Quote:
Originally Posted by steveeden888
...
All in the world recognize the beautiful as beautiful.
Herein lies ugliness.
All recognize the good as good.
Herein lies evil.
Therefore
Being and non-being produce each other.
Difficulty and ease bring about each other.
Long and short delimit each other.
High and low rest on each other.
Sound and voice harmonize each other.
Front and back follow each other.
Therefore the sage abides in the condition of wu-wei (unattached action).
And carries out the wordless teaching.
Here, the myriad things are made, yet not separated.
Therefore the sage produces without possessing,
Acts without expectations
And accomplishes without abiding in her accomplishments.
It is precisely because she does not abide in them
That they never leave her...
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To be in harmony with the Universe is serenity, AKA "The Kingdom of God is within you."
"...How do you 'study' something that you only use about 5% of at most..."
The part of the iceburg that is visible in the sunlight is the product of the larger portion that resides out of sight, under the surface.
The main portion of the unseen iceburg I would call the subconscious, and though it appears inert our subconscious is actually always churning and maintaining its internal connections to support our "reality" (the portion we are "aware" of, above the surface): what we call our conscious thought (usually grappling with our "committee," as evidence of this constant churning below).
To be in the "present" moment is to -I believe- access the brain's right hemisphere, while letting the churning of the left brain fall asleep: meditation.
It is then that we experience the present moment FREE from past associations verbally, culturally, and dualistically. We experience non-duality and a temporary suspension of the tyranny of left brain dominance, with its concommitant verbalizations, justifications, and drama: these concerns fall from central focus as mattering anymore (temporarily).
It is THEN we apprehend the Taoist thought in the quoted verses, and the symbolic language that points to this "other" reality as evidenced in all ancient texts (if you have the ears to hear it).
It is also then that I know in what frame of mind St. Francis of Assissi was in when he grokked what he later wrote down as The Prayer of St Francis:
"...Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen."