Nature and Principle in Islam

The fifth volume takes up, as a supplement, the meanings concerning the great and small worlds that were not yet fully set out. Its meaning is twice as fine and deep, yet it does not go beyond the one Real. Within the supplement there lies an intent of sweeping away. To supplement is to beautify; to sweep away is to supplement. The finer the supplement, the more complete the sweeping; the swifter the sweeping, the more spirit-like the supplement. The principle lies in a realm between being and non-being; the writing lies between the intelligible and the unintelligible. Let the reader measure his strength and exhaust his heart. If he understands the intelligible by understanding, and understands the unintelligible by not understanding, he is one who understands this book well. If he understands the intelligible by what is not to be understood, and the unintelligible by claiming to understand everything, then not only will the book be unintelligible, the reader too will be unintelligible.

Scan vol. 5, p. 76–77Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

Within the dark and dim, which cannot be seen, there is the Real One, the Lord and Ruler of all that exists. That in it which is still and attached to nothing is called substance; that in it which illumines and misses nothing is called function; that in it whose apportionments never err is called act. Hence one speaks of three grades. Function arises from substance and act arises from function: this is the order running from the inner to the outer. Act is not apart from function and function is not apart from substance: this is the refinement of different names for one and the same reality. All the countless unequal things that come after are the manifestation of this which has different names but one reality. Yet how could there ever be three grades? 'Real' means free of falsity; 'One' is the name for what is not two. If the Real had substance, had function, had act, all would be false, and where then would the Real be? If the One had substance, had function, had act, it would not merely be two but three, and where then would the One be? Therefore within the Real One there is no going and coming, no delusion and awakening, no motion and rest, no arising and ceasing; how then could it have substance, function or act? And yet, without substance, whence would function arise? Without function, whence would act be born? Without act, whence would the countless unequal things appear? From this we know that the Real One must have substance, function and act. And yet we know too that it is not so: there is nowhere that is not substance, yet the Real One never has substance; nowhere that is not function, yet the Real One never has function; nowhere that is not act, yet the Real One never has act. This is the Real One's own realm. Never having substance, yet everywhere is the Real One's substance; never having function, yet everywhere is the Real One's function; never having act, yet everywhere is the Real One's act. This is the Real One's manifestation. The realm of manifestation, too, is not something the own realm really possesses. If even the manifestation of the three grades is not really possessed by the Real One's own realm, how much less the myriad things manifested out of the three grades? How could they be what the own realm really possesses? Nevertheless, although the countless unequal things are not really possessed by the Real One's own realm, the myriad things it manifests are, everywhere, the manifestation of the Real One's root-suchness. The Sage said: 'Hidden, it is called the Real; manifest, it is called things.' That is, there is no thing that is not the Real. Manifested as formless things, the formless things are the Real; manifested as things with form, the things with form are the Real; manifested as flowing time, time is the Real; manifested as fixed place, place is the Real. There is nothing that is not manifestation, and so nothing that is not the Real: this is why the Real One is the Real One. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): 'Real' means truly existent yet without name; 'One' means without counterpart and self-standing. As for its three grades, they are simply its true existence; because there is something that can be named, there arise correlatives. Consider: when the whole book speaks of the Real and speaks of things, are they one or two? The Sage broke it open in a single word: for all ages there has never been a second. Two is not admissible; how much less three?

