The Way of Heart and Beauty

The Tao of Daily Life

Deng Ming-Dao

• Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781571748393
• eBook ISBN:
  9781612834252
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy

The essential Taoist guide to living with simplicity, compassion, and integrityThis is a book that draws on ancient Chinese wisdom to explore the critical life issues: What is our place in nature? How do we make right decisions? How do we respect the earth? How are we to view life and death? What is the path we should live to truly achieve a good and meaningful life?For Deng Ming-Dao, the two entry points for this exploration are two words: The first is the Chinese word for "heart"— which means heart, mind, intention, center, core intelligence, and soul. And the second is the word beauty—which connotes the pleasure we take in art, design, fashion, and music. Our hearts love beauty, and beauty opens our hearts.In this profound collection of fresh and contemporary translations of ancient texts, Deng Ming-Dao gathers over 220 selections that deal with the essence of heart and beauty. Topics include: how to be great, how long it takes to follow your heart, how to bring order to the world, how to know everything, how to pacify the heart, and much more. Here are stories, fables, poems, and epigrams that delight, inspire, and inform.Those who would subdue people through their own "excellence"Have yet to subdue anyone.But if you used excellence to nurture people instead,The whole world would be subdued.No one has become ruler of all under heavenWithout subdued hearts.It has never happened.

1 | The heart of a great person

A great person won't lose their infant heart.

Mengzi, “Li Lou II”

2 | Not going against Tao

Whoever really cherishes Tao

is like a child.

Wasps, scorpions, and snakes won't bite,

fierce beasts won't pounce,

and raptors won't strike.

A child's bones and muscles are soft,

but their grasp is firm.

Not yet knowing the union of male and female,

all their organs are complete and their vigor is full.

Crying all day without becoming hoarse

shows full harmony.

Knowing harmony is constancy.

Knowing constancy is clarity.

But trying to improve upon life is a bad sign.

The heart uses the body's energy, and that's called strength.

Whatever grows strong grows old;

we call that going against Tao.

Whatever goes against Tao

comes to an early end.

Daodejing, 55

3 | For the heart that won't do what's natural

Confucius reached the age of fifty-one, but he had still not fully learned of Tao. He went south to the land of Pei to see Lao Dan.

“You've come, haven't you?” Lao Dan asked. “I have heard that you are the most capable person in the north. Have you realized Tao?”

“Not yet.”

“How have you sought it?”

“At first, I sought it through measures and numbers. After five years, I still hadn't realized it.”

“Then how did you seek it again?”

“I then sought it through yin and yang, but still did not find it after twelve years.”

“Of course. If Tao could be presented, then subjects would give Tao to their rulers. If Tao could be given, then people would give it to their parents. If Tao could be told to others, then all people would tell it to their siblings. If Tao could be bequeathed to others, then people would give it to their children and grandchildren.

“The reason for this is nothing other than:

“Inwardly, there is no one to direct it; and so it is unstoppable. Outwardly, it does not conform to our rules, and so it seems to us as if no one moves it. Tao emerges from the center and cannot be taken by what is outside. Similarly, the sage does not go out, does not enter into externals, and so the external cannot enter the center. The sage does not need to hide.”

Fame is in the realm of the public. We shouldn't seek it much. Benevolence and righteousness are like the thatched huts of the ancients: we can stay in them overnight, but we can't dwell there for long. We can meet there, but we can't station ourselves there.

The realized people in the past used benevolence as they traveled the Tao. They used benevolence like someone staying in a hut overnight. That's how they wandered and roamed in emptiness, found sustenance in the fields of carefree simplicity, and stood in gardens without debt.

To ramble far, use nonaction. For carefree simplicity, look for easy nurturing. To be debt-free, don't spend. The ancients called this “wandering to collect the true.”

Those who exist for wealth cannot give up their incomes. Those who exist for distinction cannot give up their fame. Those who crave power cannot delegate it to others. While they hold these things, they are unstable. As they live with them, they are melancholy. Yet they won't even look once in the mirror, or even consider resting for a moment. They are heaven's cursed people.

Hatred and kindness; taking and giving; admonishment and teaching; life and death. These are the eight standards. Can you comply with them and yet go through all the great changes of life without sinking? You have to be able to use them. The ancients say: “To rectify is to be correct.”

For the heart that won't do what's natural, heaven's gate will never open.

Zhuangzi, “The Movement of Heaven”

4 | How long it takes to follow your heart

At fifteen, I set my will on learning.

At thirty, I was independent.

At forty, I had no doubts.

At fifty, I knew heaven's commands.

At sixty, my ears obeyed.

At seventy, I could follow what my heart desired

and not exceed the right measure.

