Toshihiko Izutsu Sufism And Taoism P2.Ch05V The Birth of a New Ego

  SUFISM AND TAOISM: A Comparative Study of Key Philosophical Concepts

by Toshihiko Izutsu 1983

First published 1983 by Iwanami Shoten, Publishers, Tokyo
This edition is published by The University of California Press, 1984,
Rev. ed. of: A comparative study of the key philosophical concepts in Sufism and Taoism. 1966-67.

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Contents

Preface by T. Izutsu

Introduction

Part I - Ibn 'Arabi

1 Dream and Reality

II The Absolute in its Absoluteness

III The Self-knowledge of Man

IV Metaphysical Unification and Phenomenal Dispersion

V Metaphysical Perplexity

VI The Shadow of the Absolute

VII The Divine Nam es

VIII Allah and the Lord

IX Ontological Mercy

X The Water of Life

XI The Self-manifestation of the Absolute

XII Permanent Archetypes

XIII Creation

XIV Man as Microcosm

XV The Perfect Man as an Individual

XVI Apostle, Prophet, and Saint

XVII The Magical Power of the Perfect Man

Part II - Lao-Tzii & Chuang-Tzu

I Lao-Tzu and Chuang-Tzu

II From Mythopoiesis to Metaphysics

III Dream and Reality

IV Beyond This and That

V The Birth of a New Ego

VI Against Essentialism

VII The Way

VIII The Gateway of Myriad Wonders

IX Determinism and Freedom

X Absolute Reversai of Values

XI The Perfect Man

XII Homo Politicus

Part III - A Comparative Reftection 

I Methodological Preliminaries

II The Inner Transformation of Man

III The Multistratified Structure of Reality

IV Essence and Existence

V The Self-evolvement of Existence

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V The Birth of a New Ego

We have seen in what precedes how futile and absurd, in the view of

Chuang-tzii, is the ordinary pattern of thinking typified by the

this-is-'right' -and-that-is-'wrong' kind of discussion. What is the

source of ail these futile verbalizations? Chuang-tzii thinks that it is

to be found in the mistaken conviction of man about himself,

namely, that he himself has (or is) an 'ego', a self-subsistent entity

endowed with an absolute ontological independence. Man tends to

forget that the 'ego' which he believes to be so independent and

absolute is in reality something essentially relative and dependent.

Relative to what? Relative to 'you' and 'them' and ail other things

that exist around himself. Dependent upon what? Dependent upon

Something absolutely superior to himself, Something which

Chuang-tzii calls the Creator, or more literally, the Maker-of-

things.1 Chuang-tzii describes this situation through a parable of

'Shadow and Penumbra'. 2

Penumbra3 once said to Shadow: 'I notice you sometimes walking, but

next moment you are standing still. Sometimes I notice you sitting,

but next moment you are standing up. Why are you so fickle and

unstable?

Shadow replied: It seems tome that (in acting like this) I am simply

dependent upon something (i.e., the body). But that upon which I

depend seems to be acting as it does in dependency upon something

else (i.e., the Creator). So all my activities in their dependency seem

to be the same as the movements of the scales of a snake or the wings

of a cicada.4

How should I know, then, why I act in this way, and why I do not act

in that way?

Chuang-tzii deprives the 'ego' at a stroke of its seeming self- "

subsistence and self-sufficiency. But such a view goes naturally

against the everyday belief and conviction of man about himself.

For according to the everyday view of things the 'ego' is the very

basis and the core of man's existence, without which he would lose

his personality, his persona! unity, and be nothing. The 'ego' is the

point of co-ordination, the point of synthesis, at which all the

disparate elements of his personality, whether physical or mental,

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The Birth of a New Ego 333

become united. The 'ego' thus understood is called by Chuang-tzii

the 'mind'. 5

I think it proper to introduce at this point a pair of key terms which

seem to have played a decisive rôle in the formation of the main

lines of thought of Chuang-tzii conceming the nature of the mind:

tso ch'ih6 lit. 'sitting-galloping' and tso wang1 lit. 'sitting-forgetting'.

The first of them, tso ch'ih, refers to the situation in which the

mind of an ordinary person finds itself, in constant movement, going

this way at this moment and that way at the next, in response to

myriad impressions coming from outside to attract its attention and

to rouse its curiosity, never ceasing, to stop and rest for a moment,

even when the body is quietly seated. The body may be sitting still

but the mind is running around. It is the human mind in such astate

that the word hsin (Mind) designates in this context. It is the exact

opposite of the mind in a state of cairn peaceful concentration.

It is easy to understand conceptually this opposition of the two

states of the mind, one 'galloping around' and the other 'sitting still

and void'. But it is extremely difficult for ordinary men to free

themselves actually from the dominance of the former and to realize

in themselves the latter. But in truth, Chuang-tzii teaches, man

himself is responsible for allowing the Mind to exercise such a

tyrannical sway over him, for the tyranny of the Mind is nothing else

than the tyranny of the' ego' - that false 'ego' which, as we have seen

above, he creates for himself as the ontological center of his person-

ality. Chuang-tzii uses a characteristic expression for this basic

situation of man: shih hsin or 'making the Mind one's own

teacher' .8

The 'ego', thus understood, is man's own creation. But man clings

to it, as if it were something objective, even absolute. He can never

imagine himself existing without it, and so he cannot abandon it for

a moment; thus he makes out of his Mind his venerated 'teacher'.

This Mind, on a more intellectual level, appears as Reason, the

faculty of discursive thinking and reasoning. Sometimes Chuang-

tzii calls itch'êng hsin or'finished mind' .9 The 'finished mind' means

the mind which has taken on a definitely fixed form, the mind in a

state of coagulation, so to speak. It is the Reason by whose guidance

-here again we corne across the expression: 'making the Mind the

teacher' - man discriminates between things and passes judgments

on them, saying 'this is right' and 'that is wrong', etc., and goes on

falling ever deeper into the limitless swamp of absurdities.

Everybody follows his own 'finished mind' and venerates it as his own

teacher. In this respect we might say no one lacks a teacher. Those

who know the reality of the unceasingly changing phenomena and

accept (this cosmic law of Transmutation) as their standard (of

334 Sufism and Taoism

judgment) are not the only people who have their teachers. (ln the

above-mentioned sense) even an idiot has his own teacher. lt is

impossible for a man to insist on the distinction between 'right' and

'wrong' without having a 'finished mind'. This is as impossible as a

man departing (from a northern country) to-day and arriving in the

country of Yüeh (in the southern limit of China) yesterday! 10

Thus we see that all the pseudo-problems concerning the 'right' and

'wrong' or 'good' and 'bad', whose real nature was disclosed in the

preceding chapter, arise from man's exercising his own 'fi.nished

mind'. The Mind, according to Chuang-tzu, is the source and origin

of all human follies.

