This morning
I felt strong and jaunty in my
mail order Israeli commando trousers.
Up at Hard Luck Ranch I spoke to the ravens
in baritone, fed the cats with manly gestures.
Acacia thorns can’t penetrate these mighty pants,
then out by the corral the infant pup began
to weep, abandoned. In an instant
I became another of the
Earth’s billion sad
mothers.
Something mysterious
and perfect existed before even heaven
and earth were born. Silent, immeasurable,
standing alone and unchanging, moving
without end or exhaustion, it is the
mother of the known and
unknown universe.
I don’t know
its name, so I call it by an
alias: tao. Forced to describe
it, I only say, “It is
great.”
That which is great continues.
That which continues goes far.
That which goes far returns.
Therefore tao is great,
Heaven is great, earth is great,
a person of tao is great. These
are the four greatnesses
in the universe.
A person of tao follows earth.
Earth follows Heaven.
Heaven follows tao.
Tao follows its
own nature.
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Be done
with knowing and
your worries will disappear.
How much difference is there between
yes and no? How much distinction between
good and evil? Fearing what others fear,
admiring what they admire —
nonsense.
Conventional
people are jolly and reckless,
feasting on worldly things and carrying on
as though every day were the beginning of spring.
I alone remain uncommitted, like an infant
who hasn’t yet smiled: lost, quietly
drifting, unattached to ideas
and places and
things.
Conventional
people hoard more than
they need, but I possess nothing
at all, know nothing at all,
understand nothing
at all.
They
are sharp; I am dull.
Like the sea, I am calm and
indifferent. Like the wind I
have no particular
direction.
Everyone
else takes his place and
does his job; I alone remain wild
and natural and free. I am different
from the others; I drink
directly from the
Mother.
ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,
Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for
You
can now buy
Tao te Ching as part of a
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book.
This
is what you
shall do: Love the earth
and sun and the animals, despise riches,
give alms to every one that asks, stand up for
the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor
to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have
patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat
to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men,
go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young
and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open
air every season of every year of your life, reexamine all you
have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss
whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall
be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only
in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and
face and between the lashes of your eyes
and in every motion and
joint of your
body.
Because
she is one with the mother,
her roots go deep, her foundation
stands firm, her life lasts
long, her vision
endures.
from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,
ebooks & apps of the Tao the Ching, I Ching,
Hua hu Ching, and Art of War for
You
can now buy
Tao te Ching as part of a
five-app bundle of Taoist classics
for iPhone or iPad for less than
the cost of one hardcover
book.