THE TAO TE CHING – VERSE 4

Stephen Mitchell’s interpretation of the Tao:  Tao is like a well: used but never used up. It is like the eternal void: filled with infinite possibilities. It is hidden but always present. I don’t know who gave birth to it. It is older than God. 

The next interpretation comes from a book called The Tao and its Character which is in public domain on The Kindle.  1. The Tao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fullness. How deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honoured Ancestor of all things! 2. We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of things; we should attempt our brightness, and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others. How pure and still the Tao is, as if it would ever to continue! 3. I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before God.

From Byron Katie’s interpretation comes:  It is like the eternal void: filled with infinite possibilities.

She states, “it is like a bottomless well: you can always draw from it, and it will always give you the water of life. Because it is completely open and sees that nothing is true, it is filled with more possibilities than we can ever imagine.”

Wayne Dyer’s interpretation:  The Tao is empty but inexhaustible, bottomless, the ancestor of all.  Within it, the sharp edges become smooth; the twisted knots loosen; the sun is softened by a cloud; the dust settles into place.  It is hidden but always present.  I do not know who gave birth to it.  It seems to be the common ancestor of all, the father of things.

Dr. Dyer wants us to live in the concept of infiniteness because the Tao is the source of all things and is infinite and that we should look at ourselves from the perspective that we also are infinite being living in a world of sharp edges and knots.  He advises us to tap into the bottomless Tao and find the energy we need to do whatever it is we want.  When we are struggling with problems we can tap into this bottomless and infinite Tao to find the answers.    And at all times we should strive to be in the infinity that is hidden.

I love, love, love this verse.  I have been trying for the last week to remember to ask the question “what should I do next?” instead of just knee-jerking my next actions out of habit.  Some moments I have remembered and some moments I have not.  Earlier in the week I was actually asking that question with everything I did.  From what do I eat, to which yoga poses will I practice, to what shall I work on now.  As the week progressed and I found myself in the weekend, I asked less and less because it was all about having fun and not thinking.  But I did find myself remembering to let go and relax in the moments which is always a plus for me. 

I can’t say that asking the question, “what should I do next?” made a profound difference in my life as I do not know whether, when I took one route home versus another I avoided an accident or not, or if I would have eaten any differently than I did. But I do know that I was more productive.  I’m working on getting organized after a year of being very disorganized and I’m working on finding receipts for some tax work I need to get done.  I’ve been putting these two actions off for weeks and after doing the Tao and asking “what next?” I have, as of today, found most of the receipts I need and I’ve cleared out a huge pile of papers that have been staring me in the face.  Plus I feel better, more calm.  Why?  Because I know that if I ask the question, “What next?” and I trust that this infinite bottomless Tao exists, then I’m always tapping into that higher perspective of infinite possibilities and I’m always moving in the best possible direction for me.

So my goal this week?  To continue my practice of asking the question, “What next?”  so that I can train my brain not to react out of habit but to actually tap into this bottomlessness that Lao Tzu called the Tao and “to be” in the Infiniteness at all times.  Happy tapping!

References: 

Mitchell, Stephen (2009-10-13). Tao Te Ching (p. 6). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

The Laozi (2009-10-04). The Tao Teh King, or the Tao and its Characteristics (Kindle Locations 29-30). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Mitchell, Stephen; Katie, Byron (2007-02-06). A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are (p. 13). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Dyer, Wayne Dr.  1 Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life, Audio Version, (Disc 1)

THE TAO TE CHING – VERSE 3

Wayne Dyer’s interpretation:  Putting a value on status will create contentiousness.  If you overvalue possessions, people begin to steal.  By not displaying what is desirable, you will cause the people’s hearts to remain undisturbed.  The sage governs by emptying minds and hearts, by weakening ambitions and strengthening bones.  Practice not doing....When action is pure and selfless, everything settles into its own perfect place.

