The TAO TE CHING - VERSE 14

From the translation of Stephen Mitchell’s version, the Tao Te Ching states,

Look, and it can’t be seen. Listen, and it can’t be heard. Reach, and it can’t be grasped. Above, it isn’t bright. Below, it isn’t dark. Seamless, unnamable, it returns to the realm of nothing. Form that includes all forms, image without an image, subtle, beyond all conception. Approach it and there is no beginning; it and there is no end. You can’t know it, but you can be it, at ease in your own life. Just realize where you come from: this is the essence of wisdom.

Take a tree and trace it back to its origins.  Go back to the sprout, then to the seed and the dirt and the rain.  Now trace back each of these.  The seed comes from another tree, the dirt is decomposed material, and the rain comes from the cloud.  I hope you’ve gotten my drift so that we don’t have to go all the way back to the quarks but I can.  The point I trying to make is that our minds like to simplify our world to the point where we look at the bark and the limbs and the leaves we see tree…but it is so much more than a tree, including all the pieces that make up the tree.  This is what Lao Tzu is talking about in the 14^th verse of the Tao Te Ching.  Nothing is as our mind says it is.  It’s all an illusion.  And it is important to always remember the illusion…especially when we are feeling anxious or fearful or limiting the fullest experience of life.  Remembering that the concept or belief that our mind says is scaring us is actually an illusion too. Sift through the illusion and come to the essence and the wisdom of the universe.

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 2)

THE TAO TE CHING - VERSE 13

In this 13th verse of the Tao Te Ching Lao Tzu explores the concept of staying balanced, not getting caught up in hopes and fears, or successes and failures.  In Stephen Mitchell’s translation he states,

Success is as dangerous as failure. Hope is as hollow as fear. What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure? Whether you go up the ladder or down it, your position is shaky. When you stand with your two feet on the ground, you will always keep your balance. What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear? Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self. When we don’t see the self as self, what do we have to fear? See the world as your self. Have faith in the way things are. Love the world as your self; then you can care for all things.

In other words be a lover of what is.  If you are feeling good, enjoy it.  If you are feeling bad, find out why.  If I’m having a stressful moment then it is important for me to find out what is going on that is causing me stress. That is what is meant by loving what is, for what is can help us move back to peace and joy. 

On occasion my stress comes from the outside environment, but the majority of the time it has something to do with my internal dialogue.  Thoughts come and thoughts go and often the ones that are not productive to me will hang around, swirl through my head, and cause me to feel a negative emotion which is usually a response to a fear that has sets off my body’s automatic fight or flight system.  And almost invariably the thought is an old one; a pattern I’ve been dealing with for decades. 

One of my most persistent patterns is my pride.  I tell myself I have to do things “right” or people will think I’m weak or incompetent and won’t want to be around me.  That’s why my inner critic used to have so much power over me.  I would listen to her incessant whining about how I was being stupid, or clumsy, or I was ugly or incompetent which would then cause me to be hyper-vigilant and anxious with anything I was about to do that was not rote or familiar.  Crazy huh, yet exactly what Lao Tzu is talking about in this 13th verse, when he says going up the ladder of success or hope and down the ladder of failure or despair are one and the same. 

If I keep my feet planted on the ground and love what is, I allow these thoughts to come and go in my head and learn from them without attaching an emotion to them.  This in turn this action allows me to enjoy the fruits of life with a peaceful heart and a peaceful mind.   

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 2)

THE TAO TE CHING - VERSE 12

I have taken this 12th verse of the Tao Te Ching from Stephen Mitchell’s interpretation.
Colors blind the eye. Sounds deafen the ear. Flavors numb the taste. Thoughts weaken the mind. Desires wither the heart. The Master observes the world but trusts his inner vision. He allows things to come and go. His heart is open as the sky.

Again this verse is an affirmation of what Lao Tzu speaks about over and over again.  Don’t get attached to the outer world, it is not the source of our happiness and over time, if we follow only the senses, we will be overcome by them.  It is in the inner world, from our connection to our Creator, where we will find the purest of joy. 

 When Lao Tzu speaks of “His heart is open as the sky” what he is saying is to imagine the empty sky.  In its vastness it allows the stars, the planets, the suns, the comets, and the tiniest of particles to move through it.  Yet it does not make any of these substances permanent fixtures.  Everything moves. Everything changes.  The sky appreciates what enters its space then allows the substances to move on.

As one who has experienced the death of my parents at a fairly early age (22) I think I began learning this lesson very early in my adult life.  Nothing is permanent.  People come, people go.  Jobs come and jobs go. Houses come and houses go.  Friends come and friends go…and even the ones who stay change and grow and transform into different people over time.

 I think of the child I used to be.  Although there are aspects of her still inside of me I am no longer her.  Thank God!  The child of long ago was filled with so many fears and insecurities.  She was very self-centered and quick to judge and point fingers…both at herself and others.  She had preconceived ideas of the people, both close and distant, she encountered and never gave anyone a chance to prove to her that they were different than who her perspective made them out to be.  But as the years have passed and I have grown and changed and become the person I am today I know that others have grown and changed also and that both they and I will continue to grow and change until the day we die.  So I must pay attention as them come and go so as to understand these new people every time we meet.

I now know that everything outside me is impermanent and even the thoughts and feelings inside me are impermanent.  What is permanent, what I have held onto as my anchor and strength throughout the years, is my Source, the Spirit of God within me, the one who knows my very soul and the truth in my heart.  This Holiest of Spirits guides and strengthens me and keeps me reassured to the fact that no matter what happens around me I will always be safe.  It is through this belief in my anchor that I know, without a doubt, that I am eternal. 

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 2)