sub rosa

Bibliomancy with The Complete Works of Lao Tzu led to the discovery of Section 31 of the Hua Hu Ching, a passage that will lead to greatly increased buoyancy as I face a day of long overdue cleaning.

"...the subtle cosmic body comes and goes nowhere, yet is always everywhere. Although it is called the subtle cosmic body, its reality cannot be put into words. To be aware of being with the Universal One is like watching the reflection of the moon on the surface of a still lake. Actually, the moon is not in the lake, yet people speak of it so. If, by chance, clouds appear and cover the moon, people say it had departed from the lake, yet it has actually gone nowhere.

The relationship between the universal soul and the individual soul is just like the relationship between the moon and the lake. Spiritual security is always present, but the clouds of the minds create the phenomena of apparent separation. The true nature of the universe is always self-existent, never failing to respond to an individual's straight and direct awareness. If an individual is aware enough, he realizes that the Universal One does not only come at the time of awareness. When one's mind is disturbed or confused, the Universal One seems to disappear, yet one's true nature had not departed. One creates the darkness which covers the light that is always available to freely support one's soul.

It is the double vision of the mind which led people to create mischief, agony, misery and tragedy. The source of all suffering is an individual's stubborn adherence to the establishment of self which separated him from his universal nature. It is not the Universal Way that chooses to be with one person and not another.

There are no images which should be held onto and no blessing which should be sought. There is no single virtue on which one should focus, nor any special names one should revere. Thus, when one attains universal awareness he can directly rejoin his true nature, which is the subtle cosmic body of the Universal One.*"

This passage reminds me of Jacob Boehme assertion, radical for his day, that we were not created and abandoned. Heaven is here.

*p.136, The Complete Works of Lao Tzu, Translation and Elucidation by Hua-Ching Ni. Strikethroughs mine, after my initial posting I added them as I was uncomfortable with certain associations I had with terms like "Universal Way," which winds up sounding slightly facistic. I guess that's what happens when the finite tries to get its mouth around the infinite. I suppose an interest in truth often requires a complete freefall.