Monthly Chapter 14 (pandemic era)

Of watched yet not seen, call smooth.
Of listened yet not heard, call rarified.
Of handled yet not held, call minute.
These three are unfathomable, hence blend and serve as One.
Its upper part is not bright, its lowest part is not hazy
Unending, it cannot be named, and again returns to no-thing.
This is called the without of shape form, the without of matter shape,
This is called indistinct suddenly.
Of moving toward it, you will not see its head,
Of following behind it, you will not see its back.
Hold the ancient way in order to manage today.
The ability to know the ancient beginning; this is called the way’s discipline.
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Limits: Translations, even the nearly literal one above, lose some of the original meaning due to the cultural context of contemporary words. Studying the numerous synonym-like meanings of the Chinese characters in the Word-for-Word translation mitigates this.

Fourth Pass: Chapter of the Month (pandemic era) 8/3/2024

Archive: Characters and past commentary

Zoom on YouTube Recordings:

https://youtu.be/lz6_BcvBy4A is the link to the Zoom video of this month’s Sunday meeting. The shorter first part of the meeting begins with a chapter reading followed by attendees’ commentary, if any. A little later on begins the longer open discussion part of the meeting when those who wish to discuss how the chapter relates to their personal experience.

Corrections?

None this time.

Reflections:

Of watched yet not seen, call smooth.
Of listened yet not heard, call rarified.
Of handled yet not held, call minute.
These three are unfathomable, hence blend and serve as One.

Of watched yet not seen, Of listened yet not heard, Of handled yet not held  bring to mind the senses that are primed to see, hear, touch and so on, yet whatever they notice, they are always ripe to sense more—the ghosts of the next moment, so to speak. This is the odd quality of ‘now’, which is only noticeable when I slow down enough to observe the light of consciousness more than the objects it illuminates. This feels like the surreal and diffuse edge awareness.

More straightforward are the actual—seen, heard, held—things in awareness. These tangibles offer me a clear-cut beginning—a ‘moment in time’—and something to react to and remember. Yet, the intangibles—Of watched yet, Of listened yet, Of handled yet—linger on at the edge… an implied unfathomable mystery. This begs the question, “What lies beyond the tangible that the senses perceive so readily?” Calling this perception “the eternal moment” helps describe the unfathomable One aspect of consciousness, of time. I find it useful to think of consciousness as the light—the Of watched yet, Of listened yet, Of handled yet— whereas awareness is a blend of the objects this ‘light of consciousness’ shines upon and differentiates. I don’t know if any of this makes sense. See You are Immortal, where I take another stab at the unfathomable.

Anyway, at the surface, our innate senses offer us a firm sense of reality… it’s obvious, it’s loud, it’s tangible, and so on. But those are all relative to their opposites… obscure, silent, ethereal. The fourth line says These three are unfathomable, hence blend and serve as One. This One certainly seems to parallel our notion of God. Here we use words, like God or One, to allude to our awareness of something beyond our dipolar awareness, i.e., so much of awareness requires contrast, without which the mind can get a bit unhinged from reality. A little sensory deprivation can be relaxing, of course, but extended deprivation can result in extreme anxiety, hallucinations, bizarre thoughts, and depression. In other words, too much ‘pure light’ without palpable awareness is “blinding”.

Words like God and One annoy me somewhat because they can’t help but fail to convey the unfathomable mystery they aim to represent. Yet, that doesn’t stop people from touting their favorite label for the unnamable. Relying on such labels always obscures the unfathomable mystery. Even so, such labels are useful up to the point they become locked in doctrine. They serve a social purpose, and like flags, labels offer people something tangible to rally around… and unfortunately, battle over when believed. See Belief: Are We Just Fooling Ourselves?

Its upper part is not bright, its lowest part is not hazy
Unending, it cannot be named, and again returns to no-thing.
This is called the without of shape form, the without of matter shape,
This is called indistinct suddenly.

To me, Indistinct suddenly describes the surreal quality of ‘now’. Each moment feels sudden within a flow of infinitely connected suddenlies. Of course, “suddenlies” is not a proper word because we don’t think of suddenly as a flow of time… a series of inseparable suddenlies. Indeed, “series” implies a string of related though discrete phenomena. If ‘now’ was truly a discrete phenomenon it wouldn’t be so indistinct. Of course, we attempt to slice time into more tangible, discrete chunks but this only works up to a point. In the end, ‘now’ is utterly indistinct suddenly. How is this any different from how we chop up the interconnected universe of things into discrete words? It isn’t, although chopping reality—be it time or matter— into identifiable bits is useful. Our problem is that we hoodwink ourselves into believing these symbolic bits and pieces are Reality. Indeed, the most you can say is that these are reflections of reality—glimmers at most. Realizing that I don’t know is better for it helps avoid being swallowed up by this named virtual reality we’ve created.

