I love this, thank both of you for posting an insightful message on the tao. The interpretations can be conveyed from a variety of perspectives. I do see the feminine aspect in the chapter you have presented today. Please continue posting these. The word will get out and those that are meant to receive the information you are giving will find you. I will be back next tuesday.
Thanks! It's been quite a journey already. This is the first time I've ever dived into a holy text in this way, picking it apart and writing my thoughts, rather than simply reading it. We'll see you next week!
wonderful insight! I have been meaning to read this book for a long time, it was recommended by my teacher. Looks like I can read it now nice work thanks 💯🐒
Thanks! I've read through it before, but never in this slow, methodical, systematic way... It seems like Lao Tzu actually said that we shouldn't think about it so much, so make your own decision how to go about it :-P
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I was looking for a decent translation of the Tao te Ching a few months ago wanting to contemplate Lao Tzu's words, or better to say signposts, to stillness. After going to my local library I couldn't find anything that wasn't some type of scholarly analysis rather than a translation. The links in your post have provided me with a collection to compare and contrast.
Also, I didn't know Le Guin had made a translation! She is one of my favorite authors and the Earthsea trilogy particularly holds a deep spiritual subtext for me. It shouldn't have surprised me that she was influenced by the Tao
The name you can say
isn’t the real name.
With so many references to creation through naming, and the magic of Earthsea so bound up in that creation
Two things, one origin,
but different in name,
whose identity is mystery.
Mystery of all mysteries!
The door to the hidden.
I found my first true inspiration to write poetry the first time I read the Toa te Ching many moons ago when I was 17 years old and this has reminded me why. It has started me thinking about maybe writing some poetry on steemit in response to each chapter. Food for thought :-)
This was probably one of the verses that grabbed my attention all those years ago, and certainly one of the ones that got me into translation work.
The line about the “mysterious female” is sooo enigmatic!
是謂玄牝 shì wèi xuán pìn
Xuán means dark, mysterious, but also deep or profound so it’s an adjective used in context of our sense or how we perceive. Pìn interestingly is used to denote the female of a species, so it’s not quite correct to translate it as ‘woman’ (especially as there is a character for that). I’ve always wondered if translators have shown their biases here, wanting to try to show the Taoists as Goddess-worshippers, or perhaps to differentiate them from the patriarchal Christianisation in that sense.
But here’s the other interesting thing about this word — it also means a ‘deep gorge’! Given in the previous line there is mention of “the undying spirit of the valley”, it seems obvious to me to go with this translation.
I think like you said @KennysKitchen, this verse is part of the ‘mystic’ stream of verses, so it’s using the metaphor of a valley or gorge as an empty space to draw attention to how to conceive of the Tao. Certainly in the texts from the much later Quanzhen Tao school, this idea of a ‘Void’ is used to explain what there was(?) before existence came into being— because somethingness can only emerge out of nothingness in the same way that only an empty cup can be filled. And this referenced to the next line 玄牝之門 xuán pìn zhī mén which is the ‘gate of the dark/deep gorge’ being where then Heaven and Earth (the original, primal duality) emerged from. The cosmology continues to explain that it’s is this first duality that create the conditions from which all the 10,000 things (the infinite diversity of existence) also emerge.
I think it’s very easy to see how it is the females who give birth to life acts as the model to explain something which by its nature can not be described: the Void. I think the characterisation of The Void as feminine is modeled on human experience, not the other way around. Pregnancy and birth are the actual, lived experiences which these sages then used as the model to explain how the universe works.
What I find really ironic is that it could seriously be argued that here is an example of explicit matrifocal cosmology... and yet China during this period was so patriarchal. I wonder if Taoists were kinda not trusted by Confucianists because their ideas threatened patriarchal culture and rule to a degree?
Anyway, these are my musings.....
Thanks again for holding this space. It’s a pity it always takes me a few days to come across it. The next verse is an important one for medicine...
I love this, thank both of you for posting an insightful message on the tao. The interpretations can be conveyed from a variety of perspectives. I do see the feminine aspect in the chapter you have presented today. Please continue posting these. The word will get out and those that are meant to receive the information you are giving will find you. I will be back next tuesday.
Thanks! It's been quite a journey already. This is the first time I've ever dived into a holy text in this way, picking it apart and writing my thoughts, rather than simply reading it. We'll see you next week!
