Tao: The Pathless Path
A Taoist parable:
There is a statue of Lao Tzu, the founder of
Tao. And a young man has been thinking for years to go to the
mountains and see the statue of Lao Tzu. He loves
the words, the way Lao Tzu has spoken, the style of life that he
has lived, but he has never seen any of his statues.
There are no Taoist temples, so there are very rare statues and
they are all in the mountains - standing in the
open, carved out of the mountain - no roof, no temple, no priest, no
worship.
And years pass, and there are so many things
always coming in between. But finally one night he decides that he
has to go - and it is not that far, only a hundred
miles - but he is a poor man, and he has to walk. In the middle of
the night - he chooses the time in the middle
of the night so that the wife and the children and the family are asleep
and no trouble arises - he takes a lamp in his
hand, because the night is dark, and goes out of the town.
As he comes out of the town to the first milestone,
a thought arises in him, "My God, one hundred miles! And I only
have two feet - it is going to kill me. I am
asking the impossible. I have never walked one hundred miles, and there
is no road...." It is a small hill path, a footpath
- dangerous too. So he thinks, "It is better to wait till the morning. At
least there will be light, and I can see better;
otherwise I will fall somewhere off this small footpath. And without
seeing the statue of Lao Tzu, simply be finished.
Why commit suicide?"
So he was sitting just outside the town, and
as the sun was rising an old man came by. He saw this young man
sitting; he asked, "What are you doing here?"
The young man explained.
The old man laughed. He said, "Have you not heard
the ancient saying? Nobody has the power to take two steps
together, you can take only one step at a time.
The powerful, the weak, the young, the old - it doesn’t matter. And
the saying goes, `Just one step by one step,
a man can go ten thousand miles’ - and this is only a hundred miles!
You seem to be stupid. And who is saying to you
that you should go continuously? You can take time; after ten
miles you can rest a day or two days, enjoy.
This is one of the most beautiful valleys and the most beautiful
mountains and the trees are so full of fruits,
fruits that you may not have even tasted. Anyway, I am going; you can
come along with me. I have been on this path
thousands of times, and I am at least four times your age. Stand up!"
The man was so authoritative: when he said "Stand
up!" the young man simply stood. And he said, "Give your
things to me. You are young, inexperienced; I
will carry your things. You just follow me, and we will take as many
rests as you want."
And what the old man had said was true - as they
entered deeper into the forest and the mountains, it became
more and more beautiful. And wild, juicy fruits...
and they were resting; whenever he wanted, the old man was
ready. He was surprised that the old man himself
never said it was time to rest. But whenever the young man said it
was time to rest, he was always willing to rest
with him - a day or two, and then they would start the journey again.
Those one hundred miles just came and went by,
and they reached one of the most beautiful statues of one of the
greatest men who has ever walked on the earth.
Even his statue had something - it was not just a piece of art, it
was created by Taoist artists to represent the
spirit of Tao.
Tao believes in the philosophy of let-go. It
believes you are not to swim, but just to flow with the river, allow the
river to take you wherever it is going - because
every river ultimately reaches to the ocean. So don’t be worried,
you will reach the ocean. There is no need to
be tense.
In that lonely spot the statue was standing,
and there was a waterfall just by the side - because Tao is called the
watercourse way. Just as the water goes on and
on flowing with no guidebooks, with no maps, with no rules, no
discipline... but strangely enough in a very
humble way, because it is always seeking the lower position
everywhere. It never goes uphill. It always goes
downhill, but it reaches to the ocean, to its very source.
The whole atmosphere there was representative
of the Taoist idea of let-go. The old man said, "Now begins the
journey."
The young man said, "What? I was thinking, one
hundred miles and the journey is finished."
The old man said, "That is just the way the masters
have been talking to people. But the reality is now - from this
point, from this atmosphere, a journey of one
thousand and one miles begins. And I will not deceive you, because
after one thousand and one miles you will meet
another old man - perhaps me - who will say, `This is just a
stopover, go on.’ Go on is the message."
The journey itself is the goal.
It is infinite. It is eternal.
