Kuang Ch'êng Tzŭ jumped up with a start. "A good question indeed!" cried he. "Come, and I will speak to you of perfect TAO.
"The essence of perfect TAO is profoundly mysterious; its extent is lost in obscurity.
"See nothing; hear nothing; let your soul be wrapped in quiet; and your body will begin to take proper form. Let there be absolute repose and absolute purity; do not weary your body nor disturb your vitality,--and you will live for ever. For if the eye sees nothing, and the ear hears nothing, and the mind
thinks nothing, the soul will preserve the body, and the body will live for ever.
Not in the grosser worldly sense, but as a sublimated unit in eternity.
"Cherish that which is within you, and shut off that which is without; for much knowledge is a curse. Then I will place you upon that abode of Great Light which is the source of the positive Power, and escort you through the gate of Profound Mystery which is the source of the negative Power. These Powers are the controllers of heaven and earth, and each contains the other.
Knowledge thereof is knowledge of the great mystery of human existence.
The welfare of the people, the success of their harvests, etc.
I preserve the original ONE, while resting in harmony with externals. It is because I have thus cared for my self now for twelve hundred years that my body has not decayed."
The Yellow Emperor prostrated himself and said, "Kuang Ch'êng Tzŭ is surely God...."
Whereupon the latter continued, "Come, I will tell you. That self is eternal; yet all men think it mortal. That self is infinite; yet all men think it finite. Those who possess TAO are princes in this life and rulers in the hereafter. Those who do not possess TAO, behold the light of day in this life and become clods of earth in the hereafter.
"Nowadays, all living things spring from the dust and to the dust return. But I will lead you through the portals of Eternity into the domain of Infinity. My light is the light of sun and moon. My life is the life of heaven and earth. I know not who comes nor who goes. Men may all die, but I endure for ever."
"A mighty drama, enacted on the theatre of Infinitude, with suns for lamps, and Eternity as a background; whose author is God, and whose purport and thousandfold moral lead us up to the 'dark with excess of light' of the throne of God."--_Carlyle._