滸

À la Marge

Point of View: It's Personal

νόος • first emanation

POV (needed no more)

武松在景陽岡上赤手空拳打死猛虎

武松是中國古典白話小說《水滸傳》中的重要角色，梁山一百單八將之一，綽號「行者」，佛教術語，泛指一般佛教的修行者，又稱行人、修行人

Water Tiger & Water Margin

All that seemed out of focus is actually hereby

And we are within its reach

Even the tipsy and disinterested vagrant

Truly, is unseparated

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

"It is true that the earthly or earth's journey is only a portion of the solar realm in which the soul finds self as an experience of a day in the earth's journey." 

ECRL 553-1

道德經

《道德經》第五十五章

含德之厚

比於赤子

蜂蠆虺蛇不螫

猛獸不據

攫鳥不搏

骨弱筋柔而握固

未知牝牡之合而全作

精之至也

終日號而不嗄

和之至也

知和曰常

知常曰明

益生曰祥 

心使氣曰強

物壯則老

謂之不道

不道早已。

道德經 Dao De Jing Chapter Fifty-five — Ronald Hogan

55.

A person filled with the power of 道

is like a baby boy:

bees can't sting him,

wild beasts can't attack him.

A baby has soft bones

and weak muscles,

but a firm grip.

He hasn't had sex,

but he can get an erection.

That's because he's got lots of energy.

He can cry all day

and never lose his voice.

That's because he's at one with his world.

If you're at one with the world,

you know constancy.

And if you know constancy,

you've been enlightened.

It's not healthy

to try to prolong your life.

It's unnatural to impose the mind's will

upon the body.

People waste time and energy

trying to be strong or beautiful,

and their strength and beauty fade.

They've lost touch with 道,

and when you lose touch with 道,

you might as well be dead.

道德經 Dao De Jing Chapter Fifty-five — Translated by Tom Chilcott, 2005

Chapter 55 

"Whoever is filled with Virtue

is like a newborn child.

Wasps and scorpions will not sting it;

snakes and serpents will not bite it;

wild animals will not attack it;

birds of prey will not swoop down on it.

Its bones are soft, its muscles weak,

and yet its grip is firm.

It does not know of male and female union

and yet its organ stirs;

its vital energy is at its height.

It cries throughout the day

and yet is never hoarse;

its harmony is at its height.

To know harmony is to know the eternal.

To know the eternal is to know enlightenment.

To speed the growth of life is an omen of disaster;

to control the breath by will-power is to overstrain it;

to grow too much is to decay.

All this is against 道

and whatever is against 道 soon dies."

मोक्ष mokṣa by Qahira Lynn

道德經 Dao De Jing Chapter Fifty-five — Translated by Tao Huang, Chapter 55

"Action in its profundity is like a newborn baby.

Poisonous insects and venomous snakes do not sting it.

Predatory birds and ferocious animals do not seize it.

Its bones are soft and its sinews supple, yet its grasp is firm;

Without knowing the union of males and females, its organs become aroused.

Its vital essence comes to the point;

Crying all day, its voice never becomes hoarse.

Its harmony comes to the point.

Harmony is eternal.

Knowing harmony is discernment.

Enhancing life is equanimity.

Generating vitality through the mind is strength.

When things reach their climax, they are suddenly old.

This is "Non-道."

"Non-道" dies young."

A Thief's Grace

䷽      ䷾

《䷽小過》《䷾既濟》

Grace opens 623

To Catch a Thief, 1955

六五：

密云不雨，

自我西郊，

公弋取彼在穴。

Changing line #5

"Clouds But No Rain"— The situations we are facing are not nearly as difficult as we have assumed. They are like ominous-looking clouds that threaten rain, but never pelt us with it.

Let us take one step at a time and a good outcome is assured

九四：

無咎，弗過遇之。

往厲必戒，勿用永貞。

Changing line #4

"Give Thinking Some Rest"— This is a time to let feeling, not thinking, guide our next move.

Getting quiet and seeing what our gut tells us is the next small step.

