8 (Stephen Mitchell)

The Supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to.
It is content with the low places that people disdain.
Thus it is like the Tao.

In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don't try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.

When you are content to be simply yourself
and don't compare or compete,
everybody will respect you.

9 (Stephen Mitchell)

Fill your bowl to the brim
and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife
and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security
and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people's approval
and you will be their prisoner.

Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity.

Idolatry

Idolatry, generally regarded as the worship of graven images, or the confusion of symbols with that which they are to symbolize, is an issue in more than one belief tradition.

Listening to a recording of an old Alan Watts lecture this afternoon, I was introduced to a brand of idolatry which I had never before considered.

The example Watts uses is that of a sun painted on a window. Wouldn't you scrape the paint off if it obscured your view of the real sun - if it obscured the light of the sun?

How much more insidious are our ideas about God? Golden calves can be melted down. Wooden crosses fall apart. Forgive the blasphemy, but even the Quran or the Guru Nanak Singh are impermanent, and even by the admission of their readers - less than God. What is more difficult to divest oneself of is an idea.

An idea about God, about right or wrong, about eternity and impermanence.

To define something is to limit it, by definition.

To define is to stop.

To kill.

We are much better off, I think, letting God be God, whatever that entails. We can concentrate on being ourselves. The world's religions don't forbid idolatry because its badwrong. Idolatry is discouraged because it misleads.

The more we try to cling to the transcendent, the further it slips away.

39 (Stephen Mitchell)

In harmony with the Tao,
the sky is clear and spacious,
the earth is solid and full,
all creatures flourish together,
content with the way they are,
endlessly repeating themselves,
endlessly renewed.

When man interferes with the Tao,
the sky becomes filthy,
the earth becomes depleted,
the equilibrium crumbles,
creatures becomes extinct.

The Master views the parts with compassion,
because he understands the whole.
His constant practice is humility.
He doesn't glitter like a jewel
but lets himself be shaped by the Tao,
as rugged and common as a stone.

The above text is from passage 39 of Stephen Mitchell's translation of the Tao Te Ching.

The Secret to Immortality

So, the religious Taoists often aspire to immortality while the philosophical Taoists, and indeed the great Taoist classics, never seem to address it. What gives?

You've been lied to your whole life. You have been given the impression that there is a future, that there is a past. There are not.

There is only now.

Now goes on forever.

You're alive now (or you have mastered literacy-after-death, in which case, please email me) Now is all there is. Tuh-dah! Immortality.

It sounds like a cop-out, I know. It's not. I experience memories of the past. I experience them and I develop the idea that the past exists. Patterns emerge and recur in my memories and I anticipate events to come.

When that future comes, though, it's not the future. It's the present. The heretofore present has since expired into nothing more than memories.

There is only now. Not only is that the way-things-are, but it's for the best: ever seen Groundhog Day? Have you ever considered what life would be like if you only ate your favorite food unceasingly forever and ever? Impermanence is natural and good.

Static existence is oxymoronic.

I'll write more soon about impermanence and about Alan Watts' The Wisdom of Insecurity.

Chapter 1

Those who know don't speak.
Those who speak don't know.
So said the great masters.

I say that by exploring our ignorance,
By accepting foolishness,
Perhaps we may grow beyond it.

Since when did I start using the royal "we?"
Maybe I just thought that affectation
Would make me sound more wise. . .