Alo and De Seeking #27
(PD) Alo and De Lake on Land.
Copyright ©2018 October 04, 2018
(Updated November 27, 2018 - typo correction)
De: I like this one, that you wrote... 'Not worry nothing position, worry place according to life. Not worry nothing already known, seeking serves as able to know also'... 'Do not be concerned of having a nothing social position, instead worry about one's own place according to life. Do not worry if nothing is already known, investigating serves as enabling the knowing also'... that is so very true, especially the last part...
Alo: Yes, I like that part also... the seeking, investigation, is the whole of knowing... no person can come to understand a thing if the person has not personally experienced the thing firsthand... seeking... firsthand investigation... it is the only way of understanding... all other ways, are mere word-memorizing...
De: But this one, the two sentences suggest that the author, perhaps he knew... or, perhaps he might have been merely repeating what someone else had said...
Alo: It is my hope that the author did know, and, perhaps he had chosen to only present a single corner, and not further explain...
De: Possible... which also might be thought of, as the author knowing that few people would grasp several corners...
Alo: Yes, that is also very plausible...
De: One tiny thing, understood from firsthand experience, is of more knowing than all words, and all books, combined.
Alo: Oh, yes, and, that just reminded me of what I had written when I was much younger... those were the zealous years, of when I was anxious to learn a good path... I read so many books, listened to so many beliefs... but then, I abandoned them all... I found them to all be empty, of no understanding...
De: Is it the one, that you wrote... 'Never seek answers, experience the question'?
Alo: Yes, that is the one that I was thinking of... seeking answers, is seeking answers, seeking knowledge of words... it is not seeking understanding... experiencing the question, that, that is the firsthand experience of living the seeking... by observing one's self seeking, one's self observes one's self, learns from one's self, sees how one's self responds to each experience... one's self is as the master teacher, learned by way of Nature's way...
De: Yes, to observe one's self, as each emotion arises, a person can then understand what an emotion is, and how the emotion nascents... understanding, of any topic, can never be found within a book.
Alo: Agreed... it is so easy for you and I... we have been experiencing our questions, together, for several years now... what we see as elemental, however, outsiders do not grasp... some translations of the sentences' last words claim that the ancient words imply that a person ought to aim one's self to be worthy of being known by other people...
De: Oh, no... wrong... not right... in all ways harmful...
Alo: Agreed... contradictions... conflicts... no harmony of thoughts... destructive behavior for an individual to base their standard upon social acceptance... the translations, they cause the whole of the ancient books to appear to be of feeble minds...
De: Yes... the 'fist fist to bosom' is a drastic contradiction to holding a standard of vanity that is swayed by the public... and the first sentence, did it not already state to not worry about social position? The outsiders' translations contradict so quickly...
Alo: Precisely... I prefer to translate the words myself first... then read what other people have translated... but still, even if I were to only read the common translations by outsiders, still, I would recognize the erratic patterns of thought by the outsiders, and recognize some of the original texts' intents also, but, not near as well as translating the words myself. If the original author was a wise man, then never would he have said what the outsiders' translators claim the author to have said.
De: Makes me think of the other ancient book... the one where the speaker was not happy with the scholars, because the scholars misled the people... the scholars did not permit the people to enter into their own teachings' happiness...
Alo: Yes... the sentences, about scholars, hypocrites, they close the path of heavens to man, neither do the scholars enter themselves... it has been a common problem amongst the outsiders throughout all of known history... the outsiders have not changed much...
De: How sad... and yet, apparently, obviously, still so many people believe in the scholars' words...
Alo: Yes, almost everyone in the world believes in the scholars' words... but it is interesting to me, that the speaker of the sentences, he spoke of logic... he formed his teachings upon logic... a logic that was formed upon Nature... interesting...
De: Ah, yes, that is correct... it is funny to me now, but I did not think of it that way when I first read the sentences... now, however, I feel more kin to the speaker... perhaps, he might have indeed been speaking of similar things... his own manner of a chidao...
Alo: Possible... but, if the stories of the speaker's life held truths of having really occurred, then the speaker was not a mere reciter of other men's words... the speaker had achieved what no other public teaching has spoken of...
De: And still not spoken of...
Alo: Yes... hide a metaphor within a parable... turn the words upside-down... permit only those who have walked their own path to see what is easy...
De: A reflection of one's own life...
Alo: Exactly... and, same book, different sentences... seek, and you will find... knock, and it will be opened... he who seeks, finds... the parallels are so very close... but if a thing is true, then it has always been true, and it makes no difference who speaks the words.
De: But how many people seek? How many knock? I suspect, likely few, else the words would be better known... and few people would believe the outsiders' words...
Alo: The speaker of the words, you and I, we have done several of the things that he had done, but there are a few other things that we are unable... but now, I have no reason to wish for the things... this, here, with you... my life wishes for nothing more... we both have more life than the speaker had...
De: Me also... but too, a quality junzi requires a quality wife... the speaker of the book's sentences, it is said that he had no wife... perhaps, only the girlfriend... but the outsiders speak badly of her, inventing hurtful accusations... and worse, the gossip is believed to be true by almost everyone...
Alo: Stories are stories... if a man does not write his own words, then a scholar will paraphrase and translate the words of stories to mean a hurtful thing... always... and, so, we cannot now know what the speaker's life might have truly been like, but I agree with you, it would not be possible for the speaker to have done the things he did if he did not have reciprocation... creative, anything, requires reciprocation...
De: Nothing as elemental to creativity as is reciprocation... any man who does speak the word... he does not understand...
Alo: Agreed... no seeking, no investigation... no understanding of reciprocation...