I honestly have no idea why I am writing this at 7:35am in the morning, but here’s my interpretation of Chapter one of  Tao.

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.