World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 946

with the determinate and immobile. The everlasting, transcending all determinations, cannot be spoken or named. (Tao Te Ching: A New Translation With New Commentary, p 52) It means Tao refers to inexpressible, invisible way of Reality of which no one can speak. This the ground of Being, the Absolute. He describes indescribability of Tao by stating that it cannot be seen, it cannot be heard or when one looks at it one cannot see it. When one listens to it, one cannot hear it. And yet it cannot be exhausted. Lao Tzu goes on with his metaphysical exposition to prove that Tao cannot be expressed in human language, because once we try to do, we loose it :
"All the world says to me, Great as Tao is, it resembles no description (form), Because it is great, Therefore, it resembles no description. If it resembles any description It would have long since become small." (Tao Te Ching, chapter 67)
It is formless, unfathomable, beyond imagination and indefinable. Taoists say:
"Look, it cannot be seen- it is beyond form. Listen, it cannot be heard it is beyond sound. Grasp, it cannot be held- it is intangible. These three are indefinable, they are one. From above it is not bright, from below it is not dark: Unbroken thread beyond description. It returns to nothingness. Form of the formless, Image of the imageless, It is called indefinable and beyond imagination. Stand before it- there is no beginning. Follow it and there is no end. Stay with Tao, move with the present." (Lao Tzu: father of Taoism,p2).
Po Chung-l, one of the famous poets of the ninth century points out that
"Those who speak do not know.
Those who know do not speak,
This is what we are told by Lao Tzu." (quoted in Chung Chung Yuar, Creativity of Taoism- A State of Chinese Philosophy, Art and Poetry, p32).
The Brahman- the ultimate Reality of the Upanishads is indefinable and indescribable.
This concept of Tao, which is indescribable is very similar to concept
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