Number Fifty Six Soften

56
be quiet and still
become one with the dusty road
not that important

Lesson # 56

Those that chatter, do not know.
Those that know, do not chatter.
Let go of the distractions outside
and inside you.
Soften your light.
Lose your sharpness.
Widen your focus.
Gently,
let go of all the knots of tension
inside your body.
Ease your mind,
and stop trying to solve problems
that live in the past or in the future.
Breathe.
Let the dust settle..
From: 81 Lessons from the Tao Te Ching


Number 56 Soften

Those that chatter do not know
Those that know do not chatter

Just go away
from the everyday and shut up for a while
Close out everyone else’s urgency
and go inside
Let go of the distractions outside and inside you
Soften your light
Lose your sharpness
Widen your focus
Gently let go of all the knots of tension inside your body
Ease your mind
and stop trying to solve problems in the past or the future
Let the dust settle

Over time you may discover a state of undifferentiated identification
You continue to exist but not just as your familiar personal self
But also as a much wider and quieter awareness
In this state there are no friends or enemies just other people
You no longer seek to please them or flee from them or impress them or manipulate them
You feel this different kind of affection for others
unconditional and warmly indifferent to their response to you
This state is the most precious thing in the world


NUMBER FIFTY SIX

He who knows, speaks not;
He who speaks, knows not.
He closes the mouth,
He shuts the doors of the senses.
He rounds off angles;
He unravels all difficulties.
he harmonizes Light.
He brings men into Unity.
This is called wonderful Unity.
Favour and disgrace do not touch him,
profit and loss do not affect him,
Honour and shame are alike to him,
Therefore he is held in high esteem by all men..

Isabella Mears, The Tao Teh King, A Tentative Translation from the Chinese, William McLellan, Glascow, 1916.


Number 56 (commentary) Why meditate?

Meditation is an essential waystation along the Path. We need to get away from other people’s chatter, in order to stop helping others for a while and to bring the focus back onto ourself.
Just sit and watch yourself.
At first your awareness churns up problems, stories, self-identifications, movies. Buddha called these “fabrications.”
Watch in silence. Let the dust settle. You might discover a timeless place deep within you.
It has been there all along, just waiting for you to turn away from all those attractions, distractions, expectations, anticipations and dreads.
Everything opens up and slows down.
You are no longer just you, but also part of everything else.
Breathe into it…This is your birthright.

Tangent and Tool #56, On meditation A question and a reflection: “Why do Lao Tsu, Buddha and so many spiritual leaders think that meditation is so important?” They do it because there is a level of awareness and understanding that is accessible when that restless monkey-mind that is always chattering away finally shuts up for a minute. Without mindfulness, it never shuts up! You worry about your sins and unskillful actions in the past, about your fears, concerns and plans for how you should be, what you should do and about what others might do in the future. Meditation is a method for silencing that ongoing, incessant, inner conversation. Only then might a door of awareness open up. Only then might things start making a new form of sense.