The Great Learning of the Pure and Real

The true lineage of the Great Learning, the words of bearing witness, make clear above all the supreme principle of Lord and servant. Because the Real One and the Numerical One differ, it first makes clear that the One that is single and apart is the Real Lord who creates heaven, earth and the ten thousand things, and has nothing to do with heaven, earth and the ten thousand things: this is the Original Being without beginning. The Numerical One is the first beginning of heaven, earth and the ten thousand things, and so it can govern heaven, earth and the ten thousand things in another's stead. Because it is the first beginning, it is called the First Servant; because it governs in another's stead, it is called the Utmost Sage and the Envoy. This is the Original Ancestor that has a beginning, for it exists by receiving the mandate. The heart of the Pure and Real is this: first distinguish the Real Lord from the First Servant, and only then can one bear sure witness to the Only One and the Numerical One. What is called the Real Lord is the Only One, who can bring into being and to whom all is left. The First Servant is the Numerical One, who receives the mandate and has nothing whatever of his own to use. This is not like ruler and minister, father and son, which are no more than titles for a season, and in truth are not masters of themselves. Why? Sometimes the son is worthier than the father, the minister turns into the ruler, and states rise and fall and change places, because they are all of one kind. As for nature and mandate, life and death, worth and folly, early death and long life, age and youth, beauty and ugliness, these matter most to each person, and neither ruler nor parent has the least say in them; heaven and earth do no more than cover and carry. How much less anything outside the body? Know that only the One, the Real Lord, weighs out the universe and clothes and feeds the ten thousand lives, embracing the present moment and the whole from beginning to end. To apply the rites of human relations, which hold between beings of one kind, to the supreme bond of Lord and servant: would that not throw the Pure and Real into great confusion?

Therefore when Lord and servant are clearly distinguished, and the Real and the Numerical One are settled, only then does one know the source of bright virtue. Knowing the source of bright virtue, one then makes bright virtue bright. When bright virtue is bright, knowing becomes real. When knowing is real, one knows oneself. Knowing oneself, the heart is set right. The heart set right, intention becomes sincere. Intention sincere, the tongue is made firm. The tongue firm, the person is cultivated. The person cultivated, the household is ordered. The household ordered, the state is governed. Every state governed, the world is at peace. If the world is not at peace, it is because a state is not governed. If a state is not governed, it is because the household is not ordered; if the household is not ordered, because the person is not cultivated; if the person is not cultivated, because the tongue is not one; if the tongue is not one, because intention is not sincere; if intention is not sincere, because the heart is not right; if the heart is not right, because one does not know oneself; if one does not know oneself, because knowing is not real; if knowing is not real, because bright virtue is not bright; if bright virtue is not bright, because one does not know its source; if one does not know its source, because one does not tell the Real One from the Numerical One; and if one does not tell them apart, it is because one has not grasped the supreme principle of Lord and servant. Without that, what are ten thousand good deeds worth? Why? Because when the root is not clear, the branches cannot be clear. So this book points straight to the fountainhead and makes the great root plain, so that the upright of the world are not led astray at the forks of the road, nor confused by what only seems so, but have something to bear witness by.

Know that this is the greatest and most proper of tasks. Why is it witnessed by the human alone? In the beginning the Real Lord displayed His weighty trust to heaven and earth, mountains and rivers and all things; all of them, out of fear, did not dare to take it up, because each has its allotted part and cannot hold everything. Only the Human Ultimate took up this great charge, because in it form and mystery are both complete, its spirit rises above all ranks of things, and its strength holds every relation. This supreme principle is held only by the upright heart; the partial will not receive it. Why? Those who are upright keep this weighty trust whole: they do not know that they have a self, they know only that there is the Lord, and all their relations depend on His protection, like jade within a stone: substance and function are both naturally attained. Those who are not upright betray this weighty trust: they do not know that there is the Lord, they know only that they have a self, and their relations become their very substance, like a shell with no pearl inside. Such people are human in outward appearance, but in name and look only. How could they bear witness to the Real One?

