Chapter 27

Commentary::

Complete action’ leaves no trace? The image here is a column of soldiers trav-eling, perhaps in retreat, and covering their tracks. The word translated as “complete” here can also simply mean good, perfect, skillful, appropriate, or true, and is used many times in this chapter.

The true nature of action is Dao. Dao is imperceptible and discreet, and yet Laozi tells us we can find wuweidao in the natural emergence and resolution of beings and things. We can see de as the movement of Da. When we observe the arising of beings/things and maintain open relationships with them, without strategy or desire, we will ultimately see they return to Da (without a trace). Wuweidao is both a formal and ordinary way in which beings experience Daode, the seamless intimacy of Dao.5

Appropriate speech does not stir up desire. Appropriate choice of words is beyond reproach. Laozi’s wuweidao teaching does not require “believing” in doctrines or learning new ideas. In that sense, the teaching is “wordless.” If we receive the true transmission of these teachings, we are not “stirred up.” It may be that hearing the teachings delivers or recalibrates gi and does not leave us with ideas or information. The teaching is self-apparent and therefore does not inspire imagined futures (desires, heavenly realms, or salvation). It does, how-ever, easily place us in our true condition. The teaching shares non-conception with the practice of zuowang.

Skillful reckoning] needs no calculator.& The reckoning aspect of our experience is an exercise in reasoning. Reasoning is the naming of our experience with a pattern of words, names, thoughts and feelings. It is not a harmful or wrong activity; it is merely our natural ability to do accounting. Our true nature is not fully engaged in accounting, reasoning, thinking, etc.-it does not truly rely on calculations, sums or value conclusions.9

Thus, in action, whether we struggle or not, everything is still resolved in its own time. In speech, no matter how eloquent or intense our words, the “truth” remains unspoken. No matter what we think or how we reason, Da is ever-present in the self-resolving nature of each and every being and thing. Our body, speech, and thoughts are not problems. To experience wuweidao, we can simply relax the compulsion to do, name, and think.

What if we feel “locked out” or stuck in patterns of struggle? If we do not feel this ease or seamless intimacy in our experience, what shall we do? How do I unlock my experience from false views? A real lock needs no bar-it cannot be opened. We are and have always been “in,” and the door has always been locked. When you ask how do I escape, you are directed to the fact that it is your own hands’ that hold you back-nothing else.” Reality (Da) is not some club we willfully join or a style we choose to follow. It simply is. There is no “alternative” reality. Our resolution is inevitable-inherent.

What if we feel “on” and “off?” If we recognize this View but have not found constancy, how can we find it? What is truly bound needs no rope-there is no knot. Many teachings require precepts, vows, or the strengthening or abandoning of certain conduct. Laozi’s Dao requires no solemn promise and no particular renunciation as such. Our compulsion to struggle through doing and thinking is not something we are; it is something we make with effort. Beneath the effort that obscures wuweidao is natural discipline. Unlike the strenuousness of effort, this discipline is inherent in our natural experience of Dao (Daode)-our naturalness or nature. We feel the constancy of our nature and its natural discipline when we no longer feel the “knot,” the ransoming of our qi by our own struggle.

What is the wuweidao of conduct? How do we find the expression of our nature in our daily life? An Adept relates to’2 everyone and leaves no one out. An Adept uses everything and rejects nothing. The vision of the Adept’s experience is that all the apparently various beings and things are qi, a dream-like play of natural activity (Da). Because of this vision, the Adept is open to and dancing with every being and thing. Laozi’s wuweidao is not a dualistic, passive, stand-and-watch or transcendent aloof position; it is full engagement in what actually is—the fullness of Dao. This is called the practice’3 of luminous wisdom or enlightened discernment. Heshang Gong calls it, “conforming to the Light.”

The Adept is not searching for meaning in the content of relationships, but recognizes the wuweidao inherent in “relatedness” itself. This relatedness is especially highlighted in the Chinese Daoist tradition of the teacher/student relationship, the transmission of the teaching/practice through time.‘4 Though not much is said in the Daodejing about the often-sacred relationship between teacher and student in the Chinese Tradition, what is said here is perfectly clear. Adepts’5 teach other Adepts. The teacher/student relationship is about “relatedness” and exchange. 16 Adepts recognize Adepts, and in so doing, the Path becomes clear.‘7 The Reckless Ones18 are their stock-in-trade. The so-called reckless ones are the other relationships Adepts have. These relationships are also very important for their lack of relevance and guidance. It is therefore apparent to Adepts, both teachers and students, that the relationship Adepts have with Adepts is essentially wisdom itself. The relationship is wisdom, not for its content (though that may of course have value), so much as for its basic nature. Students who do not respect their teachers and teachers who do

not care for their students (though either or both may have conventional know-ledge) lack essential wisdom.‘9 Respect and care are aspects of the teacher/stu-dent relationship’s openness and gentility. This relationship is naturally skillful without a trace, conversational but not provoking desire, and valued without assessment. There are found20 bonds between Adepts that do not rely on circumstances.21

Footnotes::

1. marching, attack or invasion
2. track, praise or blame, precedent to retrace
3. zuowang
4. conduct
5. Heshang Gong says, "Adepts look for Da within the body and do not go down to the hall or out the gate."
6. Elsewhere we find Laozi refers to desire as a compulsion to use effort-a needless concentration of qi. Here he is saying the teachings (wuweidao) do not empower or re-direct thoughts or words or qi.
7. reasoning
8. math, tally, plan
9. Heshang Gong says, "Adepts do not rely on reason (negotiate change like a merchant), therefore they do not need a calculator (system of evalua-tion, argument/judgment)."
10. qi
11. When Laozi uses the term "relax" he is not referring to a stressful two-week vacation from a stressful life. The Adept knows the trap is the false notion of an abiding "self."
12. jiu: rescues, removes danger
13. legacy, following
14. This relationship is also central in the Confucian and Chan Buddhist traditions.
15. wisdom holders
16. To use the term "transmission" here would be too one-way. Transmission seems to imply only movement from teacher to student, but the student/ teacher relationship is characterized by openness/communication and is not limited by this one-way implication.
17. The student/teacher relationship is not made through effort, rather it is discovered to be the inherent case.
18. compulsive strugglers
19. same as luminous wisdom
20. rather than made
21. His Holiness Kyabje Dungtse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche has said, "If we believe in the continuity of mind, then love inconspicuously connects us to the ones we love with continuous positive energy, so that even tangible separations between people who love each other do not reduce the intangible power of love. This love is automatically enduring since it is not easily affected by circumstances."