The Tao Teh King: A Short Study in Comparative Religion: Chapter LVI

The Tao Teh King: A Short Study in Comparative Religion, by C. Spurgeon Medhurst, [1905], at sacred-texts.com

CHAPTER LVI.

Close the doors of the senses; blunt the sharp; unravel the confused; harmonise the dazzling; become one with the all. This is the Mystery of Unity. 2 There will then neither be love nor hate; profit nor loss; favor nor disgrace. It follows that in the universe there is nothing nobler. 3

"The profoundest truths of spiritual experience are those which are not intellectually ascertained but spiritually discerned, which are not taught to us but revealed in us; and these never can be adequately put into words. They defy definition; they transcend expression. The highest experiences even of earthly love and hope and joy cannot be translated into terms of common speech. As there is a life which can be expressed only in terms of music, and another which is expressible only in terms of art, so there is a life which is truly inexpressible. All that he who has obtained even a glimpse of this realm can hope to do is to afford a glimpse to others, by recalling a like experience in their life, 'comparing spiritual things with spiritual.'"—Lyman Abbott, D. D.

Footnotes

95:1 "The moment a man can really do his work he becomes speechless about it."—Sesame and Lilies, by John Ruskin, p. 149.

"But why should we expound our own views uncalled for? The danger of self-assertion is there." The Science of the Emotions by Bhagavan Das., p. 177.

95:2 "Blunt your own sharp points and you will be able to unravel the confusion of others; soften your own glare, and you will be able to put yourself on a level with others; then, when there is no difference between yourself and others, when you are one with the world, you will have attained to spiritual experiences which are inexpressible. Hence it is called the mystery of unity."—Wu-ch’eng. Cf. Matt. vii, 1-5.