Scan vol. 6, p. 4–8Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

The 'one' of the Real One is the sense of 'alone': it is alone and without peer. Its honour is alone and without peer, its greatness is alone and without peer, its reality is alone and without peer. The 'one' of the Numerical One is where number begins: the numbers of the myriad principles arise from this one, and the numbers of the myriad things are extended from this one. Its existence arose from a single stirring of intention in the Real One and so became manifest. Set against the Real, the Real One is real and the Numerical One illusory; set against honour, the Real One is lord and the Numerical One servant; set against greatness, the Real One is the sea and the Numerical One a bubble. Both are called 'one', yet this is how unlike they are. Compared side by side, the Numerical One certainly dare not presume to rank with the Real One. But speaking of the Numerical One's own capacity: the world of principle and the world of images both branch out from this Numerical One; even the Real One, in passing from the world of principle into the world of images, must go out through this one, and only so can it manifest freely. Such too is the Numerical One's own capacity. Tracing it from beginning to end, root to branch, it too has three grades: the First Mandate, the Vicegerent, and the Prophet (literally 'the one who acts as sage'). The First Mandate is the Real One's first manifestation, the very earliest of mandates. The Vicegerent: once there is this First Mandate, all the Real One's work of transforming and nurturing is carried out by it on the Real One's behalf. 'Acting as sage' is also the sense of vicegerency: dwelling in the world in a bodily form, governing human beings by a human being, and on the Real One's behalf spreading its utmost Way far and wide. These are called the three grades. Now these three grades do not exist because the Numerical One governs them by itself. From the Real One's single stirring of intention this Numerical One was made manifest, and the Numerical One then moves by that same stirring: it moves because it cannot but move; it moves as the Real One wishes to move, and does not even know why it moves. Therefore the movement from the First Mandate to the Vicegerent is a vicegerency it cannot but exercise, not something the Numerical One can decide for itself; and the movement from the Vicegerent to the Prophet is likewise a sagehood it cannot but assume, not something the Numerical One can decide for itself. Even though the movements that follow go on without end, if one asks this Numerical One why there is this movement and why it cannot pause for a single moment, the Numerical One does not know. That which the Numerical One cannot know is, once again, the Real One manifesting itself. The Real One manifests itself and yet must entrust this to the Numerical One: that is how the Real One is not stained by illusion and not mixed with number. Not stained by illusion is the height of reality; not mixed with number is the perfection of oneness. Utterly real and utterly one, with illusion and number having no part in it: this is the Real One's own realm. The Real One, without illusion and without number, yet freely moving between hiddenness and manifestation: this is how the Real One is wondrous in its real oneness. The Numerical One is precisely that wherein the Real One is wondrous. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): The three grades of the Numerical One are the manifestation of the three grades of the Real One: the First Mandate is substance, the Vicegerent is function, the Prophet is act. It is manifest and does not itself know that it is manifest, because there are not two knowings; two knowings would require two substances. Hence it is said: the Numerical One is that wherein the Real One is wondrous.

Scan vol. 6, p. 9–14Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

When a human being is born, his substance is threefold: bodily substance, heart substance and nature substance. Embodying the Real One with this substance is likewise threefold: he embodies it with these three substances. One who embodies the Real One with the bodily substance works through compliance. Compliance knows what ought to be so but cannot know why it is so; this grade knows the name but not yet the reality. One who embodies the Real One with the heart substance works through understanding and awakening. Understanding sees why it is so but cannot attain why it is so; this grade sees the parts but not yet their union. One who embodies the Real One with the nature substance works through the absence of any gap. Being without gap means taking one's root in why it is so and being wholly merged with why it is so: this is the utmost. These three grades are the whole meaning of cultivating the Real, past and present. One person's effort may pass through the sequence of these three grades, or these three stages may be divided among three persons. Among the three grades, embodying through knowledge is shallow, embodying through seeing is deep, and embodying through the nature is so deep as to be almost unfathomable. Even so, one who embodies the One with the nature is still embodying it as one who has a self. Embodying it with a self, the self still goes and comes; where there is going and coming, traces remain. When the One embodies the self, there is no more going and coming. But if, when the One embodies the self, the self knows that it is the One embodying it, the traces are not yet transformed; if it does not know, the traces vanish. Yet if I do not know that the One embodies me, I cannot be sure that the One does not itself know; and if the One knows, that is still like having knowledge: not yet transformed. When I do not know that the One embodies me, and the One does not know that there is a self of mine to be embodied: that is transformation. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): The Real One and the Numerical One cannot be seen, but they are seen in the Embodied One. Seeing one's body is seeing its act; seeing one's heart is seeing its function; seeing one's nature is seeing its substance. The body is easy to see, the heart and nature hard; therefore people know only that it is so, and not why it is so. If one can embody it with one's own three, then those three of the Other are all seen without being outside oneself. If one can forget one's own three and forget those three of the Other as well, then one is transformed in the substance and transformed in the One too. The Embodied One returns to the Numerical One, the Numerical One returns to the Real One, and the Real One too has nothing by which to be named the Real One. Hence it says: that is transformation.

