Tao Te Wednesday

12/21/2011

In harmony with the Tao,
the sky is clear and spacious,
the earth is solid and full,
all creatures flourish together,
content with the way they are,
endlessly repeating themselves,
endlessly renewed.

When man interferes with the Tao,
the sky becomes filthy,
the earth becomes depleted,
the equilibrium crumbles,
creatures become extinct.

The Master views the parts with compassion, because he understands the whole.
His constant practice is humility. He doesn't glitter like a jewel
but lets himself be shaped by the Tao, as rugged and common as a stone.

Tao #39

mistah charley, ph.d. link

12/21/2011 01:23:12 am

Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - chapter 39

These things from ancient times arise from one:
The sky is whole and clear.
The earth is whole and firm.
The spirit is whole and strong.
The valley is whole and full.
The ten thousand things are whole and alive.
Kings and lords are whole and the country is upright.
All these are in virtue of wholeness.

The clarity of the sky prevents it falling.
The firmness of the earth prevents it splitting.
The strength of the spirit prevents it being used up.
The fullness of the valley prevents it running dry.
The growth of the ten thousand things prevents them dying out.
The leadership of kings and lords prevents the downfall
of the country.

Therefore the humble is the root of the noble.
The low is the foundation of the high.
Princes and lords consider themselves
"orphaned," "widowed," and "worthless."
Do they not depend on being humble?

Too much success is not an advantage.
Do not tinkle like jade
Or clatter like stone chimes.

(translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English)

mistah charley, ph.d. link

12/22/2011 12:03:39 am

This comment accidentally duplicates the previous comment.

mistah charley, ph.d. link

12/21/2011 01:23:12 am

Conscious at last!

12/21/2011 02:43:06 am

I love the idea of various translations. There are so many ways to understand these thoughts...these vibrations. Clearly, the version that Laura presented has a more modern sensibility. The modern translation reveals our current concern with environmental degradation. The older translations assure us that, actually, we are not powerful enough to destroy what surrounds us. Ha!
Now that's a lesson in humility.

Laura Novak

12/21/2011 04:34:24 am

I agree, thank you SO much for the other translation. I wonder in what year yours was done? The Stephen Mitchell translation I recite from is 1988.

I too like the environmental imagery and wisdom in this passage. And the image of the jewels, especially at this time of year when people want them, and the lights sparkle all around us.

I'm going to reread your passage many more times, Mistah C. to absorb it all. Thank you!

mistah charley, ph.d.

12/21/2011 08:20:12 am

Date of the translation I quoted - published 1972. There is a new edition (Nov. 1, 2011) of which the publisher says:

For nearly two generations, this translation of the Tao Te Ching has been the standard for those seeking access to the wisdom of Taoist thought. Now Jane English and her long-time editor, Toinette Lippe, have refreshed and revised the translation, so that it more faithfully reflects the Classical Chinese in which it was first written, while taking into account changes in our own language and eliminating any lingering infelicities. This beautiful oversized edition features over a hundred new photographs by Jane English that help express the vast spirit of the Tao. Also included is an introduction by the well-known writer and scholar of philosophy and comparative religion, Jacob Needleman.

Lao Tsu’s philosophy is simple: Accept what is in front of you without wanting the situation to be other than it is. Study the natural order of things and work with it rather than against it, for to try to change what is only sets up resistance. Nature provides everything without requiring payment or thanks. It does so without discrimination. So let us present the same face to everyone and treat them all as equals, however they may behave. If we watch carefully, we will see that work proceeds more quickly and easily if we stop "trying," if we stop putting in so much extra effort, if we stop looking for results. In the clarity of a still and open mind, truth will be reflected. Te—which may be translated as "virtue" or strength"—lies always in Tao meaning "the way" or "natural law." In other words: Simply be.

V-A

12/21/2011 10:16:08 pm

I'm still coasting on last week's message, that the universe does not have human sentiments. And today, that idea is reinforced again. I once read that the founders of AA were students of eastern philosophy and religion. Maybe that's why I keep hearing the Serenity Prayer every Tao Wednesday.

