"Man's Law, Earth's Law, Heaven's Tao", followed by the phrase "Dao Fa Nature", is one of the most famous passages in the Tao Te Ching, from Chapter 25:
There is a mixture of things, born of heaven and earth. Lonely, independent and unchanging, circumnavigating without dying, can be the mother of the world. I don't know its name, but the word is known as the Tao, and the name of the strong is great. The great is gone, the passing is far away, and the far is reversed.
Therefore the way is great, the heavens are great, the earth is great, and the king is great. There are four great realms, and the king dwells in one of them.
Man Law Earth, Earth Law Heaven, Heaven Law Dao, Dao Law Nature.
Once I have understood this passage, my understanding of the Tao Te Ching will naturally rise to a higher level, which is my personal experience. And the key to understanding this passage is in a "heaven" word.
This "God", do we really understand?
Personally, I think the current popular interpretation is problematic. In the process of reinterpreting, I was actually talking to my friends about how to read the Tao Te Ching.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="18" > "human law", seems to understand</h1>
Well, let's start with "human law", which is relatively easy to understand, at least we think so.
Because people live on the earth, they must grasp the laws of the earth. For example, when farmers plant crops, they must grasp the climate, rain, soil properties, crop habits, and the time for sowing and harvesting.
For example, scientists engaged in space industry, you have to understand the space materials, fuel, earth's gravity, air resistance and other chemical, physical complex laws, if you want to send astronauts to space, but also to understand the law of human survival in space.
Therefore, "human law" is a must.
A friend said, according to what you said, people seem to be not only the earth, but also the heavens. Yes, that's the point. Don't worry, let's continue to talk about "Earth Law Heaven".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="126" > "earth law heaven", I really don't know what to say</h1>
Why is the earth law heaven? What is the Earth Law Heaven? Do you really understand?
At least for a long time, I didn't understand it at all. In order to understand this question, I have worked tirelessly to find the answer in the scriptures and the commentaries of the masters.
I first found all the words in the Tao Te Ching that talk about heaven and earth, and found that Lao Tzu is often called heaven and earth, such as:
None, the beginning of the famous heaven and earth - a chapter
Heaven and earth are unkind, and all things are dogs- five chapters
The Gate of Xuanmu is the root of heaven and earth, the six chapters
Heaven and earth are long, so the heavens and the earth can be long and long... - Seven chapters
Naturally. Therefore, the wind does not end, and the rain does not last forever. Who is this? world. Heaven and earth can't last long, but what about people? - Twenty-three chapters
Something is mixed, born of heaven and earth— chapter twenty-five
Heaven and earth are united, and self-equalization is brought down by the order of the people and the people are not given—chapter 32
But the twenty-fifth chapter suddenly came a "earth law heaven", and it felt very abrupt, was there?
The scriptures can not find a basis, and then look at the commentaries of the famous masters.
First look at Wang Bi, who explains in lao tzu's commentary that "earth law and heaven" says:
"The earth does not violate the heavens, but it is fully loaded, and so does the heavens."
It seems to make sense, after all, the sky is about to fall, and the earth must not be able to stand it. However, I still did not understand.
Looking at the Tang Dynasty Lü Dongbin's "Interpretation of the Tao Te Ching < Lü Zu >", he said:
"The rain and dew of the earth and the heavens fall, and the biochemical opportunity, the earth consolidates and persists, which is called 'earth law heaven'."
The problem is that in the thirty-two chapters of the Tao Te Ching, it is clear that "heaven and earth are united to bring down manna." And we explain scientifically that the earth's air rises into the air, interacts with the weather, and then rains and snow, which means that "the rain and dew of the earth fall from heaven", which seems to be inconsistent with scripture and scientific common sense.
Looking at Huang Yuanji's "The True Meaning of the Tao Te Ching" of the Qing Dynasty, he said:
"The earth is overthrown by heaven, so the earth is law and heaven is also ordered"
This is similar to Wang Bi's statement.
The above are all famous commentators of the Tao Te Ching, especially the commentaries of Lü Dongbin and Huang Yuanji, two masters of the Tao Te Ching, which I attach great importance to, but as far as the interpretation of the "Earth Law Heaven" is concerned, it is still not satisfactory.
Looking at the interpretation of modern scholars, Han Pengjie's "What the Tao Te Ching Says" is a metaphysical interpretation of the "Tao Te Ching", which I think is a better one. Professor Han has a completely new interpretation of "human law, earth law, heaven and heaven", he said:
"It's a kind of ladder-building syntax, and the starting point is all people"
That is, "the law of man, the law of man, the way of man."
In this way, the question of "earth law and heaven" was cleverly avoided, and there was no forced explanation. Moreover, the statement of taking people as a starting point is more acceptable to the general reader.
But I personally believe that this explanation, while justified, seems to have lost the depth of Scripture. Moreover, if this is the case, then shouldn't the original text be "Man's Law, Heaven, and Dharma", so why did Lao Tzu bother with this?
Anyway, looking at it, I finally found that "Earth Law Heaven" is still a confused account.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="141" > "heaven" of "earth law heaven", what is the day? </h1>
Let's put that aside and talk about my own experience after I realized it.
Straight to the point, I think everyone reading this paragraph is a bit "looking" up.