Therefore the Scripture says: 'The Real Lord witnesses to Himself: there is nothing else; there is only the Real Lord.' And again: 'Truly the Real Lord is able to witness to Himself in all things.' How do we know it is so? As a state has one ruler and a household one head, with two there would be disorder. The breadth of heaven and earth, the rising and setting of sun and moon, the dark and light of night and day, the coming and going of the four seasons, the shapes of the ten thousand things, the reds and yellows of plants and trees: from ancient times until now nothing in them has changed. All this can witness that the Real Lord is One. But the human's witness is closer than that of any other being, because the human is the fruit of the ten thousand things, the highest and most noble, rising above all relations. It is like a beautiful woman and her mirror: however many her ornaments, they never fit her so well as the light of the mirror, in which she sees herself. The Sage said: 'Truly the Real Lord created the human, and then was manifest in the human.' Is that not the meaning? So the ancestor of humankind, Adam, said first: 'I bear witness that truly there is nothing else, only the Real Lord, one without partner; and I bear witness again that truly the Utmost Sage Muhammad is the Real Lord's First Servant and Envoy.' In the beginning, the ancestor's repentance (tawba: 'translated, repentance') depended on the Utmost Sage's awakening before he could come to understanding. So the true lineage of the Great Learning, the words of bearing witness, were from the opening of the world the first principle of the True Teaching.

The hinge of the Real One and the Numerical One lies wholly in the witnessing self. Know that the self of form and colour is the self that divides me from others: it is the phantom self, not the witnessing self. The witnessing self is the self the Real Lord has entrusted: it is the real self. Apart from this entrusted self there is no self at all. A worthy of old said: 'No one can say that the Real Lord is only one; only the Real Lord can say that He is only one.' Why? The self of the Former Heaven, originally without form or colour, witnesses to the Real Lord's Root Suchness; its seeing, hearing, listening and speaking, its spiritual clarity, knowing and living, witness to the Real Lord's movement and rest; the self of the Latter Heaven, where principle and energy are joined and form and spirit are one, witnesses to the Real Lord's acts. What proof of the Lord could be greater than this? Beyond these three witnesses, consider the guise of the self: what more is there? If there is more, it is only the stain of new birth: what is called the self that divides me from others, not the witnessing self. Someone asked: 'What is the Real Lord's witness to Himself, and what is the witness of the ancestor's self?' The answer: 'The Real Lord witnessed to His great power by creating heaven and earth, and witnessed to His complete qualities by creating the Human Ultimate.' Heaven and earth are like a painter's painting; the Human Ultimate is like a beauty's mirror. Without heaven and earth His great power would not show; without the Human Ultimate His complete qualities would not show. This is the Real Lord's witness to Himself. So seeing heaven and earth is enough to witness to the Real Lord's great power, and looking into oneself is enough to witness to His complete qualities. Without a painter there is no painting; without a beauty, how could there be a mirror? This is things and self witnessing to the Lord. But the Lord's witness to Himself witnesses to His power over being and nothing; my witness witnesses to my receiving the mandate, with a beginning and an end. The one who is made and the One who makes are as different as white and black. To take the painting for the painter, or the mirror for the beauty, is the depth of folly. So a poem says: 'The Real Lord bestows His grace and none takes note; / were it not that life and death cheat us in an instant, / think: of all things, which can be one? / In a drunken dream, how can one presume to take that place?' Such folly and madness all come from not knowing that the Real Lord is One.

If this principle is not clear, loyalty is not loyalty and filial piety is not filial piety; one may spend one's strength and one's life, but, alas, one has not understood why. If you want to trace loyalty and filial piety to their source, you must look into where you yourself come from, and then you will understand how substance and function are established. The human is the finest essence among forms and spirits; heaven, earth and all living things exist because of it. The original meaning of the human's creation is to recognise that the Real Lord is One, to show the first hinge of movement and rest, and to act in the stead of the wondrous function of being and nothing. Having received so great a grace, if one does not trace nature and mandate, life and death to their origin, but thinks only of the great kindness of ruler and parents, what has one to do with the Real Lord, who creates ruler and parents, nature and mandate, life and death? Alas! People tell the One apart wrongly and harbour two in their hearts; blind to the true grace that has always been, they worship emptiness and false images. The person stands at a thousand forks, the heart divides into ten thousand streams, and humaneness, wisdom, loyalty and constancy are all obscurely lost. It is deeply to be lamented! So the work of recognising the One is truly the first task. For the One is told apart as three: the One that is single and apart, the One of the Numerical One, and the One of realisation. The One that is single and apart is the Lord of heaven, earth and the ten thousand things. The One of the Numerical One is their seed. The One of realisation is their fruit.

