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THE TAO

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THE TAO

Tao or Dao is a concept signifying ‘way’, ‘path’, ‘route’, or sometimes more loosely, ‘doctrine’ or ‘principle’, or as a verb, speak.  Within these contexts Tao signifies the primordial essence or fundamental nature of existence. Tao is thus “eternally nameless”, or Immortal Spiritual Beings, and to be distinguished from the countless ‘named’ things which are considered to be its manifestations, as the space, energy and forms of, and within, the physical universe, and other universes.

The Tao Te Ching, Daodejing, or Dao De Jing (道德經: 道 dào “way”; 德 dé “virtue”; 經 jīng “classic” or “text”) is simply referred to as the Laozi. According to tradition, it was written around 6th century BC by the sage Laozi (or Lao Tzu, “Old Master”), a record-keeper at the Zhou Dynasty court, by whose name the text is known in China. The text’s true authorship and date of composition or compilation are still debated, although the oldest excavated text dates back to the late 4th century BC.

Many different translations, versions and interpretations of The Tao have been produced through the past 2,500 years, or so, since the original appearance.  Like any “religion”, the “opinions” and “interpretations” of “priests” MODIFY and INTRODUCE FASLE IDEAS into the original.  Therefore, I suggest that anyone who wished to sincerely study The Tao as a Body of Wisdom, study many difference translations in order to DECIDE FOR YOURSELF what is “true” or not.  

Here is a link to a website containing many different translations, and COMPARISONS between translations. 

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A FORM OF MEDITATION

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Last year I read many books about Eastern philosophies and spiritual practices, including the Autobiography of a Yogi, written by the great spiritual teacher from India, Paramahansa Yogananda.  I do not practice Yoga, or meditation, per se,  nor do I ascribe to any organized spiritual methods or organizations.  I am following my own path of reading, communicating and seeking to remember Who I Really Am as an immortal spiritual entity.  I suppose I could call my form of meditation:   “looking, communicating, understanding and loving”.  I practice my “meditation” continually, at least to the degree that I am willing to discipline myself to attain awareness and ability above the extremely limited perceptions imposed by animating an aging biological body on Earth.

I do not “believe in god” or have a membership card in a group of followers.  However, I am inspired and emboldened by beings who know themselves as the source of life energy, of love, wisdom, and of creation of realities for themselves and of universes.  As part of my continuing journey I am reading a book and Blog by a fellow traveler, Pam Grout.  Here is a compilation video she recommended about Russell Brand.  His enthusiastic advocacy of wisdom, and egalitarian love, through self-realization reminds me very much of Yogananda.  This video recommended by Pam Grout in her Blog ( http://pamgrout.com/ )

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FOLLOWING

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“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought”.

— *Basho, (1644-1694)

This is good advice. However, I would amend it to say “Follow in the footsteps of the wise and seek what they sought”.  The harmonics of wisdom recognize the gradient scale of wisdom.  Wisdom is relative to all other wisdom.
In the teaching of wisdom, one much become  a good follower.  Yet to follow effectively one must lead others.  Basho exemplified the most able of wise men.  At the time of his death, Basho had more than 2000 students.
Yet, here is the eternal right of the individual to disdain from the playing of games simply to enjoy the serene and simple state of Being.   Or, the enjoy the pleasure of Creation for its own sake, without regard to an audience.  However, it is far easier to preach to the choir than to enlighten the “heathen”.

Here are a few of the wonderful  *Haiku poems attributed to Bash (they may not have retained their purity in the English translation, but you get the flavour of them):

An old pond!
A frog jumps in-
The sound of water.

____________

The years first day
thoughts and loneliness;
the autumn dusk is here.

____________

Poverty’s child –
he starts to grind the rice,
and gazes at the moon.

____________

A weathered skeleton
in windy fields of memory,
piercing like a knife

____________

*DEFINITION OF HAIKU: Haiku is one of the most important form of traditional Japanese poetry. Haiku is, today, a 17-syllable verse form consisting of three metrical units of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. Since early days, there has been confusion between the three related terms Haiku, Hokku and Haikai. The termhokku literally means “starting verse”, and was the first starting link of a much longer chain of verses known ashaika. Because the hokku set the tone for the rest of the poetic chain, it enjoyed a privileged position in haikaipoetry, and it was not uncommon for a poet to compose ahokku by itself without following up with the rest of the chain.

The name Basho (banana tree) is a sobriquet he adopted around 1681 after moving into a hut with a banana tree alongside. He was called Kinsaku in childhood and Matsuo Munefusa in his later days.