Before I begin I want to suggest you print out he last page in this file that has The Compass on it. This will help you follow my dialogue. The Compass is based on a cycle of healign, identify one of nine emotional states and processing through the healign cycle back to center, the yellow middle. It also, functions on the principle of pairs and opposites. More later.
I want to speak about the lineage of what we call Taoism. Modern day folks think Taoism began with Laotzu. I disagree with this. I believe there is a common thread that goes back beyond Laotzu to Fu hsi to The Yellow Emperor and beyond into a time before.
Taoists speak of a time before recorded history when there existed what they call a Great Peace. The wise men of the age knew the world was changing, and not for the good. They set out to preserve wisdom we would need when the time came around for us to have the opportunity to come around to another age of Great Peace.
They created metaphoric stories that would, when verbally passed from generation to generation, pass on this wisdom. When writing was created some cultures wrote down their stories and continued to pass them on.
The metaphoric stories were not intended to be taken literally, but just to preserve the story. At the same time, there were those who understood and knew the secrets behind the metaphoric stories. These men were entrusted to teach others the secrets, So the truth behind the metaphors could also be preserved.
Along the way something happened and the secrets behind the metaphors was lost.
Have you ever been a part of the exercise where you all stand in a circle and one person tells something to one person in the circle; a starting point. This person tells the story to the person next to them and it goes around the circle. When it gets back to the starting point it no longer resembles the original story told.
Norman Girardot in his translation of Robinet's work, Taoist meditation-The Mao-Shan Tradition of Great Purity, quotes Mircea Eliade. Mr. Eliade says, "We display in broad daylight texts, ideas, beliefs, rites, etc., which normally should remain hidden, and access to them reserved only to initiates. I don't know whether this phenomenon has been the object of any study dealing with the philosophy of culture. We're dealing, however with a fact that is as fascinating as it is paradoxical: Secret, that is, 'esoteric', doctrines and methods are only unveiled and put within reach of everyone because they no longer have any chance of being understood. They can henceforth only be badly understood and poorly interpreted by non-initiates." Isabelle Robinet, Taoist Meditation: The Mao-Shan Tradition of Great Purity. Translated by Julian F. Pas & Norman J. Girardot. State University of New York Press. 1993. Pg. xxvi.
I can’t explain why I see things differently than others, but I know that I do. Let’s look at some of the written history about the lineage of the wisdom.
Let’s begin with The Yellow Emperor 2697 BCE-2598 BCE.
Under this heading on the listing for The Yellow Emperor on Wikipedia it states: Symbol of the centre of the universe
“As the Yellow Deity with Four Faces (黃帝四面 Huángdì Sìmiàn) he represents the centre of the universe and vision of the unity which controls the four directions. It is explained in the Huangdi Sijing ("Four Scriptures of the Yellow Emperor") that regulating "heart within brings order outside". In order to reign, one must "reduce himself" abandoning emotions, "drying up like a corpse", never allowing oneself to be carried away, as the Yellow Emperor himself did during his three years of refuge on Mount Bowang in order to find himself according to the myth. This practice creates an internal void where all the vital forces of creation gather, and the more indeterminate they remain, the more powerful they will be.[123]
It is from this centre that equilibrium and harmony emanate, equilibrium of the vital organs which becomes harmony between the person and the environment. As sovereign of the centre, the Yellow Emperor is the very image of the concentration or re-centering of the self. By self-control, taking charge of his own body one becomes powerful outside. The centre is also the vital point in the microcosm by means of which the internal universe viewed as an altar is created. The body is a universe, and by going into himself and by incorporating the fundamental structures of the universe, the sage will gain access to the gates of Heaven, the unique point where communication between Heaven, Earth and Man can occur. The centre is the convergence of within and outside, the contraction of chaos on the point which is equidistant from all directions. It is the place which is no place, where all creation is born and dies.[123]
The Great Deity of the Central Peak (中岳大帝 Zhōngyuèdàdì) is another epithet representing Huangdi as the hub of creation, the axis mundi (which in Chinese mythology is Kunlun) that is the manifestation of the divine order in physical reality, that opens to immortality.”
So, the wisdom around this is based on the four cardinal directions and our energetic center. Being in our center controls the directions or the energy of the four directions. Regulating the heart and abandoning emotions. The way we abandon emotions is to heal them. When we empty ourselves of all the unresolved stuff we carry with us from life time to lifetime, the vital forces of creation can gather in our void.
Harmony and energetic balance emanate from this center within each of us. We can reach the gates of heaven where we can communicate with the energy of Heaven, Earth, and Man. Heaven, Earth, and Man refer to all the energy in the universe.
So, our focus should be on distilling our essence over and over again, down to our original being. Removing and eliminating all the accumulated stuff so we can then; in this state, be One with all that is.
Fu Hsi is credited with discovering the yin/yang symbols. Fu Hsi 2900 BCE or 2000 BCE. I disagree with this historical assumption. I believe the symbols and practice of using the energy associated with the practice of yin/yang was common knowledge that existed in the time before The Yellow Emperor and Fu Hsi.
At the same time Fu hsi lived there has been a recent discovery in mountains of northern Italy. Otzi, The Iceman, was discovered frozen high in a mountain pass. They believe he lived @ 2500 BCE. If we see the pictures of his preserved body, you will see tattoos that are yin and yang symbols. These are tattooed on his body, multiple times, on acupuncture meridians. This suggests to me that the use of yin and yang as healing energy was in common practice at the same time Fu hsi discovered them.
Ötzi the Iceman| South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
“The Ho-t’u was revealed to Fu hsi by a dragon coming out of the river and the Lo-shu appeared to Yu the Great on the back of a Turtle. The eight trigrams were taken from the Ho-t’u. And from the Lo-shu came the Hung fan, which is a brief fundamental text that establishes the basis for the Five Agents theory and outlines the grand laws of the universal attraction. The Lo-shu and Ho’tu compliment each other. On the one hand, the Lo-shu served Yu the Great in ordering of the world and corresponds to earth, while on the other hand, the Ho’tu was the source of Fu hsi’s divinatory trigrams and corresponds to heaven.” Robinet, Isabelle. Taoist Meditation: The Mao-Shan Tradition of Great Purity. Translated by Julian F. Pas & Norman J. Girardot. State University of New York Press. 1993. Pg. 21
Yin and yang; the trigrams, are tied with five-agent theory as far back as Fu hsi. The trigrams represent the energy of Heaven and five-agent theory represent the energy of Earth. They are two separate sources of energy in the universe that do not mingle within themselves. They only mingle within us, Man. We have and are affected by the energy of Heaven and Earth. Heaven, Earth, Man these three terms are always grouped together for this reason.
“Heaven and Earth follow immutable laws and never deviate a bit from these laws. Far away or near, every being is equally an emblem or sign (hsiang). Breaths respond to each other by categories and none ever falls short. That is what one calls the ‘Heavenly Writing, or Celestial Book,’ announced in the first centuries C. E. by the Tai-p’ing ching, one of the oldest Taoist texts.” Robinet, Isabelle. Taoist Meditation: The Mao-Shan Tradition of Great Purity. Translated by Julian F. Pas & Norman J. Girardot. State University of New York Press. 1993. Pg. 21
Heaven and Earth follow fixed ways of working that never change how they work; immutable.
“Moreover, the symbolism inherent in the ‘Tao te jing’ means something different from that found in the ‘Yi jing’: the world comes forth not from a division of the One to the infinite, but from the division into two, which then reunite into three. It is this reunion that can forge the multiplicity of all beings into one.” Robinet, Isabelle. "Original Contributions of Neidan to Taoism and Chinese Thought". In Livia Kohn, ed. in cooperation with Yoshinobu Sakade, Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques, 1989. 297-330. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan. (Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies, 61.) Pg. 310
A division of the One into Two, but these intermingle creating the Three. The reunion of these is the healing process, getting all the accumulated stuff out of the way so we can return. The Three being the unification of Heaven, Earth, & Man into one unified whole being, ONE.
The Shangqing sect (highest clarity) of Taoism appeared after Laotzu, but I want to introduce them now. I believe their information ties in will with The previous discussion of The Yellow Emperor and Fu hsi. I will discuss laotzu afterwards.
"The word Jing, is used for "scripture" in Taoism, thus evokes a new and more powerful meaning. The "going through" of the original graph becomes the "eternal surviving" of the religion. The scriptures continue to change along with the transformations of the world, sometimes accessible, sometimes hidden. They direct and pattern the life of the world and are immediately responsible for all human developments. World and society, originally created from the sacred word, end when the scriptures vanish, but may be saved by a new revelation. Shangqing eschatology is thus concerned with the cyclical revival of the scriptures. It's messiah, the Latterday Sage, is not a personal savior but the herald of a new revelation of the texts that alone have the power to save and create (Robinet 1984, 1:138)." Kohn, Livia. Early Chinese Mysticism: Philosophy and Soteriology in the Taoist Tradition. Princeton University press. 1992. Pg. 112
"Deities who reveal the true words to humankind include the Heavenly King of Primordial Beginning-not to be confused with the Heavenly Venerable of Primordial Beginning, the central deity of Lingbao Taoism-the Great Lord of the Tao, the Lad of Great Tenuity, the Four Realized Ones of the Great Ultimate, Master Li the Latterday Sage, and the Green Lad (Robinet 1984, 1:127)." Kohn, Livia. Early Chinese Mysticism: Philosophy and Soteriology in the Taoist Tradition. Princeton University press. 1992. Pg. 112
Michel Strickmann states, "Yang Hsi (330-386 CE, the second patriarch of the Shangqing faith) preceptors were members of a band of 24 perfected immortals, whose mission had been announced in the Annals of the Sage Who is to come." Footnote 150 gives us a quote from these annals, "The Sage declares: "And I shall delegate certain ones to descend and give instruction to those who are so destined and who devoutly maintain their zealous study to achieve immortality. I shall send Ma Ming, Chang, Ling, Yin Sheng, Wang Po, Mo Ti, Ssu-ma Chi-chu, and from the Cavern-terrace of the Heaven of Pure Vacuity [n. 94 above], seven perfected and eight elders. There will be twenty four in all, some of whose names shall be hidden, and others manifest. When they have altered their original clan-names and by-names it will be hard indeed to determine their real identities. Yet you only have to continue zealous and devoutly resolute, and you shall yourself of a certainty come to behold them. Once you have seen them, they will decline to you their full identities." Footnote 94 speaks of Cavern Heavens beneath sacred mountains and their locations. Michel Strickmann, On the Alchemy of T’ao Hung-ching. Facets of Taoism: Essays in Chinese Religion. Yale University Press. 1979. Pg. 174-175.
