“Empty the self completely; Embrace perfect peace.
Realize that all beings alike go through their processes of activity and life,
and then they return to the original source.
Returning to the source brings peacefulness and stillness.
This stillness is the flow of nature,
and signifies that the beings have lived their allotted span of life.
Accepting this brings enlightenment and tranquility,
ignoring this brings confusion and sorrow.
If one can accept this flow of nature; one can cherish all things.
Being all-cherishing you become impartial;
Being impartial you become magnanimous;
Being magnanimous you become natural;
Being natural you become one with The Way;
Being one with The Way you become immortal:
Though the body will decay, the Way will not.”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 16, John Dicus Translation)
Every month, I begin with the highest expectations and then I get busy and tired and distracted. I put aside everything that doesn’t cry out for my immediate attention until it either disappears or begins to cry out also. One could say that I’ve been ignoring the natural flow of things.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tao Te Ching, Verse 15
“Don’t just stand there, do something!” is great advice during a fire and I’ve taken it as good advice for nearly all occasions – but it’s not always good advice – I’ve mentioned in these entries how too much time spent “doing” and not enough time spent “being” makes me stupid and anxious – as Stephen Mitchell notes “We need space in order to see, silence in order to hear, sleep in order to carry on with our wakefulness. If our senses are too cluttered with objects they lose their acuteness and will eventually decay” – if our minds are too cluttered with thoughts, “they lose their acuteness and will eventually decay” (just as mine has been of late) – if our hearts are too cluttered with desires, “they lose their acuteness and will eventually decay” – I’ve mentioned that when God is trying to teach me something, he puts the message ever before my eyes – at one point, when I was trying to complete those questions on the Springdale application, I mentally questioned, “why is this so fucking difficult” and a voice inside my head responded, “because you’re trying to do it by yourself instead of relying on me (God)” – after that I went outside and had a smoke and told God that it was all up to him – that I didn’t care about it anymore – and then I came in and basically just typed the answers that I finally used on the application – I was reminded of the passage from Tao Te Ching, Verse XXXXVIII [this is why we don’t use Roman numerals anymore], “Less and less do you need to force things, until finally you arrive at non-action. When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. True mastery can be gained by letting things go their own way. It can't be gained by interfering.” – this is the principle of wei wu wei – it’s what God is (once again) trying to teach me – I’ll talk about it more later. I’ll leave you, with Siji Tzu’s commentary: “Like our ancient masters, do not seek, do not expect. Stir up the lakebed and watch it settle. Pour water into your teacup, but do not overfill. Enjoy a flower the same in a battlefield just as on a rivers edge. Be like nature and do not judge good from bad. Accept an honorable guest the same as a criminal.”
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Tao Te Ching, Verse 14
“Look, but you can't see it.
Listen, but you can't hear it.
Reach out, but you can't touch it.
Invisible, inaudible, intangible.
Elusive.
The One.
When it rises, no light.
When it sets, no darkness.
It calls all things back into nothingness [No–Thing–Ness].
Formless form, imageless image.
No front, no back.
Live in the Tao of old, master the present.
Know the Source: The essence of Tao.”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 14, George Cronk Translation)
Stephen Mitchell writes that another way of saying, “Look, but you can't see it” is “Look and it’s right before your eyes” – last week when my brother-in-law and I were hiking, it occurred to me that I’m not very good at following the trail – I’ve never been lost in the woods – I’m good at keeping rough bearing on where I am, but as far as following “the” trail – I really don’t worry very much about it – as a consequence, even though we set out to hike the Butterfield Trail, we really didn’t spend that much time on the actual trail – the park is around 2000 acres and littered with trails – as long as we were going south toward Blackburn Creek and then east toward Lee Creek and then northeast back toward where we started, I didn’t really care which trail we were on and we occasionally left all the trails and just made our way though the woods in order to maintain the forward progress I wanted – you may ask, what does any of this have to do with today’s passage of the Tao? – my answer is that if you know that you’re going in the right direction, don’t worry about whether or not you can see the trail – quick review: you know you’re going the right direction if you spontaneously exhibit the fruit of the Spirit – in as much as your life is characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, you’re going in the right direction – and : if you know that you’re going in the right direction, don’t worry about whether or not you can see the trail
Listen, but you can't hear it.
Reach out, but you can't touch it.
Invisible, inaudible, intangible.
Elusive.
