Revelation of the Mysterious Female

They say a picture paints a thousand words. However if viewers or admirers do not understand the meanings behind the picture, it may look strange, religious, or inexplicable. Adepts down the ages are supposed to know yet many do not.

The meaning is even difficult for top class scholars to understand, yet those of the third class make misleading statements on femininity or laugh at the picture. The in betweens – the middle class scholars - not making anything out of it may keep the picture hidden.
(Refer to TTC 41)

“This picture will be found in the original edition of the Leng Yen Ching (Shurangama Sutra). But the ignorant monks who did not recognize the hidden meaning and knew nothing about the embryo of the Tao have for this reason made the mistake of leaving this picture out. I only found out through the explanations of the adepts that the Julai (Tathagata) knows real work on the embryo of the Tao.”
[Hui Ming Ching – W/B]

In case, neidan practitioners, Daoist and Buddhist scholars still do not understand the meaning behind the picture, let us see what Laozi and later adepts have to say:

Being and non -being produce each other.
[TTC 2]

The Valley Spirit die not, likewise the Mysterious Female. The door of the mysterious female is the root of Heaven and Earth.
[TTC 6]

When the heaven gate (Tai Chi) opens and closes, can you act like the (receptive and mysterious) female?
[TTC 10]

When one begins to apply this magic it is as if, in the middle of being, there were non-being.
[Secret of the Golden Flower]

Ten months the embryo is under fire.
[Hui Ming Ching]

The Zhouyi, Buddhist sutras, Daoist classics and texts, cannot be wholly understood with just the intellect. It requires penetrating clarity obtained through years of studies, related cultivation and practice. Such cultivation and practice have existed before the establishment of religion(s), is it not?
(Think Yi divinations, cultivation of virtues, and neidan meditation)

Neidan adepts having gone beyond the practice of Xinzhai, Wu Wei, and who are nearing or have reached the Center – the root of Heaven and Earth - will be able to relate their experience of the Mysterious Female. Not otherwise.

Only those who do not know, will speak or try to teach how to reach this phenomenon. The adepts who have experienced the phenomena of both the valley spirit and the mysterious female remain hidden, since they know they have yet to acquire the lucidity of a sage.

In case, one is blamed for revealing too much, one would say that nothing much has been revealed, what with the balance of the thousand words!

The truth has been lying around for the past few thousand years for earnest and sincere students to investigate. Only upon thorough investigation and cultivation can a sincere student be the right person.
(Think of the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean)

Therefore if anyone comes by without fully investigating things and ask for further clarification on the Mysterious Female, this student’s answer would be: ‘How would I know?’

Tao Te Ching Chapter 6

Many Daoists and scholars over the two and half millennia would have spent much time trying to decipher what Laozi had meant to say in his Tao Te Ching. And most after spending years of reading would obtain a correct impression that the classic in the main discuss metaphysics and meditation.

However the Huang-Lao (Huangdi and Laozi) tradition, which involved meditation and the cultivation to be good, was perhaps abandoned by various Daoist sects formed during the late Han dynasty or later. Unlike the better known Huang-Lao Daoists: Yu Ching, Zhuangzi, Zhang Liang and others, these sects started to explore other means such as waidan (outer alchemy) while deviant sects explored sexual alchemy to attain immortality. Some sects for example Mao Shan chose to follow the thoughts of lesser sages such as Zhuangzi to attain Tao.

It therefore meant that few really understood what the great sage Laozi said about Tao and virtues (Te) in the Tao Te Ching. Otherwise Daoists would have concentrated on dual cultivation like what the Quanzhen sect practises and not ventured into various ‘New Age’ thingies – which include waidan and sexual alchemy, while ardent followers of Zhuangzi follow him to reject outright the cultivation of virtues deemed Confucian.

In the first verse of TTC Chapter Six, Laozi mentioned about the Valley Spirit and the Mysterious Female. One had seen many Daoists in the web attempting to impress upon others what these metaphors really meant, especially on the Mysterious Female which some say is a way of life and for men to act feminine!

Of course, no student can be said to be utterly misleading since all attempted to grasp their true meaning. It would have been easier to understand the two metaphors if we cultivate Tao or have real teachers. But not many really cultivate or lucky enough to have teachers who happened to be heavenly immortals or Buddhas.

The same would probably apply to the various TTC translators even though some had studied under Daoist and/or Buddhist teachers for several years in the East. Just like Daoists down the ages, if they or their teachers are not there yet, they would not have a clue to what Laozi really meant in Chapter Six. Thus they too remain blameless unless they intend to mislead or make false claims.

Valley Spirit and the Mysterious Female are real phenomena, not a way of life which the unlearned tend to believe or claim. Only when neidan practitioners have reached or about to reach the Center will they realize what the metaphors truly mean. Not otherwise.

In the Diagram of the Primal Integration of yin yang, the mysterious female is depicted in the Center surrounded by the eight trigrams while the valley and the spirit are written on the top and the bottom of the circular diagram respectively. Perhaps the Daoist who drew this diagram knew the secrets.