When we talk about "heaven", we think of it as the "day" that looks up at the sky, that is, the day when the sun, moon, and stars run, and it often rains and snows, and lightning and thunder.
Yes, when the Tao Te Ching speaks of "heaven and earth," most of them refer to this tangible and phased heaven.
We know that in Lao Tzu's time, there were not many words, so the phenomenon of "one word and many meanings" existed in large quantities, such as a "Tao" word, there were "road", "talk", and the highest "Tao" and other meanings, right?
Similarly, does the "heaven" in "earth law heaven" mean something else?
After perusing the Tao Te Ching again, I found that wherever "the Tao of Heaven" and "the Way of Heaven" appear, there is no "earth" as the corresponding concept.
Meritorious retreat, the way of heaven - nine chapters
Don't go out of the house, know the world; don't peep, see the Heavenly Dao- Chapter Forty-Seven
The Way of Heaven, Victory without Contention, Good Response Without Saying —Chapter Seventy-Three
The Way of Heaven, its Bow and The Way of Heaven? ...... The Way of Heaven, the Loss of Excess and the Making Up of the Deficiency - Seventy-Seven Chapters
The Way of Heaven has no relatives, and is always with good people - Chapter Seventy-Nine
The Way of Heaven, Benefit without Harm – Chapter Eighty-One
From this point of view, the "heaven" in the "Earth Law Heaven", like the heaven in the "Heavenly Dao" and the "Heavenly Dao", should be the invisible and formless heaven of the six roots of human beings.
This kind of formless and phaseless heaven actually has a specific name - "heaven outside the sky".
Buddhism and Taoism have the saying of "extraterrestrial heaven", such as the ninth heaven, the twenty-eighth heaven, the thirty-third heaven, the thirty-sixth heaven, etc. We generally look at it as a myth, in fact, this is the realm level of cultivation, as for the relationship between "extraterrestrial heaven" and the scientific community about the cosmic multidimensional space of the most 11-dimensional space, I dare not say this topic now.
In short, the "heaven" of the "earth law heaven" can be considered to be the "outer heaven", and the "outer heaven" is the world of a higher dimension beyond our spatial dimension.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="151" > human law, earth law heaven, heaven law way, dao law nature</h1>
From this point of view, to understand "human law, earth law and heaven", then the "earth" here is not the earth, but covers both the two concepts of "heaven" and "earth" in the human cognitive system, that is, the three-dimensional world in which we live.
Therefore, "human law" means that people must follow the laws of our three-dimensional world, otherwise whether it is planting crops or engaging in aviation, it will not succeed.
Well, the next question: What is the relationship between the different dimensions of the world?
There is a saying that I agree with, that is, the low-dimensional world is a projection of the high-dimensional world. Then the three-dimensional world, as a projection of the four-dimensional or even higher-dimensional world, of course, must follow the laws of the high-dimensional world, which is the "earth law heaven".
Speaking of which, no matter how high-dimensional the world is, it must also operate on the basis of the "Tao", so the "Heavenly Law Dao".
"Tao Dharma Natural" means that the Tao preserves its original appearance, because the Tao itself is supreme.
To sum up, "human law, earth law, heaven, heaven, heaven, and nature" means: man follows the laws of the three-dimensional world, the three-dimensional world follows the laws of the high-dimensional world, the high-dimensional world follows the Tao, and the Tao maintains its original appearance.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="152" > extended: "There are four great domains, and the king is one of them."</h1>
A friend asked, doesn't the Tao Te Ching teach people to break through the limitations of the three-dimensional world, so how can the "human law land" be enough?
Let's look ahead of the "human law", what do we see? Look at a "king" word.
Chapter 25 begins with a discussion of the five characteristics of the Tao and the four laws of operation, and then points out the "four greats" of the Tao, heaven, earth, and king, and that "there are four great powers in the realm, and the king dwells in one of them."
Some people change this "king" to the word "man" to fit the "human law" behind it, which is actually a misreading of assumptions.
This "king" should not be understood as the "prince" among adults, but the "king" of "Gong Nai Wang, Wang Nai Tian" (chapter 16), the "king" of "Jiang Hai so can be the king of a hundred valleys" (chapter 66), the "king" of "ominous by the country, for the king of the world" (chapter 78), all refer to the "people" who have a thorough consciousness and understand the cosmic path, such as Lao Tzu himself.
In this way, when we have grasped the essence of the twenty-five chapters and looked at the other chapters of the Tao Te Ching, we should have a deeper understanding.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="153" > conclusion</h1>
Therefore, reading the Tao Te Ching, my little experience is to avoid "looking at the picture" and reading it from a detached perspective, so that it is possible to get a little closer to the true meaning of Lao Tzu, rather than reading it for half a day and only reading a bunch of plausible "big truths".
Other classics such as the "I Ching", "Zhuangzi", "Diamond Sutra", "Heart Sutra", "Altar Sutra" and so on, all record the information of the high-dimensional world, all of which teach the human body to understand the way of cosmic life and become the "king of the world", its value is not comparable to ordinary books, and the reading method is also the same as the "Tao Te Ching", which requires a higher dimensional perspective, and does not fall into the right and wrong of the three-dimensional world.
Of course, the above is only a personal shallow view, not necessarily right, share it for everyone's reference, but also welcome to correct the high people.
Pay attention to the cicada hero, take you to appreciate the beauty of classical culture, we will see you in the next issue!