Nei Yeh Ch. 22 "As for the vitality of all human beings"

[manitou]

CHAPTER 22

 

As for the vitality of all human beings:

It inevitable occurs because of balanced and aligned (breathing).

The reason for its loss

Is inevitably pleasure and anger, worry and anxiety.

Therefore, to bring your anger to a halt, there is nothing better than poetry;

To cast off worry there is nothing better than music;

To limit music there is nothing better than rites;

To hold onto the rites there is nothing better than reverence;

To hold onto reverence there is nothing better than tranquility.

When you are inwardly tranquil and outwardly reverent

You are able to return to your innate nature

And this nature will become greatly stable.

[manitou]

This chapter strikes me a little because it shows how the physical is able to get the mental under control. It shows how the mental reverence (balance?) bleeds away because of the seemingly anxious situations we place ourselves in. Or, in some cases, our choice of perception. How very easy it is to get anxious at today's affairs and let the news of the world bleed our balance away. We must always keep in mind that these items are merely the perceptions of others that we are seeing; that for every anxious moment we have worrying about something, there is something equally wonderful on the other end of the scale that we're ignoring. We choose to live in fear, seems to be our path - until we figure out otherwise.

 

It seems that life has provided us with the things that return us to harmony, if we choose to alter our inner course. Music, poetry, rites - those things that filter out the inharmonious and send us back to the One. Total focus on something other than the perceived problem.

 

When you are inwardly tranquil and outwardly reverent

You are able to return to your innate nature

And this nature will become greatly stable.

 

I like this part a lot. To return to our innate nature is to return to the child's mindset. Not in the sense that we become petulant, demanding, and cry easy. In the sense that we have made no judgment and everything out there is 'good', in the mind of the child. Until his parents teach him their fears and he starts adopting them. To be able to reach out to each and every of the 10,000 things without having to either express "Ugh", or "Ahhh". The place of non-differentiation is where the balance of the Tao is found.

[Informer]

I think that it is saying that:

 

By continually seeking peace, (through self inquiry) peace will become you. (it is your nature)

Edited May 25, 2012 by Informer

[Osalina]

This chapter strikes me a little because it shows how the physical is able to get the mental under control. It shows how the mental reverence (balance?) bleeds away because of the seemingly anxious situations we place ourselves in. Or, in some cases, our choice of perception. How very easy it is to get anxious at today's affairs and let the news of the world bleed our balance away. We must always keep in mind that these items are merely the perceptions of others that we are seeing; that for every anxious moment we have worrying about something, there is something equally wonderful on the other end of the scale that we're ignoring. We choose to live in fear, seems to be our path - until we figure out otherwise.

 

It seems that life has provided us with the things that return us to harmony, if we choose to alter our inner course. Music, poetry, rites - those things that filter out the inharmonious and send us back to the One. Total focus on something other than the perceived problem.

 

When you are inwardly tranquil and outwardly reverent

You are able to return to your innate nature

And this nature will become greatly stable.

 

I like this part a lot. To return to our innate nature is to return to the child's mindset. Not in the sense that we become petulant, demanding, and cry easy. In the sense that we have made no judgment and everything out there is 'good', in the mind of the child. Until his parents teach him their fears and he starts adopting them. To be able to reach out to each and every of the 10,000 things without having to either express "Ugh", or "Ahhh". The place of non-differentiation is where the balance of the Tao is found.

[Osalina]

I so enjoyed your statements. I am new here and just made a new post introducing myself and my new book on the Alchemy of the 5 Elements. That is how I teach and learn to find my inner peace is through poetry, rhythm and tapping into the child mind to enjoy the simplicity of life and nature.

 

Peace be with you,

 

Osalina

[Informer]

I like it because it seems to be oriented towards creative aspect of self, which seems to be only generally more of a feminine strength. I think that is due to the structures we were raised into though. The balance is the key.

[manitou]

I so enjoyed your statements. I am new here and just made a new post introducing myself and my new book on the Alchemy of the 5 Elements. That is how I teach and learn to find my inner peace is through poetry, rhythm and tapping into the child mind to enjoy the simplicity of life and nature.

 

Peace be with you,

 

Osalina

 

 

Hi Osalina - so glad you're here. Welcome; what a wonderful addition you are going to be. So nice to hear you mention the child's mind...

 

As a child.

[shazi]

In my translation, I called this "Stabilizing your nature". My translation differs a bit, based upon the chinese. As well, my translation may lend better support to your (manitou's) concept of how the physical balance and alignment affects the mental/emotional/spiritual.

 

As for the vitality of all human beings:

It inevitable occurs because of balanced and aligned (breathing).

As for all human life,

it must flow from balance and alignment.

I don't see in the text any support for 'vitality'/de 德. The text only includes 凡人之生也, "fan ren zhi shang ye" - literally "all human 's life as-for". I'm following hendrick's interpretation of the grammatical particle 'ye' when following text, 'as for'. in the second line, 必以平正 "bi yi ping zheng" is a bit less straight forward: bi is 'must' and 'inevitable' is synonymous, but ye is a causal link, i used 'flows', more interpretive than 'occurs', but I would think that both are supported. ping-zheng is pretty consistently translated balance and alignment. Breathing is not expressed or supported by the context.

 

If we were talking about de/vitality, then perhaps the topic of breathing might be implied. But 'de' is not in the text. going back to chapter 1 where jing/essence is the source of life, this chapter is talking about the sustaining of life, not breathing or vitality. balance and alignment are universal principles in the neiye.

