The Valley Spirit & The Mysterious Female

[deci belle]

Both these terms would seem to fall squarely within the lexicon of primordial and core taoist lore as both terms are mentioned by Laotze in the 6th chapter of the Tao te Ching.

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"The valley spirit never dying is called the mysterious female. The mysterious female's door is called the heart of heaven and earth."

Both terms are also discussed at length in the various texts, treatises, manuals and esoteric songs and classic scriptures constituting the voluminous taoist canon.

The Valley Spirit and the Mysterious Female are references beyond philosophical discussion, as the terms point to the qualitative substance and phenomenally functional aspects of one's transcendent activity within an impersonally operative nonpsychological milieu through recognition, cultivation and practice by one's inherent resonant potential.

Surprisingly, the short introductory text below is found in the Practice Instructions of the great Chan buddhist teacher and illuminate, Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091~1157). Hongzhi lived in China and died about 60 years before the Japanese progenitor of what is popularly known as Zen (Chan) buddhism, Eihei Dogen, who arrived in China in 1223. Hongzhi's enduring influence cannot be underestimated and becomes obvious to anyone who enters into the practical application and serious study of Chan Caodong and Zen Soto traditions.

The text of The Valley Spirit and the Wind Master, from Hongzhi's Practice Instructions found in "Cultivating the Empty Field"

ISBN 0-86547-475-3:

 

Patch-robed monks practice thoroughly without carrying a single thread. Open-mindedly sparkling and pure, they are like a mirror reflecting a mirror, with nothing regarded as outside, without capacity for accumulating dust. They illuminate everything fully, perceiving nothing [as an object]. This is called taking up the burden from inside and is how to shoulder responsibility. Wisdom illuminates the darkness without confusion. The Way integrates with the body and does not get stuck. From this unstuck place, engaging and transforming at the appropriate opportunity, the wisdom does not leak out. Clearly the Way does not get stained. The valley spirit echos the sound. The wind master walks in the sky. Unobstructed and free, beyond restraints, they do not depend on even subtle indicators, and their essential spirit cannot be eclipsed. Fulfilled, wander around and arrive at such a field. The entire place secure, the entire place at leisure, the open field of the white ox is plain and simple, of one color. If you chase the ox, still he will not go away. You must intimately experience and arrive here.

 

 

ed note: typos, trim quote box and out-maneuver paragraphical dysfunction in paragraph 3

Edited January 24 by Osaid

[deci belle]

The aperture of the mysterious female has no sexual connotation in taoist spiritual alchemy, whereas BDSM sexual practices, ritualized sex magic or taoist psychosomatic "grafting" exercises practiced by older people to enhance energy for meditative concentration, do make the distinction.

Those who penetrate the immaterial aperture of the mysterious female pass through ego reifying identity issues— sex being one of them. How then could the nonpsychological spirit of the heart of heaven and earth be categorically differentiated by clinging to literal descriptions by those obsessed with identity issues in general? There's a special place in hell waiting for those poisoning themselves and others with such absolute rubbish.

Ego is a function, not an identity. Polemic tooling by social engineering hacks in order to maneuver a constituent demographic is an unspeakable denial of humanity. Absolutely no good will come of it. Eventually such societal manipulators will reach an impasse. Resist the ploy.

As for the so-called aperture of the mysterious female, how does one describe that which has no location? Fortunately, it doesn't matter, as the puzzle is without remainder, only entertained by the doubts of the human mentality. The valley spirit is where potential is activated; where change originates. Those who see Change transcend the karmic power of its changes. Resting in the highest good is taking over the pivot of awareness, where one spies Change as potential becomes karmic energy. That's why  the point of enlightening perspective is called the pivot of awareness.

The mysterious female is a metaphor. Mystery means movement: yang. Female means stillness: yin. Neither yin or yang, East Mountain walks on water. East Mountain walks on water is an ancient buddhist epitaph, indicating entry into the inconceivable. Neither yin nor yang is the realm of enlightening activity, where there are no words, much less relativities begetting dualities of self and other, ie: identity issues; or good and bad, or right and wrong. How then could there be discussion of location as pertains to the aperture of the mysterious female? The heart of heaven and earth is one's innermost self. The heart of heaven and earth is the center; the immaterial body of awareness which has no location.

Standing ready by the gate and door of the Mysterious Female, observe life and death. This is knowing the pivot of change. Just this is not a reference to mystical experience, although it is applicable. When one can be psychologically still, yet perspicaciously fluid, one can witness return in everyday ordinary cycles of yin and yang. Return is the action of the Way. Seeing return is seeing potential. Where else would the valley spirit and the mysterious female be?

When one sees the Mysterious Female, one attains the power of the center. Observing stillness and movement, one is not subject to change. This is because the Mysterious Female is the locus of change where the physical and psychological elements do not adhere; where change originates; where adepts steal potential. When you see the the Mysterious Female and attain the pivot of creation, you attain it forever.

Standing ready by the gate and door of the aperture of the Mysterious Female, you see the world sail through its aperture as if bound by its own karmic momentum, like an astronaut careening through the vast void of space …because that is exactly how it is. It's kind of sad, in a way. But you're not!❤

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The task is the "door". The opening and closing of the Mysterious Female is the "gate."

The Art of War states that victory is up to the enemy and that one must choose the ground of death in order to live, find the place of victory, and wait for the enemy to fulfill fate. Adepts know the gate and door of the Mysterious Female and wait there for the arrival of inevitability.

Here are two terms not customarily used: inner and outer Mysterious Female.

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The outer Mysterious Female refers to the balanced combination of flexibility and firmness, considered necessary to achievement of a harmonious personality. The inner Mysterious Female is ordinarily considered identical to the "valley spirit", which stands for open awareness, the image of the "valley" representing openness, the image of "spirit" representing awareness.

The above quote is from Thomas Cleary's notes to his translation of ancient alchemic poems of female adepts in Immortal Sisters — Secret Teachings of Taoist Women. 1989, North Atlantic Books  ISBN 1-55643-222-4

 

 

ed note: omit one word in first sentence

Edited January 21 by deci belle

[deci belle]

From Hongzhi Zhengjue's quoted text in the first post:

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They illuminate everything fully, perceiving nothing [as an object]. This is called taking up the burden from inside and is how to shoulder responsibility.

The brackets "[ ]"  were included in the original volume published by North Point Press and translated by Taigen Daniel Leighton, with additional insight informing the translated text by Yi Wu, Professor of Chinese Language at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. The content of those two brackets is extremely important.

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To perceive nothing, or rather, to see things in general, without psychologically transforming perceived objects, is the working definition of seeing potential. "Perceiving nothing" is the classic example of non-doing, or wu-wei, as defined and applied by all prior illuminates.

Just this simple change in one's relationship with Creation is the absolute key distinction for students of mind only praxis, clarifying the working parameters of authentic enlightening activity. Spiritual activity, per se, is simply beyond rational connotations of morality, self, other, or value judgements of good, bad, right or wrong. When one sees potential instead of things distinct from the perspective of the personal human mentality, this is one's selfless, open awareness conjured by the operative terms valley spirit and mysterious female.

To "illuminate everything fully" is the inconceivably liberated capacity of the light, latent in one's innermost self, to see the light  without distinctions pertaining to self and other. This is not some other  light. The light is your own mind right now. When people stop using the light to habitually reference the psychological apparatus of the being that is going to die, reality doesn't look any different to the physical eyes than delusion. It's just that reality is void of distinctive psychological factors referencing the habit-energy of one's ingrained pattern consciousness. Therefore one sees what is as is, without employing filters perpetuating purely psychological perspectives keeping the true human bound by psychological momentum. Psychological momentum is what makes true spontaneity impossible in terms of the arising of potential.

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Barring the true human from natural transcendent adaption to conditions through situationally inherent potential is the meaning of karmic bondage, and its tragic perpetuation by one's psychological momentum.

The term "karma" is a bundle of tendencies relative to the dual nature of the creative element of kinetic incremental time based thought-energy. Karma, as such, isn't a thing. Karma is the tacit "inert ingredient" forming the web of creation constituting instinctual tendencies perpetuated by the psychological function of being. As such, karma is actually another word for creation. Everything created is karmic without exception. This is how and why karma and creation are deemed "empty" of absolute nature, in terms of reality. Reality is empty too, but true emptiness is not void. True emptiness is the nature of potential comprising karma. Therefore karma is empty in terms of delusion as well as enlightenment.  The nonpsychological is spiritual function expressing the selfless intent of nonorigination, which is universally good. How can "good" be universal, and not a relative aspect of "bad?" Goodness, in this context, is the nature of the selfless (spiritual) purity of nonorigination, or potential, in terms of the essence of creation. The Flower Ornament Scripture says that Universal Good  is not by a country, being itself the source of civilizations.

Nonorigination is the nature of your own mind. The term nonorigination is used because awareness is not created. As for sudden enlightenment, those who cease distinctions of self and other in authentic practice of self-refining open wonder in the midst of everyday ordinary situations for a long long time, realize that seeing potential is none other than enlightening activity, both before and after experiencing sudden illumination. The sudden and the gradual are a singularity in terms of nonorigination, being the uncreated quality of awake, selflessly so. Some people might be disposed to give this singularity a name in relative terms, such as "god." That's ok, because god is you, but you are not god.

