Verse Seventy

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From: jimclatfelter
Location: California
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 5

Verse Seventy
Stephen Mitchell, 1995

My teachings are easy to understand
and easy to put into practice.
Yet your intellect will never grasp them,
and if you try to practice them, you'll fail.

My teachings are older than the world.
How can you grasp their meaning?

If you want to know me,
look inside your heart.

Verse Seventy
Tolbert McCarroll

My words are easy to understand and easy to put into practice.
Yet no one under heaven understands them or puts them into practice.
My words have an ancestor. My actions are governed.

Because people do not understand this
they do not understand me.
Those who understand me are few.
Those who follow me should be respected.

Therefore, the True Person wears homespun clothes
and carries jade in the heart.

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From: Steve Palmer
Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009

Hi Jim

I enjoyed your Daodejingle verse 70.

Embarrassingly obvious
And always near at hand
The Dao's a nothingness you see
But never understand

The way within is ageless
Yet few will ever see
A face is what I give you
The jewel within is me

Thank you Jim.

Also
My Tai Chi group recommended The Tai Chi Journey also printed as the Spirit of Tai Chi by John Lash.
He uses the Gai-Fu Feng translation and his thoughts are from a Tai Chi perspective.

from verse 70 by John Lash

This verse is the Mother Tao talking to humanity

The Ways of the Tao are natural and flow without effort.
To know and understand them, we need only look within ourselves.
But humanity has fallen a way from Oneness.

We are separated not only from the universe, but from our own nature.
We have surrendered our intuitive knowledge to a complete worship of the rational mind and to it's creation, the ego. which operates on the basis of attachment to desires.............
Therefore , it is almost impossible for us to see the Oneness that flows through all people and things.
Because of this the Tao and harmony are unknown to us..........

The Tai Chi person mourns the lost harmony of the universe......he holds to the Jewel....

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From: jimclatfelter
Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2009

Hi Steve,

The first stanza of the Daodejingle verse is directly from Douglas. You may have heard him say that what he had to offer was "embarrasingly obvious." He also said that he didn't understand headlessness; he saw it. And that's so much better and so much more real. Of course, the DDJ says the same thing.

The last part of this verse in all the translations seems to be saying that our real treasure is within. We have jade in our hearts, though we're dressed in coarse cloth. I see a progression in the talk about treasure from the three treasures of verse 67 to the loss of treasure mentioned in verse 69 to the jade in our hearts of this verse. I like that Lao Tzu talks in both symbols and more directly. Sometimes he talks about emptiness. Other times he talks using natural images such as jade. He comes at us from two directions. The message builds. We can even see the language hinting at the experiments. Verse 42 has yin on my shoulder and yang in my arms. He wants us to notice this!

Anyway, I'm getting carried away. Lao Tzu, the person, is legendary. What we have is a text. But what a text! It's a text that wants us to notice the natural design of existence.

Jim

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From: Janet
Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2009

jimclatfelter wrote:
He also said that he didn't understand headlessness; he saw it.

hi jim and steve,

i like that douglas said that. i feel the same way. i see it, but i don't understand it. from that, i guess i find it amusing for anyone to assume its any 'fixed' way. i also find it amusing that anyone can assume what is happening to humanity (Re: in steve's post). sometimes i have ideas, too. but, if i really look, there is no idea here. nothing left. just emptiness. i don't know whats happening. how can another know? was i the only one left out of the void's newsletter?

i mean, i grant you, i don't know a lot of things (teachings or whatnot). but, so far, i've gathered, that no matter how much i learn....i still don't know. its beyond me!

a memory (as a child) just came to me....i remember laying in the tall grass of a field, looking up at the sky, watching clouds passing by.....

i was totally amused and occupied (alone) with just what it was at that moment.

with love,
janet

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From: Steve Palmer
Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009

Hi Jim

Thanks for getting carried away Jim. It's interesting to read your thinking behind the DDJ.

Hi Janet

Cloud watching, lying in the tall grass, sounds like a pretty open and spacious way to be with nature, tao , headlessness.

Love

Steve

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From: simon
Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009

Hi All,
Janet says
Quote:
... its beyond me!

I find the same and it is a joy, not a lack.
And that is what makes it what it is, useful, spacious, ever available, unexhaustable, clear, etc, etc
Perhaps "reliable" too!
Isn' that what makes it joyous, too?
And concerning cloud watching... for 20 years I used to make kites to give people an excuse to lie back and do just that!

love to all,
Simon

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From: Janet
Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009

thanks steve and simon for your responses. yes, simon, not a lack. its reliable, and a relief. i have to trust it.

very mysterious. very don't know. thats my new expression.

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From: Lee
Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009

Janets "I don't know", and the contents of this verse of the Tao brings to mind something I read by Alan Watts when he said that no matter how big and sharpe a knife blade may be. Even one that could cut everything that exists. There is one thing it can never cut, and that is itself.

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From: Janet
Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009

Lee wrote:
Janets "I don't know", and the contents of this verse of the Tao brings to mind something I read by Alan Watts when he said that no matter how big and sharpe a knife blade may be. Even one that could cut everything that exists. There is one thing it can never cut, and that is itself.

thanks, lee. yes, i see what he means!

love,
janet

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From: Lee
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009

Hi Janet,
This is why both the Tao and Hardings pointing experiments make sense to me. Looking out you see the manifestations. Looking in you have the Mystery. I believe you are both.

Actually, Capacity for the world seems to be the best I have heard used. It can get very confusion when you try to explain it using words.

I like it. We are Capacity for all Existence. Mark one up for Douglas.

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