The One.
When it rises, no light.
When it sets, no darkness.
It calls all things back into nothingness [No–Thing–Ness].
Formless form, imageless image.
No front, no back.
Live in the Tao of old, master the present.
Know the Source: The essence of Tao.”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 14, George Cronk Translation)
Stephen Mitchell writes that another way of saying, “Look, but you can't see it” is “Look and it’s right before your eyes” – last week when my brother-in-law and I were hiking, it occurred to me that I’m not very good at following the trail – I’ve never been lost in the woods – I’m good at keeping rough bearing on where I am, but as far as following “the” trail – I really don’t worry very much about it – as a consequence, even though we set out to hike the Butterfield Trail, we really didn’t spend that much time on the actual trail – the park is around 2000 acres and littered with trails – as long as we were going south toward Blackburn Creek and then east toward Lee Creek and then northeast back toward where we started, I didn’t really care which trail we were on and we occasionally left all the trails and just made our way though the woods in order to maintain the forward progress I wanted – you may ask, what does any of this have to do with today’s passage of the Tao? – my answer is that if you know that you’re going in the right direction, don’t worry about whether or not you can see the trail – quick review: you know you’re going the right direction if you spontaneously exhibit the fruit of the Spirit – in as much as your life is characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, you’re going in the right direction – and : if you know that you’re going in the right direction, don’t worry about whether or not you can see the trail
Monday, January 31, 2011
Tao Te Ching, Verse 13
“Being honored is a disgrace as it causes bondage.
Being valued will cause great discomfort to the body.
How can it be said that being honored is a disgrace?
Honor is based on subserviency.
Obtaining it causes bondage; losing it causes bondage.
That's how it can be said that being honored is a disgrace as it causes bondage.
How can it be said that being valued will cause great discomfort to the body?
My own experiences in life have caused me to have anxiety about how I should act.
My own experiences in life have shown me that my body can be easily defeated.
Without a body, what would I have?
That anxiety, therefore, causes emphasis on the actions of the body and how it relates to the rest of the world.
That would seem to make us be willing to adapt to the world.
It's through the love of the way my body can act in the world that I am willing to repeatedly change along with the world.”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 13, Nina Correa Translation)
I’ll be honest, when I began this blog I wasn’t completely certain what I wanted to do with it. I love the Tao and I wanted to discuss it. Perhaps I wanted to explicate it and explore the various translations; it was all very ethereal in my mind when I began. That probably explains why I feel somewhat disappointed with the 2010 posts. They’re lacking something – they lack depth. It’s funny; I turned forty in 2010 but I don’t feel any wiser now than I did a decade ago. If anything, I feel like I know even less now. Maybe that’s a good thing. Over the past couple of decades, I’ve become much less arrogant. I used to think that I knew things; now I’m not as sure. Humility is definitely something worth pursuing. I think that I need a different approach this year; an approach that is more consistent with the Tao. I try to figure this out more adequately before I write the next post.
I’ll leave you, as always, with Siji Tzu’s commentary:
“You are in everything. Everything is in you. Create hope and fear and you throw away the Dao. Create happiness and sorrow and you will collapse. Keep your feet on the ground. Love everything as you love yourself. Then everything is within your reach.”
Being valued will cause great discomfort to the body.
How can it be said that being honored is a disgrace?
Honor is based on subserviency.
Obtaining it causes bondage; losing it causes bondage.
That's how it can be said that being honored is a disgrace as it causes bondage.
How can it be said that being valued will cause great discomfort to the body?
My own experiences in life have caused me to have anxiety about how I should act.
My own experiences in life have shown me that my body can be easily defeated.
Without a body, what would I have?
That anxiety, therefore, causes emphasis on the actions of the body and how it relates to the rest of the world.
That would seem to make us be willing to adapt to the world.
It's through the love of the way my body can act in the world that I am willing to repeatedly change along with the world.”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 13, Nina Correa Translation)
I’ll be honest, when I began this blog I wasn’t completely certain what I wanted to do with it. I love the Tao and I wanted to discuss it. Perhaps I wanted to explicate it and explore the various translations; it was all very ethereal in my mind when I began. That probably explains why I feel somewhat disappointed with the 2010 posts. They’re lacking something – they lack depth. It’s funny; I turned forty in 2010 but I don’t feel any wiser now than I did a decade ago. If anything, I feel like I know even less now. Maybe that’s a good thing. Over the past couple of decades, I’ve become much less arrogant. I used to think that I knew things; now I’m not as sure. Humility is definitely something worth pursuing. I think that I need a different approach this year; an approach that is more consistent with the Tao. I try to figure this out more adequately before I write the next post.