So, the ancients put what they were going to do in writing and they told us why. This part of it is straightforward. The wisdom behind the metaphors is not straightforward.
There was a transmission of wisdom from Lady South Marchmont to Yang xi.
“Yang Xi considered the eight trigrams (ba gua) as Images (though later xi ci section of the Yi jing thinks of the Eight Trigrams as ‘born from’ the Four Images—see below). …Yang’s visions also contain references to Two Images. The Two Images are very fluid as far as any specific definition is concerned (they are variously identified with yin and yang, sun and moon, or other pairs of opposites).” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 77
The eight trigrams do come from the Two Images, Yin and Yang. The trigrams are a diagnostic tool for the application of yin and yang. Think of yin and yang as separate from the trigrams. They are. In the Taichi image they are separate from the trigrams. They exist in a pair, one white, one black, one male, one female, one heaven, one earth. They exist always as a pair and always as opposites. The Two Images also refers to the Two Images used when we use the emotional compass to heal ourselves. The Two Images we use to heal ourselves are very fluid. It depends on what emotional state we are experiencing at the time and this determines the other half of the Two Images we use to pull ourselves back to the yellow middle.
The Oracles of the True Ones is full of references to pairs and opposites. Lady South Marchmont and Yang Xi are a pair and opposites. “’Paired Clarity’ (shang qing) connotes the union of opposites untainted by any turbidity (shuo) deriving from such terrestrial practices as sexual union. The heights of Highest Clarity are often described as ‘paired.’ Perhaps indicating they could not be reached by a solitary individual. One must be united with one’s ‘other half.’ The experience of totality could only occur through the intermingling of opposites.” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 276
Pairs and opposites, has a double meaning here. It speaks of using pairs, on the emotional compass, and a learning pair. If we are to be presented with a chance to learn, the equation requires another to present us with our lesson. Without the other person, and their energy, we would not be presented with the chance to learn. A lesson is a chance to learn something about ourselves. We must be paired up with another for this to happen. A learning pair can also be a pair that is a perfect match. One person that has all the strengths that are your weaknesses and you have all the strengths that are their weaknesses. You can each accelerate the others learning process to a breakneck pace. Imagine being paired with a person that is your opposite. You each learn at an accelerated rate as Fu hsi and Nu Wa represent; if you chose to do so.
“This is the auspicious affair of the joining of truths by the hand. Though we make it known that you possess the name of a Mated Pair, this merely certifies your (respective) exoteric and esoteric functions. …
You are mated to this spouse of spiritual power in order to connect with her effulgence. You are betrothed to this young daughter of a noble True One so that in your intimate relations you will be without concern for any injury or discontinuation through the great increase and attainment in the furtherance of your vocation. Hereafter the thousand spirits can be employed. Trials will not again be laid out for you any more.” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 51
When you are paired with your opposite and go through the healing process, you will no longer have a need to be tested. Your learning will begin on a new level.
“Now what we value in the pairing of effulgences is the mating of equals. A mutual cherishing exists in the two effulgences. Although we call them husband and wife, they do not perform the deeds of husband and wife. In this are we using meaningless names to show (those who) see and hear (i.e.: are within the earthly realm form). .Consort An does promise Yang Xi: You will frequently be intimate with my holy clarity, your universal virtue and my roaming effulgence shall unite in what is fitting…” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 51
Mating of equals is another reference to pairs and opposites. When you pair yin and yang you are pairing opposite but equals; the same holds true for pairing of people to learn.
Pairs and opposites are used on the emotional compass to help us heal our issues. The following are metaphoric references to the use of pairs and opposites from the compass.