Now, what is most essential to becoming a complete human being, the root from which all goods proceed, is first to know that the Solitary One is the Real Lord, who is fundamentally unconnected with the myriad things, and who has three grades as witness: the Root-Suchness, the Root-Allotment and the Root-Act. If this principle is not thoroughly penetrated, and there is even a slight error, one is of course no longer a person of the Pure and Real. Therefore, to illumine the heart and recognize the Lord, to cultivate the self and enlarge the Way, one must first come to the pure and real orthodox teaching, and further hope to meet those who have seen the Way and illumined worthies. Why? To have the orthodox teaching without an upright person is no different from sunlight shining on blind eyes: how could one tell black from white? To have an upright person without the orthodox teaching is no better than clear eyes walking at dusk: how could one keep to the right road? I fear there are those who cannot tell the upright from the deviant, and take another's views for their own sight. For the words and conduct of a teacher are like brush and ink; the student who empties his heart is like a blank tablet that receives the teacher's instructing brush. When the ink is flourished from time to time and the tablet is written full, if something is not upright, how could it be made blank again? Therefore seeking the Way and following a teacher is the first critical pass, no minor matter; one must by no means be careless and let it go at that.

What is called the Root-Suchness is this: originally existing without beginning, enduring forever without end, not belonging to yin and yang, fundamentally without counterpart; solitary and one, utmost in honour, with no other thing beside it; without years and months, without place, without form or appearance, without admixture, without obstruction, without near or far, without companion, without peer, without any 'how'; able to command being and non-being yet not falling into being or non-being, creating the myriad things yet not resembling the myriad things, utterly beyond comparison. This is the Root-Suchness that the Real Lord originally has.

What is called the Root-Allotment is the movement and stillness of the Root-Suchness. Although it abides forever as an undivided unity, when its principles are manifested they are not the same. That is: the Real One is unconnected with the Numerical One; being originally one, it is solitary and one from beginning to end. Its real being does not fall into being or non-being; being originally existent, it exists forever, transcendent. It lives not by a mandate; being always living, there is nothing it does not quicken. It knows not by a heart; knowing all-pervasively, there is nothing it does not know. It is able not by any aid; being able from the root, there is nothing it cannot do. It sees not with eyes; its seeing is unobstructed, so there is nothing it does not see. It hears not with ears; its hearing has no direction, so there is nothing it does not hear. It speaks not with a tongue; its speech is unconstrained, so there is nothing it does not say. It wills not by deliberation; its willing is original, so there is nothing not subject to its will. It is eternal not by design; being originally eternal, it is lasting in every respect. All these are the movement and stillness of the Root-Suchness. Yet in stillness it moves, and in moving it is as if unmoving; in movement it is ceaselessly manifold. If one speaks of its stillness, its workings are nonetheless everywhere manifest; if one speaks of its movement, its traces are never seen. Hence both movement and stillness are named, lying precisely between the Root-Suchness and its acting. Know that before heaven and earth existed, the Real Lord wished to manifest His original power; so with His original knowledge He predetermined the myriad things that were to be used, together with all their beginnings and ends, inner and outer, with nothing lacking and not the slightest alteration. In the end there is not one thing that passes beyond His willing, knowing and power. It is not that knowledge and power bind the myriad things; rather, the myriad things of themselves cannot go beyond them. The Scripture says: 'The Real Lord, the Original Being, was solitary and one, and originally not a single thing was with Him; then, within His will, He brought the myriad things to mind.' This is the predetermination (qadar) of the Real Lord's movement and stillness.