According to Dr. Dyer this verse of the Tao is about living contentment instead of being led by the ego’s fixation on getting more.  Rather than seeking more, practice gratitude.  It’s also about not seeking to do but seeking to be.  This verse is about practicing not doing and then trusting that all will settle into a perfect place.  Some might say this is lazy but Lao-tzu was not talking about being slothful or inactive but about being guided by a higher principle and getting the ego out of the way.  Dr. Dyer asks us to allow what’s within to come forward. To remind ourselves daily that there is no way to happiness, rather happiness is the way.  We need to bring happiness to every encounter instead of thinking outer events will bring joy.  Stop pushing to get things done or obtain objects but feel gratitude and awe for what is right here in this moment.  Remember that the Tao took care of everything in our creations and first 9 months of life and that it will do the same today.  What we’re being asked is why not do the Tao in every situation? 

Stephen Mitchell’s interpretation:   If you over esteem great men, people become powerless. If you overvalue possessions, people begin to steal. The Master leads by emptying people’s minds and filling their cores, by weakening their ambition and toughening their resolve. He helps people lose everything they know, everything they desire, and creates confusion in those who think that they know. Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place.

Byron Katie’s interpretation:  Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place.

Ms. Katie suggests that the Master leads simply by being.  That if we allow reality to unfold it will bring with it more beauty, more luxury, more exquisite surprises than the imagination could ever devise.  So that if we allow life to flow like water, we in essence become that water, always giving us what we need.

What comes to mind for me in this third verse of the Tao Te Ching is an area I struggle with constantly.  Trusting in God.  Not just believing that God will provide but trusting God by letting go of the worries, fears and desires in my life and knowing that no matter what may come, all will be well.  Trusting that by listening to the “small still voice” inside of me I will be guided in everything I will ever what or need.  And I mean EVERYTHING.  Oh I’m pretty good at listening to my higher power when I’m feeling troubled.  I’ve learned over my many years here on earth that the best way for me to solve any of my problems is to listen to that “small still voice” for God always has a much higher view of what’s going on than I do.  I’ve even become pretty good at trusting in God when it comes to the big ticket items I desire in my life, like moving to a warmer climate and finding ways to make a living.  But what I’m not so good at is actually stopping to listen before I make any decision, like what to eat for dinner, or whether to buy something at the store or not, or whether to take a particular trip, or even what direction I should go when I’m driving somewhere.  Yet those are also situations where we can call upon our higher power to help us.  For at a higher perspective every action we take or every direction we head can become more enjoyable when we let go and let God.  So this is my goal for the week.  To not make any decisions until I pause and touch the sleeve of God to ask, “Which way is the best way?” and see what happens.  Join me; it should be a fun exercise to try.

Here’s a piece of bible trivia in case you are wondering where the saying “small still voice” come from.  It is in the bible verse 1 Kings 19:12.  And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.

THE TAO TE CHING – VERSE 2

Wayne Dyer’s interpretation:  Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty, only because there is ugliness.  All can know good as good only because there is evil.  Being and nonbeing produce each other.  The difficult is born in the easy.  Long is defined by short, the high by the low.  Before and after go along with each other.  So the sage lives openly with apparent duality and paradoxical unity.  The sage can act without effort and teach without words.  Nurturing things without possessing them, he works, but not for rewards; he competes, but not for results.  When the work is done, it is forgotten.  That is why it lasts forever.

According to Dyer what Lao-Tzu is saying is that in order to be a sage one must live the paradox of unity.  Have you ever realized that in order to have beauty we must believe in something called ugly.  That without death we could not have life.  Yet the oneness in the Tao is about living with the apparent duality of everything.  In our humanness we have created these opposites which allow us to judge.  But if we look to the trees, the flowers and the animals, they know nothing of duality.  Unity is reality, life and death are identical.  He asks us to allow ourselves to hold those opposite thoughts without letting them cancel us out. We are both the Tao and the 10,000 things.  In other words we are both the Divine and human.  He asks us to turn within and sense the texture of misunderstanding instead of trying to be right or wrong. 

