Galleries and Translations > Recent Works / Taoism > The most astounding sound is not audible (大音希聲)
Background information
Any entity of the most infinite cannot be wholly described nor grasped by the finite human mind. Thus, no one can perfectly hear the infinitely astounding sound in the Universe.
“The most astounding sound is not audible (大音希聲)” is directly extracted from Laozi’s (老子) Tao Te Ching (《道德經》):
第四十一章故建言有之：明道若昧 … 大音希聲; 大象無形; 道隱無名。Chapter 41Thus, there was a saying from the past (建言): Tao’s clear and bright way (明道) is (若) elusive and obscure (昧); … the most astounding sound (大音) is not audible (希聲); the great phenomenon manifested by Tao (大象) has no shape nor form (無形); Tao, hence, is unimaginably and wonderfully (隱) “unidentifiable and nameless (無名)”. (1)
It follows anything that the finite mind can conceive is limited and cannot be called “The Great/The Most (大)” of all realms. Thus, Laozi said, “The Tao that can be spoken or described is not the ‘Immutable and Everlasting Tao’ (道可道, 非常道).”(2)
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(2) Ibid., p. 15.
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