The Tao is Tao

The Tao is Tao By Jos Slabbert All these thoughts, words arranged on paper, come from the Tao and return to the Tao. Yet they do not touch it.

1 Even when the last star has imploded and only blackness remains, the Tao will be Tao: emptiness in emptiness, silence in silence, nowhere, yet everywhere; beyond existence, yet the essence of life. 2 The Tao is silence words cannot capture. The Tao is emptiness not even silence can embrace. 3 We come from silence, we return to emptiness. All movements and forms between silence and emptiness manifest emptiness and silence. 4 The Tao has no beginning, no end, no past, no future. Even this moment is an illusion. 5 The Tao is the source of all words to those that are silent. 6 The Tao gives true power to those who do not use power. 7 The Tao fills with thoughts those minds not attached to concepts. 8 The Tao shows the way to those who do not need to be shown. 9 The Tao approaches those who have stopped searching for the Tao. 10 The Tao does not protect anyone, yet the only protection is to stay close to the Tao. 11 The Tao wants no worship, yet all sentient beings become silent before the beauty and mystery of the Tao. 12 The Tao is not interested in teaching anybody anything, yet true wisdom can be learnt from the Tao. 13 The Tao has nothing to give, yet life itself comes from the Tao. 14 The true person of Tao shows compassion without hope of reward, for she can find a treasure and discard it. 15 The courage to show compassion comes from the acceptance of emptiness. 16 The ignorant see the turmoil flickering before their eyes as the only reality. The person close to Tao sees the forms moving before her as: empty and fleeting, a magician’s sleight of hand, yet timeless and real; so many thoughts, mere emotions, insubstantial dreams, yet the substance of life, inseparable from emptiness and silence. 17 Analytical thinking, which divides and dissects, does not satisfy the needs of the spirit, for the spirit finds peace in unity, which exists only in emptiness, where thinking has no influence. To step into the realm of the spirit is to abandon thinking. Can you step over the precipice, not knowing what is below? Life starts this way. 18 As the rivers solidified and the mountains shifted, his mind moved and the leaves rustled in the wind. 19 Like ice drifting on a river at the end of winter, he faded into emptiness as he moved with Tao. 20 Even when your mind has become still, it is still crashing across emptiness with fury, like the dunes of a desert against silent mountains. 21 After the ego has perished, the true self rises from its dust like desert flowers after spring showers have swept across arid plains. 22 True faith is complete trust without understanding: It is to accept silence silently. 23 The sage does not search, for she accepts emptiness. Nor does she explain, for silence needs no explanation. 24 The ignorant argue vehemently. The sage smiles and enjoys her tea. 25 The intelligent win arguments and lose. The foolish lose arguments and sulk. The wise refuse to argue and gain. The person close to Tao does not argue, because she has nothing to say. 26 Silence is not a form of ignorance, yet remaining silent can be folly. Verbosity is stupid, yet words can carry silence. The Taoist sage uses silence to express silence. 27 Arguing about the inexpressible creates hatred and fear. The Taoist sage knows only silence brings compassion. 28 The ignorant argue about the indefinable and destroy wisdom and compassion. The Taoist sage knows the essence lies beyond words, and he therefore prefers to be silent. 29 The silence of the sage mirrors the essential words of those ready to listen to him. 30 The awareness of perfection is the symptom of its loss. If perfection means the end of movement, then perfection does not exist. The wise person is aware of perpetual imperfection; the person in harmony with Tao finds strength in change. 31 The Tao is unpredictable to those that live according to plans. Only those who have no agenda are in harmony with the Tao. 32 Even in emptiness there still is a shiver of breath. Even in total silence the wind whispers in your ear. 33 If I am non-existent, then whose hurt do I feel when their disapproval hangs over me like a threat? If I have become one with silence, then what is it in me that murmurs in agony when her loving eyes turn cold? If I am empty, then whose pride keeps me awake at night? 34 Why do I cling to myself as if I really exist? I refuse to accept with joy what I will enter through suffering. Behind me are illusions of reality, before me emptiness and silence. 35 Like fuel-starved fire fading into ash in the cold, beliefs fed by emotions will surely fail you when you need them most. The Taoist sage ignores emotions and disregards convictions driven by the ego. The Taoist sage does not cling even to silence, for clinging to silence is turning your back on emptiness. 