Integration with the Tao

The Chronicles of Tao

by Den Ming-Dao

Saihung looked within his body. It was transparent. Meditation, after all, was not stillness. The body always moved: the heartpumped, blood flowed, electricity fired the nerves, energy coursed through the meridians, the organs pulsated in concert, and the lungs, even if they slowed to an apparent stop, still breathed on in an exaggerated timeline. The human being never stopped moving, never stopped changing. A human being was a cosmos. A mysteroius progression. A sacred equilibrium.

Saihung looked deeply into himself. He was completely immersed in that which was inner. Inner became everything. Inside and outside became one. Plunging deep within, he came to the perfect realization. Inner and outer became one in infinity.

He was focus. A pinpoint in the cosmos. A place where infinity had congealed into one mass of movement and experience. Qi had become the five elements, had become yin and yang, had become a human being. He was a microcosm of eternity.

Saihung imagined the Big Dipper Constellation. Silence. Space. Everything was real. Nothing was real. Both were equal. Time and space doubled back on each other in serpentine layers and lost their distinction. What went beyond duality?

***

The day came for him to emerge. He heard his master break the seal and entere. In the semidarkness of the hut, Saihung knelt down before the Grand Master. "You have been tested thorougly. You have made great strivings. Only today do you finally glimpse what it is to be a Taoist. All that matters to a Taoist is the one is in harmony with nature. In one's character, one is like heaven and earth, as bright as the sun and the moon, as orderly as the four seasons."

"When one has attained Tao, one can even precede heaven, but heaven will not act in opposition, for one will act only as heaven would have at the time. One is not destroyed because one harmoniously follows only the cyclic motion of the Tao, avoiding the aggressive, extravagant expenditures of energy. Efforts to achieve strength and power may lead to short-term success, but such excessiveness ultimately results in an early death."

"The Tao Te Ching clearly states that when things reach the pinnacle of their strength, they begin to grow old. Therefore, excessive strength is contrary to Tao, and what is contrary to Tao will come to a speedy end. Thus, one seeks not to build up one's own power, but to unite with the Tao. One is not aggressive and mighty, but rather humble and peaceful. One seeks not to go the way of the other men but rather to follow the cycles of nature. Only then can one know renewal and rejuvenation. Through returning and going forth, expansion and contraction, one knows infinity and pehraps even immortality, for at that point, one is wholly integrated with the Tao. One gives undivided attention to its vital energy, responding with the utmost pliancy. Then one can become like a newborn infant."

The Grand Master opened the door. A crack of light expanded into complete brightness. Saihung went into the light of a new world.