Hua Hu Ching - Introduction
(Translated by Brian Walker)
Back to Hua Hu Ching
Hua Hu Ching THE UNKNOWN TEACHINGS
OF Lao Tzu BY Brian Walker
Harper SanFrancisco A Division of HarperCollins Publishers HUA HU
CHING: THE UNKNOWN TEACHINGS OF LAO TZU. COPYRIGHT c 1992 BY BRIAN BROWNE WALKER. ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OFAMERICA. FIRST
HARPERCOLLINS PAPERBACK EDITION PUBLISHED IN 1995 AN EARLIER
EDITIONCATALOGED AS FOLLOWS: LAO-TZU. (HUA HU CHING. OF THIS BOOK
WAS ENGLISH) HUA HU CHING :TZU / [TRANS LATED BY] BRIAN WALKER.
P. CM. ISBN THE
UNKNOWN TEACHINGS OF LAO 0-06-069274-X (CLOTH) ISBN 0-06-069245-6
(PBK.) I. WALKER, BRIAN BROWNE. II. TITLE. BL1900.L42E5 1994 299'.51482-DC2O 93-31043 95
96 97 98 99 HAD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedication
This book is dedicated to a mob of unruly angels. It is as much theirs as it is mine: To my parents, Bud and Joan, who gave me life, love, and an understanding of the spiritual importance of silliness; To the memory of my maternal grandmother, Cynthia Pace Radcliffe, who walks beside me wherever I go, fire eating fire; To the memory of Edward Abbey, bone of my bone and blood of my heart: Hoka Hey, Grandfather! To Jim Harrison, the Conquering Lion of Northern Michigan; To Stephen Mitchell, bridge across time for so many sacred flames; And, finally, with a large and unyielding love, to my gentle, graceful daughter, Sofia Sofia Muhammad Ali: dance on, little laughing crow.
Acknowledgments
I have come to think of Lao Tzu less as a man
who once lived and more as a song that
plays, eternal and abiding. I am deeply indebted to Martin Gray,
George Robinson, and Master Ni Hua-Ching,
for bringing me into the presence of the song once again. Jamie
Potenberg and Stacy Feldmann designed this
book, provoking appreciative murmurs all the way from my house to
the Realm of the Immortals. Russell Chatham
made it possible for them to do so, for which I thank him. My
heartfelt appreciation goes also to my
father and mother, without whose generous support and gentle
teachings none of my books would be.
Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my beloved teacher and
provocative friend, Valerie Haumont, who
has led me to and traveled with me through a generous assortment
of the Ten Thousand Spiritual Supernovas,
Endless Voids, and Black Holes. In those illuminating and
terrifying places I gained the understanding
necessary to write this book. May I yet have the grace to come to
live it. The flute of interior time plays,
whether we hear it or not. What we mean by love is its sound
coming in.
ROBERT BLY, BOOK OF KABIR
On waking after the accident I was presented
with the "whole picture" as they say, magnificently
detailed, a child's diorama of what life
appears to be: staring at the picture I became drowsy with relief
when I noticed a yellow dot of light in the
lower right-hand corner. I unhooked the machines and tubes and
crawled to the picture, with an eyeball to
the dot of light which turned out to be a miniature tunnel at the
end of which I could see mountains and
stars whirling and tumbling, sheets of emotions, vertical rivers,
upside down lakes, herds of unknown
mammals, birds shedding feathers and regrowing them instantly,
snakes with feathered heads eating their
own shed skins, fish swimming straight up, the bottom of Isaiah's
robe, live whales on dry ground, lions drinking
from a golden bowl of milk, the rush of night, and somewhere in
this the murmur of gods-- a tree-rubbing-tree
music, a sweet howl of water and rock-grating-rock, fire hissing
from fissures, the moon settled comfortably
on the ground, beginning to roll.
JIM HARRISON, FROM THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF
RIVERS
The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu is among the most
widely translated and cherished books in the world. Singular in its lucidity, revered across cultural
boundaries for its timeless wisdom, it is believed among Westerners to be Lao Tzu's only book. Few are aware that
a collection of his oral teachings on the subject of attaining enlightenment and mastery were also recorded
in a book called the Hua Hu Ching (pronounced "wha hoo jing"). The teachings of the Hua Hu Ching are
of enormous power and consequence, a literal road map to the divine realm for ordinary human beings. Perhaps
predictably, the book was banned during a period of political discord in China, and all copies were ordered
to be burned. Were it not for the Taoist tradition of oral
transmission of sacred scriptures from master to
student, they would have been lost forever. I am permanently
indebted to Taoist Master Ni Hua-Ching for sharing
his version of these teachings with the Western world after
his emigration from China in 1976. My work here is
largely based upon his teaching. I bow also to Stephen Mitchell, whose recent translation of the Tao te Ching
moved, shaped, and informed me. I encourage readers of this volume to also study Stephen's book; his
elucidation of the Tao and how it manifests in the world is
exquisite. It would be a profound pleasure to me
if my work one day met the high standard he has set with his
own.
--BRIAN WALKER BOULDER, COLORADO 1 OCTOBER
1993
Back to Hua Hu Ching