36 People who hate are ignorant of the emptiness and beauty which fill all sentient beings. The Taoist sage, dwelling in emptiness, does not need to show mercy, for there is nobody to be forgiven. His compassion does not waver, for it is based on emptiness. 37 The righteous will insist on justice and rip out the eyes of the blind to make them see. The Taoist sage lives outside the merciless cycles of vengeance and hatred, for he knows there is no such thing as anger in peace: a moment of rage can destroy the fruits of a thousand years of virtue; only patience can guide one towards peace. Only in a placid pool can the moon be reflected in all its perfection. The righteous subscribe to ‘an eye for an eye’; the Taoist sage prefers to be blind. 38 Confused, accepting invention as reality, ignorant people rant and rave when confronted by insignificance and mortality, which are but images in their minds. In their fear, they resist the natural flow of the Tao and cling to illusions of immortality and constancy. In their despair, they refuse to turn the light inwards, leaving their true selves in darkness. In constant agitation, they are driven by every object of desire crossing their paths. In their helplessness, they are trapped by the eyes of those around them. Not clinging to anything, the Taoist sage is at ease with what the confused see as insignificance, for illusions do not touch him. Totally detached, the person close to Tao accepts mortality as the joy and pain of arriving and leaving. The Taoist sage is touched but not ruled by the eyes around him. 39 The ignorant live in fear and anger of the inescapable laws of cause and effect. They try to ward off Karma as if it were some beast that could be slain. They grovel before the gods as if their favour could render Karma ineffective. Samsara, the wheel of birth, life, suffering and death, runs over them, leaving them in tatters. The Taoist sage knows Karma is inescapable, yet he lives free from dread, for he knows he is Samsara, and the wheel cannot run over itself. The person in close harmony with the Tao lives without anger, for he understands Karma is but himself: there is nothing to be angry with. The Taoist sage lives as if the inexorable justice of Karma and the relentless inevitability of Samsara do not touch him, for he is liberated from himself. 40 The fool performs his deeds of merit in full public view, reaping praise and vanity, and losing the fruits of virtue. The religious carry humility on their heads like a crown, falling prey to vanity. The wise avoid public deeds of merit, knowing it is only the deed performed in obscurity that brings true merit and nourishes the spirit. The Taoist sage, residing in emptiness, does not care for merit, and simply does what compassion dictates, irrespective of whether her deed is performed in public or in the safety of obscurity. The true self, centred in Tao, cannot be harmed by praise, and does not need the nourishment of humility. The true self is part of the absolute and truly free. 41 True freedom is to live in total detachment, free from desire and ignorance. It is to reside in silence and emptiness, from whence wisdom and compassion come, in total harmony with the eternal flow of the Tao. The Taoist sage does not cling even to freedom. He is truly free. 42 Does everything come from the Tao? Babies bloated with hunger, their mothers haggard with grief? Boy soldiers, drugged, hacking off human limbs? Warriors in the sky inflicting suffering on the defenseless? Innocent beings, smelling death, lined up for the butcher’s knife? Does this infinite suffering come from the Tao? And do those tiny emaciated corpses, their suffering done, return to the Tao? If we are empty, then why does so much blood spill from us? If reality is in my mind, then why do corpses smell? How can I polish my mirror when there are bloodstains on my coat? How can I hide in emptiness when suffering is so real? If reality is illusion, then why do the cries reaching my ears not become faint? How can I search for peace when people are searching for food? Only when we live in harmony with the Tao will harmony come. There is no other way. Only when compassion and wisdom flow in abundance from emptiness and silence will cruelty fail and mercy prevail. 43 The Taoist sage is wise like a new-born baby before the first thought has entered her virgin mind. The Taoist sage is as unconquerable as a young child protected by innocence. The Taoist sage moves in the world yet dwells in Tao. 44 The intellectual searches for meaning and synthesis, and desperately tries to dissolve the great paradoxes of life. The person close to Tao - needing neither meaning, nor synthesis - lives in harmony with paradoxes, for they are the broken language of the spirit pointing at the ineffable. 45 The Tao is absolute and dependent on nothing, least of all priests and disciples who turn the inconceivable into doctrines of influence. The Tao is not a concept and cannot be spread by words. The absolute needs no promotion, for it is nowhere and everywhere. The Taoist sage has no mission to fulfil and prefers to be silent and invisible. 