Paths of Stillness: Selections from the Taoist ‘Book of Lieh-Tzu,’ Part 2 of 2

“‘To be in reality entertaining the ideas of profit and loss, though without venturing to utter them, is a case of hiding one's resentment and harboring secret passions; hence a mere glance was vouchsafed.’ ‘At the end of five years a change had taken place; my mind was reflecting on right and wrong, and my lips were speaking of profit and loss. Then, for the first time, my Master relaxed His countenance and smiled.’ ‘Right and wrong, profit and loss, are the fixed principles prevailing in the world of sense. To let the mind reflect on what it will, to let the lips utter what they please, and not grudgingly bottle it up in one's heart, so that the internal and the external may become as one, is still not so good as passing beyond the bounds of self and abstaining from all manifestation. This first step, however, pleased the Master and caused Him to give a smile.’ ‘At the end of seven years, there was another change. I let my mind reflect on what it would, but it no longer occupied itself with right and wrong. I let my lips utter whatsoever they pleased, but they no longer spoke of profit and loss. Then, at last, my Master led me in to sit on the mat beside Him.’

‘The question is, how to bring the mind into a state of calm, in which there is no thinking or mental activity; how to keep the lips silent, with only natural inhalation and exhalation going on. If you give yourself up to mental perfection, right and wrong will cease to exist; if the lips follow their natural law they know not profit or loss. Their ways agreeing, Master and friend sat side by side with Him on the same seat. That was only as it should be.’ ‘At the end of nine years my mind gave free rein to its reflections, my mouth free passage to its speech. Of right and wrong, profit and loss, I had no knowledge, either as touching myself or others. I knew neither that the Master was my instructor, nor that the other man was my friend. Internal and External were blended into Unity. After that, there was no distinction between eye and ear, ear and nose, nose and mouth: all were the same. My mind was frozen, my body in dissolution, my flesh and bones all melted together. I was wholly unconscious of what my body was resting on, or what was under my feet. I was borne this way and that on the wind, like dry chaff or leaves falling from a tree. In fact, I knew not whether the wind was riding on me or I on the wind.

Now, you have not spent one whole season in your Teacher’s house, and yet you have lost patience two or three times already. Why, at this rate, the atmosphere will never support an atom of your body, and even the Earth will be unequal to the weight of one of your limbs! How can you expect to walk in the void or to be charioted on the wind?’ Hearing this, Yin Sheng was deeply ashamed. […]”