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Chapter of the Week: #69 [Archive]
Welcome Sister welcome,
Here's my thought, for what it's worth,...
But is "how will you get out?" the crux of our 'problem'? The key, in my view, is how can we "see through things of the world", or perhaps even deeper, what does it mean to "see through things of the world"? Telling us that if we can't, we "will sink..." is jumping ahead of that which [chref=64]starts from beneath one's feet[/chref].
Jumping ahead of ourselves just complicates the simple, and makes difficult the [chref=70]easy[/chref]. Alas, we excel at doing that don't we! Our mind leaps hither and yon looking for its next tasty treat.
Here's my thought, for what it's worth,...
[cite] sister says that Liu I-ming:[/cite]
"See through things of the world.
If you cannot see through the things of the world
You will sink into an ocean of suffering.
How will you get out?"
But is "how will you get out?" the crux of our 'problem'? The key, in my view, is how can we "see through things of the world", or perhaps even deeper, what does it mean to "see through things of the world"? Telling us that if we can't, we "will sink..." is jumping ahead of that which [chref=64]starts from beneath one's feet[/chref].
Jumping ahead of ourselves just complicates the simple, and makes difficult the [chref=70]easy[/chref]. Alas, we excel at doing that don't we! Our mind leaps hither and yon looking for its next tasty treat.
Comments
Chapter 69
The strategists have a saying,
I dare not play the host but play the guest,
I dare not advance an inch but retreat a foot instead.
This is known as marching forward when there is no road,
Rolling up one's sleeves when there is no arm,
Dragging one's adversary by force when there is no adversary,
And taking up arms when there are no arms.
There is no disaster greater than taking on an enemy too easily. So doing
nearly cost me my treasure. Thus of two sides raising arms against each other,
it is the one that is sorrow-stricken that wins.
Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
I dare not play the host because then I must cater to everyone's needs. Approaching life as a host makes it difficult to be [chref=5]ruthless[/chref] and conform to [chref=25]that which is naturally so[/chref]. Playing the guest, on the other hand, only requires me to [chref=23]conform[/chref] to the way things are. The difficulty here is knowing if things are the way they seem? What is real? What is illusion? If I end up conforming to an illusion, am I any better off than if I just play the host? Illusion vs. reality.
As I pointed out before, the Chinese word for serious is renzhen. Ren means to recognize, and zhen means reality. So, renzhen translated directly would be recognize reality. Again, the hitch here is 'what is reality?' Reacting to illusion as though it is reality is a stressful waste of life's biological resources. This is where marching forward when there is no road come in handy.
We are driven to be serious when we 'recognize reality'. Marching forward when there is no road is being serious when we are not driven to be so, which helps us be less serious when we might otherwise be so driven. In this way, we are less likely to 'make mountains out of mole hills', and balanced responses come easier. Putting distance (if not the [chref=25]void[/chref]) between external stimuli and perception is key... you know, just being a bit more [chref=15]tentative, falling apart, murky, vacant, and hesitant[/chref]. Nothing helps bring this about better than rolling up one's sleeves when there is no arm, or dragging one's adversary by force when there is no adversary. This is part and parcel of [chref=64]dealing with a thing while it is still nothing, and keeping a thing in order before disorder sets in[/chref]. Personally, I think of this as seeing that which isn't there.
As a species, we tend to respond to life after the fact. We truly notice this phenomenon after disasters, for example. But most of the time, the moment slips by unnoticed. The idea here is to 'wake up', and respond to life before the 'fact' become a memory - spontanious!
The last verse literally (in Chinese) says: misfortune none bigger make light of enemy. Certainly this is close enough to other translations. But, I value the emphasis made, i.e. 'making light of an enemy', which in life can be almost anything and everything. I should clarify. Enemy (di) here has a broader meaning in Chinese, i.e., enemy, oppose; match; equal. When we 'recognize reality' each moment, it is a match equal. Each moment of life becomes serious, and nothing to 'make light of'.
By the way, if you do Tai Chi, marching forward when there is no road, and so on, perfectly expresses an approach [chref=41]the best student[/chref] looks for in Tai Chi! Come to think of it, that works for Yoga as well. Well, heck, naturally this works for everything, but disciplines like these provide a setting for us to 'nail it down', so to speak.