46 Ignorance is not a lack of knowledge, but a lack of faith in the unknowable. The ignorant cling to knowledge as if knowledge can explain the inexplicable. The Taoist sage lives in harmony with the mysterious. 47 Ignorance is the root of all suffering. The ignorant try to escape suffering by accumulating knowledge, in this way increasing their ignorance. The wise try to find meaning in suffering through knowledge, in this way increasing their suffering. The Taoist sage eats apricots in summer and sits close to the fire in winter. 48 In their restlessness, ignorant people try to quench their thirst for life with objects of desire, which, like brackish water, leave them even thirstier and more restless than before. Accepting emptiness and becoming silent brings peace to the restless, for the Tao is like a bottomless well filled to the brim with fresh water. 49 Will the sage close to the Tao become extinct in a world where the ego is the norm? Will despair drive the sage from the Tao as his compassion turns to bitterness? Isn’t it inevitable in a world ruled by ignorance that the new-born mind becomes a stranger to itself even before it can take its first tentative steps? Isn’t innocence being destroyed by greed even before the innocent have a chance to make a choice? Isn’t our harmony with the Tao irretrievably lost? Do not despair. The Tao is in us; and we are in the Tao. There is no separation from the Tao. Like a flash of lightning illuminating the night sky, one instant of enlightenment once in a thousand years will drive ignorance away. The Tao has no power, yet it is unconquerable. The Tao is like flowing water, which is soft and seems to be subdued by hardness, yet washes mountains into the oceans. 50 Even when you understand every detail of the universe and have uncovered the mystery of life, you will be entirely ignorant if you do not reside in emptiness, from whence all compassion flows. Even when you have no education and cannot even write your name, you will be a true Taoist sage if you reside in emptiness, from whence all compassion flows. 51 To cease thinking is folly where survival is at stake, yet it is even greater folly not to enter silence where thinking carries no weight. The Taoist sage thinks when thinking is necessary, but she never breaks silence. 52 The pure sound of the bell penetrates the ear of the wise man and the fool alike, but the Taoist sage hears the clear silent call of Tao. 53 The abundance and beauty of the lush green valley are seen by farmer, poet and healer alike, but the Taoist sage sees the splendour of Tao. 54 The senses fill our minds with a perpetual stream of form and sensation which drive the ignorant to action. The Taoist sage does not act, for she sees only emptiness and silence. The person in close harmony with the Tao ignores the volitional, and is moved only by compassion born from silence. 55 The humble man close to Tao becomes less every day. When he has lost himself completely, only his true self remains. 56 Enlightenment is not gain; it is the loss of everything dear. Even wisdom and truth disappear when only silence and emptiness remain. 57 The impatient fool crosses the raging river only to be swept away by the floods. The wise man uses wisdom as a sturdy craft to reach the other side. The Taoist sage has the patience to wait until the floods subside, but then he will not cross the river, for he will sit on its banks at ease, admiring the perfect reflection of the moon in its silent waters. 58 The person in total harmony with the Tao is kind not for reward, nor in obedience, but she is kind because she is kind. 59 The person close to the Tao sees no purpose, has no aims, yet lives a life with purpose and reaches all aims. 60 The ignorant need aims; they act according to plans. The wise do not need aims; they act on insight. Those in harmony with Tao do not act; they simply do what comes next. 61 Without the Tao, losing is a way of losing, winning a way of gaining. With the Tao, losing does not exist, and winning does not matter. 62 The wise know it is only when you hide your light that you spread it. The person in harmony with Tao does not even know she has a light to hide. 63 The true word does not exist, for the Tao has no name. 64 The fool is controlled by thoughts. The wise man controls thoughts. The Taoist sage lives in silence. 65 Thoughts shape the ignorant. The Taoist sage is shaped by silence. 66 The ignorant whine and revile when the seemingly solid evaporates at their touch. The wise search furtively for justice hidden in injustice. The Taoist sage knows the substantial is illusion and justice out of reach where greed rules. The sage close to Tao accepts disillusionment and futility as the gateway to enlightenment. The person moving with Tao lives life every moment in spontaneous harmony with his true self as if life is the only meaning. To the person in total harmony with the Tao, meaning is non-essential and futility non-existent. 67 The wise believe aimlessness is a vice. The person close to Tao uses aimlessness as a virtue. 68 The wise shape their destiny through noble thoughts. The Taoist sage has no destiny to shape. 69 The person in harmony with Tao ignores justice and obeys no laws: he is moved by compassion. 70 When you expect it least, the ego, declared dead, will surge into your mind, and in an instant you will seem so far removed from Tao as heaven from earth. Has it ever happened to you? Don’t despair. Let it go. Do what comes next. Accepting failure is a humbling experience akin to enlightenment. In an instant you will discover that heaven and earth are one and that you have never been separated from Tao. The Taoist sage lives in harmony with failure and never fails. 71 Compassion may have a destructive agenda. Wisdom may be egotistical small talk to impress. Friendship can be as fickle as a bubble on a wave. Material easily turns to dust. Success is an illusion nurtured by the ego. Popularity is insubstantial and fickle. Even life is fleeting: a dance of shadows on the wall. Yet all these things - compassion, wisdom, friendship, material, popularity, life - are real when they rise out of emptiness. 72 Camouflaged as virtue in all its splendour, vanity lurks, ready to strike and devour innocence. The ambitious are its staple diet, for they are attracted to its glitter. The religious fall prey to vanity, for they become obsessed with salvation. The wise become victims of vanity, for they fall in love with the concepts of virtue. The person in harmony with Tao is beyond the reach of vanity, for she does not cling to virtue, but she dwells in emptiness, and uses silence as a shield. 73 The ego is a terrible taskmaster who drives you to distress. Once your spirit is exhausted, you will be irretrievably lost. The Taoist sage has no ego driving his spirit to exhaustion. He is never too busy, for he does not flee from his true self. 74 Desire is the fuel of the ego. You will never find your true self as long as this fire burns in you. Even the desire to be virtuous will corrupt you in the end. True goodness comes from emptiness, where thinking has stopped and the fire has been extinguished. 75 Compassion transforms guilt into innocence as it turns the farcical into true encounters pointing at the ineffable. The true self is as innocent as a tree, with its roots anchored in the earth and its branches embracing heaven. 76 Enlightenment is to be like a child who reaches out to an exquisite bubble floating before her, mesmerizing her with reflections of light, and when it bursts at her touch, she gazes in shock and wonder at its nothingness in the empty air. 77 The silence of the Taoist sage is more powerful than the clamour of demagogues, yet his silence can be heard only by those who are silent. 78 Hurling insults at the Taoist sage is like throwing stones at empty space. The Taoist sage clings to nothing and therefore has nothing to lose. He cannot be hurt, because he has accepted emptiness. 79 It is true for this life that suffering is inevitable, yet not all suffering is unavoidable. The ignorant create their own agonies when they allow their desire, greed and hatred to turn the fiction in their minds into the reality of suffering. The Taoist sage does not suffer mind-driven torments caused by desire, greed and hatred. She avoids the avoidable, for her silence is complete. When she faces the inescapable, the Taoist sage suffers with the equanimity and patience only the acceptance of emptiness can bring. 80 The greedy strive for happiness as if it were a possession that could be achieved or bought. They do not understand that happiness is not a possession. It is a spiritual quality as elusive as the wind brushing your cheek. Those that have found what they perceive to be happiness, will cling to it desperately, and destroy it, like someone crushing a beautiful flower in passionate embrace. The person in harmony with the Tao understands that the glitter of happiness is often a facade covering dissatisfaction and greed. The Taoist sage knows: If happiness is a constant feeling, then it does not exist. If happiness is an aim, then it will vanish the moment the aim is achieved. If happiness is the satisfaction of the ego, then it is a form of hell. Clinging to happiness inflates the ego and destroys compassion. People close to the Tao ignore the ego: they need no happiness, for they are alive. 81 To serve your ego is to worship a false identity created by yourself. It is like a man suffering from amnesia reinventing himself because he has forgotten who he is. It is like living in a day dream. When you awake from the dream, you will discover the image in the mirror is the image of a stranger, yet your true self. At this moment of awakening when dream and reality untangle, you realize what you have thought to be your real self has never existed. As you move closer to see the stranger the image in the mirror will fade and disappear. The truly enlightened look into the mirror to find only emptiness in its reflection. 