The Emptiness Within: Tao Te Ching Readings

Here are some lines of the Tao Te Ching , also called "The Book of the Way", with thoughts and reflections on what this passage has to tell us. This is the fifth part of the Tao Te Ching series, but there is no specific order to follow. It is simply yet another piece of the puzzle of Tao enigma, which can be collected in any order.

Transcript

Hi and welcome.

Today I will read for you some lines of the Daode Jing and then we are going to discuss what we just read.

You can sit back,

Relax and let the words sink into you.

The ancient masters were profound and subtle.

Their wisdom was unfathomable.

There is no way to describe it.

All we can describe is their appearance.

They were careful as someone crossing an iced over stream,

Alert as a warrior in enemy territory,

Courteous as a guest,

Fluid as melting ice,

Shapeable as a block of wood,

Receptive as a valley,

Clear as a glass of water.

Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear?

Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?

The master doesn't seek fulfillment.

Not seeking,

Not expecting.

She is present and can welcome all things.

Empty your mind of all thoughts.

Let your heart be at peace.

Watch the turmoil of beings but contemplate their return.

Each separate being in the universe returns to the common source.

Returning to the source is serenity.

If you don't realize the source,

You stumble in confusion and sorrow.

When you realize where you come from,

You naturally become tolerant,

Disinterested,

Amused,

Kind-hearted as a grandmother,

Dignified as a king.

Immersed in the wonder of the Tao,

You can deal with whatever life brings you and when death comes,

You are ready.

When the master governs,

The people are hardly aware that he exists.

Next best is a leader who is loved.

Next,

One who is feared.

The worst is one who is despised.

If you don't trust the people,

You make them untrustworthy.

The master doesn't talk,

He acts.

When his work is done,

The people say,

Amazing,

We did it all by ourselves.

When the great Tao is forgotten,

Goodness and piety appear.

When the body's intelligence declines,

Cleverness and knowledge step forth.

When there is no peace in the family,

Filial piety begins.

When the country falls into chaos,

Patriotism is born.

Throw away holiness and wisdom and people will be a hundred times happier.

Throw away morality and justice and people will do the right thing.

Throw away industry and profit and there won't be any thieves.

If these three aren't enough,

Just stay at the center of the circle and let all things take their course.

Stop thinking and end your problems.

What difference between yes and no?

What difference between success and failure?

Must you value what others value,

Avoid what others avoid?

How ridiculous.

Other people are excited as though they were at a parade.

I alone don't care.

I alone am expressionless,

Like an infant before it can smile.

Other people have what they need.

I alone possess nothing.

I alone drift about like someone without a home.

I am like an idiot.

My mind is so empty.

Other people are bright.

I alone am dark.

Other people are sharper.

I alone am dull.

Other people have a purpose.

I alone don't know.

I drift like a wave on the ocean.

I blow as aimless as the wind.

I am different from ordinary people.

I drink from the great mother's breasts.

The master keeps her mind always at one with the Tao.

That is what gives her her radiance.

The Tao is ungraspable.

How can her mind be at one with it?

Because she doesn't cling to ideas.

The Tao is dark and unfathomable.

How can it make her radiant?

Because she lets it.

Since before time and space were,

The Tao is.

It is beyond,

Is and is not.

How do I know this is true?

I look inside myself and see.

So these are the words of the Zen Master Lao Tzu that have been written more than 2000 years ago.

As you can see,

These are principles that still apply to the modern society.

It gives us an idea that the human nature and its inner struggles has always been the way it is.

The whole thing just goes back in circles.

People are chasing after themselves and therefore history repeats itself.

But also what the Tao Te Ching tells us is that if we are doing that,

Running in circles and doing the same mistakes over again,

It is because we are not present.

We are not fully meeting ourselves for what we are because we don't have the patience to wait until the mud settles and the water is clear.

And that is what creates problems.

Because we are greedy,

We are not welcoming and patient.

Because we are pursuing something restlessly,

Chasing an ideal,

And that is what makes us lost.

But as the Tao Te Ching says,

The natural state of things is serenity.

Turmoil is only created when we stir up the muddy waters and so quote unquote we stumble in confusion and sorrow.

