The Stream of the World

Dao De Jing 28, an internal alchemy perspective

Hi friends,

today in the free article I'm putting my small translation of Dao De Jing chapter 28 and commenting on its meaning according to internal alchemy theory.

In the paid section I've put my full translation of Huang Yuanji's annotation of chapter 28 which explains many important things about Neidan practice and theory which are not so well known.

I've made a better attempt to edit my translation, so I think it is quite nice compared to others I've posted. Perhaps it is because I've been swimming lately, so maybe more oxygen is making it to my brain and my cognitive function is a little less impaired than usual, but either way, it is a nice translation. There are many technical terms which need annotation and you have a couple choices about how to get them. Fabrizio Pregadio has made an excellent dictionary of Internal Alchemy terms which is available to purchase, so I do suggest that one. Another thing which may be possible is that I can make some short classes on various chapters of Dao De Jing Chan Wei starting next month. I don't want to do an entire reading class for it again since the last time we did, it took four years, but I do think that knocking off a video or two a month is quite manageable. Let me know if you are interested and I'll follow the majority concensus.

DDJ 28:

“知其雄，守其雌，為天下谿。

Know the masculine,

guard the feminine,

this is the creek which runs through the world,

為天下谿，常德不離，復歸於嬰兒。

The creek which runs through the world never leaves constant virtue,

returning and reverting to become like a baby,

知其白，守其黑，為天下式。

Know the white, guard the black,

this is the model of the world,

為天下式，常德不忒，復歸於無極。

Acting on the model of the world,

constant virtue may never be sullied by shame,

returning and reverting to the pole of non being,

知其榮，守其辱，為天下谷。

Know the luxuriance, guard to shameful,

this is the action of the valley of the world,

為天下谷，常德乃足，復歸於樸。

The action of the valley of the world constantly has sufficient virtue,

returning and reverting to simplicity,

樸散則為器，聖人用之，則為官長，故大制不割

simplicity scatters and acts as the vessel,

the sage uses it,

being the leader of all ministers,

thus greatly regulating without injuring.”

Big picture in Neidan:

The Dao De Jing comes from an era of Chinese thought which was called the 百家 Bai Jia/Hundred Schools period by later thinkers (not just modern, throughout many generations). In later Daoist texts the thinkers of the hundred schools and all enlightened Daoists who left behind texts are called 诸子 Zhu Zi, which basically means all the past masters. This term doesn't just include Daoists, it also includes people like Mencius, Confucius, Mo, Han Feizi and so on. The Dao De Jing is mainly a text about social philosophy, or at least wisdom about society and is not primarily a devotional text. It could be seen as about as religious as Confucius, since Confucius also advocated for ritual, harmonizing the ghost and spirit, venerating ancestors etc... When you read the Dao De Jing, you should read it first as a book about the society of that era, political strategy and a exhorting of leaders to pacify the people by making their lives sufficient, rather than using military force.

The Dao De Jing also has an element of inner cultivation and it is my belief that inner refinement related to nurturing character and extending quality of life were considered as important for the governments of countries and as having a direct impact on the quality of life of the people of those countries.

I wanted to use this brief discourse about the nature of the Dao De Jing as a text to set the frame that it was not originally intended as a meditation textbook, but that later generations of practitioners began to use it as such. It is important that we situate the Dao De Jing correctly, lest it be misconstrued as presenting an anachronistic reading of Daoist history where present day values of Daoists are seen as always having existed, or having some precedent in warring states thought beyond the influence of later generations.

Now that we have that part out of the way, let's analyze the text from the perspective of Neidan, a perfectly good reading of the Dao De Jing, as long as we don't make up a fable and say it always has been this way.

1: “知其雄，守其雌，為天下谿。

Know the masculine,

guard the feminine,

this is the creek which runs through the world,”

Masculine here means Yang and feminine means Yin. I don't have any particular stake in which words we use and I'm not trying to gender the text, but this is one conventional interpretation.

The key point is that the world requires both the scattering movement of Yang and the congealing stillness of Yin to be in various states of harmony.

In Neidan, guarding Yin is more important than using Yang.

Neidan is based on long periods of stillness leading to short periods of activity, that is the way of Neidan.

2: “為天下谿，常德不離，復歸於嬰兒。

The creek which runs through the world never leaves constant virtue,

returning and reverting to become like a baby,”

The creek here is a creek that flows up through rocks in the ground, it has a hidden nature but produces a small flow of water which can be seen to enter a rivulet.

I hike a lot and our local area has many springs which run into larger bodies of water.

It is quite impressive that a tiny spring from a cliff side can feed a lake.

The great virtue is hidden within and it presents itself in action on the outside, but the virtue collected within must be greater than the individual actions of virtuous people.

At the same time, the evil in a malevolent person must be greater than their actions in the world and that is very scary!

In Neidan practice, Yin produces Yang, thus the time you spend in stillness must be greater by far than the time the energy moves.

A small baby is the same, they have great reserves of energy, even though they are soft to touch, helpless, and only know their base emotions with no artifice or technique.

Returning to become like a baby means returning to the purity of Yin, which is productive of Yang.

The womb of meditation and the Dantian produces the heavenly fetus of Neidan practice.

Other schools of meditation do it differently, but we do it by converting Yin to Yang.

3: “知其白，守其黑，為天下式。

Know the white, guard the black,

this is the model of the world,

為天下式，常德不忒，復歸於無極。

Acting on the model of the world,

constant virtue may never be sullied by shame,

returning and reverting to the pole of non being,”

Black is like night,

white is like day.

The night seems to give birth to morning, but there is no intention behind this.

The cycle of Yin and Yang in nature is presided over by an invisible actor, but that actor, at least according to Neidan theory is the utmost of non-existence.

It is hard to fathom, actually we can't do it with the senses, this is why Neidan is the perfect expression of Daoist thought, since we can attain the Dao through practice of non-action leading to all action without effort.

4: “知其榮，守其辱，為天下谷。

Know the luxuriance, guard to shameful,

this is the action of the valley of the world,

為天下谷，常德乃足，復歸於樸。

The action of the valley of the world constantly has sufficient virtue,

returning and reverting to simplicity,

樸散則為器，聖人用之，則為官長，故大制不割

simplicity scatters and acts as the vessel,

the sage uses it,

being the leader of all ministers,

thus greatly regulating without injuring.”

Luxuriance is the effulgent nature of Yang energy coming forth while shame means to maintain a standard of humility.

If you had great wealth you would probably want to hide it and not flaunt it in public, since flaunting leads to the risk of bad actors discovering your wealth and hurting you in order that they may take it.

The Yang Qi of the world is also like this, it exists everywhere, but it acts in a secret way in each of us.

Our cultivation of the Golden Elixir is also this way, it only works if we hide ourselves in the great mystery of the operation of the Dao.

Simplicity is everywhere in Neidan practice..

entering stillness is simple, forgetting your body and mind is simple, profound nothingness is simple, energetic movement is simple, returning it the the elixir field is simple.

This is also the action of the leader of governors who can regulate without injuring.

It seems like the best thing we can do,

this is why so many people abandoned their lives and lived in the mountains to cultivate the Dao.

Neidan is a literal ladder to heaven, but of course in this heaven there is no deity who speaks to you, it is the heaven of a clean consciousness and abundant life energy.

How luck we are if we can learn this technique and apply it every day, even if only for an hour or two.

Here is Huang's version of chapter 28, it is much better than mine, so make sure to subscribe if you haven't yet.