Scan vol. 6, p. 15–19Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

'Communicating' means being three and yet one. When this communicates with that, it is called communicating, but there must be a 'that' before 'this' can communicate with it; when that communicates with this, it is called communicating, but there must be a 'this' before 'that' can communicate with it. If there were only one, it would simply be one and nothing more; by what then would anything communicate? Only because it is one and yet three is there something that can communicate. The Real One is real and real; the Numerical One is real and illusory; the Embodied One is illusory and real. Real and illusory: then the real communicates with the illusory. Illusory and real: then the illusory communicates with the real. The illusory is the manifestation of the real; when the real that exists illusorily communicates with the real that exists originally, the real communicates with the real. Time has daylight, and it is because it has dark night that we recognise daylight as daylight. If it were pure day with no night, how could one recognise it as daylight? If it were purely real with nothing illusory, how could one distinguish it as the Real One? Moreover, the Real One as a thing is still and without place; if it were real without illusion, it would be simply one stillness, and where would communication take place? From this we know that it is one and yet three, three because it cannot but be three. Being three because it cannot but be three is the Real One hiding and manifesting itself. The world is where the three Ones are all lodged and where their communication can be manifested. Outside the world there is a world: the world of true principle. Within the world there is a world: the world of the human ultimate. Without the world of heaven and earth, the world of the human ultimate has nothing to draw on; without the world of the human ultimate, the world of true principle has no seat; without the world of true principle, the world of the human ultimate and the world of heaven and earth would have no way to manifest themselves. So the existence of the world is an existence that cannot but be; and existing because it cannot but exist is again the Real One hiding and manifesting itself. The Real One manifests as the Numerical One: the Numerical One is the Real One's communication, not a Numerical One apart from the Real One. The Numerical One manifests as the Embodied One: the Embodied One is the Numerical One's communication, not an Embodied One apart from the Numerical One. The three Ones are manifested in the world: the world is where the three Ones communicate. Through the communication of the three there is the world, and through the world the communication of the three can be manifested; all of it is the Real One hiding and manifesting itself. The Real One's hiding and manifesting itself arises from the Real One's single stirring of intention. I do not know whether, apart from this single stirring, there would still be three Ones to communicate. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): Communicating is 'one thread running through'. Grasp that the three Ones communicate, and you will not be obstructed by the three Ones; grasp that the world is where the three Ones communicate, and you will not be bewildered by the world. If the three Ones cannot obstruct one's principle and the world cannot cloud one's nature, would one who discusses principle still have principles unclear to him? Would one who speaks of nature still have a nature not fully realised? In contemplating images and handling things, would anything still be left over and not encompassed? Ah! Communicate with this, and the great world and the small world, the Former Heaven and the Latter Heaven, all that exists, great and small, fine and coarse, outer and inner, hidden and manifest, are seen as if in the palm of one's hand.

Scan vol. 6, p. 20–25Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

The generation and transformation of the Creator does not go beyond two poles: what cannot be seen is principle; what can be seen is image. These two are born without anything giving birth to them and transformed without anything transforming them; both are rooted in what is spontaneously so. Only because they are spontaneously so, within spontaneity there is this principle, within spontaneity there is this image, and within spontaneity principle and image enter into one another. Principle does not seek to be matched with image, yet of itself there is a mechanism of matching; image does not seek to accord with principle, yet of itself there is a wonder of according. Were there within it the slightest arranging and disposing, the Creator would be applying a contriving mind in its midst. If it applied a contriving mind, then where arranging reached there would also be what arranging did not reach; where disposing was divine there would also be what disposing did not make fully divine. However skilful the Creator, it could not then avoid the error of excess and deficiency. What then is being spontaneously so? It is this: the principles of the world of principle and the images of the world of images exist as if born, yet in truth nothing gives them birth; they exist as if transformed, yet in truth nothing transforms them. They are what the root-suchness possesses of itself: hidden then, manifest now. Before manifestation, neither increased nor diminished; after manifestation, neither empty nor solid. The countless diverse principles of the world of principle and the countless diverse images of the world of images were originally thus and will be thus forever. Being originally thus, they are born without being given birth and transformed without being transformed; being forever thus, they are born yet nothing is born, transformed yet nothing is transformed. What the world of principle possesses does not exist before the world of images; what the world of images possesses does not exist after the world of principle. Principle and image possess it in the original possession and are not divided into before and after. Were there before and after, there would still be traces of generation and transformation, and it could not be called spontaneous; only their manifestation has a before and after. Hidden spontaneously, their hiddenness is not far from manifestation; manifest spontaneously, their manifestation does not depart from hiddenness. Hidden and then manifest, manifest and then hidden: all is the root-suchness making itself real and illusory, not generation and transformation. The root-suchness does not belong to generation and transformation; to say that principle and image both exist through generation and transformation would be to take principle and image and the root-suchness as two. That would be most unspontaneous indeed. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): When people make things they must make things out of things; precisely because this is not spontaneous, there is no generation or transformation in it. People speak of spontaneity without investigating the principle of spontaneity or its source: such talk has no master. Know that spontaneity is the root-suchness: because the root-suchness is thus, spontaneity is thus. Rooted in the principles and images it originally possesses, principle and image are spontaneous; rooted in the hiding and manifesting it is able to do, hiding and manifesting are spontaneous; rooted in its wondrous function of ceaseless generating and transforming, generation and transformation are spontaneous. That spontaneity is thus is entirely because the root-suchness is thus. How could an empty void with no master be spontaneous?

