Return/reverse to the root/source/basis/original-face

Daoist text and buddhist (zen) texts.

.

---

.

######Daodejing 16

{16i} 致虛極 守靜篤.

Devote to utmost emptiness, guard/maintain the quiescent/stillness single-mindedly.

{16ii} 萬物並作 吾以觀復.

The entire working of ten-thousand things – I regard as manifestation of repetition/report/pattern.

{16iii} 夫物芸芸 各復歸其根.

Regarding this multitude of things, each repeatedly returns back to its root.

{16iv} 歸根曰靜 是謂復命. 復命曰常.

Return to root is said to be quiescence/dormancy/stillness. It is called reporting-back/awaiting-new-order.

[This] reporting-back/awaiting-new-order is said to be constant.

{16v} 知常曰明. 不知常 妄作凶.

Knowing constant is said to be discernment/illumination/enlightenment.

Not knowing constant, dangerous are the actions [based on] delusion.

{16vi} 知常容 容乃公 公乃王 王乃天 天乃道.

For in knowing constant, [there is] acceptance. Acceptance is impartiality. Impartiality is king. King is heaven/sky. [And] heaven/sky is Dao.

{16vii} 道乃久 沒身不殆.

Dao is enduring, [because] without a body/self, there can be no peril [to it]2.

.

2. As mentioned in {13v}, it is only because of a body/self of attachments that there can be great affliction. The body of Dao is however without a body/self, hence there can be no peril. Because how do you injure that which is empty and without existence? Therefore there is the instruction of guarding quiescence/stillness and devoting to utmost emptiness at the start of this section.

.

---

.

######Recorded Sayings of Mazu

不解返源。隨名逐相。迷情妄起。造種種業。若能一念返照。全體聖心。汝等諸人。各達自心。

Not knowing how to return to the source,‭ [instead] following names and pursuing characteristics,‭ deluded passions falsely arise,‭ thereby producing all kinds of karma.‭

If [you] can in a single thought reverse the illumination,‭ to the entire basis of the holy mind‭‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬, all you people here, each [would] arrive at [your] own mind itself.

.

---

.

######Fukanzazengi S4

S4) 所以須休尋言逐語之解行，須學回光返照之退步。身心自然脱落，本來面目現前。恁麼事欲得，恁麼事務急。

Therefore [one] should stop the practice of finding words and chasing phrases for explanation/interpretation. [Instead one] should learn the retreating move of reversing light to return illumination. As mind and body fall away by themselves, the original face-eye is manifested.

If [one] wants to attain this, [one] should urgently work/act on this [matter of sitting meditation].

.

---

.

######Daodejing 52iii

{52iii} 見小曰明，守柔曰強。用其光，復歸其明，無遺身殃；是為習常。

Seeing the small2 is said to be enlightenment, guarding/abiding the soft3 is said to be strong.

Use the light to return/reverse back to enlightenment.

[Where] there is no remnant of a body/self for calamity [to strike], this is practising/inheriting the constant.

.

1. The mother of all-under-heaven basically represents the source of all originated things. Originated things can be said to have body/self but the source of these things can’t be said to have a body/self.

2. Small (小 xiao) refers to lack of selfishness or existence, which as suggested in the last line of {52i} is that of having no body/self.

3. Soft (柔 rou) refers to non-substantiality which, as taught in {43i}, can penetrate and traverse the hardest. Therefore it is said here that abiding the soft is strong.

.