Hello and welcome to this edition of the Nüwa! Changes are afoot. From now on, the edition that goes out on Sundays will be shorter, and another letter will be sent out on Wednesdays with a single, long-form piece. This way I’ll have more opportunity to focus on specific topics and produce well-developed work. Also to ensure quality, I’m going to start taking every fourth week off writing to focus on planning and research.
Ease & Simplicity
Last week’s edition included a translation of chapter one of the Treatise on Sitting and Forgetting by Sima Chengzhen (647-735). Connected to this text is another one called The Master of Celestial Seclusion (Tianyinzi). Sima Chengzhen wrote the preface to this text, and claimed that he had received it from a mysterious figure called, you guessed it, The Master of Celestial Seclusion. In terms of structure and content, The Master of Celestial Seclusion is similar to the Treatise on Sitting and Forgetting. Both set out step-by-step systems of inner cultivation, and both belong to the ‘clarity and stillness’ (qingjing) side of the Daoist tradition. The systematic nature of practice found in these texts would go on to become a defining characteristic of later Daoist approaches to inner cultivation.
Below is an extract from chapter two of The Master of Celestial Seclusion, titled ‘Ease and Simplicity’.
The Yijing states, “The way of the heavens and earth is simple.” What does this mean?
The Master of Celestial Seclusion said, “The heavens are above my head and the earth is beneath my feet. Opening my eyes, I see them fully. There’s no need to rely upon complexity and ingenuity in order to speak about them, and this is why the Yijing calls them simple. That which is simple is the inner power of spirit transcendence (shenxian).
The classics say, ‘The utmost Dao is not complex, and the utmost person practises non-action (wuwei). This being the case, how should one seek the Dao?
The Master of Celestial Seclusion said, “Without seeking you cannot understand it; without a path you cannot complete it. Now, in studying spirit transcendence, you must first understand ease and simplicity. If one speaks in a strange and intriguing manner, this will only make people confused and they will not return to the root.
Commentary:
This passage touches upon some key principles within the Daoist tradition:
The path is not complex. It is walked via release, which leads to a profound state of receptiveness and observation, otherwise known as wuwei.
Wuwei does not mean ‘do nothing’ — it’s achieved through seeking and the following of a set path.
Within wuwei, a profound process of internal transformation unfolds. This leads to what the text calls ‘spirit transcendence’, which is another term for attaining the Dao.
Enjoyment & Pleasure
Below you will find two masters speaking about enjoyment and pleasure, and suggesting that they arise best when there is no desire to seek them.
Now, that which ordinary people do and that which they find pleasure in, I do not know whether this is truly pleasure, or whether it is not? I observe that which ordinary people find pleasure in, that which everyone’s interested in — they race around like they can’t stop themselves, all speaking of pleasure. I don’t have this pleasure, but I also don’t not have pleasure. So in the end is there really pleasure or is there not? I take non-action (wuwei) to be true pleasure, but ordinary people consider this to be a bitter thing. This is why I say: “Perfect pleasure is not pleasure, perfect reputation is not reputation.”
— Zhuangzi, chapter 18.
The Perfect Way knows no difficulties
Except that it refuses to make preferences;
Only when freed from hate and love,
It reveals itself fully and without disguise;A tenth of an inch's difference,
And heaven and earth are set apart;
If you wish to see it before your own eyes,
Have no fixed thoughts either for or against it.To set up what you like against what you dislike--
This is the disease of the mind:
When the deep meaning [of the Way] is not understood
Peace of mind is disturbed to no purpose.
— Extract from On Believing in Mind (Xinxin Ming), by Sengcan (529-606). Translated by D.T Suzuki.
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道炁長存
Oscar
I am passing this on to others…
God bless you, Oscar. Your newsletter is like a breath of fresh air. I'm glad I have discovered it.