Stephen Mitchell’s interpretation:  People see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad. Being and non-being create each other. Difficult and easy support each other. Long and short define each other. High and low depend on each other. Before and after follow each other. Therefore the Master acts without doing anything and teaches without saying anything. Things arise and she lets them come; things disappear and she lets them go. She has but doesn’t possess, acts but doesn’t expect. When her work is done, she forgets it. That is why it lasts forever.

Byron Katie uses only the first line of the second verse:  When people see some things as good, other things become bad.  Her focus is on how no one has more or less goodness. No one who ever lived is a better or a worse human being than you. Beware of a mind that doesn’t question its judgments.

As part of my interpretation of this verse I decided to pay attention to my judgments this week.  I began my week in Denver where it was cold and snowy.Warm being good and cold being bad are part of my judgment system.  Now yes, I do prefer warm over cold but that does not mean that one is better than the other.  Snowing and clear are definitely opposites.  Last Wednesday morning as the weather turned to snow I was calling it bad in my head, then I reminded myself that if I see the negative I will call more negative to me.  So I thought of all the good benefits of snow.  Good moisture, pretty, good for the ski areas, thus Colorado’s economy.  Another judgment I made was that my commute to work that morning was bad because of the ice on the road and all the accidents and sliding I was witnessing.  Then I remembered that as I have the Divine inside me as well as the human, I called upon my guardian angels to protect me on my drive.  They did a splendid job.  And anytime I am forced to focus on the higher realm I know that I am living with my highest good in mind.  The enlightened masters let things happen without labeling them good or bad.  Wednesday morning was a good indication I am not quite at the enlightened master level…Yet J

As I continued throughout the week to listen to Wayne Dyer’s explanation of this second verse many thoughts came to mind.  The most relevant for me was this concept of duality which in turn creates, in the human mind, a need to judge.  And the person I judge the most is me.  So I told myself to “STOP IT”.  Easier said than done.  My head is filled with the “shoulds” and “should nots” I have learned since the day I was born.   They are all judgments.  Yet if I allow myself to do what is right for me in each moment I am more alive and aware of each experience.  So I allowed myself to exercise when I wanted not because I’m told I should in order to be healthy.  I ate what I wanted when I wanted not because I’m told what I eat is good or bad for me but because I like the taste of it. If I wanted to sit on my couch and watch TV all day then I allowed myself to do so.   After a few days what I noticed was how, when taking the judgment out of every action or non-action I actually accomplished more.  Yes sometimes I didn’t exercise and sometimes I ate popcorn and candy and drank an extra glass of wine, things considered unhealthy.  Some days I spent time in activities that have been judged as lazy or wasteful, other days I was quite productive.  Without judgment I found that in the long run I was balancing my time with a variety of actions and options.  I was less stressed and feeling peace and happiness.   

At a deeper level I realized that it is in our judgments that we create good and bad, right and wrong, should and should not.  And when we have judgment we have this need to make ourselves right and others wrong wanting others to live the way we think they should.  These judgments create the conditions for anger, violence and war.  If I drop the judgments and see the Divine in each human (and yes contrary to what many people think, every living soul is Divine) then I find I can transcend the judgment and unconditionally love. 

I can’t help but think of the words of Jesus Christ to sum up what I’ve learned this week in the Tao.  "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”

THE TAO TE CHING – VERSE 1

Verse 1 as interpreted by Stephen Mitchell:

     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.

     

      Byron Katie speaks only to the first two sentences.  She states, “Before you name anything, the world has not things in it, no meaning.  There’s nothing but peace in a wordless, questionless world.  It’s the space where everything is already answered, in joyful silence.”  In my interpretation I hear her say that we get in our way by naming/labeling everything.  Ms. Katie also says, “There’s nothing serious about life and death.”  To me that means we have taken the unnamable and given it a name, life and death.  Yet there is no life and no death if we don’t name it that.  Life and death is finite.  The unnamed is infinite.  I think I prefer that there is no life and death, just eternity.  I know when my husband, Gary died he wasn’t really dead, he was just no longer in physical human form.  The entity I knew as Gary continued on.  I believe that to the bottom of my soul.  I know he is still around just in another dimension.  That is why I believe in eternity.  That which can be named is not eternal.  All energy, in whatever form, is eternal.

