Reading the Tao Inspires Me

Most of the time we always want to do what we want and make sure things are just how we want them to be. Tao talks about accepting things the way they already are and not trying everything to change them and make them the way you want them to be. Sometimes we might feel the whole world is going against us, but what we should do, according to the Tao is to not try to go against it, but instead accept how it is and love it as you love yourself. “Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things.” (13)

The Tao is wise, but if you truly think way too much about it, it gets confusing. “Stand before it and there is no beginning. Follow it and there is no end. Stay with the ancient Tao. Move with the present.” (14) How ancient do you know the Tao is if it doesn’t have any beginning or end? And how can there be a present if you don’t know where it started and when it will finish? You see, there are some things that if you think way too much about it you can confuse yourself. But sometimes it actually seems as if the Tao was the one trying to confuse you; “But I alone am aimless and depressed. I am different.” (20) Is it trying to tell us that we are all different and therefore unique, or those this mean that there are some of us that are just different and that should be left alone?

There are others things that are simple and clear. “Empty yourself of everything. Let the mind become still. (16) I think this is really cool. It´s like meditating or something like that. I have tried to relax myself completely and the truth is I have never completely achieved it. It´s not only to empty yourself but make your mind stay there and not let any sort of thought go through. It sounds confusing, but the Tao really makes it sound easy. Maybe if I do it that way I will be able to fully relax in one of those really stressful moments after long days.

Anyways, I think Tao is fun and it in a way makes me feel part of something big. Tao is like everyone’s mom and like any mom; it has a family and some sort of life or cycle that revolves around it. “Man follows the earth. Earth follows heaven. Heaven follows the Tao. Tao follows what is natural.” (25) Tao is eternal. Now that is what call something big and important.

It makes me feel special.

The Amazing Tao

Wow, I had never imagined the Tao Te Ching would be like this. It is really easy to understand because it goes directly to the point and makes small comparisons that help people to relate to it in a very nice way. In it I have found many interesting things, such as “Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness. All can know good as good only because there is evil. Difficult and easy complement each other.” (2)It talks about the perfect balance of things and that’s helps show the importance of everything, because there is not bad, then how can there be good? This, I am pretty sure isn’t encouraging people to be bad so there can be good, it´s just saying that because evil exists we can know and therefore do what’s right.

“The highest good is like water.” (8) That I think is one of the most magical and to the point things I have ever read in a religious book, because it encircles all the other teaching that in other books would take up whole chapters, but here they can be putting only one small phrase. Water is pure, clear, and good. By us being really good, or the “highest good”, we will be able to one day become like water. Obviously this is a metaphor, we won´t become water, but we will become pure and clean at heart and extremely good as if might have ever even been imagined.

The other thing that I like the most was “The five color blind the eye, the five tones deafen the ear, the five flavors dull the taste… He lets go of that and chooses this.”( 12)I believe that he, or whoever is speaking is talking about the Tao. There are always five things that are mentioned, five colors, five tones, five flavors, but the question is, are all these fives just a number he liked or just something that stand for five pillars (like in Islam)? He says “He lets go of that and chooses this.” But this, as in Tao or this as some other five things or what.

Ok, so this part was probably a little more confusing, but it was probably because I made it confusing. Reading this really made me look at everything in a different way, I really like it. I just hope we can continue reading and analyzing it to be able to understand everything much better and be able to in a way relate to is more deeply.

It´s Just a Theory

Many believe that “God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2: 7) But others consider Darwin´s theory of man evolving from the ape. But who´s right? Normally, I would say I believe in the Bible, but this time it´s completely the opposite.

Everything happened because of Brady, who being completely innocent told the children about the theory, or the belief that some have about apes evolving to what we are now. Many thought that is was wrong for Brady to teach these things, but they have the right to know about it. He should teach the different theories that exist, it´s not like he is making them believe in those things, he is just saying that´s what others believe. It´s up to them to decide if they want to believe in it or not. If they know these things they will be better prepared for the outer world. They should have the opportunity to know about them.