82 The person close to Tao lives without hope and is never disappointed. Her thankfulness knows no bounds. 83 The Taoist sage is not so cruel as to turn the other cheek. He simply walks away. The Taoist sage does not give in to conquer. He refuses to fight. Yet, if in true danger, with no other way out, the Taoist sage will face the destroyer like a true warrior who has nothing to lose, for his power comes from emptiness. 84 The Taoist sage will rather lose face than manipulate others to save face. If non-manipulative action cannot save him, he prefers dishonour. The Taoist sage is not touched by the opinions of others, for he lives in emptiness where reputation does not exist. 85 The Taoist sage does not trust people claiming wisdom, for he knows wisdom does not promote itself. 86 The Taoist sage is wary of open declarations of compassion, for he knows compassion is humble and operates out of sight. 87 The Taoist sage avoids holy men who praise themselves, for he knows the true self needs no praise. 88 When unable to avoid people who delight in the grief of others, the Taoist sage does what comes next, knowing his silence is stronger than their brashness. 89 The ignorant feel cold and lonely when they think of the Tao, indefinable, without pity, beyond their reach. The Tao does not weep at their feet when they are suffering. The Tao does not take their side, and does not destroy their enemies. The Tao is not a friend who protects and consoles them. The Tao has no face. When storms rage around us, we are at the mercy of Karma. Even the Buddha becomes wet in the rain. The ignorant long for a place where Karma has lost its power, and where their prayers liberate them from the effects of their deeds. The person in harmony with Tao lifts her face to the rain, shivers in the snow, and perspires in the sun. 90 In this endless and merciless cycle of suffering, the law of cause and effect reigns supreme and without respite over everything; Karma towers over all, blocking out the sun, yet its shadow does not fall on the person walking with Tao. 91 The oak slumbers in the acorn. The bird waits in the egg. Realities ferment in dreams. Every thing and every no-thing, existent and non-existent, lie dormant in the Tao. Yet the Tao has nothing to do with it all. 92 Desperate and ignorant people search for peace on perpetual waves of inconstant emotion or in the possession of things. The Taoist sage knows peace is neither a condition, nor a possession, nor an emotion. Peace is emptiness and silence. 93 The wise are wary of words, which corrupt rather than cure. They know verbosity is the obesity of the ego, the symptom of ignorance. The wise will tell you that, like dust on a mirror, words distract and distort reality. In the hands of those with evil intent, words of wisdom lead to evil. The true Taoist sage, silent as he may be, has no fear of words, for he knows the mind may mirror reality, yet it is not a thing and cannot be contaminated by dust. The true self is pure and absolute as Tao. It is in Tao, and Tao is in it. 94 Only silence can explain the inexplicable. Who can think the unthinkable? Only the sage in total harmony with Tao. Yet his thinking is an act of complete faith beyond concepts. 95 How do you bring people into harmony with the Tao? You can only point at the invisible. It is like using sign language in the dark. The mystery is that it works. 96 I see my reflection in every particle of dust. Even the mountain has my face. The bird ruffles my feathers and the spider spins my web. Who can sense the loneliness of a parrot in a cage? Who can feel the slow passion of a snail? Only the true sage in total harmony with the Tao. 97 When I strike you, your blood will certainly flow from my veins. When you are starving, your bloated belly is gnawing into my flesh. The laughter in your eyes lights up mine. I can see my face in yours. Can you see yours in mine? 98 The greedy see in all beings objects to be exploited for gain. The Taoist sage sees only sentient beings filled with emptiness. The man filled with greed, carrying an axe in his heart, sees in the forest objects to be destroyed for profit. The Taoist sage, filled with emptiness, sees the forest as an untouchable temple inhabited by friends. Greed turns people blind to the beauty of emptiness inherent in all things. Only in total detachment does the wonder of Tao become visible. 99 Should the victor delight in victory while the defeated suffer humiliation? No, for the Tao cares for neither victory nor defeat. The Taoist sage cannot delight in glory which inflicts pain. 100 Should the wealthy enjoy their luxuries at the cost of poverty? No, for the Tao cares not about the insubstantial. The Taoist sage cannot enjoy what is based on sorrow. 101 Is life which causes suffering worth living? Yes, because suffering is unavoidable. The Taoist sage lives a life spontaneously minimizing suffering. 102 What good is honour if it causes humiliation? The Taoist sage cares not for honour, even if it is innocent. 