Indian stream·Tao Te Ching·Chapter 21 — The Form of Great Virtue
The Tao is elusive yet contains essence
The greatest virtue follows the Tao alone. Elusive and impalpable — yet within there is form, substance, essence (jīng), and truth (zhēn).
Source context
- Theme
- the Tao as formless source from which form, essence, and reliable knowing arise
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Vedanta (Nirguna Brahman)Cross-tradition congruence appears in the Vedantic distinction between nirguna Brahman — the attributeless absolute — and its manifestation as the ground of all determinate being, paralleling Chapter 21's account of the Tao as formless yet containing image, substance, and seed.
- Neoplatonism (Plotinus, Enneads)Cross-tradition congruence is present in Plotinus's account of the One as utterly beyond form yet the originating ground of Intellect and Soul, structurally mirroring the Tao's simultaneous formlessness and generative potency described in this chapter.
- Kabbalah (Ayin / Ein Sof)Cross-tradition congruence appears in the Kabbalistic concept of Ein Sof — the infinite without limit or attribute — from which the sefirot emerge as the first determinate expressions of hidden essence, paralleling the Tao's hidden yet verifiable seed from which all things proceed.
Chapter 21
The grandest forms of active force From Tao come, their only source. Who can of Tao the nature tell? Our sight it flies, our touch as well. Eluding sight, eluding touch, The forms of things all in it crouch; Eluding touch, eluding sight, There are their semblances, all right. Profound it is, dark and obscure; Things' essences all there endure. Those essences the truth enfold Of what, when seen, shall then be told. Now it is so; 'twas so of old. Its name--what passes not away; So, in their beautiful array, Things form and never know decay.
How know I that it is so with all the beauties of existing things? By this (nature of the Tao).