Analects, “Wei Zheng”

5 | When Confucius reached the age of sixty

Zhuangzi said to Huizi: “When Confucius reached the age of sixty, he changed. What he first believed to be right he suddenly rejected as wrong. He hadn't realized that what he thought was true for fifty-nine years was no longer valid.”

Huizi said: “Confucius was earnest in pursuing the acquisition of knowledge.”

“Confucius rejected such a course; he never claimed to be doing such a thing. This is what he said: ‘People get their talents from the great root. They should return to the spiritual in this life.’ Their singing should be in tune with pitch pipes. Their speech should be as suitable as the law. When gain and righteousness are set before them, others should remark on how they weigh good and bad, true and false, straight and bent. In order to make people use their hearts, they urge cooperation rather than obstinance. Ahh! I have not caught up to him!”

Zhuangzi, “Fables”

6 | Human nature is good

When it comes to human nature, it is basically good.

That is what is meant by excellence.

If people act badly, it isn't a matter of t...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 | The heart of a great person
• 2 | Not going against Tao
• 3 | For the heart that won't do what's natural
• 4 | How long it takes to follow your heart
• 5 | When Confucius reached the age of sixty
• 6 | Human nature is good
• 7 | When nothing is hidden
• 8 | What sages ponder
• 9 | Work as a compassionate person
• 10 | Truly study
• 11 | Free your heart, but don't lose it
• 12 | A good heart comes with depth
• 13 | Protect your true heart
• 14 | Live in your heart
• 15 | The sages ruled by opening hearts
• 16 | Keeping the natural beauty of the heart
• 17 | Use your heart as a mirror
• 18 | Cleave to beauty
• 19 | How to be great
• 20 | Autumn Floods
• 21 | What is, is-not
• 22 | Why beauty matters to hearts in grief
• 23 | Help everyone get their own strength
• 24 | Let people have steady hearts
• 25 | Take the world as one nation
• 26 | Crossing the Lingding Channel
• 27 | Paradise
• 28 | The power of accumulation
• 29 | The heart-way through no-gate
• 30 | The door to nothingness
• 31 | Like a binding around the heart
• 32 | The heart is like . . .
• 33 | It's best is to effect spiritual change
• 34 | My heart is not a stone
• 35 | What moves?
• 36 | The Tao of heaven and earth
• 37 | Could he see with his ears and hear with his eyes?
• 38 | Proper learning
• 39 | Base yourself in heaven's command
• 40 | Zhaozhou's Dog
• 41 | “I went today and arrived yesterday”
• 42 | One who desires good
• 43 | The joy of heaven
• 44 | In the heart of heaven
• 45 | Beautiful learning
• 46 | One of life's dilemmas
• 47 | If we didn't have two kinds of beauty
• 48 | Not recognizing what a sage is
• 49 | For the sake of self-sufficient people
• 50 | Fasting of the heart
• 51 | Cultivate yourself
• 52 | The four mistakes in learning
• 53 | The four faults of governance
• 54 | What a parent cannot teach a child
• 55 | Let music rule your heart
• 56 | The secret of music
• 57 | Why isn't following Tao easier?
• 58 | To know without knowing
• 59 | Buddha holds a flower
• 60 | Beautiful words are sold at market
• 61 | In beautiful solitude
• 62 | Virtue will be your beauty
• 63 | The art of nourishing the heart
• 64 | The way and advantage of emptiness
• 65 | What is Tao?
• 66 | Steady hearts
• 67 | As long as your heart is at peace
• 68 | What is Buddha?
• 69 | Subduing through excellence
• 70 | You and I are dreaming
• 71 | Your heart will be devoted and true
• 72 | Trying to see autumn fur
• 73 | Beauty to match heaven and earth
• 74 | Because he did not become a Buddha
• 75 | How to bring order to the world
• 76 | The greatest strength in the world
• 77 | He wanted to push all evil from his heart
• 78 | The teacher who had no feet
• 79 | Beauty is harmony
• 80 | The root is not beautiful
• 81 | Feeling each passing moment
• 82 | The “illness” of being a sage
• 83 | The noble ones and the inferior persons
• 84 | The leadership of enlightened kings
• 85 | A heart of integrity
• 86 | Every idea brings immediate response
• 87 | The method is concealment
• 88 | The teaching that has not yet been preached
• 89 | Comparing horses and people
• 90 | They are methodical
• 91 | How to know everything
• 92 | The heart knows beauty and truth
• 93 | Do we need anyone to rule the world?
• 94 | Everyone is angry with me
• 95 | How to make a general lose heart
• 96 | Once the heart sends out its feelings
