Zhi Travels North (7)

1 Ehegan and Shennong studied and practiced Tao from Old Longji.

2 Someday, Shennong had a noon nap against a chair in his room. Ehegan pushed the door open and entered, saying, “Our teacher is dead.”

3 Waking up, Shennong still was in vague. After he stood up with the help of a crutch, he made sense of his teacher’s death. He kept silent for a moment, and then threw off the crutch. He seemed insane to cry and laugh. “I know that the heaven doesn’t like my wild and paranoid personality --- I think and talk wildly all day. The heaven knows that my teacher is the man guides me to those wild thinking and talking. Now he has been taken away and I am left here. Alas! Without my teacher, I can’t have the strange and wild thinking any more.”

4 Yangang who came to condole heard what Shennong said. He signed, “A learned teacher is everyone’s backbone. Without teacher’s guidance and help, we have difficulty in learning.

5 About Tao, honestly speaking, what Old Longji knows is limit, his teaching gives Shengnong nothing but more wild thinking which is helpless in practice. The heaven knows that Tao that can be spoken of is not true one. It is bad to think wildly and spouting for argument. So the heaven asks Old Longji to leave there so that the wild words can be ceased and Shennong is able to go on the right way in practice.

6 In the pursuit of the true Tao, a teacher of perfect practice doesn’t spend time in speaking and argument. He just does the important works such as: practicing of Yoga, Zen and meditation.

7 We look for Tao, and there is no form; we hearken for it, and there is no sound. People call it “dim and obscure”. It means formless darkness.

8 So, we know that what can be discussed, seen, heard and touched is not Tao.”

9 There was a fable in the past. Taiqing asked Wuqiong, “Do you know Tao?”

10 Wuqiong answered, “I don’t know.”

11 He asked Wuwei, “Do you know Tao?”

12 Wuwei answered, “I know it.”

13 Taiqing asked again, “Could you explain Tao as you know?”

14 Wuwei said, “Surely.” He gave a detailed explanation to Taiqing.

15 Wuwei said, “I know that Tao can become high, low, concentrated and dispersed. This is Tao that I know.”

16 Taiqing asked Wushi about the two’s answers. “Wuqiong doesn’t know and Wuwei knows. Who is better?”

17 Wushi remarked, “He who replied ‘don’t know’ is deeply aware of Tao; he who replied ‘know’ is shallow. It is because that he who doesn’t know has gone deep into Tao and he who knows just knows the surface.”

18 Raising his head, Taiqing signed, “He who said ‘don’t know’ actually knows Tao. He who said ‘know’ actually knows the surface. How to know who know it indeed?”

19 Wushi explained, “Tao is soundless so what audible is not Tao. Tao is invisible so what visible is not Tao. Tao is unspeakable, so what speakable is not Tao.

20 Tao conceals in the things visible; Tao should not be named. Any name will restrict its authenticity.”

21 Wushi said again, “Anyone who answers the questions about Tao has no idea of Tao. Anyone, who asks the questions about Tao, shows that he never touches Tao.

22 Tao can not be asked and there is no answer about Tao.

23 Asking the question that should not be asked is ‘futile asking’, his questioning is in dire extremity; answering the question that should not be answered is ‘pointless answering’, he has no internal knowledge of the subject.

24 The ‘Pointless answering’ answers the question of ‘futile asking’, from which we know that they are laymen. They don’t know the exquisite operation of universe and the common source of all things. Therefore, they cannot cross over the Kunlun, nor roam in the Grand Void.”