The Door of all Wonders:
The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching
by Nirguna CK Lam
Chapter 10
To
hold the soul for embracing Oneness,
can
you be steadfast without straying?
To concentrate
your breath,
can
you be as supple as an infant?
Can
you polish your heart as a bright mirror without blemish?
Can
you love people and rule the country with action-less action?
Can
you keep your sense organs to open or shut with the gentle principle?
When
your discernment penetrates the four quarters,
are
you capable of not showing off any cleverness?
Giving all creatures life, rearing them,
benefiting them, stewarding them,
yet claiming no possession and authority of
them,
such is called the Mysterious Virtue.
Review
“To
hold the soul for embracing Oneness,
can
you be steadfast without straying?”
The Truth is defined simply as Oneness in the
Tao Te Ching repeatedly. The Truth is One only, without second, third or
fourth. For all people in different cultures and times, what they know about
the Truth if it is really the Truth, it is One only and the same only without
the second. To be Oneness with the Truth is the highest spiritual attainment
and the only aim of every aspirant who seeks for the ultimate reality of his or
her existence.
In Chinese culture, there is the ideal of
the union of the Heaven and the Mankind. In Vedanta [1], there is the supreme
knowledge of non-duality, being One as the Supreme Self inside every one of us.
As told in the Quran, Allah says:
“We have already
created man and know what his soul whispers to him,
and We are
closer to him than (his) jugular vein.” (Quran
50:16)
This closeness is the Oneness, but we
people do not know it. Most of us are in darkness and become ignorant and
cannot see the Truth that we are close to Allah, i.e., Tao, so close that we
and Allah are One only. Most people go astray from the Truth. We become many
with different names, shapes and forms and lose the One, the source of Light,
in our soul. So, people need to be guided and hold fast to the One all the
time. To have a spiritually disciplined life is to hold the soul for embracing the
One to be steadfast without straying.
“To
concentrate your breath,
can
you be as supple as an infant?”
Everyone has body and soul; one is
perishable while the other is imperishable. That is all for us. However, for
the people who abide in the Truth, having the Truth as Oneness within, they
know there is a Supreme Person inside them called the Supreme Self or a newborn
baby in the Upanishads. That is their true self, their pure nature which is innately
the same as everyone has. This Supreme Self, this newborn baby is the One only.
Why is the term, “newborn baby” or “infant”
used to depict for the Supreme Person inside us? It is because this Supreme Person
is very gentle and mild full of living energy and freshness. Our breath is the
vital force of us which is also gentle and calm when the Supreme Person becomes
our master inside us. Through the breathing exercise, we can calm down our mind
and relax, then be silent.
This is the initial stage of meditation.
This breathing exercise is called “Pranayama” in the Yoga Sutra [2] which is one of the eight methods to
practice to attain the spiritual end, to be Oneness with the Supreme. Yogis are
taught to concentrate on their breathing in order to cleanse their mind and
body. Finally, the breathing of the yogis will be mild, gentle and slow like
being stopped for long duration, i.e., “as supple as an infant” as said here in
the Tao Te Ching. An infant is nearest to its purity and living force, so is
the person seeking the Truth (Tao) is trained to concentrate their breath. When
they have achieved the spiritual attainment, their breaths will be as supple as
an infant.
“Can
you polish your heart as a bright mirror without blemish?”
Our heart is the abode for our Supreme
Self told in scriptures of the Vedanta (i.e., the Upanishads), Buddhism and
Taoism. To purify our heart is the same teaching of every religion and saint.
In the Quran, Allah says,
“He who purifies
himself, who remembers the name of his Lord and prays,
shall indeed be
successful.” (Quran 87:14-15)
Allah also says,
“Verily, among his people was Abraham,
when he came to His Lord with a pure heart.”
(Quran 37:83-84)
Once Prophet Muhammad told a boy, his follower, Anas ibn Malik,
“O boy, if you are able every morning and evening to
remove any rancor from your heart towards anyone, then do so.” (Sunan At-Tirmidhi #2678) [3]
Our heart is like a mirror. If our heart
is purified as bright as a mirror, we will have compassion and courage to be
rightful and kind to people and to be calm and peaceful inside us. If our heart
as a mirror is full of dirt and dust, we cannot see any goodness in anything and
anyone but full of evil ideas which is so torturing. This heart is not only the
physical heart but also the heart in the subtle sense. Our whole chest is like
a mirror as the centre of heart. The purification of the heart is the key for
the enlightenment of our soul to achieve the Supreme Stage.
