In keeping the spirit and the vital soul together,
Are you able to maintain the perfect harmony?
In gathering your vital energy to attain suppleness,
Have you reached the state of a new-born babe?
In washing and clearing your inner vision,
Have you purified it of all dross?
In loving your people and governing your state,
Are you able to dispense with cleverness?
In the opening and shutting of heaven’s gate,
Are you able to play the feminine part?
Enlightened and seeing far into all directions,
Can you at the same time remain detached and non-active?
Rear your people!
Feed your people!
Rear them without claiming them for your own!
Do your work without setting any store by it!
Be a leader, not a butcher!
This is called hidden virtue.
The terms ‘spirit’ and ‘vital soul’ in the first line have been translated so variously that it is difficult to come close to the intended meaning. My own opinion is that the vital soul is a reference to that very important Taoist concept: chi energy.
Physical exercises play an important part in Chinese religion; Tai Chi and qigong offer a route to realisation through the body in the same way as the postures of Hatha yoga do to the Indian adept. When one is intensely concentrated on physical sensations in the body, the realm of time and space falls away of its own accord. The result is an intensification of a sensation which, were we more aware, we would realise can be felt at any opportunity. All feelings are ultimately ineffable, but the feeling of Chi might be described as a warmth, a tingling or a buzzing. To become aware of it is physically pleasurable, sometimes intensely so. Furthermore the feelings of chi are discovered to be focused in some areas of the body more than others, and transport around the body along discoverable channels.
In gathering your vital energy to attain suppleness,
Have you reached the state of a new-born babe?
As chi energy is intensified it brings health and well-being to the body; it is literally rejuvenating. One might say that the illusion of selfhood that develops in us since the early years is reflected by a solidification in the muscles and sinews of the body. As we think along fixed ruts, so too does our body move in a narrow and stereotyped fashion. The aim of the Taoist arts such as Tai Chi is to return our bodies (and by proxy, our minds) back to our native suppleness.
In washing and clearing your inner vision,
Have you purified it of all dross?
Inner vision is what we often call ‘the mind’s eye’. It is the organ with which we ‘see’ dreams while we sleep, and it is our inner vision which superimposes all subjective meaning onto raw perceptions. Our everyday life is a constant alternation of information from our outer and inner vision. To the everyday person this happens so quickly that it all blurs into a single vision. We therefore believe that we actually see, say, a tree. To the person who has developed the wisdom that comes with concentration, however, the concept ‘tree’ is supplied from the inner vision, is separate in nature to the ‘green thing’ that appears to the outer eye, and may or not accompany the green perception.
The purification of dross is nothing other than slowing everything down, and learning to see inner mental events as discrete phenomena. Now, the subjective mental event presents itself very clearly and distinctly and is not lost in the blur of the usual frantic flow . When we see mental events clearly we can be truly astonished by what we see. Our judgements and interpretations become extraordinarily accurate. We find ourselves guessing correctly at things that we had no possible way of knowing. Future outcomes of our behaviours become very clear and obvious. We meet strangers in the street and find ourselves understanding things about their past that, by rights, we should not know.
A purified inner vision is, then, what leads to the unique psychic gifts that are so often associated with the spiritual adept. But, properly understood, there is nothing supernatural about this process, and is actually the natural continuation of the everyday knowledge that each of us demonstrates on a daily basis. What is unnatural is our superstitious belief that we are intellects contained within individual bodies, who must gain knowledge through experience. Ironically, it is precisely this belief that prevents us from trusting the objective truths perpetually revealed to our inner vision.
In loving your people and governing your state,
Are you able to dispense with cleverness?
The term ‘cleverness’ is being used quite sarcastically here, for as we know our sage views all our notions about things as being far from clever.
Cleverness is any form of fixed idea or opinion about the way things are, or should be. It is any prejudice we hold that might subtly blind our judgement in the present situation, and thus distort the natural flow.
Needless to say, we bring fixed ideas to pretty much every moment of our lives, so it is little wonder we fail to understand just how sweetly and beautifully life can flow if we would only let it.
In the opening and shutting of heaven’s gate,
Are you able to play the feminine part?
Before we can play the feminine part – that is, be passive to the imperatives of the Tao – we must create an inner silence into which the Tao can makes its interjection. This inner silence is meditation, and is itself strengthened by meditation. When we are in this state, we notice the information that comes from our inner vision, and then quite naturally and spontaneously act on it. This is following the Tao.
Enlightened and seeing far into all directions,
Can you at the same time remain detached and non-active?
This first line is a reference to the breadth of perspective that comes once we have ‘purified the inner eye of all dross’. When we realise that time and space is nothing more than a perspective on reality, we transcend the laws of time and space that kept us in their thrall. We demonstrate knowledge that was not acquired through conventional learning. This knowledge often gets called intuition – as opposed to knowledge gained through normal tuition – but this is not strictly accurate.
Time and space is not something we literally transcend – it is more the fact of realising that we were never bound by it. All knowledge is of the same nature: a moment in the flow of awareness. But when we are under the illusion of time and space, those moments of knowledge that ‘aren’t possible’ aren’t believed or even noticed.
The injunction here to remain ‘detached and non-active’ is about knowing what should be left to be, and to leave it be. Sometimes we see people heading down unwise paths, see it before they do, but at the same time know that some lessons are better faced for the sake of future harmony.
Rear your people!
Feed your people!
So much of our lives are frittered on extraneous matters, which, if reduced, would lead to simplicity, peace, harmony and happiness. Other things are so fundamental to harmony that, were we to reduce them, strive and upheaval would result. Food, clothing, shelter and the freedom to live our lives as we see fit belong to this latter crucial category.
The spiritual truth seeker must never fall into that dreamy belief whereby love and light is enough. It takes wisdom and discernment to see what are the essentials in life, and the flexibility to realise that each of the people in your life are different and benefit from different advice.
Rear them without claiming them for your own!
Do your work without setting any store by it!
Be a leader, not a butcher!
This is called hidden virtue.
But they aren’t your responsibility, so don’t let them become so! Don’t be in their face. If they are in need of advice, and they think you can help, they will ask of their own accord. The ‘butcher’ is the interferer. The person who thinks they know best, then barges in with their view regardless of the circumstances…that is the butcher.
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