Chapter 28

Commentary::

How do Adepts relate to their environment? Familiar with the male, but embracing the female means Adepts are familiar with the so-called dual world as a relative display of Dao. In formal or informal practice, Adepts neither abandon the world of action (relatedness) nor become entranced by it. Instead, they serve all beings/things under Heaven. This “serving’ is not some sort of trumped-up saintly kindness with particular rules. It is simply the natural way in which inter-relatedness unfolds. Because this gentle, non-judgmental serving is utterly natural, in serving all beings/things under Heaven, Adepts do not depart from their nature. In fact, this inter-relatedness is none other than Nature itself (Da) displaying self-nature (de/shen). The fiber of our interconnectedness is shared and continuous and has a kind of motherly (female) and serving (maid-like) quality that allows the Adept to remain genuine. “Genuine” here means “virtual”2 rather than virtuous in some particular moral sense. This profound sense of inter-connectedness is fundamental to understanding Laozi’s wuweidao. This basic View of inter-relatedness defines the Adept and wuweidao.

This same View applied socially simply allows Adepts to recognize promi-nence, but remain obscure. Adepts not only “serve,” but also take what is given. If prominence or reward is given, they will take it, but they do not obsess or compulsively long for recognition. This is called “responding to conditions.” Knowing conditions to be constantly in flux, they do not seek to remain in the limelight, nor do they hold to orthodoxy or militancy for its own sake. Fame, reward, or results, in general, do not motivate them. They seem to prefer obscurity but, in fact, they merely rest in the constancy that cannot be “found.”3 In this way they are like hidden valleys. Valleys do not vary their nature. They remain constantly below, dark, and hidden like Dao.

Circumstances, like weather passing over a valley, do not change their mood. Not varying their nature, Adepts remain in the natural state. Not varying their nature or moving from the natural state describes a vision that is truly non-dual and not simply provisionally non-dual. To say that Adepts model themselves on the valley is to say that they do not prefer prominence over obscurity or obscurity over prominence; rather, they remain in the openness into which both obscurity and prominence arise and resolve. Such openness does not inspire doctrinal policy or icons, but neither does it “forbid” them. Having no preference is the Valley’s openness. This openness is called the natural state (Daode).

Some commentators think the next few lines are apocryphal, because they appear twice in the “received text,” but these lines may simply be quoted from a text known to the authors but no longer available.

In the relative world, when the uncared block is cut, objects are made. More literally, when potentialS is meddled with, implements, tools, and ideas appear. Though we think and feel that the relative world is full of various beings/ things, in some very important sense, the uncarved block has not changed at all. The uncared block, or Da as potentiality, is actually unavailable for the creation of a true and abiding world. As it turns out, the so-called world is a fluctuating display of what essentially never changes. This changing display includes the illusion of an abiding self-a fixed and therefore meaningful point of view. Therefore, when Adepts make objects, the uncarved block is preserved by its nature. When Adepts perceive, feel, think, or act in the relative condition/ world, they stay with the uncarved block nevertheless. They see the world as a flux, a light show, a rainbow of transparent ornaments, like the events and forms in a dream. In practicing wuwei, seeing things-as-they-are, Adepts do not avoid or engage.?

In the formal practice of zuowang, this meditative openness is not found by stemming or stopping thoughts, feelings, and images, but by observing and yet not following them as they arise and resolve naturally. The uncarved block is preserved because it is the unchanging potentiality or open space of our expe-rience. And though all beings/things dance within this openness, it is never truly obscured. Both the formal (meditation) and informal practice (conduct) of Adepts effortlessly preserves natural simplicity (the uncarved block).

When Laozi says, “To acknowledge the luminous but be submerged in the obscure is to be the Mirror of all under Heaven,” he is pointing to the fact that our true nature (de) and Nature itself (Da) are indistinguishably the same, like a mirror and its ability to reflect. This “sameness” is called the natural condition (Daode). Mirrors do not deviate from their true nature. The true nature of a mirror is its capacity to reflect.8 It indiscriminately reflects light, dark, objects, and space without agenda or judgment.

Not deviating from their true nature, Adepts are limitless. ° Nothing deviates from its nature and therefore each being/thing demonstrates both its dual world qualities and its Daode. In space or time, we can say mirrors are “limit-less” and timeless.” When Adepts also practice “not deviating,” they stay with their natural capacity to reflect-their true nature (de), whose substance and quality is none other than limitless Dao. It is the singular “taste” of Daode that is the motivation and fruition of wuweidao. 2 This limitless quality in reference to zuowang reminds us that meditation practice is not conditioned by “absorp-tions” or withdrawals into special transitory states of mind, but is open and naturally reflective.‘3

Footnotes::

1. a term used for "maidservant"
2. The Chinese term here suggests "baby-like."
3. No thought, no policies-Daoists and Chan Buddhists in the Chinese Tradition are often characterized by a antinomian attitudes.
4. all beings/things
5. qi matrix, clarity or simplicity
6. Xiang Er says, "To produce the extraneous is to lose sight of Dao." Heshang Gong says, "When the Dao is 'cut up,' it becomes the sun and moon, the five elements, and forms into shen/bodies."
7. This undistracted and consistent state is elsewhere called "staying with the Mother" or "holding to the One."
8. The Chinese character for "reflect" is composed of eye and a vessel full of water.
9. fabricating or elaborating
10. It has been understood by many that this text is about differentiating Dao from de. This is a mistake. In fact, it is about Daode. Laozi does not suggest transcending de or practicing meditation as de absorbing into Dao.
11. immortal
12. cultivation
13. Yuan-wu (1063-1135), a Song dynasty Chan master wrote, "The ultimate Way is simple and easy, yet profoundly deep. From the beginning it does not set up steps. Penetrate directly through to freedom and make it so that there is not the slightest obstruction at any time, twenty-four hours a day, with the realization pervading in all directions. Then your heart will be clear, comprehending the present and the past. Picking up a blade of grass, you can use it for the body of Buddha; taking the body of the Buddha, you can use it as a blade of grass. From the first there is no superiority or inferiority, no grasping or rejection. When your insight penetrates freely and its application is clear, then, even in the middle of complexity and complication, you yourself can move freely without sticking or lingering anywhere. Thus, without setting up any rigid views or maintaining any state, respond freely: 'When the wind blows, the grasses bend.'"