Published Document

DaoDeJim

What follows is the DaoDeJim — 99 short verses on the twin simplicities of Daoist and headless seeing. The title is an unabashed nod to Laozi's DaoDeJing, a text I've lived with for sixty years. This one runs about half as long. I can only hope it is half as wise. These verses have been accumulating for a long time. I offer them now, all at once, for whatever they're worth.

01.

Just what is the Dao?

It is Yin on my shoulders

And Yang in my arms

02.

The Void and the View

Simple and Spontaneous

Faceless and Choiceless

03.

With yin upon my shoulders

And yang in my embrace

I've gained the Dao of wholeness

And lost my human face.

04.

The Void is fixed.

The View's in flux.

The two are One,

And that's the crux.

05.

If I am the Seer,

Just what do I see?

The Void and the View

That constitute me.

06.

I do not long for liberty

When Seeing from the absent face

But find abiding freedom as

A prisoner of the flow of grace.

07.

Presence of Awareness

Is Absence of a head.

If you can see that This is so

That's all that need be said.

If you can see the two at once,

The Seer and the Scenery,

Then you have seen Totality,

The Whole, the All, the Plenary.

08.

Can you see the vacant place

Where others only see your face?

See within you're open wide?

See without you're occupied?

09.

See the Seer! View the view!

Mark the two as One.

You have captured All there is.

That's it! Fini! You're done!

10.

I see, within, the always-so

In glory and aseity

Sustain, without, the come-and-go

In grace and spontaneity.

11.

When others take me for my face

They do not realize

That they are giving judgment

Designed to cut to size.

But I reject opinion

That leaves me so belittled.

I say the uncarved block of wood

Refuses to be whittled.

12.

See it once and own it.

There's nothing more to do.

Practice doesn't hone it.

It's always in your view.

13.

If seeing you're the Seer,

The Heart and Core and Nub,

You seldom ever look again,

Well, there, my friend's the rub.

14.

Awareness of awareness,

To some it may be bland.

To me it is the total truth,

No if or but or ampersand!

15.

I stay with two-way seeing.

Though some will find it risible,

To me it is the one true way

To parse the indivisible.

16.

Look in and see the yin.

Look out and see the yang.

Look in and out and see the Dao,

And now you see the whole shebang!

Look in for nothing doing.
Look out for all is done.
Look in and out for wholeness,
And see the two as one.

17.

Some would have me think that I'm

A speck of space, a tick of time.

Contrariwise I must aver

I'm This in which they both occur.

18.

Here I see the all-at-once.

There I see the bit-by-bit.

Seeing here and there are one,

I have the sum and whole of It.

19.

In you I live and move and am.

In me you do the same.

And thus we build a universe

On one another's fame.

20.

What is mirrored in the mirror?

And tell me does reflection

Bear resemblance to the source?

It's open to inspection.

21.

I supply the emptiness

You provide the face

Thus we live together

In a mutual embrace

22.

Faceless is your heart and core,

The emptiness that makes you whole,

That brings you satisfaction

And amplifies your soul.

23.

Why spend your days in seeking

And longing to be free

When all that ever binds you

Is spontaneity?

24.

Life will only come 'round right

When you have gained the prowess

For seeing what you really are

And living this-here-nowness.

25.

Awareness here, appearance there,

Between the two no boundary.

Now I have a quiet mind.

Goodbye doubt and quandary.

26.

Suchness! Wholeness!

Oneness! Isness!

More than This

Is monkey business.

27.

You say you're comfy in your skin?

You say you have your head on straight?

If that's the kind of shape you're in,

My friend, I must commiserate!

28.

Within I see the I-am-not.

Without I see all isness.

To see the two together

Is my one and only business.

29.

There is a great pretense

That troubles and bothers:

That I am for myself

What I look like to others.

30.

The truth is not so difficult.

It's really just a simple scheme

To see within the way things are

And see without the way they seem.

Anyone can do it.