Ottoline

12/21/2011 11:44:56 pm

I guess the English teachers knew about the universe's indifference to us: the "pathetic fallacy," which is when a writer attributes human characteristics to nature, implying some relationship. Oh, WOW -- thank you, wikipedia: I guess John Ruskin created the term.

I was listening to some really adroit scientist discuss climate change, saying it won't hurt the planet, just change it a little. Who it will hurt is US! Human beans, **We** might not survive it, but the planet will be fine. We shat in our nest (and might have to leave), but the nest does not care.

Re "eliminating any lingering infelicities" from mistah C's post above: don't I wish my own life were like that! !!! Just "lingering infelicities" to fix, everything else more or less in order. Could we call our society's ills and climate change "lingering infelicities"? The PalinHoax" a lingering infelicity! Just love that phrase, for the calm and order it implies.

mistah charley, ph.d.

12/21/2011 11:53:11 pm

I first read the Tao Te Ching back in the 1970's. In those days it was considered "New Age". It was certainly not new in any objective sense, but "new" in the sense of "unfamiliar" to those never exposed to these alternative perspectives. Since I had heard of the pre-Civil War New England Transcendentalism of Ralph Waldo Emerson and his friends, I knew it was NOT new, even in America. But hey, what's in a word? Actually, a lot. It always sets my teeth on edge when I hear conventional Western allopathic technological medical practice referred to as "traditional medicine". However, under carefully controlled experimental conditions, people use words according to their own understanding of them. So it goes.

But I digress.

These days I read and comment on a variety of blogs, one of which is Who is IOZ? IOZ doesn't tell us his name in the meat world, but he asserts he lives in Pittsburgh, and he is a very snarky anarchist homosexual who comments on politics, contemporary culture, and international events, and occasionally posts gourmet recipes. His most recent posting http://whoisioz.blogspot.com/2011/12/chaucer-at-bit.html sarcastically refers to Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of the left-wing weekly magazine The Nation, as "Serena van der Woodsen" - he is likening her to Bob Woodward, and this is meant as an insult. He calls people like her "well-meaning progressives", and characterizes their support of Obama's re-election as an "eagerness to return a child-murdering capitalist stooge to the Throne of St. Lincoln for four more years."

So imagine the surprise of his audience, who tunes in for this kind of red meat, when he writes, "Well, look, the change I believe in comes from cultivating mindfulness, equanimity, and compassion....Uh, how about we cultivons nos jardins and all that. Do you consider 'navel-gazing' an insult? Maybe you oughtn't."

Of course, I hastened to back him up, and posted the following passage from "Mindfulness in Plain English", by Bhante Gunaratana:

>>We are just beginning to realize that we have overdeveloped the material aspect of existence at the expense of the deeper emotional and spiritual aspect, and we are paying the price for that error. It is one thing to talk about degeneration of moral and spiritual fiber in America today, and another thing to do something about it.

The place to start is within ourselves. Look carefully inside, truly and objectively, and each of us will see moments when "I am the punk" and "I am the crazy". We will learn to see those moments, see them clearly, cleanly and without condemnation, and we will be on our way up and out of being so.

You can't make radical changes in the pattern of your life until you begin to see yourself exactly as you are now. As soon as you do that, changes flow naturally. You don't have to force or struggle or obey rules dictated to you by some authority. You just change. It is automatic. But arriving at the initial insight is quite a task. You've got to see who you are and how you are, without illusion, judgement or resistance of any kind. You've got to see your own place in society and your function as a social being. You've got to see your duties and obligations to your fellow human beings, and above all, your responsibility to yourself as an individual living with other individuals. And you've got to see all of that clearly and as a unit, a single gestalt of interrelationship. It sounds complex, but it often occurs in a single instant. Mental culture through meditation is without rival in helping you achieve this sort of understanding and serene happiness.<<

[end of quote from "Mindfulness in Plain English". You can download a free, completely legit copy of the whole book from http://www.mindfulvalley.org/files/books/mindfulness_plain_english.pdf]

And speaking of Ralph Waldo Emerson, someone quoted him in a blog devoted to the Crystal Cathedral bankruptcy, which I mentioned here a few weeks ago. http://tinyurl.com/8aaprk4

Laura Novak

12/22/2011 01:41:34 am

I was just railing against the materialism of the season last night. I made my husband promise that when our son has really moved on with his life and Christmas is not a major day that he enjoys, then we will give one another only one gift. He agreed.