It is very important to not form mental, psychological or emotional attachments to conceptual constructs relative to speculations regarding nonorigination, sudden enlightenment, or buddhahood, before awakening— much less in its aftermath. Being attached to notions of one's Absolute nature before, or in the aftermath of awakening to the valley spirit/mysterious female and/or sudden illumination, is just as delusional as being attached to conventional views of self and other relative to adherence to ego-consciousness in the throws of delusional everyday ordinary existence.

When I say "awakening", this is not an automatic reference to the sudden. Awakening is having "penetrated" the aperture of the mysterious female, which is seeing reality as is by perpetual mitigation of habitual reference to one's personal psychological apparatus. Awakening, as such, is simply the cessation of habitual self-reifying tendencies of mental pattern-conscious analysis in one's perceptive capacity. The tendency being psychological momentum itself.  

Psychological (conscious) knowledge has mass constituting gravity and momentum because it is relative to the person, which is created. The selfless knowledge  of reality is immediate and non-discursive. Real knowledge has no mass, no momentum, no tendency, because real knowledge is not relative to the person. Therefore, real knowledge does not perpetuate illusions of ego-consciousness even though it sees through phenomena without denying its characteristics. Nonoriginated awareness being uncreated is your own mind right now without karmic momentum of creative overlays that are natural trappings of the psychological awareness of a created person's human mentality.

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Therefore, real knowledge does not perpetuate illusions of ego-consciousness even though it sees through phenomena without denying its characteristics.

There is nothing wrong with the amazing and necessary functionality of psychological awareness. The problem is the habitual tendencies properly attached to the psychological apparatus' overarching obstruction and obfuscation of the nonpsychological. The psychological usurps the natural enlightening authority of the nonpsychological. Authentic self-refinment is the reformative restoration of the original healthy relationship shared between the psychological and the nonpsychological. Mind is really one. There are no two minds. As for the term buddhahood, this is simply a reference to the permanent stabilization of a reformed and restored healthy relationship of unified selfless awareness functioning inside and outside a body without needing to distinguish psychological and nonpsychological functions.

 

 

ed note: Moderator corrects spelling of "valley" in thread title; change "clarifies" to "clarifying" in 3rd paragraph; change "inherent" to "instinctual" in 5th; add third quote; insert word "of" in last line of penultimate paragraph; add last quote

Edited January 24 by deci belle

[deci belle]

Again, taking up the noted quote from Hongzhi's practice instructions, this time addressing the second part.

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"They illuminate everything fully, perceiving nothing [as an object]. This is called taking up the burden from inside and is how to shoulder responsibility."

"This is called taking up the burden from inside and is how to shoulder responsibility", is a reference to so-called selfless spiritual adaption where the whole world is necessarily not "outside", not beyond the true self, not separate. All at once, is generally a reference to the Absolute (nature of reality), in terms of the selfless nonoriginated perspective of sudden illumination. The task and responsibility of enlightening activity both before and after the sudden, is to actualize the expression of enlightening being, nonoriginated, all at once, without psychological differentiation between self and other.

There being no outside (or inside) relative to enlightening perspective actualizing one's latent sagehood in the world, the ancient taoist elucidation defining all prior illuminates is that "the world is the sage." Unless one's working parameter is "all at once", albeit step by step along the dusty path of authentic self-refining practice in the midst of endless karmic cycles, there is no actualized latent sagehood to be expressed.

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"All at once", is neither an horary reference to conditional before and after, nor a philosophical perspective relative to the Absolute (nonorigination). "All at once" depicts the power and perspective of potential, or the real knowledge of unified awareness, neither ordinary nor holy, in terms of suchness, the working abode of enlightening activity in the world.

Therefore, "…taking up the burden from inside to shoulder responsibility." is the basic directive of authentic self-refining practice in response to situations and the means to stabilize the enlightening operative of "perceiving nothing" whereby everything is illuminated fully without making personal distinctions in terms of inside and/or outside relative to the psychological function of individuals who see potential and adapt enlightenment to conditions.

When you find the road (or even if you don't), all things act in concert. Settling into situations, one simply awaits inevitability in the natural course of enlightening responsibility. One simply shares oneself openly in selfless adaption, responsibly responding in accordance with the time in terms of situational potential. Awaiting the celestial in stillness, one observes return, which is the spontaneous arising of the celestial potential latent in situationally karmic creative evolution. Taoism says to "refine the self and await the time." The only thing necessarily "wonderful" about creative evolution, is the fact that there is no way to find and absorb potential but for the kinetic incremental action of all things acting in concert by virtue of karmic momentum. For enlightening beings and deluded people alike, karma is the only thing to work with. The deluded follow creation's cycles of birth and death, while spiritual adepts turn the light around to shine on its source.

