bkadoctaj's Daily Tao

bkadoctaj · Sep 16, 2008

Some of you might be aware that I'm fascinated by metaphysics, or "things beyond". I love the wisdom of Taoist philosophy and mysticism, and I really want to share it with my fellow Grasscitizens. So let me include a segment of the introduction that Ralph Alan Dale wrote for his modern translation of the ancient Tao Te Ching, authored by the mystical Lao Tzu (Master Lao) over 2400 years ago in China:

Tao means path. For Lao Tzu, it signifies not just any path, but the specific path to living in concordance with the unity of the universe. According to Lao Tzu, it in the nature of nature to issue from an inextricable relationship of every part to the whole. To live life in accord with the Tao is to be in harmony with all others, with the environment and with one's self. It is to live in synchronicity with processes, and to be completely authentic, sincere, natural and innocent. The word integrity embraces all these characteristics. Tao also implies the inexhaustible greatness and wonderfulness of the universe and every part of it. All these propositions provide what modern science would call a theory of the nature of the universe. I therefore translate Tao as the Theory of the Great Integrity. Te means virtue or the practice of the Tao, and Ching, as already indicated above, means a classic book or guide. I therefore translate the Tao Te Ching as A Guide to the Theory and Practice of the Great Integrity.
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I'll post a few verses each day, in the standard order. There are 81 verses all told. Enjoy, and feel free to discuss lines, ideas, whole verses, anything. Even feel free to share alternative translations. If I see any good alternate translations, I'll share them as well. I love feedback and this is one of my favorite topics.

Verse 1: Transcending

The Tao that can be told
is not the universal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the universal name.

In the infancy of the universe,
there were no names.
Naming fragments the mysteries of life
into ten thousand things and their manifestations.

Yet mysteries and manifestations
spring from the same source:
The Great Integrity
which is the mystery within manifestation,
the manifestation within mystery,
the naming of the unnamed,
and the un-naming of the named.

When these interpenetrations
are in full attendance,
we will pass the gates of naming notions
in our journey toward transcendence.
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Verse 2: Relativity
We know beauty because there is ugly.
We know good because there is evil.
Being and not being,
having and not having,
create each other.

Difficult and easy,
long and short,
high and low,
define each other,
just as before and after follow each other.

The dialectic of sound gives voice to music,
always transforming "is' from "was"
as the ancestors of "to be".

The wise
teach without telling,
allow without commanding,
have without possessing,
care without claiming.

In this way we harvest eternal importance
because we never announce it.
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Medicine Al · Sep 17, 2008

Clay walls are moulded into a pot,
but the usefulness of the pot lies in its emptiness.-Lao Tzu

Maitereya · Sep 17, 2008

this makes me want to go read the tao.

bkadoctaj · Sep 17, 2008

Maitereya said:

this makes me want to go read the tao.
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More is coming for you now:

Verse 3: Tempering

Overpraising the gifted leads to contentiousness
Overvaluing the precious invites stealing.
Craving the desirable loses contentment.

The natural person
desires without craving
and acts without excess.

By not doing,
everything is done.
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Verse 4: The Great Integrity

The Great Integrity is an endless abyss,
Yet, it is the inexhaustibly fertile
source of the universe.

It blunts all sharpness,
unties the entangled,
and merges with the dust!

Hidden but ever present-
this parent of the gods-
whose child may it be?
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Verse 5: Yin and Yang

Yin and yang aren't sentimental.
They exist without moralizing.
They act regardless of our wishes
with the ebb and flow
of every pregnant moment.

The space between yin and yang
is like a bellows-
empty, yet infinitely full.
The more it yields,
the more it fills.

Countless words
count less
than the silent balance
between yin and yang.
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.AcidTrip. · Sep 17, 2008

Insane thread, My fav. is tempering.

bkadoctaj · Sep 17, 2008

Verse 6: Life's Spirit

The spirit of life
never dies.

It is the infinite gateway
to mysteries within mysteries.

It is the seed of yin,
the spark of yang.

