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PureX

PureX

Veteran Member
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The first time I read the Tao Te Ching it made me angry. It seemed to me that every line was directly and deliberately contradicting the line before it, and sometimes it would even contradict itself within the SAME line. And I thought "WTF" is this BS? I mean look at this ...​
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"The tao that can be told ​
is not the eternal Tao ​
The name that can be named ​
is not the eternal Name. ​
​
​
The unnamable is the eternally real. ​
Naming is the origin ​
of all particular things. ​
​
​
Free from desire, you realize the mystery. ​
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations. ​
​
​
Yet mystery and manifestations ​
arise from the same source. ​
This source is called darkness. ​
​
​
Darkness within darkness. ​
The gateway to all understanding."​
​
Huh?!?!?!

Why couldn't it just say whatever it is it's trying to say in a clear and linear way? Like an "Anglo" would. :)

I got a few pages in and tossed the book away. A load of gibberish, I thought.

But some 10 years later another copy of it happened to pass into my hands, and out of curiosity I began to read it again. This time I was not so annoyed. I could at least recognize that it was not intending just to frustrate me or fob off some pseudo-psycho new age babble as "ancient wisdom". I could see that it was earnestly trying to enlighten the reader, ... to something. But I still couldn't quite get what. So I read through most of it, but again I gave up and then eventually forgot about it.

Then another 10 years passed, and the book was recommended to me by a trusted friend at a troubled time in my life, so I decided to give it one more shot. And I was astonished! This time I not only could understand what it was trying to say, but I actually realized it was being said with genuine kindness and humor! Just the opposite of what I had seen in it, before.

Here, the "problem" was never in the message. Or in it's delivery. It was in my mind's inability to grasp and accept the depth and breadth of the message! And I think this is what is really behind a lot of those philosophical and religious stories about 'failure'. It's the lesson of becoming aware of our own shortcomings.

I also recall a zen story an old art professor used to tell about a man that spends his whole life learning how to be a master pot-maker. How he goes to study under a great master pot-maker who barely even speaks to him except to give him seemingly mindless chores to do every day. On and on the story goes, decade after decade, while the novice becomes and apprentice, and then a journeymen, and then finally a young master, himself. Until he can finally create the perfect pot.

And yet, somehow, he can see that his perfect pots are still not as great as his old master's pots. But how could this be? How can anything be more perfect than anything else? It didn't make sense. So finally, in frustration and with humility he asks his old master why his own pots are still not as great as his masters pots, and the master kindly and uncustomarily answered him that yes, they both can now make a perfect pot. But the old master can then add three flaws to it. One flaw to get past the perfectionism, the second flaw to show his deliberation, and the third flaw to complete the 'adventure' and to stand as undoubtable proof of his mastery over both perfection and imperfection. Then the old man laughed and laughed and laughed and as he did so he tossed his greatest pot against the stone kiln and broke it into a hundred pieces.

The point of the story being that there is ALWAYS more to discover, and more to be learned. And there is always a greater master. And all we can do in the face of this is to be honest, humble, attentive, and willing to learn.
 
Last edited:
G

GoodAttention

Well-Known Member
sun rise said:
When it comes to great religious/spiritual figures there have been figures like Rabia of Basra, St. Teresa of Avila, Mirabai and many others. One of the best rebukes that I know of was Rabia's conversation with Hasan about the lack of value of cheap "miracles":
​
One day Hasan AlBasri saw Rabia near a lake. He threw his prayer rug on top of the water and said:​
​
"Rabia come! Let us pray two rakat here."​
​
She replied:​
​
"Hasan, when you are showing off your spiritual goods in the worldly market, it should be things which your fellow men cannot display."​
​
She then threw her prayer rug into the air and flew up onto it saying:​
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"Come up here, Hasan, where people can see us."​
​
Then she said:​
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"Hasan, what you did, fish can do, and what I did, flies can do. But the real business is outside these tricks. One must apply oneself to the real business."​
Click to expand...

My favourite Rabia of Basra poem (of the many translations)

O my Lord,

If I worship you
from fear of hell, burn me in hell.

If I worship you
from hope of Paradise, bar me from Paradise.

But if I worship you
for yourself alone, grant me then your eternal beauty.


​

 
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