Does this not speak highly of the ancient sage, Laozi who wrote this Chapter more than 2,500 years ago? If he had not revealed these two phenomena for posterity, would neidan practitioners down the ages know that they are real and indeed exist?

With this brief explanation on the valley spirit and the mysterious female, let me render a simple translation of TTC 6:

The Valley Spirit die not, likewise the Mysterious Female.

The door of the mysterious female is the root of Heaven and Earth.

Continuously it seems to exist, use it without exertion.


As usual please take my translation with a pinch of salt.

PS
There will be no entertainment of questions on the phenomena, lest a wanderer come to steal the thunder (read cow), the third line of Wu Wang / Innocence!

Deeper implications of Wu Wei

The manifestation of the spirit can be considered the pinnacle of an artist in any discipline (martial arts, painting etc). The Chinese call this manifestation of the spirit as ‘Chu Shen Jin Fa’ (Exit spirit, Enter magic), which depicts the purest form of Wu Wei.

For the students of neidan and Tao, in TTC 2 where Laozi mentioned ‘being’ and ‘non being’, he could have meant human and spirit respectively.

Therefore if the non being leads the being the artist manages affairs without doing anything. Since he or she needs to do nothing and everything gets done.

Only when the non being exits into emptiness is the being, enlightened.

When being is produced by non being, nirvana is reached – the enlightened becomes a Buddha or a heavenly immortal.

Therein lays the different steps of the art of Wu Wei for a neidan practitioner or Daoist dual cultivator.

Of course before the spirit can manifest, a student got to work very hard at it! That is an open secret, yet without exception, it applies to all students.


Related entries: ‘Chu Shen Jin Fa’, The Art of Wu Wei, Enlightenment.

Enlightenment

Happy Vesak Day to all Buddhist readers! Vesak Day happens to fall on May 1 this year.

One of the triple gem celebrations is that of Buddha’s enlightenment. The other two gems are that of his birth and his death.

While many Daoists and Buddhists especially in the East understand what the true meaning of enlightenment is, there will still be some who would give a differing view on the web or in forums.

Some believers or non believers may want you to believe that a realization of a thought or a koan during meditation gives rise to enlightenment! If enlightenment was that easy, many fellow travelers down the ages would have become Buddhas or Daoist immortals.

The published picture extracted from 'The Secret of the Golden Flower [W/B]' depicts the enlightenment of a neidan adept who had reached stage three of the meditation practice. Those who had seen movies and/or read books on Buddha’s life, practice and enlightenment may probably understand its meaning better.

The Art of Wu Wei

Daoists often dispute over what actually constitutes ‘Wu Wei’ which can be translated as ‘without doing anything’, ‘non action’ or ‘no need for action’. Free thinkers like to think that with Wu Wei there is no need for any action, a reason why they are attracted to Tao in the first place, while the better informed say there is required action before non action can arise.

Laozi first discussed Wu Wei in Chapter 2 of his Tao Te Ching. He indicated that ‘being’ and ‘non being’ produces each other. Just as difficult and easy complement each other; long and short contrast each other; back and front follow each other. Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing anything -Wu Wei- and conveys his instructions without the use of speech.

Whence can sages manage affairs without doing anything (Wu Wei), and convey instructions without the use of speech?

Probably you may already know the answer to the question. However few including translators of the TTC seemed to have the necessary experience and aptitude to know the answer. Otherwise they would have the clarity to tell us where and how to achieve the state of ‘Wu Wei’.

If people use their intellect to try to understand what Laozi wrote in Chapter 2 on Wu Wei, they may take forever and yet get no nearer to the truth of what the great sage had indicated. At such times, Daoists could better understand Wu Wei if they rely on what Daoist heavenly immortals – true representatives of Tao as compared to humans - had pointed to. And Buddhists can rely on Buddha if they do not want to follow the pointing of Daoist immortals.

In his Secret of the Golden Flower, Lu Dongbin said :
When the light is made to move in a circle, all the energies of heaven and earth, of the light and the dark, are crystallized. When one begins to apply this magic it is as if, in the middle of being, there were non being. When in the course of time the work is completed, and beyond the body there is a body, it is as if, in the middle of non being, there were being.

The book Leng Yen (Shurangama Sutra) says:
By collecting the thoughts one can fly and will be born in heaven. If one keeps this up for a long time there develops quite naturally, in addition to the body, yet another spirit-body.
[Secret of the Golden Flower – W/B]

Now that is Wu Wei but how many people down the ages understood it?

For those who sit and forget, movement of the wondrous breath (Qi) may one day enable them to develop non being from being. Upon reaching such a state, they may come to realize that the sage can manage affairs without doing anything – Wu Wei.

Did Laozi and Buddha really give direct instructions on how to achieve the Art of Wu Wei? No. Just like the Daoist heavenly immortals that came later, heaven’s secrets cannot simply be revealed. That is why both ancients, who knew heaven and earth well, are great sages!

If ardent followers of Wang Bi disagree to what is written, do not shoot the messenger. If only he had lived longer than his twenty four years of life and practiced neidan, perhaps Wang Bi may have cause to agree on what is written in this entry on non being, being, and Wu Wei. How would I know?

Cheerio!