March 2009

Commentary

Today this chapter speaks to the experience of consciousness more directly than it ever has before (or so it feels like today).  The constant feels like my mind’s mirror, its consciousness neither pulled or pushed by emotion. Returning to root causes is only temporary, for the emotional  impact of everything ‘out there’, (the teaming, myriad creatures), waxes forth again soon enough. So, I enjoy it while I can!

Answering to one’s destiny is an odd concept perhaps, especially as we feel that time moves forward. This is nature’s greatest hoodwink. Turning back is how the way moves, but we are not biologically set up to feel that. Correlations allows us to peak into this. Consider these few:

ACTIVE	PASSIVE
energy	time
future	past
illusion	real
forward	behind
clear	obscure.

It appears that what we call ‘time’ is actually energy moving forward through time turning back. (It’s spooky enough to raise the hair on the back of one’s head.)  Life insists we be forward looking and active, resisting entropy every moment of life. The bio-illusion (the innate, biology based hoodwink) that drives us moving forward is a visceral sense that we will become whole and fulfilled once we satiate our most pressing  desire of the moment.

Devoting effort to emptiness and sincerely watching stillness doesn’t seem to lead forward and fulfill our desires.  Our difficulty lies in not knowing that the way that leads forward seems to lead backward. And so we rush forward into the future thinking the answer must lie ‘out there’. Off balance, we feel even more desperate to make ‘everything out there’ fulfill our desires and make whole our destiny.

Simply said, we yearn for the constant yet pursue ‘everything out there‘, none of which are constant. i.e., The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way. The more we expect ‘out there‘ to be constant, the less content and more numerous our desires.  Certainly, all life is driven by this emotional hoodwink.  However, our superior thinking mind / brain turns this emotional hoodwink into an illusion which then feeds back upon emotion. We easily end up going around in circles… neurotic vicious circles!

The great image has no shape; the answer is the question. Yet we are compelled to nail down an answer. How can we ever feel secure when we settle for the answer that can be nailed down (named), or the image that has a shape? Impartiality is beyond reach as long as we impose a shape upon the constant. Never feeling secure in our destiny, we are then driven to hold even more tightly to ‘everything’, to ‘God’, or whatever else we name ‘it’.

Translation

Devote effort to emptiness, sincerely watch stillness.
Everything  ‘out there’ rises up together, and I watch again.
Everything ‘out there’, one and all, returns again to their root cause.
Returning to the root cause is called stillness, this means answering to one’s destiny;
Answering to one’s destiny is called the constant, knowing the constant is called honest.
Not knowing the constant, rash actions lead to ominous results.
Knowing the constant allows, allowing therefore impartial,
Impartial therefore whole, whole therefore natural,
Natural therefore the way.
The way therefore long enduring, nearly rising beyond oneself.

send (extend; devote effort to) void (emptiness) the utmost point (extreme; pole) defend (keep watch) still (quiet) sincere (earnest).

ten thousand (myriad) thing (matter; the outside world) and (furthermore, simultaneously) do (make; rise; get up; write), I (we) use (take; according to; as well as) look at (watch; observe) duplicate (answer; recover; again).

husband (man) thing (matter; the outside world)  all (every) each (every; various)  duplicate (answer; recover; again) return (converge) his (its; their; that; such) root (base; cause; origin).

return (converge)  root (base; cause; origin) say (call; name) still (quiet; calm), this (that) say (call; name; meaning; sense)  duplicate (answer; recover; again)  life (lot; destiny; order).

duplicate (answer; recover; again)  life (lot; destiny; order) say (call; name) ordinary (normal; constant),  know (realize; be aware of; tell) ordinary (normal; constant) say (call; name) bright (light; distinct; open; honest).

not know (realize; be aware of; tell) ordinary (normal; constant), absurd (preposterous; presumptuous; rash) do (make; rise; get up; write) ominous (crop failure;  terrible).

know (realize; be aware of; tell) ordinary (normal; constant) allow (contain; hold), allow (contain; hold) be (so; therefore; only then; you)  common (public; impartial; just),

common (public; impartial; just) be (so; therefore; only then; you) complete (whole; entire; full), complete (whole; entire; full) be (so; therefore; only then; you)  sky (heaven; nature),

sky (heaven; nature) be (so; therefore; only then; you)  road (way, principle; speak; think).

road (way, principle; speak; think) be (so; therefore; only then; you)  for a long time (long), sink (rise beyond; disappear; hide; die) body (life; oneself; personally) not danger (nearly almost).

Original

致虚极守静笃。
万物并作，
吾以观复。
夫物芸芸各复归其根。
归根曰静，
是谓复命；
复命曰常，
知常曰明。
不知常，
妄作凶。
知常容，
容乃公，
公乃全，
全乃天，
天乃道，
道乃久，
没身不殆。