Tao in Stillness

[Uncle Screwtape]

I have a question about the Early Heaven sequence of trigrams. I have always known it as Tao in Stillness, but recently I have been disagreed with. The heart of the disagreement seems to me that 'Tao in Stillness' is misleading because while the trigrams themselves are not in motion, there is an exchange of energy between them. I think that is correct, though I am not sure, so thought I'd get some extra opinions.

 

Thank you!

 

Richard

[Marblehead]

Tao is dynamic. You know that.

 

Peace & Love!

[Uncle Screwtape]

Tao is dynamic. You know that.

 

Peace & Love!

 

It is, but that doesn't really answer my question. There is more to it. But thank you.

 

Richard

[Apech]

I have a question about the Early Heaven sequence of trigrams. I have always known it as Tao in Stillness, but recently I have been disagreed with. The heart of the disagreement seems to me that 'Tao in Stillness' is misleading because while the trigrams themselves are not in motion, there is an exchange of energy between them. I think that is correct, though I am not sure, so thought I'd get some extra opinions.

 

Thank you!

 

Richard

 

 

Hi,

 

Have you read Eva Wong's Cultivating Stillness. In this book the Earlier Heaven is described as follows:

 

"The pa-k'ua of Earlier Heaven describes an ideal state of existence, when everything is in harmony and connected to the Tao." - pg xix intro

 

In Chapter 12 "Stillness and Original Nature" it says this:

 

"When yang reaches its zenith, yin is born. When you are absolutely still, everything is at rest. When yin reaches its zenith, yang is born. When pure yang emerges, your intuition will pierce through all that is impermanent. All meridians will flow toward the Origin, and the five virtues of Earlier Heaven will emerge." p. 76

 

I don't know if this helps with your question and I can't find a reference to Earlier Heaven as stillness but it seems from this book that yin and yang (or Heaven and Earth) are in a state of mutual harmony where they feed each other so to speak - giving energy and stillness together.

 

Cheers.

 

A.

Edited January 19, 2010 by apepch7

[Uncle Screwtape]

Thank you, apech. I have read at least one Eva Wong book. I'll have to get hold of that one. From what you say it seems my understanding is not too far off: an exchange of energy within stillness.

 

Richard

[Raz]

It is, but that doesn't really answer my question. There is more to it. But thank you.

 

Richard

 

365 Tao (by Deng Ming-Dao) # 18

 

Spectrum

 

Pure light is all colors.

Therefore, it has no hue.

Only when singleness is scattered

Does color appear.

 

When we see pure sunlight streaming down upon us, it is a pure radiance so bright that we can discern neither details nor hues from its source. But when light strikes the gossamer wings of a dragonfly, or when it shines through misty rain, or even when it shines on the surface of our skin, it is polarized into millions of tiny rainbows. The world explodes with color because all the myriad surfaces and textures fracture the light into innumerable, overlapping dimensions.

 

The same is true of Tao. In its pure state, it embodies everything. Thus, it shows nothing. Just as pure light has all colors yet shows no color, so too is all existence initially latent and without differentiation in Tao. Only when Tao enters our world does it explode into myriad things. We say that everything owes its existence to Tao. But really, these things are only refractions of the great Tao.

 

Colored light, when mixed together, becomes pure, bright light again. That is why those who follow Tao constantly speak of returning. They unify all areas of their lives and unify all distinctions into a whole. There cannot be diversity within unity. When our consciousness rejoins the true Tao, there is only brightness, and all color disappears.

[Taomeow]

I have a question about the Early Heaven sequence of trigrams. I have always known it as Tao in Stillness, but recently I have been disagreed with. The heart of the disagreement seems to me that 'Tao in Stillness' is misleading because while the trigrams themselves are not in motion, there is an exchange of energy between them. I think that is correct, though I am not sure, so thought I'd get some extra opinions.

 

Thank you!

 

Richard

The person who says there's exchange of energy between them may want to define "energy" before I could answer that.

 

In the Earlier Heaven sequence, there's "opening and closing" within each trigram, matched by "closing and opening" of an opposite trigram. Imagine a door that is being open from one side and closed with equal "energy" from the other side. Is there motion in the door in this position? Experiment and tell me what you think!

 

"Opening and closing" are traditional translations (Wilhelm) for yin and yang, but they can also be understood as "up and down," "heavy and light," "pulling in and pushing out," "going back and going forward," any number of opposing balancing forces. If they are balanced perfectly, there's no motion. If there's no motion, there's no energy flow. If there's no energy flow, tao is in stillness. Yet -- importantly, very very importantly (because other modalities have superimposed their very different view on this process more than once), it is never separate from tao in motion. It's not step one followed by step two, stillness followed by motion ISO return once and for all to stillness. Nothing of the kind in the taoist model. It's both steps simultaneously taking place at all times in all places and at all non-times in all non-places.

 

"Therefore they called the closing of the gates the Receptive, and the opening of the gates the Creative. The alternation between closing and opening they called change. The going forward and backward without ceasing they called penetration. What manifests itself visibly they called an image; what has bodily form they called a tool. What is established in usage they called a pattern. That which furthers on going out and coming in, that which all men live by, they called the divine." -- Ta Chuan (with Wilhelm's obligatory "man" replacing the original's "person." )

 

So what is present is called "that which," not "energy," because "the divine" is not "energy flow," it's "that which" is useful to mediate on but hard to articulate. Stillness in motion and motion in stillness -- "a flow that doesn't flow, a non-flowing that flows," stillness is not really, motion is not really, all reality is thereby real... stillness is motion, motion is stillness... and words give up. Try the images, and try meditating on them. Me, that's how I got it, to the extent I got it.

[voidisyinyang]

You got some interesting responses. Chunyi Lin uses the I Ching to do readings but he says that you have to have the third eye fully open to properly use the I Ching.

 

I have a question about the Early Heaven sequence of trigrams. I have always known it as Tao in Stillness, but recently I have been disagreed with. The heart of the disagreement seems to me that 'Tao in Stillness' is misleading because while the trigrams themselves are not in motion, there is an exchange of energy between them. I think that is correct, though I am not sure, so thought I'd get some extra opinions.

 

Thank you!

 

Richard