Can the Buddha be seen?  Can enlightened beings been recognized by certain appearance or form?

Although there are certain descriptions of how Buddha or Bodhisattva may look, ultimately the reality and awareness of the Buddha, like the nature of the Tao depicted in Daodejing, are beyond form and descriptions.  Therefore, real Buddha is beyond form and appearance.

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如理实见分第五

GENUINE DISCERNMENT OF THE PRINCIPLE OF SUCHNESS, FIVE

须菩提！于意云何？可以身相见如来不？
“Subhuti, what do you think? Can the Tathagata be seen by means of His bodily form?”

不也，世尊！不可以身相得见如来。
“No, World Honoured One, the Tathgate cannot be seen by means of His bodily form.

何以故？
“Why?

如来所说身相，即非身相。
“Because when the Tathagata speaks of bodily form, it is not (real) form.”

佛告须菩提：凡所有相，皆是虚妄。若见诸相非相，则见如来。
The Buddha said to Subhuti: “Everything with form is unreal; if all forms are seen as unreal, the Tathagata will be perceived.”

Thirty spokes, forms a wheel, together with the empty space within, yields the functionality of a car.

-> Ancient vehicle were run on wooden wheel, with 30 spokes connected to a circle in the middle of the wheel. The forms (spokes) and non-form (empty space of the circle) together yields the functionality of the wheel/car.

Clay when fashioned into vessels, together with the empty space within, yields the functionality of a vessel.

-> Form (clay) and non-form (empty space within vessel) together yields the functionality of a vessel.

Doors and windows when cut to form a room, together with the empty space within, yields the functionality of a room.

-> Form (doors and windows and walls) and non-form (empty space within the room) together yields the functionality of a room.

Therefore, beingness and nothingness together offers functionality.

-> Beingness (form)  and nothingness (non-form) cannot be separated in its functionality and manifestation in the world.  Can a wheel function as a wheel without the empty space in its center? Can a vessel be used to contain water if there is no space within? Can a room serve its purpose if it is filled?  Similarly, empty space itself cannot do the job (of a wheel, vessel, room) without their corresponding form counterparts.

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Chapter 11 Discussion:

Our mind likes to separate things into categories and opposites, as if the mentally separated subjects could exist independently.  However, Laozi pointed out in this chapter, as a further elaboration to Chapter 2, with the 3 examples of wheel, vessel, and room, that it is a fallacy to separate our life into duality and opposites, and that separated and dualistic subjects do not have independent, stable and everlasting reality.   Not only does the separation of form and non-form a fallacy to the perceptive world, it is also a fallacy to separate our own life into opposites.   For example, in the classic duality of body vs. mind. Can the body be perceived without the mind? Can the mind exist without a body?  The answer is obvious. Our life consists of both the body and the mind, which are two categories we created to describe certain aspects of our life (there is more, of course).   What does it matter? It points us to perceive life as it is, beyond concepts and separation the mind created which does not stand at an objective and absolute level.  It points us to go beyond duality and separation of the mind.  It is the nature of higher truth, which when realized, liberates us from our ignorance, which is temporary, transitory, and illusive in nature.   Therefore, in the Tai-Chi symbol, the black and white (or the yin and yang) are depicted separately yet are connected and united in the center to represent the highest truth of the world.   Laozi did not teach Yin and Yang, he taught the truth beyond them.

Bilingual text of Chapter 11: https://www.lisiming.net/philosophy/chinese-philosophy/daoist/daoist-philosophy/dao-de-jing-core-33-chapters/ddj11-3/

“The Dao that can be spoken is not the enduring and unchanging Dao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.”

-> As Dao is beyond forms, words and names are only symbols and pointers of the Dao.

“Nothingness, is the origin of heaven and earth; Beingness, is the mother of all things.”

-> Prior to the self/i arising (e.g. in deep sleep), there is no perception and therefore no heaven and earth. With the self/i arising, perception appears and one see all things.

” Abide in nothingness, one see deep wisdom; Abide in beingness, one see boundless creation.”

->When one discover the reality beyond forms, one discover the wisdom beyond the phenomenon world, when one abide in the reality of forms, one see the diversity of all creation.

“Both arise from same source but have different names, together they are called mystery.” “Lie in the deepest of mystery, is the gate to all wisdom and wonder.”

->If  there is a ultimate reality that is accountable for all creations, it gives rise to both (form & beyond form). Together and beyond separation ties are gateway to the deepest wisdom and wonder.

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Chapter 1 Discussion:

In this first chapter of Daodejing, Laozi presents the nature of reality (Dao) as beyond words, names, forms, and non-form. It represents the source of above all, and is beyond all dualistic separations such as form/non-form, being/nothing.  This chapter cautions readers up front that one should not be lost  in words, even that from this Daodejing itself. Treat them as pointers and temporary information, but seek and aim for the (Dao).  The Chapter also introduces Dao as beyond duality and opposites.  Typically, our minds likes to draw separation and describe the world with a subject and an object (e.g. a “i” in a “world”, a “this” vs. “that”), and think of phenomena as having opposites such as hot/cold, fast/slow, high/low, etc. Laozi discovered the reality (Dao) as beyond all this separations, including the ultimate separation of nothingness(non-form) and beingness(forms).

DDJ Chapter 1 bilingual text: https://www.lisiming.net/philosophy/chinese-philosophy/daoist/daoist-philosophy/dao-de-jing-core-33-chapters/ddj1-8/