“One mother gives birth to nine children. The nine children have nine different hearts”
p. 187, On Taijiquan; Lun Taijiquan, by Zhang Zhaoping and Du Feihu
Comments:
This quote was used in this book to reinforce the commonly held idea that “the outer appearances or forms can change but not the principles behind them”.
In my opinion based on learning and teaching experience, this is neither right nor wrong. This is irrelevant! This is irrelevant because it is not the job of persons living to talk about the separation of physical appearance and principles behind them. That job is better left to the “immortals” who can live long enough to reach that level. Normal humans (like us) have no part of that idealistic degree of competence.
As to the meaning of the direct quote above, if the nine children do not resemble in appearance neither their father nor their mother, a DNA test is required to find out the REAL reason behind that!
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I was just reading about the Huayan Buddhist philosophy of Fazang. According to Fazang, principle cannot exist separately from phenomena. Principle and phenomena are two sides of one thing.