Always elusive,
endlessly available.
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Verse 7: Modesty

The Great Integrity, having had no birth,
expresses its immortality
without pronouncements.

The wise are heard
through their silence,
always self-full through selflessness.
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Verse 8: The Highest Good

The highest good is like water,
nourishing life effortlessly,
flowing without prejudice
to the lowliest places.

It springs from all
who nourish their community
with a benevolent heart as deep as an abyss,
who are incapable of lies and injustices,
who are rooted in the earth,
and whose natural rhythms of action
play midwife to the highest good
of each pregnant moment.
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Verse 9: Overfulfillment

Keep filling your bowl,
and it will spill over.

Keep sharpening your knife,
and it will blunt.

Keep hoarding gold in your house,
and you will be robbed.

Keep seeking approval,
and you will be chained.

The Great Integrity leads to actualization,
never overfulfillment.
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Alright Grasscity, that's enough for now.

whitewarrior · Sep 17, 2008

These are great quotes to live by, they remind me of the Proverbs..

bkadoctaj · Sep 17, 2008

And away we go... good morning, Grasscity.

Verse 10: Limitations

When embracing the unity
of mind, body, emotions and spiritual being,
can we transcend our fragmentations
without leaving a trace?

When Qi Gong scuplts sinew suppleness,
can our flesh become soft as a new born babe?

Can we cleanse the inner vision,
leaving mind in spiritual purity?

Can our affairs of the heart,
and our affairs of state
be so unconditional
that we grant unqualified permissibility?

Can the gate to Yin be opened
without inviting Yang?

Can our reasoning mind be purged of coercion,
allowing our heart its unfettered joy?

Can we act like every other species,
seeking no reward,
taking no pride,
guiding without enslaving?

Such is our vision of the Great Integrity
on whose path we have at last planted both feet,
ready to move, step by step,
until we arrive at the great unfettered gate.
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Verse 11: The Importance of What Is Not

We join thirty spokes
to the hub of a wheel,
yet it's the center hole
that drives the chariot.

We shape clay
to birth a vessel,
yet it's the hollow within
that makes it useful.

We chisel doors and windows
to construct a room,
yet it's the inner space
that makes it livable.

Thus do we
create what is
to use what is not.
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Verse 12: Choices

COlors can makes us blind!
Music can make us deaf!
Flavors can destroy our taste!
Possessions can close our options!
Racing can drive us mad
and its rewards obstruct our peace!

Thus, the wise
fill the inner gut
rather than the eyes,
always sacrificing the superficial
for the essential.
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Medicine Al · Sep 17, 2008

A sage can have things without feeling they "own" them.
The sage does things without putting an emotional stake into the outcome. The task is accomplished,
but the Sage doesn't seek credit or take pride in the accomplishment.
Because the Sage is not attached to the accomplishment,
the accomplishment lasts forever. -Lao Tzu-

Just as the value of a house lies in its location,
The value of a mind lies in its depth,
The value of giving lies in the presence of a generous spirit,
The value of words lies in their reliability

-Lao Tzu

bkadoctaj · Sep 18, 2008

Medicine Al said:

A sage can have things without feeling they "own" them.

The sage does things without putting an emotional stake into the outcome. The task is accomplished,
but the Sage doesn't seek credit or take pride in the accomplishment.
Because the Sage is not attached to the accomplishment,
the accomplishment lasts forever. -Lao Tzu-

Just as the value of a house lies in its location,
The value of a mind lies in its depth,
The value of giving lies in the presence of a generous spirit,
The value of words lies in their reliability

-Lao Tzu
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Whoa, what's the meaning of that new signature? You've got me intrigued.

Verse 13: Identity

Accolades can usher in
great trouble for your body.
Censure can herald misery.

Why can favor and disfavor
both be harmful??

Because both accolades and censure,
when filtered through self as ego,
always place us in jeopardy.

But when the universe becomes your self,
when you love the world as yourself,
all reality becomes your haven,
reinventing you as your own heaven.