This idea of the Mind is shared by Lao-tzu, although his approach is

a little different from Chuang-tzu's. That the idea itself is basically

the same will immediately be perceived if one reads carefully, for

example, Ch. XLIX of the Tao Tê Ching. Interestingly enough,

Lao-tzu in this passage uses the term ch'ang hsin, 11 i.e., 'constant or

unchangeable mind'. The term reminds us of Chaung-tzu's ch'ëng

hsin 'fi.nished mind'. By ch' ang hsin Lao-tzu designates a rigidly

fi.xed state of mind deprived of all natural ftexibility, or as he likes to

say, the state of the mind that has lost the natural 'softness' of an

infant. As the passage quoted shows, this unnatural rigidity of the

mind is typically manifested in the distinguishing and discriminating

activity of the mind which perceives everywhere 'good' and 'bad',

'right' and 'wrong' and regards these categories as something objec-

tive and absolute.

For Lao-tzu, it is not simply a matter of one's becoming partial,

prejudiced, and bigoted. In his view the exercise of this fonction of

the mind affects the very core of human existence. lt is a question of

the existential crisis of man. Man stands in a woeful predicament

because he is - almost by nature, one would say - so made that he

directs the activity of his mind toward distinguishing and dis-

criminating things from one another.

The 'sacred man' has no rigidly fixed mind of his own. He makes the

minds of all people his mind. 12 (His principle is represented by the

dictum): 'Those who are good 1 treat as good. But even those who are

not good 1 also treat as good. (Such an attitude 1 take) because the

original nature of man is goodness. Those who are faithful 1 treat as

faithful. But even those who are not faithful 1 also treat as faithful.

(Such an attitude 1 take) because the original nature of man is

faithfulness.'

Thus the 'sacred man', while he lives in this world, keeps his mind

wide open and 'chaotifies' 13 his own mind toward all.

The ordinary men strain their eyes and ears (in order to distinguish

between things). The 'sacred man', on the contrary, keeps his eyes

and ears (free) like an infant. 14

'W ·11···

The Birth of a New Ego 335

Lao-tzu sometimes uses the wordchih 15 , 'knowing', to designate the

discriminating activity of the mind here in question. But caution is

needed in understanding this word, because for Lao-tzu it is not the

act of 'knowing' itself that is blameful; its blamefulness is con-

ditiàned by the particular way in which 'knowing' is exercised and

by the particular objects toward which it is directed.

The kind of' knowing' which is wrong in the eyes of Lao-tzu is the

same distinguishing and discriminating activity of intelligence as the

one which we have seen is so bitterly denounced by Chuang-tzu.

Unlike Chuang-tzu, however, who develops this idea on a logical

level as a problem of dialectics, taking his examples from the discus-

sions on 'right' and 'wrong' as he observes them among the Dialecti-

cians of his day, Lao-tzu is prone to consider the disastrous effects of

this type of 'knowing' on a more practical level. He draws attention

to the evaluational attitude which is the most immediate result of

the 'distinguishing' activity of the mind. Here the this-is-' right' -

and-that-is-'wrong' is nota logical problem. lt is a matter of practi-

cal evaluation. And as such it is directly connected with the concrete

facts of life. 'Knowing' understood in this sense, is denounced

because it disturbs the minds of the people in an unnecessary and

wrong way. And the disturbance of the mind by the perception of

values, positive and negative, is regarded by Lao-tzu as wrong and

detrimental to human existence because it tempts it away from its

real nature, and ultimately from the Way itself. In the following

passage, 16 the wordchih, 'knowing', is evidently used in this sense.

If (the ruler) does not hold the (so-called) wise men in high esteem,

the people will (naturally) be kept away from vain emulation. If (the

ruler) does not value goods that are hard to obtain, the people will be

kept away from committing theft. If (the ruler) does not display

things which are liable to excite desires, the minds of the people will

be kept undisturbed.

Therefore, the 'sacred man' in governing the people empties their

minds, 17 while making their bellies full; weakens their ambitions 18

while rendering their bones strong.

In this way, he keeps his people always in the state of no-knowledge 19

and no-desire, so that the so-called 'knowers' 20 might find no occa-

sion to interfere.

The baneful influence of the discriminating activity of the Mind is so

powerful that even a modicum of it is liable at any moment to make

man deviate from the Way.

If 1 happen to have even a modicum of'knowing', 1 would be in grave

danger of going astray even if 1 am actually walking on the main road

(i.e., the Way). The main road is level and safe, but men tend to

choose narrow by-ways. 21

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336 Sufism and Taoism

However, it is not 'knowing' itself that is so baneful; the quality of

'knowing' depends upon the particular abjects on which it is exer-

cised. The 'knowing', when its usual tendency of turning toward the

outside and seeking after externat abjects is curbed and brought

back toward the inside, transforms itself into the highest form of

intuition, 'illumination' (ming).

He who knows others (i.e., external objects) is a 'clever' man, but he

who knows himself is an 'illumined' man. 22

It is significant that here we corne across exactly the same word,

ming 'illumination', which we encountered in the Chuang-tzu. 1t is

also very significant that in the passage just quoted the 'illumina-

tion' is directly connected with man's knowledge of himself. 23 It

evidently refers to the immediate and intuitive knowledge of the

Way. It is described as man's 'self-knowledge' or 'self-knowing',

because the immediate intuitive grasp of the Way is only obtainable

through man's 'turning into himself'.

Certainly, according to the view of Lao-tzü and Chuang-tzü, the

Way is all pervading. It is everywhere in the world; the world itself is

a self-manifestation of the Way. In this sense, even 'externat' things

are actually manifesting the Way, each in its own way and own form.

But man alone in the whole world of Being is self-conscious. That is

to say, man alone is in a position to grasp the Way from inside. He

can be conscious of himself as a manifestation of the Way. He can

feel and touch within himself the palpitating life of the Absolu te as it

is actively working there. He can in-tuit the Way. But he is unable to

in-tuit it in externat objects, because he cannot go into the 'inside' of

the things and experience their manifestation of the Way as his own

subjective state. At least the first subjective persona! encounter

with the Way must be made within himself.

For this purpose the centrifugai tendency of the mind must be

checked and turned to the opposite direction; it must be made

centripetal. This drastic turning of direction is described by Lao-tzü

as 'closing' up all the openings and doors' of the body. By obstruct-

ing all the possible outlets for the centrifugai activity of the mind,

man goes down deep into his own mind until he reaches the very

existential core of himself.

