Verse 14 - Living Beyond Form

[Eva Libre]

14th Verse

 

That which cannot be seen is called invisible.

That which cannot be heard is called inaudible.

 That which cannot be held is called intangible.

These three cannot be defined; 

therefore, they are merged as one.

 

Each of theses three is subtle for description.

 By intuition you can see it,

hear it,

and feel it.

Then the unseen,

unheard,

and untouched

 are present as one.

 

Its rising brings no dawn,

its setting no darkness;

it goes on and on, unnameable,

returning to nothingness.

 

Approach it and there is no beginning;

follow it and there is no end.

You cannot know it, but you can be it,

at ease in your own life.

 

Discovering how things have always been

brings one into harmony with the Way.

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

Discovering how things have always been

          brings me into harmony with the Way.

Do The Tao Now

 

Take note of as much invisibleness as you can when gazing at a tree, a distant star, a mountain, a cloud, or anything else in the natural world.  Embrace the principle that allows it to be, and then turn it inward and do the same for your own physical existence.  It is the principle that expands your lungs, beats your heart, and grows your fingernails -- live in this principle for ten minutes today and take note of how you feel connected to your Source of Being. 

 

Source - Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life (Living the Wisdom of the Tao)

by Dr Wayne W Dyer

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Use the technique of walking meditation

to obtain knowledge of the absolute.

 

Stay in a persistent state of awareness of the eternal principle that animates all of life.  By seeing the unfolding of God in everyone you encounter -- and in all of your identification with your ego-based world -- you'll come to be more like Him, and less like that which has tarnished your link to Him.  This is the alignment that will bring you back into balance and restore the harmony that is your true egoless nature. 

 

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Improve your vision by looking

beyond what your eyes see.

 

Whatever you gaze upon, ask yourself, What is the true essence of what my eyes reveal to me ?  Wonder about that magical something that awakens a tree in the springtime and places blossoms where frozen limbs existed only a few weeks before.   Inquire, What is the energy behind the creation of that mosquito -- or behind my every thought, for that matter ?  Do the same thing with everything you hear as well.  Those sounds emerge from, and return to, a silent world -- improve your hearing by listening for the "quiet sounds".

 

Awe and gratitude will grow when you embrace this forever principle.  But even greater than this, you'll awaken to new possibilities that include you own Divine magnificence.  You mind will free itself from a false identification with the transitory world, and you'll see the eternal in all things.  Yes, Lao-tzu tells you, you'll transform your life by being in-Spirit.  It is here that you will recognize what Rumi poetically offered some 1,500 years after Lao-tzu's powerful words:

 

Every tree and plant in the meadow seemed to be dancing,

those which average eyes would see as fixed and still.

 

I urge you to see the dance of "how things have always been" in the unseen, unheard, and untouched present.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

14

LOVE

 

Parenting is at times confusing.

There will be moments when you

truly do not know.  Should you

exert your authority or step back ?

Should you give advice or remain

silent ?  Should you offer help or

allow a mistake to be made ?

When you cannot see what is

happening, relax and look gently 

with your inner eye.  The harder

you try to take hold of a situation,

the more difficult it becomes.

Let go.  Trust in the Way

which follows its own flow.

Allow the Great to live in you

and work through you

for your child's greater good.

Return to the core: a relationship

of love is more worthwhile than

a philosophical position.  When

doubt arises, give way only

to love.

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

 

Eyes look but cannot see it

Ears listen but cannot hear it

Hands grasp but cannot touch it

Beyond the senses lies the great Unity --

          invisible, inaudible, intangible

What rises up appears bright

What settles down appears dark

Yet there is neither darkness nor light

          just an unbroken dance of shadows

From nothingness to fullness

          and back again to nothingness

This formless form

This imageless image

          cannot be grasped by mind or might

Try to face it

          In what place will you stand ?

Try to follow it

          To what place will you go ?

Know That which is beyond all beginnings

          and you will know everything here and now

Know everything in this moment

          and you will know the Eternal Tao

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

We look at it, and we do not see it, and we name it

          the Equable.

We listen to it, and we do not hear it, and we name it

          the Inaudible.

We try to grasp it, and we do not get hold of it,

          and we name it the Subtle.

With these three qualities,

          it cannot be made the subject of description;

And hence, we blend them together and obtain The One.

 

Its upper part is not bright,

     and its lower part is not obscure.