Verse 1 as interpreted by Wayne Dyer:

    The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.  The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

    The Tao is both named and nameless.  As nameless it is the origin of all things; as named it is the Mother of 10,000 things.

     Ever desireless, one can see the mystery; ever desiring, one sees only the manifestations.  And the mystery itself is the doorway to all understanding.

     In my audio version of Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life, Wayne Dyer states that paradoxical thinking is imbedded in eastern thinking; like Yin & Yang, this and that, good and bad. And in the same vein, desiring and desirelessness are two different things.  What the Tao is asking us to do is cultivate a practice of being in the mystery and allowing it to flow through us.  We must find our own personal way of living the Tao.  Dr. Dyer’s advice to us is to first just enjoy the mystery.  Let the world unfold without trying to figure it all out.  Don’t constantly try to figure others out, just allow them to be.  Then he goes on to ask us to let go of labeling everything.  Nothing in this Universe is what it is named.  The word water is not water and nothing can truly be described by words.  He asks us to bask in the magnificence of what is seen and sensed instead of just experiencing the word.  One exercise is to stop occasionally and ask ourselves where we are on the continuum of desiring and allowing, reminding ourselves that often desires are more about what we “think” should be not what really is.

                I’d like to say that I spent every day of this week thinking about this first verse of the Tao and what it is teaching me.  But the truth is, I had momentary flashes of awareness but most of my week was spent either experiencing my houseguests or catching up on things I had neglected while my houseguests were visiting.  But I did write a couple of observations in my journal and I will share them now. 

                “This verse reminds me of the Quantum Physics concept that a quark has infinite possibilities of where it might be but the minute you focus your attention on it, the quark changes.  Like manifestation.  Everything is in energy form until we focus our attention and our energy on it and then it begins to manifest.  My living in Florida in the winter was just a possibility until I focused my attention on it.  Then it became a reality.  The manifestation is only a piece or possibility of the eternal not the actual eternity of possibilities.”

                Later in the week I wrote, “I long to be the namelessness even though I have no idea what that means.  But some desire pulls at me to come to it.  I have named the nameless God, Creator, Source, and a Power greater than myself, but in naming it I have limited it.  What calls to me (deep in my physical heart and deep in my soul) is more than what we humans have tried to define.  Today I will try to look at everything I have named and see if I can look beyond the name.  Like later this afternoon when I go to the doctor.  Let’s see if I can look beyond the doctor and see the person and look beyond the person and see the nameless eternal.”

                Again, I would like to say that I spent the whole day looking beyond the labels.  At first I did.  I poured my coffee and thought of how the coffee was a combination of water and coffee beans and then progressed backwards to the coffee plant and the grower and the dirt and the air and the rain that helped produce the coffee bean in Africa (I was drinking decaf Sumatra).  I believe I was able to continue that thought with the eggs I ate and the soymilk I added to my coffee.  Then of course I got distracted and my awareness went out the window.  I never even made it to staying aware of the doctor.  I admit that I did see her more than just a doctor, mainly because she was about 20 years younger than me and the younger the professionals are the harder it is for me to see them as anything but youngster :)  But I did not stay in my awareness enough to even ask myself who she was outside of being my doctor other than remembering her comment that when she goes to the beach she goes to Sanibel Island not Fort Myers Beach.

                Today I felt pulled to what Wayne Dyer spoke about desire.  Desire is a paradox to me.  Most of my life I have been taught that desire is bad because I should be happy with what I have not constantly wanting more.  Yet in my metaphysical studies I have learned to look at desire with different eyes.  Since we co-create our reality our process isn’t about not desiring but desiring because it is what I want and what is best for me.  But sometime I need to acknowledge that I desire something because I’m afraid of not having it or I’m feeling miserable bout my present situation.   One of my current desires is to find a gentleman to share my life with.  Sometimes I know that I truly desire this because I want to get to know someone better and because I love the feeling of loving another human being in that close, intimate way.  But sometimes I have this desire because I am lonely or scared of what it will be like to be alone when I am too old to take care of myself.  Just as Dr. Dyer suggests, sometimes our desires come from what we “think” is right for us. Thus desire is not right or wrong it is more about what serves me well and what hinders me.

