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Chapter 14 · The Formless Form

Tao Te Ching (Legge, 1891) · chapter title added by Learn the Dao

We look at it, and we do not see it, and we name it 'the Equable.' We listen to it, and we do not hear it, and we name it 'the Inaudible.' We try to grasp it, and do not get hold of it, and we name it 'the Subtle.' With these three qualities, it cannot be made the subject of description; and hence we blend them together and obtain The One. Its upper part is not bright, and its lower part is not obscure. Ceaseless in its action, it yet cannot be named, and then it again returns and becomes nothing. This is called the Form of the Formless, and the Semblance of the Invisible; this is called the Fleeting and Indeterminable. We meet it and do not see its Front; we follow it, and do not see its Back. When we can lay hold of the Tao of old to direct the things of the present day, and are able to know it as it was of old in the beginning, this is called (unwinding) the clue of Tao.

The Shape of No Shape

Dao De Kooi — an original rendering by David Kooi

Look for it and there's nothing to see. Listen and there's nothing to hear. Reach and there's nothing to grab. Three ways to miss the same thing, because it isn't a thing. No top, no bottom, no edges. It loops back to no-thing. Call it the shape of what has no shape. Meet it head-on and there's no face. Follow it and there's no back. Get a feel for how it's always worked and you can handle what's in front of you now. Knowing where it started - that's the thread you hold onto.

Learn the Dao is a quiet practice for learning the thing that can’t be known — committing the Tao Te Ching to memory, one line at a time.

Read a chapter. Recite the next line from memory. The app shows you, gently, what you missed — then brings each line back just before you’d forget it.

Your recall — for example

We look at it and we — missed do not see it

The dotted words are the ones you missed.

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