Master Lu's Dialogues

Master Lu said: For common people Taoists are not Taoists. If they are, then the Taoists are not Taoists.

Explanation: When the Taoist adept is working in the public sphere he/she is not different from others, persons that don't follow the Tao. For the common eye the adept doesn't act differently. You may have a great deal of experience with the Tao yourself in order to seize de difference. But if you seize the difference without having any experience with the Tao then you don't have to do with a Taoist adept but with a person like, without any personal experience with the Tao.

Master Lu said: Eyes can't tell the truth.
Explanation: The same like the above; you don't have to believe your eyes.

Questions about Tao and Nature

- Is Tao nature, or Mother Nature?
- Tao is everything natural. But it is not nature itself. Nature is subject of it. Every living thing in this universe is subject to the Tao.

- I mean when one follows Tao is he/she following the simplicity and purity of nature?
- Not necessary. Today people living in huge cities are not following nature. But this is also subject to the Tao. Everything in this universe is subject to the Tao.

- Old Taoists used to talk about Tao in connection with water. That is, they said Tao is like water or one who follows Tao should be like water. What is the meaning of this statement?
- Water and Tao have one common feature: they are ever changing phenomena. Being like water means one have to be changeable like water and thus emulating the Tao.

--
Dialogues collected by Jhian and published on this site for the first time.

Copyright 1999-2010, Way of Perfect Emptiness. All rights reserved.