“I want to make a bond between the Mountain and the Marsh. (A reference to the trigrams ken and tui that are opposite on the Fu hsi arrangement of the trigrams)
Let hard and yielding flow naturally and harmonize. We will lead each other within Paired Clarity, our way of Supreme Truth is not depraved.
The pairs Mountain and Marsh, hard and yielding possess such power because they are embodiments of yin and yang (see introduction, p. 76ff.) Cf Xi Ci 8: ‘When Yin and Yang harmonize their virtues, then hard and yielding take rigid form, in order to give rigid form to the selected positions of Heaven and Earth, in order to communicate the virtue of the spiritual lights (= the gods)… “
By acting out the complementary roles of yin and yang, Yang Xi and Consort An embody the cosmic process of creation.” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 113 & 275
On the emotional compass, based on the prior Heaven trigrams of Fu hsi, the trigrams for Mountain and Marsh are opposite one another. Mountain has yin as its middle line representing Man and Marsh has yang as its middle line representing man. If you were to combine these two you get a balance between yin and yang, taichi. This is how we are to use pairs and opposites to balance and harmonize ourselves.
“As the Yi Jing says: “The Changes take qian as its dragons and horses, and kun as its great chassis.’” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 291 This is telling us that these two trigrams go together. You need a cart and horses to make a complete unit, just as you need these two trigrams to have pairs and opposites. In the earlier heaven arrangement, they are opposite each other on the compass. In the later heaven arrangement, there is no discernable relationship between these two.
“Many female immortals are unmarried, and thus one might wonder why they carried titles which correspond to the married state among mortal women. ‘Consort’ originally meant ‘match’ or ‘paired opposite,’ as in ‘fire is the consort/match/paired opposite’ of water”. (Tso Zhuan, zhao 9.) Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 267 If you look at the table of the five agents you will see that fire and water are south and north respectively.
“It is interesting to note that the component trigrams of Endurance are thunder and wind, the constant companions of the immortals on their journeys. For ‘lake’ and ‘mountains’, the components of ‘confluence,’ see introduction p. 68.” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 281 Both of these combinations of trigrams are opposites on the Fu hsi earlier heaven arrangement of the trigrams.
“So the True Consort tells Yang Xi in ZG 1/14a (p.113): I want to make a bond between the Mountain and the Marsh (trigrams), let Strong and Yielding (manifestations of the Two Images) flow smoothly and so harmonize. We shall lead each other by the hand with Paired (talismanic or Lingbao) Clarity….Such was the goal of Yang Xi religious practice. … this Changes-based dialectic with the cosmic other provided hope for immortality through the joining of images.” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 79 Immortality through the joining of images? Making a bond between the mountain and the marsh is a reference to using the pairs and opposites of the trigrams to heal ourselves. The metaphors tell us that emotional health comes by using the emotional compass to untie the embryonic knots to move from the mind/heart to the heart/mind.
“Let us examine the Pool of Union more closely. The word xien mean ‘union, confluence,’ and by extension ‘completeness, totality.’ … The hexagram (xien, from the I-ching) is composed of the trigram ‘lake’ atop the trigram ‘mountain’—possibly an image of the waters of infinity shimmering above a cosmic world-mountain.” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 68 The Pool of Union is the yellow middle of the compass. Xien also means immortal. If you look at the emotional compass, lake and mountain are opposites. You use these opposites to create and maintain emotional balance in your center. This balance leads to immortality.
Let’s shift to laotzu for a moment. He exists in our timeline between Fu Hsi and Yang xi. Laotzu continued and added to the wisdom of old with the Tao te Ching. His work is all about how we distill ourselves. Laotzu quotes taken from the James Legge translation.
Chapter 13 section 3: “ We meet it and do not see its Front; we follow it, and do not see it’s Back. When we can lay hold of the Tao of old to direct the things of the present day, and are able to know it as it was of old in the beginning, this is called (unwinding) the clue of Tao.”
Even Laotzu wrote about what was before himself, ‘the Tao of old…”
Chapter 4 section 2: “We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of things; we should attempter our brightness, and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others. How pure and still the Tao is, as if it would ever so continue!”
I hope you can begin to see the common thread that ties the history of wisdom together beginning with The Yellow Emperor, on through Fu Hsi, Laotzu, and the Shangqing sect of Taoism to these modern times. These people took the long view. They spoke of the world moving in 60,000-year cycles, they speak of wisdom being saved for a future time, but most have not truly understood that they had the long view in mind, thousands of years.
It is my belief that The Compass, being cmposed of the earlier heaven arrangement of te trigrams and five-agent theory is a two dimensional representation of the energetic relationships in the universe. The only place the interest are within each of us. Hence, Heaven, Earth, Man. What could be more important to preserve for future ages? The tool that will help each of us remove all these unwanted unresolved experiences we carry with us from lifetime to lifetime that distorts our perception of the world around us?
