Sorry for the hiatus in this blog, but I am now back with a vengeance to look at Verse 14 of the Tao Te Ching.

Verse 14 – Beyond Reason

That which we look at

but cannot see is the invisible.

That which we listen to

but cannot hear is the inaudible.

That which we reach for

but cannot grasp is the intangible.

Beyond reason,

these three merge,

contradicting experience.

Their rising side isn’t bright.

Their setting side isn’t dark.

Sense-less, unnameable,

they return to the realms of nothingness.

Form without form,

image without image,

indefinable, ineluctable, elusive.

Confronting them, you see no beginning.

Following them, you see no end.

Yet, riding the ploughless plough

can seed the timeless Tao,

harvesting the secret

transcendence of the Now. (Translation Ralph Alan Dale)

It is a sign of being in the flow of the Great Integrity or the Universe that I come to write about this verse precisely when these issues have been playing on my mind.

I have been struggling with my own impatience and anger that I cannot get people to ‘see’ what they are ‘looking at’. That people ‘listen’ but do not ‘hear’. They can only see and hear that which they have already decided exists. They have looked at an issue from their social and cultural viewpoint and made a decision without even beginning to realise that if they saw and heard from another perspective they may well see another story. We are so quick to decide that we know what is going on, but when questioned we are often unable to comment on the minutiae which we failed to grasp.

I, especially, need to move ‘beyond reason’ and understand that such people are precisely where they need to be on their journey at this time and no words of mine will change their ideas. This is an arrogance of mine that I need to conquer. I assume that everyone can be reasoned with – if not to see my point of view (which after all is only a point of view and is as restricted as theirs) but to see that it is all part of a far bigger picture. We cannot judge and condemn a person on such trivial matters as an entirely personal emotional hurt. I do appreciate that when our emotions or pride have been hurt that these things cease to feel trivial, although of course that does not change the fact that they are.

A friend and I had a long conversation a few days ago in which we tried to get inside this very point. The stanza which states: ‘Beyond reason/these 3 merge/contradicting experience’ is so true. When we are in the midst of pain or angst or suffering we feel it is the only problem worth considering in the world. Everything else is no longer seen/heard/felt and what we experience bears no relation to what is actually happening. We are unable to see the whole story. We cannot place our problems in perspective. We forget that all suffering is relative and that we can always endure more.

But our big question was: ‘how can we merge the two?’ Rationally we understand that this is the case – that anything we suffered in this lifetime was an infinitesimal drop in the universe; that it was our choice and to our benefit somehow. No suffering has ever been in vain yet. However, in the daily grind that is our existence we still have to cope and live, so what practical ways are they of translating this rationality into daily life to get us through the pain. I wish I could tell you that we had discovered the answer, but far greater philosophers than we have been struggling with that one for thousands of years. The only thing I can say is that by removing judgement from my life and trying (not always succeeding but trying my best every day) to live my life decently and honourably for the good of the whole, my life is not as hard as it once was. The suffering no longer feels so huge.

I try to see that the true key to life is that which lies behind the rising light and setting dark. That the nothingness contains considerably more than the constant overstimulation which is the bane of my life every day.

There is no beginning, no end. Where I end someone else starts and so on forever. We are all one, the molecules that form the ink with which I write; the keyboard on which I type; the table at which I sit also form the ocean; the trees and each and every one of us.

Until we can see Beyond Reason, beyond (to coin a phrase) the bleeding obvious and transcend Now to find ourselves in an holographic universe, we will continue to look without seeing and listen without hearing and by doing this continue to condemn and judge every person who we consider is not living by our own critical standard. How very dare we! If we judge then we should not flinch from the criticism and judgements of others – something at which I think the majority of us would cower. However, I am probably preaching to the converted. If you have the courage to read this then you are probably already more open than the majority of mankind. For as the amazing Ghandi said: ‘Never try to reason with a bigot. His beliefs weren’t reasoned into him and can’t be reasoned out of him.’ Sadly, I think Ghandi had far more patience and far less arrogance than me, so lots more for me to work on once again.