Friday, October 4, 2013

Bit by Bit - Chapter 22, Part 10

Trey Smith

"The bright and shining is born out of deep darkness; the ordered is born out of formlessness; pure spirit is born out of the Way. The body is born originally from this purity, and the ten thousand things give bodily form to one another through the process of birth. Therefore those with nine openings in the body are born from the womb; those with eight openings are born from eggs. [In the case of the Way] there is no trace of its coming, no limit to its going. Gateless, room-less, it is airy and open as the highways of the four directions. He who follows along with it will be strong in his four limbs, keen and penetrating in intellect, sharp-eared, bright-eyed, wielding his mind without wearying it, responding to things without00 prejudice. Heaven cannot help but be high, earth cannot help but be broad, the sun and moon cannot help but revolve, the ten thousand things cannot help but flourish. Is this not the Way?
~ Burton Watson translation ~
Tao, the Way, the Grand Mystery...is all around us. We cannot see it as a specific finite entity because it is not separate from anything and everything. It is like air or [empty] space. We cannot grasp it, but it grasps us.

To view the Index page for this series, go here.

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