Sacred Books of the East Vol. 40 - Taoism Vol. 2

{fn. 2. Compare T. T. K., ch. 61.} {fn. 3. I do not understand this, but I cannot translate the Text otherwise. Mr. Balfour has:--'If a man is able to remain pure and motionless, Heaven and Earth will both at once come and dwell in him.' Lî explains thus:--{img 25100}. Compare T. T. K., ch. 16, and especially Ho-shang Kung's title to it,--{img 25101}.} {p. 251} 3. Now the spirit of man loves Purity, but his mind{fr. 1} disturbs it. The mind of man loves stillness, but his desires draw it away{fr. 1}. If he could always send his desires away, his mind would of itself become still. Let his mind be made clean, and his spirit will of itself become pure. As a matter of course the six desires{fr. 2} will not arise, and the three poisons{fr. 3} will be taken away and disappear. {fn. 1. Tâoism thus recognises in man the spirit, the mind, and the body.} {fn. 2. 'The six desires' are those which have their inlets in the eyes, cars, nostrils, the tongue, the sense of touch, and the imagination. The two last are expressed in Chinese by shän, 'the body,' and î, 'the idea, or thought.'} {fn. 3. 'The three poisons' are greed, anger, and stupidity;--see the Khang-hsî Thesaurus, under {img 25102}.} 4. The reason why men are not able to attain to this, is because their minds have not been cleansed, and their desires have not been sent away. {p. 252} If one is able to send the desires away, when he then looks in at his mind, it is no longer his; when he looks out at his body, it is no longer his; and when he looks farther off at external things, they are things which he has nothing to do with.