Alo and De Constant #79
(PD) Alo and De Lake on Land.
Copyright ©2018 November 30, 2018
Yan: I laughed... I know that it was an impolite thing to do, but still, it was funny! The pompous student, the one who had apparently declared of himself to be a master, he said something to the effect of 'I spent three days examining my life, to use my life as a strategy for a friend to use'. Hahaha! Three whole days!
Alo: My chuckle, it is also impolite, but, cannot be helped. The poor boy, his words had given to me an impression that he sincerely believed of himself to be worthy to be followed... he even admitted it, in writing.
Yan: The student did have a reasonably correct idea that words cannot convey meaning from one person to the next, and it is indeed not possible for all people to form the same beliefs from words, but most probably he learned the knowledge from the primary author... I found no evidence that the student could have discovered similarly on his own... but still, only three days... wow...
Alo: I had been interested in the book, because, I had previously seen a translation of a sentence... the translation had claimed to be the words of the primary author's, but the translation's message was crude, ignorant, and had given the primary author a face of incompetence and ignorance. The translation had said something like 'is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application?'... the general base idea is acceptable in a very vague way, but the phrasing expressed contradictions. When I did find the original words, they spoke more closely of 'study as-well-as practice, it not-have again happy'... which could also be interpreted as 'study and practice, it not-have mere canon', as well as 'learn and practice, it not-have just explain'. I prefer the third interpretation... 'just explain' is what students want... all mental, no heart, no walk... although the second interpretation further explains the third.
Yan: I prefer the third also. The original word for 'explain' is said to be compatible with either synonym, but, the 'happy' word would infer, of course, 'happiness'. If happiness existed, then there would be some manner of the person following a teaching... following a canon... feeling a sense of happiness of evaluating one's self as being acceptable relative to a canon's doctrines. If that were so, then the master was not a master at all, he would then be a mere follower. And too, if stopping a study and practice, should cause an absence of the happiness of studying and practicing, then the person is not studying and practicing his own life continuously... and again the person cannot be a master. And again, if the happiness fades, then where is the happiness of life? Of all life? To not feel a form of happiness at all times, constantly, that tells me that the person cannot be a master... cannot be a junzi... cannot be centered... cannot be benevolent... cannot possess any of the many good inner qualities that the primary author spoke of.
Alo: Agreed. Also, 'constant' implies constant, as in 'always'... constant effort requires body energy... obviously... and so, a constant drain of body energy ought to cause a slenderness of body size...
De: Bean pole...
Alo: Ha! Well, you have not complained!
De: Ha! No...
Alo: But there, the popular paintings of the primary author, showed him to be rather chubby... actually obese relative to common standards of only fifty years ago... the words and the paintings did not agree, they contradicted each other. But later I did see an old drawing of the man, and the drawing showed him to be of a more reasonable size of build, which appears to offer the plausibility of the man possibly having exerted a constant awareness.
Yan: Constant awareness... that would also apply to the men on stages who claim to always be aware... the men are chubby, lax, unmindful, uncaring, their claims cannot be true unless the men have a form of eating problem... I cannot image any of us being able to sit and eat nonstop all day to attain a chubby body...
Jun: Energy consumption is a constant in Nature, but, look at what has changed... good foods, like ours, are not available to outsiders... outsider foods are contaminated... preservatives, corn byproducts that cause hunger, and growth hormones... constant force, must constantly consume more energy, but, body function is changed... bodies suffer eating problem...
Yan: Oh, so very much true... of our own food that begins to spoil, what we think of as being unfit to eat, it is still of much higher quality than what is found within city grocery stores... city people, eating garbage, and not know it. When the elders were young, average body weight for men was about one-hundred-fifty-five to one-hundred-sixty-five... now the average is close to two-hundred... similarly for women, the average used to say that one-hundred-thirty-five was maximum, but today that would be considered to be skinny. But that also agrees with what Alo had said... ancients ate cleaner food... healthy bodies would not retain the poisons of modern city foods... constant thoughts, constant awareness, constant benevolence, constant caring, none can exist without the exertion of body energy... ancients' bodies would likely not be obese.
Alo: Constant, compared to three days of mulling one's life... huge difference...
De: Constant... from before birth... bigger difference...
Alo: Yes... we live in different worlds... not so much as vaguely similar...
Yan: But here, look at ourselves... our center tones do not change... always remain present... we talk, while still feeling and being aware of the center... we laugh and tell jokes, but still feeling and being aware of the center... our outward behaviors are held within what our centers permit of harmony... for us, our centers are constant, never fading, never changing except for increasing intensities... constant, all day, all year. The main author, he had spoken of an unchangeable center, but... the student did not speak of similar.
Alo: Agreed, which further illustrated where the student's thoughts were... the student memorized words of canon... the student did not speak his own words... the student was not near to being a master.
Yan: Constant student... easy... requires little effort...
Alo: Yes...