"Of those two," replied the Yellow Emperor, "the former was genuinely right, inasmuch as he did not _know_. The latter was near, inasmuch as he _forgot_. You and I are wholly wrong, inasmuch as we _know_."
TAO is attained, not by knowledge, but by absence of knowledge.
When All-in-extremes heard of this, he considered that the Yellow Emperor had spoken well.
"Spoken knowingly" gives the only chance of bringing out what is here a forced play upon words.
The universe is very beautiful, yet it says nothing. The four seasons abide by a fixed law, yet they are not heard. All creation is based upon absolute principles, yet nothing speaks.
And the true Sage, taking his stand upon the beauty of the universe, pierces the principles of created things. Hence the saying that the perfect man does nothing, the true Sage performs nothing, beyond gazing at the universe.
In the hope of attaining, by contemplation, a like spontaneity.
For man's intellect, however keen, face to face with the countless evolutions of things, their death and birth, their squareness and roundness,--can never reach the root. There creation is, and there it has ever been.
The six cardinal points, reaching into infinity, are ever included in TAO. An autumn spikelet, in all its minuteness, must carry TAO within itself. There is nothing on earth which does not rise and fall, but it never perishes altogether.
The _Yin_ and the _Yang_, and the four seasons, keep to their proper order. Apparently destroyed, yet really existing; the material gone, the immaterial left;--such is the law of creation, which passeth all understanding. This is called the root, whence a glimpse may be obtained of God.
From this point, upon which the finger of man can never be laid, his mind may perhaps faintly discern the transcendent workings of that Power by which all creation is swayed;--"uncover those secret recesses where Nature is sitting at the fires in the depths of her laboratory." _Swedenborg._
For the former see ch. ii. Of the latter there is no record.
The latter said, "Keep your body under proper control, your gaze concentrated upon ONE,--and the peace of God will descend upon you. Keep back your knowledge, and concentrate your thoughts upon ONE,--and the holy spirit shall abide within you. Virtue shall beautify you, TAO shall establish you, aimless as a new-born calf which recks not how it came into the world."