Scan vol. 6, p. 26–30Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

Two things attached to each other are said to depend. One has never seen a single thing depend on itself; a single thing can only be called self-standing, not mutually dependent. But the dependence meant here is not one thing depending on another thing. A thing's own name depends on its own form; its own form depends on its own substance; its own substance depends on its own name and form. Form is the manifestation of substance: according to what kind of substance it is, its form is of such a kind; form depends on substance, yet form and substance are not two things. Name is what form is called: according to what kind of form it is, its name is of such a kind; name depends on form, yet name and form are not two things. Name is not other than form, and form is not other than substance: they are simply one. But name as a thing is empty and form as a thing is illusory, and the empty and the illusory seem not to be close to the Real. Yet without name, form has no designation; without form, the Real is not manifested. The empty and the illusory are in fact how the Real One transforms itself and names itself. What is remarkable is that the substance is one while its forms differ; that they differ is not remarkable in itself, but each differing form is the whole substance of the Real One, one and the same. The forms of the Real One are measureless and numberless; then is the one and same whole substance of the Real One also measureless and numberless? Can the whole substance really be so many? When one form arises, the one and same whole substance of the Real One appears; when one form ceases, does the one and same whole substance of the Real One cease too? It has never been many and never ceased; there is only this one whole substance. Appearing here, this is the one and same whole substance of the Real One; appearing there, that is the one and same whole substance of the Real One. Whether it appears once or twice, or does not appear at all, the one and same whole substance of the Real One is not lessened; whether it appears a hundred times, a thousand times, or measurelessly, it is not increased.

Scan vol. 6, p. 31–34Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

Form is appearing; appearing is the hidden becoming manifest. Form is the Real. To say that form depends on substance is, where there is nothing to depend on, forcibly to name it 'depending'. Name is what states the reality of the form. For every form has the meaning proper to that form and the use suited to that form. When the form is manifest, the whole substance appears, but the form cannot itself state in detail the meaning proper to it and the use suited to it; when the name arises, that proper meaning and suited use are fully contained in the name. One who does not know the meaning and use of a form can, by examining its name, grasp its meaning and know its use. Therefore the name of this form is this form's register, and the name of that form is that form's register; a register is what states the reality of its own form. Thus a name is the form of a form. When the name is established the form is displayed, and when the form is displayed the whole substance of the Real One becomes ever more manifest. A name without form: what name would it name? A form without name: what form would it be? Name and form are two and yet one; this is not dependence. To say that name depends on form is also, where there is nothing to depend on, forcibly to name it 'depending'. In form one sees the whole substance of the Real; in name one sees the apportionments of form. The whole substance and the apportionments are not two: outside the Real One there is not a single thing. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): At the very beginning there was no designation; how could there be names? At the very beginning there was no shape; how could there be forms? From the single stirring of intention there was One that could be named; forms of principle and forms of image, and names began to multiply. Examined to the end, there is no form without a name, no name without a form, and no name and form without substance. Hence it says: measureless names and forms are the Real Ruler's measureless wondrous function. Not understanding this, some say that since there are names and forms these cannot be the substance, and so they split names and forms from substance as two. That is a mistake.

