Category: Tao Second Book Stephen Mitchell

5. "Nothing to Understand" "Nothing left but Gratitude and Laughter" Sunrise/Afternoon June 24. 2015

6/24/2015

This is #5 in a Series of Posts that will eventually include all the main aspects
of
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE TAO

∞

IN THE NAMING OF
WHATEVER SEEMING DESTRUCTION IS OCCURING
IS THE POOFING!
<
WHEN YOU ARE WHO YOU REALLY ARE
NAMING IS INSTANT FREEDOM FROM BONDAGE.

WHEN YOU ARE NOT WHO YOU REALLY ARE
NAMING/OBSESSING/RESISTANCE IS AS CRAZY GLUE WITH HORRORS.

ew
5:31 AM - 6/24/15

∞

#5

The ancient Masters saw deeply.
How deep was their insight?

They realized that nothing exists.
This is perfect understanding.

Those at the next stage
thought that things existed
but saw no boundaries between them.

Next came those who saw boundaries
but didn’t judge things as good or bad.

When judgments arose, understanding was damaged;
when understanding was damaged,
preferences became ingrained.

But is there really such a thing
as damage or wholeness?

See Read More at end for "how" this photo Happened.

The Master understands
that there is nothing to understand.

S. Mitchell
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE TAO
#5

COMMENTARY
by
Stephen Mitchell

The ancient Masters saw deeply indeed.
They realized that since nothing lasts longer than the untraceable instant,
nothing ultimately exists.
They also realized that “nothing” is something,
and that the opposite of a profound truth
is another profound truth.

Nothing exists.
Something exists.
“All Cretans are liars,” said the Cretan.
It’s better to keep your mouth shut.

Still, these old fellows were on to something.
If nothing exists as we know it,
if time and space are intellectual categories,
there’s nothing we can actually grasp,
to arrange or disarrange.
This leaves us free.

It leaves us at play in the cosmic theater of the mind.
All the world’s a stage, and we are the non-actors.
Can life be as simple as that?

It went downhill from there,
to the next stage,
then the next.
Boundaries! Preferences! Attachments!!!
And before we knew it,
our days filled up with screaming babies,
mortgage payments,
nasty messages in the mailbox.

Damage and wholeness are in the eyes of the beholder, of course.
If you’re a child,
there’s nothing more fun that going downhill.

A tragedy is comedy misunderstood.
Once you realize what you are,
there’s nothing left but gratitude and laughter.

THE SECOND BOOK OF THE TAO
Compiled and adapted from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

The soul has been given its own ears
to hear things the mind does not understand.

—Jalalud’din Rumi

See Read More below:

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4. "Neither Coming or Going" "Walking Two Paths at Once" Sunrise/Afternoon June 23, 2015

6/23/2015

1 Comment

This is #4 in a Series of Posts that will eventually include all the main aspects
of
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

∞

FROM THE VAST VOID…
THE INFINITE ”OLDER THAN GOD” CALM WITHIN….
SURFACES ALL TRUTH!

BE STILL AND NO-MINDING MIND KNOW
<
REMAIN STILL

ew
3:29 AM - 6/23/15

∞

#4

When we exhaust our minds
by clinging to a particular side of reality
without realizing the underlying oneness,
it’s called “three in the morning.”
What does that mean?

A monkey trainer, handing out acorns, said:
Each of you, will get three in the morning and four in the afternoon.”
The monkeys were outraged.
So he said,
“All right, then: you’ll get four in the morning and three in the afternoon.”
The monkeys were delighted.

Nothing essential had changed,
yet one statement produced anger, and the other, joy.
The trainer simply knew how to adapt to reality and he lost nothing by it.

Thus the Master uses his skill to harmonize with both sides,
and rests in the Tao,
which makes all things equal.
This is called “walking on two paths at once.”
#4
Second Book of The Tao
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

The whole human condition is present in this tricky little tale,
which would be sad if it weren’t so ridiculous.
Although from the standpoint of the monkeys
it’s about the power of righteous indignation,
from the standpoint of the monkey trainer,
behind the scenes,
it’s about skillful management.
You have to admire his one-two punch;
he’s both bad cop and good cop.
But what is the trainer training the monkeys in, anyway?
Discernment?
If so, he’s being made a monkey of.

Whenever we cling to a particular side of reality,
it’s we who are the monkeys,
losing ourselves in outrage or partial delight.
If we look more carefully, though,
we can see that reality has only one side,
like a Mobius strip.
Stars or raindrops,
acorns or ashes,
apparent blessings,
apparent disasters--
--when the mind is clear, each is an occasion for rejoicing.
That’s what discernment is about.

Once our mind-monkeys are fully trained, it’s all good.
In the mathematics of mental peace, three equals four, one equals zero.
Adapting to reality means recognizing that nothing underlies or overlays it.
The Master can travel on two paths at once,
like a photon,
because his mind is free.
He’s subatomic and supererogatory.
He knows that all ways are the Way and that ultimately
he is neither coming nor going.

Stephen Mitchell

Photos in Slideshow below taken during evening sun on beach
6 p.m. 6/23/15
Again.....beyond words!!!

Click Read More Below for "More"

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3. "Inexhaustible Treasury" "Every ism is a wasm" Sunrise/Afternoon June 22, 2015

6/22/2015

1 Comment

This is #3 in a Series of Posts that will eventually include all the main aspects
of
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

See Read More at end for further information.