103 Is truth really truth when it is made possible by deceit? No, for the Tao knows neither truth nor deceit. The Taoist sage does cling to truth, for clinging to truth is betraying it. 104 People in harmony with the Tao prefer to be traitors than heroes destroying life to protect the fruits of greed. 105 The Taoist sage does not trust the wisdom of the masses. He believes in the wisdom of silence. 106 People in harmony with the Tao obey authority only as far as their true selves allow them to do so. The Taoist sage will not hesitate to pay the price for his silence. 107 Should ignorance be carried by faith? No, for faith is based on wisdom beyond words and concepts. The Taoist sage has faith that banishes ignorance. 108 In the world of common sense, yes is yes, and no is no. To the Taoist sage, yes and no are identical. 109 Knowledge based on ignorance decreases fear only to increase it tenfold. Only dwelling in emptiness truly banishes fear. The Taoist sage lives without fear, like an innocent child unaware of the world, and he carries his knowledge as if it does not exist. His faith is complete. 110 The comparative perception of beauty is essentially cruel. The Taoist sage does not differentiate between the beautiful and the ugly. Beauty is beautiful when it emanates from emptiness. 111 Creativity based on the sorrow of others is destructive. True creativity rises from emptiness. 112 The true Taoist sage is oblivious of greatness and smallness. He treats stones and dignitaries with equal respect. 113 Even trying to get rid of the ego inflates the ego. The person in harmony with the Tao ignores the ego as compassion immerses him in the eternal flow of the Tao. 114 Even the person in harmony with the Tao finds it difficult not to cling to usefulness and approval. Yet, without hesitation, the person in total harmony with the Tao would allow his jealous rivals into his realm as he fades into emptiness and insignificance. 115 The wise do not cling even to virtue, for they know clinging to virtue is the proof of its loss. The person in total harmony with the Tao does not cling to his virtue, for he is unaware of it. 116 When people are close to the Tao, mercy is cherished more than gems, and those that have failed share the table with those that have succeeded. 117 People in harmony with the Tao eat when they are hungry and rest when they are tired. They build homes for shelter and not for show; they wear clothes for protection and not as a facade. They work to live, and not to demonstrate superiority. They need neither unity nor division. They speak to communicate and not to control. They love silence. They do not know who their leaders are, for their leaders are true leaders. They obey no law, yet break none, for their laws are based on compassion. They sleep like innocent children, with open windows and unlocked doors. 118 After the curse and before his reaction, anger faded into emptiness. The sage in harmony with the Tao does not allow external discord to disturb his silence. 119 Suffering is not the mother of beauty and truth, but the child of ignorance. Yet to the Taoist sage, truth and beauty can come even from suffering. 120 Separation is fiction invented by our intelligence. Oneness still lies within our scope of thought. Unity seems beyond our reach even when our thoughts have ceased. Unity is beyond the reach of our intellect precisely because it is not fiction. Yet our true self has always been in total union with the complete universe. 121 The ignorant are trapped by their thinking. The realization of this is the key to enlightenment. 122 Those desperate for peace drive all thoughts from their minds, locking themselves behind iron gates, from where there is no escape. The Taoist sage has peace and remains unattached to thoughts which may come and go as they please. His gates being wide open, the Taoist sage wanders in total freedom wherever the Tao leads him. 123 Silence is not the absence of thoughts and emotions, but the freedom from attachment. 124 Even after he has entered emptiness, the fragrance of peach blossoms fills the air like incense. 125 Even after his illusions have evaporated into emptiness, the image of her face lingers, pale as a lily in the shade. 126 Even after he has become silent, the song of the wind moving through the forest echos softly in his ear. 127 As calmness returned, her thoughts tiptoed in, like apprehensive guests, timidly, ready to leave at the first sign of disapproval. Like intruders afraid of the light, her negative emotions receded, ashamed, as she called them by their names. At last, all unwanted guests gone, she was serene, surrounded by emptiness and silence. 128 The wise person alters ugly thoughts. The person in search of enlightenment embraces good thoughts. The person in total harmony with the Tao does not cling even to good thoughts. 129 To desire is to obtain. To aspire is to achieve. The Taoist sage neither desires nor aspires, yet he leaves nothing undone. 