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.
=====
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.
=====
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
===
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,
'
<
,.._,
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
r
1!11111111
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).
