Observations placeholder

Extract from the  Guanzi (管子) : THE INNER ENTERPRISE (Neiye內業) - translation by Robert Eno

By means of the Dao forms are made full,
yet men are not able to cleave firmly to it.
Once gone it may not return,
Once come it may not remain.

So silent!
None hears its sound.
So compact!
It resides in the heart.
So dark!
Invisible of form.
So overflowing!
It is born along with me.

Its form unseen,
Its sound unheard,
Yet its doings perfectly ordered.
Such we call:
the Dao.

The Dao has no fixed place;
it dwells at peace in a good heart.
When the heart is tranquil and the qi aligned,
the Dao may be made to stay.

The Dao is not distant,
people gain it in being born.
The Dao never departs,
people rely on it for awareness.

How compact!
As though it
could be bound up.
How remote!
As though exhausting all nothingness.

The natural being of the Dao
abhors thought and voice
Refine the heart and calm thoughts,
and the Dao may be grasped.

The Dao
Is what the mouth cannot speak,
Is what the eye cannot see,
Is what the ear cannot hear.
It is the means to refine the heart and rectify the form.
Men die when they lose it.
Men live when they gain it.
Affairs fail when they lose it.
Affairs succeed when they gain it.

The Dao has neither root not stalk,
nor leaves, nor blossoms.
Yet the things of the world gain it and are born;
the things of the world gain it and mature.
This is termed:

the Dao.