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.
S Mitchell

Religions arise to address
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

See Read More Below

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2. "Center Everywhere - Circumference Nowhere" Sunrise/Afternoon June 21, 2015

6/21/2015

0 Comments

This is #2 in a Series of Posts that will eventually include all the main aspects
of
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao
so Perfectly Timely !
See Read More at end for further information.

∞

How to BE more SILENT?

SIMPLY STOP ALL MOVEMENT
(EVEN IF CONTINUING TO BE MOVED)

INSTANTLY
BE BREATH
THAT IS
BEYOND THE MINDING MIND

ew
5:07 AM - 6/21/15

∞

The above Scribed predawn and BEFORE we read Tao #2 this morning.

#2
Before sorrow, anger,
longing, or fear have arisen,
you are in the center.

When these emotions appear
and you know how to see through them,
you are in harmony.

That center is the root of the universe;
that harmony is the Tao,
which reaches out to all things.

Once you find the center
and achieve harmony,
heaven and earth take their proper places
and all things are fully nourished.

Stephen Mitchell
The Second Book of The Tao
#2

COMMENTARY
for #2 above
by
Stephen Mitchell

This chapter is about saving the world.
You save the world when you save yourself.
(There’s no one else you can save.)
Returning to the center is thus an act of infinite kindness.

There’s nothing wrong with sorrow, anger, longing, or fear;
a painful emotion is just a signal
that you’ve left the center.

When you are at peace,
everything is at peace.

What seemed like cacophony
becomes the music of the spheres:
a suite for unaccompanied mind.

Living in harmony with the way things are,
the mind finds its center everywhere,
its circumference nowhere.
The part becomes the whole;
what is becomes what should be.

Heaven takes its proper, its only place:
on earth.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

See Read More below for additional Wording/Photos

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1 "The Vast Mind Empty of Meaning" -Second Book of The Tao Sunrise/Afternoon June 20, 2015

6/20/2015

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This is #1 in a Series of Posts that will eventually include all the main aspects
of
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao
so Perfectly Timely !
See Read More at end for further information.

1
What is bestowed on us at birth
is called human nature.
The fulfillment of human nature
is called the Tao.

The cultivation of the Tao
is the deepest form of learning.

The Tao is the way things are,
which you can’t depart from
even for one instant.

If you could depart from it,
it wouldn’t be the Tao.

Therefore the Master
looks into her own heart
and respects what is unseen and unheard.

Nothing is more manifest than the hidden;
nothing is more obvious than the unseen.

Therefore the Master
pays attention to what is happening
within her innermost self.

∞
Stephen Mitchell
The Second Book of The Tao
#1

∞

SILENT’S SONG OF VAST INNER CORE SILENCE
POSSESSES
<
THE GREATEST FREEDOM
<
ORIGINAL BEING
ew
4:22 AM - 6/20/15

∞

Above: View from bottom of sand dunes path to the ocean beach.
Below: First gaze of the ocean from top of sand dunes path.

COMMENTARY
for #1 Tao
Stephen Mitchell

We think that we know what human nature is,
but what if our most cherished assumptions are wrong?
What if all suffering is the result of confused thoughts?
That would change our paradigm a bit.

We’re born into the open, into the vast mind empty of meaning.
Beyond thought, beyond things, reality just is.
Human nature doesn’t need to be fulfilled,
nor do we need to cultivate what is already perfect.
Once we recognize this, we return to the origin of all things.
There is never a movement toward or away.
We remain where we have always been,
but now we know it,
as if for the first time.

Departing from the Tao can happen only in the mind;
it’s an illusion that becomes our reality.
Though we actually live in what is,
we think ourselves into what isn’t.
Though every apparent detour is the path,
we get lost in our imagined wanderings.
That’s why, if we’re interested in freedom,
there is nothing sweeter than to cultivate, cultivate:
to get down, with trowel and hoe,
into the thought-rich soil of the mind.

It’s all about paying attention to what is happening within our innermost self,
until the unseen, the unquestioned,
is as obvious as the seen.

When the mind is free of its thoughts,
it becomes its own fulfillment.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

Rest in peace.
You are the unchangeable
Awareness in which all activity takes place.
Always rest in peace.

You are eternal
Being, unbounded and undivided.
Just keep
Quiet.
All is well.
Keep Quiet
Here and Now.

You are Happiness, you are
Peace, you are
Freedom.
Do not entertain any
notions that you are in trouble.

Be kind to yourself.
Open to your Heart and simply
Be.

Those who know
This know
Everything.
If not,
even the most learned know nothing at all.

–Papaji

See Read More below

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Forward>>

5. "Nothing to Understand" "Nothing left but Gratitude and Laughter" Sunrise/Afternoon June 24. 2015

4. "Neither Coming or Going" "Walking Two Paths at Once" Sunrise/Afternoon June 23, 2015

3. "Inexhaustible Treasury" "Every ism is a wasm" Sunrise/Afternoon June 22, 2015

2. "Center Everywhere - Circumference Nowhere" Sunrise/Afternoon June 21, 2015

1 "The Vast Mind Empty of Meaning" -Second Book of The Tao Sunrise/Afternoon June 20, 2015

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