廣弘明集 5.27

5.27

'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.'