Chapter 26

Commentary::

This chapter uses military strategy as an analogy to Daoist cultivation, a device that must have appealed to rulers during the Warring States period. The main point here is that strategy and cultivation should both follow the same rule of “no extremes.” It is not Laozi’s suggestion that Adepts establish balance and then rule or cultivate; rather, that balance itself is true governing and cultivation.

The chapter begins with a reference to our relative and natural conditions.’ We are asked to remember that heavy is the foundation of light and stillness is the master of movement. Heaviness and lightness and stillness and movement are aspects of our experience. Because heavy is genuinely the foundation of light, we needn’t struggle. We can relax the compulsion to do. Once relaxed, stillness is experienced as a ground. From this ground, movement and action arise naturally and return to the still ground-the two conditions? always integrate. In this way, Daoist cultivation is naturalness itself and we needn’t struggle for stillness or force action.3 Heavy naturally sinks down and light naturally rises up. What inspires movement naturally goes to rest. This demonstrates wuweidao-our de, or natural condition.4

Wuwei conduct is the experience of natural integration. What is the conduct of someone who understands natural rulership and/or Daoist cultivation? How do Adepts conduct themselves on a “forced march,” a situation of strenu-ousness? When on “forced march” all day, they do not lose sight of the provision carts. This line is a wuwei precept. A forced march is about being far from home, perhaps reprimanding vassals by a show of force (war). It’s about the tangle of judgment, misconduct, and remedy, the hysterical circles of ordinary life, the wild quality of our relative condition. Under such extenuating circum-stances, how do true Adepts act? They make sure that the provisions (food and weapons) are carefully guarded. They are not focused on a remedy, on aggres-sion-the front lines. They keep to the provisions-the jing/qi, the base. Adepts engage in the relative condition; they do not forget the natural condition. Surrounded by the whirlwinds of change, they do not forget Da. Challenged by the twists of fate of the dual world, they nevertheless embrace what Laozi elsewhere calls the “nourishment that comes from the Mother” (Da). They let the heavy sink and the light rise up (wuwei). They experience the alternation of stillness/ movement. Adepts know and trust natural integration.

How do Adepts act when things are going well? When “holed up” in the stockade,$ they remain calm and clear. The stockade is home and peace. It is also a reference to the central channel of Daoist alchemy.6 What do Adepts do when things are easy? When the demands of fate/world apparently subside? They draw up their legs and withdraw into formal practice.? They let the heavy sink and light rise up (wuwei).8

Though being on a “forced march” or “holed up” may look like two types of circumstance, two ways of acting, the Adepts of Laozi’s wuweidao see their natural integration. The two are aspects of a great Continuity. Constancy is the Way of Heaven (Dao).

Modern people may think this sense of life/cultivation does not address their preoccupation with problem solving; that Laozi is perhaps too philosophical and provides no answers. In fact, this text suggests that questions contain their answers, and problems and their resolution demonstrate a natural continuity that is unchanging. This is the position of the Adept. Adepts need not be disengaged or aloof, or measure themselves by their successful “work” on themselves or the world. Dao always succeeds due to its naturalness. Adepts who truly plumb their own depths and see through the relative world find only this natural integration. Our relative and natural conditions are inseparable. Success and failure are exactly the same without changing anything.

How do we remain engaged in this sense of continuity and balance? Cultivating weakness is one of the Xiang Er precepts, but when you are too weak, you lose the foundation. Laozi often recommends a light-hand, but not gi deficiency or nihilism. If we are too weak or deficient, we cannot practice or experience wuweidao. If we are too weak, cultivation is impossible. Deficiency is indicated by distractedness, doubt, confusion, and unevenness in discipline. The foundation here is the gi sufficiency to see and stay with the connection and integration of our relative and natural condition.

Yet qi cultivation and conservation can be taken to extremes as well. Similar problems arise when we cultivate strength instead of sufficiency.” When you are too strong, you lose command. Human beings are not designed to contain/ hold/command enormous amounts of qi. Like all phenomena, we operate best from qi sufficiency. When we over-charge ourselves, squandering automatically occurs. This is what is meant by “loss of command.” When we are too strong, we leak. When we are too full, we overflow. Leaking and overflowing are associated with struggling (fear) and exertion (hope). They wear us out. When we are too strong, we cannot practice wuwei. We become insensitive, heavy-handed, and too emotional. When we are too strong, we finish early.

True weakness and true strength are exactly the same. Xiang Er Mandate 8 says, “Practice Restraint. Cease with sufficiency.” The suggestion of “not too weak and not too strong” is also a lucid description of the state of meditation called zuowang. Qi that is genuinely not too weak nor too strong reveals how our relative and natural conditions naturally integrate. To sit properly allows for easy circulation.” If we are genuine in stillness, no particular cir-cumstances’2 are required.

Footnotes::

1. Two lines about "lord of 10,000 chariots" have been removed.
2. Neither of which are being presented as ideal.
3. as in the practice of neidan (inner alchemy)
4. Xiang Er says, "Daoists give weight to the basis: jing/qi/shen, clarity and stillness (zuowang [formal practice])." Heshang Gong says, "Cultivation is a serious (heavy) matter. The blossom is light, the root is heavy. Those who do not cultivate, enter danger. The dragon transforms at the bottom of an alpine lake. The tiger wanders aimlessly, having lost the map of Heaven."
5. guan, palace, observatory, or stockade tower
6. yoga
7. meditation
8. The Xiang Er commentary takes the above lines as analogous poetical reference to formal practice. The term "xing," translated as "forced march," becomes "to circulate," a reference to alchemy / meditation/rit-ual. Remaining in the stockade (guan) is calm/clear-zuowang.
9. "just enough"
10. still/heavy/light
11. movement
12. war/peace