Preface to the Chinese Edition of Chinese Original Quiet Sitting

《靜坐要義》中文版前言

Chinese Original Quiet Sitting is part of China’s heritage, passed down from our ancestors. It can strengthen bodies and bloodlines, nurture life, confer longevity, and unite heaven with humanity. For ancient Daoists [Taoists], it was also this very same method used as their fundamental practice for tempering spirit and flesh in order to transcend the bonds of physicality and attain eternal life, through wondrous transformation of the body and spirit.

中國正宗靜坐,是我國中華民族老祖宗流傳下來的強身、強種、養生、長生,天人合一的唯一遺產,也是古代修道之士,鍛煉精神、肉體,由物質而返自然,以求超越物理世界之束縛,而臻形神俱妙、長生不老之基本修煉方法。

The primary goal of such cultivation is to learn from the saints and sages, and put their teachings into practice. To do so, we must begin by becoming decent persons, by purifying our hearts, by reducing our desires, by changing our natural endowment, and by helping and transforming ourselves first and then others, so that we can then transcend from mundane to sacred, and enter the final realm of perfected beings. This is the highest realm of existence, where we find anthro-celestial union and our lives become eternal and one with the universe.

而其修煉主要目的,在求使人學習聖賢,先從做人著手,而求清心寡欲、變化氣質、自度度人,進而超凡入聖,以達於真人境界,也就是天人合一、永生共生之最高境界。

The Master Teacher, Mr. Li Yujie, whose Dao name is Jichu [which literally means the Absolute Beginning], addressed himself as Hanjing Laoren [the old man who embraces stillness]. His innate being was filled with the Dao. He began practicing Chinese Original Quiet Sitting since he was very young, and never forsook it, and now he is 91 years of age.

師尊涵靜老人李公玉階,道名極初,道蘊先天,自弱冠起開始修持中國正宗靜坐,始終不輟,今年已九十一歲高齡。

At age 37, in 1937, he obeyed his heavenly mandate to watch over Tongguan Pass, the gate of the northwest. He took his entire family to live as hermits in Danshangfang, the deep cloud area of Mount Hua. He prayed routinely at noon and at midnight, and he practiced quiet sitting and personal cultivation until the victory of the Sino-Japanese War eight years later [1945].

民國二十六年時年三十七歲,謹遵天命鎮守西北門戶潼關,攜眷歸隱西嶽華山大上方白雲深處,子午虔禱,勤修苦煉,以迄八年抗戰最後勝利之來臨。

He then obeyed his second heavenly mandate, and took his entire family to the south and then to the Immortal Isle of Penglai. This was to fulfill the special arrangement heaven made to preserve the base of revival of Chinese culture–Taiwan.

復遵第二個天命,全家下山南歸,輾轉來至蓬萊仙島,以應上天保留民族復興基地-台灣寶島之特別安排。

As the international power of Communism was growing daily, the Earth was facing destruction from nuclear wars. The Master Teacher prayed diligently day and night for the reduction of nuclear wars in order to save the world. Honoring the request of his oldest grandson, Xianguang, he agreed to give two lectures at the Tamkang University in April, 1979, titled “Chinese Original Quiet Sitting.”

時當國際共產勢力日益擴張,地球面臨核戰毀滅邊緣之際,師尊正在早晚懇切祈求人類浩劫化減於無形,因允長孫顯光等青年所請,乃於民國六十八年四月間,在淡江大學主講「中國正宗靜坐」兩講。

He began by talking about his life as a hermit cultivating the Dao in Mount Hua. Following the request of hundreds of people from the audience who were urging him to initiate people of affinity to cultivate the Dao, and based on his years of experience in quiet sitting, the Master Teacher thus decided to teach Chinese Original Quiet Sitting Classes. He began teaching in July, 1979. Since then he taught ten classes. The eleventh Supreme Truth-Blossom Vehicle Quiet Sitting Xianxiu Class[1] and the Women’s fourth Xianxiu Class were about to begin.

從四十年前棲隱西嶽華山修煉談起,應當場聽眾數百人請求,願以數十年之靜坐經驗為媒介,引度原人精進於至道,遂決定開辦中國正宗靜坐傳習班,於六十八年七月正式開課,時至今日,正宗靜坐班已經結束者計有十期。而法華上乘靜坐先修班第十一期及坤道先修班第四期即將開始上課。

In order to help students of Quiet Sitting Classes, as well as those who were committed to tempering their spirit and join the force of striving to have a basic understanding of practicing Chinese Original Quiet Sitting, the Church combined Master Teacher’s personal experience in Mount Hua of “tempering the spirit” with the transcripts of his lectures from every Quiet Sitting Class and the method of “directly practicing a natural, unforced, and non-purposive mindfulness for cultivating the great empty Dao of the highest heaven” into a compilation of fifteen topics.

為了使靜坐班同奮,以及有志參與精神鍛煉奮鬥行列之慕道人士,能就中國正宗靜坐有一基本之認識,乃以師尊華山之時代之修煉心得「精神之鍛煉」為綱,以及近年有關靜坐之公開演講,暨對各期靜坐班傳授正宗靜坐之要義紀錄,配合「直修昊天虛無大道自然無為心法」,加以系統整理彙編,共集為十五講,以供研讀體會。

The Editorial Committee of the Tienti Chiao Publishing Company,
September 1, 1991

帝教出版社編輯委員會謹誌
民國八十年九月一日

[1] The eleventh Supreme Truth-Blossom Vehicle Quiet Sitting Xianxiu Class, or Xianxie Class in its abbreviated form, is a continuation of the Chinese Original Quiet Sitting Class.