Tao Te Wednesday

1/4/2012

In the pursuit of knowledge,
every day something is added.
In the practice of the Tao,
every day something is dropped.
Less and less do you need to force things,
until finally you arrive at non-action.
When nothing is done,
nothing is left undone.

True mastery can be gained
by letting things go their own way.
It can't be gained by interfering.

Tao #48 Stephen Mitchell New English Version

Laura Novak

1/4/2012 03:53:54 am

Allow me to be the first to say I'm sorry I'm getting this post up so late. Shall I add that AT & T was here for a LONG time last night, and still I couldn't get my modem to work this morning. Alas, I am "doing" when I need to let go. Intertubes working for now and I need to breath deeply. This lesson today is good for me to internalize.

mistah charley, ph.d. link

1/4/2012 05:09:30 am

Tao Te Ching: Chapter 48
translated by Timothy Freke (1999)

Someone seeking learning, knows more and more.
Someone seeking Tao, knows less and less.
Less and less until
things just
are what
they
are
•

By simply being,
everything gets done.
Get things done
by letting them happen.
Struggling all the time,
gets you nowhere.

---

Ottoline

1/4/2012 06:00:10 am

Mistah C -- I was hoping you'd give us the alternative translation, because I'm having extra trouble with this one. Unfortunately, it reminds me of Yeats' "The best lack all conviction, while the worst. / Are full of passionate intensity." As it has been applied to Dems and Reps.

I have to say that a lot of struggling has in fact gotten me somewhere I more or less wanted. Letting things happen would not have worked. I just don't get it except in some fatalistic, no-options, looking-back-and-regretting-it sort of world. I'll be eager to see others' thoughts.

V-A

1/4/2012 06:33:46 am

Otto: Mistah Charley's translations always help me. So, if you'll let me try here. . . I cooked the Christmas dinner for my family because I wanted to, because I love better food than they do. The meal was wonderful. It was so different than past meals when I did it only because it HAD to be done. Also at xmas, Letting my mother be who she is, an 80 yr old narcissist, was a bit harder, but when I pulled back, and let her be, OR when I spoke up when she hurt me-- with no expectations of change, I felt better. The air was calmer. I am certainly no Buddhist or Taoist, but I am willing to practice some of their wisdom-- as did the founders of AA, who borrowed heavily from eastern philosophies for the serenity prayer.

grannyj

1/4/2012 06:33:54 am

I am with Ottoline. When I read Laura's post I knew that this was an important message for me- but I was struggling to understand exactly what was meant by the non-action. I was hoping Mistah Charley had another translation.

For the first time in a long time, actually since I was 19 years old- I have no 'real' work to do ('real' being the kind you get paid to do). I have been getting myself all worked up about what I am going to do now with my life. I am retired so do not really need 'real' work. I like that idea- by simply being, everything gets done. Perhaps if I stop struggling, things will happen. Thank you Laura and Mr. Charley.

Ottoline

1/4/2012 09:32:28 am

Another meaning that popped out at me was the idea that we go through the earlier parts of our lives acquiring (experience, relationships, possessions), and then there comes a time when you start to let go of it. For some, that comes only with death. Others downsize at various times. A Catholic socialite here in the SF Bay Area had 10? children and a big-time party/social life, and then at 70? became a nun of the kind that does not speak or see family or the outside world. I'm puzzling over it as my parents have died and left me way too much stuff of the incredibly great sentimental value kind -- stuff that I am certain my boys will not want, So now I must leave it by the wayside, give to it others. I'm also reminded of a story an older relative told me, of her sudden exodus from her E European home as the communists were advancing with their guarantee of death, torture, or Siberia: She (and so many others) packed a few v precious things to take, but only as much as you can carry while walking, so 2 suitcases per adult. Some people put in silver and gold, others photos, warm clothes, rye bread, smoked ham. Of course (I know you can see this coming), as these older people are walking endlessly along highways (dressed in suits and hats, as city people did then!): it gets too heavy. The suitcase with the silver goes first, just left along the roadside. And all the predictable et ceteras to follow, that we all know.

So the issue of letting go is pretty fraught. I feel like I've been in a nightmare just writing this.

granny j

1/4/2012 10:56:14 am

When we moved last year I was determined not to drag along all of those sentimental things that my father had told me- 'for god's sake never get rid of (fill in the blank)!" These were things I did not want- and I felt like they were chained to me. It was such a hard thing to do- to take them out of the boxes my husband had packed- and throw them away. But it felt great!

