Sacred Books of the East Vol. 40 - Taoism Vol. 2

If one is able to send the desires away, when he then looks in at his mind, it is no longer his; when he looks out at his body, it is no longer his; and when he looks farther off at external things, they are things which he has nothing to do with. When he understands these three things, there will appear to him only vacancy. This contemplation of vacancy will awaken the idea of vacuity. Without such vacuity there is no vacancy. The idea of vacuous space having vanished, that of nothingness itself also disappears; and when the idea of nothingness has disappeared, there ensues serenely the condition of constant stillness.{fr. 1} {fn. 1. In this paragraph we have what Mr. Wylie calls 'the subjection of the mental faculties;' and I must confess myself unable to understand what it is. It is probably another way of describing the Tâoist trance which we find once and again in Kwang-dze, 'when the body becomes like a withered tree, and the mind like slaked lime' (Bk. II, par. 1, et al.). But such a sublimation of the being, as the characteristic of its serene stillness and rest, is to me inconceivable.} 5. In that condition of rest independently of place how can any desire arise? And when no desire any longer arises, there is the True stillness and rest. That True (stillness) becomes (a) constant quality, and responds to external things (without error); yea, that True and Constant quality holds possession of the nature.