating,
2 Overeating harms the body
3 And brings misfortune
4 Undereating dries up the bones
5 And congeals the blood
6 The point between overeating and undereating:
7 This is called harmonious completion.
8 It is the where jing abides
9 And where wisdom is generated.
10 When hunger and eating lose balance,
11 Then make a determination
12 When full, move away from gluttony;
13 When hungry, expand your thoughts beyond food;
14 When old, abandon anxiety.
15 If you don't move away from gluttony,
16 Qi will not circulate within your extremities.
17 If when lusting food you dont expand your thoughts,
18 When you eat you will not stop.
19 If when old you dont abandon anxiety,
20 This will cause your alertness to be exhausted.
zhang 24 - Recycling Qi
1 Enlarge your Heart and release it,
2 Expand your Qi and increase it,
3 Your body calm and unmoving;
4 You're able to hold to the one
and abandon the myriad distractions.
5 You see profit and are not tempted,
6 You see harm and do not fear;
7 Detached and relaxed, yet compassionate,
8 In solitude enjoying yourself,
9 This is called recycling Qi,
10 Your thoughts and actions are like heaven.
zhang 25 - Not Forcing
1 As for all human life,
2 It thrives within serenity.
3 Worry results in the loss of disipline,
4 Resentment results in the loss of equilibrium.
5 When worried or sad, fondly attached or resentful,
6 The Dao then is without abode.
7 Fondness and desire: still them,
8 Folly and confusion: correct them.
9 Do not pull, do not push,
10 Good fortune will naturally return,
11 The Dao will naturally come.
12 By this means you can rely on it.
13 Tranquility results in attaining it,
14 Impatience results in losing it.
zhang 26 - Dao of Tempering Desire
1 The ephemeral Qi within the Heart:
2 One moment it comes, one moment it departs.
3 So minute, it is without interior;
4 So great, it is without exterior.
5 Where we lose it
6 Is due to our impatience causing harm.
7 When the Heart maintains stillness,
8 Dao will naturally stabilize.
9 For people who attain Dao,
10 It pervades their structure to the tip of their hair.
11 At the center of their chest, nothing is lost.
12 Temper desire with Dao
13 And the myriad things will not trouble you.
translation © 2005 - shazi daoren
Notes:
some of these phrases were very difficult. some of them didn't quite align with philosophical taoism as we understand it today, but it certainly aligns with Huanglao thought.
it's very difficult to be unbiased in translation.
(I a missing the commentary I wrote for zhang 1-5). At the time I wrote this translation, my posts were all short lines, hence the way these comments are formatted below. Shazi Daoren is my pen name for commenting and translating chinese text. It literally means "Idiot Taoist", or "wayfaring fool".
zhang 6this is close to a literal translation
Heart is xin - heart/mind
zhang 7
the first three lines are quite terse
in chinese heaven-rule-align, etc.
i followed a bit of roth's approach
to solving this obliqueness.
zhang 8
this verse seems core to neiye
and equates jing and qi as the
object of alignment. such alignment
focuses on calmness, centered heart,
a specific awareness of eyes and ears,
and posture. then jing is able to
dwell and qi is able to flourish
(grow, flourish, be born, etc.) this
doesn't seem to result in emptiness
but rather a level of thought that
stops short of knowledge.
zhang 9
this is a very interesting verse.
the first two lines don't convey
the One theme as well as in the
chinese, where line 1 starts 'One thing'
and line 2 'One affair'. This focus
on 'One' is replete in this zhang.
The Master - junzi, is the same word
konzi uses as the 'superior man'.
i felt that the use of Master in 9.5
juxtaposed against the verb 'master' in 9.7
works very well.
I really like the concept the master
acts (not wei, but rather, shi) upon
things and is not acted upon was
an interesting concept. Although
the 'One' concept seems quite daoist,
the use of junzi and some of the
act on things don't be acted upon
may be a bit confucian.
zhang 10
harness, control, manage, govern
are all the same word in chinese.
yet the idea conveys better as
multiple words appropriate to the
object of each line.
The last two lines are a bit
enigmatic, and i've translated it
as close to the text as i could.
it's a powerful statement, perhaps
a bit of hyperbole, but yet the
idea of attaining dao in later
daojiao does empower the Master.
zhang 11
the Roth translation seems to ignore
line 6 which is 'tian ren di yi'
'heaven benevolence earth justice/righteousness'
roth has:
5 Align your body, assist the inner power,
6 Then it will gradually come on its own.
true, benevolence and righteousness
are distinctly confucian thoughts, yet
it makes more sense to contrast these
with the last line having a form of
'ziran' but not exactly 'self so'.
zhang 12
This is where the 'spirit' begins to take
some central importance in the neiye.
i spent two days thinking about one word
here - guan - "Government", translated in
line 4 and 5 as 'faculties'. roth translates it
'senses', which isn't quite it, as i see it,
it would be the government or constitution
of the body, your general health/faculties.
zhang 13
i left more words in this cut untranslated,
especially Jing, De, and Qi, meaning:
jing - the essence
De - Virtue
Qi - well, Qi, ch'i, Energy.
but some words, spirit/shen, heart/xin
i have translated. i'm just inconsistent
that way - dao ke dao.
zhang 14
this zhang is amazing, and amazingly
difficult to translate.
