Chinese Tradition
Series of two classes on this tradition
given by MBM November 5 and 12, 1951
Healthy attitude for a new venture.
The Chinese tradition goes thousands of years back. We have never gone as far East as this before at the School. We may be in for some surprises. Different ways of life.
Our “Ancient Peoples Projects” have been one of the techniques I have developed here at the School to study the ancient history, but not in the conventional way, contributive to the training and development of the students and trainees.
Our first background thesis: Earth is a school for monads.
The idea of studying ancient peoples is to open up channels of understanding that cannot be opened up in other ways — channels that are convincing as to the earlier brotherhood of those who, in this case, lived in China four thousand years ago or longer.
It is a fact that monads come back to earth, not arbitrarily, but as they choose. Perhaps they chose also, long ago. Such a study stimulates states of being in a self that are different from the ordinary areas with which you live your present lives, – thus enriching your being. And through this you know, quite differently, that the earth is different from what you thought it was.
Most people’s ideas are distorted — have no idea except as it impinges on them, pleasantly or unpleasantly. We change — grow in depth, insight, tolerance, – have a different understanding, not only of humanity but of the earth as a place where humanity goes through a stage of its journey; and our lives become more intelligible.
We should remind ourselves of the things we already know about China. Its population is one-fifth of the present humanity. What ideas do you associate with China when you think of China? – china, tea, rice, opium, jade, the sacred stone of China. The Great Wall, 1500 miles long, built as a barrier to the Huns, who came in from the northwest. China proper was inside the Wall. 18 provinces. Three great rivers: West River, Yangtze, Yellow. Gunpowder, firecrackers, printing, the compass, the abacus.
Many factors we think of as from the West have been anticipated in the East. Respect for these people. Lao-Tsze, Confucius, Mencius, Ghengis-Kahn, Kublai Kahn; God=Sang-Ti (Shangdi).
Travel back to the stories of the beginnings of things. The basis of Wisdom-lore: P’an Ku, a great Being, who grew six feet a day over a period of 18,000 years. He knew the mysteries of heaven and earth. As he came out of the Chaos and took shape, he began to shape all things.
This Being had three others to assist him. Tortoise, a dragon …
His head became the mountains; bones and teeth, precious stones; legs, arms, hands…. rivers. And he expired. Just before that, little insects crawled all over him – humanity.
That is the broad story of the mythical period. Stories of creatures that had no reality but who, nevertheless, played an important part in the ideas of the cosmogony and give some glimpse of profundities. We stop at the dragons.
In this tradition, the dragon is a creature of goodness and beneficence. He has all kinds of strange combinations in the body, but, especially, two sets of scales. Some belong to the good side of things — 117 to that side; and 36 which are for the evil. The one is a multiple of 13, the other of 12; 12, to the human, and carries the dangers and evils of the lower life.
This dragon watches over all the Emperors. The Dragon Throne. A beneficent being, described by a grotesque of body, but each part carrying ideas in code to those studying the tradition.
Following this period of P’an Ku comes the period of the Emperors; the Heavenly Emperors; twelve of them. No one knows how far back this goes.
Then, nine Man Emperors. And you begin to perceive that in number the Chinese were hiding, or revealing, certain profundities. We are not yet in the period that corresponds with time.
After that, 18,000 years, called a Period of Ascent. The popular idea is that it was the ascent of the culture of this primitive period. Coming up to what was known to the early Teachers.
After that, the legendary period. Specific names of Leaders. There was one who corresponds to Prometheus. Another, who taught how to work in agriculture. One, Fu Hsi, is credited with extraordinary discoveries and inventions. He discovered, or was told about the Tri-grams. A profound Teaching is built on them.
Later Teachers developed these Trigrams further, and built them out in number till they became the material of the I Ching, the Book of Changes, describing events — that which has taken place and is to come.
Now, around 3,000 B C. we begin to touch more specific dates. Huangti (Wongdi) invented much. His wife is credited with being the first deliberate cultivator of the silk worm.
There is a list of the Emperors. Some are singled out as having special significance. Five are of special importance. Had great hardihood of spirit, not just brawn. Those who would be the best leaders. Respect for those who could lead. There was bypassing of members of the family as having any part in governing if they did not qualify — a foreshadowing of the far future.
There were paradoxes; as with other peoples: the “squeeze” — how could that have developed! We have it in Washington, New York, Chicago. How did it arise out of this noble background? The pairs of opposites. Kowtowing – abasement to the superiority of someone else. There was nothing of that sort in the early time of the legendary kings.
The Emperors doing their best for this people — to bring them up in the levels of culture. Little groups; lesser kings. It was not till much later that Chin (China) was integrated. There were feudal leaders, but gradually a drawing together by the dangers from the northwest and the leadership of their legendary kings; and the things they were learning under the leadership of these Emperors.
A story of one of the legendary kings: There was a flood of the Yellow River. The people said they knew of one who could help the situation – a man of the people. The emperor took him in. He became one of the most effective emperors of the whole line of the legendary lineage. The ideals of a common man. He came to the royal house later (and of his reign it was said) “The members work joyfully; the head rises grandly; the duties of the officers are wholly discharged.” He reigned several thousand years ago. A subtle presentation of the conditions for effective functioning.
The “members” are the people. The “head” is the ruler. That for which they worked was the good of the people. The ideal of the cooperation of everyone.
Richness, dignity, cleanness, hardihood, belongs — and capacity to achieve. Seeds of a great civilization, planted thousands of years B.C., during the mythological period, to stem (?) Or stamp, during the legendary period the evidences of great leadership. That is the planting of the seed.