What is called the Root-Act is the overflow of His solitariness, wholly containing the marvel of the formless; this is called Capacity-Being. It may be likened to an ink-pool: even the pure essence of the myriad spirits and the patterned writing of heaven and earth all depend on this being, and only afterwards, with the brush of the Deputy, is the principle it holds first set forth. But before it is set forth, it is with the Real One neither identical nor separate: divided, it cannot be parted; joined, it is still distinct. Within it is hidden the spring of preservation and nourishment, and already the sign of the will is manifest, known and seen by the Lord alone. This is the domain of the Real Lord's Root-Act. It has six names: the One Root and Real Ancestor, the Lord of All, the Root-Act, the Source of Transformation, Capacity-Being, and the Overflowing Light. Someone asks: 'The Real Lord is by nature all-pervading and perfectly full; how can one speak of an overflow? If there were something overflowing, the Real Lord's Original Being would be diminished.' I reply: Because He is solitary, one and most honoured, His Original Being without counterpart, He of Himself put forth universal compassion and willed to make the myriad things; He commanded being and non-being and let each follow its own course. At this moment substance and function were first distinguished. Because it issues from Original Being, it is called Capacity-Being and termed the Overflowing Light. Substance and function are inseparable; where then is any diminution? What is called Capacity-Being is the being that is able to issue forth: as the power of Original Oneness gives them oneness, the power of Original Being gives them being, the power of Original Life gives them life, the power of Original Knowledge gives them knowledge, the power of Original Power gives them power, the power of Original Sight gives them sight, the power of Original Hearing gives them hearing, and the power of Original Speech gives them speech. Thus it is between Original Being and Capacity-Being that the principles of things first arise. Therefore Original Being has no arising and no ending, no inside and no outside, whereas Capacity-Being can begin and end, can be outer and inner. This is what is meant. A poem says: 'Why does the flame within water preserve things? Outside the water, melting away, it burns itself. Within and without, clearly the same heat; go on and search out this melting and preserving.' Its meaning makes especially clear that the Real One has no partner. Thereafter, by His original knowledge, He predetermined the original state of humankind, spirits and immortals, together with the reasons of all the conditions that guard them. Precisely at this moment He first decreed the many marvels, which arose complete within Capacity-Being, and their colours and forms were perfected in the making. The myriad affairs and things are not originally existent; all receive their mandate from the Real Lord's preserving and nourishing Root-Suchness and from the movement and stillness of His Root-Act.

What is called the Numerical One is the one root of the myriad differentiations, the first beginning of Capacity-Being. Its names too differ: the First Servant, the Primal Distinguished One, the Imperial Envoy, the Deputy, the Great Brush, the Great Beginning, the First Command, the Great Intellect, the Sea of Natures, the Human Ultimate, the Great Father, the Source of the Way, the Great Root, the Light, the Spiritual Root, and the Utmost Sage. Though the names differ, their principle is fundamentally one. From within Capacity-Being it appeared at the command; it is the root-origin of the myriad things and carries the myriad principles. This is the Non-Ultimate. It too has three grades as witness: the Primal Distinguished One, the Deputy and the Deputy Scribe.

What is called the Primal Distinguished One is the general designation of the Utmost Sage, the great source of nature and mandate. Like the sea that receives all streams, how could it ever overflow? Irrigating the myriad rivers, it is never depleted. Without this or that, it preserves and unites the Great Harmony. It is the seed of all beings; what that teaching calls 'the gate of all marvels' and 'the nameless, the beginning of heaven and earth' is precisely this. It stands in for the Real Lord's preserving and nourishing Root-Suchness.

What is called the Deputy is the unfolding of the pure original nature of the myriad spirits, whose vital energy is fundamentally light and clear and has nothing to do with the realm of colour and form. The origins of humankind, heavenly immortals, spirits and ghosts, and the reasons of heaven, earth and the myriad things all began at this time; none is not from its command. This is called the manifestation. It stands in for the movement and stillness of the Real Lord's acting, such as commanding being and non-being, life and death, nobility and baseness, safety and danger, gain and loss. Know that the movement and stillness of the Root-Suchness abides forever in the Real One and has nothing to do with any being; the movement and stillness of acting is manifest in the myriad things and has its witnesses. All this issues from Capacity-Being, and its very first instance is creation.

