Chapter 774: The Princess Sitting by the Moon River

The princess sitting by the Moon River.

April 26: The princess sitting by the Moon River.

When Kongzi and Laozi met, Laozi spoke at length to Kongzi, expressing his feelings: "Birds, I know they can fly; fish, I know they can swim; beasts, I know they can run. Those that run can be made into nets; those that swim can be made into fishing lines; those that fly can be made into silk. As for the dragon, I cannot know how it rides the wind up to heaven. Today I have seen Laozi, and he is truly like a dragon!"

Kongzi compared Laozi to a dragon that could fly up to heaven. Kongzi said, "Birds, people can know the direction of their flight; fish, people can know where they swim; who can know where the dragon in the sky flies to, where it swims? That Laozi is simply that mysterious dragon!"

Perhaps Laozi is too profound, so profound that even someone like Kongzi, upon seeing him, must look up. In fact, Laozi never intended for anyone to look up to him, nor did he have the thought of making people look up to him. It is merely that his thinking and his speech are too strange, too unique; so unique that people cannot understand; so strange that people cannot approach. His strangeness and uniqueness are a form of life he lives; unchangeable.

Between heaven and earth, this one — Laozi — is simply a lone star in the universe. "This star" constantly imagines transforming itself, having a pair of radiant wings capable of soaring, and at the most beautiful moment, flies toward the eternal heaven; in the depths of the spirit, the depths of the cosmos, it rests in the place of radiant light. For this, "this star" spends its life adhering to the liberation of the spirit and the return of body and mind. He wishes to break free from conventional societal discourse, to achieve the unity of heaven and humanity, to uphold the clarity and stillness of the spirit, and to reach the extreme of Emptiness.

Laozi once boasted, saying: "I have observed the law of growth and decay of all things in heaven and earth: although the myriad things of nature are diverse and numerous, they ultimately return to their own source. This source is Stillness."

What kind of substance is "Stillness"? It is something no one can clearly explain; is "Stillness" a state? What, then, is that state?

Is it not there that one can converse with the stars, play with the golden dawn, and frolic with the silvery moon? "The princess sits by the ethereal Moon River, while many fairies dance gracefully around her. No one can approach her."

Laozi said, "This is Stillness: returning to the root brings stillness, stillness returns to destiny. The root is the beginning of life. Returning to the beginning of life. Returning to the beginning of life is an eternal, unchanging law. Those who know this law are wise; those who do not know it are foolish. People who live in ignorant confusion."

Those who understand the laws governing heaven and earth can embrace all things; to embrace all things is to be impartial and just; to be impartial and just is to conform to the heavenly principle; to conform to the heavenly principle is to endure forever; to endure forever means one will never encounter danger in one's lifetime.

Could this be what Laozi meant by "The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao"? It is simply inconceivable!