Let us place the intellect aside. Let us follow our heart and intuition instead

初六：

飛鳥以凶。

Changing line #1

"Staying in the Nest"— This line is a reminder not to set out until we have tied up loose ends and are fully fledged. This is a good time to clear clutter or take care of the little things we have been avoiding.

Grace opens the 623 door

She has/holds/uses the key

She initiates the kiss

******

Double Door

and potential parallels

62.3

九三：弗過防之從或戕之兇。

Invincible obedience vs being murdered

Or

6(2)3

六二：婦喪其茀，勿逐，七日得。

Six in the second place means:

The woman loses the curtain of her carriage.

Do not run after it;

On the seventh day, you will get it.

䷾既濟:

六二：婦喪其茀，勿逐，七日得。

The second SIX, divided, (shows its subject as) a wife who has lost her (carriage-)screen.

There is no occasion to go in pursuit of it. In seven days she will find it.

John "The Cat" Robie

six parentés

6e trait: 戌 xu Terre – Parents

5e trait: 申 shen Métal – Frères 

4e trait: 午 wu Feu – Officier

3e trait: 申 shen Métal – Frères 

2e trait: 午 wu Feu – Officier

1e trait: 辰 chen Terre – Parents

A transition from chaos to order is referenced by this hexagram.

We have come a long way but the journey is not over. Like a traveller who has traversed a difficult and wide river, we appear to approach our destination. But the riverbank is not the final stopping place. The most difficult work is over, but the wise person never stops moving onward in incremental steps.

We are entering new territory and it will be smooth going at first.

New relationships or projects will get off to the perfect beginning.

But we need to stay balanced internally and externally, or else the road ahead could become bumpy. 

Completion and beginning are deeply connected.

Only one part of our journey is ending.

Monday, March 28, 2022

"There is progress whether you are going forward or backwards!

The thing is to move!" 



ECRL 3027-2

常道

Via est Vita

Per Aspera ad Astra

Virgil's Aeneid, IX, 641

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Hercules furens: "non est ad astra mollis e terris via"

 Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. p. 222.

My soul

shattered with the strain

of trying to belong to earth —

— penultimate strophe from “Persephone the Wanderer.”

from Averno by Louise Glück. Copyright © 2006 by Louise Glück

Give me solitude—give me Nature—give me again,

O Nature, your primal sanities!

— Walt Whitman, “Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun”, Leaves of Grass p.47

The perception of groundlessness

with an awareness of its place as the ground of being

is at the heart of non-dual realization and wisdom.

— Dr. J. Richard Paszkiewicz,

सुनयानंद Sunyananda

(आनन्द ānanda means 'bliss, joy')

 易

易經

Variation Weavings

周易

Cycles Variations

Metadatabase

⚊ connected

⚋ idle

Neuronal wiring and the “connectome”

a term coined by Olaf Sporns  (Resources)

About 100 billion neurons form a complex and interconnected network in our brain, allowing us to generate complex thought patterns and actions. Neurons come in all sizes and shapes, but they mostly have long protrusions that connect to neighbouring cells through specialized information-transmission structures called synapses.

Proper brain functioning relies on very controlled branching of neuronal cell extensions called axons and dendrites, and the correct formation of synapses at precise locations along these branches. Specifying synapse formation determines where and how many potential connections a neuronal cell is "allowed" to form. Therefore, controlling synapse numbers at each neuronal branch is essential for the correct formation of complex brain circuits.

In a human fetus, almost a trillion neurons are produced. During the last month of pregnancy, they are produced at the unbelievable rate of 250,000 per second.  Eighty-to-hundred billion of these neurons will be utilized through experience and become permanent, while the other 900 billion will be pruned – that is, carefully dismantled with the material recycled by the brain’s unique immune system.

Later, during life, a relatively small number of new cells will be added in several parts of the adult brain related to memory and learning.  Amazingly, each of the remaining neurons can connect with up to a hundred thousand other cells. This number of connections is a truly enormous number: 10 thousand trillion. Even further complicating this picture is that these connections occur in many different ways, including different placements on neurons, as well as connections with the larger number of other brain cells that aren’t neurons.  Many of these connections change every day. While popularly it is thought that there is just one axon, in reality, the one axon ends with a large number of different connections.  As well, one neuron can have as many as 100,000 dendrites.