Scan vol. 6, p. 34–36Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

All that fills heaven and earth is things; even heaven and earth are things. All things are what the Real One has transformed into being, so there is certainly not one thing that is not wholly beautiful (complete and perfect). Viewed from its inner substance, every thing has the principle of the Former Heaven; viewed from its outer substance, every thing has the vital energy (qi) of the Latter Heaven; viewed from the substance where inner and outer join, every thing has the function proper to it. Its principle is a principle lacking nothing, its qi is a qi lacking nothing, so its function is naturally a function lacking nothing. Things are large and small, but where they are wholly beautiful there is no large or small; things are fine and coarse, but where they are wholly beautiful there is no fine or coarse. Heaven and earth are the largest and finest of things; take from among them the smallest and coarsest thing and compare it with heaven and earth for complete beauty, and in their complete beauty there is no distinction of this and that. For heaven and earth have this principle and a mote of dust also has this principle; heaven and earth have this qi and a mote of dust also has this qi; heaven and earth have the function proper to heaven and earth, and a mote of dust also has the function proper to a mote of dust. It is only that the function proper to heaven and earth is applied to heaven and earth, and so its working is universal, while the function proper to a mote of dust is applied to the mote, and so its working is minute. If one took this mote of dust, carried its function to the full measure and extended it, its function might well bear comparison with heaven and earth. But since there is already one heaven and earth, there is no need for another; since there is already the function proper to one heaven and earth, there is no need for another such function. That is why the mote of dust rests content in its lot and simply fulfils its function as a mote of dust. As for complete beauty, the complete beauty of heaven and earth is also that of the myriad [things ...] [continuing:] ...things too have this same complete beauty. An objector says: "Among the things between heaven and earth there is not one that is completely beautiful. Heaven is deficient in the north-west and earth is deficient in the south-east; if even heaven and earth cannot be completely beautiful, how much less everything else?" I reply: "Incompleteness is precisely what brings about completeness. When a thing exceeds complete beauty it is no longer completely beautiful. Within pure yang one yin lies hidden; this means the measure of pure yang is not complete. Yet if this one hidden yin were not there, then on the day yang is exhausted, how would yin be born? So the incompleteness of yang is precisely what brings about its completeness. Within pure yin one yang lies hidden; this means the measure of pure yin is not complete. Yet if this one hidden yang were not there, then on the day yin is exhausted, how would yang return? So the incompleteness of yin is precisely what brings about its completeness. The complete substance of the Sage is without limit, the utmost of purity; yet within that purity there must be one grain of dust, which means the measure of his pure clarity is not complete. Yet if this hidden grain of dust were not there, where would the spring of unceasing life in the human way find its lodging? So the incompleteness of purity is precisely what brings about its completeness. Such is the principle of yin and yang, such is the principle of the Sage; why then doubt it of heaven, earth and the myriad things?" The objector says: "Granted that no thing is incomplete in its substance, it may still be incomplete in its function. Where the function is complete, benefit appears in its use; where the function is incomplete, harm appears in its use instead." I reply: "The myriad things are what the root-suchness manifests. Since there is no incomplete root-suchness, how could there be an incomplete function answering to it? It is only that within creation there is the subtlety of right time and right boundary. When a thing is in its proper time and within its proper boundary, what incompleteness could there be? When it is out of its proper time, or displaced from its proper boundary, then a complete thing is being used in a place where it is not complete. This is the fault of whoever uses the things, not a fault in the things' function. Looking at it more broadly: the world is a completely beautiful world and time is a completely beautiful time. But when what suits the south is set to live in the north, or what suits the north is set to live in the south, the world then seems incomplete; when in summer one wears winter furs and in winter summer linen, time then seems incomplete. Incomplete, unbeautiful use comes only from the user's failing to use things fittingly. What blame attaches to time or to the world?" Note (Hei of Qingyuan): To speak of completeness is already to posit incompleteness; to speak of beauty is already to posit what is not beautiful. Only through what is not completely beautiful is complete beauty shown the more, and brought the more to completion. Consider: the growing of a single grain of millet takes the power of all the nine heavens. How could anything still fail to be completely beautiful?