I’ll leave you, as always, with Siji Tzu’s commentary:
“You are in everything. Everything is in you. Create hope and fear and you throw away the Dao. Create happiness and sorrow and you will collapse. Keep your feet on the ground. Love everything as you love yourself. Then everything is within your reach.”
Friday, December 31, 2010
Tao Te Ching, Verse 12, Part I
“Colors blind people's eyes;
sounds deafen their ears;
flavors spoil people's palates,
the chase and the hunt craze people's minds;
goods hard to obtain make people's actions harmful.
Therefore sages work for the middle and not the eyes,
leaving the latter and taking the former.”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 12, Thomas Cleary Translation)
I believe that Scripture teaches subjugation of the self to the perfect, transcendent will of God and that inasmuch as we are conformed to God’s will we will exhibit the fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) – I believe these things and have believed them for a long time, but it was the Tao that made sense of them for me – taught me the why and how of my subjugation of self (I’m still not very good at it) – today, I heard a brief interview with Lorin Maazel on NPR – he’s a 78 year old conductor, violinist and composer – Maazel conducted the New York Philharmonic once again on their landmark visit to Pyongyang, North Korea in February – in the interview he was asked how he manages his schedule at his age (evidently, he’s something of a slave-driver in rehearsals, sometimes practicing for up to eight hours at a time) and he said something that caught my attention (especially in light of the way I’ve been feeling lately) – he said the key was to completely prepare oneself ahead of time mentally and physically – one must be completely relaxed and without tension if one is going to be able to maintain the intensity of focus that is required of a conductor – he said that his training as a violinist had been especially useful because violinists had to learn relaxation techniques in order to practice and perform – the interviewer asked if he could share an example of one of the techniques he uses and he described this breathing method that included intentionally going over every muscle in the body and relaxing it and then he said that after one has completely relaxed every muscle of the body one must say to oneself, “what I do is of no importance whatsoever – I am here as a servant – and if I’m nervous it’s because I think that what I’m doing is important, and that is an egocentricity which no interpreter can allow himself the luxury of – you’re there to serve the music and you have to be in the best position psychologically and physiologically to do so – which means no tension – no nerves – yes, exhilaration – yes enthusiasm – yes, focused energy, but no nervousness because that's counterproductive” – then the most amazing thing happened (at least to me) the interviewer asked, if he did these exercises backstage before the performance and he said that he doesn’t do any of it anymore because it’s become so much a part of who he is that he just breaths and is as a matter of course – I was filled with exhilaration – this, again is wei-wu-wie – he has practiced it so long that he has become it – I don’t know what he believes about the universe, but what he said is the most beautiful thing I’ve heard in a long time:
“what I do is of no importance whatsoever – I am here as a servant – and if I’m nervous it’s because I think that what I’m doing is important, and that is an egocentricity which no interpreter can allow himself the luxury of – you’re there to serve the music and you have to be in the best position psychologically and physiologically to do so – which means no tension – no nerves – yes, exhilaration – yes enthusiasm – yes, focused energy, but no nervousness, because that's counterproductive”
I’ll leave you, as always, with Siji Tzu’s commentary:
“Is a sunset beautiful to a blind man? Is a songbird harmonious to a deaf? Thoughts of this will weaken your mind. Be like a tree bending to the wind. Observe the world, but do not desire it.”
sounds deafen their ears;
flavors spoil people's palates,
the chase and the hunt craze people's minds;
goods hard to obtain make people's actions harmful.
