The Tao gives birth to One.
One gives birth to Two.
Two gives birth to Three.
Three gives birth to all things.
. . .
Translation of the Tao Te Ching by Stephen Mitchell
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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 just read Tao 42 in Bright-Fey, three lines specifically:
ReplyDelete14.an authentic journey cannot be forced
15.it unfolds with jostles and bumps
it sways to and fro
16.this is the only way to live.
Mary is not pregnant any more. She is bitterly sad but physically healthy. . . . “not un-common” —midwife Shiela says, “It’s nature’s way.”
So we learn another lesson—for me it's about wisdom and trusting “nature’s way.” Still, the question: is there any wisdom, force, plan, direction we can trust other than “what comes naturally?” We can fight it, dis-believe it, try to improve it, ignore it, raise our fists, let our tears fall, try to overcome, to over study, to think too much about it. . .“what comes naturally” is going to come as our victor our master our doctor our lover our genesis and our decomposition.
Bright-Fey:
12.there is nothing to worry about
no matter where life takes you
you are not alone and
you never have been
13.sometimes drift more and sometimes less
sometimes stop and look around
sometimes briskly fly from peak to peak
No matter where I am or what I’m doing, a chapter of the Tao fits the situation and it is usually the one I am reading that day—different translations of the same chapter read differently depending upon my experience that day and my awareness of Tao.
Tao 42 in Bright-Fey translation, five lines specifically:
ReplyDelete12.there is nothing to worry about
no matter where life takes you
you are not alone
and you never have been
13.sometimes drift more and sometimes less
sometimes stop and look around
sometimes briskly fly from peak to peak
14. an authentic journey cannot be forced
15. it unfolds with jostles and bumps
it sways to and fro
16. this is the only way to live.
And, now Emily. . .Emily is not pregnant any more. Oh my lovely daughters, my lovely daughters. . .The word lady has no Words for this. Nothing comes to help. When at the bottom each one of us is challenged. . .not to come up with a solution (gone is gone) but to know sorrow and not run away. To sit across from our own breaking heart and say "I love you, poor breaking heart of mine. Why are you sitting across the room? You are hurting. Come inside and get warm. I am not afraid of you. We can share this god-awful loss and be together and breathe as one. You see, we need to grieve, now. Come, and we'll be silent together."
ReplyDelete