Alo and De Self Way #115
(PD) Alo and De Lake on Land.
Copyright ©2019 January 16, 2019
Yan: Word per word... 'three ten spoke share(common) one hub, equal(match/serve-as/be) it(such/this) nothing exist(have) vehicle it usefulness(apply)'. Regardless of which synonyms are used, the general concept does not change... 'thirty spokes, one hub, no other usefulness exists except for use on a vehicle'. Outsider translations see something different... 'thirty spokes share one hub, space it nothing exist, vehicle it usefulness'. All of my dictionaries said that the ancient word means 'equal, match, same' plus numerous others of parallel ideas, but I did finally find one dictionary that included 'space', 'gap', and 'break' down at the bottom list of synonyms.
Alo: Yes, changing one synonym, and choosing a different comma position, can fully change the whole of the meaning. The ancient language did not have commas and other punctuations, so, sometimes, sentence meanings are vague...
Yan: Yes, not too often, but, examples like this sentence, the change of one synonym changes entirely the whole meaning of the book. And that is what has happened with the 'equal' word... in my way of thinking, the only usefulness of carving windows and doors is to be installed in rooms... no purpose nor reason to make a door or window if there is no room to install the door and window. Similarly, making earthen utensils are for the purpose of holding things inside... makes no sense to make a clay pot if nothing is to be placed inside... how would a person arrive at the decision to make an empty pot if the person is not already wanting to hold something inside the pot?
Alo: Agreed...
Yan: The book's sentences are followed by 'therefore exist it because become benefit, nothing it have serve-as utility-usefulness-need'. The outsiders' interpretations retain the 'space' synonym, creating a concept that is near 'therefore exist space because become benefit, space it use become usefulness'... and, although the outsiders' interpretation does relate to a real thing in Nature, still the idea is forced, awkward, and relies upon concepts that could have much more easily and clearly been stated as something like 'space is a necessity between all things, else all things would be just one big blob'. Why only speak of wheels, doors, windows, and hollow pots if the sentence was to imply spaces between all things like trees, clouds, animals, grains of dirt, and everything else? Billions of billions of possible choices, but here, the choices are reduced to only those that relate to having a requirement of functional mutuals?
Alo: Agreed... in real life, the concepts of wheels, pots, doors, and windows, all relate to the necessity of having a purpose for being used... the idea illustrates how people invent useful things, and that the things are only useful for their intended purposes... if, we were to say that the outsiders' interpretation of 'empty space' is valid, then the sentences would have not recognized the far more important reality that all things exist for a purpose, and arrived into existence with a purpose...
Yan: Precisely. Nevertheless, I stopped caring about the book, mostly because the next paragraph stated something like 'correct use sage man be stomach, not be eye'... there, not say 'be heart', but rather, say 'be stomach'... the stomach is hunger, not heart, not harmonious, not creative, not kind, not benevolent, not love, not much of anything except animal desires...
Alo: I had seen similar in other books written by modern authors, who said that the 'enlightened' person thinks with their stomach... the idea was wrong, of course... the authors, cult leaders, known to be cult leaders... the idea of thinking with one's stomach, is a learned idea, learned from words, not learned from self-observation...
Yan: Parallel book, written, long after the ancients, it claimed that the ancient 'nothingness' implies 'emptiness', that, to achieve emptiness of mind is somehow a state of enlightenment of the mind... nothing said about the heart... but here, look, compare... one ideology believes that 'space' is the mystical primordial state of Reality... a different ideology believes that an empty mind is as the acquiring of the perfect primordial state... and the more recent book mixed the different ideologies' terms together, inventing a claim that all truth exists within the idea of becoming 'empty', but, here, look, see... if a thing is empty, then of what reason? What purpose? We make empty earthen utensils to fill with fluids and grain... we make empty drinking glasses to be filled with fluids to drink... and so why have an empty mind while not having something to fill it with?
Alo: Yes, precisely, agreed... the ideologies do indeed speak of 'hollowness and full' being mutuals, while then also claiming that having a hollow mind does not require a mutual also... if, create empty mind, then fill with what? More vanity? More selfishness? More ego? More self-pleasure? More coldness towards outside? More callousness? Contradictions... but also, if the outsiders' interpretation is correct, and the book does indeed point to 'nothingness' in-between wheel spokes, then the book fails worse... there is no such thing as 'nothing' in-between anything... to not know that, then the author could not have been aware of his mind, not aware of his body, not aware of Nature itself... more contradictions...
De: Chidao, no contradiction...
Alo: Yes, chidao aims for harmony, to fill an emptiness with a thing of value... chidao has purpose... chidao, has reason... chidao, has creativity... chidao creates as Nature creates... chidao, is not an escape from one's own life, nor is chidao merely a mental conditioning to avoid conscious thought, but rather, chidao is as the creating of a better life...
Yan: Precisely... not follow words, not follow teachings, not follow doctrines, not follow other people's beliefs... rather, choose one's own way... choose, one's own path... 'fist-fist to bosom', and not walk on footprints...
Alo: It is difficult, for outsiders to attain... consider this parallel, of electricity, and of evolution... almost all outsiders believe that electricity dwells within all things, but no outsider lives and behaves in agreement with the belief, nor even care what electricity might be... evolution also, almost all outsiders believe in evolution, but no outsider lives and behaves in agreement with the belief... almost all outsiders believe in the world religion's teachings of electricity and evolution, but no outsider human on earth lives in accordance with the belief... absolutely none... the topmost highest outsider gods on earth all preach the same words, and the outsiders believe in the words, but none of the people live the words... not even the outsider gods live the words... all of the people, hypocrites... all, hypocrites. Makes no difference which ideology might be believed in, still, if the believer does not live the belief, then the believer is a hypocrite. Similarly, the believers of 'empty minds' cannot recognize that their ideologies also teach that 'empty' is a mere mutual of 'full'... the believers, as well as their ideologies, contradict... the people are not able to choose a choice... cannot be done...
Yan: Very much agreed, and from within all books that I have now read, there is only one exemption to the norm of constant contradictions... the main ancient author's words. I, previously, for reasons of politeness, I had not wanted to speak his name, but, I will now begin using a syllable of his name... Zi.
Jun: Junzi... quality man... 'man'...
Yan: Yes, honorable enough I believe... a real man, or, what our people might say, a 'real human'...
Alo: Zi spoke of 'middle use'... it seemed odd to me at first, the idea of purposefully choosing a mediocre-like way for society... junzi exceed the way, tiny man not approach near the way... but the middle way for society, it is good... it has purpose, of social harmony, capable of being followed in most everyone's lives... the middle-use way ignores the fringe ideologies, while having purpose of filling hollow lives...
Yan: An unknown author, wrote that his 'empty' mind was calm, peaceful... his 'great way' had 'nothing emotion'... the man was obviously unaware of his own self, else he would have known that all minds must remain active, even if subconsciously... also, emotions cannot possibly disappear nor become a single emotion, ever... which proved that the man was not so much as aware of his own body... the man also claimed that the root of Source ended with the creation of Nature... the man was wrong, very wrong, about everything... he had conditioned his own mind to be useless, and he then believed that he was happy because he no longer felt suffering... and now today, many people believe in the man's words... many people, chant his words... none of the followers, can see their own thoughts, nor feel their own bodies, nor reason what the creative root of Source might be... Zi, apparently, he knew...
Alo: Agreed... and here, now, we have once again gone a full circle of reasoning, that leads back to the original conclusions... the only way, worthy of walking, is one's own way... find reason, find purpose, choose, act upon choice, then walk the choice... the only known way, that does not contradict, is, self way... chidao.