Therefore sages work for the middle and not the eyes,
leaving the latter and taking the former.”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 12, Thomas Cleary Translation)
I believe that Scripture teaches subjugation of the self to the perfect, transcendent will of God and that inasmuch as we are conformed to God’s will we will exhibit the fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) – I believe these things and have believed them for a long time, but it was the Tao that made sense of them for me – taught me the why and how of my subjugation of self (I’m still not very good at it) – today, I heard a brief interview with Lorin Maazel on NPR – he’s a 78 year old conductor, violinist and composer – Maazel conducted the New York Philharmonic once again on their landmark visit to Pyongyang, North Korea in February – in the interview he was asked how he manages his schedule at his age (evidently, he’s something of a slave-driver in rehearsals, sometimes practicing for up to eight hours at a time) and he said something that caught my attention (especially in light of the way I’ve been feeling lately) – he said the key was to completely prepare oneself ahead of time mentally and physically – one must be completely relaxed and without tension if one is going to be able to maintain the intensity of focus that is required of a conductor – he said that his training as a violinist had been especially useful because violinists had to learn relaxation techniques in order to practice and perform – the interviewer asked if he could share an example of one of the techniques he uses and he described this breathing method that included intentionally going over every muscle in the body and relaxing it and then he said that after one has completely relaxed every muscle of the body one must say to oneself, “what I do is of no importance whatsoever – I am here as a servant – and if I’m nervous it’s because I think that what I’m doing is important, and that is an egocentricity which no interpreter can allow himself the luxury of – you’re there to serve the music and you have to be in the best position psychologically and physiologically to do so – which means no tension – no nerves – yes, exhilaration – yes enthusiasm – yes, focused energy, but no nervousness because that's counterproductive” – then the most amazing thing happened (at least to me) the interviewer asked, if he did these exercises backstage before the performance and he said that he doesn’t do any of it anymore because it’s become so much a part of who he is that he just breaths and is as a matter of course – I was filled with exhilaration – this, again is wei-wu-wie – he has practiced it so long that he has become it – I don’t know what he believes about the universe, but what he said is the most beautiful thing I’ve heard in a long time:
“what I do is of no importance whatsoever – I am here as a servant – and if I’m nervous it’s because I think that what I’m doing is important, and that is an egocentricity which no interpreter can allow himself the luxury of – you’re there to serve the music and you have to be in the best position psychologically and physiologically to do so – which means no tension – no nerves – yes, exhilaration – yes enthusiasm – yes, focused energy, but no nervousness, because that's counterproductive”
I’ll leave you, as always, with Siji Tzu’s commentary:
“Is a sunset beautiful to a blind man? Is a songbird harmonious to a deaf? Thoughts of this will weaken your mind. Be like a tree bending to the wind. Observe the world, but do not desire it.”
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Tao Te Ching, Verse 11, Part I
“The empty hub at center
Allows a wheel to roll
The vacancy within defines
The function of a bowl
The openness within a house
Provides location to reside
The open space that is my heart
Is where ten thousand things abide”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 11, Jim Clatfelter Translation)
I’ve been trying to think of a way to discuss this that would make sense and finally it occurred to me that it’s all about nouns – in English I we discuss the difference between concrete nouns and abstract nouns (remember a noun is a person, place, thing, or idea) – concrete nouns are the people, places, and things (if you had a bucket big enough to hold the universe, concrete nouns are the stuff you could put in the bucket); abstract nouns are the ideas (you can’t put ideas in a bucket) – last month I wrote, “our spirits chafe under the burden of the consumerism of our materialistic culture – it rarely gives us what we want and never gives us what we need – what we need, what we’ve always needed is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – everything else is just a distraction” – I think that the idea of this verse is that “things” are not the “THING” – the nouns of real importance are the abstract nouns – even people are not important unless we include the abstract nouns of love, relationship, kindness, nurture, etc. . . to them – I think our culture teaches us to focus on the stuff and ignore the abstract nouns that really matter.
I’ll leave you, as always, with Siji Tzu’s commentary:
“Wei is what we do. Wu-wei is how we live. We put a roof over our heads to protect us from the elements. But it is the space inside where our family grows. I have a wooden vessel to carry water from my well to my house. But it is the inside that contains the elixir. It is what we don't see that makes us full.”
Allows a wheel to roll
The vacancy within defines
The function of a bowl
The openness within a house
Provides location to reside
The open space that is my heart
Is where ten thousand things abide”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 11, Jim Clatfelter Translation)
I’ve been trying to think of a way to discuss this that would make sense and finally it occurred to me that it’s all about nouns – in English I we discuss the difference between concrete nouns and abstract nouns (remember a noun is a person, place, thing, or idea) – concrete nouns are the people, places, and things (if you had a bucket big enough to hold the universe, concrete nouns are the stuff you could put in the bucket); abstract nouns are the ideas (you can’t put ideas in a bucket) – last month I wrote, “our spirits chafe under the burden of the consumerism of our materialistic culture – it rarely gives us what we want and never gives us what we need – what we need, what we’ve always needed is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – everything else is just a distraction” – I think that the idea of this verse is that “things” are not the “THING” – the nouns of real importance are the abstract nouns – even people are not important unless we include the abstract nouns of love, relationship, kindness, nurture, etc. . . to them – I think our culture teaches us to focus on the stuff and ignore the abstract nouns that really matter.