As referenced above, "East Mountain walks on water" is indicative of one's impersonal (spiritual) function beyond movement and stillness. So awaiting the time, per se, isn't simply a matter of passive stillness while waiting for inevitability's fulfillment in terms of potential, or, more commonly, conditional assumptions of personal ascendancy over others in terms of complacent opportunism (privateering), speculative advances, avoidance strategies, or kinetic nullity relative to attraction, rejection, obtund satiety or else mere existential distraction. Enlightening beings' perspective neither by movement nor stillness is the living bestowal of one's inherent potential in the midst of affairs when one has learned to "turn the light around."

This is uncontrived, sincerely open vulnerability. Enlightening being isn't operative or passive conditionality. It also isn't a matter of active or passive approbation, in terms of societal convention, due to the reality of nonoriginated potential being the essence of karma. This means that at all times or even "in between", enlightening activity is necessarily inconceivable; no one knows. Spiritual adaption is a task of secrecy, carried out in broad daylight, due to the nature of inconceivability. As such, enlightening activity's mode of operation is by definition an "open secret" in terms of wu-wei. Some people like to throw around the term wu wei. But it has been defined accurately in the above post as "seeing nothing", that is, in seeing potential by not using the light of awareness to follow objects as if they are intrinsically "outside" oneself, on account of the world being the sage, there is nothing to warrant inside or outside differentiation or influence pertaining to impersonal enlightening response to conditions. This means enlightening activity is not dependent on personal influences or obvious circumstantial factors. Honzhi says, "Unobstructed and free, beyond restraints, they do not depend on even subtle indicators, and their essential spirit cannot be eclipsed."

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Seeing being the critical aspect of enlightening activity means that the spontaneous timing of the arising of potential is the selfless commodity by which spiritual adepts operate, as if secretly and just as freely, in the natural course of adapting to complete reality (suchness) in the midst of everyday ordinary situations, unbeknownst to anyone.

Wu wei is "East Mountain walks on water." But adepts aren't metaphors, so they swim in suchness. Wu wei isn't a thing, nor is it an event. It is a name for the essential character of one's functional enlightening being which is not to be conceived as a separate reality. It is the aware totality of oneself, unborn (before the first thought); spontaneous selfless response: "acting without acting" in everyday ordinary situations. Penetrating the profound reality of wu-wei is a never ending path for those with the "all at once" vision of suchness. This is the "tiger eye" (dharma-eye) of enlightening being(s).

Watching over the task and function of the aperture of the mysterious female, one witnesses changes. In recognizing changes, one does not go along with creation. So selfless adaption isn't a matter of accommodating  phenomena, it is inconceivable response to the time. In introducing the term suchness, above, it must be mentioned that Creation is already one's self, but response to other is why sameness within difference is spoken of in terms of suchness. The buddhist teaching of sameness within difference is a device to help those whose "stream-entry" is immature and fraught with instability. All students of reality know the instability of "stream-entry." But stream-entry is a conditional aspect of authentic practice that must be worked out sufficiently over a long long time before one can cross rivers, where one's life hangs in the balance. Nevertheless, one's steps are unhurried yet not lagging,  progressing naturally, fulfilling (refining) one's karmic burden, until death arrives to compliment the dissolution of one's current temporal lifetime.

Karma needs time. So adepts excel in waiting. Enlightening beings respond to the time in order to absorb potential from within the conditional. The temporal is inherently comprised of the nature of the absolute, so in responding to the time, enlightening beings respond to situations effectively by abstraction, which is seeing through phenomena without denying the characteristics of the phenomenal to aid nonpsychological "all at once" transformation without going along with created cycles of karmic evolution from within karmic spheres. Transcendent adaptivity isn't an accomplishment "divorced" from delusion— it is enacted by virtue of delusion; being the meaning of "turning the light around to shine on its source." The light of creation and the source of the light is one. Otherwise, the secret of potential wouldn't be real.

Seeing is itself the functional aspect of suchness as is. Those partaking of ineffable reality do so by virtue of seeing  alone. In seeing potential, one's acts do not rely on one's own power or personal motivation. Power is necessarily a matter of seeing potential, inherently so, by virtue of situational evolution itself. So in partaking of reality, real humans go in reverse, opposite the flow of creation. This is all there is to turning the light around spoken of in the Secret of the Golden Flower.

If one gets this, one knows the meaning of the saying, "It is as easy as turning over your hand."

Just this is entry into the inconceivable, spoken of as the Supreme Vehicle of buddhas, saints, sages, adepts, wizards and all prior illuminates.

 

 

ed note: change "stabilizing" to "operative" in 5th paragraph; typo 9th; add last quote; parenthesis to enlightening being(s) in 11th; italicize "seeing" in 1st and 2nd sentences of 14th paragraph

Edited January 27 by deci belle