One needn't be a whiz

To see within what-isn't

And see without what-is.

31.

I am not what I'm told I am

By boisterous majority.

On what I See myself to be

I am the sole authority.

And what I See when gaze goes in

Toward Center, Heart and Soul

Is simply Nothing, simply put,

A Naught, a Void, a Gaping Whole.

33.

Those who know can never say,

But surely they can point the Way

And then suggest you do the same

To see the core that has no name.

34.

When you see you have no head

You've surely found the art

That leads you to a quiet joy,

An open mind and ease of heart.

35.

Am I who I am for me

Or who I am for others?

The former viewpoint nourishes.

The latter chokes and smothers.

36.

Presence of Naught within

Presence of All without

This is what the Seeing of

The Headless One's about.

37.

I'm present where the whole abides,

Where opposition coincides,

Where all and naught are never two

And quite enough to see me through.

38.

Nothing's missing in my life,

But all is out of place

When I think that centrally

I have a human face.

39.

The only thing there is to get

Is certainty that This is It,

For after living with the lie,

The Truth is bound to satisfy.

40.

Seeing can show it directly.

Living can do it with passion.

Words cannot get it correctly,

But dimly and after a fashion.

41.

Between the near side and the far

I see no similarity

Nor any separation —

My fundamental Verity.

42.

The center of infinity

Co-insides with you and me.

Don't you think we ought to try

To see our oneness, you and I?

43.

Without I see abundance.

Within I see vacuity.

And only in conception

Can I parse the continuity.

44.

A doer isn't needed

Indeed is quite extraneous

When everything that happens

Is utterly spontaneous

45.

Within I see the world's at rest.

Without it's on the go.

With that I fear I have confessed

To everything I know.

46.

Here I am capacity.

There I am its filling.

Fancy that, on life's marquee

I've first and second billing.

47.

The function of Doing

Is Whole and is One

And needn't be split

Into Doer and Done.

48.

Love your image in the mirror?

Your shadow and your silhouette?

Identify with your veneer

And that's the sort of thing you get.

49.

Why do I value the view so much?

Here is the way I want to spin it:

I value the view as much as I do

Cuz you who are also an I are in it.

50.

There's beauty in a flower

For those with eye to see.

But do you see the beauty in

This bubble of asymmetry?

51.

It happens when it happens.

You get it when you get it.

There's not a thing that you can do

To hinder or abet it.

52.

Because I've seen my facelessness

And the world of things, by golly,

I am not afraid to say

That I have seen the whole tamale.

53.

Souls are meant for better things

Than living on this earth.

How hollow such a dogma rings.

How little is its worth.

Do you wish to pass your days

In thrall to such a story?

Here and now and present ways

Are the root of grace and glory.

54.

Looking in I see I Am,

Deeper still I see I'm Naught.

Looking out I see the world.

And that is everything I've got.

55.

The presence of your face

Is the absence of my own.

Seeing such creates the base

For living in the zone.

56.

Stringent nondualities

I simply cannot stand 'em

Yin and Yang and Void and View

Are always seen in tandem

57.

Don't interfere with anyone's course.

Let none interfere with your own.

There's never a time for calling in force.

Keep trusting in letting alone.

58.

By noticing the wholeness

Of presence every day,

The answer isn't given,

But the question falls away.

59.

Consciousness and circumstance,

It takes them both, it's true,

To live a life of wholeness

And free of bugaboo.

If you disagree with me

I really will not care.

I'm gonna like you anyway.

I won't be going spare.

60.

There I am impermanent.

Here I am immutable.

The lack of boundary 'tween the two

Is clearly indisputable.

61.

I am the great allowance

One calls capacity,

The seat of observation

And room for things to be.

62.

What you are is given

And is not of your making.

But in a place and for a time

It's present for the taking.

63.

I lived in a world where I didn't fit in

Until I came to see

There's all the room in the absent face

For all the world to fit in me.

64.

This-here-now is all you get.

Stop expecting more.