Only then, will you transcend tense
to fully be here now.
Only then, no harm
will the universe proffer
nor you to her,
for you will be
not you but she
and both - the universal Great Integrity.
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Verse 14: Beyond Reason

That which we look at
but cannot see is the invisible.

That which we listen to
but cannot hear is the inaudible.

That which we reach for
but cannot grasp is the intangible.

Beyond reason, these three merge,
contradicting experience.

Their rising side isn't bright.
Their setting side isn't dark.

Sense-less, unnamable, they return to the realms of nothingness.

Form without form,
image without image,
indefinable, ineluctable, elusive.

Confronting them, you see no beginning.
Following them, you see no end.

Yet, riding the plowless plow
can see the timeless Tao,
harvesting the secret
transcendence of the Now.
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Verse 15: Linking with Ancient Times

In ancient times
the people knew the Great Integrity
with subtlety and profundity.

Because they are so unfathomable to us,
we can describe the ancients
only with great effort.

They were-
cautious as those crossing an icy stream,
wary as those surrounded by dangers,
dignified as guests,
yielding as melting ice,
innocent as virgin wood,
open and broad as valleys,
merging freely as muddy water.

But today, who can remain patient
while the mud so gradually clears?
Who can remain still
while the moment for action
so slowly emerges?

Who?
We observers of the Great Integrity,
who in our times,
like those ancients,
never seeking fulfillment,
are never unfilled.
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Verse 16: Tranquility

ALlow the heart to empty itself of all turmoil!
Retrieve the utter tranquility of mind
from which you issued.

Although all forms are dynamic,
and we all grow and transform,
each of us is compelled to return to our root.
Our root is quietude.

To fully return to our root is to be enlightened.
Never to experience tranquility is to act blindly,
a sure path to disaster.

To know tranquility is to embrace all.
To embrace all is to be just.
Justice is the foundation for wholeness.
Wholeness is the Great Integrity.
The Great Integrity is the infinite fulfilling itself.
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bkadoctaj · Sep 19, 2008

Good morning.

Verse 17: Leaders

There are four types of leaders
The best leader is indistinguishable
from the will of those who selected her.
The next best leader enjoys the love
and praise of the people.
The poor leader rules through coercion and fear.
And the worst leader is a tyrant despised
by the multitudes who are the victims of his power.

What a world of difference among these leaders!
In the last two types, what is done
is without sincerity or trust - only coercion.
In the second type, there is a harmony between the leader and the people.
In the first type, whatever is done happens
so naturally that no one presumes to take the credit!
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Verse 18: The Paradoxes of Abandoning the Great Integrity

When the Great Integrity was abandoned,
humanity and justice appeared.

When knowledge and teachers appeared,
hypocrisy was their inevitable accompaniment.

When family relationships lost their harmony,
filial piety and parental affection were suddenly birthed.

When a nation succumbs to chaos and corruption,
patriotic politicians are always at hand announcing themselves.
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Verse 19: The Paradoxes of Returning to the Great Integrity

Banish the intellectual!
Discard knowledge!
We will all benefit a hundredfold!

Eliminate all institutions of charity and justice!
We can then return
to our natural love for each other.

Let everyone be released
from our addictions to shrewdness and profit!
Then, thievery will disappear!

These three negate the Great Integrity.
But to negate these negations is insufficient.
Three affirmations are also necessary.

The first is to embrace simplicity and integrity.
The second is to consume only the needs of our body and soul.
The third is to allow our love and concern for others to define our essentiality.
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bkadoctaj · Sep 20, 2008

Alright, I should be cleaning my room, but first:

Verse 20: The Sadness of Superficialities and of the Unfulfilled Great Integrity

It is sometimes deeply depressing to be a rebel,
knowing that we can never share most people's way of life, nor can they share ours.

School stuffs the brains of our children with trivia.
THe more the trivia, the more their anxieties.
They indoctrinate the children to believe that the consequences are grave
when they fail to distinguish "good" from "evil", and agreement from disagreement.
What gross nonsense!

