Words: Four.

 






Words do not lead to Being;
Being does not lead to words.
They exist apart from each other; 
linked by a fragile path of goodwill.


Words must be used to communicate
that which can not be communicated by words.
Thus it is wise to not listen too closely to the words.

Like stepping stones, they must remain intact.
Lest the Way become muddled and unclear.

Like stepping stones, they are nothing but stones.
It is the Way they form, that leads to Being.

Hearing words, you will misunderstand;
The Way will be lost.
Goodwill is the sense that must be used
to see The Way, through the words.

Three: Immortality.

Valuing a thing,
the best we can do for it
is to let it go.

Valuing ourselves,
our best course
is to let our selves go.

Letting go of self
sets self free.

Freed, self  joins with the Tao.
This can be called immortality.



Putting value upon a thing, then we want to own it.
If we already own it, then we want to keep it.

When we come to truly value ourselves,
why not free ourselves of limits? 
Letting go of ourselves, we find great freedom.
Removing all self-imposed limits,
there is nothing we can not do.

Finally we understand that death itself is meaningless.
Having no limits means that death, too, is no limit.
Immortality involves living each moment, so that time
no longer contains us within limits we have already let go of.

The Way: Three.

 






The Way is the destination. 
A single step suffices. 
The removal of distance 
along with everything else.
The Destination is The Way. 

What seems so far is not far at all.
Thinking only makes it appear so.
When thought is removed,
the distance is also removed.
One takes a single step
and arrives.

The sage is nothing special.
Even he knows that.
He says impossible things,
to those who consider such things impossible.

To him, nothing is impossible.
He has no limits.
He has come to know the limitless,
and has attained it,
in a single step.

The Way: Two.

 



 


The Way leads to The Destination. 
The Way is Known. 
The Way may be Followed. 
The Way is The Destination. 

There are many ways. Each leads to its destination.
A destination is chosen and the way to it is taken.
There may be many ways to arrive at some destinations.
Or there may be only one.

Any destination that can be imagined may be reached using mind.
The Destination that is unimaginable, is unreachable using mind.
To reach The Destination, mind must be set aside.
To reach it, one must follow The Way.

Set aside the mind.
Subborn it to the rule of nothingness.
When nothingness is all there is,
The Way is clearly seen.

The Journey Of A Thousand Miles
begins with a single step.
The Journey Of A Thousand Miles
ends with a single step.

Mind: One.

The mind seeks proof. 
The mind seeks context. 
Spirit needs no such things.

Questions are puzzles created by the mind.
It needs answers because it can not supply them itself.
It seeks to know, because it does not know.
It needs to argue for itself, because it does not trust itself.

Spirit has no questions: it is part of the source.

Two: Understanding.

What is it, to understand a thing?
It is to stand under a thing.
Standing under can be called humility,
and with humility comes understanding.

The ocean stands lower than the world.
Thus it is humble.
Men sail upon it, seeking themselves,
and are humbled by its power.
Humbling themselves before the humble,
they are doubly blessed.
They come to understand the ocean;
the ocean comes to understand them.

The Tao stands under everything;
thus everything is understood.
This is the great mystery.



How hard we try to understand what understanding is:

Standing under a thing, we gain a new perspective upon it. If
we only stand back and study, what can we really know? To fully
understand a thing, we must, in fact, become the thing. This is far
easier if we move as close as possible to the thing. And stand
under it. This is humility...

Humility puts itself beneath - under - a thing or a being.
Humility is a state to strive for, since it opens us to whatever
is, as opposed to whatever might have been, if only we had been
more humble.

We do not think of God as being humble.
Yet God, like the Tao, makes no claims for Himself / itself.
Only religions claim that God is this or that.

If you would understand, then stand under.

One: Mind.

The mind is like a knife:
It can be sharpened;
It can be dulled.
It can even be broken.
It can cut through illusion,
or spread it like butter.
It can be sheathed or unsheathed,
turned out or turned in.
It can shape things from other things;
it can destroy what can not be replaced.
Your mind is a useful tool.
It is not who you are.

The Tao has no mind.
It does not think.
It does not cut.
It simply is.




Who are you? What are you? It can take a lifetime to find out.
You are a body, and a mind.  But you are more than this. 
Much, much more...

We separate ourselves - the body from the mind. 
We all do this. We learn that thought is what creates action.
Our brains command our bodies to move: our bodies move.
Before every action, therefore, there takes place a thinking process. 
Everything we do is done only after we think about it first.
Why is this? 
Why do not the two work together, since they are, in fact, together?
The answer is that they can.
The master finds that mind and body are merely vehicles for Spirit, which, when finally allowed to lead, does a far better job than either mind or body. 
Spirit is the invisible command-center that directs all thought and action, once allowed to.
It brings together everything,  allowing everything - within and without - to interact as designed.