Guest guest Posted February 27, 2010 Report Share Posted February 27, 2010 From Brendan Mattson: The term Lingbao was brought up earlier which has different meanings depending on context. Han dynasty use of the term refers to mediums while the term is more known as a movement within Daoism that incorporated Buddhist ideas of reincarnation into canonized Daoist scripture. In either context " bao " has a relatively Yin connotation of physicality or containment of the relatively Yang idea of Ling which implies a formless transmission of instructions or influence. Stephen Bokenkamp translates it as " numinous treasure " which is problematic but does shed light on what I consider to be the very Yang nature of Ling. It is problematic because numinous refers to a western concept of that which cannot be known by our limited human consciousness (while Daoist teachings of that era directly address reaching that level of consciousness), but sounds more in line with the breakdown of the character (cloud radical indicating influences from above included over the words of a wu-shaman) as well as modern adjectives such as nimble, clever, bright. I understood earlier posts to suggest that Ling was relatively Yin compared to Shen, but I would suggest that Ling as " instructions " manifested in humans as through the manifested potential of Jing is actually a more Yang concept that has less to do with embodiment and more to do with transmission of universal principles (Li) to individuals or individual situations. Brendan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 28, 2010 Report Share Posted February 28, 2010 This is very interesting and clarifying. Thanks for posting. -RoseAnne On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 2:47 AM, wrote: > From Brendan Mattson: > > The term Lingbao was brought up earlier which has different meanings > depending on context. Han dynasty use of the term refers to mediums while > the term is more known as a movement within Daoism that incorporated > Buddhist ideas of reincarnation into canonized Daoist scripture. In either > context " bao " has a relatively Yin connotation of physicality or containment > of the relatively Yang idea of Ling which implies a formless transmission of > instructions or influence. Stephen Bokenkamp translates it as " numinous > treasure " which is problematic but does shed light on what I consider to be > the very Yang nature of Ling. > > It is problematic because numinous refers to a western concept of that > which cannot be known by our limited human consciousness (while Daoist > teachings of that era directly address reaching that level of > consciousness), but sounds more in line with the breakdown of the character > (cloud radical indicating influences from above included over the words of a > wu-shaman) as well as modern adjectives such as nimble, clever, bright. > > I understood earlier posts to suggest that Ling was relatively Yin compared > to Shen, but I would suggest that Ling as " instructions " manifested in > humans as through the manifested potential of Jing is actually a more Yang > concept that has less to do with embodiment and more to do with transmission > of universal principles (Li) to individuals or individual situations. > Brendan > > > > > > --- > > Chinese Herbal Medicine offers various professional services, including a > practitioner's directory and a moderated discussion forum. > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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