Tao Te Ching Meditation- Chapter 16: Silence.
Reading:
16.1 Attain the climax of emptiness,
preserve the utmost quiet:
16.2 as myriad things act in concert,
I thereby observe the return.
Things flourish,
then each returns to its root.
16.3 Returning to the root is called stillness;
stillness is called return to Life,
return to Life is called the constant;
knowing the constant is called enlightenment.
Acts at random, in ignorance of the constant, bode ill.
16.4 Knowing the constant gives perspective;
this perspective is impartial.
Impartiality is the highest nobility;
the highest nobility is divine,
and the divine is the Way.
16.5 This Way is everlasting,
not endangered by physical death.
Tao Teh Ching - Cleary Translation
I am writing this on Thursday, two days before it will be posted. Tomorrow i will have surgery to repair my umbilical hernia and Saturday, if all goes well, i will be recouping. The operation is routine, but my mind is full of thoughts about pain and caregiving and all that can possibly go wrong (but most likely wont). Silence will probably come with great difficulty and depart with ease. The "myriad things" which come and go without my leave will continue to come and go but i will likely not observe them with detached interest.
I could however note the relative calm i have achieved compared to past surgeries and observe that while i have not acquired stillness, my mind is not nearly so noisy as it has been in the past. What is going to happen is going to happen and i will probably sleep through it.
Le Guin calls this chapter "Returning to the root" and the route to the root passes through silence. From stillness comes return to Life, then constancy, then enlightenment, then perspective, then impartiality, then oneness with the Way,
The "constant" (that which endures) is wisdom. So wisdom and all these other things come through silence.
Prayer: Holy Loving, deepen my silence. Amen.
Contemplation:
16.1 Attain the climax of emptiness,
preserve the utmost quiet:
16.2 as myriad things act in concert,
I thereby observe the return.
Things flourish,
then each returns to its root.
16.3 Returning to the root is called stillness;
stillness is called return to Life,
return to Life is called the constant;
knowing the constant is called enlightenment.
Acts at random, in ignorance of the constant, bode ill.
16.4 Knowing the constant gives perspective;
this perspective is impartial.
Impartiality is the highest nobility;
the highest nobility is divine,
and the divine is the Way.
16.5 This Way is everlasting,
not endangered by physical death.
Tao Teh Ching - Cleary Translation
I am writing this on Thursday, two days before it will be posted. Tomorrow i will have surgery to repair my umbilical hernia and Saturday, if all goes well, i will be recouping. The operation is routine, but my mind is full of thoughts about pain and caregiving and all that can possibly go wrong (but most likely wont). Silence will probably come with great difficulty and depart with ease. The "myriad things" which come and go without my leave will continue to come and go but i will likely not observe them with detached interest.
I could however note the relative calm i have achieved compared to past surgeries and observe that while i have not acquired stillness, my mind is not nearly so noisy as it has been in the past. What is going to happen is going to happen and i will probably sleep through it.
Le Guin calls this chapter "Returning to the root" and the route to the root passes through silence. From stillness comes return to Life, then constancy, then enlightenment, then perspective, then impartiality, then oneness with the Way,
The "constant" (that which endures) is wisdom. So wisdom and all these other things come through silence.
Prayer: Holy Loving, deepen my silence. Amen.
Contemplation: