Here at the frontier, the leaves fall like rain. Although my neighbors are all barbarians, and you, you are a thousand miles away, there are still two cups at my table.


Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.

~ Wu-men ~


Monday, February 20, 2012

Dao De Jing #42: Mind

The Dao De Jing is both one of the world's great works of literature and one of the foundations of philosophical Daoism. A free online version of this timeless classic may be found here. Below is chapter 42: Mind.


42. Mind

The Way bears sensation,
Sensation bears memory,
Sensation and memory bear abstraction,
And abstraction bears all the world;
Each thing in the world bears feeling and doing,
And, imbued with mind, harmony with the Way.

As others have taught, so do I teach,
"Who loses harmony opposes nature";
This is the root of my teaching.

4 comments:

jc said...

a text of great wisdom for sure....

Rick Matz said...

Absolutely.

Paul said...

There can indeed be infinite renditions of Tao Te Ching. This is the Chinese orginal:

道生一,一生二,二生三,三生萬物。萬物負陰而抱陽,沖氣以為和。

Quite not-the-same as Ricky's quoted rendition? Never mind, each creates his own cup of tea. It would most likely be fine with Lao Tze....:):)

Rick Matz said...

I've come to prefer translations by people who can read the original - usually sinologists and philosophers, as opposed to westerns who can't read the language, but after reading a number of other translations attempt their own "re-imaginings" of what it said.

That's sort of a like a game of telephone.

I like Paul's translations. Please pay him a visit.

http://tao-meditation.blogspot.com/

My Japanese study has gone on the back burner as I no longer work for a Japanese company or actively study a Japanese martial art. When I was studying Japanese however, one of my long term goals was to read the Japanese version of the DDJ. I figured that would be as close as I would ever be able to come to the original.