The Teachings of Yen Tzu shakes the very pillars of modern thinking and practice. With esoteric secrets, enlightening stories and insightful wisdom, its provocative lessons present a forgotten yet powerful alchemy for meaning and purpose.

A legend tells of a famous Academy, now lost in the mountains of an Eastern Province. Founded some two and a half millennia ago by an immensely successful Patriarch, Yen Tzu, it attracted the interest of people seeking the secrets of a new alchemy. Possibly a member of the inner circle of Taoist Sages, Yen Tzu would have been fully versed in the Metaphysical Secrets of the Ancients. His paradoxical philosophy, therefore, would have certainly followed the way of self-mastery through individual inner understanding.

Over several generations the School’s acclaim grew, through word of mouth, as each student, enlightened by their understanding of this new thinking, graduated. Such a level of understanding was also certainly instrumental in Yen Tzu becoming Ancient China’s first commercial billionaire; though such success inevitably attracted the attention of an aspiring Emperor. History records that in the year 213BC almost all remnants of this ancient teaching were destroyed by the ruthless Qin Shi Huang, famous for the army of life-size Terracotta Warriors guarding his mausoleum unearthed in Lintong County, Shaanxi.

Viewing such wisdom as a threat to the divine rule he had decreed, he was convinced that by destroying it, no-one would question or usurp his dictatorship. Pursuing this policy to control society’s thinking, his brutal Prime Minister, Li Ssu, ordered countless sages to be executed and their places of learning to be burned to the ground. In an attempt to save them from destruction, valuable scrolls and texts were hidden in hollowed walls, a time-honoured custom utilised by numerous cultures over the ages.

History records that the Qin Dynasty lasted only during his lifetime, a mere forty-one years; a vivid reminder that motives seeking manipulation and control are always short-lived. Unwittingly, Qin had destroyed the very wisdom that could have been his greatest strength as a leader. Today, despite the immense power at our fingertips, most people retire with little money. Clearly, the application of a new thinking and practice is as valid now as it was to prosperity over two millennia ago.

Each volume has six insightful lessons
Full of enlightening parables
Obscure knowledge made accessible including:
How to be in the right place at the right time
And how to achieve more while doing less

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Contents and Sample Chapter from:

Volume I
Infinite Patience; Immediate results

‘Toeless Wong was crippled for allowing Duke Ling’s prize bull to run amok in the kilns,’ said Ho Chi, in answer to his fellow disciples’ question. ‘Indeed, it is said, that he lost a toe for every one of the ten Imperial vases that were smashed.’

‘In truth it was through having his feet stamped on by the mighty bull while he bravely fought to recapture it,’ said their Patriarch, upon overhearing their discourse.

‘By my ancestors,’ exclaimed Ho Chi, ‘what courage!’

‘Indeed yes,’ said Yen Tzu, ‘but fighting yang with yang is not the way to communicate and overcome.’

‘It is said that yin and yang connect all,’ said Ho Chi, ‘but please explain how, in the context of such a difficult situation.’

‘The mutual seeking of yin and yang depends on opening and closing.’ began the Patriarch. ‘Opening and closing are the natural principles that influence the rise and fall in all of heaven and earth’s ten thousand things, including man and beast. Yin and yang should always be harmonious. For the opposite of one, redresses the balances of the other.

‘When the bull was in yang mode, so was Toeless Wong. Rather than adopting yin mode, he fought charge with charge. He pitted his aggression against the bull’s aggression. When yang is hard and aggressive, only the yielding softness of yin can calm it. As a seasoned keeper, Wong knew full well how to calm the bull. But seeing the crashing commotion before him he forgot, and was as a fool rushing in. In doing so, he was no different to the bull.

‘Yin and yang modes can be taught to be switched on or off according to what is needed. Yin or yang must be used as appropriate to tame that part within all of us which can be likened to a charging bull, and to soften the raging bull within others who appear to be attacking us. Men do not mirror themselves in running water; they can only see themselves in still water. Only what is still, can calm to stillness others.

‘Always remember that it is important to know when to speak and when to remain silent. When you want to hear others’ voices, return to silence; when you want to be expansive, be withdrawn; when you want to rise, lower yourself; when you want to take, give; and when you want to overcome, give way.’

