BALANCE AND HARMONY

Li Tao-ch'un, The Book of Balance and Harmony, translated from the Chinese and with an introduction by Thomas Cleary (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1989) ("The absolute is movement and stillness without beginning, yin and yang without beginning." "When the human mind is calm and stable, before it is affect by things, it is merged in the celestial design; this is the subtlety of the absolute. Once it is affected by things, then there is a partiality; this is change of the absolute." "When you are calm and stable, careful of attention, the celestial design is always clear, open awareness is unobscured; then you have autonomy in action and can deal with whatever arises. With the maturation of practice of calm stability, one spontaneously arrives at this true restoration of the infinite, where the subtle responsive function of the absolute is clear and the design of the universe and all things is complete in oneself."  Id. at 3-4. "Balance and harmony are the four directions centered on reality; in action all is balanced." "The Record of Rites says, 'When emotions have not yet emerged, that is called balance; when they are active yet all in proportion, that is called harmony.'" Id. at 4. "Metaphors: Vitality in the body is yang within yin; refine vitality into energy. Energy in the mind is yin within yang; refine energy into spirit. The original spirit is formless; refine spirit into openness." Id. at 21. "Do you know this person who controls the puppet? The body is like a puppet; the string of the puppet are like the mysterious pass. The person controlling the puppet is like the innermost self. The movements of the body are not done by the body; it is the mysterious pass that makes it move. But though it is the action of the mysterious pass, still it is the innermost self that activates the mysterious pass. If you can recognize this activating mechanism, without a doubt you can become a wizard." Id. at 29-30. "The highest vehicle is the ineffable Way of supreme ultimate reality." "Discipline, concentration, and insight are the three essentials." Id. at 39. "Those with clear understanding, those whose knowledge and wisdom are perfected, are able to see all phenomena as empty of absoluteness. Then the unified mind returns to tranquility, and lives independently in a transcendent state. Therefore there is no creation or change for them." "Those who do not clearly understand are externally fixated on body, mind, society, and events; and they inwardly dwell on sensations, conceptions, actions, and consciousness. Therefore they change along with the world, are born and perish along with forms." Id. at 148.).