You are so right Otto. The issue of letting go is pretty fraught.

granny j

1/4/2012 11:02:53 am

I am still thinking about this message. If I am understanding correctly- it sounds like the pursuit of knowledge is something that is not a positive in terms of Tao. Why would that be?

Marleycat

1/4/2012 01:20:51 pm

Since I am not that much of a "deep" thinker these days, if ever, I can only take a guess at what this is saying - to me. In 2004, I was working as a Family Development Case Manager with folks who were at risk of losing their homes through eviction or foreclosure. It was fairly intensive and despite having a small case load of 10 families - the number of home visits, the travel, and managing all the aspects of each family's particular situation with social service agencies, banks, landlords, community and faith based organizations, and looking under every stone to find that resource that isn't listed in any directories or developing the resources to fit the need - well, now, when I remember all that, and all the other activities I engaged in with such energy and fervor I have no idea how I did it.

My whole life was like that, for the most part - intense! I regret none of that and loved every bit of the work I did, but, that year, I became very ill and resigned from the work world for good. I had had similar bouts of strange illness, but the episodes passed and I passed them off as flukes. These episodes gradually became worse, longer lasting, and harder to bounce back from. I finally was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, but, the reason it was so difficult for me and the docs to figure it out was that the primary disabling aspect of my MS was cognitive dysfunction - NOT the physical dysfunction that most people think of when they think of MS.

I did have mild versions of imbalance, falls, spasms, etc, but they were almost invisible. I did have immense fatigue, but that too is largely apparent to the sufferer but not to others. Since then the physical symptoms are much more noticeable at times, with wheelchair, walker, and cane use sometimes needed - other times, not at all. Most people who see me today have no idea I have a problem. I can sound oh so good!

Long story short, the hardest thing I've had to deal with is the reality of just not being able to do the things I use to do with such ease, handling a million tasks at once, going full speed from morning 'til night. And, the cognitive dysfunction that trips me up, when before I could rely on my mind to always process information quickly, accurately, without fail - that's been the hardest to understand and accept - and explain to others. They can't understand it, because I usually sound and look just fine.

I have struggled with thinking that I can still do it all - because when I look in the mirror, or see me as others see me - I can't help think, WTF? Even though I live the reality everyday, I often find myself thinking I'm just taking the easy way out, there's really not THAT much wrong with me, etc.

But, of late, I am coming into a much better place where I can forgive myself for not getting as much as I want to get done in a day, or week, or month. I feel okay now about resting when I'm too tired - even if I really haven't accomplished all that much. I am learning to let go, I am not struggling against myself anymore, I no longer care if I do things much slower, or can't remember everything I need to at any given moment.

I know now that not wasting energy and emotions on things that just are the way they are - has given me greater strength and clarity of thought to actually feel better physically and cognitively. It's difficult to explain, I am getting more things done by just letting go of trying to be the person I no longer am.

The best thing about letting go of the struggle was no longer feeling the need to explain to others the effects of this disease on me. To them, I must be overreacting or feeling sorry for myself, that I could just pull myself up by the bootstraps and get right back out there into the REAL world.

I felt a great need to justify and inform them about the reasons I was not the same old me. I understand now that they cannot and will never understand my reality , ever. And my frustrations with them, the anger, and distress about their inability to get it is gone too. Getting here from there has been a huge tiring struggle, but boy do I feel so much more at peace, just recognizing I don't have to explain myself anymore - and that they are not to blame for not getting it, there's really no way they can.

As the passage says - I gave myself permission to just let what is - be just that. I wasted a lot of time feeling ashamed of myself, being angry with others (especially my docs), and comparing myself to who I used to be and who I thought I should and could still be.

Sorry for the length of this comment, but, I sometimes have problems with editing my writing
( it's the new me!)

mistah charley, ph.d. link

1/4/2012 09:18:09 pm

All - I point to alternative translations, but can't claim credit for them. Possibly the Tao Te Ching is the book with the MOST alternative translations into English of any book - the only competition would be the Bible, but the Tao Te Ching is very, very much shorter. Here's a link that has a variety of them:

http://earlywomenmasters.net/tao/ch_48.html

On the issue the use of alternative translations, I once was a member of a group discussing various approaches to "self-actualization" - we started with Abraham Maslow's ideas about it. We had a session on the Tao Te Ching, which I led, and I brought three different translations which we would read in turn (passing the books around so everybody got a chance to read). It was very thought-provoking.

