2005-12-21
Tao Te Ching - 4
Tao Te Ching
by Lao-tzu
J. Legge, Translator
from: Sacred-Texts
4
The Tao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our
employment of it we must be on our guard against all fulness. How
deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honoured Ancestor of
all things!
We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of
things; we should attemper our brightness, and bring ourselves into
agreement with the obscurity of others. How pure and still the Tao
is, as if it would ever so continue!
I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before
God.
____________
My Thoughts:
The concept of emptiness comes up again and again in these texts. But it seems that, when translating the Chinese into English, we tend to lose some of the meaning of this.
The concept of emptiness as in the Tao, for me, is that, as Lao tzu says, it is unfathomable. And if we ever think we are 'full' with understanding of the Tao, then we are mistaken and we have set ourselves on the wrong course in trying to fathom it out.
Instead, we should accept its unfathomable depths as simply that - unfathomable. Because to say that we understand it completely is to give ourselves false pride and to try to label the Tao in our own terms. Which is entirely against the notion of stillness, acceptance and non-discrimination.
meyamind at 11:11 p.m.
