Human Relationship is no lofty business
Shake off conventions, you then enter the hall of fame.
Learning does not enhance your expertise,
Reduce your burden in the material, you then transcend into the divine.
Saikontan I :14
Develop Relationships that are Free from the Worldly,
Learning starts with Reducing the Material Burden.
(Living Quotes from Saikontan I:14)
The first two characters both have the meaning of the world.
The first character with only three strokes depict it is hard to talk directly and one has to go the round about way to convey what we mean when we talk in the world. The character has a “one” that also means the beginning in the inside and a crooked stroke on the right, it means to start in a crooked way. The original interpretation represents that the air from our mouth does not come out straight, it is curved in shape.We don’t talk straight when we are in our worldly mode, do we?
The second character is made of of a man and a valley. Water flows through two mountains to an lower opening. The mountains are broken by water in the middle and there is a mouth at the bottom. So it is man’s valley. Ancient people lived in caves or built their homes in the valley. The habits of the valley people became the way of life or the living trend, like the wind blowing in the valley.
The third character means subtract or reduce, it is made up of the radical of water and then another root radical made up of an axe and a mouth. The character symbolizes doing harm with the mouth and depicts chewing or destroying things with the mouth or the axe. The entire character with the water radical depicts water being evaporated by being in the sun and seeping into the soil. So the water is diminshed or reduced to less and less.
The fourth character means burden as a noun or tired as an adjective. It is made up of the radical of silk and the root of the field on top. The field is actually reduced from another character made up of three fields, the silk also depicts layering or overlapping the threads to tie into a bundle representing the burden which is conveyed by the three fields as well. We can also imagine the field to represent food or properties and silk as clothing. They all symbolize the materials things and they can be quite a burden.
The last character is made up of the radical of meat and the root which in turn is made up of two divding strokes on top, a mouth in the middle and a man on the bottom. When the mouth of man divides, he is smiling because he is pleased with himself and others. The pictogram of the meat radical symbolized a piece of meat with two muscle striations inside. The whole character symbolizes the deboned meat or the meat with the bone taken off and it is pleasing to the mouth. The deboned meat is changed and it is simple and plain. It is written in the Book of Chang Tzu that Lao Tzu said, ” I thought the holy and clever ones are transformed” , so the character can be taken as being tranformed or changed.This character is also frequently used with the word flee to mean get away and escape.
When you combine the second character of world with the last character of release, it means being free from the world or released from the worldly trappings. In Chinese buddhism this world is frequent used with another word that means remove, together it is often used to mean being liberated from worldly troubles or suffering.
If we combine the third character of reduce or subtract with the fourth character of burden, it means reduce the burden. By combing the second character of the world with the burden character, we have the wordly burden encompassing food, fields or properties and clothings or materials things. The worldly burden also include the warp or mish mesh of relationships and circumstances in life.
I would like to share a quote in the Chinese dictionary on the first character of “worldly”.
“A word of subperb understanding
transforms the worldly into divine.”
It sums up what we learn from these pictograms pretty well.
In the modern world regardless of East and West, attacking others is a way to get ahead or to off-load blames to someone else. People teach high ideals to make themselves look good but many so called moral or spiritual leaders never practice what they teach.
Whether we are managers in corporation, teachers in school, parents and families at home or even among friends , the simple teaching of thinking in other’s shoe in terms of acceptance and feasibility when we attack wrongs or teach good can apply in most if not all circumstances. We can save ourselves a lot of headaches in life and develop our character in securing peace for ourselves and others.
The Chinese word of “can” is made up of a mouth and a sound symbol of air coming out of the mouth. When people say “can” in Chinese, the mouth releases an air of balance. The meaning of “can” encompasses willingness and approval, being comfortable with or the mind is carefree.
No striving , a key concept of Lao Tzu’s teaching, is to let things run its course. When things are meant to be, it “can” be done. When things cannot be done under the circumstances, don’t force it. Whether it “can” be done or not is an indicator whether the right conditions exist.
To avoid “excess” is an extension of the teaching of polarity or the law of the opposites. When you push “too” far, you will tip off the balance of polarity. The Chinese word “too much” resembles a man with his arms and legs stretched out, the dot underneath represents water. It depicts a man is trapped in water up to the knees or hip, the water turns the dirt into mud making it slippery and he cannot really control his balance. So when there is “too much” , man loses control or is off balance.
Just a sideline on a common expression in Chinese. The word “too much” can also mean two people. The dot below can appear as two dots meaning two. We call the wife Mrs. so and so or the last name of the husband plus two words of ”too much” (太太). Guess some husbands may find their wives to be too much for them.
Attack Wrongs, Consider Acceptance
Teach Good, Ensure Feasibility
(Living Lite Quotes from Saikontan I:20)
When attacking other’s wrongs, don’t be too harsh;
Consider whether he can take it or not.
When teaching good, don’t have high ideals.
Make sure that they can be followed.
(Saikontan I, 22)
Power, wealth and wits are highly valued in the West and the modern world. Those who are untainted by wealth and power but failed to use their wits are not honored like in the old days any more.
In Zen and Tao, you don’t eradicate filth or shortcomings in society and human nature, you coexist with them and yet not engage yourself. This is very hard to practice in today’s life if you want to be popular and successful..
Last week we had our mayor election for the two largest cities in Taiwan. Despite the numerous corruption scandals of the President and the former leaders in the administration, surprising the ruling party has fared extremely well.
They have used many tricks that they probably thought clever. Most people were very disappointed at the mild counterattack strategies of the opposing party, in particular the current Taipei mayor and the opposing party’s leader.With a PhD degree from Harvard and well experienced in law and politics, he is unwilling to use tricks against his vicious opponents. He is widely condemned as weak and incompetent.
Political analysts in local and international media are making pessimistic projections for his trail to Presidential Election in 2008.I sympathesize with him, he would have more peace if he has pursued the lighter career of a scholar.
What is excellence? Crafts and wits or being true to your own noble pure nature?
Power and Wealth, Pure are those who Stay Away from it;
Those Staying Close and yet untainted are even Purer.
Wits and Contrivance, Noble are those who do not Know them,
Those who Know but do not use them are even more Noble.
( Saikontan Book I,4)
The pictogram of “high” is an elevated platform where one can view from above with a symbol below that looks like the pictogram of “mouth” that represents something beneath the platform.
The word “high” is sometimes used with the word “illumined” or “understanding” to mean high intelligence. The pictogram of “illumined” is composed of a circle with a dot inside representing the sun and a crescent shape with a short stroke inside representing the moon.
When you stand high, you can see clearly because of the light from the sun or the moon. When you rise above the circumstances, you can have a clearer and higher understanding.
The pictogram of “skilled” is made up of the radical of a tool defining the norm or a tool for measuring if the square is centered , the root is a drawing of air going up until it hits a horizontal surface. The word itself means excelling in arts and crafts.
Although both the term “highly intelligent” and the word”skilled” have similar connotations of excellence, the former refers to the intellect and the natural while the latter refers more to manual dexterity and association with fabrication.
