Someone who focuses on the internal is not interested in fame.
Someone who focuses on the external is intent on gaining whatever he can.
The one who does things which bring no glory, shines brightly in all he does.
One who looks to make gains at any cost is just a trader.
Others see he is just standing on tiptoe, but he thinks he is above all others.
Someone who struggles to succeed gets worn out, while someone who doesn’t really mind can’t be possessed by such forces.
To exclude others is to show lack of concern and not to be concerned with others means that everyone is a stranger.
There is no weapon more lethal than the will – even Mo Yeh was inferior to it.
There are no greater adversaries than yin and yang, because nothing in Heaven or on Earth escapes them.
But it is not yin and yang that do this, it is your heart that makes it so.
The Tao is in all things, in their divisions and their fullness. What I dislike about divisions is that they multiply, and what I dislike about multiplication is that it makes people want to hold fast to it. So people go out and forget to return, seeing little more than ghosts. They go forth and, to be sure, they say they have laid hold of something, but it is in fact what we call death. They are killed off and gone, just like a ghost. It is only when the formed learns from the unformed that there is understanding.
There is something which exists, though it emerges from no roots, it returns through no opening. It exists but has no place; it survives yet has no beginning nor end. Though it emerges through no opening, there is something which tells us it is real. It is real but it has no permanent place: this tells us it is a dimension of space. It survives, but has no beginning nor end: this tells us it has dimensions of time. It is born, it dies, it emerges, it returns, though in its emergence and return there is no form to be seen. This is what we call the Heavenly Gate. The Heavenly Gate is non-existence, and all forms of life emerge from non-existence. That which exists cannot cause things to exist. They all arise from non-existence. Non-existence is the oneness of non-existence. This is the hidden knowledge of the sages.
In former times people had a knowledge which was almost perfect. How nearly perfect? Some of them thought that in the beginning there was nothing and that the future brings nothing. There were others who believed that there was something in the beginning, and they saw life as decline and death as return, so they began to make divisions. Yet others said that at the beginning there was Non-Existence. Later there was life and with life there came immediately death. We believe non-existence to be the head, life the body and death the buttocks. Those who know that life and death are all One, we are all friends together. These three different perspectives, while diverging, belong to the same dynasty but are like the Chao and Ching families whose names show the line of succession and the Chu family whose name comes from its lands: they are not the same.
From the grime you have life, and when the grime is different in form, it is called different. You try to express this difference in words, though this is not a subject for words. But it is certain that this is not something you can understand. At the Winter Sacrifice you can indicate the intestines and the hooves of the sacrifice as being separate, yet they shouldn’t be viewed as separate sacrifices. When someone visits a house they are thinking of buying, they inspect the whole house, from the ancestor shrines to the toilets, evaluating each part separately but also as a whole.
I will try to describe this discernment. It is rooted in life and has knowledge as its teacher, and from there proceeds to debate right and wrong. For example, we have fame and fortune, with people thinking they can determine what is really important. People think that they are the model of propriety and therefore try to make others see them like this, even to the point of dying for their views. These kinds of people believe that being an official means you are wise, and not being an official means you are a fool. They consider success as meaning they are famous and failure as being a disgrace. The people of this generation who follow this method are like the cicada and the little dove: they agree because they are the same.
If someone treads on another person’s foot in the marketplace, he apologizes profusely for the accident. If an older brother treads on the foot of a younger brother, he comforts him. If a parent treads on a child’s foot, there is no need to ask for forgiveness. There is a saying:
‘Perfect behaviour does not discriminate amongst people;
perfect righteousness takes no account of things;
perfect knowledge makes no plans;
perfect benevolence exhibits no emotion;
perfect faith makes no oath of sincerity.’
Suppress the whims of the will and untie the mistakes of the heart.
Expunge the knots of Virtue,
unblock the flow of the Tao.
Honours and wealth,
distinctions and authority,
fame and gain,
these six are formed by the illusions of the will.
Looks and style,
beauty and reason,
thrill of life and memories,
these six are the faults of the heart.
Hatred and desire,
joy and anger,
sadness and happiness,
these six are the knots of Virtue.
Rejection and acceptance,
giving and taking,
knowledge and ability,
these six are the impediments to the free flow of the Tao.
When these four sets of six no longer trouble the breast,
then you will be centred.
Being centred, you will be calm.
Being calm, you will be enlightened.
Being enlightened, you will be empty.
Being empty, you will be in actionless action,
But with actionless action nothing remains undone.
The Tao is the centrepiece of