But turmoil cannot be a constant state of things.

And if we can detach ourselves from it and watch it happen,

We will see that it inevitably ends.

And what stays when the turmoil is gone is the state of serenity that is our default state.

The state of nature,

Which we are a part of.

The part that goes,

Other people are excited as though they were at a parade.

I alone don't care.

I alone am expressionless.

I alone possess nothing.

I alone am dark.

I alone don't know.

I can see how that could sound negative and maybe pessimistic to someone who is not familiar with the Zen mentality and with the rest of the Tao Te Ching,

Which is a whole book.

And this is just a tiny extract.

So when we see the bigger picture,

We realize the actual message.

What really stands out to me in this part is that Lao Tzu says that he is basically watching it happen.

Instead of being part of the excitement and the agitation and doesn't cling to anything that happens because he knows that any form of agitation is a trap.

So whether it's a good thing or a bad thing that is happening,

He will patiently step back from it and observe it without feeling compelled by emotions.

Because he sees the bigger picture and knows that turmoil is nothing but a wave on the ocean that ends up crashing just like any other wave and it goes up and down again because that's just the dance of life.

Turmoil is like the visible part of the wave or like the day versus the night.

Basically,

It's just a manifestation.

But if we hang on to the manifestations,

We get scared of the dark and the silence and the calm,

Which is in fact our original state.

We were born out of the darkness and the silence and the calm,

But along the way,

We forget it.

So when Lao Tzu speaks of being dark while other people are bright,

He doesn't mean being depressed or evil.

He's actually talking about being at peace with the darkness and acknowledging his nature.

And darkness and silence and the absence of things are only seen as a negative concept by us because of the way we are conditioned.

Darkness is necessary.

That is also what the yin yang symbol represents,

Which is a Zen symbol.

We need darkness for us to even be able to see the light.

Therefore,

Without darkness,

There would not be such a concept of light because light emerges from it.

Nothing can be all white or all black,

All luminous or all dark,

Because without the counterpart of what we have,

We would not be able to see that we have it.

Without the counterpart of death,

There would be no concept of life.

Now the part that goes,

The master keeps her mind always at one with the Tao.

Basically,

The Tao is the name of everything that there is.

If we had to symbolize it,

I guess the yin and yang symbol would be a good representation because the Tao is everything.

It's the fundamentals of the existence and the non-existence also,

Because non-existence is the counterpart of existence.

Everywhere you look,

You see the Tao.

So when the mind is at one with the Tao,

It simply means that the mind recognizes its origins,

Where it comes from.

And the mind technically is not at one with it because it can never really separate itself from it.

It is the Tao.

It can make itself believe that it's not a part of it,

But it doesn't change the fact that it is.

The mind is the Tao.

There is no distinction between you and the rest.

Everything is one big manifestation.

It's like taking a step back and realizing that you are actually figuring on a big painting.

You are a tiny spot of color on this huge painting which is the world,

The whole wide world.

It's like going,

Oh wow,

All this time I was part of this bigger picture while thinking I was something separate from it.

We are emerging from the world just like the leaves are growing out of trees.

There is no separation.

The world both gave birth to us and is us.

We are tiny spots of color on the huge masterpiece,

A huge manifestation,

And every tiny spot of color contributes to the whole picture.

So this was my Dao Te Ching reading and my thoughts on it.

I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you will continue to follow my journey.

I hope you enjoyed it and take care.

Reviews

Loved the reading and explanations. Thank you!

Really helpful to me, Thank You.

🙏🏾 you.

Love the teachings of the Tao ☯️ .
Thanks for a very good presentation. 🙏

Enlightening. 🙏

I think shorter readings then talk then reading and so on would be good 🙏

Clear, intelligent and passionate. Refreshing. Thank you 🙂

Great lessons from the Tao te Ching as well as a very clear interpretation that I found easy to understand. Thank you 🙏

I love this voice. I also like the message:-)

very interesting. Thanks for posting.

I appreciate your comments on the Tao. ☯️✊☮️🙏

Thank you 🙏🏼. Beautiful & what I needed to hear today

Nice reading and explanation. 🙏

Wonderful and so extraordinary that it is 2000 years old. Thank you