The valley spirit never dies;
It is the woman, primal mother.
Her gateway is the root of heaven and earth.
It is like a veil barely seen.
Use it;
it will never fail.

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THE ORIGIN OF THINGS

Like the river in the valley, the spirit is never dried up.

I call it the Mother-Deep.

The motion of the Mother-Deep I regard as the origin of the Heaven and Earth.

Forever it endures and moves without design.


I see a correlation between this and Plotinus' distinction between The One and The Divive Intellect. As the Mother-Deep/Divine Intellect "moves" things arise, not by design (with purpose) by by "occurance".

Travis

My translation is thus...

"The spirit of the fountain dies not.
It is called the mysterious feminine.
The doorway of the mysterious femine
is called the root of heaven and earth.
Lingering like a gossamer, it has only a hint of existence.
And yet when you draw upon it, it is inexhaustible."

Many Taoists say this is where the idea for Chi Gong, and Tai Chi Chuan came from. Which, when you look at it... it is quite possible. Was Bodhi Dharma, a buddhist monk from india, knowledgeable of Lao Tzu's writings before conceiving of Chi Gong? I am not sure. But it's influence on Tai Chi Chuan is umnistakeable.

The first line is very important. It doesn't necessarily say that the water never dries up. It just points that it never dies. Meaning, the pathway is there whether you are on it or not. And when the water becomes plentiful again, it will take the same course. This is important when understanding chi, and the nature of Tao. For chi is never dried up, nor does it die.

The doorway to this neverending energy is called the root of heaven and earth. It truely is the "root", the birth of all. For all is energy, and all is chi. Yet lingering like a gossamer, it only has a hint of existence. Like Tao, it does it's work but sets no store by it. It is so good at what it does, we hardly even know it's working.

However, like any who do energy work can tell you. When you draw upon it, it is inexhaustible.

Truely beautiful work!!

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