"The greatest Virtue is to follow Tao and Tao alone. The Tao is elusive and intangible. Oh, it is intangible and elusive, and yet within is image. Oh, it is elusive and intangible, and yet within is form".
From my brief journey into absorbing what Tao is, here I feel is a most important statement. Lao Tsu is attempting to show the reader that what he can tell you is not the Tao because in order to understand the Tao, one must experience it and see it through their own eyes and perceive it for themselves. It is elusive because what one can be told of the Tao is not in fact the Tao because it must be understood and absorbed in a way that can not be ultimately taught. To me it seems that the Tao is something that is "unteachable", that one must find their own meanings and take it to heart as they will.
Another translation of this passage reads, " The grandest forms of active force, From Tao come, their only source. Who can of Tao the nature tell? Our sight it flies, our touch as well. Eluding sight, eluding touch".
As a fledgling student in Eastern philosophies, I appreciate this translation even more. To me it implies that everything I will learn about the Tao will ultimately come from me. No matter what I read, or am taught, what I take to heart are the ideas that I have formed and have tailored to suit myself. As a student I relish in the thought that these ideas and readings will only, as I see it, be what might be considered the Tao when I reflect personally upon them and make them my own.
This reflection of mine was from chapter Twenty-One on page 23. I have left many of my other thoughts of this passage out, but mentioned what resonated with me the most.
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"As a student I relish in the thought that these ideas and readings will only, as I see it, be what might be considered the Tao when I reflect personally upon them and make them my own."
ReplyDeleteThat is It! I cannot add more to what you have said here. Taoism, I think is meant to be exactly that, a personal experience that cannot be translated, transliterated or transferred. The paradox is that the Tao is so strict in its control of the learner's thoughts that it has no control. We walk the Tao when we walk fully in our own being through personal experience and personal reflection.
We talked about this passage in class right? Or at least a similar one? What confuses me is the idea that the "Tao" isn't really the Tao... If we are supposed to create or "experience" the Tao for ourselves and if we are to choose which ideas that come to us truly seem to be a part of the Tao... then it has no form, right? Maybe I'm not understanding something, but it sounds as if the way that each and every person sees this idea called Tao is different. Therefore, who knows what it actually is? It "isn't"...because it's different for everyone? Then why not just call it "insert name here"? If there is no foundation then how can it be followable? I realize that I may be completely wrong in the way that I'm thinking, so if anyone feels like they can clarify or guide me into a different thought process then please do so. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteIt is the same, yet different. The Tao is the same, we are different. So, as we are different, we must each find our own way to the Tao. therefore, the Tao is something different to each of us, yet it is the same . . . if it is the Tao.
ReplyDeleteIt's one of the paradoxes. It might help if you view things as a spiral instead of a straight line with opposites at either end. In the spiral you go around to the opposite side, and then come around again to the beginning, and yet it is a different beginning. This means that if you go to one extreme in anything you will find that you are back at the other end of the scale . . . and that both extremes are the same but different.
Then again,maybe this won't help.lol
Thanks Ed. I think I understand the idea of their being different ways to the Tao, but I'm not sure I followed the second part of your comment about spirals. Hmm...thinking...
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