Nature and Principle in Islam

1. 卷首・本經The Root Classic

   Chapter 5 · How the two worlds part and meet, and heaven and human undifferentiatedly transformed

   第五章　總述大小兩世界分合之妙義與天人渾化之極致

   The Only One is not a number; every number is one. [Feiyin jing] In the beginning, Real Being governs the one and governs the numbers. The one is its substance; the numbers are its function. [Zhaowei jing] Substance and function undivided: this is called the Real One. Function arising from substance: this is called the Numerical One. Function turned back to substance: this is called the Embodied One. The three ones are not three: one, with three meanings. [same] The Real One initiates transformation, the Numerical One completes transformation, the Embodied One transforms transformation. [Daoxing tuiyuan jing] Initiating is by act: from substance, function becomes manifest. Completing is by mandate: first principle, then the sage. Transforming transformation is by compliance: advancing by knowing and seeing, until nothing lies between. [Daoxing tuiyuan jing] Transformation is like a circle: it reaches the end and returns to the beginning. [same] Transformation comes from the So-of-itself and in the end returns to the So-of-itself; the least departure from it is not the Root Suchness. [Yanzhen jing; Zhaowei jing] The Root Suchness has no attachment; it attaches to names and guises. Names and guises have nothing to rest on; they rest on consciousness. Consciousness is not constant: so it is said, all things perish. [Zhaowei jing; Feiyin jing] Therefore the ten thousand things perish only in their guises, not in their principle; and the principle is the Real. [Feiyin jing] Focus the eyes and you see one; let them wander and you see two. Cling to doubt and fall into obstacles, and every thing you see is illusion. [Zhaowei jing; Feiyin jing; Daoxing tuiyuan jing] What thing is not Real? What event is not real? [Zhaowei jing] Every thing is pure and whole; who says anything is partial or mixed? [Zhaowei jing; Feiyin jing] One mote of dust, one grain of millet: the whole substance, the Root Suchness. [Yanzhen jing] One breath out, one breath in: the measure of all time. [Feiyin jing; Daoxing tuiyuan jing] In the small see the great: heaven taken into a grain of millet. In the great see the small: heaven outside a mote of dust. [Yanzhen jing; Daoxing tuiyuan jing] Unroll its light and shade, and one breath is a thousand ages; roll up its hours, and a thousand ages are one breath. [Daoxing tuiyuan jing; Feiyin jing] The one returns to the Root Suchness, and heaven and human are transformed without division. Things and self return to the Real, and the Real One returns to the Real. [Feiyin jing; Zhaowei jing] Things are no obstacle to one another, and the human is not burdened by desire; each wondrous meaning shows itself, and the Root Suchness is seen. [Daoxing tuiyuan jing; Yanzhen jing] In the beginning it was real principle; now it is real guise. When real being and guise are seen together, seed and fruit are complete. [Yanzhen jing; Zhaowei jing]

   惟一非數，是數皆一。〔費隱經〕厥初實有，統一統數。一者其體，數者其用。〔昭微經〕體用渾然，是名真一。由體起用，是名數一。返用歸體，是名體一。三一非三，一而三義。〔同上〕真一起化，數一成化，體一化化。〔道行推原經〕起化以為，從體著用。成化以命，先理後聖。化化以順，進以知見，盡於無間。〔道行推原經〕化如循環，盡終返始。〔同上〕化出自然，終歸自然。少不自然，即非本然。〔研真經〕〔昭微經〕本然無着，着於名相。名相無附，附於意識。意識無恆，故曰皆朽。〔昭微經〕〔費隱經〕是故萬物，只朽其相，弗朽其理，夫理即真。〔費隱經〕凝目視一，散目視二。着疑陷礙，見物皆幻。〔昭微經〕〔費隱經〕〔道行推原經〕物何非真，事何非實。〔昭微經〕物物純全，孰云偏駁。〔昭微經〕〔費隱經〕一塵一粟，全體本然。〔研真經〕一呼一吸，終古限量。〔費隱經〕〔道行推原經〕小中見大，天納粟中。大中見小，天在塵外。〔研真經〕〔道行推原經〕舒其光陰，一息千古。卷其時刻，千古一息。〔道行推原經〕〔費隱經〕一歸本然，天人渾化。物我歸真，真一還真。〔費隱經〕〔昭微經〕物無相礙，人無欲累。妙義各呈，本然見焉。〔道行推原經〕〔研真經〕初為實理，今為實相。實有相見，種果全焉。〔研真經〕〔昭微經〕

   ✦AI

   Scan, p. 129–131Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

Chinese: transcribed by AI (Claude) from the CADAL scans on Wikimedia Commons (public domain), checked against the zh.wikisource text (CC BY-SA); Books 1–5 also collated with the 1923 photoreprint (CADAL, Commons), and the Root Classic with the Chinese printed in Murata, Chittick and Tu (2009); punctuation is editorial. Books 1–5 keep the notes of Hei of Qingyuan (清源黑氏, Hei Mingfeng), a later commentator, apart from Liu Zhi's text. Arabic: Nūr al-Ḥaqq (Ma Lianyuan), al-Laṭāʾif, as printed in Murata, Chittick and Tu, The Sage Learning of Liu Zhi (2009), pp. 103–153 (public domain text; taken from the book's text layer and checked against the page images by AI, page by page; not yet proofread by a person). Characters: Unihan (Unicode licence), cjk-decomp (Apache-2.0), the Kangxi Dictionary (public domain) via Wikisource (CC BY-SA). The English and the term mappings marked AI were written by AI (Claude). Murata's translations are in copyright and are cited, never reproduced. How this text was established.