For those who are genuinly curious...
The Mysterious Female
"Practice of the universal science requires using the original
spirit to control the discriminating spirit. When the discrimi-
nating spirit does not arise, aberrant fire goes out; when
aberrant fire goes out, true fire arises. When true fire arises,
the harmonious energy is fertile and the mechanism of life
does not cease; so there is hope of attaining the universal Tao.
"The ignorant who do not know this mistake the conscious
discriminating spirit for the original spirit. This is wrong.
The original spirit is the nonpsychic spirit, its consciousness
most real, its reality most conscious. The conscious discrimi-
nating spirit is the psychic spirit; though conscious, there is
artificiality in it. Consciousness in the midst of artificality is
the seed of compulsive habit and routine. An ancient adept
said, 'The root of infinite ages of birth and death, the ignor-
ant call the original being.' The root of birth and death is
the discriminating spirit."
"Mysterious stands for yang, for strength, for action; female
stands for yin, for flexibility, for stillness. The opening of the
mysterious female is the aperture of yin and yang, the door
of strength and flexibility, the gate of action and stillness;
it has no direction, no location, no shape, no form. It is like
an opening hung in space, where the five elements cannot
reach, where the physical elements cannot touch. Ultimate
nonbeing, it contains ultimate being; ultimate emptiness,
it contains ultimate fulfillment. This is the opening within
the conjunction of yin and yang.
"The ignorant who do not know this take mouth and nose
to be the mysterious female. The mouth and nose are the
gate through which the breath exits and enters, not the
gate through which yin and yang enter. When yin and
yang conjoin, they produce immortals and buddhas; can
the air breathed in and out produce immortals and bud-
dhas? Understanding Reality says, 'Few are they who
know the opening of the mysterious female; do not act at
random with the nose and mouth.'"
"The mysterious pass is a most recondite and abstuse pass-
ageway. It is also called the door of life and death, the
chamber of vivifing and killing, the border of divinity and
humanity, the gate of punishment and reward, the opening
of being and nonbeing, the lair of spirit and energy, the
ground of emptiness and fulfillment, the crossroads, and
many other names. All of these terms depict this one open-
ing. The mysterious pass is another name for the mysteri-
ous female. Because its recondite subtlety is unfathomable,
it is called the mysterious pass; because yin and yang are
herein, it is called the mysterious female. Really it is just
this one opening.
"The ignorant who do not know this sometimes take the
space below the heart and above the genitals to be the
mysterious pass; some consider the center of the umbilical
region to be the mysterious pass; some call the coccyx the
mysterious pass; some take the center of the spine, where
it joins the ribs, to be the mysterious pass. These are all
wrong. The mysterious pass has no fixed position; if it
had a fixed position, it would not be the mysterious pass.
"Ch'en Hsu-pai referred to the point where thought arises
as the mysteriouus pass; this seems to be correct, but really
is not. The point where thought arises already has fallen
into the realm of temporal form; how can it be considered
the mysterious pass?
"I now clearly point out to you that the mysterious pass
lies in subtle abstraction, where being and nonbeing in-
terpenetrate. Understnading Reality says, 'Seek the image
of being in the subtle; seek the true vitality in the recon-
dite. From this being and nonbeing interpenetrate; before
you have seen it, how can you imagine it?' Also the Four
Hundred Words on the Gold Elixir says, 'This opening is
not an ordinary aperture, made by Heaven and Earth to-
gether, it is called the lair of spirit and energy. Within
are the vitalities of Water and Fire,' These passages truly
point out the opening of the mysterious pass."
"However, there are few people in the world who are in
genuine earnest. Most cannot put forth intensive effort
or endure long perseverance; also they do not seek out
the fundamental true principles, but just think of the mys-
terious pass and mysterious female in terms of physical
locations and do some minor techniques which are at-
tached either to voidness or to form, falsely imagining
that they will attain the Tao thereby. This is pitiful.
"If one is a true stalwart, one can decisively set aside all
entanglements, so that all objects are empty, and concen-
trate on the matter of most urgent importance, call on
teachers, form associations with worthy companions,
never changing one's determination; then one can even-
tually come to know the mysterious pass, see the myster-
ious female, and finally comprehend essence and life.
Students should work on this."
"The great Tao is uncontrived,
based on spontaneity;
But until the work is complete,
one cannot adapt with autonomy."
"The Inner Teachings of Taoism"
Chang Po-tuan
"Lao-tzu Said:"
according to Wen-Tzu
"Those who are known as real people are united in essence
with the Way, so they have endowments yet appear to have
none; they are full yet appear to be empty. They govern the
inside, not the outside. Clear and pure, utterly plain, they
do not contrive artificialities but return to simplictiy.
Comprehending the fundamental, embracing the spirit,
thereby they roam the root of heaven and earth, wander
beyond the dust and dirt, and travel to work at noninvolve-
ment. Mechanical intelligence does not burden their minds;
they watch what is not temporal and are not moved by
things.
Seeing the evolution of events, they keep to the source. Their
attention is focused internally, and they understand calamity
and fortune in the context of unity. They sit unconscious of
doing anything, they walk unconscious of going anywhere.
