There was a beginning of the universeAgain, a cautionary tale. Each one is slightly different but they all hit on the same topics: the one, the two, the three, and the ten thousand. Practice hsü. Rule with wu-wei. What is most interesting to me is that it says keep to the light and revert to enlightenment.
Which may be called the Mother of the Universe.
He who has found the mother (Tao)
And thereby understands her sons (things)
And having understood the sons,
Still keeps to its mother,
Will be free from danger throughout his lifetime.
Close the mouth
Shut the doors (of cunning and desire),
And to the end of life there will be (peace) without toil.
Open the mouth.
Meddle with affairs,
And to the end of life there will be no salvation.
Seeking what is small is called enlightenment.
Keeping to weakness is called strength.
Use the light.
Revert to enlightenment,
And thereby avoid danger to one's life–
This is called practicing the eternal.
Reversion is the action of Tao, so if we stop trying, we become enlightened. It is only by struggling and not following Tao that we are not enlightened.
How odd, then for a philosophy that says to keep to the black and not the white, to advocate the light. We equate white and light today, but this puts me in the mind of space in a way. Let the Tao be your star. A guide home.
I thought you might be interested in the following:
ReplyDeleteLearning from the Tao Te-Ching Today
A group of people assemble on-line or in groups to study the Tao Te-Ching
Learning from the Tao-Te Ching Today provides summaries of thoughts and discussions on selected verses of the Tao Te-Ching. In this discussion, several people go through verses from the original Chinese and three or four translations. People give comments and share ideas. They discuss applications to life as we know it now.
The book is growing out of an actual discussion group, but, welcomes virtual members who wish to participate.
Learning from the Tao Te-Ching Today
A group of people assemble on-line or in groups to study the Tao Te-Ching
View the Overview of the project.
Project Leader: Jro72
Participants:
The WEbook community
Who Can Write: All Participants
Source: http://www.webook.com/project/Learning-from-the-Tao-Te-Ching-Today
P.S. Your blog is wonderful. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteVery good blog. We share the same interest for Tao. From January 2010 I started to read Tao Te Ching and write about it on my blog (http://karagounis78.splinder.com/).
ReplyDeleteWriting my thoughts hep me to deep enter into Tao's philosophy.
Your comments on Tao Te Ching's chapters are very interesting and well documnted.
Good work. I hope you will continue to post again