This existential core of himself which he finds in the depth of his

mind may not be the Way perse, because after all it is an individual-

ized form of the Way. But, on the other hand, there is no real

distinction or discrepancy between the two. Lao-tzü expresses this

state of affairs symbolically by calling the Way perse the Mother,

and the Way in its individualized form the Child. He who knows the

Child, knows by that very knowledge the Mother herself.

In the passage which 1 am going to quote,24 the importance of the

The Birth of a New Ego 337

'closing up of all the openings and doors' is emphasized as the sole

means by which man can corne to know the Child, and through the

Child, the Mother. And the ultimate state thus attained is referred

to by the term 'illumination'. It may be pointed out that the Child

(tzu )25 which in this understanding represents an individualized

duplicate of the Mother (mu), 26 is nothing other than what Lao-tzü

calls elsewhere Virtue (te) - or perhaps more strictly, an individual

embodiment of the Way having as its existential core the creative

and vital force, which is the Way itself as distributed among the 'ten

thousand things'. As we shall see la ter, this creative and vital force

of each individual, existent as an individual determination of the

Way, is called by Lao-tzü 'Virtue' .27

All things under Heaven have a Beginning which is to be regarded as

the Mother of all things. 28

If you know the 'mother', you thereby know her 'child'. And if, after

having known the' child', you go back to the Mother and hold fast to

Her, you will never fall into a mistake till the very end of your life.

Block the openings, shut the doors (i.e., stop the normal functioning

of the sense organs and the usual centrifugai activity of the Mind),

and all through your life you (i.e., your spiritual energy) will not be

exhausted.

If, on the contrary, you keep the openings wide open, and go on in-

creasing their activities till the end of your life, you will not be saved.

To be able to perceive the minutest thing (i.e., the supra-sensible

thing, which is the Child of the Way within yourself) is properly to be

called Illumination. To hold on to what is soft and flexible (i.e.,

abandoning the rigidity of the Mind enslaved by the 'essential' dis-

tinctions among things and accepting 'softly' ail things in their real

state of mutual transformations) is properly to be called strength.

If, using your externat light, you go back to your internai Illumina-

tion, you will never bring misfortune upon yourself. Such an (ulti-

mate) state is what is to be called 'stepping into the eternally real' .29

The 'closing up all openings and doors' means, as 1 have indicated

above, stopping the functioning of all the organs of sense perception

in the first place, and then purifying the Mind of physical and

material desires. This is made clear by our comparing the passage

just quoted with XII which reads:

The five colors (i.e., the primary colors: white, black, blue, red and

yellow) make man's eyes blind. The five musical notes make man's

ears deaf. The five fl.avors (i.e., sweet, salty, sour, pungent, bitter)

make man's taste dull. (Garnes like) racing and hunting make man's

mind run mad. Goods that are hard to obtain impede man's right

conduct.

Therefore the 'sacred man' concentrates on the belly (i.e., endeavors

to develop his inner core of existence) and does not care for the eye

338 Sufism and Taoism

(i.e., does not follow the dictates of his senses). Verily he abandons

the latter and chooses the former.

The 'sacred man' cares for the belly and does not care for the eye,

because he is aware that the centrifugai activity of the Mind does

nothing other than lead him away frnm the Way. The Way is there in

his own 'inside' in the most concrete and palpable form. The further

one goes toward 'outside', the less he is in touch with the Absolute.

What one should try to do is to 'stay at home' and not to go

outdoors.

Without going out of the door, one can know everything under

Heaven (i.e., the reality of all things). Even without peeping out of

the window, one can see the working of Heaven. The further one

goes out, the less one knows.

Therefore the 'sacred man' knows without going out. He has a clear

view of everything30 without looking. He accomplishes everything

without acting. 31

The passages which have now been quoted from the Tao Tê Ching

concern the epistemological aspect of the problem of the Way; the

problem, namely, of how and in what way man can 'intuit' the

Absolute. The answer given by Lao-tzu is, as we have seen, that the

only possible way for man to take in order to achieve this aim is to

obstruct totally the centrifugai tendency of bis own mind and to

replace it by a centripetal activity leading ultimately to

'illumination'.

Lao-tzu, however, is not so much concerned with the epis-

temological process itself by which man cultivates such an 'inner

eye' as with the result and effect of this kind of intuition. Indeed, he

usually starts his argument precisely from the point at which such a

process reached completion. Two things are his main concern. One

is the practical and visible effect produced by the illuminative

intuition on the basic attitude and behavior of man. How does the

'sacred man' act in the ordinary situations of social life? That is one

of bis primary problems. This problem will be dealt with in a later

chapter devoted to a discussion of the concept of the Perfect Man.

The second of Lao-tzu' s main problems is the metaphysical struc-

ture of the world of Being, with the Way as the very source and basis

of all things. Here again the epistemological aspect of the problem is

either almost totally discarded or simply hinted at in an extremely

vague way. Lao-tzu is more interested to describe the ontological

process by which the Way as the absolutely Unknown-Unknowable

goes on making itself gradually visible and determined until finally it

reaches the stage of the infinite Multiplicity of the phenomenal

world. He also refers to the backward movement of all things, by

which they 'return' to the original state of absolu te Unity.

T

The Birth of a New Ego 339

What is remarkable about this is that all this description of the

ontological process is made from the standpoint of a man who has

already experienced 'illumination', with the eye of a man who

knows perfectly the secret of Being. Chuang-tzii is different from

Lao-tzu in this respect. He is vitally interested in the process which

itself precedes the final stage of 'illumination' and by which the

latter is reached. Chuang-tzu even tries to describe, or at least to

indicate by means of symbolic descriptions, the experiential content

of 'illumination' which he knows is by its very nature ineffable. The

rest of the present chapter and the next will be concerned

specifically with this aspect of the problem, which we might call the

epistemological or subjective side of the Way-experience.

At the outset of this chapter, I drew attention to two cardinal

concepts relating to the subjective side of the Way-experience,

which stand diametrically opposed to each other: tso ch'ih 'sitting-

galloping' and tso wang 'sitting-forgetting'. In the preceding pages

we have been examining mainly the structure of the former concept.

Now it is time we turned to the latter concept.

A man in the state of 'sitting-forgetting' looks so strange and so

different from ordinary men that he is easily recognizable as such by

an outsider-observer. In Bk II of his Book, Chuang-tzu gives a

typical description of such a man. The man here described is Nan

Kuo Tzu Ch'i, or Tzii Ch'i of the Southern Quarter. He is said to

have been a great Sage of Ch'u,32 living in hermitic seclusion in the

'southern quarter'. For Chuang-tzu he was surely a personification

of the very concept of the Perfect Man.

