Chuang Tzu

Singapore time 9.58 am 26th August 2007

Chuang Tzu

Chapter 23 -- Keng Sang Ch'u

"There is no weapon so deadly as man's will. Exacerbate is second to it. There is no bandit so powerful as Nature. In the whole universe there is no escape from it. Yet it is not Nature which does the injury. It is man's own heart. [Reap what you sow]

"Tao informs its own subdivisions, their successes and their failures. What is feared in subdivision is separation. What is feared in separation, is further separation. Thus, to issue forth without return, this is development of the supernatural. To issue forth and attain the goal, this is called death. To be annihilated and yet to exist, this is convergence of the supernatural into ONE. To make things which have form appear to all intents and purposes formless,--this is the sum of all things.

"Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end. There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without a starting-point. Existence without limitation is Space. Continuity without a starting-point is Time. There is birth, there is death, there is issuing forth, there is entering in. That through which one passes in and out without seeing its form, that is the Portal of God.

The Portal of God is the Mysterious Gate or the Mark on our forehead. Its Chinese name is Suan Kuan, the accupuncture point at the nose bridge between the 2 eyes. This is to be Sealed by the Heavenly Way group at the moment. After I gain enlightenment, there might be a change of rule.
It is a Void.

"The Portal of God is Non-Existence. All things sprang from Non-Existence. Existence could not make existence existence. It must have proceeded from Non-Existence. And Non-Existence and Nothing are ONE. Herein is the abiding-place of the Sage.

"The knowledge of the ancients reached the highest point,--the time before anything existed. This is the highest point. It is exhaustive. There is no adding to it.

"The second best was that of those who started from existence. Life was to them a misfortune. Death was a return home. There was already separation.

"The next in the scale said that at the beginning there was nothing. Then life came, to be quickly followed by death. They made Nothing the head, Life the trunk, and Death the tail of existence, claiming as friends whoever knew that existence and non-existence, and life and death were all ONE.
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"Tao is the sovereign lord of Te (virtue). Life is the glorifier of Te. Nature is the substance of life. The operation of that nature is action. The perversion of that action is error.

"People who know not put forth physical power. People who know employ mental effort. But what people who know do not know is to be as the eye.

I cannot put the original Chinese text here for the last verse. I find this verse not right. So checking the original text and get the meaning below.

(should be squinted eyes. Chinese word 'ni' is not eye alone, and usually used with 'bi' to form 'bi' 'ni' something like looking sideway. Here it is telling you even Taoists are ignorant about looking at the Mystic Portal or nasal gaze. So people who know are one in 10 millions or billion.)

Some know this secret. See Taoist Yoga chapter one.
But they emphasis on the circulation of qi in the other chapters of the book. English version was translated by Lu Kuan Yu, a Buddhist monk.

Therefore nasal gaze is very important in spiritual cultivation.