Gaia: Living Metaphysics - The Verses of the Tao Te Ching

Re: Verse 72 - Jonathan Star

http://yhd52754.gaia.com — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:42:57 GMT

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

When the people do not fear worldly power
          a greater power will arrive

Don't limit the view of yourself
Don't despise the conditions of your birth
Don't resist the natural course of your life
          In this way you will never weary of this world

The Sage knows himself, but not as himself
          he loves himself, but not as himself
          he honors himself, but not as himself
Thus, he discards the view of his own self
          and chooses the view of the universe

Re: Verse 72 - The Tao of Emerson

http://yhd52754.gaia.com — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:27:15 GMT

From The Tao of Emerson by Richard Grossman

From The Texts of Taoism, 1891 by James Legge

When the people do not fear what
           they ought to fear,
That which is their greatest dread
           will come to them.

Let them not thoughtlessly indulge themselves
           in their ordinary life;
Let them not act as if weary of what
           life depends on.

It is by avoiding such indulgence that
          such weariness does not arise.

Therefore the sage knows these things,
          but does not parade his knowledge;
Loves, but does not appear to set a value
          on himself.
And thus he puts the latter alternative away
          and makes a choice of the former.

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Education"

The use of the world is that man may
         learn its laws.
When a man stupid becomes a man inspired,
When one and the same man
Passes out of the torpid into the perceiving state,
Leaves the din of trifles, the stupor of the senses,
          to enter into the quasi-omniscience of higher thought -
Up and down, all around go,
All limits disappear,
No horizon shuts down.
He sees things in their causes,
          all facts in their connection.

Re: Verse 72 - The Tao of Motherhood

http://yhd52754.gaia.com — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:36:50 GMT

From The Tao of Motherhood by Vimala McClure

72

WONDER

Children who grow up with no
spirituality - with no sense of
wonder - will struggle with
depression as adults.

Do not impose rational thinking
on your children too early.
Do not oppress them with
adult reality.

Because you don't pressure
them to grow up, they can
grow naturally and keep their
sweetness.

The wise parent can be childlike
but is not irresponsible,
loves herself but is not selfish.
She is spiritual but not dogmatic.

Re: Verse 72 - Ma-Wang-Tui Manuscripts

http://yhd52754.gaia.com — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:12:41 GMT

Tao Te Ching - The Classic Book of Integrity and The Way by Lao-Tzu
A New Translation by Victor H Mair
based on the recently discovered Ma-Wang-Tui Manuscripts

72
(37)

When the people do not fear the majestic,
Great majesty will soon visit them.

Do not limit their dwellings,
Do not suppress their livelihood.
Simply because you do not suppress them,
         they will not grow weary of you.

For this reason,
         The sage is self-aware,
                  but does not flaunt himself;
         He is self-devoted,
                  but does not glorify himself.

Therefore,
         He rejects the one and adopts the other.

Re: Verse 72 - Advice from Dr Dyer

http://eternalquestion.gaia.com — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:10:39 GMT

Have been listening to Adyashanti's CD's this past week or two and he again reiterated how important the body is in our awakening. He shared about how the body speaks to us and is our greatest teacher. And that after awakening it is really the kinesthetic sense of the body that we follow rather than our thoughts or feelings. After hearing this yesterday, fell into a deeper listening to the wordless words of the body's knowing. Thanks, Deb.

Re: Verse 72 - Advice from Dr Dyer

http://eternalquestion.gaia.com — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:08:01 GMT

Meenakshi, how wonderful that you are so amazed by life. What a gift! How much you teach your children simply be sharing that ability to be amazed. It makes me want to be even more attentive, even more able to recognize the preciousness of life revealing itself in the simple every day.

Re: Verse 72 - Advice from Dr Dyer

http://Meenakshi.gaia.com — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:28:06 GMT

Kathy [Centria in case anyone's wondering! ] I came to this thread through hyour post--the words 'amazed at everything', specially! Like your writer, I too, even now, at 50+ am just amazed at everything as if I have never seen it before. My children often look at me with a benign gaze, exclaiming over ducks crossing the road [naturally!] or a sunrise [every morning!!!!]

I'm even smiling a bit at the advice that I now read from Wayne Dyer, because I wonder ---can this attitude actually be cultivated? I guess so, or he wouldn't say it, right?

Re: Verse 72 - Advice from Dr Dyer

http://baba.gaia.com — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:07:09 GMT

Deb,

This is so profound yet difficult (for those like me who have difficulty accepting things as they are). But our inner voice should always be open.

Peace,
Ken

Re: Verse 72 - Advice from Dr Dyer

http://eternalquestion.gaia.com — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:57:00 GMT

This was a little synchronicity, once again. I had just read a chapter in Sue Monk Kidd's early inspirational writings called Firstlight and she was talking about being amazed at everything. "So. That's how I resolved the question about what I wished to become notorious for at fifty. Let it be for nothing more than harboring a wild amazement at life. Let it be for choking up at poetry and the sight of human faces. For falling into easy rapture over lilies and all the other run-of-the-mill marvels that make up life. Let me become notorious for going around with my bridal veil tossed back and my mouth saying I do. Renewing my vows with life. Every day. A hundred times a day."