Once Tzu Ch'i of the Southern Quarter sat leaning against a

tabouret.. Gazing upward at the sky, he was breathing deeply and

gently. Completely oblivious of his bodily existence, he seemed to

have lost ail consciousness of 'associates' (i.e., oppositions of 'I' and

'things', or 'ego' and the 'others').

Yen Ch'eng Tzu Yu (one of his disciples), who was standing in his

presence in attendance, asked him, 'What has happened to you,

Master? Is it at ail possible that the body should be made like a

withered tree and the mind should be made like dead ashes? The

Master who is now leaning against the tabouret is no longer the

Master whom 1 used to see leaning against the tabouret in the past!'

Tzu Ch'i replied, 'lt is good indeed that you ask that question,33 Yen!

(1 look different from what 1 have been) because 1 have now lost

myself. 34 But are you able to understand (the real meaning of) this?

Following this introductory remark, the great Master goes on to

describe for the bewildered disciple the state of' having lost the ego',

telling him what is actually experienced in that state. As a result, we

have the very famous vision of the Cosmic Wind, one of the most

1

1.

1;

1

1

1

340 Sufism and Taoism

beautiful and forceful passages in the whole book of Chuang-tzu.

The passage will be given in translation in the following chapter.

Here we have onlv to note that the Master's words: 'I have now lost

myself', refer to other than the state of 'sitting-forgetting'

or 'sitting in oblivion' as opposed to the 'sitting-galloping'.

But what exactly is 'sitting in oblivion'? How can one experience

it at all? This is something extremely difficult-or more properly we

should say, almost absolutely impossible - to explain in words.

Chuang-tzu, however, tries to do so.

In Bk VI he gives his own definition of 'sitting in oblivion'. The

passage reads as follows.

What is the meaning of 'sitting in oblivion'?

It means that ail the members of the body become dissolved, and the

activities of the ears and eyes (i.e., the activities of ail the sense

organs) become abolished, so that the Ihan makes himself free from

both form and mind (i.e., both bodily and mental 'self-identity'), and

becomes united and unified with the All-Pervader (i.e., the Way

which 'pervades' ail). This is what 1 call 'sitting in oblivion' .35

Externally, or physically, all the parts of the body become 'dissol-

ved' and forgotten. That is to say, the consciousness of the bodily

'ego' is made to disappear. lnternally, all mental activities are

'abolished'. That is to say, there no longer remains the conscious-

ness of the inner 'ego' as the center and all-unifying principle of

man's mental activity. The result of this total 'forgetting' of the

inside and outside of the 'I' is called by Chuang-tzu hsÜ,36 the Void,

or a spiritual-metaphysical state in which there is nothing what-

soever to obstruct the all-pervading activity of the Way.

The word 'Void' must not be understood in this context in a

purely negative sense. It does have a positive meaning. And in its

positive aspect, the Void must be connected with the concept of the

All-Pervader which appears in the passage just quoted.

1 have translated the Chinese expression ta t'ung, lit. 'great perva-

sion', as the All-Pervader following the interpretation given by

Ch'êng Hsüan Ying, who identifies ta t'ung with ta tao, the 'great

Way', and says: 'ta t'ung is the same as ta tao; since the Way

pervades all things and enlivens them, it is in this sense entitled to be

called All-Pervader' .37 This interpretation seems to be right, but it

must be supplemented by an understanding of another aspect of the

matter, namely, that in the experience of the spiritual state here in

question, all things in their infinite multiplicity interpenetrate each

Jther freely, without any obstruction, and that the man who has lost

his 'ego' rediscovers in this experience his 'ego' in a totally different

form, reborn as what we might call the Universal, Cosmic, or·

Transcendental Ego which transforms itself freely into all things

that are transforming themselves into each other.

The Birth of a New Ego 341

Such must be the real implication of the use of the particular

expression ta t'ung in place of the more usual word tao, the Way.

The point is brought to light very clearly by Kuo Hsiang who

explains this passage by saying: 'in the "inside" the man has no

consciousness of his own bodily existence; in the "outside" he has

no awareness of the existence of Heaven and Earth. It is only in such

a state that he becomes completely identified with the (cosmic)

process of Change (i.e., "transformations") itself without there

being any obstruction at all. Once in such a state, there can be

nothing he does not freely pervade.' 38

Chuang-tzu himself expresses the same idea in a far more laconic

way:

Being unified, you have no liking. Being transmuted, you have no

fixity. 39

In the light of the explanation that has been given in the preceding,

the meaning of this laconic expression can easily be clarified as

follows. Being completely unified and identified with the Way itself,

the man can have no likes and dislikes. The man in such a spiritual

state transcends the ordinary distinctions between 'right' and

'wrong', 'good' and 'bad'. And since he is now identical with the

Way, and since the Way is constantly manifesting itself in myriad

forms of Being, the man himself is 'being transmuted' from one

thing to another, without there being any obstruction, as if he were

moving around in the great Void. He is not actually in the 'void',

because there are things throbbing with all-pervading Life, appear-

ing and disappearing in infinitely variegated forms. The point is,

however, that in this metaphysical Void these things no longer

present any obstacles to his absolute freedom. For he himself is, in

this state, completely identical with every one of these things,

participating from within in the cosmic flux of Transmutation; or

rather he is the cosmic Transmutation itself. This is what is meant by

the expression: 'you have no fixity' 40 'No fixity' means boundless

flexibility and absolute freedom.

It will be clear from what has preceded that the hsü is both the

metaphysical Void and the spiritual Void. In truth, this very distinc-

tion between 'metaphysical' and 'spiritual' is in this context some-

thing artificial, because the state in question refers to a total and

complete identification of man with the All-Pervader. Theoreti-

cally, however, there is some point in making such a distinction. For

when the question is raised on a more practical level as to what

concretely one should do in order to become so completely

identified with the Way, we have to have recourse to the idea of

making the mind 'void'. Only when one has succeeded in making

342 Sufism and Taoism

the mind completely 'void', does one find oneself in the very midst

of the metaphysical Void. This part of Chuang-tzu's teaching takes

on the form of practical instruction regarding the proper method by

which man can hope to attain to such astate. This method is called

by him 'fasting' or the purification of the Mind.