 

going on from my translation,

 

Where we lose these,

must be by fondness, resentment, worry and anxiety.

this closely parallels the zhong yong of confucius - the 'doctrine of the mean', or my way of saying it, 'on being centered'. The basic principle of zhong according to confucius is that extremes of emotion, love, anger, worry, etc., cause the person to be out of balance and alignment. once the mean/zhong/center is attained, then the person, aligned, can operate in harmony with dao. (confucius' words).

 

If the origin of the neiye/guanzi is the jixia academy, then this passage is easily explained by the syncretic movement in the jixia that combined fajia/legalism, rujia/confucianism, and daojia/daoism. I see no issue with this, but many daoists are surprised that the three schools prior to the qin often mixed their thinking. Strict rejection of rujia by daojia may more be an artifact of when the han emperor wudi instituted rujia in place of the huanglao daojia of his grandmother empress dou.

 

This is particularly evident in the following phrases:

 

Therefore, to stop resentment there's nothing like poetry;

to cast aside worry there's nothing like music;

to temper music there's nothing like ritual;

to keep to ritual there's nothing like reverence;

 

I cannot think of anything more antithetical to zhuang-lao thinking than any reverence at all for poetry, music, and especially ritual and reverence. Such things were 'fei-dao' - distinctly not dao.

 

to keep to reverence there's nothing like stillness.

When inwardly still and outwardly reverent,

you are able to return to your nature;

your nature will become greatly stable.

hence my title, "stabilizing your nature".

 

so where does this take me personally? breathing is certainly one aspect of balance and alignment, but so also is the physical movement of taijiquan. Balance becomes part of every aspect of dao, comprehensively in terms of yin and yang, of qi & breathing, and in the very movement of dao toward return. from a holistic standpoint, the neiye is concerned with all aspects of balance, not just the breathing, but also the reification of the mind with in a mind, and eating, etc. It's an amazing work.

Edited June 10, 2012 by shazi

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Thanks for your further illucidation here Shazi, and for your translation as well -- I read rather often!

 

 

I'm not sure that I would agree that poetry, music, and ritual are antithetical to zhuang-lao thinking though. After all, did not Zhuang Zi write much poetry in some resentment of the foolishness of the day, lol? I believe the Wu shaman(esse)s employed music in their ritual as well, though their rituals may not have resembled those of the Rujia. I think all of these, poetry, music, and ritual, can serve as a sort of medicine which I see no reason for Zhuang-Lao thinking to reject.

 

Though maybe you were being subtly ironic..??

[Informer]

I agree H.E. ,

 

It seems to be explicitly pointing towards the center for one who is creatively inclined and from that perspective. It is like a creative angle rather then a logical one, yet they are equal when centered, which I think is the point of the writing. How could that which encompasses all omit anything?

 

It points at balance from creativity, to point at balance from logic would be different imo.

[shazi]

Thanks for your further illucidation here Shazi, and for your translation as well -- I read rather often!

 

 

I'm not sure that I would agree that poetry, music, and ritual are antithetical to zhuang-lao thinking though. After all, did not Zhuang Zi write much poetry in some resentment of the foolishness of the day, lol? I believe the Wu shaman(esse)s employed music in their ritual as well, though their rituals may not have resembled those of the Rujia. I think all of these, poetry, music, and ritual, can serve as a sort of medicine which I see no reason for Zhuang-Lao thinking to reject.

 

Though maybe you were being subtly ironic..??

I think you are right... There are the daoist debaters today and in ancient times that seemed to take a hardline stance against ritual, at least, but the same loved poetry, song, and of course wine. Much of the editing of zhuangzi occurred in the period of the seven worthies of the bamboo grove. Irony was always part of the bandying about of poems and texts, until the moment of qingtan-- pure conversation (without words) was achieved.

 

I personally love the syncretist movements of the jixia and huanglao. These found the right balance for personal, inner cultivation amongst the writings of Lao, zhuang, and kongzi, finding the common thread. Kongzi's zhongyong (Confucius doctrine of the mean) in it's core is a text on centering (中). The challenge with kongzi, though, is that is followers saw the middle path being achieved through discipline, propriety, and education, and not through the more esoteric and physical practice more commonly found in daoist traditions.

 

Later Confucianism completely rejected the daoist techniques. Fortunately though, the traditions and techniques were kept on for thousands of years, many times secretly. One could dismiss them as folklore, if it weren't for texts like the guanzi (neiye), huainanzi, and original wenzi; along with other texts uncovered in the past half century.

 

The validity of inner cultivation, its very essence, seems to be relatively unchanged for 2500 years.

 

It's good to see a modern restoration and interest in this vital practice.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Thanks for bringing up The Seven Worthies of Bamboo Grove. I don't remember hearing about them before. I hope to hear more about them in the new topic I've added in Taoist Forum.

 

It seems it would be quite a difficult task to determine the influence of Confucius on Taoism, especially considering the influence that Taoism (in its early forms) had on him to begin with, lol. To my limited knowledge, a primary reason that his knowledge was so highly regarded is that he had studied the I Ching so thoroughly. The idea of Centering is more or less described in writings attributed to the Yellow Emperor as well, which I'm sure as an avid scholar, Confucius would have been familiar with.

 

By the same token though, the work Confucius did certainly contributed to the proliferation of these ideas, as did the work of later Taoists.

 

I'm reminded of a statement by Liu-I-Ming in his interpretation of the Yi Jing (Travel) that when people are internally unstable they try to create external order, whereas those who are internally stable can be internally stable while externally stable. This makes me wonder about the internal state of the Confucians who sought to structure every facet of existence. The instability of their times would probably be a contributing influence to this, but I wonder what Confucius himself would have had to say about the matter.