Be well, go in the light.
Brian
I want to speak about the lineage of what we call Taoism. Modern day folks think Taoism began with Laotzu. I disagree with this. I believe there is a common thread that goes back beyond Laotzu to Fu hsi to The Yellow Emperor and beyond into a time before.
Taoists speak of a time before recorded history when there existed what they call a Great Peace. The wise men of the age knew the world was changing, and not for the good. They set out to preserve wisdom we would need when the time came around for us to have the opportunity to come around to another age of Great Peace.
They created metaphoric stories that would, when verbally passed from generation to generation, pass on this wisdom. When writing was created some cultures wrote down their stories and continued to pass them on.
The metaphoric stories were not intended to be taken literally, but just to preserve the story. At the same time, there were those who understood and knew the secrets behind the metaphoric stories. These men were entrusted to teach others the secrets, So the truth behind the metaphors could also be preserved.
Along the way something happened and the secrets behind the metaphors was lost.
Have you ever been a part of the exercise where you all stand in a circle and one person tells something to one person in the circle; a starting point. This person tells the story to the person next to them and it goes around the circle. When it gets back to the starting point it no longer resembles the original story told.
Norman Girardot in his translation of Robinet's work, Taoist meditation-The Mao-Shan Tradition of Great Purity, quotes Mircea Eliade. Mr. Eliade says, "We display in broad daylight texts, ideas, beliefs, rites, etc., which normally should remain hidden, and access to them reserved only to initiates. I don't know whether this phenomenon has been the object of any study dealing with the philosophy of culture. We're dealing, however with a fact that is as fascinating as it is paradoxical: Secret, that is, 'esoteric', doctrines and methods are only unveiled and put within reach of everyone because they no longer have any chance of being understood. They can henceforth only be badly understood and poorly interpreted by non-initiates." Isabelle Robinet, Taoist Meditation: The Mao-Shan Tradition of Great Purity. Translated by Julian F. Pas & Norman J. Girardot. State University of New York Press. 1993. Pg. xxvi.
I can’t explain why I see things differently than others, but I know that I do. Let’s look at some of the written history about the lineage of the wisdom.
Let’s begin with The Yellow Emperor 2697 BCE-2598 BCE.
Under this heading on the listing for The Yellow Emperor on Wikipedia it states: Symbol of the centre of the universe
“As the Yellow Deity with Four Faces (黃帝四面 Huángdì Sìmiàn) he represents the centre of the universe and vision of the unity which controls the four directions. It is explained in the Huangdi Sijing ("Four Scriptures of the Yellow Emperor") that regulating "heart within brings order outside". In order to reign, one must "reduce himself" abandoning emotions, "drying up like a corpse", never allowing oneself to be carried away, as the Yellow Emperor himself did during his three years of refuge on Mount Bowang in order to find himself according to the myth. This practice creates an internal void where all the vital forces of creation gather, and the more indeterminate they remain, the more powerful they will be.[123]
It is from this centre that equilibrium and harmony emanate, equilibrium of the vital organs which becomes harmony between the person and the environment. As sovereign of the centre, the Yellow Emperor is the very image of the concentration or re-centering of the self. By self-control, taking charge of his own body one becomes powerful outside. The centre is also the vital point in the microcosm by means of which the internal universe viewed as an altar is created. The body is a universe, and by going into himself and by incorporating the fundamental structures of the universe, the sage will gain access to the gates of Heaven, the unique point where communication between Heaven, Earth and Man can occur. The centre is the convergence of within and outside, the contraction of chaos on the point which is equidistant from all directions. It is the place which is no place, where all creation is born and dies.[123]
The Great Deity of the Central Peak (中岳大帝 Zhōngyuèdàdì) is another epithet representing Huangdi as the hub of creation, the axis mundi (which in Chinese mythology is Kunlun) that is the manifestation of the divine order in physical reality, that opens to immortality.”
So, the wisdom around this is based on the four cardinal directions and our energetic center. Being in our center controls the directions or the energy of the four directions. Regulating the heart and abandoning emotions. The way we abandon emotions is to heal them. When we empty ourselves of all the unresolved stuff we carry with us from life time to lifetime, the vital forces of creation can gather in our void.
Harmony and energetic balance emanate from this center within each of us. We can reach the gates of heaven where we can communicate with the energy of Heaven, Earth, and Man. Heaven, Earth, and Man refer to all the energy in the universe.
So, our focus should be on distilling our essence over and over again, down to our original being. Removing and eliminating all the accumulated stuff so we can then; in this state, be One with all that is.
Fu Hsi is credited with discovering the yin/yang symbols. Fu Hsi 2900 BCE or 2000 BCE. I disagree with this historical assumption. I believe the symbols and practice of using the energy associated with the practice of yin/yang was common knowledge that existed in the time before The Yellow Emperor and Fu Hsi.