The purification of the Mind constitutes the pivotai point in the

development of man from the state of an 'ordinary' man to that of

the Perfect Man. An 'ordinary' man can never become a Perfect

Man unless he passes through this turning point. The significance of

this experience will be clear if one remembers what we have seen

above concerning Chuang-tzu's characteristic expression: 'making

the Mind one's own teacher' .41 Man naturally tends to ding to his

Mind - and Reason - and thinks and acts according to its dictates.

Whatever the Mind tells him to believe is absolutely true, and

whatever it commands him to dois absolu tel y good. In other words,

man venerates his own 'ego' as his 'teacher'.

In the light of this observation, the 'purification of the Mind'

means precisely that man should abolish this habit of the 'venera-

tion' of the Mind, that he should cast away his own 'ego'. And that

will mark the first step toward his being transformed into a Perfect

Man.

In an imaginary conversation which Chuang-tzu fabricates with a

view to endorsing his thesis, Confucius -who is here ironically made

into a Taoist sage - teaches his disciple Y en Hui how to proceed in

order to succeed in purifying the Mind.

ln this dialogue, Yen Hui is represented as a zealous disciple who

has desperately strùggled to know the right way to become a Perfect

Man, but in vain. As the final resort, he turns to Confucius and

humbly asks for instruction. The following is the passage.42

Yen Hui:

Confucius:

1 cannot proceed any further. May 1 venture to ask

you to tell me the proper way?

Fast, first. Then 1 will teach you. Do you think it easy

(to see the Truth) while maintaining your Mind? If

anybody does think it easy, the vast and bright

Heaven will not approve of him.

The word translated here as 'fast', chai,43 means the act of 'fasting'

which man practises in the period immediately preceding sacrificial

ceremonies in order to put himself into the state of religious 'purity'.

In the present context, Confucius uses the word not in this original

religious sense, but figuratively in the sense of the 'fasting of the

Mind', that is, the 'purification of the Mind'. Yen Hui, however,

does not understand this, and takes the word in its usual sense. He

imagines that Confucius means by the word the observance of the

T

The Birth of a New Ego 343

ritual fasting which concerns eating and drinking. Hence the follow-

ing ridiculous reply he gives to the Master:

Yen Hui:

Confucius:

Yen Hui:

Confucius:

My family is poor, so much so that 1 have neither

drunk liquor nor eaten garlic and onions for the past

several months. Cannot this be considered fasting?

What you are talking about is the fasting as a ritual

proceeding. That is not the fasting of the Mind.

May 1 ask what you mean by the fasting of the Mind?

Bring all the activity of the Mind to a point of union.

Do not listen with your ears, but listen with the Mind

(thus concentrated).

(Then proceed further and) stop listening with the

Mind; listen with the Spirit (ch'i). 44

The ear (or more generally, sense perception) is

confined to listening45 (i.e., each sense grasps only its

proper objects in a physical way).

The Mind is confined to (forming concepts) corres-

ponding to their external objects.46 The Spirit, how-

ever, is itself 'void' (having no definite proper objects

of its own), and goes on transforming limitlessly in

accordance with the (Transmutation of) things (as

they corne and go). The Way in its entirety cornes

only into the 'void' (i.e., the 'ego-Jess' Mind). Making

the Mind 'void' (in this way) is what 1 mean by the

'fasting of the Mind'.

As 1 pointed out before, hsü, 'void', is a key term of the philosophy

of Chuang-tzü. It represents in this context the subjective attitude

of man corresponding to the very structure of the Way which is itself

a Void. This latter point is very much emphasized by Lao-tzü, as we

shall see in detail in a later chapter which will be devoted to a

discussion of the metaphysics of the Way. Here we are still mainly

concerned with the subjective aspect of the matter. The main idea is

that when a man 'sits in oblivion' with his mind completely 'void',

into this ego-less 'void' all things corne exactly as they are, as they

corne and go in the cosmic process of Transmutation. In su ch astate,

his mind is comparable to a clear mirror which reflects everything

without the slightest distortion or disfigurement.

All this is of course a matter which must be directly experienced;

a mere conceptual understanding is of little help. Yen Hui whose

mind has already been fully ripened - in the anecdote we are now

reading - for this kind of persona! transformation, becomes sud-

denly 'illumined' by the teaching of his Master, and makes the

following observation about himself.

Yen Hui: Before Hui (i.e., 1) received this instruction, Hui was

really nothing but Hui (i.e., 'I' have been my small

'ego', nothing else). However, now that 1 have

11,

11

344

Confucius:

Sufism and Taoism

received this instruction, 1 have realized that from the

very beginning there never was (an 'ego' called) Hui.

Is this state worthy to be considered the 'void' (which

you have just spoken of)?

So it is, indeed!

Then Confucius contrasts this state with the state of 'sitting-

galloping', and goes on to describe the former by comparing it to a

firmly closed empty room which mysteriously and calmly illumines

itself with a white light of its own.47

Look into that closed room and see how its empty 'interior' produces

bright whiteness. Ail blessings of the world corne in to reside in that

stillness.48

If, on the contrary, (your Mind) does not stand still, you are in the

state of what 1 would call 'sitting-galloping'.

But if a man turns his ears and eyes toward the·'interior', and puts his

Mind and Reason in the 'exterior' (i.e., nullifies the normal function-

ing of the Mind and Reason), even gods and spirits corne to reside

freely (in his ego-less 'interior') not to speak of men. This is the

Transmutation of ten thousand things.49

The last sentence represents one of the cardinal points of Chuang-

tzu' s metaphysics. The peculiar meaning of the key term hua has

been explained above. What is important here to note is that in the

passage just quoted, the hua, Transmutation, is evidently described

as a subjective state of man, as something that occurs in his

'interior'. Rather, his 'interior' is the Transmutation of the ten

thousand things, that is, of all the phenomenal things and events of

the world. The man in the state of perfect 'sitting in oblivion' does

experience subjectively, as his persona! experience, the Transmuta-

tion of all things.

The whole matter may be reformulated more theoretically in terms

of the process of the spiritual development of man toward

illumination.

In ordinary human experience, the constant flux and reflux of

infinitely changing phenomena are in the position of the Lord. They

positively act upon man, influence him, push him around, and bind

him up. In such a situation man is a servant or slave. His mind

becomes tom asunder and runs in all directions in pursuit of

chameleonic forms of things and events.

Once man frees himself from this bandage and transcends the

common pattern of experience, the scene before his eyes takes on a

completely different appearance. The kaleidoscopic view is still

there. The things and events still continue their changes and trans-

formations as before. The only essential difference between the two

The Birth of a New Ego 345

stages is that in the second all these things and events that go on

appearing and disappearing are calmly reflected in the polished

mirror of the man's 'interior'. The man himself is no longer involved

in the hustle and bustle of incessantly changing phenomena.

