道玄 Tao Mystery #7

Pattern: 8 Days Zen Guqin.

Larry Neal Gowdy

Yellow bird.

Green bird.

Black talk.

See 'yellow bird'... hold 'yellow bird' words present, lit, in mind, not let-go... keep 'yellow bird' words lit in mind while recalling memories of yellow birds, not let-go... keep 'yellow bird' words lit in mind plus memories of yellow birds lit in mind while consciously and purposefully self-creating a mental concept of yellow birds, not let-go... keep 'yellow bird' words lit in mind plus memories of yellow birds lit in mind plus keep the consciously and purposefully self-created mental concept of yellow birds lit in mind while combining, comparing, judging, and forming a group concept of lit words, lit memories, and lit self-created concept, all combined, and not let-go.

'Yellow bird' concept still lit in mind. Some people stop there, progress no further... other people, continuous analyses occurring throughout all moments, continuously comparing, judging, weighing, self-creating new plausible concepts while simultaneously judging, weighing, and self-creating new plausible concepts of the concepts of the concepts.

See 'green bird'... hold 'green bird' words present, lit, in mind, not let-go... keep 'green bird' words lit in mind while recalling memories of green birds, not let-go... keep 'green bird' words lit in mind plus memories of green birds lit in mind while consciously and purposefully self-creating a mental concept of green birds, not let-go... keep 'green bird' words lit in mind plus memories of green birds lit in mind plus keep the consciously and purposefully self-created mental concept of green birds lit in mind while combining, comparing, judging, and forming a group concept of lit words, lit memories, and lit self-created concept, all combined, and not let-go.

'Yellow bird' concept still lit in mind, 'green bird' concept still lit in mind, not let-go of any. Some people stop there, progress no further... other people, continuous analyses occurring throughout all moments, continuously comparing, judging, weighing, self-creating new plausible concepts while simultaneously judging, weighing, and self-creating new plausible concepts of the concepts of the concepts... the thoughts continue to exponentially multiply...

See 'black talk'... hold 'black talk' words present, lit, in mind, not let-go... keep 'black talk' words lit in mind while recalling memories of black talk, not let-go... keep 'black talk' words lit in mind plus memories of black talk lit in mind while consciously and purposefully self-creating a mental concept of what black talk implies, not let-go... keep 'black talk' words lit in mind plus memories of black talk lit in mind plus keep the consciously and purposefully self-created mental concept of what black talk implies lit in mind while combining, comparing, judging, and forming a group concept of lit words, lit memories, and lit self-created concept, all combined, and not let-go.

All 'yellow bird' concepts still lit in mind, all 'green bird' concepts still lit in mind, all 'black words' concepts still lit in mind... now, mind has sufficient information to form a rational plausible meaning of 'yellow bird, green bird, black talk'. Some people, with firsthand experience, recognize that the words point to 'parrot'... the people stop there, progress no further... other people, continuous analyses continue to occur throughout all moments, continuously comparing, judging, weighing, self-creating new plausible concepts while simultaneously judging, weighing, and exponentially self-creating new plausible concepts of the concepts of the concepts... the people having already previously formed the plausible conclusion of the words pointing to a 'parrot', but the conscious thoughts and analyses do not cease... the mind continues forming additional plausible concepts, plausible concepts of concepts, plausible concepts of concepts of concepts... the name given, to the exponential mental act of continued analyses... "extrapolation".

Many people see 'yellow bird', maybe only recall visual memories of seeing a picture of a yellow bird. Many people see 'green bird', maybe only recall visual memories of seeing a picture of a green bird. Many people see 'black talk', maybe not know what black talk implies, or remember hearing someone say something about 'black talk'. Conscious mental activity stops... no analyses... no continuous self-creating of concepts... each of the three groups of words leave consciousness... no conscious analyses, no duration of holding several lit thoughts in mind while new thoughts arise, each group of words is consciously disconnected from the other, no cross-lighting of thoughts occurs, and extrapolations are not possible.

