Christ the Eternal Tao: Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen from the book 'Christ the Eternal Tao' by Hieromonk Damascene.
Text:
In finding the traces of the Way in nature,
The Sage found the simple nature from which man had departed.
"Return to the babe," he said,
"Return to the state of the uncarved block, the pristine simplicity.
The primitive origin of man:
Here indeed is the main-thread of the Way."
In his infancy, his primitive origin,
Mankind had been made to rejoice in the Way, his Source,
To abide in Him, to cleave to Him, and never depart:
Made to raise himself above the things of the senses,
Above every bodily appearance,
To become selfless like the Way,
To go beyond himself in selfless love,
To contemplate the Way extending into the universe,
To know the inner essences of created things,
And, moving even beyond these, to behold the Primal Word,
Seeing in Him, in purity and stillness of thought,
The image of the Primal Mind.
Such was man’s original nature,
The state of the uncarved block, the pristine simplicity,
In which the simple and undivided Way had made him,
In which he was ever to remain,
But from which he had departed.
For, not striving to go beyond himself,
He preferred to seek things nearer to himself:
The body and its senses.
Removing himself from the invisible Way,
He began to regard his own visible self.
Therefore the Ancient Sage,
Seeking to return to his original nature,
To the immaterial Source beyond the realm of sense,
Said: "One’s perfect virtue lies in his conformity to the Way.
The Way may be styled ‘the form of the formless,’
‘The image of the imageless.’
Go out to meet it and you will discover no beginning;
Follow after and you will discover no end.
Lay hold of this ancient doctrine and apply it to the nourishment of your soul.
You will then understand the primitive origin of man,
The main-thread of the Way."