The man at this stage is a cairn observer of things, and his mind is

like a polished mirror. He accepts everything as it cornes into his

'interior', and sees it off, unperturbed, as it goes out of sight. There

is for him nothing to be rejected, but there is nothing wilfully to be

pursued either. He is, in short, beyond 'good' and 'bad', 'right' and

'wrong'.

A step further, and he reaches the stage of 'undifferentiation',

where, as we saw earlier, all things become 'chaotified'. On this level

there still are things. But these things show no limits and borderlines

separating them 'essentially' from one another. This is the stage of

the cosmic Transmutation. lt goes without saying that in its subjec-

tive aspect, the Transmutation represents a spiritual stage of the

man himself.

As a result of the 'fasting of the Mind', the man is now completely

'ego-less'. And since he is 'ego-less' he is one with the 'ten thousand

things'; he becomes the 'ten thousand things'. And he himself goes

on changing with the infinite change of all things. He is no longer a

cairn 'observer' of the changing things. He is the subject of the

Transmutation. A complete and perfect harmony is here realized

beween the 'interior' and the 'exterior'; there is no distinction

between them.

Borrowing the terminology of Ibn 'Arabi we might say that the

man on this high level of spiritual development is subjectively

placed in the position of the Unity of Existence (wahdah al-wujüd),

and personally experiences the whole world of Being in that posi-

tion. The situation is described by Chuang-tzu in the following

way:s•

Dying and being alive, being subsistent and perishing, getting into a

predicament and being in the ascendant, being poor and being rich,

being clever and being incompetent, being disgraced and being hon-

ored, being hungry and thirsty, suffering from cold and heat - all

these are but constant changes of (phenomenal) things, and results of

the incessant working of Fate.

Ali these things go on replacing one another before our own eyes, but

no one by his Intellect can trace them back to their real origin.

However, these changes are not powerful enough to disturb (the man

who 'sits in oblivion' because he is completely one with the Transmu-

tation itself), nor can they intrude into the 'innermost treasury' 52 (of

such a man).

On the contrary, he main tains (his 'innermost treasury') in a peaceful

harmony with (all these changes) so that he becomes one with them

without obstruction, and never !oses his spiritual delight.

346 Sufism and Taoism

Day and night, without ceasing, he enjoys being in spring-tide with all

things. Mingling with (the infinitely changing things on a supra-

sensible level of existence) he goes on producing within his 'interior'

the 'time' 53 (of the world).

Such astate 1 would call the perfection (i.e., perfect actualization) of

the human potentiality .54

When a man attains to this height of spiritual development, he fully

deserves the title of Perfect Man. This, however, is not the last and

ultimate stage of 'sitting in oblivion'. There is a still higher stage

beyond. That is the stage of 'no more Death, no more Life'.

Chuang-tzu sometimes calls it the 'extreme limit (chih )' 55 of know-

ledge (chih). 56 At this last stage, the man is completely unified not

with the ever changing 'ten thousand things' - as was the case when

he was in the previous stage - but with the' Mystery of Mysteries' ,57

the ultimate metaphysical state of the Absolute, at which the latter

bas not yet corne down to the sphere of universal Transmutation.

The man is here so completely one with the Way that he bas not

even the consciousness of being one with the Way. The Way at this

stage is not presentas the Way in the consciousness of the man. And

this is the case because there is no 'consciousness' at all anywhere,

not even a trace of it. The 'oblivion' is complete. And the actualiza-

tion of such a perfect 'oblivion' is to be accounted for in reference to

the metaphysical fact that the ultimate Absolu te, the Way, is in its

absolute absoluteness Something which one cannot call even 'some-

thing'. Hence the usual custom in oriental philosophies of referring

to the Absolu te as Nothing.

The stages of the above-described spiritual development of 'sitting

in oblivion' are variously discussed by Chuang-tzu in several places

of bis book. Sometimes he takes an ascending course, and some-

times a descending course. The former corresponds to the real

process by which the mind of a man gradually proceeds toward

spiritual perfection. A typical example of this type of description is

found in a passage 58 which daims to reproduce a conversation

between a certain Nan Po Tzu K'uei and a Perfect Man (or

Woman?) called Nü Yü. In this passage, Chuang-tzu gives a

description of the stages which are traversed by a man who is barn

with a special potentiality to be a Perfect Man until he really

reaches the last stage. The description is very interesting when it is

considered as a Taoist counterpart to the Islamic fana' or

self-annihilation'.

The conversation starts from Nan Po Tzu K'uei's astonishment at

the complexion of old Nü Yü, which, as he observes, is like that of a

child.

The Birth of a New Ego 347

Nan Po Tzu

K'uei:

Nü Yü:

Nan Po:

Nü Yü:

You are old in years, Master, and yet your com-

plexion is like that of a child. Why?

(This is because) 1 have corne to know the Way.

Is it possible for me to learn the Way?

No. How could it be possible? You are not the right

kind of man to do so.

You know Pu Liang 1. He had (from the beginning)

the natural potentiality to be a 'sacred man', but he

had not yet acquired the Way, whereas 1 had the Way

but lacked the 'potentiality' .59 1 wanted to give him

guidance to see if, by any chance, he cou Id become a

'sacred man'. Even if 1 should fail to achieve my goal,

it was, (1 thought), easy for a man in possession of the

Way to communicate it to a man in possession of the

potentiality of a 'sacred man'.

Thus 1 persistently taught him. After three days, he

learnt how to put the world outside his Mind.

The 'putting the world outside the Mind' i.e., forgetting the exist-

ence of the world, marks the first stage. The 'world' being some-

thing objective - and therefore relatively far from the Mind - is the

easiest thing for man to erase from his consciousness.

After he had put the world outside himself, 1 con-

tinued persistently to instruct him. And in seven days

he learnt how to put the things outside his Mind.

The 'putting the things outside the Mind' represents the second

stage. Forgetting the existence of the world was not so difficult, but

'things' which are more intimately related with man resist being

erased from the consciousness. As Kuo Hsiang remarks: 'The things

are needed in daily life. So they are extremely close to the ego. This

is why they are so difficult to put outside the Mind' .60 And Ch'êng

Hsüan Ying: 61 'The states of the whole world are foreign and far

removed from us; so it is easy for us to forget them. The things and

utensils that actually serve us in our everyday life are familiar tous;

so it is difficult for us to forget them'.

By forgetting the familiar things that surround us and are con-

nected with us in various ways in daily life, the external world

completely disappears from our consciousness.

