The way and its name

A Way that can be spoken is not the constant Way; a name that can be named is not the constant name. Nameless, it is the beginning of heaven and earth; named, it is the mother of the myriad things. Thus, constantly without desire, observe its wonder; with desire, observe its aperture. These two issue together but have different names; together they are called mysterious. Mystery upon mystery is the gateway of all wonders.

Master Zhu said, ‘Dao is like a road: it is what people share in common.’ In truth, it is the principle that generates heaven, earth, humanity, and all things, and therefore it is called the Way. Before heaven and earth divided, this Way hung in the great emptiness; after heaven and earth opened, it lodged within the world. What sort of Way is this? It endures before heaven and earth and remains unworn after them. Born before heaven and earth, mingled within emptiness, it cannot be seen or heard. Thus the Most High says: speaking of the Way, it is pervasive yet hidden, and in truth cannot be spoken. Whatever can be spoken is merely the Way's manifestation, not the true constant Way. Speaking of its name, it is empty and without any thing, and in truth cannot be named. Whatever can be expressed is merely the Way's dregs, not its true constant name. Those who do not understand the Way should consider the Book of Odes. It says, ‘The workings of high Heaven have neither sound nor smell’: the Way cannot be expressed in words. It also says, ‘Heaven's command, how profound and unceasing!’: the Way cannot be left wholly unspoken. Know that within utmost nonbeing, utmost being remains; within utmost emptiness, utmost reality abides. The Way truly cannot be described in terms of location. Compassionately delivering the world, the Most High broadly expounds his teaching: before primordial chaos showed any sign, all was undifferentiated, without the slightest form. Although called nameless, heaven, earth, people, and things were all nurtured within it. Hence it is the beginning of heaven and earth. When stillness has lasted long enough and the dynamic of qi stirs, there is something nameable: a misty expanse of primordial qi in supreme harmony circulates throughout the cosmos and nourishes all beings. Hence it is the mother of the myriad things. ‘Beginning’ means that before heaven and earth opened, a mass of primordial qi was held within. ‘Mother’ means its transformation and generation of all things after heaven and earth opened.

At the beginning of practice, the student needs no other technique: sit upright with a single heart, discard all thoughts, lower the eyelids, and observe inwardly. Below the heart and above the kidneys there seems to be a cavern of emptiness. Let spirit illuminate spirit and each breath continually return; allow coming and going, principally gathering spirit and qi in the central palace. Before long they unite into one. Then allow this to remain undifferentiated, without raising a thought of distinct awareness. In time, dim and indistinct, one enters the realm where nothing exists. At this time one does not know spirit entering qi or qi returning to spirit: there is an undivided scene without other or self, without a distinguishable earth or heaven. Yet this is not stupefaction; stupefaction would make one dead wood and cold ashes. On reaching this point, practitioners should extinguish the stirring mind, not the illuminating mind. Be wise as if foolish, possessing insight without employing it. Amid knowing and sensing nothing, a sudden awareness stirs: this establishes the foundation of the Supreme Ultimate. Know that this awareness must arise entirely of itself, without being attached to some external stimulation; only then is it one's original true awareness.

What Daoists call the mysterious pass and wondrous aperture lies simply between an exhalation and an inhalation. Inhalation enters and is yin, stillness, and nonbeing; exhalation exits and is yang, movement, and being. Even the subtlety of this single breath contains the wondrous aperture. Anyone wishing to cultivate true awakening must recognize that precisely when this awareness stirs, an original person is truly and unmistakably present, without deliberation or impurity. Thus it is said that heaven and earth possess this single awakening and generate all things, while a person possesses it and forms the golden elixir. Yet this awareness is like lightning or a spark from flint: here before you at one instant, gone in the next, with only the finest margin between. Students must discern it clearly in ordinary practice if they are to hold it at the crucial moment. The greatly awakened tathagatas of old, too, were formed through accumulating this awareness.

If practitioners do not begin with absence and presence of desire, observing wonder and observing the aperture, where else can they establish a foundation? Nevertheless, nonbeing and being, wonder and aperture, are simply yin stillness and yang movement: one qi divides into two, and the two return to one. When prolonged stillness moves and being arises from nonbeing, it is called the birth of the single yang, the living midnight hour. When movement reaches its limit and returns to stillness, and being returns to nonbeing, it is called returning to destiny and returning to the root. All are yin and yang differentiated from one Supreme Ultimate. Although the two have different names, they issue from the same source: the Most High calls this one mystery. ‘Mysterious’ means deep and far-reaching. Students wishing to attain this mysterious Way must become still and still again, settled and settled again, with nothing at all disturbing the undivided interior. This is observing wonder without desire, one mystery. When the dynamic of qi stirs, although there is knowing, do not produce a view based on knowing; although there is movement, do not retain a thought of movement. Have one heart and no second thought: this is observing the aperture with desire, another mystery. Mystery upon mystery is truly the place of returning to the root; how could it be anything other than the gateway of all wonders? Regrettably, ordinary people possess this wondrous aperture but do not know how to nurture it directly. It opens and closes repeatedly until they exhaust themselves. When the aperture of the mysterious pass opens, the perfected person fixes it with one gaze and grasps it firmly, maintaining and nurturing it without allowing even a moment's separation. Thus one advances directly to the unsurpassed source and becomes a greatly awakened golden immortal.

The initial work lies in the one aperture of the mysterious pass. In his opening chapter the Most High points out the nameless and the named, observing wonder and observing the aperture. This shows that the essential practice of the Way offers no further path apart from this aperture. The opening four sentences describe the great Way's source as truly without shape or form, beyond exhaustive thought and discussion. The undifferentiated condition before heaven and earth opened, showing no discernible sign, resembles a person nurturing directly in stillness. At the sudden opening of heaven and earth, utmost stillness moves and one awareness awakens; this resembles a person detecting qi in movement, the initial foundation for refining the elixir. Yet within this instant, without the pearl of wisdom and sword of insight one cannot grasp it. In brief, the place where a thought arises is the mysterious female, truly the starting point for the opening of heaven and earth. All immortals since antiquity have been formed through this dynamic of awakening and movement. The text also says to observe wonder without desire and the aperture with desire: movement and stillness root each other, so they issue together but bear different names. Anything with form can be considered and measured; this wondrous aperture, being within nonbeing and nonbeing within being, cannot be described by place or name. Even a tongue like a cascading river could not speak a single word adequate to it; hence ‘mystery upon mystery.’ Yet students must not regard it as merely obscure and fail to investigate its actual whereabouts. If one truly finds its unmistakable reality here, what seems indistinct to others becomes something one can actually hold to. With time, whatever one touches springs to life, and at every turn there is the Way.