Scan vol. 6, p. 37–43Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

The things under heaven go down in smallness to mustard seeds and motes of dust; this is the very extreme of smallness. Even so, they may not be regarded as small. Consider the Real One: within its silent, traceless stillness there chanced a single motion of intent no bigger than a mote of dust. That one intent was only one intent; nothing is smaller than it. Yet from it came the Great Mandate, first manifested; from the Great Mandate came the ordered ranks of the endless natures and principles; from what the natures and principles left over came the primal qi; from the unfolding of the primal qi came the two modes and the four images; from the four images dividing into clear and turbid came heaven, earth and the myriad things; and once more, within heaven, earth and the myriad things, the Real One manifested its own complete substance. So vast is all this, and all of it came from a single motion of intent the size of a mote of dust. Thus the small is not small: within the small is something supremely great to which nothing can be added. Ouzai'er says: "The Real One is a hidden treasure." All that it manifests is its treasure-store. Heaven and earth are a treasure-store; each thing is a treasure-store; one mote, one drop, one awn, one grain is a treasure-store. This too is the meaning of seeing the great within the small. But this has not yet been carried to its full extent; carried to its full extent, its greatness is beyond anything thought can reach. The treasure-store is where the hidden treasure of the Real One is stored. Being stored, it is merely stored, merely held within a substance that is silent and has no place. This is great indeed, but its greatness has not yet been seen at its utmost. Why? Because we have spoken of the storing and not yet of the issuing forth. When it issues forth, the complete substance of the Real One stored in a tiny mustard seed again unfolds the great function of that complete substance, just as it unfolded before and so produced the heaven and earth of today, which have no end in time; heaven and earth producing so many unceasingly living things; and the myriad things each embracing a boundless, limitless Real One. One thing, one Real; ten thousand things, ten thousand Reals; countless, numberless things are countless, numberless Reals, and all of them come out of this tiny mustard seed. Is the mustard seed then a small thing? And can its greatness still be grasped by thought? Alas, there is no place that is not small and no place without the greatness within the small, yet very few people see this. Oumo'er (ʿUmar) says: "I have never looked at a single thing without seeing the complete substance of the Real One in it." He, perhaps, is one who is able to see. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): Dust and mustard seed may not be regarded as small; may man be regarded as small? If dust and mustard seed can unfold the complete substance and great function, is man to be worse than dust and mustard seed and unable to unfold them? When a man says "I am foolish", he is throwing himself away. When a man says "I know", then examine the complete substance and great function: how much of it does he know? Let him lay his hand on his heart and ask himself: can he be without shame?

Scan vol. 6, p. 44–48Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

No thing is greater than heaven and earth. Yet looked at as great they are great, and looked at as small they are small; it depends on how the one who sees them sees. If one's seeing has not returned to the seeing of the root-suchness, one's view of heaven and earth is not small; if one's seeing has returned to the seeing of the root-suchness, one's view of heaven and earth is not great. For heaven and earth are form, and the heaven and earth that have form are produced by the heaven and earth that are formless. Standing within the formless heaven and earth and looking at the heaven and earth that have form, they are no more than a single mote of dust within heaven and earth. Even so, one may not simply regard them as small across the board. Not only may heaven and earth not be regarded as small; neither may the myriad things. Why? Because heaven, earth and the myriad things have no fixed size. If that is larger than this, then this is small; if that is smaller than this, then this in turn seems large. Heaven, earth and the myriad things have no fixed size because the Real One has no fixed size. It is not that the Real One has size: speaking of greatness, the Real One is great beyond thought; speaking of smallness, the Real One is small beyond thought. Yezide (Bāyazīd) said: "The Aershi (ʿarsh, the Throne) has come and gone in a corner of my heart many times, and I never noticed it." This is how Yezide saw the small within the great. Of the things under heaven, even the smallest, like a grain of sand or a mustard seed, must have an inside, and whatever has an inside can be entered and broken open. But the smallness of the Real One goes so far that it has no inside; having no inside, how could it be entered and broken open? This is smallness at its extreme. Yet is the Real One really small? To say it cannot be broken means that the substance of the Real One is utterly empty and utterly still, with no boundary by which it could be entered. Those who see it want with all their strength to express its greatness, and when they cannot exhaust its greatness they turn round and exhaust it through smallness. To speak of smallness is exactly the way to speak of greatness. Speaking of greatness, we know that heaven, earth and the myriad things have a source from which they came, and that they all came out of the great. Speaking of smallness, we know that what gives birth to heaven, earth and the myriad things is untainted. How do we see that it is untainted? Having no inside, there is certainly no way for it to be tainted. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): The greatness of heaven and earth was born from a single intent; so heaven and earth too are only dust and mustard seed within one intent. Not only does the Real One regard heaven and earth as dust and mustard seed; even dust and mustard seed regard heaven and earth as dust and mustard seed. Why then are people content to settle for being small?

