Hi all

TommyO

Each week we address one chapter of the Tao Te Ching. The Tao Te Ching can be obscure, especially if you think you're supposed to understand what it's saying! We find it easier and more instructive to simply contemplate how the chapter resonates with your personal experience. Becoming more aware at this fundamental level simplifies life. This approach conforms to the view that true knowing lies within ourselves. Thus, when a passage in the scripture resonates, you've found your inner truth. The same applies for when it evokes a question; questions are the grist for self realization.

Chapter 47
Without stirring abroad
One can know the whole world;
Without looking out of the window
One can see the way of heaven.
The further one goes
The less one knows.

Therefore the sage knows without having to stir,
Identifies without having to see,
Accomplishes without having to act.

Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
Read notes on translations

TommyO

Just stopping by after a long time away.

My venture into starting a Taoism group hasn't gotten off the ground primarily because the Tao carried me elsewhere. I have to move with the flow or I am unhappy. If I force, I always meet meet with poor results.

I went with the Tao at work and things resulted in a much better equillibrium than had I interfered.

I made contact with my birth family. My dad doesn't care to know me. I find this unnatural and strange. But I have made good friends with other family members. This is good. I traced my family tree on my birth side and found relatives back to the 1400s.

To know ones roots is a good thing. I like the practice of some to honor their parents with a shrine. I think it is good to know and honor those who come before you. Thoughts?

This is a welcoming and friendly place. It is good to read your posts and stop by for a while.

Tom

Carl

It was good to hear from you Tom.

[cite] TommyO:[/cite]To know ones roots is a good thing. I like the practice of some to honor their parents with a shrine. I think it is good to know and honor those who come before you. Thoughts?

I appreciate anything that heightens my awareness of the moment. By imagining myself as alive as another person, yet the same person, in another time and space triggers a connecting consciousness linking the moment I'm in with eternity.

I can imagine that "shrine" thing helps trigger a connecting consciousness for a few?, some?, many?, all? folks. If the "shrine" thing is simply an habitual ritual, then... well that's okay too. After all, habit is just another way of dealing with time and space.

Allandnone

When I was reading " My dad doesn't care to know me. I find this unnatural and strange. ", it struck a cord for me. The first thing I thought that it must have really hurt when you made the effort to meet him and try to start a realationship. I think what happens as time goes on, we (living beings) let things go and we get use to that way of life and it feels comfortable. When something changes that comfort level we may feel insecure, the endorphins decrease(ha ha). We feel pain or sorrow. We are not allowed that high anymore. This could be a threatening moment, and it is a reflex action from our previously stored thoughts. The bottom-line is that our biology strives for comfort, security etc. and wants to stay away from sorrow and pain. It is a reflex action and it happens so quickly we cannot even stop in time. Well eough of this intellectual stuff.

Flow with it, be nonattached and be free.

Cheers,
Allandnone