Yet another complication is that the cortex is divided into approximately 40 regions where there are different shaped neurons (approximately 750 million for each type of neuron) that have different architecture, density, size and connection properties. A recent analysis used genetic (instead of anatomic) data of each neuron type to construct a map and found that these two maps are not identical.  For example, the occipital and parietal regions have many different genetic types of neurons.

Many communications in the brain do not seem to be carried by wired connections but, rather, are the result of electromagnetic brain waves that connect different neuron groups.  In fact, new research has noted that brain circuits can avoid information traffic jams by using different frequencies of brain waves at the same anatomical point. More recent developments show that electrical information has been noted in the local region between cells, and cells have been noted to communicate by photons. The many ways that neurons communicate must all be related at the same time to the workings of the mind. 

間

Between

Originally 閒, moonlight (月) peeking through a door (門) – interstice; space

         ➥⚋ idle; vacant; unoccupied; unused; leisurely & carefree

प्राणायाम Prāṇāyāma “Illuminated” Greg Dunn

प्राणायाम Prāṇāyāma according to हठ योग-प्रदीपिका the Haṭha Yoga-pradīpikā (chapter IV): “when ब्रह्म-ग्रंथ ब्रह्माग्रन्थि the Brahmāgranthi (in the heart) is pierced through by प्राणायाम prāṇāyāma, then a sort of happiness is experienced in the vacuum of the heart, and अनाहत Anāhata: "unstruck" the anāhat sounds, like various tinkling sounds of ornaments, are heard in the body”. And further, “in आरम्भ, “banning” the ārambha, a Yogī’s body becomes divine, glowing, healthy, and emits a divine swell. The whole of his heart becomes void”.

Source: Wisdom Library: योग • yóga

Prāṇāyāma (प्राणायाम, “restraint of breath”) is a Sanskrit word referring to “your energy”. It is one of the eight branches of yoga, also known as the eightfold path (अष्टाङ्ग aṣṭānga, अष्टाङ्गयोग: aṣṭāṅgayoga).

رباعی شمارهٔ ۱

باز آ باز آ هر آنچه هستی باز آ

گر کافر و گبر و بت‌پرستی باز آ

این درگه ما درگه نومیدی نیست

صد بار اگر توبه شکستی باز آ

 جلال‌الدین محمد رومی 

― Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī

Come, come, whoever you are.

Wanderer, worshipper, lover of living, it doesn't matter

Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Come even if you have broken your vow a thousand times,

Come, yet again, come, come.

As quoted in Rumi and His Sufi Path of Love (2007) by M Fatih Citlak and Huseyin Bingul, p. 81

باز آ باز آ هر آنچه هستی باز آ گر کافر و گبر و بت‌پرستی باز آ این درگه ما درگه نومیدی نیست صد بار اگر توبه شکستی باز 

Again, whatever you are, again, if you are an infidel, arrogant, and idolatrous, then again, this door of ours is not a door of despair, a hundred times, if you break repentance, open again.

東 逸子（あづま いつこ）Azuma Itsuko

“If I accept the lowest in me, I lower a seed into the ground of Hell. The seed is invisibly small, but the tree of life grows from it and conjoins the Below with the Above. At both ends, there is fire and blazing embers. The Above is fiery and the Below is fiery. Between the unbearable fires grow your life.

You hang between these two poles. In an immeasurably frightening movement, the stretched hanging welters up and down. We thus fear our lowest, since that which one does not possess is forever united with the chaos and takes part in its mysterious ebb and flow. Insofar as I accept the lowest in me — precisely that red glowing sun of the depths, the upper shining sun also rises. Therefore he who strives for the highest finds the deepest.” 

― Carl Gustav Jung, Red Book

Carl G. Jung, Painting, Red Book

元族道

『原住民之道』

Any man who is attached to things of this world is one who lives in ignorance and is being consumed by the snakes of his own passions.

