Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Chapter of the Week: #70 [Archive]
Thank you sister, and likewise bowing to you... /~\[cite] sister:[/cite]...Bowing to you, Carl, and your efforts here.
I went 'native', living among peasants in the 'third world' (Asia, Africa), for some years. Afterwards, I settled awhile in a wealthy district in Stockholm Sweden. I was struck by how unhappy the people were compared with the peasants I had lived among previously. Peasant worries are more down to earth. The wealthier people seem to be, the more neurotic they seem to become. This supports Christ's view, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God".[cite] sister:[/cite]...And honestly, when we consider the misery that the majority of this world's people, animals, and other creatures, find to be their lot in life -- real misery, hunger, thirst, disease, homelessness -- it seems so very very LOW of us to embrace discontent when we have run out of coffee, or can't afford a better car.
Of course, this goes against every fiber of 'common sense' biology affords us. More is better, we feel. More? More of that which we value – whatever that may be! If we value money, more is better; if we value peace, more is better; if we value intimacy, more is better; if we value wisdom, more is better, and so on. You ponder what it is that you value most and see if you don't feel that more of it would be better.
Naturally this tosses all our preconceptions and cozy platitudes right back at us. It is so much easier to identify the 'problem' as existing out there – even if 'out there' is seen as 'in here'. So, actually, I feel that those who "embrace discontent when they have run out of coffee, or can't afford a better car" are the poorest among us.
The [chref=46]desire[/chref] for more is only symptomatic of a lack of [chref=33]contentment[/chref] with what one has. The need to go 'there' reveals we are unhappy 'here', and visa versa. Of course, we can't help ourselves. The hunter gatherer instinct to feel that the 'grass is greener' drives us on. When we fail to feel the grass beneath our feet, off we go. And why do we fail to feel it? Because our awareness is consumed by thoughts of how green the grass must be over there (or over here). Sure, our imagination has helped us survive, and rise to the top of the food chain, but not without a dreadful cost to human consciousness. Se la vive, eh?
Comments
Chapter 70
My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet no
one in the world can understand them or put them into practice.
Words have an ancestor and affairs have a sovereign.
It is because people are ignorant that they fail to understand me.
Those who understand me are few;
Those who imitate me are honored.
Therefore the sage, while clad in homespun, conceals on his person a priceless
piece of jade.
Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
Opps, it's nearly time for next weeks chapter. Time is odd, it seems to flow backward... but that's another story.
I love this chapter! Now why would 'my words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice'? Could it be because the free will ability to understand them and put them into practice, is an illusion created by our profound [chref=37]desire[/chref] to be in control?
It is because people are ignorant can be viewed in two ways. The easiest is to view it as 'those' people are ignorant. I find the whole view works better when I include myself as one of 'those' people. Heaven knows I can recall numerous examples :oops: . In the end, it is the recognition of my own ignorance that is most enlightening, i.e. [chref=71]to know yet to think that one does not know is best[/chref]. So what do I know? I know my own ignorance. Ah,... [chref=78]straightforward words seem paradoxical[/chref], don't they.
Below is the literal Chinese wording (virtually) of this weeks chapter.
Word very easy know, very easy do,
Under heaven nothing can know, nothing can do.
Word ancestor, affairs sovereign,
Man only without knowing, is because I not know.
Knower rare, follower precious.
Is because sage, of drab cherish jade
The terser form can shift the view a bit at times. That's not to say the views garnered from the standard translations are lacking. It just shows there is more than one way to skin a cat. For example, nothing under heaven feels broader to me than no one.
Words ancestor is a concise way of saying that words, at best, are only a [chref=15]murky [/chref] shadow of reality. There is the real thing - 'it' - and there is the word (a neurological array of firing neurons our brain cooks up so we feel we 'know it'). The word is NEVER 'it', though we easily succumb to the illusion that it is 'it'. Simply said, reality is the ancestor of words. Like time, reality flows backwards, from the shadow to the source.
Similarly, all action is an effect of previous action. Previous action, going back to the big bang if we like, is the sovereign, (i.e., dominate, supreme) of current action. Karma if you will. Cause begets effect. All phenomenon we see are symptoms of root causes, though we usually regard the symptoms as causes. And like puppets on nature's string, we become [chref=65]hoodwinked[/chref] in the process.
Is because sage, of drab cherish, jade, reminds me of [chref=35]the way in its passage through the mouth is without flavor[/chref] and, [chref=41]the way that is bright seems dull[/chref]. Cherishing drab, from a worldly point of view, makes a [chref=20]mind that of a fool - how blank![/chref] When the mind is blank, it is poised to [chref=19] embrace the uncarved block [/chref]. Naturally, every bone in our body clamors for the colorful and exciting. No wonder knower rare, follower precious. My my, how different 'it' may be from what we [chref=71]think[/chref].