The only way I’ve found to escape life without unintended consequences is to give myself to life. It is a bit ironic… as chapter 78 says, Straight and honest words seem inside out, or as D.C. Lau put it, straightforward words seem paradoxical. At times, I can lose myself in the flowing moment by utter […]
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Use Non-Responsibility
A key character in chapter 57 (事 shì) can translate as responsibility. As such, lines 3 and 12 in Chapter 57 read as Use non-responsibility when seeking all under heaven and I am without responsibility and the people thrive themselves. Suggesting a virtue of non-responsibility defies common sense and seems to threaten the very fabric […]
Continue reading…Be Careful What You Wish
“Be careful what you wish for”, followed by “it might just come true” is an ironic maxim concerning the perils of wishing without grasping unintended consequences. First, we need to stipulate that wishing for something is relatively synonymous with desiring, expecting, hoping and praying for something. Next, is there a fundamental source for all these […]
Continue reading…Jack of All Trades, Master of None?
Is there any true difference between a generalist “jack of all trades” and a master? After all, isn’t a “jack of all trades” simply a master generalist? I’ve been doing several activities for many years: yoga (~55 years), tai chi (~45 years), shakuhachi sui Zen (~40 years), gardening (~35 years) and, I have various other […]
Continue reading…We only understand what we know
Chapter 56’s, One who speaks does not know has intrigued me for a long time. I came across this D.C. Lao translation in Vietnam in the early 60’s. I’ve referred to it often over the decades in various ways, and it launches the overview of CenterTao.org. (See What are the roots of thought?, p.602.) My […]
Continue reading…Chapter 56
Picking up where “Chapter of the Week” left off, I plan to start posting chapters from my Word for Word translation here regularly. I encourage you to contribute—corrections, questions, comments, or even rewording the chapter. If anything comes to mind, please post it in the Leave a Reply box (below). With your help, a much […]
Continue reading…Two Paths
There are two main approaches to life. The most common one is striving to conform to your culture’s ideals of how to live. This typically amounts to expecting yourself and others to conform to your culture’s code of ethics… religious, political, and what not. I call this approach ‘small conformity’. Chapter 65 hints at the […]
Continue reading…The Trans Tribal Tao
Much in the Taoist worldview marches to the beat of a different drummer. So much so that if one has to ask “How so?”, one may not be genuinely ready to know how so. Anyway… Marching to the beat of a different drummer often boils down to feeling, acting and/or thinking outside-the-box, which can at […]
Continue reading…Resistance is Futile
This Science News article, Fighting willpower’s catch-22, (google the title) reports on how resisting desires makes following desires more tempting. I certainly have experienced this to be true, although it took me decades to recognize this and begin to manage it. Like maintaining balance, applying this always requires continuous re-realization. Why did it take so […]
Continue reading…A Brother is a Brother
I love how science is chipping away at our species-centric sense of superiority. This time it is a Science News report He’s no rat, he’s my brother. (Google [Rodents exhibit empathy by setting trapped friends free].) This bit of research speaks for itself. Of course, I can’t leave without reiterating my wonder at the peculiar […]
Continue reading…Really, Have We No Clue?
As a child, I marveled at how everything seemed to work so well. The infrastructure and logistics to run society blew my mind, although I didn’t know that was the word for it. How the authorities dealt with all the sewage and garbage my hometown produced baffled me. I am still in awe that civilization […]
Continue reading…Why?
Some say “love” is their favorite word. Others say “God” is. I’ve also had favorite words over the years, but “why” beats them all. So I ask myself, why continue posting these observations? It’s certainly not for money or fame. I actually prefer anonymity. In fact, years ago when my yoga students showed hints of […]
Continue reading…Gone Fishin’, Back Soon
The fish are still biting and I’m reeling them in, I’m just not posting them. Posting my fishy observations requires so much cleaning up to make them suitable for consumption. Finishing the last chapter of my translation of the Tao Te Ching — Tao Te Ching, Word for Word — was the catalyst I needed […]
Continue reading…Check One Off the Bucket List
(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) This is chapter 81, the last chapter of the Tao Te Ching. My journey on this Taoist path began almost 50 years ago in Vietnam, as did my learning to read and write Chinese. Over the years, I have translated parts of chapters that puzzled me. This revealed […]
Continue reading…Opiate of the Masses
Karl Marx said religion was the opiate of the masses. Nonsense I say. The true opiate of the masses is prosperity, not religion. The United States has experienced decades of unprecedented prosperity. Indeed, most people have lived their whole lives accustomed to what is actually a historically rare era of unusual affluence. Now, the 2008 […]
Continue reading…The Wealthy Poor
Why do many wealthy people often keep upping the ante, buying increasingly more expensive things? This may follow a progression I first noticed when I experienced my own slight wealth upgrade in Japan (see Peaches and Pleasure, p.32). We innately appear to convert any upgrade in our standard-of-living into a new bottom line in our […]
Continue reading…Dreaming the Way
(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) Last night I dreamt I was explaining the ‘way’ to a group of people. I was talking to someone and other people overhearing us actively started listening and asking questions. My smooth and coherent delivery felt unusually satisfying. That’s no wonder, given the way that can be spoken […]
Continue reading…Sobering up!
Up until my early forties, I was drunk on thought bolstered with the certainty of belief. Fortunately, I found a way to detoxify myself, although this is still a work in progress. Recovering alcoholics continue to confess, “I’m an alcoholic”, even as they strive to stay continuously on the straight and narrow day after day. […]
Continue reading…Oh My Aching Bones
I have always been a more-is-better personality. I see that trait in most others so I figure I am normal. However, I have always pushed more to the limit, often to the breaking point. I suppose in this regard I am a bit abnormal. As I became a ‘lao tzu’ (i.e., 老子 = old person, […]
Continue reading…The Utility of Knowing What You Don’t Know
(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) What an odd thing to say. Yet, I don’t know how else to say it, so here is an example: For about ten years now, son Luke and I have been fleshing out a fundamentally simpler, easier way to learn to play music by ear (especially the string […]
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