Chapter 25

Commentary::

The various authors of this text take turns casting names at what cannot be named, offering words to convey the wordless. “Before” Heaven and Earth is a nebulous qi potentiality. What is it that “precedes” the dual world (Heaven and Earth)? Whatever precedes Heaven and Earth is Da, but Heaven and Earth have always been as they are, so nothing really “precedes” them. This “nebu-lous gi” or concept of formlessness may not resemble or capture Da, but it does obliquely describe the practice of zuowang.

Zuowang is to rest in natural condition or the undifferentiated gi potential of beings/things. In a sense, the practice is to rest in a “before.” What is that like? Calm and chaotic, it does not struggle. Dao and zuowang are both unwavering-unchangeable. Calm, certainly, but chaotic as well because “no struggle,” no affliction nor movement, points to wuwei, the central theme of the text. The self-existing Stillness that is Da and zuowang is no different from movement and is therefore cyclical and inexhaustible. This means both are with and without beginning and end. Immortal. Cyclical means everything is self-resolving- has its own end. The term “inexhaustible” points to the endless links of “this and that” -the dual world. In other words, Dao and our practice to remain intimate with it (zuowang) is not transcending or escaping anything; not struggling “away from” anything. It may be said that we watch the endless coming and going without compulsive concern or concentration for either coming or going.

Tentatively, it is regarded as the Mother of all under Heaven. It is also the Mother of all mothering and fathering (and thus not a goddess). Open, empty, but inexhaustibly spewing forth everything.

Not knowing its Name, I give it the alias “Dao.” I know it has no True Name.? If you ask me about its nature or if I were pressed to characterize it, I would call it Great. Great, in this case, means moving far off.3 and far off means gone Beyond. “Far off” relates to the way space changes our perception, like the way a mountain at a distance seems small, or a grain of sand under a microscope looks like a boulder. We live in the world of our senses, but they tell us various seemingly divergent things, sometimes at the same time. Is it we who change, or do the objects themselves not change? It is not a transcendent world because we “know” mountains and grains of sand are changeable.

Going Beyond it also returns. “Beyond” means going completely beyond the five senses. This “great beyond” or sense of Open Space includes “where we seem to find ourselves.” As it turns out, “far off” and under our nose are relatively the same place. Recognizing our compulsion to believe, improve, advance, and know, we can let it all subside into basic sanity, a willingness to work openly with what-is-so-of-itself. Thus, “going beyond, it also returns.”

Dao is therefore Great for no particular reason, no concept. Heaven and Earth are Great because they demonstrate all relationships, the relational aspect of Dao.4 The Adepts are also Great in that they experience these relationships without compulsion.

In the Universe of the “Four Greats,” the Adept is prime. Nothing, not even the Four Greats, is missing in our authentic experience as human beings. As Adepts, we are Dao. We are not on the waiting list for enlightenment or salvation or in the bandstand of cosmic workings; we are in its midst-at its heart. Our nature (de) and Nature itself (Da) are indistinct, inseparable.

Laozi often warns us against the trend to misuse name and category. He says do not name or categorize things to separate them (subject/object). Name and categorize gently and only to recall the interdependent origin of beings/ things, to open up to their relationship.

How do the Four Greats relate to one other? Adepts model themselves on Earth. Earth in this case refers to the gi patterns of manifestation and appearance. Earth is not solid,5 but relates to our senses the way the drama of a film relates to our emotions. Patterns appear because Earth models itself on Heaven. All the patterns of Earth are cyclical in response to the Celestial Movement of Heaven. This invisible movement we call Heavens is found in our living/being experience beyond a sensory focus. It manifests in our appetites and our satis-faction. This Heaven, we assume, models itself on Dao. Earth and Heaven are form and movement, inseparable and constant. Because of this, we know Dac is so-of-itself.10 There is no knowledge or wisdom apart from our basic nature To recognize and remain with this basic nature is wuweidao.”

Footnotes::

1. "Preceding the world" for a modern person suggests being what "creates" the world, but with Laozi this is not the case. For the Daodejing, creation is ongoing, so this nebulous qi may be below or behind rather than "before." Perpetual creation also implies a sense of ongoing incompleteness that denies the existence of a firm and abiding world with names that define the "real" (objects/subjects).
2. Chapter 01/45
3. upadesha
4. totality, Nature
5. Even science admits matter is not solid.
6. manifestation
7. qi, time, rhythm
8. yang, time
9. "Eat when you are hungry; sleep when you are tired."
10. Dao is included in its own natural totality (ziran).
11. Though being an Adept is Great, do not assume its importance to be "supernatural" and, when recognizing your Adept nature, do not take it lightly.