Ceaseless in its action, it yet cannot be named, and then

     it again returns and becomes nothing.

This is called the Form of the Formless,

     and the Semblance of the Invisible;

This is called the Fleeting and Indeterminable.

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "The Method of Nature" (address), "Spirit"

 

The true order of nature beholds the visible

     as proceeding from the invisible.

The rushing stream will not stop

     to be observed;

So old and so unutterable.

It is inexact and boundless.

But all the uses of nature admit of being

     summed in one.

 

Here about us coils forever

     the ancient enigma.

It is faithful to the cause

     whence it had its origin.

It is a perpetual effect,

A great shadow pointing always

     to the sun behind us.

How silent, how spacious, what room for all,

     yet without place to insert an atom;

It will not be dissected, nor unraveled,

     nor shown.

We learn that behind nature,

     throughout nature,

Spirit is present, one and not compound;

The history of the genesis of the old mythology

     repeats itself.

[Eva Libre]

Tao Te Ching - The Classic Book of Integrity and The Way by Lao-Tzu

A New Translation by Victor H Mair
based on the recently discovered Ma-Wang-Tui Manuscripts

14
(58)

        We look for it but do not see it;

               we name it "subtle".

          We listen for it but do not hear it;

               we name it "rare".        

          We grope for it but do not grasp it;

               we name it "serene".

          These three cannot be fully fathomed,

Therefore,

          They are bound together to make unity.

          Of unity,

               its top is not distant,

               its bottom is not blurred.

          Infinitely extended

               and unnameable,

          It returns to nonentity.

          This is called

                "the form of the formless,

                the image of nonentity."

          This is called "the amorphous".

          Following behind it,

               you cannot see its back;

          Approaching it from the front,

               you cannot see its head.

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

When we look for it but see it not, we call it the invisible.  When we listen for it but hear it not, we call it the inaudible.  When we try to touch it but find it not, we call it the imperceptible.  Because these three aspects of it are impossible to probe, it remains a single amorphous unity.

 

It is shapeless, leaving no image, and soundless, leaving no reverberation.  thus it can permeate [tong] absolutely everything and reach absolutely everywhere.   We cannot get to know it and even less know how to give it a name derived from how it looks, sounds, or feels.  Thus, because it is impossible to probe, it remains a single amorphous unity [hun er wei yi].(1)

 

Its risings cast no light, and its settings occasion no dark.  On and on it goes, (2) unnamable, always reverting to nothingness.  This we refer to as the shape of that which has no shape, the image of that which has no physical existence.

 

You might wish to say that it does not exist, but everything achieves existence because of it, and then you might wish to say that it does exist, but we do not see its form. (3)  This is why the text refers to it as "the shape of that which has no shape, the image of that which has no existence."

 

This we refer to as dim and dark. (4)

It cannot be determined.

Try to meet it, but you will not see its head.  Try to follow it, but you will not see its tail, so hold on to the Dao of old to preside over what exists now.

"What exists" [you] means the matters that one attends to [you qishi].

  

It is possible to know how things were at the beginning of time.

This we refer to as holding the thread of the Dao.

That which is free from form and nameless is the progenitor of the myriad things. (5) Although the present and the past differ, customs changing as age gives way to age, not one single thing every achieved successful order except from it.  This is why it is possible to "hold onto the Dao of old to preside over what exists now".  Remote antiquity might be far from us, but the Dao then still exists now.  Therefore, although we live in the present, it is possible for one to know how things were at the beginning of time [gushi]. (6)

 

Text, in Italics above, is Wang Bi's commentary.

The notes below, are from the translator, Richard John Lynn -

(deb's note - "section" is used for verse in these notes.)

 

(1)  Cf. section 1 of Wang's Outline Introduction.

(2)  "On and on" translates shengsheng, which seems equivalent to the "on and on" (mianmian), of section 6.  Both expressions describe unbroken continuity.

(3)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 6, first passage.

(4)  "Dim and dark" translates huhuang.  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 21.

(5)  Cf.  Wang's commentary to section 1, second passage, adn to section 47, first passage.

(6)  Cf.  Wang's commentary to section 47, first and section passages, and the end of section 1 of his Outline Introduction.

[Eva Libre]

From Stephen Mitchell - tao te ching - A New English Version

 

Look, and it can't be seen.

Listen, and it can't be heard.

Reach, and it can't be grasped.

