of
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao
See Read More at end for further information.
great discernment cannot be seen,
great benevolence is not gentle,
great modesty is not meek,
great courage is not aggressive.
the Tao that cannot be named,
you become rooted in not-knowing.
take from it, it is never depleted.
Who can tell where it comes from?
#3
The Second Book of The Tao
Stephen Mitchell
Who named it “the Tao” in the first place?
I’d like to give him a piece of my mind.
The Way.
Imagine naming the unnamable!
This may have seemed like a clever idea at the time,
but it led to endless complications.
Intellectuals began to wear themselves out
debating whether it existed or not,
or whether perhaps it both existed and didn’t exist,
or whether indeed it neither existed nor didn’t exist.
with characters brushed in the blackest of ink,
to prove that the Way goes this way or that.
and what is off,
discerning, down to the minutest particulars,
exactly what we must do never to stray from the Way.
It’s already old news:
an exoskeleton
from which the living truth has moved on.
S Mitchell
The sense of being separate and apart.
Once this sense is seen to be erroneous,
Where is the need for religion?
–The Lost Writings of Wu Hsin
http://peacefullpresence.blogspot.com/2015/06/question_22.html
The first, that it flies to the highest point;
the second, that it does not suffer for company,
not even of its own kind;
the third, that it aims its beak to the skies;
the fourth, that it does not have a definite color;
the fifth, that it sings very softly.
–St. John of the Cross
http://peacefullpresence.blogspot.com/2015/06/conditions-of-solitary-bird.html
The great Tao cannot be named,
great discernment cannot be seen,
great benevolence is not gentle,
great modesty is not meek,
great courage is not aggressive.
When you truly understand
the Tao that cannot be named,
you become rooted in not-knowing.
This is called “inner-radiance".
Add to it, it is never full;
take from it, it is never depleted.
Who can tell where it comes from?
It is the inexhaustible treasury.
#3
The Second Book of The Tao
Stephen Mitchell
COMMENTARY
Who named it “the Tao” in the first place?
I would like to talk to that fellow.
I’d like to give him a piece of my mind.
The Tao.
The Way.
Imagine naming the unnamable!
This may have seemed like a clever idea at the time,
but it led to endless complications.
Before long, people were watching everywhere for the way.
Intellectuals began to wear themselves out
debating whether it existed or not,
or whether perhaps it both existed and didn’t exist,
or whether indeed it neither existed nor didn’t exist.
Scholars wrote tomes,
with characters brushed in the blackest of ink,
to prove that the Way goes this way or that.
Moralists determined what is on the Way
and what is off,
discerning, down to the minutest particulars,
exactly what we must do never to stray from the Way.
Thus Taoism was born.
But every ism is a wasm.
It’s already old news:
an exoskeleton
from which the living truth has moved on.
The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with Commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell