Diaitadoc Posted March 15, 2016 A new translation + commentary of the Daodejing by Liu Ming has recently been published and is available for purchase at http://www.dayuancircle.org Observing Wuwei :: The Heart of the Daodejing - Liu Ming, 2016 From the introduction: The following chapter translations and commentaries were composed through a Chinese Orthodox Daoist View. However, we do not pretend that this is the only, or the correct, View through which the Daodejing can be interpreted. (19) From the editor's notes: After working with the Daodejing for more than twenty years, Ming was still reluctant to make public this translation and commentary . . . it was his choice to seed this text with only a select number of the chapters he felt were the most essential in the teaching of wuwei, zuowang, and the unnamable Dao. (20) Hence, this book does not provide translation and commentary on the whole of what is now the standardized 81 chapters that comprise the contemporary Daodejing. It was Liu Ming's sense that many of the chapters pertaining to governance and rulership were more recent additions to the Daodejing . . . In total, we have included 47 chapters. (21) The translations of the verses themselves are quite succinct, clear and impressive. As a comparision, Jonathan Star's translation of verse 1 contains 180 words. Liu Ming's translation contains 77. As impressive, if not more, is the utterly unique commentary. I'd recommend this version for those alone. On the whole, I greatly enjoy this translation. It's as practical as is it beautiful. Diaitadoc 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aetherous Posted March 16, 2016 Any example passages and commentary? I couldn't find that on the publisher site. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Diaitadoc Posted March 16, 2016 Verse 6 in the received version (Verse 50 in the Mawangdui version). Any spelling or formatting errors are my own. 06::50A[*] Valley spirit is immortality. Its image is that of a hidden womb. The gate of the hidden womb Has the image of Heaven and Earth. Continuous. Unchanged by use. This chapter is certainly one of the text's most extraordinary, with images that are truly splendid. The recitation has a cadence that suggests it may be a kind of ancient chant. The language contains layers of a number of spiritual practices and integrates them into Laozi's cosmology. The practice traditions of zuowang and jindan found in Laozi clearly predate the Chinese Daoism of the 1st century that later preserved them. The first line links old gods with the meditation and alchemical traditions. The Valley Spirit is at once a goddess; the equanimity of meditation; and the central channel of inner and outer alchemy. It is a spiritual image of the nourishment from, and/or the path that leads to, immortality. What is Laozi's immortality, the Dao of wuwei? Its image, its qi appearance, is that of a hidden womb. Immortality (Dao) is potentiality itself. The hidden womb is the passive potentiality of existence. It is obscure because we cannot find it with certainty like we find a thing or a being. It is a womb because it is passive and empty. It has no job description and is nothing like a god of creation who pronounces the absolute truth, an agenda, or great purpose. This womb-like potentiality, like the bellows of chapter 05/49, is not productive in the original creative sense, because, it is implied, everything that is "created" is like a dream, an illusion, a temporary polarity of cofactors which do not constitute an abiding thing or an abiding being. All that is composed is eventually decomposed and composition is no "more real" than decomposition. In zuowang practice, this valley or womb represents meditation itself. Zuowang is to rest in the potentiality of all things. It is cultivating an intimacy with the obscure, yet universal, potentiality of beings and things. It is sitting in potential rather than creation. In jindan or neidan (alchemical meditation), the valley/womb is the central channel and lower dantian where jing distills into qi, and qi into shen, analogous to the sublimation of lead into gold. This alchemical process, though elaborate in detail, is parallel to simple zuowang, both of which make use of Laozi's cosmology. All Daoist cultivation methods are characterized by a kind of "return" - a return to potential; a return to the valley. If we relax and soften our strained grip on what seems to be "created," we naturally sink back to where things/beings begin. This is called the gate. The gate of the hidden womb is described in ancient lore as a secret door in the remote mountains guarded by spirits. In meditation, it is the soft focus on the posture of zuowang. In alchemy, it is the sublimation or distillation of the many into the principle of yang and yin, or the image of Heaven and Earth. These two represent all duality - the image of separation. Heaven is how things arise. Earth is how things are nourished. Yet each thing that arises declines and vanishes back to potential. Each thing that is sustained also concludes. The hidden gate, when found, is the resolution of duality, the ruthless loss of "this" and "that." In zuowang practice, the gate is the maintenance of a particular posture. The "qi attention" gathered at the lower dantian is also referred to as "the gate." Holding this posture, one passes through the gate of duality to non-duality. This shift is not an action, not a revelation, but simply an acceptance of things-as-they-are. This may be called "the natural condition." In alchemical meditation, the gates of Heaven and Earth may refer to various aspects of respiration, qi circulation, and the assimilation of nutrients. What do we find when we "enter" the gate? What is this unnamable potential? It is continuous. It is continuity itself. It cannot be found because it has no beginning and no end. It is continuous in time - infinite. It is continuous in space - boundless potentiality without shape or form. This potentiality is also unchanged by use. Even though things "seem" to arise from it, it is never exhausted. It never shows effort or strain, even though the things/beings that arise from it are countless. Zuowang is practiced with continuity (both formal and informal postures) and not aimed at a goal. It is never finished. The natural condition is continuity without boredom or exhaustion, and fruition or illumination is not an incident or event. Fruition itself is continuity, not a reward. Alchemical sublimation of jing to qi parallels the softening of our experience from the attachment of forms to the flow of energy. Sublimation of qi to shen means energy without boundaries. Continuity, then, means the natural flux of energetic totality. Energy (qi) hardens into forms (jing) temporarily and then returns to toality (shen). The Daoist alchemists do not do alchemy; they find it. They do not transform from effort. They are unchanged by use and simply re-enter the gate of continuity. Observing Wuwei:: The Heart of the Daodejing * Liu Ming actually has two translations of this chapter, translation A and translation B, each with its own commentary. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
