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Tao Te Ching

ToV 5 – making friends with your goblins

The Tao doesn’t take sides;
it gives birth to both good and evil.

I’ve been reading my niece fairy stories. As an aside, if you want to make great gobs of cash, find something small girls obsess over (like fairies or ponies or princesses), write a story about it, when it’s a hit write the same frickin’ story over and over again with slight changes to plot and auxiliary characters. It’s basically the young mind version of formulaic trashy romance novels, great to see those neurons mapped early! (sheesh). So, after about the 8th one of these highly predictable stories (okay it probably only took to the second book) I started interjecting some critical thinking amid the plot – trying to explain to a seven year old the use of goblins as a narrative device, and asking why the main characters never seemed to grow or change when several years must have passed with all these stories. My niece just gives me that look (that I seem to get around here a lot) where she’s trying really hard to understand where I’m going with all of this, but really wishes I would just shut up and read the story.Read More »ToV 5 – making friends with your goblins

ToV 4 – the Tao’s infinite well

The Tao is like a well:
used, but never used up.

My life involves thinking a lot about energy and how I use it. When to conserve it, what feeds it, what drains it. Because I run on pretty tight margins I’m much more aware of my own energy, and get pretty responsive feedback when I’m doing things wrong.

More than anything, this passage reminds me about how to do it right. I find when I’m in “the Tao,” connected and in the groove, doing what feels like what I’m meant to be doing, I seem to be able to tap into an energy that is outside of my own reserves. You all know what that’s like: when you’re feeling inspired, you’ve got a little more bounce, things seem to just fall into place, and what you’re doing fills you up, bringing energy rather than expending it.Read More »ToV 4 – the Tao’s infinite well

ToV 3 – embrace bewilderment

The Master leads
by emptying people’s minds,
and filling their cores,
…
He helps people lose everything
they know, everything they desire,
and creates confusion
in those who think that they know.

This whole chapter is really juicy and lays out emptiness, not-doing, and being in accord with the Tao really well. I’ve just pulled a couple of the lines that most captivate me.

The idea of creating confusion in those who think that they know immediately calls to mind the closing line of advice from a Rumi poem (sorry, no direct quote as I’m far from my beloved book collection right now) the line ends in: “give up your cleverness and embrace bewilderment.”

That’s really what it’s all about. Taking power away from your thinking mind – Read More »ToV 3 – embrace bewilderment

ToV 2 – no judging!

There’s lots of really juicy stuff in this chapter, but I’m gonna go with the first few lines on this one. Keep it simple – for starters, we’ve got 79 more chapters to embrace the paradoxical weirdness of Taoism.

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

One of the main tenets of Taoism is the principle of just BE-ing. There is no good or bad, things just ARE. …at least until our thinkingthinkingthinking minds get a hold of them, Read More »ToV 2 – no judging!

ToV 1 – try not to try not to think

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.

The only advice I got on Taoist meditation was: try not to try not to think. There are things you’re just never going to accomplish if you really put your head to them.

When I gave my friend this book, he complained of the poem-like verses, said he wished I would write stories to explain them instead (my 81 instalments is a bit of a friendly nod to that). But the reality is, this the ineffable baby! Read More »ToV 1 – try not to try not to think