Tao Te Ching, Verse 14

“Look, but you can't see it.
Listen, but you can't hear it.
Reach out, but you can't touch it.
Invisible, inaudible, intangible.
Elusive.
The One.
When it rises, no light.
When it sets, no darkness.
It calls all things back into nothingness [No–Thing–Ness].
Formless form, imageless image.
No front, no back.
Live in the Tao of old, master the present.
Know the Source: The essence of Tao.”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 14, George Cronk Translation)

Stephen Mitchell writes that another way of saying, “Look, but you can't see it” is “Look and it’s right before your eyes” – last week when my brother-in-law and I were hiking, it occurred to me that I’m not very good at following the trail – I’ve never been lost in the woods – I’m good at keeping rough bearing on where I am, but as far as following “the” trail – I really don’t worry very much about it – as a consequence, even though we set out to hike the Butterfield Trail, we really didn’t spend that much time on the actual trail – the park is around 2000 acres and littered with trails – as long as we were going south toward Blackburn Creek and then east toward Lee Creek and then northeast back toward where we started, I didn’t really care which trail we were on and we occasionally left all the trails and just made our way though the woods in order to maintain the forward progress I wanted – you may ask, what does any of this have to do with today’s passage of the Tao? – my answer is that if you know that you’re going in the right direction, don’t worry about whether or not you can see the trail – quick review: you know you’re going the right direction if you spontaneously exhibit the fruit of the Spirit – in as much as your life is characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, you’re going in the right direction – and : if you know that you’re going in the right direction, don’t worry about whether or not you can see the trail