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wonderful insight! I have been meaning to read this book for a long time, it was recommended by my teacher. Looks like I can read it now nice work thanks 💯🐒
Thanks! I've read through it before, but never in this slow, methodical, systematic way... It seems like Lao Tzu actually said that we shouldn't think about it so much, so make your own decision how to go about it :-P
Great looking forward to catch up on it all. Also thanks for the introduction to Steempeak cracking platform 👍🏽 💯🐒
I saw this post was not autovoted. Did we change things?
Just the usual fun of an auto-voter that only sometimes works :-) I spend about 1.5 hours a day keeping up with things because the automation isn't that clean.
Woo! Love your post - we've given you a 100 percent upvote with a chance to be featured in the weekly curation. We encourage you to use the #naturalmedicine tag so we can more easily find you.
If you're a supporter of all things natural healing, and haven't already got on board our collective, you might like to read our introductory post here. We'd also love to welcome you on Discord here!!
We are also holding a challenge at the moment for a chance to win Steem. You can read the original post here and entries close this Sunday. We'd love for you to enter!.
Hi @kennyskitchen!
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Hello dear how are you just ask you what is @tribsteemup can I join our community ..I am new member
Thanks for this @kennyskitchen.
I was looking for a decent translation of the Tao te Ching a few months ago wanting to contemplate Lao Tzu's words, or better to say signposts, to stillness. After going to my local library I couldn't find anything that wasn't some type of scholarly analysis rather than a translation. The links in your post have provided me with a collection to compare and contrast.
Also, I didn't know Le Guin had made a translation! She is one of my favorite authors and the Earthsea trilogy particularly holds a deep spiritual subtext for me. It shouldn't have surprised me that she was influenced by the Tao
With so many references to creation through naming, and the magic of Earthsea so bound up in that creation
I found my first true inspiration to write poetry the first time I read the Toa te Ching many moons ago when I was 17 years old and this has reminded me why. It has started me thinking about maybe writing some poetry on steemit in response to each chapter. Food for thought :-)
This was probably one of the verses that grabbed my attention all those years ago, and certainly one of the ones that got me into translation work.
The line about the “mysterious female” is sooo enigmatic!
Xuán means dark, mysterious, but also deep or profound so it’s an adjective used in context of our sense or how we perceive.
Pìn interestingly is used to denote the female of a species, so it’s not quite correct to translate it as ‘woman’ (especially as there is a character for that). I’ve always wondered if translators have shown their biases here, wanting to try to show the Taoists as Goddess-worshippers, or perhaps to differentiate them from the patriarchal Christianisation in that sense.
But here’s the other interesting thing about this word — it also means a ‘deep gorge’! Given in the previous line there is mention of “the undying spirit of the valley”, it seems obvious to me to go with this translation.
I think like you said @KennysKitchen, this verse is part of the ‘mystic’ stream of verses, so it’s using the metaphor of a valley or gorge as an empty space to draw attention to how to conceive of the Tao. Certainly in the texts from the much later Quanzhen Tao school, this idea of a ‘Void’ is used to explain what there was(?) before existence came into being— because somethingness can only emerge out of nothingness in the same way that only an empty cup can be filled. And this referenced to the next line 玄牝之門 xuán pìn zhī mén which is the ‘gate of the dark/deep gorge’ being where then Heaven and Earth (the original, primal duality) emerged from. The cosmology continues to explain that it’s is this first duality that create the conditions from which all the 10,000 things (the infinite diversity of existence) also emerge.
I think it’s very easy to see how it is the females who give birth to life acts as the model to explain something which by its nature can not be described: the Void. I think the characterisation of The Void as feminine is modeled on human experience, not the other way around. Pregnancy and birth are the actual, lived experiences which these sages then used as the model to explain how the universe works.
What I find really ironic is that it could seriously be argued that here is an example of explicit matrifocal cosmology... and yet China during this period was so patriarchal. I wonder if Taoists were kinda not trusted by Confucianists because their ideas threatened patriarchal culture and rule to a degree?
Anyway, these are my musings.....
Thanks again for holding this space. It’s a pity it always takes me a few days to come across it. The next verse is an important one for medicine...
😊🙏🏽☯️
This is by far the closest allusion to Gnostic mythology. The light and darkened wombs...