Translation by Sifu John A. Fey
TTC Chapter 5
1 nature as creation is a relentless force
2 the relentless constantly faces the decay of its own fruits
3 the sound person also relentless faces the decay of the fruits of mankind
4 in the midst of this unsentimental force there exists
a mysterious space
the lungs and bellows of your universe
5 like lungs its shape changes
like bellows its function does not occur alone
6 the more that it works the more that it brings forth
7 and words however eloquent
exhaust the magic of this sacred space
8 speak not in word or labels
9 you can only feel it with your core and viscera
COMMENTARY
1 HEART: The creative force of nature is constantly moving, shifting, and changing.
2 HEART: This refers to the cyclical phases of nature: spring as birth/yüan, summer as growth/heng, fall as maturation/li, and winter as death/chen. Whatever nature creates invariably dies and is reborn.
3 HEART: Someone who follows the Tao must emulate nature and realize the life cycle of anything he says or does or creates.
4 MIND: At the heart of this cyclical flow, there is a transcendental space that is the entrance to the Tao Realm.
5-6 MIND: This entrance to the Tao Realm pulsates and changes with its own cyclical pattern. It expands (yang) and contracts (yin). Within its influence, all life is created and sustained. Taoists refer to it as the Mysterious Space.
7 HEART: Attempting to understand and describe the Mysterious Space in an intellectual manner severs your connection to it. Though language is admittedly one of mankind's most important creations, most discourse is undisciplined and drains the power of creation from the Mysterious Space.
8-9 HAND: These are instructions; embrace silence and attempt to feel the cyclical pulsations of the Mysterious Space. Listen first with your core being, called your dantien, a location three-and-one-half inches below your navel and inward toward the center of your bodymind. Thereafter, Taoists learn to listen to the beat of nature with their viscera, specifically the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, and the triple warmer, which is an organ that exists in Traditional Chinese Medical theory.