What is called the Deputy Scribe is the overflow of the pure essence, naturally manifesting outward. Its names too are various: the Function of the Numerical One, the Net-Rope of the Myriad Forms, the Root of Heaven and Earth, the Mother of the Myriad Things, the Deputy Scribe, the Sea of Images. This is the Great Ultimate. At this juncture vital energy is abundant and principle subtle; what that teaching calls 'the named, the mother of the myriad things' is precisely this. The Great Ultimate transforms into yin and yang: spoken of together they are heaven and earth; spoken of separately they are sun, moon, stars and constellations, and earth, water, fire and air. Yin and yang transform into the myriad forms, yet the myriad forms are not identical with them. Why? Heaven and earth are like one great tree: what lies beyond the six directions is the root of yin and yang, and the root by nature does not change; what is confined within the six directions is its flowers and leaves. Flowers and leaves by nature wither; combining, they give rise to the myriad things; dispersing, each takes its own nature, namely the kinds of water and land, flying and walking, plants and trees, metals and jade. Only humans have no part in this, and heavenly immortals, spirits and ghosts come next after them. Why? Because the human being is the root of yin and yang: it comes from the formless, precedes all beings, opens the Latter Heaven and encompasses end and beginning; it is the fruit of the myriad things. Thus the fruit generates without ceasing, has a beginning but no end, and endures without decay. If the former fruit is taken and used and a new one then grows, they certainly do not come and go again in repetition; do not take the new for the former old thing. The distinction between upright and deviant depends essentially on this; it must be known. In general, a tree is completed in its fruit, and heaven and earth are completed in human beings, who continue the mandate and establish the ultimate, holding end and beginning together as with net-ropes; this is the Great Completion. It stands in for the domain of the Real Lord's acting, which is pure movement. Therefore it is called the First Servant and the Imperial Envoy. The First Servant is the Primal Distinguished One of the myriad things, from whose being there is none that does not follow; the Imperial Envoy is the Deputy, on whose raising-up humans, spirits and the myriad things all depend. Truly it is the great bond of the three bonds and the great relation of the five relations. Therefore the Scripture says: 'The ink-stone pool of Capacity-Being bears His grace and majesty; the personal brush of the Non-Ultimate manifests all natures and mandates.' The Deputy Scribe of the Great Ultimate transforms into yin and yang, and the myriad images in turn are the depiction of yin and yang. All these manifest the domain of the Root-Act.

What is called the Embodied One is humankind. Its names too are various: the Heart of the Myriad Spirits, the Fruit of the Myriad Images, the Alchemical Furnace, the Pass of Life and Death, the Precious Mirror, the Great Completion. It is the ancient volume of the Real Lord's primal secret. For it is complete in both form and spirit, the highest and the lowest; there is nothing it does not cover and bear; it is truly the most complete of all kinds. The first mandate of the Former Heaven is called the true nature; it embodies the marvel of the Real One. The bodily mandate of the Latter Heaven is called the root nature; it embodies the principle of the Non-Ultimate. The union of yin and yang is called form-and-substance; it embodies the function of the Great Ultimate: seeing, hearing, perceiving and speaking, moving and resting, taking and giving, the whole body and all its hundred bones, none do not obey this one nature. Therefore it is by the One that is one's own self that one can verify the One of the Numerical One, and then by this Numerical One that one can verify the Solitary One; proceeding in order, one will be free of going astray. Thus a poem says: 'One ink-stone, two pools, extend the great brush; single, then double, then back to one again. Qian and kun, man and woman, are likewise so; follow the tracks, ascend the hall, and only then enter the chamber.' The Scripture says: 'Whoever recognizes himself can then verify the Utmost Sage and recognize the Real Lord.' This has three grades as witness: Knowing Recognition, Seeing Recognition and Continuing Recognition. Knowing Recognition means clear penetration; Seeing Recognition means intimacy; Continuing Recognition means union.

