QUOTATION MARKS - Looking At It, You Don't See It.

"When you look at it, you don't see it;
When you listen for it, you don't hear it
This is called the Tao.

Looking at it, you don't see it,
yet never are you not seeing it;
listening for it, you don't hear it
yet never are you not hearing it.
To say it can be seen and heard
does not mean it is within the reach
of eye and ear
it is only seen by the mind, heard by the will

And now that I have said all this to you
you should not cling to the words;
just savour the meaning thoroughly
and search out the root source.
If your mind opens up at a word,
it will not be hard to enter
right into the realm of non contrivance.

But there is still a mechanism beyond,
which is not easy to set forth lightly
- you should seek it outside words."

Written by a 13th Century Taoist Master
 of The Complete Reality School.*

* Taken from The Book of Balance & Harmony
Translated by Thomas Cleary 1989, Publisher Rider.