I dig in to the Tao for a reason. Buddhist essays also calm and console me. I don't know why, but they do. I don't read Christian material. Mistah C., I will check out his blog. Curiouser and curiouser. And I still need to re-read your translation. Perhaps it is time for some Emerson as well? Thoreau anyone? Maybe we can dig more into this in the New Year.

Laura Novak

12/22/2011 01:43:25 am

Housekeeping note: Weebly has changed its interface and so now, instead of reading comments WIDE and CLEAR on my phone, they are in a negative 12000 font that I cannot see for the life of me. The interface on my computer is better and dynamic, but my days of keeping up on my phone seem to be over. So, if there is a lapse in my responding, it means I must be near my computer. Hard to do many days. Back to serenity!

Ottoline

12/22/2011 08:40:17 am

Re materialism of Xmas. When I was 5, I had a lavish Christmas although my parents had zero money -- because my mother had made me a doll's bed out of a balsa-wood box grapes had come in, with sheets and frills out of the sacks flour used to come in. I was thrilled.

As my parents became more prosperous, the gifts became overwhelming. I actually dreaded Xmas: too much.

When my boys were little, it was an extravaganza once again because I was an idiot. I should have stuck to a modest gift protocol, because it seemed it was never enough for my entitled-feeling children. (Entitled-feeling: whose fault was that??)

This year, I am pushing the most modest celebration and gifts possible. Of course it is better for my boys to think more about giving than getting, and they are. Still needs work, though. With my close friends, we have long since agreed on no gifts: we just don't like the bother, and we do give and receive a LOT of intangible things from each other all the time. Sitting by the tree is enough for us.

My relationship to the univserse is a lot less complicated that I see here. It consists almost entirely of: one step at a time.

OzMud link

12/22/2011 11:25:42 am

Peace :)

mistah charley, ph.d. link

12/22/2011 10:36:03 pm

An earlier topic.

Charles Hugh Smith, "Risk and the indentured servitude of student loans"

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogdec11/risk-servitude12-11.html

mistah charley, ph.d. link

12/22/2011 10:36:07 pm

An earlier topic.

Charles Hugh Smith, "Risk and the indentured servitude of student loans"

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogdec11/risk-servitude12-11.html

Laura Novak

12/22/2011 11:56:07 pm

Peace to you as well, OzMud. We watched Priscilla QOTD the other night. I forgot what a wild movie that is!

Fascinating article by Smith. It IS indentured servitude, isn't it. I like the phrase that these students need to delay the normal "life cycle" of maturing, such as buying a car, house and starting a family.

The mission of the UC system, and probably most state systems, has been social mobility. Giving access to students who offer the only chance to a family for economic improvement and advancement.

Now it seems in some way that the more elite private schools with the ginormous endowments hold that principal more dearly. I could be wrong of course.

mistah charley, ph.d.

12/23/2011 03:24:15 am

Laura, you may have encountered William Blake's aphorism that "Opposition is true Friendship." It is in that spirit that I offer the following remarks.

UsiI don't think that the colleges with ginormous endowments are committed to social mobility, even if they do give scholarships to students from more modest backgrounds, like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. They are strongly committed to maintaining the privileges of the current ruling class (Bush the Younger had degrees from both Harvard and Yale, remember) and to recruiting and co-opting those people who might possibly make trouble. The banksters of FDR's time called him "a traitor to his class." In my opinion - and I'm sorry this seems harsh, but it is exactly how I see it - the epithet is more aptly applied to Bill and Barry.

I attended some classes at an Ivy League college, but did not graduate. Well, to be precise, while living in the Boston area I went to Harvard Night School and took a couple of classes from George Goethals and Peter Bertocci. Chris Hedges has a much deeper background in the Ivy League than mine. His view, expressed in the title of a 2008 essay, is that "The Best and the Brightest Led America Off a Cliff."

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081208_hedges_best_brightest/

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