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CH. I.
THE CLASSIC OF PURITY.
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senses; first as an Immaterial Power or Force, and next as the Material Substance, out of which all things come. Li Hsi-yüeh says that in the first member of par. I we have 'the Unlimited (or Infinite) producing the Grand (or Primal) Finite.' On the Tâo in par. 2 he says nothing. The fact is that the subject of creation in the deepest sense of the name is too high for the human mind.
2 Compare T. T. K., ch. 61.
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.' Lt explains thus:地靜一齊返入於無矣 Compare T. T. K., ch. 16, and especially Ho-shang Kung's title to it,-.
3. Now the spirit of man loves Purity, but his mind1 disturbs it. The mind of man loves stillness, but his desires draw it away1. 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 2 will not arise, and the three poisons will be taken away and disappear.
1 Tâoism thus recognises in man the spirit, the mind, and the body.
2 The six desires' are those which have their inlets in the eyes, ears, nostrils, the tongue, the sense of touch, and the imagination. The two last are expressed in Chinese by shăn, 'the body,' and î, ' the idea, or thought.'
3 The three poisons' are greed, anger, and stupidity;see the Khang-hsî Thesaurus, under .
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.
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