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Precious Treatise on Preservation of Unity on the Great Way

Sun Buer, Sun Buer poetry, Taoist, Taoist poetry,  poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry,  poetry by Sun Buer
(1124? - 1182?) Timeline

English version by
Thomas Cleary

Original Language
Chinese

Taoist
12th Century

The Tao is uncontrived, yet there is nothing it does not do.
It can be witnessed by the mind, not known by knowledge.
What is "knowing"? What is "witness"?
Knowledge dismisses knowledge.

Witness only responds.
Response comes from nowhere.

Mind then penetrates.
Penetrate the One, and all tasks are done.

The One is the root.
The task is the door.
When the task returns to One, the One is ever present.

The presence should not be reified;
provisionally we speak of keeping it.

Keep open selflessness and naturally be eternal.

 

 

-- from Immortal Sisters: Secret Teachings of Taoist Women, Edited by Thomas Cleary

Amazon.com

 


 
 
 
 
 


Recommended Books


Immortal Sisters: Secret Teachings of Taoist Women, Edited by Thomas Cleary
The Shambhala Anthology of Women's Spiritual Poetry, Edited by Aliki Barnstone
Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, Edited by Jane Hirshfield

 

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Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2011 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.