This section will feature an article a
month on Taoist teachings and thoughts. Currently these will be from my own
writings often crossing with my blog articles. How this section will evolve
will be interesting to see.
Chapter 5 Tao Te Ching/Dao De Jing
Heaven and Earth are impartial
And regard myriad things as straw dogs
The sages are impartial
And regard people as straw dogs
The space between Heaven and Earth
Is it not like a bellows?
Empty, and yet never exhausted
It moves, and produces more
Too many words hasten failure
Cannot compare to keeping quiet
Recently I have been contemplating
this chapter and its deeper meanings to life and how to apply it.
I have seen this chapter taken to mean do not speak of issues or leave an
argument alone etc. And there is some validity to that. But then I thought
but we can not always control what situations we are in, it may sometimes be
necessary for us to speak and offer advice or counsel even if just to (to
use a figure of speech) ‘move it off the street’ so then I thought maybe I
need to contemplate this chapter deeply and see if it is possible to look at
it as practically as Lau Tzu, Confucius or other sages would have done, or
at least similarly not being a sage and all.
Well the first part to me seems to be
saying all things are equal in Dao, so a Dao cultivator would cultivate
harmonious equality in dealings with all life.
We are physical bodies and spirit in harmony and if we can move with that
harmony we can move in harmony with Dao.
“Too many words hasten failure” hmmm to me this can be taken both on the
surface meaning that there are times when speaking further is just not going
to help and everyone could probably use a break to clear heads etc and look
on things with fresh eyes/ears. However I’m also sure that in a practical
sense there is more to it as well….. could be that “Too many words” is too
many rules and regulations so everything is stifled and forced, things are
prevented from harmonising and flowing by a cluster of rules and red tape.
So instead of too many rules which make life complex and clustered we look
to the simplicity of Dao to less cluttered rules enough to do the job but
not too many so there is no room for breathing.
1
Even when the last star
has imploded
and only blackness remains,
the Tao will be Tao:
emptiness in emptiness,
silence in silence,
nowhere,
yet everywhere;
beyond existence,
yet the essence of life.
From ~Jos Slabbert ~ Tao is Tao
Perhaps we can look to the processes
of Dao and witness the harmonic/dynamic balance and find some inspiration to
apply to our lives in all situations we find ourselves in?
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