At the same time Fu hsi lived there has been a recent discovery in mountains of northern Italy. Otzi, The Iceman, was discovered frozen high in a mountain pass. They believe he lived @ 2500 BCE. If we see the pictures of his preserved body, you will see tattoos that are yin and yang symbols. These are tattooed on his body, multiple times, on acupuncture meridians. This suggests to me that the use of yin and yang as healing energy was in common practice at the same time Fu hsi discovered them.
Ötzi the Iceman| South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
“The Ho-t’u was revealed to Fu hsi by a dragon coming out of the river and the Lo-shu appeared to Yu the Great on the back of a Turtle. The eight trigrams were taken from the Ho-t’u. And from the Lo-shu came the Hung fan, which is a brief fundamental text that establishes the basis for the Five Agents theory and outlines the grand laws of the universal attraction. The Lo-shu and Ho’tu compliment each other. On the one hand, the Lo-shu served Yu the Great in ordering of the world and corresponds to earth, while on the other hand, the Ho’tu was the source of Fu hsi’s divinatory trigrams and corresponds to heaven.” Robinet, Isabelle. Taoist Meditation: The Mao-Shan Tradition of Great Purity. Translated by Julian F. Pas & Norman J. Girardot. State University of New York Press. 1993. Pg. 21
Yin and yang; the trigrams, are tied with five-agent theory as far back as Fu hsi. The trigrams represent the energy of Heaven and five-agent theory represent the energy of Earth. They are two separate sources of energy in the universe that do not mingle within themselves. They only mingle within us, Man. We have and are affected by the energy of Heaven and Earth. Heaven, Earth, Man these three terms are always grouped together for this reason.
“Heaven and Earth follow immutable laws and never deviate a bit from these laws. Far away or near, every being is equally an emblem or sign (hsiang). Breaths respond to each other by categories and none ever falls short. That is what one calls the ‘Heavenly Writing, or Celestial Book,’ announced in the first centuries C. E. by the Tai-p’ing ching, one of the oldest Taoist texts.” Robinet, Isabelle. Taoist Meditation: The Mao-Shan Tradition of Great Purity. Translated by Julian F. Pas & Norman J. Girardot. State University of New York Press. 1993. Pg. 21
Heaven and Earth follow fixed ways of working that never change how they work; immutable.
“Moreover, the symbolism inherent in the ‘Tao te jing’ means something different from that found in the ‘Yi jing’: the world comes forth not from a division of the One to the infinite, but from the division into two, which then reunite into three. It is this reunion that can forge the multiplicity of all beings into one.” Robinet, Isabelle. "Original Contributions of Neidan to Taoism and Chinese Thought". In Livia Kohn, ed. in cooperation with Yoshinobu Sakade, Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques, 1989. 297-330. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan. (Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies, 61.) Pg. 310
A division of the One into Two, but these intermingle creating the Three. The reunion of these is the healing process, getting all the accumulated stuff out of the way so we can return. The Three being the unification of Heaven, Earth, & Man into one unified whole being, ONE.
The Shangqing sect (highest clarity) of Taoism appeared after Laotzu, but I want to introduce them now. I believe their information ties in will with The previous discussion of The Yellow Emperor and Fu hsi. I will discuss laotzu afterwards.
"The word Jing, is used for "scripture" in Taoism, thus evokes a new and more powerful meaning. The "going through" of the original graph becomes the "eternal surviving" of the religion. The scriptures continue to change along with the transformations of the world, sometimes accessible, sometimes hidden. They direct and pattern the life of the world and are immediately responsible for all human developments. World and society, originally created from the sacred word, end when the scriptures vanish, but may be saved by a new revelation. Shangqing eschatology is thus concerned with the cyclical revival of the scriptures. It's messiah, the Latterday Sage, is not a personal savior but the herald of a new revelation of the texts that alone have the power to save and create (Robinet 1984, 1:138)." Kohn, Livia. Early Chinese Mysticism: Philosophy and Soteriology in the Taoist Tradition. Princeton University press. 1992. Pg. 112
"Deities who reveal the true words to humankind include the Heavenly King of Primordial Beginning-not to be confused with the Heavenly Venerable of Primordial Beginning, the central deity of Lingbao Taoism-the Great Lord of the Tao, the Lad of Great Tenuity, the Four Realized Ones of the Great Ultimate, Master Li the Latterday Sage, and the Green Lad (Robinet 1984, 1:127)." Kohn, Livia. Early Chinese Mysticism: Philosophy and Soteriology in the Taoist Tradition. Princeton University press. 1992. Pg. 112
Michel Strickmann states, "Yang Hsi (330-386 CE, the second patriarch of the Shangqing faith) preceptors were members of a band of 24 perfected immortals, whose mission had been announced in the Annals of the Sage Who is to come." Footnote 150 gives us a quote from these annals, "The Sage declares: "And I shall delegate certain ones to descend and give instruction to those who are so destined and who devoutly maintain their zealous study to achieve immortality. I shall send Ma Ming, Chang, Ling, Yin Sheng, Wang Po, Mo Ti, Ssu-ma Chi-chu, and from the Cavern-terrace of the Heaven of Pure Vacuity [n. 94 above], seven perfected and eight elders. There will be twenty four in all, some of whose names shall be hidden, and others manifest. When they have altered their original clan-names and by-names it will be hard indeed to determine their real identities. Yet you only have to continue zealous and devoutly resolute, and you shall yourself of a certainty come to behold them. Once you have seen them, they will decline to you their full identities." Footnote 94 speaks of Cavern Heavens beneath sacred mountains and their locations. Michel Strickmann, On the Alchemy of T’ao Hung-ching. Facets of Taoism: Essays in Chinese Religion. Yale University Press. 1979. Pg. 174-175.
