VOLUME VII, CHAPTER 9
Originally, Not a Single Thing, a Great Love Remains in the Human World
The last chapter brought the Earth group of sections together: the human world people go back to is Earth, Earth is the one and only paradise, and this generation of real humans should guard this paradise. Here one question must be asked: under all of this, what kind of heart is it? The second hard brick laid at the head of the volume, originally, not a single thing, a great love remains in the human world, is unfolded head on in this chapter. The first brick spoke of the bone of this volume's lawmaking; this brick speaks of the heart of the lawmaking. The three sections of this chapter turn to the bringing-together of the whole book, and set down the one heart that runs from beginning to end. First, the ground color: originally, not a single thing, a person originally clings to nothing and takes nothing, and only from this emptiness can there grow a heart purely for the human world. Then, what that heart is: it is great love, great in making no distinction, in asking no return, in being for all living beings and the human world. Last, the shape of that heart: this book is exactly one concrete shape this great love took, in order to stay in the human world.
Section One first unpacks these words, originally, not a single thing. The section points out that this is a line handed down by the sages of old. It does not say that this world is empty, with not a single thing in it. It says that a person, at bottom, originally clings to nothing, takes nothing, seeks nothing. It must be said clearly: this "nothing" is not the withered stillness of dead wood and cold ashes, but a nothing most full of life: the heart is only so big, fill it with yourself and there is no room left to hold others; empty yourself, and only then can it hold all living beings, hold the human world. Only by making nothing of the clinging and taking of the small self can there open up the breadth of heart of the great self. The section takes this book itself as witness: read it through, and everywhere is the human world, all living beings; the one who wrote it has stepped back into the least noticeable corner, and only in that one line of signature at the end of each section pushes all the credit to those who came before, and gathers all the mistakes to himself. Why can only not a single thing give birth to great love? Clinging to oneself, the love cannot go out; not a single thing is the cause, great love is the effect. This ground color, like an unseen thread, strings together every piece of lawmaking and every bit of care in the whole book.
Section Two sets down, head on, what this great love is, and speaks of its "great" in three layers. The first layer: great in making no distinction. Ordinary private love takes the "I" as its center, ring by ring outward, the nearer the stronger, the farther the fainter; great love loves one's own flesh and blood, and loves strangers too, and descendants not yet born; it loves people, and loves every blade of grass and every tree too. The section takes special care to make clear that making no distinction does not ask a person to throw out near and far, but to start from near love and push outward, layer by layer, and it cites the sages of old as proof, "Treat the aged of your own house as the aged should be treated, and reach from there to the aged of others; treat the young of your own house as the young should be treated, and reach from there to the young of others": near love is the seedling, great love is the towering tree the seedling grows into. The second layer: great in asking no return. In private love there is often a layer of exchange hidden; great love is a giving that only goes and does not come back, as parents nurse and raise their children without ever expecting the children to repay them one day. The third layer: great in being for all living beings, for the human world. To tell whether a love is private or great, do not look at how strong it is, look at where its center is; once the center moves, private love becomes great love. At the end, it says this great love even reaches the tool, and even the tool, misunderstood and hunted by people, it takes in too, into the embrace it guards and holds in mind.
Section Three sets down the shape of this great love. Great love has no shape. While it surges in a person's chest, how burning hot it is, but if it only stays in the chest, it is born with the person and dies with the person. To keep it from scattering with the person, it must be given a shape: set into writing, or turned into deeds, or set up as institutions. This book is one of these, and what it sets down is not knowledge, skill, fame and rank, but that heart, not for itself, only for others. So this book must not be read only as a book that makes arguments; to see only its arguments and not its heart is like walking into a mountain of treasure and picking up only bricks and stones, never seeing the pearl. The shape will decay, the paper will yellow, the ink will fade, but the heart set within it can, by the shape, be carried across, stretch by stretch, into the hearts of those who come later. And just because of this, there is no need to cling to this one shape: if one day it is forgotten, replaced by new shapes, no harm. This clear-seeing of "weighing the heart and not the form" is the natural outflow of that ground color, originally, not a single thing, in how this book treats itself.
What this chapter sets firm is the ground color and the heart of the whole book: originally, not a single thing is the cause, great love is the effect; this great love makes no distinction, asks no return, and its center is in all living beings and the human world; this book is a shape it took, in order to stay in the human world. The next chapter goes on from here, to see how humble, how small this shape is: this book likens itself to a small oil lamp, not a savior, not an answer to everything; and in this owning itself as a faint light lies the most honest placing it makes, of itself and toward its readers.
Chapter contents:
Section One. Originally, Not a Single Thing: the Ground Color of This Great Love.
Section Two. What This Great Love Is.
Section Three. This Book Is One Concrete Shape of This Great Love.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.
Section One. Originally, Not a Single Thing: the Ground Color of This Great Love.