130 To the ambitious, joy and disillusionment follow in painful succession. The Taoist sage cannot be disillusioned, for she carries no ambition and no illusion. Without hope, she lives like one filled with hope. Her joy flows from emptiness. 131 If your gaze is fixed on form, the essence disappears. If you focus on emptiness, form vanishes. The fool confuses form with essence. The wise know the difference. The Taoist sage sees form and essence as identical. 132 Form and emptiness are interdependent, yet identical. Silence and sound are different, yet the same. Subject and object exist, yet they don’t. Every thing is in all things, all things are in every thing. We have never met, yet we have known each other since before time existed. Knowing this brings peace. Accepting this great mystery is true enlightenment. Do you despair when this mystery seems to block your way? Don’t. Enlightenment comes when it comes. It is in the blades of grass you have trampled with your feet. You cannot go to it, but it will come to you. 133 The ignorantly sincere vainly try to reduce their egos, but their egos grow only bigger. The wise person ignores his ego and serves selflessly, so that his self, starved of thought, disappears. The person in total harmony with the Tao has no ego, for she has entered emptiness and lives with compassion. 134 The nobly ambitious glorify visions and enthrone ideals in their hearts. The wise distrust visions and know even the noblest ideals can be corrupted. The person in harmony with Tao trusts only emptiness and silence. 135 The wise control the self to obtain strength. The person at one with Tao ignores the self and prefers to be weak. 136 Victory belongs to the greedy. The Taoist sage prefers defeat. 137 The wise have right thoughts in order to obtain mastery over themselves. The Taoist sage ignores thoughts in order to avoid control over anyone. 138 Victories attained through right thoughts keep holy men fretful, afraid that a moment’s lapse might throw them back in the throes of arrogance and wretchedness. The Taoist sage sleeps tightly, for she dwells in emptiness where there is nothing to win or to lose. 139 Men craving holiness use words to create images of their gods, and confuse faith with their pride in their own inventions. The Taoist sage shuns words and trusts silence, knowing full well the Tao is beyond the reach of concepts. 140 Men of religion often claim to be holders of The Truth, in this way creating power for themselves. The person close to Tao ignores power, for she knows truth has no name. 141 The ignorant need rules and aims. The worldly need possession and pleasure. The religious need dogma and power. The Taoist sage eats when he is hungry and sleeps when he is tired. 142 A confused world often equates blessedness with influence. Yet blessedness is a hidden quality, and influence is the pathway to misery. 143 The wise stay calm to obtain power. The Taoist sage is serene because she is not interested in power. 144 The person craving blessedness gives food to the poor to save his own soul. The Taoist sage gives food to the poor because he does not want them to go hungry. 145 The Taoist sage is a sincere teacher, for he does not betray his true self. He can be trusted completely, for he neither loves nor hates. He seems distant and without pity, yet his silence points at the Tao. 146 If you look closely, you will not find a thing. Existence is an illusion; emptiness is real. Yet existence and emptiness are identical. 147 Turning towards emptiness to escape reality is turning away from your true self. Losing yourself in reality to escape emptiness is falling prey to an illusion. Like a drowning man clinging to an imaginary branch, you will surely perish in the floods. 148 There is no unity in the world of differentiation. Unity lies where it is not needed. 149 Walking away from wisdom is wise; rejecting wisdom, though, stupid. 150 Those with faith have power, but they never use it. Only the weak utilize power. The meek are blessed, for they live in harmony with the Tao. 151 To lose because you are not able to win is defeat. To lose because you do not want to win is victory. Yet the true sage would not know the difference, for she does not compete. 152 The wise person bears scorn with grace, knowing full well the scandal monger is the best teacher. The person in harmony with the Tao does not repay scorn with grace, but with the neglect worthy of compassion. 153 Even in the midst of hectic throngs, the gentle breeze caresses her cheek. Even when greed controls all emotions, she is gentle and mild. Even in murky smog, she glimpses the radiance of sunset. Even when violence throbs in people’s minds, she steps delicately over ants crossing her path. 154 On his death bed, his family mourning, he is serene, for he knows Death, like Life, is an illusion: there is no beginning and no end. There is only the endless flow of Tao. The man of Tao has no fear, for he walks with Tao. 155 The Tao is without pity, yet all compassion flows from it. 156 Why am I alone when they cheer? Why can’t I cry when they weep? Why does the rhythm of their music not move me? Why do I alone see the darkness in their light? Why do I alone despair when they are filled with triumph? Why does this food taste like tears? 