To escape the rubbish of all this so-called knowledge,
in the winter people run to the great feasts of lamb, pork and ox,
and they climb high in the mountains to view the first signs of spring.

We are so different! Having no desire for the trivialities,
nor for their compensations, we are like infants not yet knowing how to laugh!
Ever wandering, and having no home to which we may return.

While most people are obsessed with superficialities, we feel empty.
While most people feel they know so much, we feel simple-minded.
While most people believe they live happily in the best of all possible worlds,
we are despaired to witness this world!
It is so painful to know that we will always be outsiders,
endlessly moving like the ocean, aimlessly blowing like the wing.

While we fear what others fear, we don't treasure what others treasure.
Our treasure is the Great Integrity.
However, until it is shared, it will not be the Universal Integrity,
for wee are part of them, and they are part of us.
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Verse 21: The Great Integrity Is a Paradox

The Great Integrity is a paradox.
It is inherent in the universe,
yet its form is so illusive.
It is the Vital Essence of every entity,
yet nothing announces its essential character.

The Great Integrity was apparent
before time, space and matter appeared to separate.
How can we re-mind and re-infuse ourselves
with this very touchstone of all essentialities and connections?

By re-fusing time, space and matter
with the spiritualization of our materiality,
and with the materialization of our spirituality.

Then, when our dualities and numeralities
become blurred and forgotten,
the Great Integrity will re-emerge in forms
of such incredible depths and dimensions of enlightenment,
precisely because our temporary fragmentary consciousness
created a multi-millenial amnesia.
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Verse 22: Celebrate Paradox!

No-thing remains itself.
Each prepares the path to its opposite.

To be ready for wholeness, first be fragmented.
To be ready for rightness, first be wronged.
To be ready for fullness, first be empty.
To be ready for renewal, first be worn out.
To be ready for success, first fail.
To be ready for doubt, first be certain.

Because the wise observe the world
through the Great Integrity,
they know they are not knowledgeable.
Because they do not perceive
only through their perceptions,
they do not judge this right and that wrong.
Because they do not delight in boasting,
they are appreciated.
Because they do not announce their superiority,
they are acclaimed.
Because they never compete,
no one can compete with them.

Verily, fragmentation prepares the path to wholeness,
the mother of all origins and realizations.
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Androgenicx · Sep 20, 2008

fuckin BEAUTIFUL. Love the phrasing of 'the pregnant moment', definitely a phrase that makes its mark and something I will keep with me in my practice.

bkadoctaj · Sep 20, 2008

Actually, an advertisement must be made here. If you like what you read, help fund the translator's translations:

http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Ching-...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221935132&sr=8-1

Medicine Al · Sep 22, 2008

There is no greater disaster than to underestimate your enemy.
If I did that, I would lose my 3 treasures
(benevolence, frugality, never trying to be number one)

-Lao Tzu

bkadoctaj · Sep 23, 2008

Fucking baked.

Verse 23: Sincerity

Speak few words, but say them quietude and sincerity,
and they will be long lasting,
for a raging wind cannot blow all morning,
nor a sudden rainstorm last throughout the day.

Why is this so?
Because it is the nature of the sky and the earth to be frugal.
Even human beings cannot alter this nature
without suffering the consequences.

When we sincerely follow the ethical path,
we become one with it.
WHen we become one with the ethical path, it embraces us.

When we completely lose our way, we become one with loss.
When we become one with loss, loss embraces us.

When we completely lose our way, we become one with loss.
When we become one with loss, loss embraces us.

When we sincerely follow the Great Integrity,
we become one with it.
When we are one with the Great Integrity, it embraces us.

But when nothing is done sincerely,
no thing and no one embraces us.
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Verse 24: Avoiding Voids

Standing on tiptoe will only make you tipsy,
Walking with long strides will not allow a long walk.
Shining the light on yourself will never enlighten you.
Being self-righteous precludes you from being right.
Boasting about yourself will never boost your eminence.
Parading yourself parodies leadership.

