The Golden Flower

[Guest guest]

Hello Dharma,

 

> I am finding considerable differences between our translations... for that

> reason alone, you might wish to have this one too.

 

Yes there is a considerable difference, Thomas Cleary says he translated

it again, for the translation you are talking about was missing

essential piece in it, and also wanted to take away the cultural

background in the old translation into german, that would see the

oriental culture as mysterious and exotic.

 

I enjoy both translation, like the Synthesis of Yoga written in english

by Sry Aurobindo, and the french version translated by Mother, carry in

themselves two very different worlds. Its maybe one of the only

translated book that i have read that carries, to my eyes, a richer

fabric than the original. Mother and Sry Aurobindo, did complete

themselves in a nice way.

> >On light or the shining it says: "<<Light burst out in the empty

> >chamber.>> This light is not luminous but, they explain, it is a proof

> >of efficiency in the beginning, before we have seen the light.If you see

> >it in form of a light and that you fix your attention on it, you will

> >fall in the consciousness of concepts who is not the Light of the

> >Essence." From Chapter X, the light of the Essence and the light of the

> >consciousness.

> Even the chapter divisions are different. Wilhelm's translation has no

> tenth chapter! I have found the text that you are discussing above, but I

> cannot be sure which line your translation gives as "Light burst out in the

> empty chamber." It may be this: "When the rotating light shines towards

> what is within,..."

 

They are 13, in this version.

> >And i just love these words from the preceding chapter: The secret of

> >Liberty

> >

> >"Fix the spirit in the den of the energy

> >And you will suddenly see

> >The white snow fly away in full summer,

> >The sun shine in the water at midnight.

> >Advancing harmoniously,

> >You travel the skies

> >And will sink in to absorb

> >The virtues of the receptive principle."

>

> Here is Wilhelm's translation (at one remove) of lines containing the same

> text:

>

> >Master Lu-tsu said, Yu Ch'ing has left behind him a magic

> >spell for the far journey:

> >

> > Four words crystallize the spirit in the space of energy.

> > In the sixth month white snow is suddenly seen to fly.

> > At the third watch the sun's disk sends out blinding

> > rays.

> > In the water blows the wind of the Gentle.

> > Wandering in heaven, one eats the spirit-energy of

> > the Receptive.

> > And the still deeper secret of the secret:

> > The land that is nowhere, that is the true home...

 

One may see in those two translation a nice contrast between the

traditional Chan and the Zen Buddhism cultural influence, and also the

influence of the german language who gave birth to all those great

minds, from kant to jung. A simple example in the symbols used for the

"true home", for one absorbing "the receptive principle" (the true yin

symbol of earth) and the other "the land that is nowhere". Two different

path, where a nice essence common to all may be touched, or in other

words "feeding the fire".

 

A bit more on the on the "receptive principle", the earth symbol in

Yi-king, From Liou I-ming, in the commentaries of the Cleary

Translation. It is also in relation with this quote "The mind that

realizes emptiness itself can appear in the form of a deity".

 

"If we know how to be flexible and supple, humble, master of self, free

from all agitation and all caprice, without anger in front of criticism,

equal in front of insult, able to accept all the sickness, the natural

catastrophes, without anguish and resentment in front of danger and

adversity, we can be companion of the Earth." (From Awakening to the

Tao).

 

Antoine

[Guest guest]

I have found the text that you are discussing above, but I

> cannot be sure which line your translation gives as "Light burst out in the

> empty chamber." It may be this: "When the rotating light shines towards

> what is within,..."

 

Reading back my emails as i do looking for typos:), i found out that i

did not answer this part of your email Dharma.

 

Wilhem did not translate this tenth section of the text, as many others.

 

So here is a little bits from this chapter, maybe it will give you a

taste to compare the translation for yourself, water for feeding the

fire.

 

Section X: Light of the essence and Light of the consciousness.

 

2. "<<Light burst out in the empty chamber.>> This light is not luminous

but, they explain, it is a proof of efficiency in the beginning, before

we have seen the light. If you see it in form of a light and that you

fix your attention on it, you will fall in the consciousness of concepts

who is not the Light of the Essence."

 

3. When the spirit forms a though, this though is the actual spirit.

This spirit is light, it is cure. When we look at object, without

discrimination, it is the light of the essence, same as a mirror whom

reflects all, without intention of doing it. But only a moment of

discrimination is needed for it to become the light of consciousness.

When an image occupies the space of a mirror, there is no more

reflection (of other images). When the consciousness occupies the space

of light, what light is there left?

 

4. Initially, when the light of essence transform itself into though,

this gives the consciousness. When comes the consciousness, it hides

away the light that becomes unobtainable - not because there is no more

light, but because it became consciousness. This is what is meant in the

quote of the Yellow Emperor : "A sound that is moving does not produce a

sound but produces echoes".

 

11. Rotating the light comes to correctly rotating the primordial light

that cannot be attributed to nothing, so that no conscious thought may

interfere.

 

13. Rotating the light without falling in the consciousness, is to use

the original essence of the senses. Rotating the light by falling in

consciousness it using of the nature of consciousness relative to the

senses. There lies the difference, as thin as a single hair.