Verse Thirty Two

---

From: jimclatfelter
Posted: Sat May 10, 2008

Verse Thirty Two
Thomas Z. Zhang

Tao does not have a name and is simple.
It is small, but no one can rule it.
If kings and nobles can follow it, the people themselves would be submissive.
When heaven and earth work together, rain is produced.
Nobody gives the order, it is produced naturally.
When a regulation is initiated, it should have a reason.
When there is a reason, we need to know where to stop.
If we know where to stop, we may avoid failure.
Tao to the world is like the sea to the rivers.

Verse Thirty Two
Yasuhiko Genku Kimura

The Tao remains eternally unnamable.
As undivided simplicity,
If it resides in an ordinary person,
nobody in the world can subjugate him;
If an influential person abides by it,
everybody in the world will be drawn to him.
When heaven and earth come together in harmony,
Showering the world equally with the sweet rain of undivided simplicity,
People cooperate voluntarily without any governing rules.
When simplicity is divided, names come into existence.
When names are already there, the process of further division should stop,
For to know when to stop
is to avoid the danger of complexity.
The Tao is to the world
what the ocean is to the rivers of the earth.

Verse Thirty Two
Witter Bynner, 1944

Existence is infinite, not to be defined;
And, though it seem but a bit of wood in your hand, to carve as you please,
It is not to be lightly played with and laid down.
When rulers adhered to the way of life,
They were upheld by natural loyalty:
Heaven and earth were joined and made fertile,
Life was a freshness of rain,
Subject to none,
Free to all.
But men of culture came, with their grades and their distinctions;
And as soon as such differences had been devised
No one knew where to end them,
Though the one who does know the end of all such differences
Is the sound man:
Existence
Might be likened to the course
Of many rivers reaching the one sea.

---

From: jimclatfelter
Posted: Sun May 11, 2008

I like the term undivided simplicity. It reminds me that Douglas wrote in Religions of the World that Taoism is characterized by simplicity, spontaneity, and tact. What I see within is simple (and undivided). What I see without is spontaneous. That's the grand design Douglas spoke about.

When speaking of the grand design, Douglas also used the words Heaven and Earth, just as Lao Tzu does throughout the Tao Te Ching.

Quote:
When heaven and earth come together in harmony,
Showering the world equally with the sweet rain of undivided simplicity,
People cooperate voluntarily without any governing rules.

To bring heaven and earth, the simple and the spontaneous, together in a single harmonious presence is for me the aim of Seeing and the basis of cooperation of every kind. Just as heaven and earth come together to produce rain, so seeing the simplicity and spontaneity of our natures produces harmonious, nurturing, and satisfying lives.

Jim

---

From: simon
Posted: Wed May 14, 2008

Quote:
The Tao is to the world
what the ocean is to the rivers of the earth.

There is a nice humility to this final line, 'the valley experience" I believe Douglas called it, to contrast (? not perhaps the most precise word!) with peak experience...

The bottom line - as can be found on any shirt front!

Utter simplicity, with no special features, yet nothing excluded...

Strangely I find it comforting!

Best to all,
simon

---

From: Luc
Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 7:01 pm

jimclatfelter wrote:
When simplicity is divided, names come into existence.

That's what happens when I shift from two-way looking to simply looking out of Here. The simplicity of the world, when I notice the Void it appears in, turns into a multitude of things with a name, when I overlook Who's looking.

It's a subtle shift in attention or awareness, breaking the Whole into pieces, one of which will get my attention and then a name for it will pop up and separate it from the rest.

Sounds familiar ?

Luc

---