The first peace, which is the most important,

is that which comes within the souls of people

when they realize their relationship,

their oneness with the universe and all its powers,

and when they realize that at the centre of the universe

dwells the Great Spirit,

and that this centre is really everywhere,

it is within each of us.

All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.

I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the centre grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.*

The Universe is circles within circles, and everything is one circle, and all the circles are connected to each other. Each family is a circle, and those family circles connect together and make a community, and the community makes its circle where it lives on the Earth. It (the community) cares for that part (of the Earth) but cares for it as a circle - which is to say in a cooperative and egalitarian way, where everybody is cared for, and everybody is respected.

We should understand well that all things are the work of the Great Spirit. We should know the Great Spirit is within all things: the trees, the grasses, the rivers, the mountains, and the four-legged and winged peoples; and even more important, we should understand that the Great Spirit is also above all these things and peoples. When we do understand all this deeply in our hearts, then we will fear, and love, and know the Great Spirit, and then we will be and act and live as the Spirit intends.

一 Heȟáka Sápa, wičháša wakȟáŋ ("medicine man, holy man"), heyókȟa of the Oglala Lakȟóta people

1, 2, 3, 4

䷷

5 & 6

7-8

Fire on the Mountain, 1962

a novel by Edward Paul Abbey

Rock & Sun

cover of the 1st edition

☶ 艮 (gèn) bound = (山) the mountain stands still.

Above it fire, ☲ 離 (lí) radiance = (火) fire, flames up and does not tarry.

Therefore the two trigrams do not stay together.

Strange lands and separation are the wanderer's lot.

The one who has few friends: this is the Wanderer.

山上有火，旅；君子以明慎用刑，而不留狱。

Fire on the mountain:

The image of the Wanderer.

Thus the superior man

Is clear-minded and cautious

In imposing penalties,

And protracts no lawsuits.

Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, 1968

cover of the 1st edition

“If industrial man continues to multiply his numbers and expand his operations he will succeed in his apparent intention, to seal himself off from the natural and isolate himself within a synthetic prison of his own making.”

“I sometimes choose to think, no doubt perversely, that man is a dream, thought an illusion, and only rock is real. Rock and sun.”

“I am here not only to evade for a while the clamour and filth and confusion of the cultural apparatus but also to confront, immediately and directly if it’s possible, the bare bones of existence, the elemental and fundamental, the bedrock which sustains us. I want to be able to look at and into a juniper tree, a piece of quartz, a vulture, a spider, and see it as it is in itself, devoid of all humanly ascribed qualities, anti-Kantian, even the categories of scientific description. To meet God or Medusa face to face, even if it means risking everything human in myself. I dream of a hard and brutal mysticism in which the naked self merges with a nonhuman world and yet somehow survives still intact, individual, separate. Paradox and bedrock.”

“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.”

— Edward Paul Abbey

Sunday, March 27, 2022

"Soul development should take precedence over all things." 



— Edgar Cayce reading 3357-2

Force and Reason by John Duncan

We must see that consciousness is neither an isolated soul nor the mere function of a single nervous system, but of that totality of interrelated stars and galaxies which makes a nervous system possible.

— Alan Watts

Nowadays, everything is mixed, melt into a coarse, hard to swallow gruel and discernment is hard to come by quality. Happy the Few that can live fully the four आश्रम Āśrama and, in the end, deny any and all powers to the self-created and all-permeating ambient illusion — as those who sleep "à la belle étoile" on the ground in the forests, that do not cut their hair or shave, are not particularly welcome.

