Tao Tips

Okay, first we need to stipulate that passing judgment is an innate part of any social animal’s nature… and most especially human animals. I say “most especially” because we lug around many preconceptions that worm their way into our imagination.

The saying, “practice what you preach” makes for an appealing ideal, or for a good put down. Taking it deeper, the idea becomes a source of internal strife. We are capable of imagining ideal behaviors that are completely out of reach… even to the point of being humanly impossible. Yet, we dream away, expecting ourselves […]

Life following the agricultural revolution has been a period of exponential growth in technological change affecting every aspect of human existence. Youth compared to the elderly are much more inclined to be comfortable with such change, even embrace it. Rash actions excite younger folks. Considering this through the lens of chapter 16, “Not knowing the […]

Tao Tips is a new category of post I thought I’d try out. For quite a while, I’ve sought to say what I had to say with fewer words, but my posts just don’t cooperate. Perhaps the name “Tao Tips” will help remind me to limit myself. After all… Those most adept have results, yet […]

(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 […]

(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 […]

(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) Most of us eventually realize that all success must inevitably pass through a failure stage. From our first years of stumbling before walking, of mumbling before talking, and on through life we gradually learn (perhaps intuitive and subconscious) that if we would take from a thing, we must […]

(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) Pleasure and pain (like life and death) are a fascinating duo. In this relationship, I imagine that pain is the head of the household. That’s not to say pain is ‘the constant‘; that would be going too far, of course. Nevertheless pain, like water, may come close to […]

(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) Both pleasure and pain can pull us off balance and dim our sense of well being. This parallels chapter 13’s Favor and disgrace are things that startle. Of course, it is easy to see how pain and disgrace do this, but favor and pleasure? That’s more subtle. The […]

(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) The Tao Te Ching is so often terse and vague—especially the original Chinese. I expect one reason is that it points to a reality so often at odds with the story we want to hear. Revealing this point of view less obscurely would feel unsettling, even subversive, to […]

(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) Prioritizing life is an important step in managing the demands of life, at least a civilized life. In the wild I suppose circumstance pretty much handle what and when animals do what they do. Having freed ourselves from the drudgery of hunting and gathering whenever we get hungry […]

(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) This is an interesting perceptual phenomenon. Is it true and real? Hmm, that’s hard to say, which makes it all the more fascinating to ponder. Looking at life through this lens can be helpful, regardless of how true it is. At the very least, it gives insight to […]

(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) Norm, a recent visitor to this site says, “I once saw a website which had the Chinese version of the Tao Te Ching. Not just the characters, but also the ’sound’ version of the character. While I don’t understand Chinese, one could see the poetic pattern of […]

(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) In this week’s commentary on chapter 70, I point out how our mind’s ‘ideal world’ is boundless, and how we think we can just do it. Truth be told, we are at the mercy of the fears and needs felt in our reptilian brain. A short article from […]