Shruti - Smriti

Apart from such human artifacts as buildings and roads (especially Roman and American roads), our universe, including ourselves, is thoroughly wiggly. Its features are wiggly in both shape and conduct. Clouds, mountains, plants, rivers, animals, coastlines—all wiggle. They wiggle so much and in so many different ways that no one can really make out where one wiggle begins and another ends, whether in space or in time. Some French classicist of the eighteenth century complained that the (…)

Waley
Of old those that were the best officers of Court Had inner natures subtle, abstruse, mysterious, penetrating, Too deep to be understood. And because such men could not be understood I can but tell of them as they appeared to the world: Circumspect they seemed, like one who in winter crosses a stream, Watchful, as one who must meet danger on every side. Ceremonious, as one who pays a visit; Yet yielding, as ice when it begins to melt. Blank, as a piece of uncarved wood; Yet receptive (…)

Waley
Because the eye gazes but can catch no glimpse of it, It is called elusive. Because the ear listens but cannot hear it, It is called the rarefied. Because the hand feels for it but cannot find it, It is called the infinitesimal. These three, because they cannot be further scrutinized, Blend into one, Its rising brings no light; Its sinking, no darkness. Endless the series of things without name On the way back to where there is nothing. They are called shapeless shapes; Forms without (…)

Waley
Favour and disgrace goad as it were to madness; High rank hurts keenly as our bodies hurt.”
What does it mean to say that favour and disgrace goad as it were to madness? It means that when a rule’s subjects get it they turn distraught, When they lose it they turn distraught. That is what is meant to by saying favour and disgrace goad as it were to madness. What does it mean to say that high rank hurts keenly as our bodies hurt? The only reason that we suffer hurt is that we have (…)

Waley
The fives colours confuse the eye, The fives sounds dull the ear, The five tastes spoil the palate. Excess of hunting and chasing Makes minds go mad. Products that are hard to get Impede their owner’s movements. Therefore the Sage Considers the belly not the eye. Truly, “he rejects that but takes this”.
Wieger
A. La vue des couleurs aveugle les yeux de l’homme. L’audition des sons lui fait perdre l’ouïe. La gustation des saveurs use son goût. La course et la chasse, en (…)

Waley
We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel; But it is on the space where there is nothing That the usefulness of the wheel depends. We turn clay to make a vessel; But it is on the space where there is nothing That the usefulness of the vessel depends. We pierce doors and windows to make a house; And it is on these spaces where there is nothing That the usefulness of the house depends. Therefore just as we take advantage of what is, We should recognize the usefulness of what (…)

The primary aim of the experience in the Developing and Fulfillment Stages is to pave the way for insight into Being as it comes as ’thereness’. This Being is not something and, by implication, also not nothing, hence also it is nowhere else than in its ’thereness’. We may note that the word ’in’ here does not mean that its ’Being’ is in [169] something other than itself, like water in a jug, which would turn Being into something. The inadequacy of every language is most conspicuous in this (…)

Arthur Waley
Can you keep the unquiet physical-soul from straying, Hold fast to the Unity, and never quit it? Can you, when concentrating your breath, Make it soft like that of a little child? Can you wipe and cleanse your vision of the Mystery till all is without blur? Can you love the people and rule the land, Yet remain unknown? Can you in opening and shutting the heavenly gates play always the female part? Can your mind penetrate every corner of the land, But you yourself never (…)

Arthur Waley
Stretch a bow to the very full, And you will wish you had stopped in time; Temper a sword-edge to its very sharpest, And you will find it soon grows dull. When bronze and jade fill your hall. It can no longer be guarded. Wealth and place breed insolence. That brings ruin in its train. When your work is done, then withdraw! Such is Heaven’s Way.
Léon Wieger
A. Tenir un vase plein, sans que rien découle, est impossible ; mieux eût valu ne pas le remplir. Conserver (…)

Arthur Waley
The highest good is like that of water. The goodness of is that it benefits the ten thousand creatures; Yet itself does not scramble, But is content with the places that all men disdain. It is this makes water so near to the Way. And if men think the ground the best place for building a house upon, If among thoughts they value those that are profound, If in friendship they value gentleness, In words, truth; in government, good order; In deeds, effectiveness; in actions, (…)