Le Tzu began to study.
Three years passed, and I banished thoughts about true and false from my heart, and forbade my lips to talk about useful and harmful. Only then did I receive the glance of Old Shan.
Five years passed, and new thoughts about true and false were born in my heart, and with my lips I began to speak in a new way about useful and harmful. Only then did I receive Old Shan’s smile.
Seven years passed, and, giving free rein to my heart, I no longer thought about the true or the false; giving free rein to my lips, I spoke neither about useful nor harmful things. Only then did the teacher call me and sit me next to him on the mat.
Nine years passed, and no matter how I forced my heart to think, no matter how I forced my lips to speak, I no longer knew what was true for me and what was false, what was useful and what was harmful; I did not know what was true and what was false for others, what was useful and what was harmful. I stopped distinguishing between internal and external. And then all the senses seemed to merge into one: vision became like hearing, hearing became like smell, smell became like taste. The thought thickened, and the body was freed. Bones and muscles fused together. I stopped feeling what my body rests on, what my foot steps on, what my heart thinks about, what is hidden in my speech. That's all.
It was then that there was nothing hidden for me in the laws of nature.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru