4
the knot in my heart
unravels
in stillness
Lesson # 4
We swim in the Tao.
Everything swims in the Tao.
Water swims in the Tao.
Time swims in the Tao.
Everything changes.
Sharp becomes blinding,
becomes unraveled.
becomes dust.
All
of the ten thousand things
are swimming and changing
in the stillness of the Tao.
Better yet, dare to do nothing
and trust.
From: 81 Lessons from the Tao Te Ching
Number Four: Origin
The Tao is like an ever-full vessel
It is the source of the 10,000 things we call reality
a reality that is changing and is impermanent
The Tao remains constant
while everything it creates changes
That which was sharp becomes blunt
That which was tangled becomes unraveled
That which was blinding becomes dim
That which was solid becomes dust
The Tao is all this and more
It is a deep stillness
Who knows where it came from
It is older than God
NUMBER FOUR
Tao is infinite.
If we use It, we find It inexhaustible,
Deep!
It appears to be Ancestor of all things.
It rounds our angles. It unravels our difficulties. It harmonizes our Light. It brings our atoms into Unity.
Pure!
It appears to be everlasting in principle.
I do not know whose Son It is,
It existed before God was manifest in Form.
Isabella Mears, The Tao Teh King, A Tentative Translation from the Chinese, William McLellan, Glascow, 1916.
Number Four (commentary) What are the dimensions of the Tao?
The Tao is sort of like Space, full of things but never filled up, constantly expanding and yet everywhere.
The Tao is sort of like time that sets a rhythm and a beat to everything, time that seems to move forward into eternity, sweeping everything in its wake of birth, decay, beginnings, endings, life and entropy.
The Tao is more like the stillness out of which everything arises, wider than space, older than time.
Tangent and Tool #4, The paradox of our insignificance: (Reflective exercise) This is the Age of Deep Impermanence. Will life continue to exist on this planet, or will Earth end up looking like a radioactive Mars? Go outside tonight (or on a clear night) away from urban light pollution. Look up at the immensity of what is above you. Breathe that in. Many billions of stars shining down on you. Know that who you are in this wondrous universe is microscopic, but what you do is very important. You can, in a microscopic yet significant way, help change the course of life on this planet, even though folks 100 years from now will not know that you existed. Under that night sky, make it a goal to do one small thing during the next 24 hours to make the world a better place.