Conscious person, with firsthand experience, sees words 'yellow bird'... his mind lights brightly with intensely fluid thoughts of memories of having personally firsthand seen yellow birds, of hearing the birds' chirpings, of smelling the birds' aromas, of feeling the birds' feet holding his finger, of feeling the birds' feathers, of remembering the ambient environments that existed during the moments of firsthand experiences with yellow birds, of having observed and reasoned the birds' behaviorisms, of memories of his previous continuous analyses of each moment of firsthand observations... the memories, vast, fluid, bright... the person then mentally associates, judges, weighs, and conceptualizes his own vast firsthand experiences to the moment's experience of seeing the words 'yellow bird'.

One person's thoughts, imperceptibly infinitesimally lightweight, vacuous of substance, brief, a mere wisp of momentary spark... then dark. Another person, thoughts, as sun bright, not fade, grow increasing fluid, become, as if heavy, weighted, almost as if nearing solid, as if, nearing nova... light does not fade.

People are not identical, not same, not equal. Schools teach that all people are the same, that all people have the same minds, and that all people think the identical same way... schools teach lies.

Schools teach that all thoughts, all memories, all consciousness, and all analyses occur with a brain of about 500-billion cell connections, each communicating with tiny little electrical sparks. The conscious person's one single thought, exceeds the 500-billion cell limitation, instantly. School teachings, are as not able to connect words... not know what exists between point A and point B. School teachings, are as if all thoughts are magic, supernatural, mystical, the little electrical sparks being able to accomplish things that are fully impossible within the laws of Nature... the same laws that the schools teach to be the one true truth... the school teachings not able to cross-light, connect, and judge their own words.

River, storeroom, flow back, flow forward, pinch, do again, sun.

Kettle hot, union distant, no sun.

Brass knife, slice river, no sun.

Brass knife, brass knife, war battle, sun.

Sun, birth river... river, birth sun.

An individual with firsthand understanding, and firsthand thinking, quickly extrapolates and recognizes that the words are pointing to electrical lighting.

'Electricity flows, capacitor builds charge, electrical current flows opposite direction, then flows opposite of opposite, resistance of light bulb, light, implies an AC power source.'

'Electrical voltage, open circuit (pipe union not connected), no light.'

'Copper contact open electrical flow, no light.'

'Copper contact touches copper contact, closes circuit, light.'

'Light from sun, onto photovoltaic panel, creates electricity... electricity enables light bulb light.'

Without firsthand experience, without firsthand thinking, without firsthand understanding of a topic, without the ability to keep-lit thoughts in mind, without the ability to cross-light lit thoughts, then it is not possible for a person to accurately interpret a topic that the person knows nothing about.

Ancient Chinese words... many, many modern dictionary English synonyms to choose from... if not know the topic, then not know which synonyms to choose.

'Zi say: Way it not behavior ('carry' particle) man.' (word per word Zhong Yong draft translation)

Academic Legge translation: "The Master said, "Alas! How is the path of the Mean untrodden!""

'Zi say: Middle use it extreme ('carry' particle)('is as' particle). Citizens few able long-time ('carry' particle).' (word per word Zhong Yong draft translation)

Academic Legge translation: "The Master said, "Perfect is the virtue which is according to the Mean! Rare have they long been among the people, who could practice it!""

Academic translations, not know topics, not know which synonyms to use, not hold thoughts lit in mind, not cross-light thoughts, not able to self-create mental concepts, invent crazy muddled-headed confusion of words.

Daodejing similar... is very difficult, if not indeed impossible, to sensibly translate unless the person first knows what the topic is, as well as has firsthand experience, as well as firsthand understanding, as well as firsthand thinking, as well as constant extrapolation, plus the enduring patience to wade-through the muddled-headed confused Chinese-English dictionaries to glean tiny pieces of ancient concepts of Chinese symbolisms.

