Hello
Of late I have been through some consecutive, and simultaneous experiences that some would say are unpleasant. These experiences have ranged from just annoying to rather devastating if I was to pass judgement from an everyday modern human perspective.
Rather than stew in misery and feel sorry for myself (done enough of that already). I wish to look within and rekindle an old personal project of mine which will shift my focus to a better place. And I wish to do that here where all feed back and criticism is welcome.
The TAO DE CHING is a very old book that originates from China from an author by the name of Lao Tze (Translated as Old Man). Not sure if there was such a person that ever existed. This book is compiled from scrolled texts that dates as far back as 4th century BC. This is a brief book made up of 81 short poetic verses.
I wish to call upon the wisdom of the TAO DE CHING and put meaning to it according to my life at this point in time. Writing is something that I find a lot of joy in and often learn a lot as it draws content from my subconscious that seem foreign to me.
It may seem strange that I write about such a topic here. If I offend anyone, kindly remind me. If anyone has any wisdom and light to share, please do so.
Lets see if all 81 verses can be visited. I have no attachments to completing this or not. There is no real purpose in doing this exercise accept for experiencing the process.
Thank you Steemit Team for providing this space. And thanks to the readers that may bring insight and motivation to this journey.
Verse 1
The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.
There is a theme is these 14 lines of translated text that jumps out at me. This theme is Attachment. By what do I mean what do I mean when I say attachment? In my experiences it is when I have expectations when something has to be a certain way within my perspective of how things should be. It is when I enter into a conversation or engagement and I have an outcome that I want to make happen. Some would call this vested interest. When I have an attachment I become tunnel visioned and often exclude all other possibilities, and often exclude the benefits and perspectives of others. There are times when this is appropriate, but often it provokes the selfishness in my actions.
What do I make TAO mean? I see it as THE WAY OF DOING THINGS THAT SERVES THE GREATER GOOD. On the first 4 lines:
The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
We human beings are an ever evolving species. Collectively we evolve. As individuals we evolve. Especially as individuals our outlook on life, and interaction with those around us evolve. In this part of verse 1 see that each of us have a way of doing things that serve ourselves and others. We are forever changing and learning. At different different episodes of our lives our choices of actions that we label as GOOD only works for those particular episodes in our lives. For example, a genuine act of kindness from one teenager to another in getting out of trouble with parents would be a very different place of a parent guiding a child in learning some fundamental life skills.
I believe that an intention of serving the greater good is present in all of us and has to be activated. And because of the the every changing nature of our perspective during our time on earth, this intention can only be expressed according to what we have at the time.
Thus there is no generic way. There is no way that can be told and named. For those of us including me that identify statically a certain way of doing things is the be all end all, we may find that the world moves on and our way of doing things becomes outdated without our realising. And that will show through in the results. I for one have been guilty of acting like a child or teenager when dealing with adult matters that require more consideration of others.
The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.
To me the unnameable and eternally real is the intention of knowing that its not always about me, and the openness to evolve my ways according to situation. The best way I have been able to do this at my better times is to let go of judgement in the way other people do things, and see the intention rather than action of others.
The intention of kindness is boundless and cannot be named. Once it is named it may become
-sympathy
-in the name of The Lord
-codes of conduct
etc
There is no harm in any of that, however when these good intentions are labelled and then placed on a shelf there is a chance that they can be misused. Much blood has been shed throughout human history in the name of this, that, or the other.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Desire. This comes in many forms, wanting, obsession, possession, attachments, etc. In my experiences being free from the bounding effects of attachments is having an open mind. And from that place there is so much more to see. At this time of turmoil in my life. Letting go of the grim views that is so easy to fall into has shown me endless opportunities and a lot of kindness from those around me. I could have just as easily become pissed off and depressed and stayed there for a season or a lifetime.
If I chose to be caught up in what I call shit thinking. What is the likely result? I would likely manifest more of what I am thinking about and shut out all necessary and wonderful manifestations. Do you know of someone that had done this before?
Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.
The Darkness that Lao Tze speaks of is a really intriguing one. The word darkness itself triggered a negative response at first. But after letting go of that attachment I was able to contemplate and find a meaning within myself of what this means.
Here's my take on it. Darkness is an absence of light. Lets just say it is THE ABSENCE OF. And when all is absent it means its a clean slate. And a clean slate is a pure potentiality where all can be built. have a look at this and see if you know what I mean. Watch this clip of Bruce Lee teaching a student about emptying his cup of knowledge before being open to receive new knowledge. WATCH THIS CLIP FROM 2 MINUTES AND 30 SECONDS.
What I make the last 2 lines of verse 1 mean is that being open and letting go of attachments, judgements and experiences puts us into a state of openness. In this state we are geared to new understandings.