Chapter XXII (part 14)

Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.

Spontaneity and non-striving action imply a letting-go of coercive will.

The practice of stilling the mind and speech to open receptivity to divine knowledge or presence.

The Tao is characterized by stillness and silence beyond sensory perception.

The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.

The Tao is described as 'Ceaseless in action' and the Father of the universe, indicating dynamic presence.

Critique of outward religious observance that lacks inner transformation; form without substance.

It critiques religious struggles and violence arising from claims of possessing truth.

Divine names or formulas that carry ontological power, used in prayer, liturgy, or magical practice.

Names like God, Father, and Tao are acknowledged as improper but used as necessary points of support for the mind.

The Buddhist doctrine that all phenomena lack independent self-nature; emptiness as the positive recognition that things arise only in dependence on conditions — distinct from kenoma's mere deficiency.

The Tao is associated with nothingness and formlessness akin to emptiness doctrines.

Effortless action aligned with the spontaneous flow of the Dao; non-coercive, non-striving conduct that yields results without forcing — the sage acts without acting.

The law of Tao is described as spontaneity, implying effortless action aligned with the natural flow.

Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.

[auto] The passage extensively describes the divine as beyond expression, neither genus nor species, without form or name, and states that naming it is improper.

The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.

[auto] The text states 'Its name I know not' and that the principle eludes sight, hearing, and touch.

The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.

[auto] The divine is described as having no parts, being indivisible, and without form or dimensions.

A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.

[auto] The passage outlines a specific cosmogonic chain: 'Tao produced Unity; Unity produced Duality; Duality produced Trinity; and Trinity produced all existing objects.'

Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.

[auto] The passage suggests that understanding the nature of truth and Tao renders religious struggles unnecessary, implying knowledge over dogma.

Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.

[auto] The text asserts that the eternal Tao cannot be expressed in words and names are used only as points of support for the mind.

The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.

[auto] The text describes the first principle as 'indivisible,' 'infinite,' and 'the one' from which all else flows.

The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.

[auto] The text explicitly states that 'He who acts in accordance with Tao, becomes one with Tao,' indicating the goal of merging with the divine.

Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.

[auto] The creation sequence is defined numerically through Unity, Duality, and Trinity as structural principles of existence.

The dissolution of binary oppositions (male/female, inner/outer, above/below) as a mark of spiritual completion.

[auto] Qualities like colorless, soundless, and incorporeal are blended into unity, and the Tao is a 'great square with no angles.'

Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.

[auto] The text relies on paradoxical statements such as 'The Tao, which can be expressed in words is not the eternal Tao' and 'great square with no angles.'

The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.

[auto] The passage describes Tao returning to nothingness and the practitioner becoming one with Tao, implying a return to the origin.

The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.

[auto] The passage emphasizes the indivisible One, the blending of qualities into unity, and the all-pervading nature of Tao as the single reality.