Scan vol. 6, p. 49–53Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

One exhalation and one inhalation are called a breath. A breath is the shortest span of time. In one breath the work of all the ages is completed, yet it is not easy for a human life to reach this one breath. The one who reaches it is the one through whom heaven and earth are rolled up. Within one breath one sees the past, sees the present, sees the future. Within one breath one sees the principles that belonged to the world of principle in the past, the images that belong to the world of images in the present, and the principles and images of both worlds in the future. Within one breath one sees the past yet in truth nothing has gone by; sees the present yet in truth nothing is present; sees the future yet in truth nothing is to come. Within one breath one sees that there is no past, yet in truth there is nothing that has not gone by; sees that there is no present, yet in truth there is nothing that is not present; sees that there is no future, yet in truth there is nothing that is not to come. Within one breath one sees that there is no past and, with that very seeing, is transformed into the no-past; sees that there is no present and, with that very seeing, is transformed into the no-present; sees that there is no future and, with that very seeing, is transformed into the no-future. Within one breath it is so, and within one breath it is also so: it is not that another breath is needed beyond this one; all is exhausted in this single breath. Within one breath there is going out and coming in; within one breath the spirit goes out and the spirit comes in; within one breath there is neither going out nor coming in; within one breath one enters from the Former Heaven and goes out from the Latter Heaven; within one breath one enters from the Latter Heaven and goes out from the Former Heaven; within one breath one enters from the measureless and numberless and goes out from the One; within one breath one enters from the One and goes out from the measureless and numberless; within one breath one enters from what has neither colour nor subtlety and goes out from what has colour and subtlety; within one breath one enters from what has colour and subtlety and goes out from what has neither; within one breath one enters from where there is an entering and goes out from where there is no going out; within one breath one enters from where there is no entering and goes out from where there is a going out; within one breath one enters from the beginningless and endless and goes out from what has beginning and end; within one breath one enters from what has beginning and end and goes out from the beginningless and endless; within one breath one enters from what is neither pure nor foul and goes out from what is pure and foul; within one breath one enters from what is pure and foul and goes out from what is neither; within one breath one enters by a gate and goes out where there is no gate; within one breath one enters where there is no gate and goes out by a gate. It is not that another breath is needed beyond this one; all is exhausted in this single breath.

Scan vol. 6, p. 54–58Transcribed from the scan by AI (Claude), checked as described on the About page. Share

In one breath the work of all the ages is completed. This breath is not my breath alone; it is one that I share with the Lord. When I share it with the Lord, there are times when within the breath I see only myself and do not see the Lord; when the Lord shares it with me, there are times when within the breath I see only the Lord and do not see myself; and there are times when within the breath I see neither the Lord nor myself. The wonders of all the ages are wholly gathered into this one breath; this is the utmost wonder of the one breath. Our Sage's ascent to heaven was no more than the affair of one breath: from the beginning of creation to the end of the return, all principles, images and events, he saw every one and knew every one. This is the clear proof that in one breath are all the ages. Erli (ʿAlī), in the moment of swinging into the saddle, recited the whole learning of heaven and earth from beginning to end; this almost approaches the glory of the one breath of the Ascent, and it too is a clear proof that in one breath are all the ages. Note (Hei of Qingyuan): When I had read to this chapter, someone asked me: "How is it that in one breath the work of all the ages is completed?" I said: "Reaching this one breath lies in knowing and doing. To know and not do is empty knowing; to do and not arrive is wasted doing. It rests with those who cultivate the Real to accomplish it." The creative transformation of heaven and earth, the manifest and hidden of principles and images, we can come to know from beginning to end in full detail. But if one does not unite with the true meaning through one's own being, and remains bound and clogged by desire for things and selfish concern, how could one reach this one breath? Therefore: if the original nature is not manifest, it is not easy to know this breath; if the continuing nature is not manifest, it is not easy to see this breath; if the true heart is not opened, it is not easy to pass into this breath; if the ascent and return are not complete, it is not easy to reach this breath. The one who reaches this breath is one whose ability heaven and earth cannot constrain and whose work ghosts and spirits cannot constrain; enclosing and completing, knowing all things thoroughly, the wondrous Way that has no place and no body is wholly exhausted in one breath. This is the sign that the complete substance has returned to the Real.