4 for 3

Incorporation of the division

"Sympathy for the Devil"

4 forces*

4 colours**

4 stages of a human life***

4 directions to depict some attunements (with each of the 4 forces) and their variations: 易

• 聖十有一 ⇔ 君/Noble/आर्या Āryās (some of them being Great Pretenders) aligned with Light
• 生之徒十有三 ⇔ Life worshippers ⇔ ब्राह्मण Brāhmaṇa ⇔ ἡδονή • (hēdonḗ) aligned with Rites
• 死之徒十有三 ⇔ Necrophiles (destroyers) ⇔ क्षत्रिय Kṣatriya ⇔ individualistic behaviour
• 人之生動之死地十有三。⇔ Trapped in the adoration of Vitality (narcissism) ⇔ वैश्य Vaiśya/शूद्र Śūdra ⇔ ready to any trade/compromise (in order to survive) ⇔ Gravitational beings
• 四對基本卦 (four basic couples of double hexagrams: 1-58/2-57/29-51/30-52)

One Giant Consciousness by Martin Bridge

宇宙之舞或毀滅之舞

cosmic dance or annihilation dance

永遠の退行, 画家 榎俊幸ホ

Eternal regression by Enoki Toshiyuki

महाशिवरात्रि “MahaShivRatri”

The Story of कुंडलिनी Kundalini

When the energy is not misused by arrogance, conflict, violence or vanity, it starts to apprehend anew the true source of its being, rises up to illuminate the sun within and celebrate the union of pure energy with pure Love.

The dance of creation had sent out ripples across the new universe.

Forming the dense atmosphere, tectonic forces ardently sculpted the myriad earthly forms.

The sun was born and had already taken to its elliptical path, the energy which moved it, was everywhere now.

— What would become of this energy in the coming time Oh आदिनाथ Ādinātha, asked पार्वती Pārvatī still in his embrace?

When the energy is not misused by arrogance, conflict, violence, vanity, then it will start to apprehend the true source of its being, it will rise up to illuminate the sun within. Celebrating the union of pure energy with pure Love.

The कुण्डलिनी kuṇḍalinī will be truly awakened when humanity will meet the sun within.

It will not be composed of colours or rings of power, magical substance or astral dimensions, which people by mistake would confuse it with. That energy will be removed from the emotion of malice, destruction and indulgent habits, completely devoted towards compassion and harmony.

It will rise up to the mind’s eye and will make humanity see the oneness in all beings.

With that शिव śivá saw that पार्वती Pārvatī was blooming with light, her forehead had become the rainbow and she had taken over शिव śivá’s heart. The cosmic सहस्रार: Sahasrāra, a thousand petal lotus चक्र cakrá, which represented all of creation and its interwoven spirit, erupted in celebration like a fountain in their reverence. With that moment melting into eternity — they both losing their selves and leaving all divisions behind — became Love.

— Story: अभी

Lord शिव śivá as नटराज naṭarāja

Sauf-conduit

Safe-conduct

Ca 1175 sau conduit « permission d'aller dans un lieu et d'en revenir sans être arrêté »

(Benoît de Ste-Maure, Chronique des ducs de Normandie, 21531 ds T.-L.)

Nothing that may or can be brought to life — especially within the Earth-Life System — can be of a personal nature as there is no qualified vessel that can eventually accept and bear that full charge and the relative responsibilities. All that is narcissism-tinted, the appropriation scheme, the self-described owning rights are nothing but plain illusions, self-fomented alibis or explanations. Hence, what is truly valuable is what is meant and thought of for a greater accomplishment, for all to benefit from. It must be of a benevolent nature even when its very purpose is destruction.

Virgo by Esteban Maroto

道德經

《道德經》第五十二章

天下有始

以為天下母 

既得1其母

以²知其子

既知其子

復守其母

沒身3不殆

塞其兌

閉其門

終身不勤

開其兌

濟其事

終身不救

見小曰明

守柔曰強

用其光

復歸其明

無遺身殃

是為習常。

1. 得 : Originally read: "知". 據《古逸叢書》本、馬王堆本改。

2. 以 : Originally read: "復". 據《古逸叢書》本、馬王堆本改。

3. 身 : Originally read: "其". 據《古逸叢書》本、馬王堆本改。

道德經 Dao De Jing Chapter Fifty-two — Ronald Hogan

52.

Everything starts with 道

the mother of all things.

If you know the mother,

you know the children.

If you know the children

and remember the mother,

you have nothing to fear in your life.

Shut your mouth and keep still,

and your life will be full of happiness.

