Nei-yeh (Chinese Self-Cultivation Manual)
16. Cultivating Tranquility & Alignment renews Te (Power) & Vitality
1 If people can be aligned and tranquil,
2 Their skin will be ample and smooth,
3 Their eyes and ears will acute and clear,
4 Their muscles will be supple and their bones will be strong.
5 They will then be able to hold up the Great Circle [of Heaven]
6 And tread over the Great Square [of Earth].
7 They will mirror things with great purity
8 And will perceive things with great clarity.
9 Be reverently aware [of the Way] and do not waver,
10 And you will daily renew your inner power (te),
11 Thoroughly understand all under Heaven,
12 And exhaust everything in the Four Directions.
13 To reverently bring forth the effulgence [of the Way].
14 This is called 'inner attainment'.
15 If you do this but fail to return to it,
16 This will cause a wavering in your vitality.
Commentary
Verse 16 reiterates the importance and benefits of tranquility (ching) and alignment (cheng).
Lines 1-8:
1 If people can be aligned and tranquil,
2 Their skin will be ample and smooth,
3 Their eyes and ears will acute and clear,
4 Their muscles will be supple and their bones will be strong.
5 They will then be able to hold up the Great Circle [of Heaven]
6 And tread over the Great Square [of Earth].
7 They will mirror things with great purity
8 And will perceive things with great clarity.
Tranquility and alignment leads to smooth skin, supple muscles, and strong bones. In addition, the eyes and ears, i.e. the senses, are acute and clear. Further, individuals with these attributes are able to mirror things purely and perceive things with great clarity.
They also support the Circle of Heaven and walk the Square of Earth. One meaning of this last mysterious sentence could be that the personal power of these individuals is so strong that it emanates throughout their community and beyond.
Lines 9-12:
9 Be reverently aware [of the Way] and do not waver,
10 And you will daily renew your inner power (te),
11 Thoroughly understand all under Heaven,
12 And exhaust everything in the Four Directions.
Being unwavering in reverent awareness results in 3 benefits: 1) the daily renewal of te (inner power); 2) ‘thorough understanding’; 3) the ability to ‘exhaust everything’. Could this last benefit be related to an increased capacity for attention that enables us to completely experience existence in all its glory, i.e. tastes, sounds, emotions, etc.?
In line 9, Roth adds ‘of the Way’ in brackets for explication. With this insert, he is suggesting that the object of awareness is the Tao. Although this is certainly a potential, it is unnecessary to limit awareness to an idea or concept. Relaxed awareness frequently has no object.
Further just being completely aware of our surroundings, the people we are with, and the task at hand is an incredible accomplishment. Focusing Attention in this fashion, rather than letting it wander aimlessly, would certainly strengthen te, our self-restraint muscle. It is also entirely plausible that the practice of maintaining focused awareness would also strengthen both our cognitive skills and our capacity for experience.
Line 12 also has a meaning associated with Tai Chi practice. Roth translates the ideogram for ji as ‘Direction’. Ji is the ‘chi’ of Tai Chi, which means ultimate limits. One of the goals of Tai Chi is to extend our 4 limbs to the limits in all directions. In the context of this line, the reverent practice of awareness will enable us to extend comprehensively (exhaustively) to the ‘4 limits’.
In this sense, the lines could also mean extending to the limits of our life. Reverently practicing awareness enables us to exhaust all personal possibilities. These possibilities could encompass family, community, and personal potentials – physical, mental, emotional, and creative.
Lines 13-14:
13 To reverently bring forth the effulgence [of the Way].
14 This is called 'inner attainment'.
When these ‘reverent’ daily practices ‘bring forth the effulgence’, this is called ‘inner attainment’. ‘Effulgence’ could mean many things, for instance jing’s well spring of energy from the previous verse. From the preceding lines, it could also mean the concentrated capacity for Attention that leads to thorough understanding and an increased capacity for experience. With his brackets, Roth suggests that the effulgence is associated with being aligned with the Tao. Whichever way it is interpreted, ‘effulgence’ seems to associated with the heightened awareness or vitality that is associated with regularly practicing being present, i.e. awareness.
Verses 15 and 16 employ the character nei (inner) from the title of the book Nei-yeh (inner cultivation) for the first time. In verse 15, nei is associated with the flood-like vitality of our inner world when it contains jing. In this verse, it is associated with inner attainment.
Generally speaking, the Nei-yeh is suggesting that we attune our awareness (yi) to our inner (nei) states rather than outer conditions, which are frequently distracting. Allowing our attention to drift aimlessly, we become victims of our emotions and desires. If we instead concentrate upon and regulate our breath, body alignment and mental states, our thoughts and actions will naturally align with the Tao. The word-concept nei epitomizes this focus. In this context, inner attainment refers to those that have effectively shifted the focus of their attention from outer distractions to their inner states.
Lines 15-16:
15 If you do this but fail to return to it,
16 This will cause a wavering in your vitality.
If we fail to return to this practice, our vitality (shêng) will waver. In other words, the state of 'effulgence' that results in ‘inner attainment’ is not permanent, but instead requires daily practice to maintain it. In similar fashion, our house does not remain clean, but instead requires daily attention to reverse the innate entropy of dust, degeneration and disorder.
Tying the entire verse together: the highlighted practices could consist of focusing our awareness upon inner tranquility and alignment. If we cultivate these features of our inner garden, the fruits are bounteous. If we start, then stop this inner cultivation, the benefits, which include vitality, are compromised.