Express yourself completely,
then keep quiet.
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.
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Layer upon layer
She finds deep in her own experience the central truths of the art of living, which are paradoxical only on the surface: that the more truly solitary we are, the more compassionate we can be; the more we let go of what we love, the more present our love becomes; the clearer our insight into what is beyond good and evil, the more we can embody the good. Until finally she is able to say, in all humility, "I am the Tao, the Truth, the Life." S. Mitchell
Translation of the Tao Te Ching by Stephen Mitchell, Harper & Row, 1988. In keeping with copyright law only the chapter under study is fulltext. All other chapters show only the first stanza.
Study Group Contac: Lissa Lord:lissalord@gmail.com
Tao in WordLayers
Layer upon layer
I made a boorish and prickly statement. My words sounded wiser and greater than the ordinary words I speak. I woke up this morning and this was my first thought of the day and knew I must fess up to those I spoke to. I am so uncomfortable with this knowledge of my braggadocio. I read this in the Ralph Allen Dale translation: “But when there is a contradiction between words and deeds, the space between them needs to be filled with mountains of rationalizations.” You know how you talk and talk when you realize that you’ve made a fool of yourself and you want the listener to know you are really really smart and good and honest? Well, I admitted my foolishness to my listeners and the response was . . . okay. They didn’t seem to remember my buffoonery of yesterday. So, I let go but not before the lesson was learned.
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