wholeness

"How does the true man of Tao

Walk through walls without obstruction,

Stand in fire without being burnt?"

Not because of cunning

Or daring;

Not because he has learned,

But because he has unlearned.

All that is limited by form, semblance, sound, color,

Is called object.

Among them all, man alone

Is more than an object.

Though, like objects, he has form and semblance,

He is not limited to form.  He is more.

He can attain to formlessness.

When he is beyond form and semblance,

Beyond "this" and "that,"

Where is the comparison

With another object?

Where is the conflict?

What can stand in his way?

He will rest in his eternal place

Which is no-place.

He will be hidden

In his own unfathomable secret.

His nature sinks to its root

In the One.

His vitality, his power

Hide in secret Tao.

When he is all one,

There is no flaw in him

By which a wedge can enter.

So a drunken man, falling

Out of a wagon,

Is bruised but not destroyed.

His bones are like the bones of other men,

But his fall is different.

His spirit is entire.  He is not aware

Of getting into a wagon

Or falling out of one.

Life and death are nothing to him.

He knows no alarm, he meets obstacles

Without thought, without care,

Takes them without knowing they are there.

If there is such security in wine,

How much more in Tao.

The wise man is hidden in Tao.

Nothing can touch him.

~ Chuang Tzu

translation by Thomas Merton