After he had put things outside his Mind, 1 still con-

tinued to instruct him. And in nine days he learnt how

to put Life outside the Mind.

This is the third stage. It consists in the man's forgetting Life, that is

to say, erasing from bis consciousness the fact of his own Life, i.e.,

bis own personal existence. This is the stage of dropping the 'ego'.

As a result, the world, bath in its external and internai aspects,

348 Sufism and Taoism

disappears from the consciousness. This stage is immediately fol-

lowed by the next which is the sudden coming of the dawn of

'illumination'.

After he had put Life outside his Mind, (his inner eye

was opened just as) the first light of dawn breaks

through (the darkness of night).

Once this 'illumination' is achieved, there are no more stages to

corne. Or should we say, there are stages to corne, but they do not

corne successively; all of them become actualized simultaneously. If

they are to be considered 'stages', they must be described as hori-

zontal stages which occur at once and all together the moment the

inner eye is opened by the penetrating ray of spiritual daybreak.

The first of such stages is 'perceiving the absolute Oneness'.

The moment the day dawned, he saw the Oneness.

This is the moment when all things and 'I' become absolutely one.

There is no more opposition of subject and abject - the subject that

'sees' and the abject 'seen' being completely unified - nor is there

any distinction between 'this' and 'that', 'existence' and 'non-

existence'. 'I' and the world are brought back to their absolu te

original unity.

And after having seen the Oneness, there was (in his

consciousness) neither past nor present.

At the stage of the absolute Oneness, there is no more conscious-

ness of the distinction between 'past' and 'present'. There is no

more consciousness of 'time'. We may describe this situation in a

different way by saying that the man is now in the Eternal Now. And

since there is no more consciousness of ever-ftowing 'time', the man

is in the state of 'no Death and no Life'.

After having nullitied past and present, he was able to

enter the state of 'no Death and no Life'.

The state of 'no Death and no Life' can be nothing other than the

state of the Absolute itself. The man at this stage is situated in the

very midst of the Way, being identified and unified with it. He is

beyond Life and Death, because the Way with which he is one is

beyond Life and Death.

The state of the Way or the Absolute, however, is not simply

being beyond Life and Death. As is clearly shown by the very

epistemological process by which man finally attains toit, this state

is not sheer 'nothing-ness' in the purely negative sense. lt is rather

the ultimate metaphysical state, the absolu te Unity, to which the

dispersion of the ontological Multiplicity is brought back. lt is a

-...,,. r.':

!J'

The Birth of a New Ego 349

Unity formed by the unification of 'ten thousand things', a Unity

in which all the things are existent, reduced to the state of

Nothing-ness.

There is 'no Death and no Life' here. That is to say, it is astate of

complete Tranquillity and Stillness. There is no more even a trace of

the noise and fuss of the world of sensible existence. And yet

Stillness is not the stillness of Death. There is no more movement

observable. But it is not a state of non-movement in a purely

negative sense. lt is rather a dynamic non-movement, full of inter-

nai ontological tensions, and concealing within itself infinite pos-

sibilities of movement and action.

Thus it is, in both of the aspects just mentioned, a coincidentia

oppositorum. The Absolu te, in this view, is Something which goes

on realizing and actualizing 'ten thousand things' in their myriad

forms and transforming them in a limitless process of Transmuta-

tion, and yet at the same time keeping all these things in their

supra-temporal and supra-spatial Unity. lt is a Unity which is itself a

Multiplicity. lt is Stillness which is itself Ebullition.

In the end of the passage Chuang-tzu refers to this aspect of the

Way in the following words.

That which kills Life does not die. 62 That which brings to Life every-

thing that lives does not live. 63 By its very nature it sends off every-

thing, and welcomes everything. There is nothing that it does not

destroy. There is nothing that it does not perfect. It is, in this aspect,

called Commotion-Tranquillity. 64 The name Commotion-

Tranquillity refers to the fact that it (i.e., the Way) sets (ail things) in

turmoil and agitation and then leads them to Tranquillity.

We must keep in mind that at this highest stage of spirituality, the

man is completely unified and identified with the Way. Sin ce, how-

ever, the Way is nothing other than Commotion-Tranquillity, the

man who is in complete union with the Way, goes through this

cosmic process of the absolute Unity being diversified in turmoil

and agitation into 'ten thousand things', and the latter going back

again to the original state of Tranquillity. The ontology of Taoism is

an ontology which is based upon such an experience. lt would be

naturai for us to imagine that the view of Being in the spiritual eyes

of a Taoist sage will be of an essentially different nature and struc-

ture from that of an Aristotle, for example, who founds his

philosophical edifice upon the ordinary ontological experience of an

average man looking at the world around him at the level of sound

and solid common sense. The most natural standpoint of

philosophers of the latter kind is essentialism. In ancient China, the

essentialist standpoint is represented by Confucius and his school.

Both Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzü take a determined position against it.

1

11

350 Sufism and Taoism

The next chapter will be devoted to an elucidation of this particular

point.

Notes

1. tsao wu chê VII, p. 280). The name designates the Way in its 'personal'

aspect. This aspect of the Way is referred to also by the na me Great Lord, ta shih ::kMî.

The word Heaven, t'ien 7( is also sometimes used with the same meaning. More

details will be given la ter when we discuss the concept of' determinism' (Cha p. IX).

2. Il, pp. 110-111.

3. is explained by Kuo Hsiang as r 'faint darkness surrounding the

shadow'.

4. The scales of a snake and the wings of a cicada have no independence in their

movements. On the contrary ail their movements are dictated by the snake and the

cicada respectively.

5. hsin •Ü.

6. {fit!!. The word appears in an important passage (IV, p. 150) which will be given

in translation presently.

7.

8. rm.c.- , IV, p. 145.

9. nltL, , II, p. 56. My interpretation of this word is based on that given by Kuo

Hsiang and Ch'êng Hsüan Ying. The latter says:

::;l::;Mi:fl!Htti.Z.·C.., (p. 61). Sorne commen-

tators (like Lin Hsi for instance, in his famous lftî· t:.l ) interpret the word in

the opposite sense, as the inborn, naturally given mind, which is the mind in its

celestial purity. But this latter interpretation does not, I think, do justice to the basic

thought of Chuang-tzu on this problem.

10. ibid.

11. #ù. The word ch'ang is an ambiguous term in the Tao Tê Ching, because

Lao-tzu uses it in two diametrically opposed meanings. Sometimes - as is the case

with the usage of the word in this passage - it means 'unflexible', 'rigidly fixed', which

is the worst possible state of things in the philosophy of Lao-tzu. Sometimes -

particularly in many of the passages of primary importance, as we shall see la ter- it is

used in the sense of 'never-changing', 'eternal', and 'absolute'.