If you talk all the time,

always doing something,

your life will be hopeless.

It takes insight to see subtlety.

It takes strength

to yield gently to force.

Use that strength

to hang on to your insight,

and you will always be at peace.

That's how to get right with 道.

काली यंत्र

道德經 Dao De Jing Chapter Fifty-two — Translation by Richard Lynn,

Chapter 52

"All under Heaven has a generatrix, which we regard as

the mother of all under Heaven.

Once one has access to the mother,

through it, he can know the child.

Once one knows the child, if he again

holds on to the mother, as long as he lives,

no danger shall befall him.

Block up your apertures; close your door,

And to the end of your life you

will never be exhausted.

But if you open your apertures

and deal consciously with things,

to the end of your life you will never have relief.

To see the small is called "perspicacious."

To hold on to softness is called "strength."

Make use of its brightness,

But always let its brightness revert.

Never let one's person be exposed

to disaster: this is a matter of practising constancy."

道德經 Dao De Jing Chapter Fifty-two — Translated by 胡慧之 Hu Huezhi,

Chapter 52

“All the universal things have a common origin.  We regard it as the “Mother” of all things.

Gaining the mother, we can know its children,

Knowing how the children come into being, we can return to hold onto the mother.

Thus ensuring no danger to life.

Closing the eyes and shutting up the mouth,

One can keep from sickness forever.

Opening the eyes to chase after desires and passions,

One can be helpless forever.

Watching less and less can be enlightened.

Holding onto the weak can be mighty.

Using the outgoing eyesight,

To turn to illuminate the inward,

Thus, there can be no disaster to the body.

This is called practising enduring 道.”

Souls Just Want to Have Fun

— Robert Hazard, 1979 (sort of)

Temptress, Frank Frazetta

"Vivons heureux en attendant la mort, 1983"

Horizons:

• Le lundi, je suis comme Robinson Crusoé, j'attends Vendredi.

Dope:

• Je n'ai jamais abusé de l'alcool, il a toujours été consentant.
• L’alcool tue, mais combien sont nés grâce à lui ?
• Je ne bois jamais à outrance, je ne sais même pas où c'est.
• La pression, il vaut mieux la boire que la subir.
• Jésus changeait l'eau en vin, et tu t'étonnes que 12 mecs le suivaient partout !

Fractal:

• L’ouverture d'esprit n'est pas une fracture du crâne.

Dietetic:

• 5 fruits et légumes par jour, ils me font marrer... Moi, à la troisième pastèque, je cale.

Utopia:

• Un jour j'irai vivre en Théorie, car en Théorie tout se passe bien.
• Si vous parlez à Dieu, vous êtes croyant... S'il vous répond, vous êtes schizophrène.
• Dieu a donné un cerveau et un sexe à l'homme mais pas assez de sang pour irriguer les deux à la fois.

Labour:

• Travailler n'a jamais tué personne mais pourquoi prendre le risque ?
• La médecine du travail est la preuve que le travail est bien une maladie !

Practical

• IKEA est le meilleur prénom pour une femme : suédoise, bon marché, à emmener aussitôt chez soi et facile à monter.
• La lampe torche. Le PQ aussi.
• Si la violence ne résout pas ton problème, c'est que tu ne frappes pas assez fort.
• Moralement, de très nombreuses personnes parviennent cependant à supporter assez bien la vie en s'agitant pour oublier, c'est ainsi que certains sont champions de course à pied, président de la République, alcooliques ou chœurs de l'armée rouge. Autant d'occupations qui ne débouchent évidemment sur rien d'autre que sur la mort, mais qui peuvent apporter chez le malade une euphorie passagère, ou même permanente, chez les imbéciles notamment. 

— Vivons heureux en attendant la mort, Pierre Desproges, éd. Seuil, 1983  (ISBN 2020320428), chap. prélude, p. 14

— Pierre Desproges, "Étonnant, non ?" 

 

Friday, March 25, 2022

"First, analyze yourself.

Know that there must be the ability to laugh under the most straining circumstance.

