DIVISION 10 (第十)

In bringing together your spiritual and bodily souls to embrace the One,
Can you not let go?
Can you focus qì into such softness you are a newborn again?
Can you polish the Xuán mirror to a clarity beyond stain?
Can you love the people and govern the state without resorting to action?
In opening and closing Heaven's Gate,
Can you play the part of the female?
In understanding all within the Four Reaches – Can you do it without using knowledge?
Give birth and nurture.
To give birth without possessing and foster without dominating,
This is called Xuán Dé.

COMMENTARY by Koeng S. Wan:
Because people are intelligent and clever (Divisions 3 and 33), they follow some other dào, such as the teachings of Confucius (Division 18), or otherwise become separated from the Dào (Divisions 12, 18, 26, 33, 55). In order for people to follow the Dào they must commit their minds and souls to “embrace the One (一)” – the imperceptible aspect of the Dào that can be approached (Division 14) and attained (Division 39). People are admonished to keep their spirits unadulterated and tranquil like a newborn's, and practice Xuán Dé, which is to raise children and let them develop without controlling or dominating them. They are also admonished to perceive their own Xuán (Division 2) so clearly they understand themselves well; govern other people like a shèng rén (sage) (Division 3); and come to know the world without knowledge (Division 47).

In following the One so close as to "embrace" it, people learn to acquire, or rather, reacquire, the kind of cháng dé (constant dé) everyone displays when they are just born (Divisions 28 and 55) but then lose as they develop;

Qì and the Gates of Heaven. Ancient Chinese commonly believed that a living person normally has ten souls – three hún (魂) and seven pò (魄)^[1]. When a person dies the ten souls disintegrate – the hún find there way to heaven and permanently become spirits called shén (神), but the pò lose their existence^[2]. While alive, a person receives qì (氣) as nourishment from Heaven by breathing them in through the nostrils^[3], which are the Gates of Heaven^[4]. Thus, “playing the part of the female” while “embracing the One” with respect to receiving qì means that the person is receptive to the Dào of Heaven.

Significantly, one's anatomical Gates of Heaven corresponds to the Xuán Pìn Gate, the feminine valley spirit that serves as the root of Heaven (and Earth) (Division 6).

Cháng dé and becoming newly born. Among the Lǎo Zǐ's approximately five thousand words, qì (氣) appears only thrice -- once here, and once in divisions 42 and 55. Here, the Lǎo Zǐ says that one can focus qì in such as way as to become a newborn again. While this is not a total physical transformation, the result and benefit is important in two ways.

The first is that an adult, like a newborn, is totally dependent on its mother, which is the Dào, being mother of all things (Division 25) which is beneficial (Division 52). This relationship is instinctual, i.e., beyond trust, since a newborn has no understanding of trust, which is one aspects of a newborn's cháng dé, the highest form of dé (Divisions 28 and 55).

While a person cannot become a newborn again, a person who has embraced the One can attain the dé like that of newborn's by focusing qì into “softness”, a state of spiritual purity and tranquility, which is the second transformational results and benefit. The Sù Wèn says, “The orb of the liver is the root of all extremes and the residence of the hún"^[5]. (The Sù Wèn (素問) or Basic Questions is one of the two books that compose the Huáng Dì Nèi Jīng (黃帝內經), the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine. Like the Lǎo Zǐ, the Huáng Dì Nèi Jīng is composed of 81 divisions within two books, the second being the Líng Shū Jīng (靈樞 經) or variously translated as the Classic of the Divine or Spiritual or Numinous Pivot. The Huáng Dì Nèi Jīng became a Jīng during the Han dynasty, though some scholars believe the Sù Wèn existed at the time the Lǎo Zǐ was being formulated^[6]). These extremes are kinds of adulterations accumulated through life as the Sù Wèn explains in the following anecdote^[7]:

Oxen and horses when led properly can easily wade through the marsh. When let loose, however, they will sink deeper and deeper and can never get out again by themselves. So they have to die. People are just like this. When first born their original spirit is pure and tranquil, profound and unadulterated. But then people gradually take in shaped objects. Those in due course define the six senses.

The eyes will covet color.
The ears will be obstructed by sound.
The mouth will be addicted to flavors.
The nose will always take in smells.
The mind will be intent on refusing and coveting.
The body will desire to be slimmer or fatter.

From all these ups and downs of life, no one is able to wake up by himself. Thus, the sages with compassionate consideration established the doctrine to each people reform. They made them use inner observation of the self and body in order to purify the mind.

Division 12 addresses the plight of adulterated senses and spirit head on.

