Zhu, the Pillars, are what establish heaven and earth.
Guanyinzi said: A bowl or a basin, a bottle or a jug, a jar or a pot—any of these can establish heaven and earth. Cracking tortoise shells and counting yarrow stalks, broken tiles and patterned stones—any of these can tell good and ill fortune. From this we know that the completed order of heaven and earth and the myriad things is contained in a single thing, and every thing contains it all, without borrowing from one another. My essence joins with the essence of the other. When the two essences meet, spirit responds to them. One female bird and one male, and there is birth from eggs; one male beast and one female, and there is birth from the womb. Form is the other's essence; pattern is the other's spirit; loving is my essence; contemplating is my spirit. Loving is water; contemplating is fire. When loving holds fast and contemplating follows it, that is wood; when contemplating persists and loving draws it in, that is metal. First imagine the qi of the one Primal complete in a single thing held in the mind. Love it so as to join with its form; contemplate it in the dark unknown so as to join with its pattern; and then its image is present. The image of one revolution fills the whole Great Void; rising from the center it becomes heaven, descending from the center it becomes earth. There is no rising without descending and no descending without rising. What rises is fire; what descends is water. What wishes to rise but cannot rise is wood; what wishes to descend but cannot descend is metal. As for wood, drill it and you get fire; wring it and you get water. As for metal, strike it and you get fire; melt it and you get water. Metal and wood are where water and fire meet. Water is essence and is heaven; fire is spirit and is earth; wood is the ethereal soul (hun) and is man; metal is the corporeal soul (po) and is things. What revolves without ceasing is time; what contains and has a location is direction. Only earth is their beginning and end. There are those who explain this, and there are those who show it.
He said: The people of the world cannot be counted even in hundreds of millions. Each person's dreams are different, and each night's dreams are different. In them there are heaven and earth, people and things, all formed by thought, as countless as specks of dust. How do we know that the heaven and earth of today are not the thoughts of some thinker?
He said: The heart corresponds to the jujube, the liver to the elm. I am connected with heaven and earth: when it is about to turn overcast I dream of water, and when it is about to clear I dream of fire. Heaven and earth are connected with me: heaven and earth and I seem joined and seem apart, and each purely returns to its own.
He said: Great as heaven and earth are, they have color and form, number and direction. I have that which is neither color nor form, neither number nor direction, by which heaven is heaven and earth is earth.
He said: Those who die in the womb and those who die in the egg are people and things too, yet great as heaven and earth are, these know nothing of them. Heaven and earth are all divisions made by my consciousness. It is like this: if the hand does not touch the blade, the blade does not wound.
He said: In dreams, in mirrors, and in water, heaven and earth all exist. One who wishes to be rid of the heaven and earth in dreams simply lies down without sleeping; one who wishes to be rid of the heaven and earth in the mirror simply does not let his form be reflected; one who wishes to be rid of the heaven and earth in water simply does not draw water into a basin. Whether they exist or not lies here, not there. Therefore the sage does not do away with heaven and earth; he does away with consciousness.
He said: Heaven is not heaven of itself; there is that which makes it heaven. Earth is not earth of itself; there is that which makes it earth. It is like houses, boats, and carriages, which depend on people to be made and do not make themselves. Knowing that they depend on something, one knows that this depends on nothing. Above, one does not see heaven; below, one does not see earth; within, one does not see the self; without, one does not see others.
He said: What has time is qi; that which is not qi has never had day or night. What has direction is form; that which is not form has never had south or north. What is meant by “not qi”? That from which qi arises is like waving a fan and getting wind: before it is waved, there is no qi of wind; once it is waved, it is called qi. What is meant by “not form”? That from which form arises is like drilling wood and getting fire: before it is drilled, there is no form of fire; once it is drilled, it is called form.
He said: The changes of cold and heat, warmth and coolness are like tiles and stones: put them in fire and they become hot, put them in water and they become cold, breathe on them and they become warm, draw breath over them and they become cool. It is only that outside things come and go, while the tiles and stones themselves truly neither come nor go. It is like a reflection in water, which comes and goes, while what is called the water truly neither comes nor goes.
He said: Wave a garment in the air and you get wind; breathe on a thing and you get water; pour water into water and it makes a sound; strike stone against stone and there is light. One who understands this can make wind, rain, thunder, and lightning. For wind, rain, thunder, and lightning all arise from qi, and qi arises from the mind. It is like imagining a great fire within: after a while one feels hot; imagining great waters within: after a while one feels cold. One who understands this can share in all the virtues of heaven and earth.
He said: From the changes of the five-colored clouds one can foretell whether the year will be abundant or lean; from the arrival of the eight winds one can foretell the good or ill fortune of the time. From this we know that fortune and misfortune, calamity and auspiciousness, are only the movement of the one qi. It blends self and others and is one with heaven and earth, yet private intelligence recognizes it and claims it as its own.
He said: Heaven and earth are lodgings, the myriad things are lodgings, I am a lodging, the Tao is a lodging. If one leaves the lodging, the Tao too cannot stand.