Alo and De Junzi #58
(PD) Alo and De Lake on Land.
Copyright ©2018 November 6, 2018
Alo: And there it is... the ancient words finally fall back into place... the words, now, are of harmony... the words no longer contradict... the words, now, harmonize with what a junzi is... the core of the book, points to the junzi way, the quality man's dao...
Morning Dove: Something there also... after a half hour of us talking today, to me, the ancient words sound much more intelligent than before... not like modern language... there is a difference, but I am unsure of how to put my finger on what the differences are between ancient words and modern words.
Alo: The ancient writers, they spoke words that relate to real life... real people, living, experience real life... words themselves are always symbols, can only point to a little thing... but ancient words, combine with the other words, create a living concept, that the listener can understand from their own life...
De: Day never ends... always day, somewhere, on earth... never day, on sun...
Alo: Excellent... yes, De's words... 'day' is literal in a person's life, but the idea of 'day' is only literal relative to a living person's life... day not real, literal, relative to the sun's life... ancient words, point to what is real in living people's lives, literal relative to life... modern language, it does not point to life... ancient language, speaks of Nature's way, as seen within Nature itself... Nature's way is of ratios, cycles, harmonies, many things singing together within a sphere of song... modern language, it attempts to speak of Nature, within flat sequences... as, if, it were possible to explain a song by only speaking of one note... one modern word, memorized, does not carry meaning... modern translators speak as though single words carry meaning... the modern language, difficult to arrange into meaning related to living life...
Morning Dove: Ah, and, so, then, the ancient words speak of things that people will think of, from within themselves, to know what the words mean, by understanding one's own experiences... but the modern language, it speaks of things as seen from the outside...
Alo: Precisely... to us, 'honesty' is a thing that we know, experience, can describe, we inwardly feel what honesty is... the modern language, it points at someone else being honest... modern words, cannot be described, because, not lived...
Morning Dove: Ha! Excellent! And that also so strongly agrees with what we can observe in other people... they cannot feel their own feelings... cannot observe their own thoughts... the people, they have invented philosophies, attempting to discover and to define what is seen...
Alo: Precisely... the philosophies have failed, and always will fail, because the philosophies do not relate to Nature... always, permanently, eternally false...
Morning Dove: And yet the people continue believing in their philosophies...
Alo: Yes... unfortunately true...
Morning Dove: Modern words of translations, similar... always false... always speaking of outside things, never speaking of inside things... no life within their words... oh, sincerely, this warms my heart... thoughts now, of giving more attention to inward self... to me, I now feel as though I could hold hope of becoming a good man, to ponder the good way, to teach myself how to become a better man...
Alo: Already good... but, of course, good men always continue striving to become better...
Morning Dove: Thank you, but I do not feel good inside... too many faults... too many memories of mistakes... I hurt with memories of wishing I had made better choices...
Alo: Good men are not born good... wisdom, is only earned, by not being wise...
Morning Dove: Ha! True, I suppose... but what a cost...
Alo: Nature way similar... must know hurt, to know appreciation of not hurting... must bathe in cold water, to appreciate hot water... must cry with loneliness, to appreciate friend...
Jun: Hard cost... but worth the heartache...
Yan: A million lifetimes... worth it...
De: Father, I did not live, many years alone... Alo, he came, before my heartache became strong... I appreciate Alo, all that I am able, but... I know, that I cannot appreciate Alo as much as Jun appreciates Yan... sometimes, I think also, sometimes thinking that I would not mind living a million lifetimes of loneliness, so that I can give to Alo a better appreciation...
Alo: I also would choose similar for De...
Morning Dove: Oh, but now, that made me feel more guilty, for having been so self-absorbed with my own faults... my faults, are as tiny compared to the heartaches of loneliness... I am upset with myself now... but, also, it has given me a strong incentive to be better... to better direct my attention, and caring, towards other people, and less attention on caring about myself...
Alo: What junzi does also...
Morning Dove: Care about other people... so many times you have repeated the words, but only now have I begun to recognize how important they are.
Alo: The lesson... worth the cost?
Morning Dove: Yes! A million times over... and, now, to me, is this not also another ingredient of junzi? Caring for other people?
Alo: Yes... not merely an outward motion, but, rather, a wisdom, formed upon past experiences... hurt first, compassion next... caring for other people, is from the heart, not the mind...
De: Junzi, many ingredients... each earned... each beautiful... each hurt... worth the cost, a million times over...
Morning Dove: Life... living... lessons learned from one's own living life... and now, thinking of the modern translations' words... of course the words could not be true, because the people who wrote the words had not paid the cost... did not know what the words pointed to...
Alo: Yes...
Morning Dove: Ha! Oh I just had a funny thought! If we were to use the ancient words, not changed of how the words were written, would this not be of an almost same way that some other people have said the words? Nation... tian...
Alo: Yes, but we do not openly speak of the words... the ancient writings, many, numerous similarities... make the latter people's words appear to be as paraphrased copies of the original words... perhaps, even, a poor translation...
De: Care about other people... mindful, cautious, to not cause harm...
Morning Dove: Yes, that would indeed hurt a lot people's feelings to hear the words... but, then, what? Does this not also appear parallel to the latter people's ideals of a good man? Of junzi?
Alo: Yes... similar in many ways... but... if an man is good in one age, then he was good because his dao was Nature's way... in another age, another man could also be good, because his dao was also Nature's way. Cannot be good, if not Nature's way... if, two men, are good, but live in different ages, it does not mean that the men followed the same written words... the sameness, is because Nature is same... Nature never changes... if a man writes correct words, then forever will his words be correct, because, only Nature is correct. Perhaps, the thing, to give attention to here, is that a sameness of words, does not necessitate that the words had to come from the same source. Therefore, junzi careful, not speak of similarities of words within different people's beliefs... junzi see similarities, but junzi hide the similarities... it might indeed be possible that a second man merely copied a previous man's words, but, still, junzi not publicly speak of it... junzi care for other people...