Above, it isn't bright.

Below, it isn't dark.

Seamless, unnamable,

it returns to the realm of nothing.

form that includes all forms,

image without an image,

subtle, beyond all conception.

Approach it and there is no beginning;

follow it and there is no end.

You can't know it, but you can be it,

at ease in your own life.

Just realize where you come from:

this is the essence of wisdom.

 

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy 

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

Seamless, unnamable,

it returns to the realm of nothing.

 

Ultimately, what is real can't be seen or heard or thought or grasped.  You're just seeing your own eyes, hearing your own ears, reacting to the world of your own imagination.  It's all created by your mind in the first place.  You name it, you create it, you give it meaning upon meaning upon meaning.  You add the what to reality, then you add the why.  It's all you.  The original is wiped out in the wave of the new, which is already old.  Thought deletes anything outside itself.

Mind is so powerful that it could take the imagined fist and beat it against a wall and actually believe that you are the person whose fist it is.  Because mind in its ignorance is so quick to hold its imagined world together, it has created time and space and everything in it.  Mind's ability to create is a beautiful thing, unless, as the terrorist that it often is, it has created a world that's frightening and unkind.  If it has, I would suggest questioning the nightmare.  It doesn't matter where mind begins to question itself.  " 'It's a tree' -- is that true ?"  Or " 'I am' -- is that true ?"  The world that mind has created can just as easily be de-created.  It goes back to where it came from anyway.  Your attachment to it is the only suffering.

Mind can't comprehend "nothing", the absolute, that from which everything flows, the original non-world.  To name it "nothing" makes it untrue.  It's not "nothing", because it's prior to words.  "Nothing" is not only frightening to the world of mirrored thought -- it's incomprehensible.  Mind becomes frightened when it considers being what it was born from, since that can never be controlled or known.  Without identification as a body, mind is left to die, and death never comes for it.  What never lived can never die.

Eventually, mind discovers that it's free,  that it's infinitely out of control and infinitely joyful.  Eventually, it falls in love with the unknown.  In that it can rest.  And since it no longer believes what it thinks, it remains always peaceful, wherever it is or isn't.

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 14 -

Try to imagine the idea of forever: that which has never changed, that which has no beginning or end. It cannot be seen, heard, or touched . . . but you know it is and always has been. Think of that which even now, in this very moment as you read these words, is the very understanding that's within you -- that essence that permeates you and everything else, yet always eludes your grasp.

This primordial principle has ruled -- and stills rules -- all beings; all that is or has ever been is a result of its unfolding. Lao-tzu insists that you become aware of this amorphous precept by not relying upon your senses to experience this oneness. In the opening of this verse, you're urged to see without eyes, hear without ears, and hold without touching; these three ways of living beyond form need to be a part of your awareness. These shapeless realms merge into the one world of spirit (the Tao), which creates and rules all life. You're being encouraged to live with a total awareness of this all-encompassing principle.

Some scholars have singled out this 14th verse of the Tao Te Ching as the most significant of all its 81 offerings because it stresses the significance of the single principle that's the underpinning of all existence. Tapping into this invisible, untouchable, immeasurable force will enable you to gain the harmony that comes with being connected to the oneness, and harmony is your ultimate objective in deciding to live an "in-Spirited" life. You want to learn to abandon your ego -- which identifies with the world of things, possessions, and achievements -- and re-enter the placeless place from which you and all others originated. By doing so you regain the mystical, almost magical powers of your eternal Source of being. Here, you live beyond the world of form.

When you live exclusively "in-form", you concentrate on accumulating "in-form-ation". This 14th verse of the Tao calls for you to immerse yourself in inspiration rather than information, to become at one with that which has always been. And as this verse of the Tao concludes so insightfully, "Discovering how things have always been brings one into harmony with the Way".

The Way has no conflict in it. How could it ? There is only the oneness that is a blend of the invisible, inaudible, and intangible. Imagine a world where conflict is impossible, where Lao-tzu says that there is no darkness or light. The nameless Source that has always been gives only the peace and harmony you desire, so recognize this infinite oneness and keep it in your awareness. You'll know that the Way is simply the Way when you stop questioning why things have bee as they have ! Free of the fears that attend sole indentification with this world of form, you can embrace your infinite nature. That is, you can love your foreverness, rather than dread that life ends with the death of your body. You, your body, and all of life are the result of the unwinding of this eternity.