A Dove In The Hand

[c patralis]

If this is the same boy who has quite given up on
English speeling and grama you may not want to dismiss
his rebellion as so much teen-age attitude. 

The opening verses: 

In the beginning of heaven and earth there were no
words, words came out of the womb of matter; 
And whether a man dispasionately
Sees the surface
The core and the surface
Are essentially the same, 
Words making them seem different
Only to express appearence. 
If name be needed, wonder names them both;
>From wonder into wonder
Existence opens

This naturalistic and religious opening reveals the
Tao Te Ching's dialectic materialism and the elemental
principle of the Tao.  The materialism is obvious in
the "womb of matter" that underlies all superficial 
"appearences" of the false surface of individual
consciousness. At the same time, it establishes the
sameness of the core and the surface by attributing
them to what is essentailly the same or  elemental.
The entire text is a variation on this single theme. 

All things return in their natural state by going
forth from and returning to the Tao itself. 

A dialectic in nature. 

As the soft yeild water cleaves obstinate stone, 
So to yeild with life solves the insoluble:
To yeild, I have learned, is to come back again. 
But this unworded lesson, 
This easy example, is lost upon men. 

Be so charged with the nature of life that you give
your people birth, 
That you mother your land, are the fit
And ever-living root of it:
The seeing root, whose eye is infinite. 

Tizit anywonder that the contercultures, particualrly
in American where bountiful nature spreads her table
and all are invited to the feast, in our time have
been attracted to this text? 

Bountiful life, letting anyone attend, 
Making no distinction between left and right, 
Feeding everyone, refusing no one...

The religious naturalism often yeilds to a political
idea. Because there were lots of competing ideas,
ideas competing for the Prince's ear. If your son,
distrustful of language,  has hope that Bush will at
least listen to Lao Tzu, how can we despair? 





--- s~Z <keithsz at concentric.net> wrote:
> As I was walking to the car to drive to my office,
> my 14 y/o son ran after
> me saying, "Dad, Dad, I want to send this to Bush,"
> and he read me this from
> Chapter 30 of the Tao Te Ching:
> 
> Whenever you advise a ruler in the way of Tao,
> Counsel him not to use force to conquer the
> universe.
> For this would only cause resistance.
> Thorn bushes spring up wherever the army has passed.
> Lean years follow in the wake of a great war.
> Just do what needs to be done.
> Never take advantage of power.
> 
> Achieve results,
> But never glory in them.
> Achieve results,
> But never boast.
> Achieve results,
> But never be proud.
> Achieve results,
> Because this is the natural way.
> Achieve results,
> But not through violence.
> 
> Force is followed by loss of strength.
> This is not the way of Tao.
> That which goes against the Tao comes to an early
> end.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 


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