157 If the Taoist sage has the power of someone moving in harmony with the Tao, why does he avoid company? Has he not learnt how to deal with men? 158 If the Taoist sage is so close to Tao that he is unmoved by danger, then why does he walk amongst people as if he is crossing a dangerous river? 159 If the Taoist sage knows all the answers, why does he not answer questions, but remains silent? 160 If the Taoist sage is so effective that he reaches all aims without having aims, why is he satisfied with so little? 161 If the Taoist sage is detached, controlling his own emotions and thoughts, why does he weep when he sees a child without feet? 162 If the Taoist sage is of such significance to the world of the spirit, why does he seem so insignificant among those that count in the world? 163 If the Taoist sage is dispassionate and so much in control of himself, why does he remain silent when he should speak, and why does he speak when he should remain silent? 164 If the Taoist sage is so developed on a spiritual level, why does he prefer the company of the humble? 165 If the Taoist sage knows the world so well, why does he seem so lost amongst the sophisticated and the chic? 166 If the Taoist sage is filled with wisdom and Tao, why does he go unnoticed in the world? 167 If the Taoist sage is at one with the universe, why does he walk in the world like a strange guest? 168 If the Taoist sage is so wise, why does he appear so dumb amongst those renowned for cleverness? 169 If the Taoist sage is enlightened, why does he move in the light as if in darkness? 170 If the Taoist sage is wise and serene, why does he seem so full of doubt? 171 If the Taoist sage dwells in emptiness and silence, why does his flesh decay like yours and mine? 172 If the Taoist sage is filled with compassion, why has he disappeared into the wilderness, never to be seen again? 173 The sage in harmony with the Tao is invisible in a world of greed, and of total insignificance among those hungering for power. The man of ambition cannot else but look down with scorn on the humble man close to Tao, for his aimlessness is folly to those with an agenda. The Taoist sage ignores power and does not complain when he has to pay the price for emptiness. 174 I long for Tao like a hungry baby for his mother’s breast. Yet now that I am weaned and cleverness reigns, and my mind isolates me from the rest, I am like a lonely parrot trapped in a cage, miming sounds made by my captors, instead of calling for my lover. 175 After the end and before the beginning, we searched across the silent wastes. From horizon to horizon, we saw only emptiness, and we knew: we had always been, we had never existed. 176 If she is a product of survival, then why does she not gloat in victory, but weep with the loser? Ah, my friend, don’t you understand? What you call survival is cruelty. Her realm is that of the spirit, where survival is defeat. She appears only once in a thousand years, but everyone drinks from her bottomless well. 177 Even in slumber I searched for her face, like someone obsessed, and when it became clear I would never succeed, and I stopped searching, she appeared not in glory but without trace, and I saw my self in her face. 178 The Tao is unreachable yet she is humble and closer to you than your mind. 179 Even when she has been wracked, torn apart and degraded, and she can smell her own decay, her true self remains unstained, pure and innocent as Tao. Even though she cannot escape Karma, the inexorable laws of cause and effect, suffering does not enter her paradise of silence and emptiness, where lilies pure and beautiful rise from the humus of decay. 180 If the Tao is silence, why do words of wisdom enter the minds of those close to Tao? 181 If the Tao is emptiness, why are those close to Tao filled with the joy of life? 182 If the Tao does not care for us, why are those beings moving in harmony with the Tao so blessed? 183 If the Tao does not support anyone, why does the Taoist sage have the courage of a tiger? 184 If the Tao is without pity, why are those in harmony with the Tao filled with compassion? 185 If the Tao is mysterious, why do those close to Tao see so clearly? 186 If the Tao is unreachable, why do I feel her breath on my cheek? 187 Look around you and see! The world is overflowing with infinite Tao! Everything comes from the Tao and returns to the Tao. She is neither cruel, nor kind. She is vague, yet clear. See her beauty in the setting sun! She dances with the wind and laughs with the clouds. Her silence echoes across the valleys. She is no thing, no where, yet everywhere and everything. She does not exist and yet she has always been. She does not know you, yet she touches you everyday. She is Tao, Mysterious and Beautiful. 188 In emptiness it is clear: The Tao is Tao. How do I know? Silence tells me so.