The Xuán Mirror. Xuán is the unified mystery of a particular thing in which the thing is perceived two different ways depending on whether the observer is in a state with or without desire (see Division 1). Looking into the Xuán mirror, the observer examines himself with and without desire in order to gain understanding of oneself. Division 33 says:

To understand others is to be knowledgeable;
To understand yourself is to be wise.

To "polish the Xuán mirror to a clarity without stain" is to examine oneself impartially, the approach others should use to understand the observer (Division 7).

FOOTNOTES:
[1] "Hun", Encyclopedia Britannica Online . Accessed March 28, 2009.

[2] Mura, Kunio, “Gui”, The Encyclopedia of Taoism, A-Z, Volume 1, edited by Fabrizio Pregadio, pp.458-9.

[3] Kohn, Livia, The Taoism Experience: An Anthology, State University of New York Press, 1993, p.165.

[4] Wile, Douglas, The Art of the Bedchamber: The Chinese Sexual Yoga Classics Including Women's Solo Meditation Texts, State University of New York Press, 1992, p.142.

[5] Kohn, Livia, The Taoism Experience: An Anthology, State University of New York Press, 1993, p.166.

[6] "Huangdi Neijing", Wikipedia. Accessed March 28, 2009.

[7] Kohn, Livia, The Taoism Experience: An Anthology, State University of New York Press, 1993, pp.172-173.

DIVISION 7 (第七)

Heaven goes on forever,
And Earth endures long.
The reason why Heaven and Earth are long-lasting
Is that they do not live for themselves.
Therefore, they can long endure.
Hence, in putting himself last, the shèng rén puts himself first.
He treats his person as if it was foreign to him,
And yet that person is preserved.
Is it not because he is selfless
That he can fulfill the self?

COMMENTARY by Koeng S. Wan:
The shèng rén (sage) is selfless, a selflessness that emulates that of Heaven and Earth, which means treating himself with detachment and impartiality (as prescribed in Division 5), and being desireless.

With regards to being first or last, the shèng rén doesn't order the importance of things that include himself, so his lack of desire might appear to set himself in the last place in the eyes of others but can also appear to set himself in the first place in terms of following the Dào. Any ordering, however, is an illusionary judgment like beauty and goodness (Division 2).

Furthermore, by being desireless, the shèng rén is able to live long like Heaven and Earth; and by being detached and impartial with respect to himself he is enabled see how his own Xuán is expressed (Division 1) and attain fulfillment (Division 16).

DIVISION 1 (第一)

The Dào that can be spoken of
Is not the Everlasting Dào.
The Name that can be named
Is not the Everlasting name.
The unnamed is the origin to all Heaven and Earth;
The named is the mother of ten thousand things.

Therefore, always be without desire
In order to observe the hidden mystery;
Always be with desire
In order to see the manifestations.
Though the two are the same,
Once they arise they differ in name.
One in the same they are called Xuán.
Xuán within Xuán,
Gateway of all mystery.

COMMENTARY by Koeng S. Wan:
All creation is a mystery. To gain a complete understanding of any part of it, even as it exists right now, is impossible, though one can learn how to observe it more completely by understanding Xuán.

The Lǎo Zǐ starts with a disclaimer – the Dào can't be fully explained to the reader because it is being described with words (names). Words cannot capture the total essence of a thing as the "Everlasting name" for a "Name" cannot be "named". However, this division does not explain what the Dào is. Furthermore, Division 2 identifies other shortcomings of words.

Understanding of any particular thing, including the Dào, originates from a unified mystery of it called Xuán (玄) (translated as "Darkness" or "Dark-Enigma") that has two separate expressions that people cannot perceive simultaneously. One expression, manifestation (jiào 徼), is acquired with desire. The other expression, hidden mystery (miào 妙), is aquired without desire. Complete understanding is attained by acquiring both expressions. The two expressions are so different that we give them different names, though they both originate from the same thing, Xuán. Consequently, understanding of Xuán itself (Xuán within Xuán), is the key to a complete understanding of every thing.

Overall, “The Name that can be named” refers to all words collectively. By asserting that, “The Name that can be named is not the Everlasting name”, the Lǎo Zǐ, in its distrust for language, distinguished itself from both Mohism and Confucianism, schools of thought that competed directly with the Daoism of the Lao Zi^[1].

The “unnamed” that is the origin to all Heaven and Earth is the Dào (Division 42). Dào itself is a term used only as a designation and not a "name" (see Division 25).

The “named” that is the mother of the ten thousand things is Heaven and Earth, mentioned in the previous line.

FOOTNOTES
[1] Hansen, Chad, "Taoism", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (editor), section 4.