They know without learning, see without looking, succeed
without striving, discern without comparing. They respond to
feeling, act when pressed, and go when there is no choice,
like the shining of light, like the casting of shadows.
They take the Way as their guide; when there is any opposi-
tion they remain empty and open, clear and calm, and then
the opposition disappears.
They consider a thousand lives as one evolution, they regard
ten thousand differences as of one source. They have vitality
but do not exploit it; they have spirit but do not make it labor.
They keep to the simplicity of wholeness and stand in the center
of the quintessential."
translated and edited by
Thomas Cleary
Dissipation
"The human body is only vitality, energy, and spirit. If you
do not care about your vitality and waste it arbitarily,
that is like putting water into a leaking cup; it will not fill
the cup, but will gradually leak away. Finally it will be
all gone, not a drop left. If you do not care about your en-
ergy but let it go whichever way it will, that is like placing
incense on a red-hot brazier, letting it burn away; add
more fuel and fire, and the incense will become ash. If you
do not care about your spirit and dissipate it arbitrarily,
that is like placing a lone lamp in the wind, uncovered, so
that it goes out.
"The Seed of Emotion"
"Because of the six organs, people produce the six con-
sciousness; and because of the six consciousness they
produce emotions. They hardly realize that emotions
confuse them in regard to fundamental reality. Once fun-
damental reality is lost sight of, then emotions run wild.
But the seed of all emotions is craving. Why is this? Be-
cause craving is at the root of emotions. If you don't
crave anything, you don't want anything; if you don't
want anything, how can you be attracted to anything?
If you are not attracted to anything, you are not re-
pulsed by anything; if you have neither attraction nor
repulsion, what anger can there be? When there is no
anger, fear does not occur; without fear, sadness dis-
appears.
So we know that cravings is the root of emotions, If you
try to control emotions forcibly without extripating the
root, you control nothing but outgrowths. This is like a
flood of water: if you try to dam it without stopping the
source or clearing the flow , eventually you'll be drown-
ed. It is also like a blazing fire: if you try to beat it out
without removing its fuel or cuting off its path, you'll
just increase the force of the flames, so that you'll be
threatened at every turn. It is also like the waves of the
ocean, one following another endlessly.
Feeling emotions and evoking them, they all accom-
pany the mind, growing according to circumstances.
Only developed people, knowing the seed, use the
sword of wisdom with great aspiration and fierce de-
termination to cut through the root and sprouts, extir-
pate undesirable syndromes, and prevent emotions
from growing on them like parasites.
"Disorientation"
"The emotions are a huge bolt, and craving is the lock
on the bolt. When you cut through the lock and take
away the bolt, you can get beyond the barrier and go
in peace, freely, without hinderance. Mastering under-
standing of the ultimate Way, you then ascend to ex-
alted reality. I pity people who create all sorts of
demons and obstacles because of cravings. They are
confused and disoriented all their lives, rarely tak-
ing stock of themselves. Even when people of high
attainment try to enlighten them, it is like beating a
drum for the deaf, like presenting a lamp to the blind.
After all they do not wake up. What a pity! Still they
feigh interest in the Way, but their interest is misguid-
ed - what they seek is immortality. This is like opening
pandora's box - it's not that they don't find anything,
but there is harm in it.
"Removing Emotions"
"How can you remove emotions? The way to remove
them is to think there is no self. What is called no
self? The self is originally not self; we are not these
selves. So what does the self cleave to? Once there is
self and you cling to it as yourself, when clinging to
the self as yourself, then nothing is not self. When
nothing is not self, there is nothing to which the self
does not cleave. The country is not one's own, yet
one will die for love of it; the home is not one's own,
yet one will die for love of it. Things are not one's
own, yet one dies for them, like flies seeking ordure,
like ants gathering in putrid flesh, like bees tring to
get through a closed window, smashing themselves
against it when they see the sunlight. Gluttony and
greed make people like vultures, insatiably vora-
cious. But try to think of the self; before the self ex-
isted, it wasn't like this: it must have been clear and
cool. The self is transient, like a fleeting shadow,
like the morning dew - in a moment the self is gone.
Since the self has no self, what is the purpose of
self-love? You will grab your heart and laugh in
astonishment; when you meditate in this way,
what craving will not disappear?
"Nurturing the Seed"
"The seed of the beginningless is undefinable, imper-
ceptible, formless; how does one set about nurturing
it? The way to nurture it is to nurture the temporal
first. The temporal nature has inner design and en-
ergy, pure and polluted, real and false, which can-
not be equated; what can be nurtured? Nurturing
and quelling means to get rid of the false and purify
the polluted. Getting rid of the false is not easy, pur-
ifying the polluted is difficult. Out of pity for people,
I will point out the way to start.
Where do you start? From pure desirelessness. When
you have no desire, there is reality. Reality is without
fabrication; when there is no fabrication, there is
purity. When pure, you can be clear; when real, you
can understand. What can you clearly understand?
The attainment of pure reality illumines everything;
the clarity of illumination understands every way."
Sayings of Ancestor LU
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February 2007 
ToltecLogic
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