If someone tells you otherwise,

Katy bar the door.

65.

Void and view arise together.

Void and view are what I am.

Some will say these words are blether,

Some a tidy epigram.

66.

When you're noticing the two,

The inner void and outer view,

Then life is being smoothly run

In you who are the whole in one.

67.

The side I see from is perennial. It's the void I'm seeing through. The side I look to is ephemeral, A never ending change of view.

68.

When outwardly appears the All

And inwardly Vacuity,

Between the two, it's obvious,

There's no discontinuity.

69.

Awaken to the spacious view,

Where seer/scene are one, not two.

Encompassed by the faceless sea,

A wholeness opens, wild and free.

70.

Zero in on Nothing,

The vacant and the null.

Now you have the Plethora,

The occupied, the full.

71.

One who has wisdom keeps silent.

One who has none prattles on.

One who de-faces the center

Is one we can all count upon.

72.

Living's always nonvolitional.

Void and View are appositional.

If this is all you ever know,

I would say you're good to go.

73.

Half the view's transparent.

The other half's opaque.

If you want to have it whole

Just do a double take!

74.

Life is given as a flow,

Not by choice and not by chance,

And so I take it as it comes

And ride the waves of circumstance.

75.

They tell me I'm the Doer,

But I can plainly see

That who I really really am

Is nothing but the Absentee.

76.

Can you see the empty center

And embrace the outer flow?

Can you see the two as one?

If so I'd say you're set to go.

77.

Headlessness — you've got it!

There's nothing more to get.

The only getting left for you

Is getting used to it.

78.

My human face resides in you,

And yours resides in me.

I hope this very simple fact

Is one that you can see.

For capturing this vision

Will surely set you free

For seeing that our lives occur

In reciprocity.

79.

Here I see my facelessness.

It's constant and unchanging.

There I see the world at large

Forever rearranging.

80.

My face is your appearance.

I am is your reality.

Seeing this should demonstrate

A strong conviviality.

81.

Events occur in just one way.

No option's ever given.

They happen just they way they must.

That's just the way events are driven.

82.

Look in for doing nothing

Look out for all is done

Look in and out for wholeness

And see the two as one

83.

It's all just arising And passing away. It's not of my doing Or under my sway.

84.

I have the All. I am the Naught. It's really quite an awful lot. I've little need for other stuff. The Naught and All are just enough.

85.

This that is cannot not be, So please be very wary Of anyone who ever says "That wasn't necessary."

86.

Here's the void. There's the plenum.

I am happy to have seen 'em.

Seeing two I must be wary

Not to miss the unitary.

87.

All my thoughts, all my feelings,

All my doings come to me.

I see I'm naught in essence but

This empty receptivity.

88.

This seeing is rewarding, A job you cannot botch. It isn't really work at all To keep the quiet watch.

89.

Yin and yang are one in Dao. This is my persuasion. I neither know the why or how But witness the equation.

90.

Knowing that one never knows Knows knowing as a fiction. Knowing with a certainty Is surely an affliction.

91.

Presence of the timeless here And the momentary there Make it absolutely clear I am present everywhere.

92.

Here I see the singular. There I see plurality. And happily I revel in My asymmetricality.

93.

There is but one existence. No matter how I try, I cannot split the One in two. Everything I See is I.

94.

The near side gets the stillness. The far side gets the action. How could I count myself with those Who get no satisfaction?

95.

How do I see my innerness, My core and central locus? I do not strain. I settle back, Let go, relax, unfocus.

96.

Experience is total When seen through proper prism. Within I see the stasis, Without, the dynamism.

97.

Here is doing-nothing There is all-is-done. See the two together And you've found the whole-in-one.

98.

If you want to give your life

A wholly new sensation,

Here's what I commend to you:

Revise your sensory orientation.

99.

An undivided wholeness Is present here and now In the Void and in the View That constitute the Dao. And in the flow of wholeness I see I'm at the heart And find it most agreeable To play my given part.