14

 

Look at it and you cannot perceive it.
Call it the invisible.
Listen for it and you cannot hear it.
Call it soundless.
Reach for it and you cannot get hold of it.
Call it formless.

These three characteristics evade further scrutiny because they blend and become one.
Rising it’s not bright; setting it’s not dark.
Infinite and nameless; it returns again to become non-existent.
This is called shape without shape.

Without substance of Its own, it is indefinable and elusive.
Stand before it and you will not see its face.
Follow it and you will not see its back.
One who holds fast to the old ways to master the present,
Has the insight to understand the primal seed.
This is called the path to true nature.