So, the ancients put what they were going to do in writing and they told us why. This part of it is straightforward. The wisdom behind the metaphors is not straightforward.
There was a transmission of wisdom from Lady South Marchmont to Yang xi.
“Yang Xi considered the eight trigrams (ba gua) as Images (though later xi ci section of the Yi jing thinks of the Eight Trigrams as ‘born from’ the Four Images—see below). …Yang’s visions also contain references to Two Images. The Two Images are very fluid as far as any specific definition is concerned (they are variously identified with yin and yang, sun and moon, or other pairs of opposites).” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 77
The eight trigrams do come from the Two Images, Yin and Yang. The trigrams are a diagnostic tool for the application of yin and yang. Think of yin and yang as separate from the trigrams. They are. In the Taichi image they are separate from the trigrams. They exist in a pair, one white, one black, one male, one female, one heaven, one earth. They exist always as a pair and always as opposites. The Two Images also refers to the Two Images used when we use the emotional compass to heal ourselves. The Two Images we use to heal ourselves are very fluid. It depends on what emotional state we are experiencing at the time and this determines the other half of the Two Images we use to pull ourselves back to the yellow middle.
The Oracles of the True Ones is full of references to pairs and opposites. Lady South Marchmont and Yang Xi are a pair and opposites. “’Paired Clarity’ (shang qing) connotes the union of opposites untainted by any turbidity (shuo) deriving from such terrestrial practices as sexual union. The heights of Highest Clarity are often described as ‘paired.’ Perhaps indicating they could not be reached by a solitary individual. One must be united with one’s ‘other half.’ The experience of totality could only occur through the intermingling of opposites.” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 276
Pairs and opposites, has a double meaning here. It speaks of using pairs, on the emotional compass, and a learning pair. If we are to be presented with a chance to learn, the equation requires another to present us with our lesson. Without the other person, and their energy, we would not be presented with the chance to learn. A lesson is a chance to learn something about ourselves. We must be paired up with another for this to happen. A learning pair can also be a pair that is a perfect match. One person that has all the strengths that are your weaknesses and you have all the strengths that are their weaknesses. You can each accelerate the others learning process to a breakneck pace. Imagine being paired with a person that is your opposite. You each learn at an accelerated rate as Fu hsi and Nu Wa represent; if you chose to do so.
“This is the auspicious affair of the joining of truths by the hand. Though we make it known that you possess the name of a Mated Pair, this merely certifies your (respective) exoteric and esoteric functions. …
You are mated to this spouse of spiritual power in order to connect with her effulgence. You are betrothed to this young daughter of a noble True One so that in your intimate relations you will be without concern for any injury or discontinuation through the great increase and attainment in the furtherance of your vocation. Hereafter the thousand spirits can be employed. Trials will not again be laid out for you any more.” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 51
When you are paired with your opposite and go through the healing process, you will no longer have a need to be tested. Your learning will begin on a new level.
“Now what we value in the pairing of effulgences is the mating of equals. A mutual cherishing exists in the two effulgences. Although we call them husband and wife, they do not perform the deeds of husband and wife. In this are we using meaningless names to show (those who) see and hear (i.e.: are within the earthly realm form). .Consort An does promise Yang Xi: You will frequently be intimate with my holy clarity, your universal virtue and my roaming effulgence shall unite in what is fitting…” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 51
Mating of equals is another reference to pairs and opposites. When you pair yin and yang you are pairing opposite but equals; the same holds true for pairing of people to learn.
Pairs and opposites are used on the emotional compass to help us heal our issues. The following are metaphoric references to the use of pairs and opposites from the compass.
“I want to make a bond between the Mountain and the Marsh. (A reference to the trigrams ken and tui that are opposite on the Fu hsi arrangement of the trigrams)
Let hard and yielding flow naturally and harmonize. We will lead each other within Paired Clarity, our way of Supreme Truth is not depraved.
