Verse 46: Moderate Desire
Introduction
This verse seems to follow the last by opening with additional instructions for energetic meditation. About halfway through, it transitions to a broader statement about contentment being central to the process. The teachings on contentment in Weaving the Way extend into the world “out there,” too. The commentary invites readers to reflect on the seeming paradox of contentment with evolution, a mind-state necessary for meditation and meditative living.
Translation
In a world of Active Dao,
still, ride horses for fertilizer.
In a world of Passive Dao,
warhorses are born in open spaces.
Of crimes, there isn’t any greater than craving.
Calamity and Misfortune,
discontent and constantly craving.
Therefore, knowing content is contentment;
everlasting contentment.
Commentary
In a world of Active Dao,
still, ride horses for fertilizer.
Active Dao points to the moment in meditation where mundane breath becomes Breath and the energetic sensations become strong enough to be undeniable. Though being content is critical in arriving at this point, as one has just barely begun to “compound the medicine.”
Therefore the verse teaches that one must still “ride horses for fertilizer,” which is a metaphor for the circulation of that energy to refine and condense it.
In a world of Passive Dao,
warhorses are born in open spaces.
I can see this instruction going two ways. Before energetic awakening, we find an openness and expansion in the mind-system. In this openness, we first feel Breath somewhere in the body. This initial moment of Breath is like a warhorse in that it wants to charge around and through the body. The active ascension of Breath up the spine is likened to various paces and styles of riding.
After the Breath is circulated and the belly becomes full, the bathing phase of the process begins. At this point, we enter a state of “non-doing” and are passive in the presence of the Dao. The “medicine” compounded in the circulation stays in the belly, strengthens, becomes the “elixer,” and expands to fill the body. The open space is likely another reference to the “central palace” – a non-local but embodied experience of pure consciousness. In other systems, the focal point of this experience is the back of the heart or the medulla oblongata, from which it radiates.
An internal attitude of contentment is again critical to the “bathing” process that compounds the medicine into the elixir and fills the open spaces with Breath.
Of crimes, there isn’t any greater than craving.
Calamity and Misfortune,
discontent and constantly craving.
Therefore, knowing content is contentment;
everlasting contentment.
This part of the verse emphasizes the role of contentment in the meditative process. Importantly, cultivating this attitude in meditation directly translates into Weaving the Way in the world “out there.”
In meditative living, a very common question is: “If I am to accept things as they are so I can feel content because craving is bad, how can anything ever evolve or change? What about the things that are NOT ok as they are? We have to have change and progress!” It can feel difficult to reconcile contentment with progress or, in the language of Weaving the Way, non-doing with doing.
We must work with this duality in our daily lives until we create a transcendental habit of mind. Check out verses 4, 5, and 6 for some clues. Or, if you’re not up for that, reflect on the fact that contentment can never be static because the Dao is the pressure and force of constant change. If this is so, what else could there be but contentment with what is in the midst of what must be?