                The metaphysical beliefs I have learned sometimes confuse me because if I take these beliefs literally, I learn that if I don’t focus on what I desire I might get something I don’t want. Yet in reality, sometime I desire and sometimes I want to just see what is going to happen.   Spiritually I think this is the best course to take.  In my eclectic belief system I know that often I limit myself when I do not sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.  My Higher Power usually has a better view of what’s going on than I do in my limited perspective, so for me it is knowing about when to desire and when to be desireless. 

                I once heard that the word desire comes from the latin, de sire, which means from the father. Somehow this comforted me.  If I listen to "the Father" I know what my true desire is.  Then I went out to Etymonline and here’s what I found to be the origin of this word: Early 13th century from Old French, desirer, from Latin, desiderare, "long for, wish for" with the original sense meaning "await what the stars will bring," from the phrase de sidere "from the stars," which comes from sidris "heavenly body, star or constellation."

                So if I believe the Universe is made up of everything in the heavens (stars) and the earth one might believe the nameless to be the Universe.  In that interpretation then maybe desire does mean “from the Father.”  Whatever desire means, I do know that for me the best place to be is in the middle, balancing my desires with letting go and allowing myself to “go with the flow.”  Maybe if I let go and listen to the nameless I will hear the true desire of the Universe for me and then can flow into that desire effortlessly.

A NEW SPIRITUAL ADVENTURE IN A NEW YEAR

It has been several months since I have written anything in this blog.  Life sometimes gets in the way.  But now I'm back ready to start a new adventure...an adventure of the soul. 

A week ago, I began reading a book by Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell titled A Thousand Names for Joy, in which Ms. Katie takes Stephen Mitchell’s English interpretation of the contents of the Tao Te Ching and speaks to them in her own words and her own experiences in order to help explain what she believes were the author’s intentions. The Tao Te Ching is a collection of verses written by Lao-tzu during the 5th century B.C. The title loosely translated means, The Book of the Way. It is theorized that Lao-tzu was the archive keeper in a small kingdom of what is now known as China. Whether this was his true profession or not cannot be verified over so many centuries, but no matter what his profession, what I know in my heart, is that he (or she) was an extremely wise person. Many believe (as do I) that The Tao Te Ching is one of the great wonders of the world.

After reading the first chapter of A Thousand Names for Joy, I sat and meditated on what I had read, which is my usual practice. In this particular meditation I was guided to begin a new spiritual practice in the New Year. I will read the Tao interpretation by Stephen Mitchell and listen to a recording I also possess of Wayne Dyer’s interpretation and explanation of the Tao and then read Byron Katie’s interpretation. I will study and meditate on one verse each week and will then write a blog each Monday (although in my flexibility I won’t hold myself to a strict schedule) in order to describe how each verse pertains to me. I am not writing this blog because I want others to read it. Those who do read it will come to it because they are curious or because their own spiritual guides have brought them here. Instead this is an exercise in spiritual growth for me; a way to channel my thoughts and actions throughout the week in order to help me change or not change, to make me think and analyze whether I agree or not with the Tao and to examine what I may be resisting and why, or what may resonate with me and why.  So on and so on, or as the King of Siam said in movie, The King & I, “etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.”

If by chance a reader feels so inclined, I would love for them to share their thoughts, comments, concerns, etcetera, with me as your agreement or dissention is a great way for me to expand my own perceptions of this illusion we call life. So today I will begin my reading of Verse 1 and start the meditation and growth process. I will see you next week as I expound upon my personal experience with the Tao. With excited anticipation I say to you, let the journey begin………….