ChineseStudy

52. Returning to the Mother

Contents

Text

English translation

All under heaven has a beginning, which may be regarded as the mother of all under heaven.

“Mother” is an image for the shared source of things. Before becoming lost in their variety, one can attend to what allows them all to arise.

Once you have found the mother, you can understand her children. Once you understand the children, return and hold to the mother, and to the end of life you will not be in peril.

Understand particular things through their source, then return from particulars to that source. This keeps surface changes and local gains or losses from carrying you away.

Block the openings and close the doors, and throughout life you will not be worn out.

This is not a rejection of ordinary perception. It counsels restraint toward sensory craving and endless outward pursuit, so that attention and energy are not depleted.

Open the outlets and multiply your affairs, and to the end of life you will not be rescued.

When sensory wants are allowed to expand and tasks endlessly accumulate, a person keeps spending himself and finds it increasingly difficult to return to a stable center.

To see what is subtle is called clarity; to remain with softness is called strength.

Clear sight notices what others overlook. Real strength lies not in forcefulness, but in staying flexible under pressure.

Use its light, then return to its clarity, leaving no harm for yourself; this is called practicing what is constant.

Insight should be applied without display and then turned back toward self-awareness. This restraint keeps clear perception from becoming reckless action.

Feedback