12. Having no 'fixed mind' of his own, he accepts everything, whether 'good' or

'bad'; rather, he does not distinguish between 'good' and 'bad'.

13. hun rlfi, a characteristic word, whose meaning has been explained in an earlier

passage in connection with Chuang-tzu's concept of the 'chaotification' of things.

14. XLIX.

r

The Birth of a New Ego 351

15.

16. Tao Tê Ching, III.

1 7. hsin ù, the discriminating activity of the intellect, the natural tendency of the

Mind toward gaining 'knowledge'.

18. chih -;t, that aspect of the Mind, which manifests itself in insatiably desiring

more and more.

19. wu chih 1!0u.

20. chih chê, ?:ll:Z lit. 'knowing men', those men who daim to know the reality of

things; who, therefore, are convinced that they are capable of giving the best advice

on every important matter of human life.

21. Liii.

22. XXXIII.

23. We are reminded of the Islamic adage: Man 'ara/a nafsa-hu 'ara/a rabba-hu 'He

who knows himself knows his Lord', which, as we saw in the first Part of this study,

plays an important rôle in the philosophy of Ibn 'Arabî.

24. LII.

25. 7.

26. a.

27. That the word tê here translated as Virtue, is one of the most important of alI

the key terms of Lao-tzu, will be seen from the very fact that the Book itself is known

by the title Tao Tê Ching, i.e., the 'Canonical Book of the Way and the Virtue'.

28. 'Ali things under Heaven' represent the Multiplicity of the phenomenal world,

while the Beginning is the Unity as their ultimate ontological origin and source.

29. hsi ch'angW#. For the meaning of the word ch'ang #, see above, note (11). The

word hsi means 'step into', 'enter', here in the mystical sense of the 'inner' grasp of a

thing, in-tuition. The word is used in XXVII in a very characteristic combination: hsi

ming, 4'§f1, 'stepping into illumination'.

30. i'l. The word is here the same as JYJ- both having the same pronunciation. As

quoted by Han Fei Tsu ( we see §.F1 actually used in this passage ( 'f .R.ffiïlfü ).

31. XLVII.

32. 1i!. On the relevance of his being a man of Ch'u to the whole topic of the present

study, see above, Chap. 1.

33. i.e., I am glad that you are keen enough to notice the difference.

34. i.e., I have lost my 'ego' and have stepped into the state in which there is no more

distinction between 'ego' and 'things'. Lin Hsi I says in his commentary: As

11111

352 Sufism and Taoism

long as there is 'ego' there are' things'. But when 1 Jose my 'ego', there is no' I'. And

since there is no 'I', there are no 'objects'. (ltFfi::il'ii;ad Loc.)

35. VI, p. 284.

36. ri1lt; cf. Ch'êng Hsüan Ying: lftfl:f-$t;lfiî, p. 285.

37. l::ki!Jft::kmm. p. 285.

38. p. 285.

39. ibid.

40. The word used here for 'fixity' is ch'ang whose double meaning has been

explained above; see notes 11 and 29.

41. See above, Chap. IV.

42. IV, pp. 146-148.

43 .•.

44. The word has already been explained before, Ch. II, Note 19. lt is a

proto-material and formless cosmic 'reality' which pervades the whole world of

Being and which constitutes the ontological core of every single thing, whether

animale or in-animale. Man is, of course, no exception to this. Thus man, on the level

of the ch'i is homogeneous with ail things as well as with the universe itself. Man

cannot 'listen with the ch'i,,' unless he has been completely unified with the universe.

The 'ego' which listens, i.e., perceives, with the ch'i is no longer an ordinary epis-

temological 'subject'; it is the Cosmic Ego.

45. The text reads: 112.Ll:liUf-J, 'listening stops with the ears', which gives but a poor

meaning. Following Yü Yüeh ( fit<W) I read ( cf.:E9ëif ad [oc.).

46. i.e., the Mind is confined to elaborating the images received from the sense

organs and fabricating out of them concepts that correspond to external objects

which are fixed once for ail in terms of' essences'. It cannot identify itself, with infini te

flexibility, with each of the infinitely varying phenomenal forms of 'reality'.

47. IV, p. 150.

48. The repetition of the word 11:: inlâiiî'f.Ll:.Ll:J is a little difficult to account for. Yü

Yüeh simply disposes of the second as a scribal error on the ground that the

sentence as quoted in other books does not have it. ( 1.Ll:.Ll:jl)(, nim r J- ff'iiJUl-fl' . âiiî'f.Ll: -&J. il 11tx-r m•m:J[;tt

17ff J-xllîilMi-B 1:.13, âiiif.Ll:lÇJ However, the second

.Ll: can very well be understood also in the sense of 'stillness' or 'no-motion' as

I have done following Ch'eng Hsüan Ying who says: ll,,Z.tl'.

p. 151.

49. ftJ, 'The hua of ten thousand things'.

50. In doing this, I shall strictly follow Chuang-tzü's own description which he gives

in Bk. II, p. 74. The passage itself will be given in translation at the outset of the

following chapter.

The Birth of a New Ego

51. V, p. 212.

353

52. ling ftt,1!/ff the most secret part of the heart which is the central locus of ail

spiritual activity.

53. i.e. he goes on experiencing within himself, without being perturbed, the alter-

nation of the four seasons, which is the' time' of ail phenomenal things. That is to say

he is completely one with ail things which are in the incessant process of

transformation.

54. ts'ai ch'üan :t:it, one of the key terms of Chuang-tzü. It means the natural human

ability brought to the highest degree of perfection.

55.

56. 9:D II, p. 74,

57. Hsüan chih yu hsüan l:tZ.3Z..:tJ, the expression is from the Tao Tê Ching. It

denotes the Way, but with a peculiar connotation which will be explained in the

chapter concerning the concept of Way.

58. VI, pp. 252-253.

59. i.e., I had not the 'ability' or 'potentiality' to become a Perfect Man; I had

'actually' the Way from the very beginning.

60. J1Jôllfü, p. 253.

61. JWUlUAJ, p. 254.

62. The Way brings everything existent to naught. But if it brings everything to

naught and death, it must itself be something beyond Death.

63. Since the Way brings into existence everything that exists, it must itself be

something that transcends Life, i.e., Becoming.

64. Ying ning lt is one of the key terms of Chuang-tzü. According to Ch'êng

Hsüan Ying, ying means 'commotion', 'agitation', and ning 'tranquillity', 'stillness'

{IJl{llbi!1, p. 255).