Little monads come in to the different schools on the earth. That has nothing to do with the basic richness that was planted long ago.
We are not talking about the quality of a particular race now but are concerned about a very great planting, indeed, that took place in ancient China; which made this a great “school” that has not yet been used up. Its treasure has not yet been consumed. But the people come and go. A great school is not to be judged by its pupils, who come and go. Its great Teaching is there for them to use if they will, and if they do not, that is their responsibility.
Touch the nerve of that ancient life. You will find it a living and precious thing.
Chinese Tradition
MBM 2nd and last class of series
November 12, 1951
Now we are ready for some of the Wisdom-teachings.
What do we mean by Wisdom? Three great religions in China: Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. From the point of view of our studies we will quickly discard the methodsof Buddhism, because it entered China from another land.
Wisdom is invariably connected with religion. The teaching of Confucius was in regard to the behavior of people: ethics, morals, propriety, as he called it.
What is Wisdom? We know that the teaching of Confucius has become the dominant influence in China. Just what is taking place to break up the fixations which the teaching of Confucius established?
Confucius impressed upon the people the need for rightness. He was a critic of the behavior patterns at the time. Confucius set up a practical pattern of behavior for a state: You must behave according to custom; with propriety regarding the ancestors. Ceremonial, to help groom the people. But in any case the teachings took. He does not mention God once. No relationship with anything beyond the physical plane. So the teachings of Confucius are not germane to our study.
(Re Wisdom) All knowledge is in three categories. Our work at the School is based on man being more than a physical body. 1) All the knowledge man has collected from the beginning: research, investigation, experiment; fruits of the scientific method. But it is not the measure of all knowledge. 2) the knowledge we may call Wisdom, which comes from advanced minds, or greater beings, or by communication. It comes from above down. It embraces a larger perspective of life than our three-dimensional life and three-score-and-ten. That has never satisfied any intelligent man or woman.
3) The third category does not concern us. It is a type of knowledge accessible only by man’s mind moving toward it.
Wisdom and the Chinese: Our intention tonight is to catch hold of some evidence that there was a knowledge legitimately to be called Wisdom. As far back as 3,000 B.C.. That takes us into the third religion, Taoism.
Lao Tse and Confucius lived not far apart in time – Confucius about fifty years later. Lao-Tse born 604 B.C.. (wrote) the Tao-Teh-King.
Tao; of which he says much and little. The implication is that here is a profundity not easily grasped — can’t be put into words. Something profound, that underlies all life. Lao-Tse had drunk deeply of earlier teachings. Take a stanza that appeals to you and memorize it, and then try to ply into the meaning of it: “The spirit of the valley dies not….” Valley represents depths. Goes back to 2,000 years B.C.
The stanzas marked by subtlety; brevity; compact statements
Mencuis, a follower of Confucius. Chung Tzu, the mystical line. The Confucian, Mencius, is the practical, material, realistic.
Lao-Tse gave different answer to the problems of life. Answered them differently and with almost always a sense of humor. That is how he treats Confucius. Story of the oyster and the bird. (don’t have it. GB)
Fu-Chu was of the legendary period. Every race has a legendary period, in which they have stored the great stories of their race. If you know how to measure the content of the legend versus all that has accrued as a kind of over-writing, those who have studied far back have discovered the tracing of a Teaching that derives from Fu Chu, one of the legendary kings. Stories of how he became Illuminated. He is the founder of the Trigrams. The effort to tell an enormous story. Plays against one another the great Forces:
The three short lines stand for heaven, or Power. The three broken lines are symbol of the receptive, or earth. Tell a prodigious story very simply. Confucius, too, drew inspiration from the Trigrams.
The I Ching hexagrams, or the Book of Changes. Because the juxtaposition of these hexagrams, so subtly placed against one another, are the processes of Creation, evolution, and progression and regression. A whole philosophy built on this. Contributive for those disciplined in mind. For those who are not, comes the idea of fate. Like the application of the Tarot.
In the West, we put the weight of judgment on material things. The Chinese kept hold of subtle things.
Discovery of oracle bones. They go back to pre-historic times. Communication, it seems, with those not in the physical. A common thing. Multitude of bones.
Ancestor worship. Practiced virtually by every race. It means, first of all, the consideration that whoever has been a strong leader for that race, or that people, is still coveted as a guide or adviser after death. Strong in the Jewish tradition and in the Christian tradition.
With it, the implication that the continuity of life was an inherent part of early Chinese teaching. The ancestors who were valued would be, first of all, the legendary kings — leaders who were sought, whose encouragement, etc. was to be part of the development of the people.
Chinese history goes back only 3,000 years, but there is an implication that the Leaders who preceded had also a long period in which their respective contributions to their humanity also took a period of time. Therefore, from the legendary point of view, the history of China goes back further than 3,000 years. The same basic tradition as of other traditions.
The Chinese symbol of the Five Elements. Most countries had four – the four philosophical elements.
Returning to Tao. This life energy has been compared by students to the Logos, the Word, the One Force which was back of all things. The first Trigram of heaven. This becomes a kind of gate (?), from which comes the root of heaven and earth. “It is before heaven or earth, but call it Tao.” It was irresistible, and so, invincible. That it shapes all things. Men fight. There is wellbeing only in making peace with it.
(We should) get a sense that China is in the brotherhood of all great races.
The Teaching that affected living. That is for the (ancient peoples) Project.