When tiny particles form, it says, the vast world appears.

When the vast world disperses, it says, tiny particles appear.

The ego is entranced by all these names and ideas, but the subtle truth is that world and particle are the same; neither one vast, neither one tiny.

Every thing is equal to every other thing.

Names and concepts only block your perception of this Great Oneness.

Therefore it is wise to ignore them.

Those who live inside their egos are continually bewildered; they struggle

frantically to know

whether things are large or small,

whether or not there is a purpose

to joining or dispersing,

whether the universe is blind and mechanical or the

divine creation of a conscious being.

In reality there are no grounds or having beliefs or making comments about such things.

Look behind them instead, and you will discern the deep, silent, complete truth of the Tao.

Embrace it, and your bewilderment vanishes.

***

Just as the world can reveal itself as particles, the Tao can reveal itself as human beings.

Though world and particles aren't the same, neither are they different.

Though the cosmic body and your body aren't the same, neither are they different.

Worlds and particles, bodies and beings, time and space:

All are transient expressions of the Tao.

Unseeable, ungraspable, the Tao is beyond any attempt to analyze or categorize it.

At the same time, its truth is everywhere you turn.

If you can let go of it with your mind and surround it with your heart, it will live inside you forever.

***

Intellectual knowledge exists in and of the brain.

Because the brain is part of the body, which must one day expire, this collection of facts, however large and impressive, will expire as well.

Insight, however, is a function of the spirit.

Because your spirit follows you through cycle after cycle of life, death, and rebirth, you have the opportunity of cultivating insight in an ongoing fashion.

Refined over time, insight becomes pure, constant, and unwavering.

This is the beginning of immortality.




Copyright © 1994 by Brian Walker.

From Hua Hu Ching, translated by Brian Walker. Used by arrangement with HarperSanFrancisco, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.