Translation by Sifu John A. Fey
1 the tao source of life that we often talk about is beyond the power of words and labels to
define or enclose
2 while it is true that we employ words and labels to outline our
experience
they are not absolute and cannot define the absolute
3 when it all began there were no words or labels
4 these things were created out of the union of preception and
perception
5 whether a person who is awake in play sees the heart of life or its surface manifestations is
hardly important
because they are exactly the same point in space and time. 6 the words and labels that we use make us think that they are
different
but only so we can talk about it from the outside of
ourselves
in regard to the outside of the point in space and time
7 if you feel as though you really need a name then call it the wonderwork
and watch one miracle talk to another in a language that you can feel but not understand
8 it is playful to approach something that is logically unknowable
According to oral tradition, Lao-tzu employed ancient ritual and meditative techniques to nourish his mind and body, to refine his spirit, and to cultivate a profound sense of the world around him. Early on, he was confronted by many difficulties. As his awareness increased, however, it allowed him to eventually penetrate the world of illusions and glimpse the ultimate reality of life. Lao-tzu employed a single word as a convenient label for this ultimate reality: Tao.
1-2 HEART: These stanzas state plainly that the words that we use to describe the Tao are completely inadequate and, on some level, can't be trusted. Taoists are keenly aware that words affect a person's physiology. Specific words you use and how you employ them can color your experience of what you come in contact with during your life.
3.HEART: Before the differentiating mind of a human being develops, things are experienced directly. It's a state of pre-language, a pre-awareness before our neurology convinces us that there's an outside reality and an inside reality and that there is a separation between the two. The philosophy of the Tao Te Ching begins at the point where we realize that much of what we assume about these inside and outside worlds isn't really true at all, but is just a trick of our neurology.
4.MIND: Your organs of perception (your senses) combine and join with your organ of perception (your brain) to create a picture of what you experience. Much of what you experience is tangible. Yet the self that is doing the experiencing remains intangible. confronted by many difficulties. As his awareness increased, however, it allowed him to eventually penetrate the world of illusions and glimpse the ultimate reality of life. Lao-tzu employed a single word as a convenient label for this ultimate reality: Tao.
5. MIND: Awake in play can best be described by comparing it to the rapt attention of a child who is completely engaged in what he or she is doing. Adults don't have a clue what's going on inside a child's mind when a stick becomes a fiery horse or Excalibur. But the child's mind sees a panorama of things, and his play is real, it's visceral and authentic. It has a profound effect on the entire bodymind.
To a Taoist, it isn't necessary at that moment when engaged in play to penetrate to the very core/heart/answer/center of the mystery or to dance around the surface of it, because none of it actually reveals the Tao Source; it just allows the Taoist access to the ultimate reality of the Source.
6. HEART and MIND: Words, labels, and constructs are necessary to outline the Tao Source. Taoists do not decry the workings of the central nervous system and the mind that differentiates. Rather, they embrace the central nervous system and the mind that differentiates without giving it total control over them. Your bodymind provides a laboratory by which you can explore the universe and a crucible by which you can refine its essence. This is fundamental: Taoism is an experiential-not a theoretical--philosophy. If quantum physics is the physics of possibility, then the Taoist lifestyle is the total experience of possibility.
7. HAND: These are instructions for the fundamental Taoist meditative technique. Simply put, the Cultivator places himself in a state of complete reflection where he is just watching and observing an event in spacetime.
The goal of this basic Taoist meditative technique is to become the Transcendental Witness. To be a Transcendental Witness is to acknowledge the indeterminate nature of the vastness of one's self. A Transcendental Witness sees everything, or just one thing, or everything in one thing, all at the same time.
But the goal is always the same. The Transcendental Witness in a state of complete and total reflection observes so that they may uncover clues to the Tao Source and Way of Life.
8. MIND and BODY: The final stanza of this chapter is a gentle injunction to remain playful and childlike in all of your Taoist pursuits. You must remain playful because you're approaching something that cannot possibly be conquered with the intellect. In Taoist parlance, if you are able to conquer a facet of the Tao with your intellect, then you were not looking at the true Tao. Within the Taoist context, playfulness is complete engagement and complete engagement yields authenticity. Taoists regard something playful as something authentic and vice versa.