Can you say what you think?

It is odd trying to say what I think. In fact, I can’t. What I end up doing is a summary the mish-mash waves of thought that ebb and flow through my mind. There are too many caveats to mention, to many angles to report, too many ‘possibilities’ to entertain. Yet, I end up speaking. The queer nature of this connection between speaking and thinking are at least partly reflected in the verse, One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know. Perhaps the main difficulty is good old ‘mysterious sameness‘ to which that chapter later refers. The process of nailing down thoughts, whether spoken or not, requires discerning and highlighting differences. However, focusing on differences misses the ‘big picture’, and we are left like those blind men arguing about the elephant. Another chapter speaks to this: When your discernment penetrates the four quarters, are you capable of not knowing anything?

The Tao Te Ching’s words of warning around names, words and speaking are just that, warnings. They are not proscription on using language as such. Our troubles begin when we turn that ebb and flow mish-mash into hard and fast rules. Why? I imagine we feel an innate need for certainty. Being left hanging in the balance feels dreadful. We want solid cognitive ground on which to stand. Ironically, this attempt to nail down the indistinct and shadowy, leads us right back to this: Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.