Many didn’t see it as just something to know about, but something to believe. “Man didn’t evolve from the ape, the ape devolved from the man.” The other side is always contradicting itself, and that’s because they don’t really even fully believe in the Bible. It´s not even the way they believe in it, because it doesn’t even seem as if they did, because they only use it as, in a way, an excuse to have some sort of things to make them feel as if they are doing something good. No wonder they are always singing that song about having “an all time religion” it´s something they want but don’t have.

They believe in the Bible in a very literal way and not really on the helping, wise things in it, or the faith it brings. They think that “Everything in the Bible should be taken as it is.” But if the Bible says “He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind." (Proverbs) They will probably see it as if you have troubles at home, then you will become some sort of Wind Lord, when what it really means is that if there are troubles at homes, then we will be left with nothing but the wind, which after all is nothing.

This I really don’t like. The Bible should be there to help people have faith in it, some sort of hope. Faith is the most important thing. How can there be faith if they just believe in every single word they read from the Bible and not the teaching itself? Just believing in it in the literal way will be like wasting their time, because it would mean that they do not believe in what they should believe, but instead they just believe in what they want to believe from what is written in it. “The Bible is a book. It's a good book. But it is not the only book.” Books are read, but they are also there to be interpreted and for each person that reads it to get something from it. The author wants to transmit a message, but most of the time people just get what they wanted to get, and find what they were looking for.

Mistakes seem to be the base of Confuciusness

Yes, mistakes are important in all this. They are mentioned over and over again, was that a mistake? No, it was because of emphasis, and to make sure that everyone got it. Mistakes are important and we all learn from them, even if they weren’t our mistakes. Mistakes are good, but only if you are willing to be better and actually learn something from it. In 17:30 it says: “to make a mistake and yet not to change your ways – this is what is called truly making a mistake.”

Something new was the different types of people. In a way I think we are all similar, we are all humans, have feeling and have the desire to be better, but we are all free to do whatever we want and take the path we prefer to follow. In life we all stay the same, with the same proposes and hopes, but only those who are really dump or extremely smart will be the ones that will always stay the same. When you are too dump you will forget what you wanted to achieve in life, and if you are too smart you will always know what is best and will try to chose the best since the very beginning. While normal people will just change their way all the time. In conclusion, “By nature people are similar, they diverge as a result of practice, only the very wise or the very stupid do not change.” (17.2 and 17.3

I think its actually really important and interesting all the things you can get when reading and analyzing all this things that don’t only help us ponder, but if we follow them they will help us be better and therefore have a happier life.

Life, Death and What’s in Between

While reading this, I realized that the analects are indented to be for all, because they talk about something we all have in common and one of the most important points of being in this world, life. We are free to live however we want to, but there are some things that affect the way we do, such as where we are born, the culture we are supposed to follow and all those things. No one can live for us, and there is no one who has the same life as we do, maybe similar, but never the same. One of the reasons is because we are all different, and we all make different mistakes and have different talents or gifts.

We are all here to learn from our mistakes and sometimes even from others mistakes. I really liked 7.22, it said “When walking with two people, I will always find a teacher among them. I focus on those who are good and seek to emulate them and focus on those who are bad in order to be reminded in what needs to be changed in myself. ” I think that is something very smart and respectful to do. Most of the time, the natural thing to do, I think would be to laugh at the one who made a mistake, and not look and focus on what they did so we can be better. That is something I think we all have to work with.

Then after we can be good and find the Way, then there is death. Yes, death. Many are frighten about it, and I believe it´s mainly because no one really knows what’s after it or what exactly happens when you die, but to be able to one day get it, I think is best to think: “May I inquire about death? You do not yet understand life- how could you possibly understand death?” (11:12). This is so logical. To understand death, we have to understand life first, but how are we sure that we understand life before we die? Its and endless and vicious cycle.