The pairs Mountain and Marsh, hard and yielding possess such power because they are embodiments of yin and yang (see introduction, p. 76ff.) Cf Xi Ci 8: ‘When Yin and Yang harmonize their virtues, then hard and yielding take rigid form, in order to give rigid form to the selected positions of Heaven and Earth, in order to communicate the virtue of the spiritual lights (= the gods)… “
By acting out the complementary roles of yin and yang, Yang Xi and Consort An embody the cosmic process of creation.” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 113 & 275
On the emotional compass, based on the prior Heaven trigrams of Fu hsi, the trigrams for Mountain and Marsh are opposite one another. Mountain has yin as its middle line representing Man and Marsh has yang as its middle line representing man. If you were to combine these two you get a balance between yin and yang, taichi. This is how we are to use pairs and opposites to balance and harmonize ourselves.
“As the Yi Jing says: “The Changes take qian as its dragons and horses, and kun as its great chassis.’” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 291 This is telling us that these two trigrams go together. You need a cart and horses to make a complete unit, just as you need these two trigrams to have pairs and opposites. In the earlier heaven arrangement, they are opposite each other on the compass. In the later heaven arrangement, there is no discernable relationship between these two.
“Many female immortals are unmarried, and thus one might wonder why they carried titles which correspond to the married state among mortal women. ‘Consort’ originally meant ‘match’ or ‘paired opposite,’ as in ‘fire is the consort/match/paired opposite’ of water”. (Tso Zhuan, zhao 9.) Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 267 If you look at the table of the five agents you will see that fire and water are south and north respectively.
“It is interesting to note that the component trigrams of Endurance are thunder and wind, the constant companions of the immortals on their journeys. For ‘lake’ and ‘mountains’, the components of ‘confluence,’ see introduction p. 68.” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 281 Both of these combinations of trigrams are opposites on the Fu hsi earlier heaven arrangement of the trigrams.
“So the True Consort tells Yang Xi in ZG 1/14a (p.113): I want to make a bond between the Mountain and the Marsh (trigrams), let Strong and Yielding (manifestations of the Two Images) flow smoothly and so harmonize. We shall lead each other by the hand with Paired (talismanic or Lingbao) Clarity….Such was the goal of Yang Xi religious practice. … this Changes-based dialectic with the cosmic other provided hope for immortality through the joining of images.” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 79 Immortality through the joining of images? Making a bond between the mountain and the marsh is a reference to using the pairs and opposites of the trigrams to heal ourselves. The metaphors tell us that emotional health comes by using the emotional compass to untie the embryonic knots to move from the mind/heart to the heart/mind.
“Let us examine the Pool of Union more closely. The word xien mean ‘union, confluence,’ and by extension ‘completeness, totality.’ … The hexagram (xien, from the I-ching) is composed of the trigram ‘lake’ atop the trigram ‘mountain’—possibly an image of the waters of infinity shimmering above a cosmic world-mountain.” Hyland, Elizabeth Watts. Oracles of the True Ones, Scroll One. Doctoral dissertation University of California, Berkeley. 1984. Pg. 68 The Pool of Union is the yellow middle of the compass. Xien also means immortal. If you look at the emotional compass, lake and mountain are opposites. You use these opposites to create and maintain emotional balance in your center. This balance leads to immortality.
Let’s shift to laotzu for a moment. He exists in our timeline between Fu Hsi and Yang xi. Laotzu continued and added to the wisdom of old with the Tao te Ching. His work is all about how we distill ourselves. Laotzu quotes taken from the James Legge translation.
Chapter 13 section 3: “ We meet it and do not see its Front; we follow it, and do not see it’s Back. When we can lay hold of the Tao of old to direct the things of the present day, and are able to know it as it was of old in the beginning, this is called (unwinding) the clue of Tao.”
Even Laotzu wrote about what was before himself, ‘the Tao of old…”
Chapter 4 section 2: “We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of things; we should attempter our brightness, and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others. How pure and still the Tao is, as if it would ever so continue!”
I hope you can begin to see the common thread that ties the history of wisdom together beginning with The Yellow Emperor, on through Fu Hsi, Laotzu, and the Shangqing sect of Taoism to these modern times. These people took the long view. They spoke of the world moving in 60,000-year cycles, they speak of wisdom being saved for a future time, but most have not truly understood that they had the long view in mind, thousands of years.
It is my belief that The Compass, being cmposed of the earlier heaven arrangement of te trigrams and five-agent theory is a two dimensional representation of the energetic relationships in the universe. The only place the interest are within each of us. Hence, Heaven, Earth, Man. What could be more important to preserve for future ages? The tool that will help each of us remove all these unwanted unresolved experiences we carry with us from lifetime to lifetime that distorts our perception of the world around us?
Be well, go in the light.
Brian
