When people spend ten years or more of their lives studying and practising an art form, for example, martial arts, yoga and/or qigong exercises, they consider themselves masters of that art.
In comparison people who have spent decades in the study and cultivation of Tao and/or reading the Book of Changes still consider themselves, students. Why?
For the subjects of Tao and the Yi are vast and profound.
Grasping a meaning or two from the Confucian books and the ancient classics whether Confucian, Daoist, or Buddhist, does not mean we know much about Tao and the Yi.
We are often humbled by the new meanings that spring up from these books and classics upon further readings even after decades of studies and practice. Such is the case probably with Confucius, one of the ancient sages, who have had read the Yi.
Until we attain spiritual clarity through neidan (inner alchemy), there are still many hidden secrets or truths in these ancient books and classics waiting to be revealed to the right person(s) or the Junzi. (A note to translators of Daoist classics or texts, wisdom or zhi in pinyin is not spiritual clarity. Do not mix up the two different meanings.)
In the ‘Simple notes on Hexagram Fu / Return’ on May 1, 2006, I have written something for neidan practitioners and Yi aficionados.
It matters not if readers understand the significance of the hint or not, but it pays for neidan practitioners who have already progressed to see the various signposts of the Way as indicated in the ancient classics, sutras, and Daoist texts (of Zhong LiQuan, Lu Dongbin and Zhang Boduan in particular) to remember this well:
“Friends come without blame. To and fro goes the Way. On the seventh day comes return." This is the course of heaven.
[Commentary on the Decision of Hexagram Fu - W/B]
Guess what? I would not be the one to reveal the secret or truth.
All I wish to add for Yi aficionados and neidan practitioners is that the hidden secret or truth could be related to the bottom and the top line(s) of hexagram Fu. But how would I know?
Cheerio!
4 comments:
do you think lao tzu was promoting complexity and impenetrable mystery with tao te ching?
do you think simplicity is the key?
to touch nothing, hold nothing, remember nothing, want nothing, see nothing, imagine nothing, know nothing...
...be nothing.
Mr. Crow, it is not simplicity vs complexity; but pretentiousness vs humbleness. Allan, this is serious (as a Taoist to a Taoist), a quote from 天仙金丹心法： ...面時即大言無忌，問及切要，左支而右吾。抑或捫舌不談，故作深藏之志...一墮朮中，受害無底。
My friend, 囘頭是岸!
PS: Mr. Crow, it is difficult to translate the quote. Anyway, Neidan (or Taoist Yoga) is indeed a complex and difficult discipline. Taoist masters starting from Grandmaster Lui tried their best using written words to explain the practice. Yet, then and now, as the master said something like this in the quote: those who intentionally mystify does more harm than good (or they don't know anything at all or try to deceive).
PS1: My previous occasional comments on Neiden is actually in plain prose (its difficulty is due to the complexity of the subject).
PS2: Taoism (or Lao Tsu-ism) is NOT just do(be)-nothing philosophy...
well explained.
thank you.
that is why i am not a taoist,
but a fool.
a fool knows enough to be one.
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