Thirty-Two - The Undefined
The Tao is forever undefined.
Lao Tsu says that in its unformed state The Tao is small, though it cannot be grasped. I am reminded of the Katha Upanishad where it is said that the Self, or Atman, is thumb-sized. How prosaic. For the modern mind intelectualizations are unproblematic. But it seems that to the ancient mind something that brings the mystical down to the everyday, like this idea of smallness in size, is a matter of course.
As we have seen in earlier chapters, our experience of the ten thousand things leads to a division in Being, and in so doing, names are required for our understanding. But this is not a true understanding.
Once the whole is divided, the parts need names.
There are already enough names.
One must know when to stop.
The wise know that the naming of the ten thousand things is not the way to knowledge of The Tao.