I love the taiji (yin yang) symbol. You are probably familiar with the design in which two curving shapes create a perfect circle. The two curving shapes represent yin (darker) and yang (lighter). Yin and yang are sometimes thought of as opposites, each with various associations–yin with the receptive, mysterious, feminine, earth; yang with the …
Western culture, at least in the United States, is very goal oriented. We make new year resolutions. We have five year business and personal plans. My sons, who both have autism, have a meeting every year to set goals for the year with measurable checkpoints during the year. In fact, for many of us, our …
A sweet little chapter with a turn the other cheek message. It begins by observing that even after a conflict is settled, some resentment often remains. So how can we bring true peace to a situation? Using contracts as an example, the chapter says that the sage holds up her end of the bargain, …
When rulers tax too much People starve When rulers interfere too much People rebel When rulers demand too much People give up One who lives in harmony with life Enjoys true wealth I have taken great liberty with the Chinese text in my translation here. However, when I contemplate the Chinese characters, this is …
People in the United States have traditionally greeted each other with the question “How are you?” It is often intended as a perfunctory politeness, not a genuine question about health and well-being. The typical answer is “Fine thanks. You?” Lately, however, I get the sense when asked, that people are sincerely asking how I’m really doing. …
This chapter is about power and the use of power. It starts out with four lines, each beginning with the character for “good.” A good warrior is not violentA good fighter is not enragedA good conqueror does not engage the enemyA good leader humbles himself The ancient treatise The Art of War counsels that the …
As I explained in Part 1, this unusually long chapter resembles a string of proverbs. Picking up from the earlier post, here are some key passages from the rest of the chapter. Action leads to failureGrasping leads to lossThus the sage refrains from action and does not failRefrains from grasping and does not lose Once …
Last week, I got a brutal stomach bug. The symptoms were intense but lasted only an afternoon and evening. However, it wiped me out so thoroughly that for the next three days all I could do was lie in bed eating ice chips. Even after I was sort of upright again, doing the simplest things …
In my No Way Café contemplation group, we were joking about my “addiction” to acquiring even more translations and interpretations of the Tao Te Ching. This could prove to be a costly and cumbersome habit since the Tao Te Ching has been translated more than any other book in history except the Bible. How many …
Governing a big country is like frying a small fish Hmm, this sounds like a set up for a punch line in a bad joke. But the punch line is: Thus use Dao to govern all under heaven Okay, that’s better. Using Dao (Tao) as a governing principle is a theme of the Tao Te …
The theme of this chapter can be summed up like this: Do not interfere. One can rule a country with predictable justiceOne can wage a war with unpredictable strategyBut one can harness the power of the universe only by non-interference We don’t have to look far to see where interference, even well-intentioned, has caused more harm …
Increase is the way of learning Decrease is the way of Tao The opening lines of this chapter perfectly capture my current perspective. This year presented several opportunities for me to learn something that I was very drawn to – a new sword form, a new style of tai chi, advancing my study of Chinese …
Fame or self, which is dearerSelf or wealth, which is greaterGain or loss, which is painful The first two lines remind me of a popular question – would you rather be rich or famous? Although here, we are asked to evaluate both fame and riches in comparison to our self. The character for self also …
This short chapter highlights a theme that runs through the Tao Te Ching. What is most softOvercomes what is most hard Two characters are used for “overcome,” literally meaning to gallop on horseback. Having grown up riding horses, I have wonderful memories of galloping bareback across meadows, hands entwined in flowing mane, hanging on as …
This is a beautiful little chapter about the relationship between Tao and the ten thousand things. (The “ten thousand things” is a poetic name for the manifested universe.) It begins with another water image for Tao. As we have already seen, water is the most often used metaphor for the nature of Tao. Great Tao …
In 1954, an insignificant Buddha statue made of painted and decorated plaster was being moved in Bangkok from its modest shed to a new temple. Weighing over five tons, the statue was too heavy for the crane and it fell to the ground. A piece of plaster chipped off the base. When the workers examined …
This modest little (four lines) chapter does nothing less than represent the entire debate between Confucianism and Taoism, two major philosophical traditions originating in ancient China. (Confucius and Lao Zi, purported author of the Tao Te Ching, were contemporaries, both living in China around 500 BCE.) When great Tao is lost, there is kindness and moralityIntelligence …
What a perfect chapter for these uncertain times–a guide for living perfectly in an imperfect world. In this chapter, the focus shifts from the mysterious, unknowable Tao to its manifestation in Te (also spelled De). Te has been loosely translated as virtue, but not in the moralistic sense. More like inner radiance, or integrity. When …
I am attending a martial arts workshop this weekend with a teacher visiting our school from California. This teacher is a small, slightly stooped, Chinese man in his late sixties. (That’s his photo above.) He said something today that made a big impression on me. Hours later I’m still trying to wrap my head around …
Remember the intro to the Star Trek series? Their mission was “to boldly go where no one has gone before.” Yesterday I pulled up behind a car at a stop light and laughed out loud at their bumper sticker – “boldly going nowhere.” We always think we are or ought to be going somewhere, don’t we? …