Re: Verse 72 - Advice from Dr Dyer

http://yhd52754.gaia.com — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:20:19 GMT

Focus on loving the life you have now
in the body you've got !

Tell yourself that you love everything about the physical shell you've incarnated into.

Affirm: My body is perfect, born at precisely the right time, and this is the perfect age now. I accept myself as I am. I accept my role in the perfection of this universe at this time. I surrender to the natural course of my body's destiny.

See your body through the eyes of totally accepting thoughts and, as Lao-tzu says, "In this way you will never weary of this world."

Re: Verse 72 - Advice from Dr Dyer

http://yhd52754.gaia.com — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:59:15 GMT

See the miraculous in everything.

Change your view of the world to one of awe and bewilderment. Rather than looking for miracles, shift to seeing everything as miraculous. By being in a state of awe, you won't be able to mentally experience boredom or disappointment. Try seeing the invisible Tao flowing through and supporting everyone and everything: A rainstorm becomes a miraculous event, the lightning a fascinating display of electrical fireworks, the thunder a booming reminder of the invisible power of nature. Live the mystery by beginning to perceive what average eyes fail to notice.

Re: Verse 72 - Living with Awe and Acceptance

http://yhd52754.gaia.com — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:38:19 GMT

Ken,

Oh, this is so beautiful and simple. Thank you.

The beauty is already there. We do not put it in. We simply need to be willing to recognize it's presence.

Peace & Blessings -
Deb

Re: Verse 72 - Living with Awe and Acceptance

http://baba.gaia.com — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:46:43 GMT

Let things be and notice the beauty of the world as it is. Receive the beauty of the world.

Verse 72 - Living with Awe and Acceptance

http://yhd52754.gaia.com — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:38:10 GMT

72nd Verse

When people lack a sense of awe,
there will be disaster.
When people do not fear worldly power,

a greater power will arrive.

Do not limit the view of yourself.
Do not despise the conditions of your birth.
Do not resist the natural course of your life.
In this way you will never weary of this world.

Therefore, the sage knows himself

but makes no show of himself;
loves himself

but does not exalt himself.

He prefers what is within to what is without.

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

By staying in a state of awe and bewilderment
   I loosen Ego's hold on my thinking,
                  my body is perfect, born at precisely
                           the right time, and this is my perfect age.
I accept myself as I am and
         I surrender to the natural course
                  of my body's destiny.


Do The Tao Now

List five natural occurrences in your daily life that you've been taking for granted. Then spend some contemplative time allowing each into your consciousness. The sky, some flowers, a tree in your yard, the moon, the sun, the fog, the grass, a spiderweb, a crab hole, a lake, a shrub, a cricket, your dog, anything that occurs naturally . . . let yourself radically appreciate the miracle you hadn't been noticing. Write, draw, or photograph some observations that you've gleaned from this new perspective of awe and bewilderment.

Source -
Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life (Living the Wisdom of the Tao)
by Dr Wayne W Dyer

Re: Verse 71 - Stephen Mitchell & Byron Katie

http://yhd52754.gaia.com — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:44:12 GMT

From Stephen Mitchell - tao te ching - A New English Version

Not-knowing is true knowledge.
Presuming to know is a disease.
First realize that you are sick;
then you can move toward health.

The Master is her own physician.
She has healed herself of all knowing.
Thus she is truly whole.

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names for Joy - Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

Not-knowing is true knowledge.

To think you know something is to believe the story of a past. It's insane. Every time you think you know something, it hurts, because in reality there's nothing to know. You're trying to hold on to something that doesn't exist. There is nothing to know, and there is no one who wants to know it.

It's so much easier to know that you don't know. It's kinder, as well. I love the don't-know mind. When you know that you don't know, you're naturally open to reality and can let it take you wherever it wants to. You can drop your identity and be who you really are, the unlimited, the nameless. People call me "Katie", but I don't ever believe it.

Someone says, "I'll be here at nine o'clock." No one can know what it's like for someone with no future to watch a clock become nine. The event is so miraculous that there are no possible words for it. It's one minute past eight, then suddenly it's two minutes past eight, according to a clock that is always pointing to now. And now it's eight-thirty, and now, all at once, it's nine, and the person shows up - just pops out of nowhere - from a past that doesn't exist. I am in continual amazement at such happenings.

Now I am walking to the living room, I think. I think that I'm on my way to open the window. I have no clue where it's actually going; I don't know if the window even exists, or if there is such a thing as a living room. As body moves, I hear each step on the hardwood floor as if it were mine: this step, then the next, then the next. I experience everything in slow motion. More accurately, I experience everything frame by frame by frame. Each moment is a frame for me, not necessarily connected with any other. It's like the rock with lichen on it that you look at through a magnifying glass: a universe in itself, completely undivided. When I'm walking, each movement within one step is complete in itself. It's one step at a time, but actually it's everything in between that, too. Now. Now. Now. There is literally no time and space, no past or future, not even a present, no one coming, no one going, no meaning to it, no motive, no goal. And finally you get to a place where nothing moves. That is home, the place we all long for, the still point, the center of the universe, absolute zero.