It's possible to push too hard, sometimes. We all know people who do that. On the other hand, just drifting like a dead fish (when one is a LIVE fish, whose nature it is to swim upstream to spawn) is also sometimes a bad idea. Nothing in excess. Timing is everything. The Serenity Prayer (see the Wikipedia article) was apparently put in its current form by Reinhold Niebuhr, 20th century American theologian, but a Mother Goose rhyme (1695) expresses a similar sentiment:

For every ailment under the sun
There is a remedy, or there is none;
If there be one, try to find it;
If there be none, never mind it.

It is the "wisdom to tell the difference" when one does not KNOW if there is or isn't a remedy that is well worth praying for - and also working for. And meditating for.

mistah charley, ph.d. link

1/4/2012 09:18:22 pm

mistah charley, ph.d. link

1/4/2012 09:18:29 pm

mistah charley, ph.d. link

1/4/2012 09:18:31 pm

Ottoline

1/4/2012 11:36:35 pm

Hey mistah C: Your post is WORTH reading 4 times. As usual. One time-tested approach to being understood (for example, in a foreign country) is to say it again, louder. Hahaha: I guess the blog software knows a good thing when it sees it.

Marleycat: Your comment is very moving. Thank you. And wise. I'm send you lots of wishes for all good things.

Ottoline

1/4/2012 11:52:41 pm

Marleycat, your comment had me thinking late into the night. You have gained wisdom because your illness has forced it. AND you have come to terms with it. I'm impressed by your story. And wish the MS were gone.

I'm coming to see that circumstances can force simplifying and accepting -- OR it might be possible to move in that direction on our own. I can see the Tao (and other resources) as helping us either way.

Circumstances that force a change and changing "on our own" might well be the same thing -- SOMETHING makes us see things differently. But I'm comparing it to keeping a clean house because it's a good thing to do vs a major remedial clean-up because some kind of inspector is coming.

Laura Novak

1/5/2012 01:03:19 am

I too have had to hit "submit" a few times and see my comments repeat. But I agree: that last comment was worth multiple reads, Mistah Charley.

I am SO glad to hear that you studied the Tao and actually led your group on it. So, we've got a good thing going here on Wednesdays. Perhaps we can expand on it and draw more lessons from it with your experience and tutelage.

Marleycat, thank you so very much for sharing that comment and your personal experiences. I had a similar medical awakening and might write about it one day. I"m wondering if we might use your comment as a guest post? Think about it. It is worth a discussion of its own.

The Tao post is not telling us to sit back and do nothing about politics or our planet. I believe it is telling us that we need to know when to let go. When I am grinding my teeth literally after being on the phone for ONE HOUR with A T & T in order to secure an ELEVEN hour window for the tech to come out ...who am I hurting? Me. That's who. When I push and push to make something happen, something often pulls me up short and reminds me to stop.

I am much better at being non-being now in my life. And often times medical issues force our hands that way.

Letting go is a huge thing for most of us. And that includes these really great comments many of you have made about material possessions. We collect jewelry and "things" like silver, and they get passed down generations, and yet sometimes we look at them and wonder who will care about them when we die? So, why have them in the first place? Because we need to? Because that is what humans do? They consume?

I love all your comments. Thank you for sharing more about your own lives. You are all so smart and tender.

Conscious at last!

1/5/2012 02:57:50 am

One reading of the Tao encourages us to feel, to know and to seek what is unseen. Moving with "the way" assumes that there is an energy present that we can connect with. Moving with "the way" offers us a path out of the cerebral echo chamber to a dialogue between mind, heart and the multidimensional universe.

V-A

1/5/2012 03:11:44 am

regarding things. . . when my father died in 1988, my sister and I (in our 30's) were responsible for clearing out quickly his small apartment. We were the ones who had to throw out the mementos his mother had saved, the boxes of photographs. It was a hard week. I vowed then that I would not leave those tasks to someone else at my death. When my marriage ended in 1996, I was the one who had to schedule the estate sale and watch my large collection of beautiful antiques be sold, because our wealth was a house of cards fabricated by my husband. Two cross-country moves meant more culling of things. Now, every item in my house is treasured. Every item has a purpose. Every item is beautiful. I reduced my own keepsakes to one box. Each of my children is allowed one box for their mementos.