There must be the ability to see the sublime as well as the ridiculous." 



ECRL 1823-1

The Sublime & the Ridiculous

"En général, le ridicule touche au sublime; et, pour marcher sur la limite qui les sépare, sans la passer jamais, il faut bien prendre garde à soi"

(Jean-François MARMONTEL, Oeuv. t. v, p. 188, Œuvres, Paris, 1787, 17 vol. in-8, édit.)

“The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.” 

— Thomas Paine in his The Age of Reason (1794).

"Du sublime au ridicule, il n'y a qu'un pas" is a saying assigned to Napoleon. Although sometimes attributed to the French diplomat Tallyrand (1754-1838), the expression is used much earlier by French historian Jean-François Marmontel (1723-99) and later by Thomas Paine in The Age of Reason (1793). Napoleon used it to describe the retreat of his army from Moscow.

Being born in this here-humanity gives the opportunity to eyewitness, see, or at least perceive clearly — no matter how blind to the world one can be — the no man's land that lies between the Sublime, the Voidào and the ridiculous, the self-infatuation.

This specific, fifty shades of grey area where shadows are still in style but that does not belong to the belief territories — though not far from the trenches and the wars humans love so much to inflict on each other — a territory, often disputed, that cannot be inhabited because of fear of conflict or alienation, especially the terra nūllīus “nobody's land, ground zero“, the Zero-point energy (ZPE).

Inner Voice

道德經

《道德經》第五十一章 

道生之

德畜之

物形之

勢成之. 

是以萬物莫不尊道而貴德

道之尊

德之貴

夫莫之命而常自然

故道生之

德畜之

長之育之

亭之毒之

養之覆之

生而不有

為而不恃

長而不宰

是謂玄德。

Dao De Jing Chapter Fifty-one — Ronald Hogan

51.

道 is the source of all living things,

and they are nourished

by 道 power.

They are influenced

by the other living things around them,

and they are shaped

by their circumstances.

Everything respects 道

and honours its power.

That's just the way it is.

道 gives life to all things,

and its power watches out for them,

cares for them, helps them grow,

protects them, and comforts them.

Create something

without holding on to it.

Do the work

without expecting credit for it.

Lead people

without giving them orders.

That's the secret of the power of 道.

Dao De Jing Chapter Fifty-one — Translated by Douglas Allchin

Chapter 51 

"The Way conceives them.

Integrity receives them.

Matter allows them.

Nature endows them.

All creatures thus respect the Way

and honour its Integrity.

No one demands that this be so.

Their respect by nature ever flows.

The Way gives birth to them and nurtures them.

It shapes them, develops them,

shelters them, strengthens them,

sustains them, preserves them.

Creating, not claiming as one's own,

working, not waiting for return,

guiding, not seeking to control:

such is the wonder of integrity."

Dao De Jing Chapter Fifty-one — Translated by 顧正坤 Gu Zhengkun

Chapter 51 

"道 begets all creatures;

The virtue rears them;

Substance gives them shape;

Forces in opposition accomplish them.

Therefore all creatures worship the Tao and honour virtue.

This worship and honour stems from the fact

That 道 and virtue never unnaturally

Impose their influence on all creatures.

In this way

道 begets all creatures;

The virtue rears them,

Promotes them, natures them,

Brings them to fruition and maturity,

Meanwhile maintains and defends them.

Giving them life without claiming to be their owner;

Availing them without claiming to be their benefactor;

And being their head without ruling them;

All these are called the most intrinsic 德 (virtue)."

Dao De Jing Chapter Fifty-one — Translated by Chad Hansen

Chapter 51 

"A guide starts it,

virtuosity cultivates it,

Natural kinds model it

and circumstances complete it.

For this reason, among the ten-thousand natural kinds,

None fail to respect a guide and value virtuosity.

This respecting of guides

and valuing of virtuosity

is not, in general, commanded in words instead it treats self-so as constant.

Hence a guide starts it,

virtuosity cultivates it,

Acts as its elder, educates it,

shades it, poisons it,

nourishes it and returns it.

