Month: September 2022

The following came from my friend Thomas as a response to a comment I made about testing on the post – “Transition to Te“. Most folks won’t see because it is tucked below the post on the blog site. His comment is something I wish I had come up with and so I am re-posting it here. This reminds me, How might you write a Tao Te that includes one of the thoughts/events from your day? Sounds like a good practice to practice before bedding down.

The tao that can be tested is not the eternal Tao.
The knowable that can be known is not the eternal Knowing.
The testless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The tested is the mother of ten thousand things.
Ever untested, one is ever-present awareness.
Ever tested, one is pass/fail.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name:
this appears as unknowing.
Unknowing within unknowing.
The gate to all mystery.

(with apologies to Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English)

from before the ancient of days
sky expansive and clear – whole
earth circular and firm – whole
spirit filling and full – whole
valley between and once mountain – whole
ten thousand things arriving and returning – whole
constructs of power and country – whole
virtue of wholeness present and passing

clarity stabilizes
firmness coheres
strength persists
fullness nourishes
growth recapitulates
leadership builds

humility roots nobility
low shoulders are scaffolds
orphans widows worthless teach wisdom
evidence of strength

success carries no leverage
a jade wind chime
an exploding volcano

wise ones are at one with wisdom
unforced wisdom
the foolish attempt to look wise
shallow morality

humane humans rest easy
in what is done
foolish people fret their work
always more to be done

kindness enacted completes
justice attempted misses important considerations
those imposing order find they have no followers

a loss of Tao leaves wisdom
a loss of wisdom leaves kindness
a loss of kindness leaves justice
a loss of justice leaves ritual

ritual is faith’s shell
sequential loyalty begins confusion
projecting the present as future a shiny trap
folly shows through

the wise are comfortable in the depths
moving through ten thousand surfaces
finding pleasure in a flower sustenance in the fruit
living season by season

With Chapter 38, we practice implementing and growing the seeds sown in their antecedent. As with any change, we will face repeated choices that may grow easier over time, but not without setbacks. Chapter 81 will still challenge our understanding of Life, the Universe, and Everything, but the most difficult chapters are yet unwritten—what will we do with the next surprise that catches us off-guard while thinking we are doing so well?

In a sense, tests need to be reimagined. Their value is not a resulting grade, according to the giver of the test, but in our engagement with the test as an opportunity to further explore the edge between what we have come to know and what we have yet to sufficiently appreciate. A test is a lens clarifying a path toward a place where dragons dwell. Tests failed are as significant in our journey as those we easily Aced.

Even as Te cannot describe Tao, Te is never absent its background Tao. We find ourself in Tao and Tao in ourself. The mystery of this synchronicity keeps us returning to Tao and to ourself. Yet we do not return unchanged. Tao and Te find themselves gyring together. In phase and out of phase, they ascend and descend, go forth and return, together.

In an artificial transition from attending to Tao to attending to Te, we continue to be surprised by how they interact. We will learn more about Tao as we look more closely at Te. Be ready to make a Top 10 Te List and further adjust the Tao List.

A traditional break in the book of Tao Te is located here. Chapter 37 ends a reflection on Tao, and Chapter 38 begins a focus on Te choices available amid ten thousand things. Of course, this is an artificial break as we have already had to deal with applied or realized ethics (Te), and Tao is a constant background within which Te operates.

Tao is a great antecedent. To be grounded here does affect choices. Not all choices are equal, and attending to Tao reduces choices. Most choices are between this ten-thousandth of a thing and that. All manner of justifications can be used and abused in this sort of choosing. It might be asked, “Which Tao image, Jesus saying, Koranic verse, Prophetic utterance, or other organizing principle is attended to?” No consistency is available in these ongoing choices.

Choices that we might claim carry integrity rather than victory are more complex. We easily fall into teapot tempests where war and other ultimacies are predominant metaphors.

It would be helpful for readers here to take time to write out a current understanding of Tao they have gleaned from the first 37 chapters. Such a list can helpfully clarify responses to the concluding chapters (38–81).

What would you add to this beginning of a Top 10 list?

1. Tao is undefinable
2. Tao flows unbidden
3. Tao generates through the primal feminine
4. Tao is not power, neutrality, or passive
5. Tao in Nature+
6. Tao integrates integrity
7. Tao …
8. Tao …
9. Tao …
10. Tao …

Included in the above question is, “Which of the first six miss the mark and should be omitted or highly edited?”

Tao rests actionless
will all already returning
were leaders to notice
ten thousand things would flow naturally
should they still desire to act
Tao would quiet them
not forcing a result remembering intermediacy
opening desire to rest
resting in stillness

shrinkage
follows expansion
to fail
was first strengthed
something pulled down
was previously raised
before receiving
there has been a giving

herein is a recognition of the nature of things
soft or weak remain after hard or strong

fish as fish cannot live beyond water
weapons are most effective when unrevealed

those attending to Tao are a magnet
for those without rest happiness peace

visitors may come for music and meal
but these do not define Tao
without form or flavor
it cannot be heard or otherwise sensed
yet more is coming and returning

Tao a great antecedent
flows everywhere left around right
ten thousand things depend upon it
nothing is held in reserve
its purpose already fulfilled
silence its only presence

ten thousand things are nourished
without being directed
without a goal Tao is less than nothing

ten thousand things return to Tao
without a command to do so
such is great greatness

Tao’s significance does not show
which is of great significance

relying on others is wisdom
trust self enlightens
mastering others is violence
knowing self strengthens

to be rich is to come to terms with enough
courage grows from perseverance
to endure find satisfaction in this place
continuing presence persists past death