Various portions of Legge translations of Daodejing: "If its deep mystery we would sound"... "Together we call them the Mystery. Where the Mystery is the deepest is the gate of all that is subtle and wonderful"..."The female mystery thus do we name"... "When he has cleansed away the most mysterious sights (of his imagination), he can become without a flaw"... "This is what is called 'The mysterious Quality' (of the Dao)"... "comprehended its mysteries"... "This is called 'The utmost degree of mystery"... "this is called its mysterious operation"... "This is called 'the Mysterious Agreement"... "what we call the mysterious excellence (of a governor). Deep and far-reaching is such mysterious excellence".

Within the ancient Chinese text of Daodejing, none of the words imply 'mystical', 'mystery', nor any other comparable supernatural mumbo-jumbo English synonym. To things not understood by academicians, the academicians choose the false English word 'mysterious'... academicians say 'mysterious' a lot...

Similar, is reported, of some MIT graduates, 'with degree in hand', being asked to make electricity with 'wire, battery, bulb'... the students with MIT degrees could not do it... also reported, that some students replied 'a trick question'... the MIT graduates, 'with degree in hand', not know the topic, nor have self-thinking. Similar, academic translations of Daodejing use muddled-headed confused words, because, translators not know topic, nor have self-thinking.

Similar, is verified... experiments, of presenting three brief worded concepts... observing to determine how many individuals would be able to mentally retain words, to mentally keep the words lit in mind, then to mentally correlate the three concepts, and then mentally self-create a combined concept of the whole. The experiments, proved, the number of capable individuals, was, zero. Similar to the socially popular belief that 'degree in hand' must imply competence, so is the socially popular belief that 'high IQ society membership' must imply mental ability of self-thinking... the three concept experiment, always presented, to high IQ society members.

Paper documents, each presented as a reward for conformity to social norms, might indeed appear superior to not-superior individuals... but, still, 'document in hand' does not correlate with the ability to self-think.

Infant child, playing... sees, hears, feels, smells, tastes dogs, cats, cows, horses, mice, chickens, sparrows, hawks, doves, scissor-tailed fly catchers, snakes, lizards, flies, gnats, beetles, centipedes, salamanders, ants, lady bugs, fish... infant child have large memories of firsthand experiences, firsthand understandings... can then apply firsthand understandings to school words like 'mammals', 'reptiles', 'fowl', and 'insects'. If not have firsthand experience first, then child first learns unknown words in schools, then invents crazy muddled-headed confused mental concepts of what the words are taught to imply... the child has learned 'worded knowledge', but understands nothing of the topics... cannot make light with battery, wire, bulb... cannot mentally correlate three simple concepts...

School knowledge, extinguishes lit thoughts... no cross-lighting permitted... all grades, evaluated relative to tiny memorized school words... schools, knowingly, and purposefully, make all students muddled-headed confused.

If an individual cannot adequately describe 'water', then, individual cannot comprehend the feel of a feather, the aroma of a cat, the sight of a cow, the taste of dirty hands from having touched dirty animals, the sound of a rabbit, nor be able to mentally distinguish between electricity and magic.

City children today, not allowed to play... many never see a cow, a horse, nor any other non-human being except perhaps a dog, cat, bird flying by, and quickly squished bug. With cell phone in hand, pushing buttons, and memorizing unknown words in schools, the city children become adults, speaking muddled-headed confused words.

Conscious rural person, pausing to analyze beautiful cactus flower aromas... thick, fluid, bright self-thinking... memories, wonderful to recall... memories able to be correlated to other topics... academic words of cactus flowers, like wuji... like, great void... vacuous... nothing there...

Laozi, smart man... explained all he said... repeatedly explained... but, Laozi's written explanations, required words, words that had to be seen, remembered, correlated, conceptualized, cross-lit, reasoned, have their concepts related to one's own life's firsthand experiences and firsthand understandings... academic translations, not have firsthand understandings, not able to cross-light words, therefore not able see explanations... academic translations, merely, muddled-headed confused black talk parrots.