• 97 | Wrap pure emptiness
• 98 | It's all natural
• 99 | You make yourself
• 100 | Cloud Commander and Vast Ignorance
• 101 | The Tao of the Early Kings
• 102 | What heart will you touch?
• 103 | True friendship
• 104 | Music is the root of action
• 105 | Tracing the source
• 106 | The relativity of beauty
• 107 | Becoming a great driver of the chariot
• 108 | Extending what humans can do
• 109 | Those who love others who are like themselves
• 110 | No desire but for the world to have enough
• 111 | The way to deliberate in your heart
• 112 | Without learning it can't be broken
• 113 | Keep your spirit in your heart
• 114 | Until I couldn't see anymore
• 115 | A heart that's always virtuous
• 116 | To see death and life together
• 117 | Not losing the root of one's heart
• 118 | However beautiful, weapons are ill omens
• 119 | The way to gain people is through their hearts
• 120 | Not worrying about what others think
• 121 | Weeping for a veteran's heart
• 122 | Worldly success is fated—virtue is not
• 123 | Move softly yet with strength
• 124 | To pacify the heart
• 125 | Why aren't people content?
• 126 | A heart that embraces everything
• 127 | The same things delight our hearts
• 128 | A heart offering
• 129 | The portions of a lifespan
• 130 | The scheming heart
• 131 | When the world reaches softness
• 132 | I would rather that everyone be simple
• 133 | How standards are overrun
• 134 | Is this very heart Buddha?
• 135 | Would you give a hair to save the world?
• 136 | Knowing how to sort things out
• 137 | Not Buddha, not Tao
• 138 | Take heaven as your guiding image
• 139 | Three precepts
• 140 | Traveling to the beginning of all things
• 141 | Tao without method
• 142 | The importance of attention
• 143 | My heart profits from being small
• 144 | The best fit
• 145 | All the world knows beauty as beautiful
• 146 | Like a mantis waving at a cart
• 147 | Using their hearts without effort
• 148 | Go beyond obstructions to Tao
• 149 | One suffers hardship to become great
• 150 | Your toiling heart
• 151 | Pity those who pity others
• 152 | Stopping bad doctrines
• 153 | The sages conceal themselves
• 154 | Using no words
• 155 | All people have value
• 156 | What the world honors
• 157 | Reconciliation
• 158 | Accumulation leads to being a sage
• 159 | Don't let your heart be dark
• 160 | Be natural
• 161 | The vital essence of the heart
• 162 | Using a heart without effort
• 163 | The nirvana heart
• 164 | Clearing the rock and underbrush
• 165 | True words are not beautiful
• 166 | The impulse to worship
• 167 | The foolish heart
• 168 | What desire cannot do
• 169 | Good instruction
• 170 | Escaping the net
• 171 | The fire within most of us
• 172 | Benevolence first, ritual after
• 173 | Bring benefit to the people
• 174 | At the pond shore
• 175 | The duke's dream
• 176 | The tortoise in the ancestral temple
• 177 | What goes along with being good
• 178 | Let no state invade another
• 179 | A person is a microcosm of heaven and earth
• 180 | What can I do?
• 181 | Choosing poverty over fame
• 182 | On the march home
• 183 | Anything sought can be found
• 184 | There will never be so much . . .
• 185 | The root of the heart
• 186 | Overcoming one's form
• 187 | Abandon cleverness
• 188 | Compassionate hands
• 189 | Learn without knowing
• 190 | Chant
• 191 | The influence of music
• 192 | All song comes from the heart
• 193 | How to study
• 194 | What harms the heart as much as the body?
• 195 | Attend to inner nature
• 196 | If you want to nourish your heart
• 197 | If you want to right the world
• 198 | Two views of the heart as a mirror
• 199 | See the root but know the tips
• 200 | Carving wood into a sacrificial vessel
• 201 | Perfecting the beauty in others
• 202 | Carelessly forgetting yourself
• 203 | To move freely
• 204 | What makes our hearts wild
• 205 | What lowers the high and raises the low
• 206 | Reject attachment
• 207 | Everything is mysteriously joined
• 208 | The one breath
• 209 | Poem to abstain from killing
• 210 | Mourning with complete love
• 211 | Better than being incorruptible
• 212 | What we really want
• 213 | Acting consistent with the spirit
• 214 | The two kinds of hearts
• 215 | Heaven and earth are beautiful
• 216 | What's natural
• 217 | When the world was disordered
• 218 | Understanding tranquility
• 219 | On emptiness, from the Heart Sutra
• 220 | Good fortune will come
• 221 | On a journey of ten thousand miles
• 222 | Having no fixed heart
• Notes, Glossary, and Sources
• About the Author