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- CommentAuthorLuke Abbott
- CommentTimeMar 27th 2006 edited
Each week we address one chapter of the Tao Te Ching. The Tao Te Ching can be obscure, especially if you think you're supposed to understand what it's saying! We find it easier and more instructive to simply contemplate how the chapter resonates with your personal experience. Becoming more aware at this fundamental level simplifies life. This approach conforms to the view that true knowing lies within ourselves. Thus, when a passage in the scripture resonates, you've found your inner truth. The same applies for when it evokes a question; questions are the grist for self realization.
Chapter 34
The way is broad, reaching left as well as right.
The myriad creatures depend on it for life yet it claims no aurthority.
It accomplishes its task yet lays claim to no merit.
It clothes and feeds the myriad creatures yet lays no claim to being their master.For ever free of desire, it can be called small;
yet, as it lays no claim to being master when all things turn to it, it can be called great.It is because it never attempts itself to be great that it succeeds in becoming great.
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[Note: I italicize phrases I borrow from the chapter, and link to phrases I borrow from other chapters to help tie chapters together. While making it more tedious to read,
the Tao Te Ching is best pondered in the context of the whole.The nitty gritty of this chapter (for me) is that we can never have what we desire. I suppose that makes no sense on the surface. Simply put, every fiber in our body tells us that following desire is the way to go - "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". The idea of turning back probably seems laughable to most normal folks. Because it never attempts itself to be great that it succeeds in becoming great, just doesn't jive with our instinctive outlook on life. Christ pointed out this topsy turvy truth this way, "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it."
I've often said how important it is to ask ourselves what we truly want of life. So, how does this square with the view that we can never have what we want? Wanting is essential to living. You can't avoid it, e.g., I'm hungry, I want food. And, it appears, on the surface that I can have what I want - food. I can't succinctly - or probably any other way - explain why we can't truly have 'it'; 'it' being whatever you desire. But, for the sake of argument let's just say I'm right. The trick then becomes using desire (want) to help us find balance. How?
If we sincerely ask the question, "what do I truly want of life?" and we understand that there is no way we can have what we "truly want", we take 'it' much more seriously. In taking 'it' more seriously, our mind has no choice but to 'listen' to the teaching that uses no words. Once we begin to listen, practice follows naturally. We can not help it! Knowing always precedes doing. So why do we always ruin things? Ignorance. How do we get beyond ignorance? Not by going further, but by turning back to 'ask' what we truly want of life and knowing we can't have it. That will pull you deeper into mysterious sameness better than anything I know.
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