What is called Knowing Recognition is to seek out and emulate the attestations of the sages and worthies, and to investigate in detail the true scriptures of the orthodox teaching, as when, seeing an object, one thinks of its feeling. Therefore this is to recognise the Real Lord with the body by way of all the conditions: consider how heaven is high and earth thick, water cool and fire hot, wind moving and earth still; sun and moon come and go, the stars revolve, the four seasons succeed one another, day and night roll up and unfold; metal and stone transform, plants and trees have fragrance and colour; in the water are scaled and shelled creatures, on land things that walk and fly. Each kind differs, hard and soft are unequal; more would add nothing, less would leave something lacking; nothing is not exactly fitting, and from antiquity to now it does not change. Were it even slightly otherwise, it would of itself be unsettled. Such a supremely wondrous arrangement: apart from the Real Lord, who could create it again? This is to attain the One from the myriad, just as at the season of flowers and leaves; yet alas, a slight separation remains. This is called taoheide [tawḥīd] (translated: 'practising the One'). At this stage one grasps only the traces of His acts; though it is not bound to the myriad things, it truly comes from learning. Having learned, one can know; having known, one can believe; having believed, one can be sincere; being sincere, one can be loyal; and loyalty is firmly undivided. Yet it is not that one has seen anything; there is in fact not the slightest doubt, only one stands fixed and does not shift, and this proves it to be true knowledge free of delusion.

What is called recognition by seeing is to transcend all conditioning ties, to experience it in person, and to recognize the Real Lord bodily through one's own self. From the First Ancestor [humankind] divided into male and female. The body images the yin and yang of the Supreme Ultimate, embraces the workings of heaven and earth, and penetrates the mystery of being and non-being; within it are stored nature and mandate, knowledge and ability; its spiritual clarity is lively and quick; in seeing, hearing, perceiving and speaking nothing is not supremely refined; it bears on the whole cosmos. So great an original mechanism: apart from the Real Lord, who could possess it of himself? Even fame and merit, wealth and rank, gain and loss, safety and danger are worldly affairs before one's eyes, and over them one has no power at all; how much less over the supreme matter of life and death? Suddenly one is startled awake, the intention turns and the heart returns, and one begins to distinguish the new-born from the Original Being. Lord and servant being clearly distinguished, it is surely not up to oneself: this is to attain the One from two. Though the wondrous clarity is manifest, one has not yet reached union; this is called yitihade [ittiḥād] (translated: 'the One of the self'). At this stage one first reaches the movement and stillness of action. One must know that loyalty to the ruler and filial piety to parents, the bonds and constants, ritual and right, are nothing but the dues of chance meetings in this floating life, and still one does not know that one has a self. Compared with creation, nature and mandate, life and death, and further with the body's return to abide forever, how could there be no recompense for sincere intention and loyal constancy? Because longing reaches its utmost, one now and then attains accord, just as one is self-less after wine yet at times wakes up. Hence the poem says: 'After drinking, in word and deed the body is unaware; all because this wine rules form and spirit. The light of moon and stars is not extinguished: in a moment it is gathered into the great brightness.' This rank is just like the interval between blossoming and bearing fruit, the moment between having a self and having none: most to be feared are violent rain and wild wind; one must guard it with a watchful heart, and only then does the barrier of self suddenly open, and one sees without testimony. Yet even this is not two; it happens when its time comes. At such a moment it can be proved only by being untainted by all ties; for this it is intimate and without gap.

