stillness. Therefore "the sun blazing in the water at midnight" means
the emergence of the positive energy of real knowledge from the
depths of quietude.
The receptive is the I Ching symbol for mother earth. Liu I-ming says,
"If people can be flexible and yielding, humble, with self-control,
entirely free of agitation, cleared of all volatility, not angered by
criticism, ignoring insult, docilely accepting all hardships, illnesses,
and natural disasters, utterly without anxiety or resentment when
faced with danger or adversity, then people can be companions of
earth" (Awakening to the Tao).
2. "The homeland of nothing whatsoever" is another expression from the
Taoist classic Chuang-tzu. It appears at the end of the first chapter,
"Freedom," after which this section of the Golden Flower text is named: in
the ancient classic, the philosopher Chuang-tzu says, "Now you have a huge
tree and worry that it is useless. Why don't you plant it in the vast plain of
the homeland of Nothing Whatsoever, roaming in effortlessness by its side
and sleeping in freedom beneath it? The reason it does not fall to the axe,
and no one injures it, is that it cannot be used. So what's the trouble?"
1.
3. "To act purposefully without striving" is translated by Wilhelm as "action
through non-action." It is not certain what he meant by this. Wilhelm
renders "indifferent emptiness" as "numbing emptiness," which could be