Unending, it cannot be named, and again returns to no-thing acknowledges the utter inability of names to capture reality. I find that allowing my discerning mind to returns to no-thing leaves me with the deepest sense of self-honesty. This may be hard to understand, I suppose. This is another way of saying, I know that realizing I don’t know is better, as chapter 71 reminds us.

In some ways, This is called the without of shape form, the without of matter shape, feels similar to an intuitive understanding of matter. That is, in the truest sense, physics-wise, matter is an illusion. Einstein’s formula E=MC² says it all. In the beginning was Nothing, then came the Big Bang of energy, then as the situation cooled, energy coalesced into matter. I guess you could say matter is a frozen solid form of energy.

This also corresponds to the illusion of solid form and substance. At the atomic level we see a huge degree of emptiness that bridges the gap between individual atoms. What we see, hear, and touch are not what we think, but rather a handy illusion of solidity to help us navigate the world. Yet, we can’t help but feel solid things are truly real. Emptiness has no tangible property to feel. All we can feel is the lack of a something. Our intuitive sense of the indefinable and unfathomable is only possible because we put such stake on the tangible side of reality, i.e., on the objects illuminated rather than on the light illuminating. I imagine that is due to how thought divides the whole unfathomable into discrete knowable bits and pieces. Our memory and imagination then hold on to these pieces.

In trying to discern a truer reality, the best response is Neti Neti the Sanskrit expression which means “not this, not that”. Neti neti aims to help a person understand the nature of Brahman by negating everything that is not Brahman. This is just another way of stating chapter 1’s The way possible to think, runs counter to the constant way. The name possible to express runs counter to the constant name. Here, Brahman is a synonym for the constant way, name…  and God, of course. Naturally, if you really believe in such labels, you get locked into dogma again… the symbol, this or that, rather than the substance-less substance, i.e., Unending, it cannot be named, and again returns to no-thing.

Of moving toward it, you will not see its head,
Of following behind it, you will not see its back.
Hold the ancient way in order to manage today.
The ability to know the ancient beginning; this is called the way’s discipline.

Finally, these last lines connect to something more practical. Of course, the need for that has been set up by the first part of this chapter. I mean, if everything boils down to E=MC² or something equally indistinct and suddenly how am I to know what the hell is going on here and now?

Actually knowing what is going on here-and-now in any situation across the board is impossible if all we have to go on relates somehow to our current story about what is going on. We go round and round, throwing one false herring after another at the wall to see what sticks for a while. There is a better way… Hold the ancient way in order to manage today.

I look to wild animals and to the biology across all life on earth as my most effective way to Hold the ancient way in order to manage today. The underlying processes of life that have persisted from the very beginning billions of years ago is the most stable and reliable context in which to view and interpret the present. The present time, whether that be now in 2024 or any present moment a billion years ago, or a billion years from now, is utterly unstable and fleeting; deriving the deepest sense of meaning and being is beyond reach. Our downfall lies in believing we understand the present within the context of the present and its stories, beliefs, ideals. That is just being a dog chasing its tail.

The deepest-most process that I see applying to all life forms from the very beginning is fear. Most simply put, the perception of fear drives life’s quest to push back on entropy—death. Of course, entropy always wins out in the end, and yet due to evolution and procreation I suppose you could say this is how life triumphs over entropy.

If you take a deep contemplative moment out of your daily life to inspect, you should be able to perceive how every single thing you do in life is driven by fear, fear of discomfort, pain, loss, failure, embarrassment, weakness, loneliness… all the way down to death itself. Fear drives life’s will to survive. Chapter 33 speaks to this battle with entropy that all life endures…

Knowing people is wisdom.
Knowing self is honesty.
Success with people is ability.
Success with self is strength.
Being content is wealth.
Striving to be current is will.
Not losing place is endurance.
Dead, and yet not gone;
This is longevity.

Naturally, I’m referring to a much more profound and subtle version of fear—not the run in terror from the monster that movies depict. In any attempt to distinguish the ‘fear in all actions’ connection, it will help to know that fear is the driving force behind need. Without fear there can be no need. Thus, in any search for fear, closely inspect your needs, desires, and wishes. They are all symptoms of fear.

Now, is the converse true, i.e., without need there can be no fear. In the end I suspect both are simply two sides of the same coin. Still, it helps to regard fear as the primary mover of life, and to classify need as an emotional push to move in a direction away from what is feared. Thus, if you really want to have a deeper understanding of what is going on, strive to see how fear is pulling the strings. See Fear & Need Born in Nothing.

Chapter Archive https://youtu.be/Ta_y-L0vLCE
This is the complete video. It begins with blowing Zen followed by the meeting