1-7 portray the 'dao is everywhere' concept
8-9 introduce the core teaching, that
dao is accessible only by what's in the Heart.
I did not translate Heart as Xin, although it
isn't quite heart either. it's heart/mind.
10-16 may be some of the most powerful
words I've read in daojia regarding the
centrality of what's in the heart/mind.
even to the point that the writer is
juxtaposing the conscious heart/mind
with the unconcious heart/mind, that
one, not sure which, controls the other.
17-23 show a descent from awareness
'mind'/yi through the embodiment
of ideas into actions and order.
i'm not sure this isn't more confucian
than daojia. there's definitely no wuwei
here, and sort of an exalting of order
and action.
zhang 15
i can't begin to express the beauty of the language here.
zhang 16
most of these lines are without pronouns.
hence, i could have said 'if i am able to...'
it's hard to tell whether 2 3 and 4 are
consequences of alignment and tranquility
or additional conditions to be met for 5 thru 8.
basically, 1-4 may set the stage for the
four 'greats' in 5-8.
in 4 and 6, there are references to
'great circle' and 'great square'.
roth puts 'of the heavens' and 'of the earth'
in brackets, but i simplified a bit here
in order to easily get the reference.
i still haven't made up my mind whether
it's better to say 'de' or 'Virtue'.
for some reason 'Virtue' in this zhang
feels better to me.
in 7 there's a word 'jian', which means
cheap or lowly, which i interpret as
abasing or humbling oneself.
in 12 there's a word 'qiong', which
means exhaust or poor, roth used 'exhaust',
but it doesn't seem to make sense in
context. draw from is a way to exhaust
something, which is what i used.
and the 'four directions' is an
idomatic expression, it actually says
the 'four ji' as in four ridgepoles or extremes.
we might say in archaic engllish,
'the four corners of the earth.'
this is all called 'inner virtue' neide.
what a concept! inner cultivation
results in inner virtue...
line 15 has 'ran er' so yet...
which together mean 'however'
in modern chinese. i felt this
combination made better sense,
yet these two last lines are
difficult at best to translate.
zhang 17
this starts, literally, 'all dao'
which can also be entirely dao.
to make sense of this in context
there are a set of six practices
that 'must' be one's discipline.
hence, i came back to
to be wholly (one with)
in accord with dao.
line 5 'excellence' is shan, good, good-at
i felt excellence a better fit,
the attribute of disciplined practice.
to say 'hold fast to the good'
would simply not fit.
Ultimate is 'ji' as in taiji, wuji.
the ridgepole.
once you know the taiji/wuji,
or in other words, the 'jis',
you return to daode.
very interesting thought.
zhang 18
line 1 could be entire heart exists in center.
but it seems to make better sense
in the light of earlier use of zhong/center,
to focus on the centered heart.
lines 2-8 are easy translations, quite literal.
lines 9-10 are quite close to literal,
line 10 first word is 'ji'
which might mean spreading hate or sickness
but in context, it seems better to say 'is louder than'
i suggest that ji is just a metaphor for being
disruptively loud. this would appear to
be an idiomatic axiom.
13 is a difficult translation.
16 and 18 have 'yi' - mind, idea, intention,
and given that 18 has both yi and xin,
i feel comfortable translating yi as mind
in most places here. Yi seems to be
the rational thinking mind.
the promises of all the world submitting
or listening are a bit hyperbolic here.
i think the writer is trying to get across
that by concentrating qi and aligning
the heart/mind, whatever an individual
can do naturally thereafter happens,
whereas forcing things without the
internal de/qi is simply a waste of
energy.
zhang 19
this is an amazing verse.
i don't have much to say about
the translation, for the most part
it came easily and is straightforward.
line 1 'like a spirit' is literally what it says.
then in lines 12 and 13, guishen
reappars 'spiritual being' - ghost spirit.
this is the disembodied jing in chapter 1.
in other words, no matter how much
one thinks about something,
you won't get it.
having qi concentrated from jing,
as would a spiritual being, one
simply understands stuff.
how does the human being do this?