What is called continuous recognition is to overcome entirely partiality and private self-views, to restore wholly the source of bright virtue, and to recognize the Real Lord through selflessness. For the self originally has beginning and end, and has coming and going; the Real Lord originally has no rising or ceasing, and has no place. If with a human nature that has beginning and end one wishes to fathom the Real Lord who has neither rising nor ceasing, how is that different from water and fire, or square and round? To force them together into one arrangement is certainly impossible. For although human seeing, hearing, knowing and ability can exhaust principle and investigate things, they cannot comprehend the Original Being through and through; the self must be wholly melted down, and only then is the wondrous clarity suddenly manifest, and from this the movement and stillness of the Original Suchness become clear. Only then does one know by the Lord's knowing, see by the Lord's seeing, and speak by the Lord's speaking. This is 'from the One to the One', and is called wahadete (translated: 'the pure One'). At this ultimate rank, neither clinging nor apart, there is not the least use of self; nothing is not by the Lord. This is called union. It is all because the outer and inner of the Latter Heaven are both refined and the original of the Former Heaven is alone disclosed: the wind still and the water level, the sun high and the clouds scattered. Though form and spirit remain, movement and stillness are yet one; it can be proved only by pure selflessness, because it is continuous and merged. A former worthy said: 'When the created new-born continues into the Original Being, the traces of the new-born's private self are naturally left with nothing remaining.' Is this not the meaning? The Utmost Sage said: 'I recognized the Real Lord by the Real Lord; were it not for the Real Lord, I could not have recognized the Real Lord.' Only here does one complete the fruit and become a complete human, fixed in the One without shifting, and without bearing witness. At this point one knows that the Non-Ultimate, the Former Heaven, is the time of first sowing: going from above to below is called descent; this is the original seed, and at its beginning there is no witnessing. The Human Ultimate, the Latter Heaven, is the time of watering: going from below to above is called ascent; its basis is the bearing of fruit. The tree is stored in the seed and the fruit appears from the tree; returning to the root and going back to the origin, the fruit is the seed. Though they are not two, there truly is increase: were it not for the red, the green and the fragrance, this whole round of growth would have been in vain. For the generation of heaven and earth and of the myriad affairs and things was for this matter alone, to form a great causal bond. Only the human being bears this heavy charge, and ought to pass beyond the barrier of all beings and go through a hundred thousand dangers; only then does one attain the complete true fruit, highest and unsurpassed, without place, and in the end without witnessing as well. Know that there are three fruits: the First Ancestor is the fruit of the myriad things; the sages are the fruit among humankind; the Utmost Sage Muhammad is the fruit of the sages. At this ultimate rank the Original Suchness of the Real Lord is made manifest. Alas, the people of the world drown in this sea of suffering and betray this weighty trust; compared with them, other kinds of creatures truly do better!

What is most essential for a person is to know that between the pure One, the seen One and the known One there is a distinction like that between higher and lower human ranks; the gap between them is no less than that between heaven and earth, and if one is not thorough about it the consequences are not light. As for the Real One, the Numerical One and the Embodied One, between them lies the supreme distinction of Lord and servant, sage and worthy; this above all must be examined. Considered minutely, the myriad diversities are rooted in the one Being; apart from this Capacity-Being there is no other being; were there another being, how could it be One? Alas for the people of the world! Attached to the branch-tips of the myriad images, they are blind to the being of the Real One. Some who discourse on it, never having been set right, remain vague and adrift in the end; only the clear-eyed and upright see the root clearly and further return to the Original Lord. But the Original Lord and the root must be analysed and clearly distinguished. Why? The Real One, single and alone without peer, is indeed the Original Lord; the Numerical One is the root of the myriad things and is therefore called the Great Father. Were there no Real One, how could there be the Numerical One? Yet this Numerical One of the Non-Ultimate is not the Original Lord; it is in fact rooted in the Original Lord's Capacity-Being. The Real One and the Capacity-Being are like the substance of light and the radiance of light: the substance of light dissolves whatever approaches it, while its radiance accommodates whatever shares in it. Therefore the One that shares with nothing is called the Real One; that which is shared without obstruction is called the Capacity-Being; the One that contains all principles is called the Numerical One. The Capacity-Being is merged between the Real One and the Numerical One: the Capacity-Being is rooted in the Real One, and the Numerical One is manifest through the Capacity-Being. The Numerical One is like the brightness of radiance. Radiance may be likened to the majesty of the forbidden palace: though one may attend close by, one is naturally in awe. Brightness is like a deputy governing on the sovereign's behalf: one may dwell with him in ordinary life and feel at ease, and he further raises one's standing, lacking nothing. This is the distinction between the Capacity-Being and the Numerical One.