Behold emo manga dudes.
I have no clue what Tao itself is.
Shouldn’t I at least have a bit of information beforehand to even get the first line which consists of, “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal tao.”
Yes. Because I really do understand that ‘that-which-i-don’t-understand’ that can be told is not the eternal ‘that-which-i-don’t-understand’. That really makes sense.
All I know is that no matter my lack of understanding for what the lines say in ‘chapter’ 1, it all sounds so deep and right that it is fun to read, no mutter the inconsistencies of my lack of knowledge.
It appears that mystery and manifestations are sort of the same except for they come from different sources, as it is so put. And they appear as darkness, which is ‘the gate to all mystery.’
How deep is that?
Chapter two starts out with, “Under heaven, all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness.” Probably saying that the only reason we have standards on some things and view some certain things as ‘pretty’ is because we have ugly. If there was no ugly, everything would be the same, nothing would be ‘pretty’ when compared to others, and so ‘pretty’ would not even exist. I guess since it also says ‘under heaven’ it signifies that in heaven there are no such ridiculous terms as ‘pretty’ and ‘ugly’ and there, they don’t exist.
The same thing goes for good and evil. Would evil not exist, good would have yet to have a presence in our minds, and vice versa.
And so many other things apply to this:
Diffficult and easy.
Long and Short.
High and low.
Voice and sound.
Front and back.
These all complement each other.
If we are not used to seeing things and desiring them, we will not try to be clever and commit acts to obtain them, or go through extreme measures for them.
Therefore, if we lack knowledge, or desire for things, we will not be tempted to ‘try to interfere.’
And all will be well.
Eight basically deals with how to deal with things in a good-natured way, sort of with virtue and being just and all that.
It says not to fight and not to blame, which I could so deal with.
Nine quotes, “Better stop short than to fill the brim.” And then goes to say, “retire when the work is done.” I guess an example of this, no matter how ‘inappropriate’, would be gambling. Ever heard of the times where the guy is scoring big he might just get triple a decade’s paycheck, and you’re rooting for him. The guy gets to the top, he might as well call it quits. But he is so cracked in that high of satisfaction and stupefied adrenaline and happiness that he pushes his luck and goes for the kill. And that’s when he meets his downfall. All of that work in the beginning, for nothing. To have it lost due to just a single moment of carelessness and greed and stubbornness crawling their way in.
Now he ends up losing his two-floor Victorian house and his eight year old son, and his ‘can’t-live-without’ teddy bear, owing it to the final winner. All because he couldn’t stand halving the cup fully filled.
So stop while you’re succeeding, when you know you’ve reached the goal you’ve set, and never strive for more with unlikely risks. It will grant you your doom.
Twelve speaks of our senses and how the sage is ‘guided by what he feels, not what he sees.’
I wonder if this has a sort of indirect reference to following your intuition and what your heart tells you, and not always base beliefs on hard-core facts and only things you can see with the naked eye.
Because it takes more power to have faith, and believe in something with your whole being because you have the will, than waiting for evidence that something exists to fully put your faith in it.
No comments:
Post a Comment