Gives rise to and not 'exist,'

Deem: act and not rely on anything.

Acts as an elder and does not rule.

This would be called 'profound virtuosity.'"

Dao De Jing Chapter Fifty-one — Translated by Stanislas Julien, 1842

Chapter 51

"道 produit les êtres, la Vertu les nourrit.

Ils leur donnent un corps et les perfectionnent par une secrète impulsion.

C'est pourquoi tous les êtres révèrent 道 et honorent la Vertu.

Personne n'a conféré au 道 sa dignité, ni à la Vertu sa noblesse:

ils les possèdent éternellement en eux-mêmes.

C'est pourquoi 道 produit les êtres, les nourrit,

les fait croître, les perfectionne, les mûrit, les alimente, les protège.

Il les produit, et ne se les approprie point;

il les fait ce qu'ils sont et ne s'en glorifie point; il règne sur eux et les laisse libres.

C'est là ce qu'on appelle une vertu profonde."

Gem Wink

Why is the inner voice — not the uttered one — the reference?

Where does that everyone's well-known little voice come from?

Indeed, what is it?

No doubt: it is indubitably the subject who speaks and does so to itself. But why talk to oneself? Could there be two specialised characters inside each individual: one who speaks and another who listens?

Three discourses (orationes) are identified and indexed: written, oral and “mental” (Cf. C. Panaccio, The Inner Discourse. From Plato to Guillaume d’Ockham, Seuil, 1999).

From James Joyce to David Lodge, the little voice has translated all the humans' intimate thoughts, the little personal cogitations that we have ruminated in silence, from morning to night. The secret thoughts left unsaid because they cannot be confessed, or are too furtive, too banal or too vague. Thoughts that can quickly become intrusive as it is soon realized that they are not controllable. Whatever convolutions one might undergo to get away from them, always, at some point, they come back, treacherous as they are.

The perplexing thing is that these thoughts are "verbalized". In the head, a voice, "ours" comes to speak especially during the nights of insomnia as it takes advantage of the calm and the ambient silence to give way to the most diverse thoughts. For instance, it can produce a list of things that are wrong, or a list of cool things that happened, inventories à la Prévert of sorts.

This voice is both ours and no one's. In fact, it is synthesized by the brain and has accompanied us since childhood. It is responsible for the syndrome of non-recognition of our “real voice” (the verbalized one) when we can hear it recorded, for example. The inner voice has in fact become the standard.

What about this voice which, if it can sing, does not know how to imitate? That knows, can repeat words, intonations, but remains the same. It does not know how to take someone else's timbre, and if one were to try, it would instantly silence itself. It is then that the cognitive side kicks in to play sotto voce the piece stored somewhere, the original.

While the inner speech most probably comes from the auditory cortex, does it come with a switch? Actually, that is the same part of the brain used to analyze the speech that we hear that is also processing the talk to ourselves. On the other hand, neither the part that manages speech nor the auditory canal are activated when the voice is on. This, to save the brain work, what the researchers call "the corollary discharge" a technique used also to maintain a conversation as we interact with someone, the inner voice not being silenced or paused, as it continues to activate and when it becomes necessary to intervene, the corollary discharge intervenes and cuts the internal sound.

The Star, by Viv Tanner & Eli Baum, from Sefirot Tarot

If we cannot silence this voice, we can, on the other hand, understand it, analyze it, no longer be perplexed by it and in the end no longer leave it this invasive place when sleep does not come or when we meditate. Ahead of the corollary discharge, there is a range that extends between the "Star XVII" between the time one pours out from one vessel unto the other, the lower one. That fluid, gem instant is the perfect time to take the first step out and leave the old habit behind. Or, alternatively, not giving the 0.01 per cent the full stage by refusing to surrender to — and indulge in — the old habits.

The inner voice is not preliminary, nor a third party, it is not an adviser, just an interior comforting verbalization. (Cf. Alexa M. Tullett, and Michaiel, Inzlichet, 2010. The voice of self-control: Blocking the inner voice increases impulsive responding, Acta Psychologica).