Tao consciousness avoids
the cultivation of all these ego bloated voids.
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Verse 25: Naming the Nameless

What preceded life? The earth.
What preceded the earth? The universe.
WHat preceded the universe?
The soundless and shapeless, origin of origins,
ever transforming and having no beginning nor end.

This mother of the universe is boundless, and nameless.
But if we wanted to share with you anything
about this remarkable non-executing executor,
we must invent a name for it.

We will call it the Tao because Tao means great.
Incredibly great because is occupies infinite space,
being fully present in the whole universe, and in every infinitesimal particle.

Because this Great Integrity created the universe,
and the universe created the earth,
and the earth created us, we are all incredibly great.

Life derives from the nature of the earth.
The earth derives from the nature of the Great Integrity.
And the Great Integrity is the omnipresent, omnigenous omniform,
the universal material and spiritual substance,
and the holoversal interlinkage and coition of existence.
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Medicine Al · Sep 23, 2008

Because Sage's don't compete,
they are unbeatable.
-Lao Tzu

Medicine Al · Sep 27, 2008

The more regulations there are, the poorer the people,
The more weapons there are, the greater the chaos.

-Lao Tzu

bkadoctaj · Oct 4, 2008

Lo siento, mis amores.

Verse 26: Seductions

Inner strength is the master
of all frivolities.
Tranquility is the master
of all agitated emotions.

Those who succumb to frivolities
have lost their inner strength.
Those who succumb to agitated emotions
have lost their tranquility.

The wise cultivate
inner strength and tranquility.
That is why they are not seduced
by addictive temptations.
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Verse 27: Wisdom is Effortless Mutuality

The expert traveler leaves no footprints.
The expert speaker makes no mispronunciations.
The expert in calculation needs no calculator.

The expert in closing things needs no lock,
yet no one can open what has been closed.
The expert in binding uses no knots,
yet no one can pull apart what has been bound.

The expert in caring for things never wastes anything.
The expert at helping people never abandons anyone.

These are the paths to enlightenment.
Those who arrive at their destination
teach those who are still on the path,
while those still on the path
are sources of wisdom for the teachers.
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Verse 28: The Fusion of Opposites

To know the masculine and be true to the feminine
is to be the waterway of the world.

To be the waterway of the world is to flow with the Great Integrity,
always swirling back to the innocence of childhood.

To know yang and to be true to yin is
to echo the universe.

To echo the universe is to merge with the Great Integrity,
ever returning to the infinite.

To know praise and be true to the lowly
is to be a model for the planet.

To be a model for the planet is to express the Great Integrity
as the Primal Simplicity - like an uncarved block.

When the uncarved block goes to the craftsman,
it is transformed into something useful.

The wise craftsman cuts as little as necessary
because he follows the Great Integrity.
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Verse 29: We Are the World

Those who have most power and wealth
treat the planet as a thing to be possessed,
to be used and abused according to their own dictates.
But the planet is a living organism,
a Great Spiritual Integrity.

To violate this Integrity
is certain to cull forth disaster
since each and every one of us
is an inherent part
of this very organism.

All attempts to control the world
can only lead to its decimation
and to our own demise
since we are an inseparable part
of what we are senselessly trying to coerce.

Any attempt to possess the world
can only lead to its loss
and to our own dissolution
since we are an intrinsic part
of what we are foolishly trying to possess.

The world's pulse is our pulse.
The world's rhythms are our rhythms.
To treat our planet with care, moderation and love
is to be in synchrony with ourselves
and to live in the Great Integrity.
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Verse 30: Defense and Aggression

Those on the path of the Great Integrity
never use military force to conquer others.
Every aggressive act harvests its own counter-terrorism.

Wherever the military marches,
the killing fields lay waste to the land,
yielding years of famine and misery.

When attacked, those on the path of the Great Integrity
defend themselves benevolently,
never revenging.

Achieve success without arrogance,
without seeking glory,
and without violating others.

Aggression leaches our strength and humanity,
subverting the Great Integrity,
and inviting disaster.
Click to expand...

Androgenicx · Oct 4, 2008

love reading this thread, very grounding

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