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Tao Te Ching

ToV 25 – perfectly imperfect

There was something formless and perfect
before the universe was born.

…since then it’s all kinda gone to shit.

I’ve had a hard time addressing this chapter, in part because it’s been a couple of stupid-busy and disrupting weeks for me, but probably moreso because I have been feeling less than perfect in myself and my life as of late.

I tend to run a cycle from competency in one area of my life into boredom, which prompts me to hurl myself into some new area, overwhelmed and insecure I flounder my way back into competency …then boredom …then down into humility and round we go again. Somehow as of late I have managed to sync up all the different parts of who I am into a down swing in every facet of my life. Painfully aware of nothing but my flaws. So yeah, not really jiving on the “perfection” of this chapter.

I think the lesson though, is it’s in the flaws where the magic happens. Imagine a world where everything WAS perfect:Read More »ToV 25 – perfectly imperfect

ToV 24 – the idea of you isn’t YOU

The idea of the thing is not the thing. This is a throwback to chapter 1, and a more personal extrapolation of the same idea. This chapter is full of couplets like:

He who stands on tiptoe
doesn’t stand firm.

But the one I really like is:

He who defines himself
can’t know who he really is.

For me this is all about stop trying to be the thing you think you should be and just be whatever it is you are. Granted, who we are are ever-evolving beings and what we are now is not what we were, or what we may become; but that is all the more reasonRead More »ToV 24 – the idea of you isn’t YOU

ToV 23 – Storm Chasing for Soul Seekers

Ironically I went to write about this chapter a week ago, but the first line: Express yourself, then keep quiet captivated me. Something inside of me just went mmm quiet… and I stuck with that for quite some time.

Good thing too, as I was stormy as hell inside. It had been a rough week. The rest of this chapter pulls from the metaphor of weather, and I spent a lot of time thinking about that.

Be like the forces of nature:
when it blows there is only wind;
when it rains there is only rain;
when the clouds pass, the sun shines through.

So I let my life blow, and boy did it blow. Read More »ToV 23 – Storm Chasing for Soul Seekers

ToV 22 – Paradoxical Dating

This chapter opens with a series of lines under what I’d call the category of: f*ing let it go.

If you want to become straight,
let yourself be crooked.
If you want to become full,
let yourself be empty.

And a goodly handful of phrases like that, every one of them a mantra of: stop arguing with reality stop arguing with reality. I love the second part of these lines: let yourself…. If you want something, and here’s the paradoxical part, you have to let go and let yourself be the thing you fear first. It isn’t the pursuit of the thing that gets you what you need, it’s in the letting go of whatever you’re fighting against.

The very last line of this chapter hit me hard, and was what I took with me into my mediation this morning.Read More »ToV 22 – Paradoxical Dating