From the translation of Stephen Mitchell’s version, the Tao Te Ching states,
Look, and it can’t be seen. Listen, and it can’t be heard. Reach, and it can’t be grasped. Above, it isn’t bright. Below, it isn’t dark. Seamless, unnamable, it returns to the realm of nothing. Form that includes all forms, image without an image, subtle, beyond all conception. Approach it and there is no beginning; it and there is no end. You can’t know it, but you can be it, at ease in your own life. Just realize where you come from: this is the essence of wisdom.
Take a tree and trace it back to its origins. Go back to the sprout, then to the seed and the dirt and the rain. Now trace back each of these. The seed comes from another tree, the dirt is decomposed material, and the rain comes from the cloud. I hope you’ve gotten my drift so that we don’t have to go all the way back to the quarks but I can. The point I trying to make is that our minds like to simplify our world to the point where we look at the bark and the limbs and the leaves we see tree…but it is so much more than a tree, including all the pieces that make up the tree. This is what Lao Tzu is talking about in the 14th verse of the Tao Te Ching. Nothing is as our mind says it is. It’s all an illusion. And it is important to always remember the illusion…especially when we are feeling anxious or fearful or limiting the fullest experience of life. Remembering that the concept or belief that our mind says is scaring us is actually an illusion too. Sift through the illusion and come to the essence and the wisdom of the universe.
References:
Mitchell, Stephen (2009-10-13). Tao Te Ching (p. 6). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
The Laozi (2009-10-04). The Tao Teh King, or the Tao and its Characteristics (Kindle Locations 29-30). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.
Mitchell, Stephen; Katie, Byron (2007-02-06). A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are (p. 13). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
Dyer, Wayne Dr. 1 Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life, Audio Version, (Disc 2)
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