She who is centered in the Tao
can go where she wishes, without danger.
She perceives the universal harmony,
even amid great pain,
because she has found peace in her heart.
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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
When you use it, it's inexhaustible. What does this mean? Taking action or leaps of faith, being grateful and humble?
ReplyDeleteMaybe like love or kindness. The more you give the more you have. Maybe like when we do something nice for another person the niceness in us grows into being nice to ourselves. We know something that no one can ever take away from us.
ReplyDeleteI see both the Tao and my art as entities constant in satisfaction. Both have my deepening passion and both are inexhaustible. Simple. In a gallery, people do stop for a brief look and say “nice” and move on to the real art cut in oils. Folks may read chapter 35 of the Tao and say “interesting” and move on to the preacher in the tent. I write constantly, even when I’m not writing. Those who can’t get enough of the Tao cannot tell you what it is. “It looks like nothing much, it sounds like nothing much.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet you can’t get enough of it.”--LeGuin
Don’t even try to explain it, to tell folks why you love it—just love it, in quietude.
When you use it, it's inexhaustible.... You can use a bowl, and it remains a bowl, the space is what is useful and it is not used up. Put soup in it and eat the soup. And you have the use of the bowl again...
ReplyDelete