• All through school we’re taught to read, write and speak, but apart from how to listen critically, we are never taught to really communicate. Yet the way in which we communicate inwardly and outwardly directly influences the quality of our relationships with others, as well as with ourselves. True communication, however, goes way beyond our variety of listening skills learned through tuition.

• All of us have a dormant bull within us, desperate to be heard and we usually allow another person to turn it loose. Those people who are prone to argue, will claim that any heated intercourse, be it debate, discussion or family tiff, requires such stimulation. Healthy arguments making for healthy relationships is a myth, however, as when two people allow themselves to become angry towards each other, there are two losers. In the same way that it is pointless to fight fire with fire, being angry with others burns our valuable psychic body into a charred shell.

• Understanding the nature of how things interact helps us to harmonise those universal forces that can then strengthen us, instead of allowing an imbalance which hurts us. The very nature of communicating with ourselves through listening to our inner world, for example, reflects directly on our interpersonal communication with others. The principle for listening is the same as evaluation. You cannot evaluate others until you have successfully evaluated yourself; and you cannot effectively listen externally until you have mastered listening internally.

• What is not said can be clearly audible in our inner stillness, and what is not said is more valuable to us than whatever is being said. Through inward and outward stillness we become able to listen to others without influencing what they say by our reactions. For example, the speech of others is yang movement, for it is outward; one’s own silence is yin stillness, for it is receptive. When the statements of another are inconsistent, if we reflect and enquire introspectively, then an appropriate response will be forthcoming.

• To use stillness to listen to what is being voiced, means exercising our ability to look at matters from all angles, without entertaining any associations or attachments that may affect our understanding. Yang is opening up, yin is closing down. Opening up involves assessing people’s feelings, closing down involves making sure of their sincerity, and not believing that we must get our point in first, particularly during an argument.

• Learning to communicate fully instead of having to manipulate partly when we are with others, means being ourselves. Without doubt that is the first and most important step in effective communication. But it also means harmonising yin and yang so that our inner and outer worlds remain balanced.

Emptying Fullness

‘Give us a tale, honourable sir,’said Ho Chi, ‘as to how Man can know when to be silent and when to speak.’

‘Silence and speaking relate to the emptiness and fullness of Man,’ began Yen Tzu. ‘If your mind is filled with your own prejudices, the truth that others speak cannot be heard. When engaging in conversation, most people are in a hurry to express their own opinion. As a result they don’t hear anything but the sound of their own voices.

‘Imagine a man, with his hull full of stores, crossing the Yellow River,’ continued the Patriarch, ‘and an empty boat happens along and bumps into him. No matter how hot-tempered the man may be, he will not get angry. But, if there should be someone in the other boat, then he will shout out to them to haul this way or veer that. If his first shout is unheeded, he will shout out again, and if that is not heard, he will shout a third time, this time accompanied with a torrent of curses. In the first instance, he wasn’t angry; in the second he is. Earlier he faced emptiness, now he faces occupancy. When he is faced with occupancy he allows the dialogue of his fullness to take over: how he considers the state of things should be. If a man could succeed in making himself empty, and in that way wander through the world, then who could do him harm?’

‘But Man seems to always want to speak more to blame than to praise, regardless of what he brings on himself,’said Ho Chi.

‘Exactly so! Which is why one must learn to speak sparingly,’ added Yen Tzu. ‘A word is a bird. Once let out, you can’t whistle it back. Measure your words. Think that every word is a coin and once it goes out, it won’t return. For in certainty speech is priceless if you speak with knowledge. As such it must be weighed in the scales of the heart, before it comes from the mouth.’

• Through the process of listening to others a large percentage of our hearing is overrun by a constant evaluation of the incoming messages we are receiving. ‘What does he think he is doing? Do I agree with this or that? Why are they saying this or that? Why don’t they make their point? What is it that happened to me that is similar? Why doesn’t she let me get a word in? That tie doesn’t suit them’, and so on. We literally hold two questions at once. Constant internal chatter creates a ‘fullness’where an ‘emptiness’ is required.

• Where is the usefulness in a vase for flowers? It is in the empty space that receives them and not the pleasant external facade. As we would feel the mood of an empty house, we can learn to see the emptiness. When a group of people sit in a circle, either around a board table or in any meeting, it is the climate or the spirit in the centre – the empty space – that determines the nature of the group’s atmosphere.