I’ll leave you, as always, with Siji Tzu’s commentary:
“Wei is what we do. Wu-wei is how we live. We put a roof over our heads to protect us from the elements. But it is the space inside where our family grows. I have a wooden vessel to carry water from my well to my house. But it is the inside that contains the elixir. It is what we don't see that makes us full.”
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Tao Te Ching, Verse 10, Part I
“Can you unify hun and p'o into one and not let them be divided?
Can you concentrate on your breathing to reach harmony and become as an innocent babe?
Can you clean the dark mirror within yourself and let nothing remain there?
Can you love the people and govern the state and do so without interference?
Can you enter and leave the realm of Non-being and let these actions take place by themselves?
Can the clear illumination radiate to all directions without your having knowledge of it?
Cultivate it, and nourish it,
Produce it, but do not possess it,
Labor on it, but do not depend on it,
Lead it, but do not manage it.
This is called the mystic attainment.”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 10, Chang Chung-yuan Translation)
I recently purchased the “Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers” DVD – it’s basically a 360 minute conversation between Moyers and Campbell in the last months of Campbell’s life – many of you are undoubtedly aware of Joseph Campbell and his work – he was a truly amazing man and remains the preeminent authority on comparative mythology to this day – I’ve been working my way though the hour-long episodes slowly and his insights are adding to my understanding of the Tao – this verse is among my favorite b/c of what it says about love (that we ought not try to impose our will on the people we love and that we should act without expecting reciprocation or even thanks) – it’s the third part, “deal with the most vital matters by letting events take their course” that has always given me pause – while watching the DVD recently something Campbell said made the idea click – basically, we have no choice other than to “deal with the most vital matters by letting events take their course” – this is not to say that we don’t work to make things better – we ought to always do that – it simply means that we don’t worry or monitor or manipulate – we do what we can and then we walk away b/c it’s as good as it can be and anything else we might add would only mar it in some significant way
I’ll leave you, once again, with Siji Tzu’s commentary:
“The sun and moon will rise each day. We do not meddle. Have a nice home, but do not possess it. Give to those in need, but do not wait for a thank you. Show your family happiness without forcing them to your defined path of happiness. This is the ultimate virtue.”
Can you concentrate on your breathing to reach harmony and become as an innocent babe?
Can you clean the dark mirror within yourself and let nothing remain there?
Can you love the people and govern the state and do so without interference?
Can you enter and leave the realm of Non-being and let these actions take place by themselves?
Can the clear illumination radiate to all directions without your having knowledge of it?
Cultivate it, and nourish it,
Produce it, but do not possess it,
Labor on it, but do not depend on it,
Lead it, but do not manage it.
This is called the mystic attainment.”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 10, Chang Chung-yuan Translation)
I recently purchased the “Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers” DVD – it’s basically a 360 minute conversation between Moyers and Campbell in the last months of Campbell’s life – many of you are undoubtedly aware of Joseph Campbell and his work – he was a truly amazing man and remains the preeminent authority on comparative mythology to this day – I’ve been working my way though the hour-long episodes slowly and his insights are adding to my understanding of the Tao – this verse is among my favorite b/c of what it says about love (that we ought not try to impose our will on the people we love and that we should act without expecting reciprocation or even thanks) – it’s the third part, “deal with the most vital matters by letting events take their course” that has always given me pause – while watching the DVD recently something Campbell said made the idea click – basically, we have no choice other than to “deal with the most vital matters by letting events take their course” – this is not to say that we don’t work to make things better – we ought to always do that – it simply means that we don’t worry or monitor or manipulate – we do what we can and then we walk away b/c it’s as good as it can be and anything else we might add would only mar it in some significant way
I’ll leave you, once again, with Siji Tzu’s commentary:
“The sun and moon will rise each day. We do not meddle. Have a nice home, but do not possess it. Give to those in need, but do not wait for a thank you. Show your family happiness without forcing them to your defined path of happiness. This is the ultimate virtue.”
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