This has worked for me.

On the other hand, I have a friend who has been cleaning out her hoarder brother-in-law's trailer for a year. A year! The BIL was a collector of comic books and other things, so she and her husband must sift through it all, traveling back and forth from TX to CO, where the trailer is. But during the year's work, they have found a new life in CO, with new friends, and have even thought of moving there. . . all because of a trailer full of stuff.

This is when I realize I really don't know anything.

Ottoline

1/5/2012 03:40:36 am

V-A: I don't know anything either.

I had an aunt who was on a ship escaping to Germany with her two sons, 4 and 6. The ship was torpedoed. There was some effort to throw (yes: throw, their only option) the ship's children onto a rescue ship: it succeeded in some cases. My aunt regained consciousness on a beach, her sons missing. She continued in her life, married again twice, was nice to me, was overly interested in clothes and beauty (I can now understand why). She died 30+ yrs ago. One of my sons is named for the father of those boys. I have a box of her photos, probably the last remaining trace of her. I must toss them. This is too hard to do. It would be easy for my boys, upon my death. But like you, V-A, I have decided to do my own clean-up before I die. I have not yet been able to toss that box. There are many other such items. When is that wisdom going to arrive?

1/6/2012 01:48:09 am

One thing that you might consider that would make the 'tossing' of the photographs easier is to scan them into your computer first. You can then pass on a simple disc or flash drive to your children to do what they like with. I have been doing that with the older pictures in my family. I think that older family photos are a treasure and I love the stories that go with them. If you don't have a scanner, you can probably take them to a place to have it done. I don't think that it costs a whole lot these days.

Marleycat

1/5/2012 07:39:45 am

Thanks Ottoline and everyone, and to Laura. I really enjoy the Tao Te Wednesday posts, such pearls of wisdom that apply to so many of life's complexities. I was struck by how close this post coincided with my own personal development - and what peace I felt when that change occurred in how I dealt with life. I do think that the changes in thinking that my illnes forced would probably have come more or less naturally as I got older, as aging has a way of slowing us down. In my case, the illness did not allow for that gradual transition. And with remissions - made this process take a lot longer, too (more chances to fool myself, so to speak). I now need to more fully embrace that change to apply to more areas of my life. It's truly liberating to stop banging my head against a wall and let all the other abilities and creativity I still have to flourish.

Please feel free Ottoline to use my comment on this topic, once I post a comment - it's out there to be shared. I hope you do share your story, too - it will help others (and yourself). I don't think the adversity we all face going through life is a bad thing, hard to do, but in the long run - allows for so much positive growth. I am a better person for all the things I've experienced in life, good and bad. I have decided to explore the Tao further, as I find it so calming, peaceful, and affirming. I'd also like to find a group studying it - that would be even better.

And I agree, Laura, letting go is not the same thing as giving up and just drifting along, not at all - it just means to stop recycling the struggle over and over again (meaninglessly), when there are so many other things that you can be doing AND getting done. This kind of letting go has a purposefulness to it, not resignation. Wonderful thoughts everyone!

V-A

1/5/2012 08:56:02 am

"Letting go is not the same thing as giving up and just drifting along, not at all - it just means to stop recycling the struggle over and over again (meaninglessly), when there are so many other things that you can be doing and getting done. This kind of letting go has a purposefulness to it, not resignation."

Exactly. Thanks, MCat.

Sherryn

1/5/2012 03:22:43 pm

Thank You All, especially Marleycat, for sharing your story and your wisdom. This Tao post, on the surface, seems so simple- but it's deeply complex, and Mr Charley's input gave me some clarification.. This process of "letting go" has been both a curse and a blessing in my own life. My experience mirrors Marleycat's in many ways, I might expand on it in a later post.
I've found that letting go, as difficult as it can be, leads you to be open to new things, new ways of approaching life and enjoying what really matters. I felt it the most when my father passed, and as my kids grew up. Letting go of my Dad was a necessary process for me to learn and grow. As my kids grew, I had to let go in order for them to learn and grow. My reward was knowing they were testing their wings, and someday I'll have to let go to let them soar and live their own lives, but a part of me isn't looking forward to it.

mistah charley, ph.d. link

1/5/2012 08:50:03 pm

This is a very rewarding discussion, with people bringing their hard-won life-affirming lessons to it. I'm glad to be even a small part of it.