• The fruitfulness of a meeting, for example, can be clearly determined by the atmosphere during the silences. The difficulty is that meetings, particularly in the West, are not considered to be about silences. Indeed any pauses in some meetings are simply seen as opportunities to either drive points home or as a signal that the meeting is terminated.

Contents and sample chapter from:

Volume II
Realising Desires; Needing Nothing

Hermit Wei glimpsed three eagles soaring above him. Calling them down to him he requested of the first: ‘How much to carry me across the plains to the neighbouring state, please?’

‘It’s a two day flight at least and you are a heavy load,’ replied the first eagle, ‘I would like ten fish, a goat and a flagon of soya milk.’

‘So much,’ said Hermit Wei, and turning to the second eagle asked, ‘What will you do it for?’

‘It is right you are a heavy load,’ answered the second eagle, ‘yet as I am due to go in that direction in any case, I would want five fish, a kid-goat and a flagon of rice-water. It is a long trip that will require sustenance.’

Asking the third eagle what the charge would be, the hermit was surprised to hear: ‘Five fish and a litre of water.’

‘What kind of fool answer is that?’ Wei shouted. ‘Why do you possibly ask for an amount that will not even sustain you for the trip?’

‘I needed the order,’ said the crestfallen eagle.

‘Needed the order!’ the hermit returned angrily. ‘Well my desire to go will not be at the mercy of your need. In compromising your worth you compromise my life! Come,’speaking to the second eagle, ‘let us plan our trip. With your desire to go my way and your considered charge, I know my journey is assured.’

The Polarities of Desire

Healthy desire is the starting point of all achievement. The desire to live, for instance, is the unconscious motivation to take our first breath of life. There are, however, polarities to our desires, so that, depending on how much we want something, we can unwittingly bring about adverse conditions. A simple illustration of this can be seen by an ambitious individual, who desiring to impress others, brings about the opposite effect.

• Our desires attract to us the elements which make us what we are and form our behaviour. The experiences we manifest in our lives, therefore, come from what we consciously or unconsciously attract to us. Every living thing displays a peculiarity because it has attracted a particular element to become so. The insect living in the mud displays different qualities to the insect living in the beautiful flower. The soaring eagle displays different qualities to the tiny sparrow. Man, who is the finished specimen of creation, reveals this doctrine in its fullness. His success and failures, his sorrows and joys, all depend on what he desires and what he has desired for himself. It is the nature of his intent behind those desires that counts.

• The question then arises: ‘why would I want to desire elements which are undesirable to me, such as failure and sorrow?’ The answer is that you did not desire them as you see them now, but as you saw them before. One does not seek pain purposely, one seeks pleasure, yet very often pain is hiding behind the facade of pleasure. Similarly a seeker of success may not see failure hiding behind what he or she believes to be success.

• Desires spawned from a false self lead to false activity and subsequent discomfort. One who desires a partner for the sake of parental pressure, appearance, security, jealousy, obsession, infatuation, habit or loneliness, will soon discover pain behind short-lived pleasure. Another who desires success for the sake of promotion, acquisition, status, title, money, respect or receiving the credit, will similarly experience a hollowness to their rewards.

• As the whole principle of creation is based on the power of intent, it is important to think and understand what you want and why you want it. When you enter into business with another, you must know the philosophy of your partner. When young people are in love, the intensity of their passion blinds their respective philosophies. With the short-term need satisfied, long-term limitations to deeper desires are overlooked. In complaining to ourselves that we never receive what we consider we are duly entitled to, there is no end to our complaining. Unconsciously we, in effect, desire something to complain about. Therefore, in order to have no complaints, we must become aware when and why we complain.

• In desiring things, we must distinguish, at each step in life, what we must manifest for ourselves and what we must not manifest for ourselves. Our lives are decided by our innermost pictures, generated by what we might wittingly, or unwittingly, desire from life. Fortune is not external; it is decided by how you desire it.

The Importance of Desire

• Desire is a form of energy linked to our lower physical and higher mental energies. Only when desire is out of balance with the higher energy functions of the mind, and serves the lower instead, does trouble follow. Out of physical desire, for example, a person may lose their calmness and clarity of mind and be compelled to act against their better judgement.