Confucius, Another Beginning

Reading the analects has been very interesting. There is a lot about Goodness and how that can lead to happiness. It reminds me of Bhagavad-Gita, in the sense of knowing that everything leads to something else that leads to something else. If we don’t remain with Goodness, then there will never be adversity and we won’t be able to enjoy happiness either. It’s kind of confusing, but in a way it also makes sense, because how can we enjoying happiness, if there is no adversity? Then how are we know that we are actually and truly happy?

People who are Good feel they have Goodness, but there are “those who are clever to follow Goodness because they feel that they will profit from it.” (4.2) But here comes the trick “merely set your heart sincerely upon Goodness and you will be free of bad intentions.” (4.4) This means that only those who really are Good will be able to profit from Goodness, because if you are not clever enough you won’t even be able to be Good in the first place.

There is a difference between being clever and being wise, “the wise take joy in rivers, while the Good take joy in mountains, the wise are active, while the Good are still. The wise are joyful, while the Good are longed-lived.” (6.23) I think that means a lot, the wise are like the ones that know everything but don’t really know how to use or express their knowledge, so they are active, joyful and moving as fast as rivers because they feel there is no time to lose. While the clever, the Good, know how to act, but they first prefect to wait and see what is happening around them and what they can do to help or simply be good. That’s why they are so still, live so long and are as strong and powerful as mountains.

Most of the time when we see someone else make a mistake, we usually laugh or make fun of them because of doing something so dump, but is happens to all of us and we have to try to understand that those things happen so that we can be better and then other will look at us, just as how we might look at others, because “when you see someone who is worthy, concentrate upon becoming their equal; when you see someone who is unworthy, use this as an opportunity to look within yourself.” (4.17) that will not only help us be better, but we will also be able to learn from ourselves and others, like Yan Hui. “Who among your disciples might be said to love learning? There was one named Yan Hui who loved learning, he never misdirected his anger and never made the same mistake twice. Unfortunately, his allotted life spam life was short and he passed away. Now that he is gone, there are none who really love learning – at least, I have yet to hear of one.” (6.3) Never making the same mistake twice must be something really great to achieve… but who is Yan Hui anyways?

Psalms Mean More Than Just That

I have really liked reading Psalms, because not only are they easy to understand and sometimes to relate with, but also because they mean a lot, not only to the people who wrote them, but to God too. Psalms are chants to praise the Lord, I believe they come from the heart and that there were probably millions of them but only some made it to be in the Bible.

We read four of them, and as I was able to discover they all talk pretty much about the same things, but each ones says it in a different way.

In number 23 I really liked where it said: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalms 23: 4) It gives me hope, in a way, to know that whoever wrote this was right. We usually feel alone and it´s like there is no one for us and that we don’t have anyone that really wants to listens or is there for us. There might be friends we can trust, but there are situations where there is nothing they can do to make us feel better. God is always there for us, and I bet that he loves us and wants us to know that he knows everything and that if we pray to him and tell him how we feel he will answer our prayers and make us feel much better, in a way he is a friend.

We might wonder once in a while like number 42, “Where is thy God? ... Why hast thou forgotten me,” (Psalms 42: 3, 9) But he has never left, only maybe if have actually done something extremely bad, but we just have to “hope in God.” (Psalms 42: 11) For he is God after all.

We are not perfect and therefore we sometimes do things that aren’t the best ones, but we can always repent and try to be even better. Those things happen so we can learn from our mistakes and maybe someday be better. “For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalms 52: 3, 10)

The one I didn’t really get was number 137, the only part I was able to kind of understand was “How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land?” (Psalms 137: 4) I think this is interesting, and makes me think that these people were probably scared to sing in a different country or something, so they decided to write them down and then that was how the Psalms started to become a book. I am not completely sure about it, but we will probably find out later on.