One of the translations of the Tao Te Ching that impressed me over a quarter of a century ago is John Heider's "The Tao of Leadership". Still in print (Amazon's sales ranking of #10 in Tao Te Ching books), used copies of the old mass market paperback edition I have are still available for a dollar plus shipping. In the introduction Heider wrote, "Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching is one of China's best loved books of wisdom. It was originally addressed to the sage and to the wise political ruler of the fifth century BC. ... This adaptation, I believe, will be of value to anyone who aspires to a leadership position, whether within the family or group, church or school, business or military, politics or governmental administration. Tao Te Ching means the Book (Ching) of How (Tao) Things Happen or Work (Te). The title is pronounced Dow Duh Jing."

His adaptation is more prosaic than other translations I've seen. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Here's the way he puts Chapter 48:

>>Unclutter Your Mind

Beginners acquire new theories and techniques until their minds are cluttered with options. Advanced students forget their many options. They allow the theories and techniques that they have learned to recede into the background.

Learn to unclutter your mind. Learn to simplify your work.

As you rely less and less on knowing just what to do, your work will become more direct and more powerful. You will discover that the quality of your consciousness is more potent than any technique or theory or interpretation.

Learn how fruitful the blocked group or individual suddenly becomes when you give up trying to do just the right thing. (p. 95)<<

V-A

1/5/2012 09:59:01 pm

Damn, Mistah C! That's good stuff. I can declutter my house with no problem. But my mind? Well. . . Thanks for the tip.

Ottoline

1/6/2012 01:36:53 am

I translate mistah C's comment to mean, for me:

--No analysis paralysis
--Don't get into a rut
--Live in the moment
--Just do it, take the next step, without knowing exactly where it will lead.

Thank you, mistah C, thank you.

Laura Novak

1/6/2012 05:48:29 am

Yes, thank you MC and all of you for sharing your wisdom and personal experiences. I really appreciate you expanding on this verse MC with this other interpretation. Uncluttering the mind is very difficult. It seems a tendency for us all to keep spinning our wheels and trying trying trying. As I get older and more shaken by things in life, I no longer have to suffer a big bang in order to let go. It takes less for me to pull myself up, or back, and realize that "things just are what they are" and that sometimes struggling gets us no where.

"Surrender" as a friend once said. It was wise advice. I still try to heed it from time to time.

New post going up soon. A minor bit of fluff. But I'm glad to know that we can all meet here on Dao Duh Wednesdays to find more peace in Lao Tsu's verse.

FrostyAK

1/6/2012 09:04:02 am

Medical problems will take us all down, some sooner than later. How we deal with them is part of what defines us.

More and more often I find myself saying "It is what it is". We seem unable to change what is.

Look at all those who tried to changed the $P scenario and make her pay for what she did. Nada. Now there has been ANOTHER delay in releasing her emails...

It is what it is...

Ottoline

1/6/2012 12:23:21 pm

Well that's the trouble with medical problems. You give it your all, beating your brains against the odds, getting informed, pushing people to go with the better decision, doing everything you can -- and more -- to get past this crisis and that crisis, every one of which could have been fatal. Pushing and shoving and hypervigilance, which all serve to keep your loved one as healthy as possible. It really does work. Makes a huge difference. It gets harder, and yet you keep helping the good outcomes prevail. And then at some point it's over. Eventually, death wins. Of course. So obvious. But now it's hard to keep the dalmation in the firehouse all of a sudden. For a long time you keep thinking about what more you might have done. Even though your rational mind knows death is a blessing compared to the alternatives at some point. Yet you miss your dead loved ones so much. And your modus operandus doesn't just switch into acceptance overnight. And who can accept death, anyway? It makes no sense. They lived, and then they are gone. And yet as time passes, it becomes more and more true that they are gone. Until you bump into an old letter or other surprising memory.

I have to add, re my translation of MC's comment into my 4-point summary: I get an F in each of them.

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