aligning the body, calming the blood
(heart-beat) and breath, centering
the heart and mind through some
form of meditation (the neiye is
not specific as to what). this
will collect energy/qi, and align
the person's spirit with dao, attaining de.
in such a state, one can 'see the world'
without leaving his/her village.
zhang 20
the first four lines are causal pairs
of things resulting in something 'bad'
notice that 'knowledge' is in the
same class as worry, resentment, and disease.
the four 'bads' escalate to death.
it may be innocent enough to think and search,
but if you think about it, it will burn you up.
line 8 is quite funny, literally,
'no flea makes plans', which
also must be some sort of
idiomatic expression. seems more
appropriate to 'nip little things in the bud',
like several zhang of ddj.
lines 10 and 11 have dual negatives
in them, and it's easier to understand
in chinese than translate.
the idea is to eat and think moderately,
not as if (literally) you can't get enough.
line 13 literally says 'you will self realize'
it's a very powerful statement.
zhang 21 - 7-9
there's a theme here that i cannot quite translate
accurately. the theme is around the harmony
of dao, that its 'emotion' cannot be 'seen'
and it's 'note of chinese scale' cannot be 'completed'.
i'm sure red will see in this something about
sound meditation, and perhaps there is a
sense of how the harmony of dao isn't
quite like traditional sound or music.
the idea, however, conveys to me that there
is a futility in trying to see dao with one's eye's
or hear it with one's ears.
there is a translation of the chinese note
as a summons, summon it by a chance meeting
is an accurate translation. it also is similar
to some phrases in sunzi bingfa around summoning
information. in the end, i like where this landed.
fondness and resentment are also joy and anger
and were translated such in a previous zhang.
however, the joy here is really a fondness,
an attachment to people and things, not
the ecstasy found in meditation or 'true
happiness' whatever that may be.
given that fondness has its opposite in
resentment, and this anger is truly the
type directed toward others, then fondness
and resentment seem to translate better.
14 - make a determination - is actually
'make a plan', or lay it out on paper in
form of a diagram. i could argue that
daojia seems to be against making plans,
but in fact there are several zhang
in ddj around planning things when
they're small. so, instead of an elaborate
plan, which this isn't really talking about,
it's more about commitment.
a determination to do the type of
inner cultivation that rectifies the
dificiencies of one's training.
zhang 22 isn't hard to translate, i just
have a hard time with the premise
that one can use music and ritual
as a means of attaining stability.
that's a personal matter -- not that
i don't participate in ritual or music,
but rather whether such are consistent
with daojia. it really doesn't matter,
because in the context of these
writings, daojia and rujia are not
in conflict within neiye.
zhang 23 clearly is about balanced
diet between over- and undereating.
the problem lies in line 4, where the
words at the beginning, da she, is
really mean 'great absorbtion'.
all i can say is that it must be
idiomatic for undereating or great
fasting of some sort. the context
all clearly points to a mean between
overfilling and something else.
in line 15, the phrase begins with
'abalone', implying that when one
is in the presence of a food delicacy,
one has to be able to move away
from a type of sick envy. literally:
abalone - as a rule/result - sick envy - move.
in other words, don't let the lust for
fine food absorb you into a sick envy;
move away from it! All that is just
easier said move away from gluttony.
the last two lines might be better said,
but the translation here is pretty much
as written - this will cause (ci jiang).
zhang 24 is nearly a perfect
description of the result of neiye.
what is neiye? in my opinion,
any type of meditation where the
body maintains a relaxed alignment,
the chest expanded to allow for
deep breathing, an awareness yet
ability to detach from distraction.
to do this, one balances eating
sleeping, and the sense desires;
drawing upon Jing to cultivate
Qi, and Dao to cultivate De.
When you do this, when you're
with others you can be detached
and relaxed yet compassionate,
and when alone you can truly
enjoy yourself.
zhang 25 - so can all this be
trained? forced? hell no.
no pulling no pushing no
forcing at all. just let it flow
tranquility and serenity allow
'it' to stabilize. impatience,
literally, causes you to lose 'it'.
zhang 26 - ephemeral could
also be mysterious - it's kind of
like a dead spirit in the etymology
very temporary, but not necessarily
fleeting. i think 'ephemeral' captures
the idea.
line 6 hits impatience again.
key thought.
line 9 and 10 - those who 'attain',
dao pervades everything from
structure through hair. i could
ask 'how can one attain something
that is already everywhere?'.
yet there is no exact distinction
in neiye between dao/de/jing/qi.
whatever 'it' is, 'it' is forever
nameless, so these labels tend
not to be precise in their meaning
in the original, nor in translation.
the last two lines are poetic
without grammar
"Dao of tempering desire [resuts in]
10K things no trouble"