• The fact is, however, nature has designed desire and its proper use as one of the most important elements of life. Implanted in every living being is a strong desire for that which is necessary for well-being, nourishment and growth. Where perhaps spirituality gains release, for example, religion seeks control and, in censoring Man against the curses of having desires, has, metaphorically speaking, thrown the baby out with the bath water. Many of us counteract our desires with guilt, particularly in regard to relationships and wealth.

• The importance of desire is that with its power you already have the capacity to manifest, or attract, whatever you want in your life. The very fact you have a desire, the Latin root of which translates as ‘of the father,’means that you have the God-given ability to achieve it. In other words you would be incapable of holding a desire unless you had the capability to create its reality. Although most of what we are taught to believe conflicts with this, your desires are the very tools that assist you in expressing your purpose. It is because of false indoctrination, however well-meaning, that the art of manifesting our desires for positive benefit has been forgotten.

Author’s Note

There is a legend that tells of a famous Academy, now lost in the mountains of an Eastern Province. Founded some two and a half millennia ago by an immensely successful Patriarch, Yen Tzu, the School attracted the interest of great leaders, merchants, and individuals, from all over the ancient world; earnestly seeking the secrets of a new alchemy proven to deliver prosperity and well-being.

Possibly a member of the inner circle of Taoist Sages, Yen Tzu would have been fully versed in the Metaphysical Wisdom of the Ancients. His paradoxical philosophy, therefore, would have certainly followed the way of self-mastery through individual inner understanding.

Over several generations the School’s acclaim grew through word of mouth, as each student, enlightened by their understanding of this new thinking, graduated. Such a level of understanding was certainly instrumental in Yen Tzu becoming Ancient China’s first commercial billionaire; though such success inevitably attracted the attention of an aspiring Emperor.

History records that in the year 213BCE almost all remnants of this ancient teaching were destroyed by the first Emperor of what we now consider to be geographical China: the ruthless Qin Shi Huang, famous for the army of life-size Terracotta Warriors guarding his mausoleum; unearthed in Lintong County, Shaanxi.

Viewing such teaching as a threat to the divine rule he had decreed, he was convinced that by destroying it no-one would question or usurp his dictatorship. Pursuing this policy to control society’s thinking, his brutal Prime Minister, Li Ssu, ordered countless sages to be executed and their places of learning to be burned to the ground. In an attempt to save them from destruction, valuable scrolls and texts were hidden in hollowed walls, a time-honoured custom utilised by numerous cultures over the ages.
History records that the Qin Dynasty lasted only during his lifetime, a mere forty-one years; a vivid reminder that motives seeking manipulation and control are always short-lived. Unwittingly, Qin had destroyed the very wisdom that could have been his greatest strength as a leader.

Yet, today, in the 21st Century and despite the immense power at our fingertips, the majority of businesses survive a few years and most people retire with little money. Clearly the application of a new thinking and practice is as valid now as it was to prosperity over two millennia ago.

Though there is growing awareness in the Western world of the danger of being enslaved to mindless consumption – indeed most of us prefer sustainable quality over disposable quantity – we continue to suffer on many counts. The labels of me, my and mine impose artificial limitations on the enjoyment of our life; and worrying over our status and what we can solicit from others prevents us from being true to ourselves.

There are many delusions to be cleared and the thought-provoking lessons taught by forgotten sages and harnessed by great leaders and merchants are revealed within this book. Although these revelations shake the pillars of current thinking, they uncannily strike deep chords within us, because of the sound truths that resonate from them. For achieving self-mastery through individual inner understanding is the only sure and timeless way to fully develop our potential, achieve our purpose and ensure our spiritual growth.

Paradoxically, through their initial obscurity, the answers currently sought by our modern world appear. Work can no longer be viewed as a separate compartment to the way we live our lives, either personally or professionally. With the increasing demand for a practical philosophy for meaningful, purposeful and sustainable success, my own research and hands-on studies led to me writing these two volumes. In doing so, I sought to unlock and share esoteric secrets and explain forgotten truths in the form of twelve lessons. They encapsulate through parables my interpretation of the genre of ancient wisdom, as taught by Yen Tzu.

By reading these volumes that comprise The Teachings of Yen Tzu, you will begin to perceive opportunities to test the potency of the ideas they contain. In this way you will become a graduate of self-mastery.

Colin Turner

Prof. Colin Turner is the author of numerous books published in 30 languages, including the Japan no 1: Born to Succeed. He can be contacted at: turner@theseus.fr

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