Knowing White, Keeping Black
Location: Yixin Lecture Center.
Good evening, everyone.
The speaker opens with Chapter 28: “Know the white, keep to the black, and become the model for the world. If one becomes the model for the world, constant virtue does not fail, and one returns to the limitless.”
Lü Chunyang’s explanation is that white is easily stained by many colors, so it symbolizes the ordinary mind, which is easily tainted by desires. Dark or black colors are not easily stained, so they symbolize the mind of the Dao, which is steadier and less shaken by craving. To “keep to the black” means to guard the Dao-mind. If one can preserve that Dao-mind and serve as an example to the world, that is called “being the model for the world.”
The lecture then adds two notes. First, the word *shi* 式 can mean a method, a standard, or a model. Second, citing the *Platform Sutra*, the speaker says that true merit must arise from one’s own nature; it is not something obtained by outward charity or offerings alone. Real virtue flows naturally from the self-nature and is not something to display for praise.
The speaker stresses the distinction between *blessing* and *merit*. Most good deeds done by ordinary people, he says, produce blessings, but not necessarily true spiritual merit. True merit appears only when action is free of self-display and attachment.
He returns to the image of white and black. White is easily stained, so it stands for the worldly mind, which quickly takes on desires. Black is not easily stained, so it stands for the Dao-mind, which can remain settled.
To become a “model” means more than behaving well outwardly. One must recognize the worldly mind within oneself, guard the Dao-mind, and then become an example to others. This is called constant virtue—an enduring virtue that does not increase or decrease with circumstance.
The lecture then explains why Laozi associates white with the ordinary mind and black with the Dao-mind. This is tied partly to ancient cultural symbolism. In the Zhou dynasty, black was associated with auspicious occasions and white with mourning. Texts such as the *Analects* are cited to show that one did not wear black ceremonial dress to attend a funeral, because black was then considered proper for fortunate occasions.
Lü Chunyang’s reading is therefore historically grounded: in Zhou times, black could suggest what was upright, ordered, and proper, while white could carry a funerary or inauspicious association.
The speaker notes, however, that these associations have changed with time. In the modern era, black is often worn for mourning, so the old symbolic explanation does not fit present custom as directly. He closes that segment and says the next part will continue later.
The lecture turns to the next lines: “Know glory, keep to humiliation; become the valley of the world. If one becomes the valley of the world, constant virtue becomes sufficient, and one returns to the uncarved block.”
Lü Chunyang explains that “glory” means honor, wealth, reputation, and outward distinction. “Humiliation” means lowliness, being slighted, or remaining in a place without status. To “be the valley of the world” is to stay low like a valley that receives all streams. It is an image of humility, receptivity, and non-contention.
The lecture also explains *pu* 樸, the uncarved block. It is wood before it has been cut and shaped into utensils. It symbolizes a natural state free of artificial carving, ambition, and excessive desire. Returning to the uncarved block means returning to simplicity.
To explain “knowing glory while keeping to humiliation,” the speaker brings in the example of Yan Hui, Confucius’s disciple. Yan Hui lived in poverty—one basket of rice, one ladle of water, dwelling in a poor alley—yet he never lost his joy. Others could not bear such hardship, but he remained content.
Yan Hui is also described as someone who could act when called upon and withdraw when not needed. He did not cling to status. Confucius deeply mourned his death and praised him as the best student in love of learning: he did not transfer anger to others, and he did not repeat the same mistake.
The point is that Yan Hui understood honor, but did not chase it. He accepted lowliness without resentment. In that way, he embodied the spirit of “know glory, keep humiliation.”
The lecture continues with more stories from Confucian texts. In one story, Confucius asks Yan Hui why, though poor and of low position, he does not seek office. Yan Hui replies that he has enough simple food to eat, enough coarse cloth to wear, and music enough to enjoy himself; he has no wish to become an official. Confucius praises him: to be poor yet as if wealthy is to know contentment and be without greed; to be lowly yet as if noble is to be humble and courteous.
Another example is Yuan Xian, also a disciple of Confucius. He lived in extreme poverty, in a bare and leaking house, yet still sat properly, composed himself, and remained inwardly joyful. When Zigong visited him in grand style, Yuan Xian replied that lacking money is merely poverty, but learning the Way and failing to practice it—that is the real sickness.
Through these stories, the lecturer emphasizes the same lesson: external poverty and low status do not prevent cultivation. What matters is whether one can remain humble, content, and true to the Way.
The lecture then moves to: “When the uncarved block is broken up, it becomes vessels. When the sage uses it, he becomes the chief of officials. Therefore the great governing does not cut apart.”
Lü Chunyang explains that the uncarved block represents the original, natural condition of the true self—a state prior to scattered desire. Once this simplicity is broken apart, it becomes “vessels,” meaning differentiated functions, tools, and the world of shaped things. In spiritual terms, once original simplicity disperses, desire and complexity appear.
The speaker also brings in the *Platform Sutra* to say that within the mind arise many “beings”: delusion, false thought, jealousy, unwholesome impulses, and so on. Cultivation means bringing these scattered states back to simplicity.
The lecturer now distinguishes between the true self and the false self. The body and its sensations are the “false self,” while original nature is the true self. If one mistakes the five aggregates and the bodily life for the real master, one remains attached to the false self. The deeper self is the unobstructed nature or Buddha-nature.
This is linked with the distinction from the *Yijing*: what is above form is called Dao; what is below form is called vessel. Dao is formless, while vessels are the shaped, visible expressions below.
Applied to the person, the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and body are the five officers, while the mind stands at the center and governs them. The sage can stop desire and return to simplicity, so the mind is not chopped up and scattered by cravings. That is what is meant by “great governing does not cut apart.”
Finally, the lecture enters Chapter 29 proper: “If one would take the world and act upon it, I see that one cannot succeed. The world is a sacred vessel; it cannot be acted upon.”
Lü Chunyang explains that “desire” means craving or ambition, and “to act upon it” means trying to govern people through forceful, contrived, willful methods. If someone seeks to seize the world through desire, the desire itself cannot be fulfilled. The world cannot truly be mastered that way.
The speaker defines desire as a mentality that is never satisfied, always wanting more. Human beings are spiritually significant, not inert objects to be manipulated like tools. Therefore the world cannot be ruled well through coercive, self-assertive action alone.
The lecture concludes that one should govern through *wuwei*—non-forcing, alignment with natural principle, moral influence rather than domination. The more one tries to seize the world through personal ambition, the more impossible success becomes.
This literal version consolidates the lecture’s English material into continuous notes, keeping close to the spoken sequence while preserving explanatory detail.