Miraculously, the living room appears, a window appears, and I experience a little girl's excitement, spilling over like a bubbly artesian wonderment. Will it go to the window? That's what seems to be happening, and I can never know, as I feel its next step, body moving forward, the click of a shoe. Will it open the window? Is that the way of it? I notice a hand reaching out, and as the phone rings, I experience a burst of internal laughter as the body turns to walk in the other direction. This is the only way the window could stay closed, and a window that is closed now is the way of it. I see a hand pick up the phone, just because it does, and again I delight in the way of it. Lips move, voice speaks into the phone - "Hello" - and I am thrilled at the familiar sound out of nowhere, its very own voice, this endless, mindless, ecstatic dream of what isn't, with no meaning, no sorrow, no life, no death. There is nothing about it that is not the is, and therefore nothing that is not beautiful.

I watch as my body moves to the kitchen, to the stove. I watch as my hand picks up the steamer and takes the journey to the sink. You never know what it will do until it does it. Will it eat the squash from the steamer? It takes a plate from the cupboard and puts a piece of squash onto it. And it is the squash, it is the steam rising from it, it is the body, the plate, the sink, the counter. And what am I? I must be a . . . a what? I can't find an identity, as everything else is busy being what it is. Is it really necessary to be something? No, and also that's not possible. Can I pretend to be something? No: too late. My time for that is past, I'm awake as nothing but laughter, inner lightning, aware, alive in myself, and not this, not this, not this. The squash gets to be something, the sink gets to be something, and yet I can never be anything, no matter how much I might attempt to create myself as substance. I can imagine colors, sounds, as I create squash, counter, plate, and notice again that this dream, too, which is constantly disappearing, gone even as I notice it, is as vibrant as the dream of window or phone. It lives only for its own delight, is only a flash in apparent time. Will it use a fork? Its hands? I watch the dream; I love it. Even as I notice it eating the squash, the squash cannot exist. Taste? I don't bother projecting it, since it projects without me. It is delicious, and the taste is dreamed, and the dreamer, too, is dreamed. And I notice that this is all I can be and that everything is born out of me and there is nothing that is or isn't. It's all one huge, amazing joke. If I could smile, I would.

Re: Verse 27 - Living by Your Inner Light

http://baba.gaia.com — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:01:02 GMT

Such a brilliant thought! I've been using labels "good" and "bad" for the longest time, and I switched subconsciously to remove these labels, but I didn't understand why. Perception renders judgment which renders truth (from the perspective of judgment). Move away from judgment and perception has the ability to move to a different truth.

Re: Verse 27 - Ma-Wang-Tui Translation

http://Meenakshi.gaia.com — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:05:37 GMT

He who values not his teacher
                    and loves not his foil,
          Though he be knowledgeable,
                    is greatly deluded.

Beautiful! Going beyond tolerance and teaching of the 'bad' to loving them as a foil to the 'good'.

Re: Verse 71 - Ma-Wang-Tui Translation

http://baba.gaia.com — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:47:57 GMT

This is beautiful Deb. If we accept things as they are, then something magical happens -- it can be removed. Resistance to what is there becomes the obstacle.

Re: Verse 71 - Ma-Wang-Tui Translation

http://yhd52754.gaia.com — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:05:56 GMT

Tao Te Ching - The Classic Book of Integrity and The Way by Lao-Tzu
A New Translation by Victor H Mair
based on the recently discovered Ma-Wang-Tui Manuscripts

71
(36)

          To realize that you do not understand is a virtue;
          Not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.

The reason why
          The sage has no defects,
          Is because he treats defects as defects.

Thus,
          He has no defects.

(deb's note - more about this version is posted here.)

Re: Verse 27 - Ma-Wang-Tui Translation

http://yhd52754.gaia.com — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:58:52 GMT

Tao Te Ching - The Classic Book of Integrity and The Way by Lao-Tzu
A New Translation by Victor H Mair
based on the recently discovered Ma-Wang-Tui Manuscripts

27
(71)

He who is skilled at traveling
          leaves neither tracks nor traces;
He who is skilled at speaking
          is flawless in his delivery;
He who is skilled in computation
          uses neither tallies nor counters;
He who is skilled at closing things tightly
          has neither lock nor key,
                    but what he closes cannot be opened;
He who is good at binding
          has neither cord nor string,
                    but what he binds cannot be untied.

For these reasons,
          The sage
                    is always skilled at saving others
                              and does not abandon them,
                              nor does he abandon resources.
          This is called “inner intelligence”.

Therefore,
          Good men are teachers for the good man,
          Bad men are foils for the good man.
          He who values not his teacher
                    and loves not his foil,
          Though he be knowledgeable,
                    is greatly deluded.

          This is called “the wondrous essential”.