Praising the profound

 

[When] looking at it not it is seen.

It is called colorless.

[When] listening to it not it is heard.

It is called soundless.

[When] grasping it not it is seized.

It is called incorporeal.

These three things not can be subjected to scrutiny.

Therefore they are mingled together and form a unity.

Its surface is not clear; 

its bottom is not obscure.

Continuously [and] continuously 

Oh! not it can be named.

It reverts [and] returns to non-existence.

This is called of non-form the form,

of non-image, the image.

This is called abstrusely abstruse.

In the front of it not is seen its head.

In the rear of it not is seen its back.

By holding fast to the ancients of,

the Reason,

thereby [the sage] governs the present day of existence,

thus knows of the olden time the beginning.

This is called Reason's thread.