廣弘明集 5.27

5.27

道沖而用之又不盈。和其光同其塵。盛以為老聃可謂知道。非體道者也。昔陶唐之莅天下也。無日解哉。則維昭任眾師錫匹夫。則馺然授禪。豈非沖而用之光塵同彼哉。伯陽則不然。既處濁位復遠導西戎。行止則昌狂其迹。著書則矯誑其言。和光同塵固若是乎。余固以為知道體道則未也。道經云。三者不可致詰。混然為一。繩繩兮不可名。復歸於無物。無物之象是謂忽怳。

'The Way is empty, yet in using it, it is never full. Soften its glare, settle its dust.' [Sun] Sheng considers: Lao Dan can be said to have known the Way, but he was not one who embodied the Way. Formerly, when the Lord of Taotang ruled the world, was there ever a day he was slack? When it was brilliantly manifested and entrusted to the multitude, the teacher praised a commoner, and he promptly abdicated and passed on the throne. Was this not being empty and using it, softening his glare and sharing his dust with them? Boyang was not so: he occupied a corrupt office and then went far away to guide the Western Rong; his travels and pauses left erratic traces, and his writings contained deceptive words. Is softening the glare and sharing the dust truly like this? I firmly hold that he knew the Way, but as for embodying the Way, not yet. The Daoist classic says: 'These three cannot be scrutinized to the end, blended together into one. Boundless, it cannot be named, returning again to nothingness. The form of the formless, the image of nothingness—this is called the elusive and vague.'