“Tao, in reality, is nothing other than what you, people of other lands, call God. Tao is the Unique, the beginning and the end – He contains all things and it is to Him that all things return.”

“There exists an absolute Reality, without beginning and without end, which we can’t understand and which, therefore to us, resembles Nothing. That what we are able to understand and which has a relative reality for us is, in truth, an appearance only……

 As a result we live in great darkness. What we imagine as real is not real, but yet it emanates from the Real, for the Real is All.

Thus, the Being and the Non-Being are Tao, both of them; but, above all, don’t forget that Tao is only a sound articulated by a human being and its idea is essentially inexpressible… Tao is the source of Heaven and Earth. One begets two, two will beget three. Three will beget myriads, and the myriads return into the Unique.”

(The above is an adaptation of the first section of Tao Te Ching – Wu Wei – Based on the Philosophy of Lao Tse by Henri Borel) 

 (The following passages are excerpts from the book “Wu Wei” based on the philosophy of Lao Tse, by Henri Borel. The author has “simply tried to render the essence of his (Lao Tse) wisdom in all its purity”) 

The Sage said, “You now know that Tao is the origin of all, – of trees, flowers and birds, of the ocean, desert and rocks, of light and darkness, of heat and cold, of day and night, of summer and winter, and of your own life. Worlds and oceans evaporate in the Eternity. Man emerges from darkness, laughs for a moment in the clarity of light and disappears; but, in all these vicissitudes, it is the Unique that is being manifest. Tao is in all. Your soul, in its utmost depth, is Tao.”

And the sea rose softly, moving with silent waves, approaching with the irresistible calm as an aspect of the Infinite. The sail of a small boat with its golden reflections was moving towards the island: it looked so tiny in the immense ocean, so bold and so exquisite! All was pure: nowhere any trace of anything vile.” 

And with the rare impulse of a powerful joy, I exclaimed: 

“Yes, Master, I feel it now: what I am searching, that is everywhere. I had no need to search for it so far away, for That is quite close to me, That is everywhere, – That which I searched for, That which is myself, That, That is my soul. Truly, it is a revelation: God is everywhere. Tao is in all things.” 

“True, my child, but don’t make a mistake here. Tao is there in what you see, but Tao is not what you see. Don’t think that Tao is visible to your eyes. Tao will not awaken joy in your heart nor make you shed tears, because all that you see and all your emotions are relative and not real.” 

“Look at the scene around. The trees, the mountains, the sea, they are your brothers as are air and light. Observe how the sea approaches us spontaneously, naturally, purely “for it has to be thus”? Do you see that bush over there, leaning towards you as a little sister? Do you see the simple movement of its thin leaves? Well, I am going to speak to you of “Wu Wei” , of “non-resistance”, of “spontaneous movement” decided by the impulse that is in you just as it is born from Tao.” 

“Those who know what Tao is, don’t speak of it; those who speak, don’t know it. Myself, I will not say what Tao is. It is you who have to make the discovery, liberating yourself for it from all passion and from all greed, living with an absolute spontaneity, not making any effort which is not natural. One has to approach Tao without hurt or effort, with a movement as reposeful as that of this vast ocean. The ocean moves, not because it wishes to move or because it knows that that is wise or good: it moves involuntarily, unconscious of movement. It is thus that you also will return to Tao, and when you have returned to Him, you will not know it, because you yourself would have become Tao.” 

He fell silent and looked at me with sweetness. In his eyes was a peaceful clarity, similar to the nuance of the skies. 

“Father”, I told him, “what you say is beautiful like the sea and seems as simple as Nature, but surely it is not as easy, this absorption of man in Tao, without effort, remaining inactive.” 

“Don’t take one word for another”, he replied. “By absence of effort – Wu Wei – Lao Tse did not mean inaction, idleness with closed eyes. He meant relaxation of terrestrial activity, of desire, of greed for things unreal. That implies a powerful movement of the soul which has to be released from its…body like a bird from his cage. He wanted to indicate a kind of surrender to an inner directive power which derives from Tao and takes us back to Tao. And, believe me, this movement is as natural as that of the cloud passing above us.”

Very high, in the blue ether, golden clouds were passing over us, slowly, towards the sea. They were resplendent with a wonderful purity, like that of a great sacred love: gently they were drifting away into the distance. 

“A moment more, and they would be gone; they will disappear in the immensity of the skies”, said the Sage, “and you will then see nothing else but the eternal blue. It is thus that your soul will be absorbed in Tao.” 

(Wu Wei – Based on the Philosophy of Lao Tse by Henri Borel (translated by S S Jhunjhunwala)