v. 76 Living people are soft and tender. Corpses are hard and stiff. The ten thousand things, the living grass, the trees, are soft, pliant. Dead, they’re dry and brittle. So hardness and stiffness go with death; tenderness, softness, go with life. And the hard sword fails, the stiff tree’s…
There is a “why” to everything. To focus upon a fold-point of experience is signaled by “because” in the normal course of conversation. Also, you could say this mirrors the form of logic, an “if”… “then” syllogism of cause and effect. Is this what is meant by reason? I’ll concede that such is a…
v. 64 It’s easy to keep hold of what hasn’t stirred, easy to plan what hasn’t occurred. It’s easy to shatter delicate things, easy to scatter little things. Do things before they happen. Get them straight before they get mixed up. The tree you can’t reach your arms around grew from a tiny seedling….
Saturday. A day begins without oppressive humidity which invites outdoor activity. A promise of a pleasant and congenial session for the Batavia Farmer’s Market. Summertime’s weekly opportunity to gather with others on N. River Street parallel to the river is the counterpart to the Agora, a public square where commerce, where the forming of…
Friday is supposed to be an unlucky day. Was not Judas the thirteenth guest at the finale dinner party? Thursday evening was the time for that gala. The next day, was anything but “good”. Never be beguiled by convention, a tagline foisted upon unsuspecting by a faceless, and self-interested priest-craft. Because it’s old does…
Thursday at Starbucks, seven baristas, each is performing his/her task. To my eye, the vibe received, a choreograph of patterns purrs. Parked vehicles move in turn to the open drive-up window. A beverage with breakfast item ordered just a few minutes before is handed through the window to the customer. This is an effortless…
The Great Way runs to left, to right, the ten thousand things depending on it, living on it, accepted by it. Doing its work, it goes unnamed. Clothing and feeding the ten thousand things, it lays no claim on them and asks nothing of them. Call it a small matter. The ten thousand things…
There is one Way that is the proper course of all that lives and from which all things flow and one Power that animates and perfects all things, and they together are at one and the same time the dynamisms of nature, of practical endeavor, of social and political life, and of spiritual truth….
Divine Ya Ya. The phrase appeals to me! There’s thunder and lightning in that phrase! I completed Rob Brezsny’s email on the topic of fate. Read his post: Fate Bait click here. (Brezsny used the phrase, Divine Ya Ya.) Fate is an interpretation of life as subservient to the effect of prior causes… A…
I have agreed to facilitate a course of discussion about the Tao. Tao is an ancient Chinese concept of life as a way, a journey. Whereas this has interested me for some time, I am eager to discuss Lao Tsu’s verses with other adults. A discussion is sure to be open-ended. The text, being…