“Can
you love people and rule the country with action-less action?”
The ideal of Lao Tzu is the rule of the Truth
for the whole world. If the ruling class can govern their people with the
Truth, they will love their people and rule them rightfully. The Tao Te Ching
is not only for ordinary people, or monks and nuns in monasteries. It is also
proclaimed for the ruling class, the leaders of the world, telling them how to
rule their countries in the ideal way. This ideal way is the action-less
action.
What is action-less action? This is the
action without private interest or desire. This is the action without giving
trouble with too many regulations to people unnecessarily to control their
natural way of being in harmony. To be natural is the ideal stage for people.
As a ruling class, what they need to do is to provide the good environment for
people to develop themselves in their own way, giving them freedom and space to
achieve their tasks in life, without harming people. The ruling class need not do
many acts but only do as necessary for people to develop themselves.
“Can
you keep your sense organs to open or shut with the gentle principle?”
Our sense organs are called the “Gateways
of the Heaven” in the original Chinese words. They are the seven holes in our
head: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and one mouth. They are like wild horses
to be trained and disciplined to become tamed. Their functioning is like
opening and shutting the Gateway of the Heaven to the outside world. They
should be in our control to let us live in harmony without making trouble to
ourselves and people. They should be controlled by gentle principle. This
gentle principle is the force long lasting. To be gentle is an ideal character
for people. This gentleness is used to train and control our sense organs, not
letting them fluctuate, jumping up and down without self-control. So, we should
open or shut our gateways whenever we need with the gentle principle not by violence
or arrogance.
“When
your discernment penetrates the four quarters,
are
you capable of not showing off any cleverness?”
Discernment is the light and wisdom for us
to know the Truth and the outside world. The four quarters mean the outside
world. Though we have wisdom to understand everything, Lao Tzu tells us not to
show off. To show off our merits is dangerous for us to be ready to fall. People
who have the Truth as their master never need to show off telling people what
they know. They will be humble like water in the valley without any pride. To
have pride will enlarge our ego and there will be no room for the Truth as the Truth
is the master, not the slave. Cleverness is not good for spiritual attainment,
only for worldly success. Whatever we achieve and know anything, just let it be
as the Truth functioning the whole universe. There is no need to be proud of
anything and being cunning to people. Be simple and humble. This is the virtue
of people having the Truth.
The last part of this Chapter is meaningful
to put forth in the end as telling us what the virtue of the Truth is:
“Giving all creatures life, rearing them,
benefiting them, stewarding them,
yet claiming no possession and authority of
them,
such is called the Mysterious Virtue.”
Although we have discernment to know
everything, Lao Tzu tells us not to show off our cleverness. Be simple and
humble, i.e., the virtue of people having the Truth. Then what is the virtue of
the Truth? The virtue of the Truth is called Mysterious Virtue that giving all
creatures life, rearing them, benefiting them, stewarding them, yet claiming no
possession and authority of them. The Truth is the master with gentleness,
claiming no authority. To follow the Truth, we need to be gentle, purifying our
heart without taints, acting without action and without showing off. This is
the virtue of the Truth. The last part is the concluding verses for people to understand
the Mysterious Virtue of the Truth that they should follow.
Note:
[1] The Vedanta is one of the six schools of thought in ancient India. It is about the teaching of the Upanishads, the most sacred scriptures in India. The Upanishads were the last component of the most authoritative scripture, the Veda, in ancient India. The name, Vedanta, composed of “Veda” and “anta”, in Sanskrit, means “the end of Veda”, i.e., the Upanishads. The Upanishads are the collection of many volumes of books telling us the real meaning of the whole Veda.
[2] The Yoga Sutra by
Patanjali, is the scripture explaining yoga which can be practiced by eight
methods. Pranayama, i.e., the control of breathing, is one of the methods.
Through the control of breathing, yogis can purify their body and mind. Prana
in Sanskrit means breathing, Yama means control. The Yoga Sutra first appeared
from 2nd B.C. to 2nd A.D. It was finally fixed in texts
in about 4th to 5th A.D. All the ancient scriptures in
India had developed and formed for a long period of time.
[3] The words and deeds of Prophet Muhammad were recorded by different
narrations of his close relatives, companions and the companions of companions
complied in series of books called hadith and ahadith in Arabic. There are some
famous and reliable ahadith like Bukhari and At-Tirmidhi. In Arabic, hadith is the singular
noun, while the plural noun is ahadith.
沒有留言:
張貼留言