THE TAO (2) 
235 
As for TO ON, which superficially might seem the best 
translation of Tao as described in the text , it is the most 
misleading of the three . For TO ON possesses an extensive 
connotation implying a whole system of Platonic concepts, 
than which nothing can be more alien to the essential quality 
of the Tao. Tao is neither 'being' nor 'not being' in any sense 
which Europe could understand. It is neither existence , nor a 
condition or form of existence . Equally, TO MH ON gives no 
idea of Tao. Tao is altogether alien to all that class of 
thought. From its connection with "that principle which 
necessarily underlies the fact that events occur" one might 
suppose that the "Becoming" of Heraclitus might assist us to 
describe the Tao. But the Tao is not a principle at all of that 
kind. To understand it requires an altogether different state 
of mind to any with which European thinkers in general are 
familiar. It is necessary to pursue unflinchingly the path of 
spiritual development on the lines indicated by the Sufis, the 
Hindus, and the Buddhists ; and , having reached the trance 
called Nerodha-Sammapati , in which are destroyed all forms 
soever of consciousness, there appears in that abyss of 
annihilation the germ of an entirely new type of idea, whose 
principal characteristic is this: that the entire concatenation 
of One's previous experiences and conceptions could not 
have happened at all, save by virtue of this indescribable 
necessity. 
I am only too painfully aware that the above exposition is 
faulty in every respect. In particular , it presupposes in the 
reader 
considerable familiarity with the subject, thus 
practically begging the question. It must also prove almost 
wholly unintelligible to the average reader, him in fact whom 
I especially aim to interest . 
For his sake I will try to elucidate the matter by an 
analogy. Consider electricity. It would be absurd to say that 
electricity is any of the phenomena by which we know it. We 
take refuge in the petitio principii of saying that electricity is 
that form of energy which is the principal cause of such and 
such phenomena. Suppose now that we eliminate this idea as