Lao T

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

The world is depicted in opposites, as both good and bad (elementary designations for binary characterizations of individuals and things). These binaries are reflected in our daily lives, perhaps are the result of our insanity. Society has constructed these binaries naturally, just as nature has constructed them simplistically. However, we have taken it to a greater psychological depth, adding ways of immensely distinguishing “Good” and “Bad”.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

In further context of these binaries of daily life, we must not forget that our binaries function as both good attributing characteristics or are negatively impacting. We can see here that by helping one another, we too will be helped. As a natural recurrence, we use this system capitalistically and barbarically, and so we must come to terms that in each of our relations we cannot mutually exist without another individual.

Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn’t possess,acts but doesn’t expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.

The master is one without anything, possessing nothing and existing in almost nothing. While we may love to achieve this life without any material needs, we must come to terms that we need certain things above others. Nevertheless, we are immensely intrigued at overcoming our desires for material goods, physical addictions, and emotional hypochondria. Things will come, as it says, and so we must learn to let them go as soon as time assures its passing. We mustn’t posses, otherwise what we possess will eventually be our downfall.

Analysis of Chapter Two of the Tao Te Ching is a post from: The Glaring Facts

Sample of Ch. 1 of the Tao Te Ching

Chapter 1

The Tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnameable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

At first I was confused at the words that Tao has created with his open mind and optimism but in my perception I managed to piece it together slowly.

The  first verse:

The Tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

In my mind I interpret it as: Tao is somebody, anybody even ourselves who could be told anything by anyone but they would not be who they really are. They could be given a name by someone, (someone who could be named and owned by that person), but it would not be who for that person  who they truly are.

The second verse:

The unnameable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

To me this interprets as someone who is not named  or owned or told what to do by someone has fulfilled the task of finding who they really are. And I agree with that statement, ‘Naming in the origin of all particular things’. You can name something like a table and it sticks it becomes the ideal draft of other things being named after it. It has been created and now everyone will follow and continue to name it as a table.

The third verse:

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

This I found a little confusing to interpret and took me some time to ponder upon it. Free from desire… Does that mean,  free from all things that you crave and want in life? And do then realize the mystery behind what could cause those desires. However you might be caught in the desires and then you see the manifestations of everything in every day life  do you then see and ponder all the possibilities.

The fourth verse:

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Here I interpreted this as if you combine the mystery surrounding the origin of your desires and add to the manifestations of everyday life and all the possibilities that could and could not happen in your mind they would, as the Tao says, come from the same source. And of course your mind can be the source of darkness if you fall off the path however the mind can be the source of many things.

The fifth verse:

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

This again caught me off guard because it swayed all my interpretations from the previous verses but I read it out that darkness can come within inner darkness and it can expand thus becoming more noticeable. As it becomes more noticeable you will analyse it and then will you understand.

Tao Te Ching – Chapter 1 is a post from: The Glaring Facts