Alo and De Student #78
(PD) Alo and De Lake on Land.
Copyright ©2018 November 30, 2018
Yan: My translations have slowed... perhaps now, I might begin focusing upon the poems, like what you have done...
Alo: Ah... so, you have found the change of voices?
Yan: Yes... not pleasing to see... nor worthy of translating further. Example... 'join not-have smart how, walk use know it'. The change of pattern is an obvious example of a person who has learned external words, but the person has not yet acquired an inward understanding through firsthand experience... the phrasing is a common example of a common student in the government schools. The ancient text, it also stated that the person who spoke the words was a student... the voice is a distraction, not of harmony with the other voice.
Alo: Yes, easy to see the difference between the primary author, and... the... other writers.
Yan: Very large difference. The student was recorded to have spoken several similar sentences, and within all sentences seen by me, the student repeated the pattern... the pattern is one of forming reasonings based upon an absence of understanding... the student leaped from cause to conclusion, without including the meat of the walk... 'great-extent begin filial-piety, it large also'... the absence of the walk, is obvious.
Alo: My smile... I know, it gets worse...
Yan: Oh so very much worse! I was so accustomed to reading sensible words that were written by the primary author, but to then fall into a student's nonsense? Ha! I felt so disheartened... the main author had often spoken from a firsthand point of view, which very much pleased me, but the student phrased his words from a third-person point of view... as if a mere philosopher... he could only recite memorized words, not connect the words. When I began translating different ancient books, there, there again were the same student patterns of words, and so quickly the student's words repulsed me.
Alo: Most people do not recognize patterns, nor connect thoughts, nor recognize why thoughts are disconnected... without having walked, people cannot imagine what is missing between steps...
Yan: So very true... and the student, his words even missed beginnings and ends... ha! Ah, so, so, disheartening... the student was merely making stuff up, and pretending to be a master. One book, has a commentary written by the student, and many individuals have given their opinions that the whole book was written by the student... I agree.
Alo: All known ideologies share similar... one good master, many poor students... one good writer, many poor imitators... the ideologies begin with good thoughts, but then fall when the inexperienced students seize control... the masters' valuable understandings, fall into a dirtiness of ideologies... begin, wise, end, ideology... way of man.
Yan: Agreed, but still so disappointing. There is one more ancient book, that allegedly contains the main author's words... that book I want to translate, but, if I can find no others written by the man, then, yes, poems... ha!
Alo: Ha! Yes, no need to harm oneself by attempting to reason words that were written without reason...
Yan: Oh but the student... he talked about goodness, what modern words usually say is 'virtue', but the student spoke the word as if goodness were a mere single thing... not composed of ingredients... not of a song of harmonies... the student, he obviously possessed no virtue himself if he could not say what virtue is, nor say what sequence virtue exists within. The student actually stated something to the effect that people reason, then use reasoning to make decisions, then the decisions cause the person to become calm, from the calm the person then becomes content, and from content the person then attains virtue... wow... completely backwards from what is real. Yes, a person must first choose his path, but the calm and content are caused by the virtue... internal virtue cannot be caused by a person being externally calm... the student apparently possessed no concept of what virtue is, nor possessed virtue itself... the absence of the walk, is obvious.
Alo: Agreed... you and I, we think of our wives and our own hearts when seeing the 'virtue' word... to us, we understand from firsthand experience how virtue is born, and how virtue is expressed... we understand what it feels like, we know how it influences our thoughts and behaviors... we understand... but the student did not understand. And now, countless people have been misled, by the words of a mere second-hand scholar.
Yan: The main author skipped over a lot of things that I would have preferred seeing him elaborate on further, but, the contrast, between the student and the main author, the contrast has heightened my appreciation for the main author... compared to the other people, the author was quite remarkable.
Alo: A master understands his topic, from beginning to the present... also understanding that the topic has no end... you saw also, that the student claimed that there was an end to virtue, as well as an end to the root... the student convicted himself... he did not so much as understand the primary author's words about root of Source... the student contradicted his master's own teachings, proving that the student was unworthy of listening to. But also give attention to what the student inferred... his words appear to have expressed his belief that virtue is an external behavior, that calmness and contentness are themselves the thing named 'virtue', which appears to also infer that the student could not feel his own body. It is almost universal amongst outsiders, that they cannot feel their own bodies, and so, the people believe that things like virtue and righteousness are the external acts themselves, and that the acts have no relevance to inward qualities.
Yan: Like the outsiders' world-philosophy... thousands of years the philosophers have debated what 'virtue' and 'ethics' are, but the philosophers have only debated from an external point of view, and of course the debates cannot find answers, and never will. The global religion is pretty much the same. And now we see a very similar thing in the ancients' writings... a student, claiming himself to be a master, while also claiming that an outward behavior can be the definition of an inward quality.
Alo: Precisely... students attempt to imitate their masters... the students attempt to recite similar words in similar ways as how the masters spoke... the students invent fanciful claims, and then, perhaps sincerely, believe that the claims must be true because the students recited what appeared to them to be a similar pattern of words as what the masters used. For as long as an individual follows another person's words, so will the individual remain a student, and never achieve an understanding of anything.
De: No walk...
Alo: Yes...