No Doing & No Form
Tao has reality and manifestation
but does nothing and has no form.
It may be imparted by cannot be grasped.
It may be attained but cannot be seen.
It has its root and ground of existence in itself.
Before there was heaven and earth
It existed from eternity.
From it came the powers of the spirits and the gods.
It produced heaven and earth.
It was there before the highest summit
and yet could not be called lofty.
It was below all space
and yet could not be considered low.
It came before heaven and earth
and yet it has not existed long.
It is more ancient than the great antiquity,
and yet cannot be considered old.
Zhuangzi by Zhuang Zhou trans. by Hyun Hochmann, Yang Guorong, The Great and Honored Teacher.
Saturday morning. Arrived late. There was no one but me in the customer area at Starbucks. I sat and opened my laptop. With a steaming cup of coffee, my intent was to focus upon reading a saved article, and then to select a passage from Zhuangzi and add a few comments before posing. But then I became aware of the “Christmas” music loudly emanating from the ceiling speaker almost directly above me. Barely identifiable as holiday songs l wondered if the tunes has been created as commercial filler. Sonic novocaine to numb the tedium of activity and obligations of the weeks to come.
Almost as upon signal the space rapidly filled (overfilled) with customers. The hubbub of conversation is loud. I suppose everyone is straining to be heard over the background music. No matter. The music is the louder, prevailing over all conversation.
Here as in every place, every sphere of existence: is Tao. There’s no need to strain for a definition, as if there’s a code apt to capture the essence. There’s no essence! And there’s no action that can be cleaved from the irritating “music”. The Tao woven into that.
Where’s the beginning? You know the before, before there was before…
Languages are for mundane problem solving in four dimensions of ordinary space and time. As humans, for our species language is indispensable. No language and no thought full stop!.
As for the Tao, for the “way making” of the Tao…
The sacred just is, without word or description, absolutely nonresident to any church, resistant to occult franchising.
I can live with that.
One last thought.
I’ll live by that – like it or not.
2 thoughts on “No Doing & No Form”
“Things” appear to have changed in the dynamic of these daily offerings. I’m not sure why, but our lives and our focus do change. Much of the time we have little control over how and when they do. With that said, I may take an extended break from commenting.
Today, though, I will add a poem written 12 years ago that I believe relates to your Zhou verses above. It is one I have posted here before, but it seems appropriate at this point.
The Music of Time
There is a melody that has existed
since the beginning,
since the cosmos opened it gates
and the light of creation
rushed forward against the darkness.
A melody sung by swirls of ancient dust
as galaxies formed and new worlds
danced among the stars.
There is a melody that rides the winds of time,
echoing against the edges of the universe
and reverberating within vast chambered neutrons.
For a moment in its journey
the melody pulls from the strings of a piano
drifts through the air
and settles on the membrane of my ear
before melting from the present.
There is a melody that will last
until the final spark of nature is extinguished.
A melody that has been caught
in the eddies of existence where it cannot escape,
for its indelible notes were, are and will be
written upon the fabric of this seemingly eternal
but far too brief iteration
of all that we will ever know.
“There is a melody that will last”
A majestic and sad poem. Who would disagree?