Lao Tzu: There are Ways but the Way is Uncharted | Steve Beckow

Lao Tzu

By Steve Beckow, January 13, 2022

(Golden Age of Gaia)

Here is a second helping of terrestrial mystics’ classical-enlightenment teachings.

The third book I read when I began to seriously enquire into spirituality was Lao Tzu’s Tao Teh Ching. I prefer the edition below.

Lao Tzu was so unassuming, so “everyday,” and yet so wise. The Tao Teh Ching made a lasting impression on me. Readers will see here passages that I’ve repeated many times in articles.

Download a copy of Blakney’s translation here: https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Chinese-Mysticism-The-Way-of-Life_text.pdf

Lao-Tzu, The Way of Life (Tao Te Ching). Trans. R.B. Blakney. New York and Scarborough: New American Library, 1955.

Questioner: How do you live?

Alone I am and different,
Because I prize and seek
My sustenance from the Mother. (1)

Q: Then you know the Mother of the world?

Nameless indeed is the source of creation
But things have a mother and she has a name. (2)

It began with a matrix:
The world had a mother. …
Keep close to her
As long as you live
And suffer no harm. (3)

The valley spirit is not dead:
They say it is the mystic female.
Her gateway is, they further say,
The base of earth and heaven.

Constantly, and so forever,
Use her without labor. (4)

Q: What would you say to the Mother’s servants?

[The] kingdom … will long endure
If it provides the Mother an abode. (5)

Q: You wander the countryside. Are you ever afraid?

Once grasp the great Form without form,
And you roam where you will
With no evil to fear,
Calm, peaceful, at ease. (6)

Then, though you die,
You shall not perish. (7)

Q: Excuse me? How can you die and not perish?

Long life it is to die and not perish. (8)

The secret waits for the insight
Of eyes unclouded by longing;
Those who are bound by desire
See only the outward container. (9)

Q: You are speaking of Ascension, mukti, liberation. What can we expect to see from this Ascension?

The crooked shall be made straight
And the rough places plain;
The pools shall be filled
And the worn renewed. (10)

Q: What is the Wise One like?

In this world,
Compare those of the Way
To torrents that flow
Into river and sea. (11)

Q: How would you describe the wise approach to the chaos of these times?

The Wise Man’s office
Is to work by being still;
He teaches not by speech
But by accomplishment;
He does for everything,
Neglecting none;
Their life he gives to all,
Possessing none;
And what he brings to pass
Depends on no one else.
As he succeeds,
He takes no credit
And just because he does not take it,
Credit never leaves him. (12)

Q: I want to learn the Way. What do I need to know?

There are ways but the Way is uncharted. (13)

The Way eternal has no name. (14)

The Way is obscure and unnamed. (15)

It stretches far back
To that nameless estate
Which existed before the creation. (16)

Q: Hmmmm…. Is it possible to know the Way?

The Way itself is like some thing
Seen in a dream, elusive, evading one.
In it are images, elusive, evading one.
In it are things, like shadows in twilight.
In it are essences, subtle but real,
Embedded in truth. (17)

The further you go,
The less you know. (18)

To be perfect, return to it. (19)

Footnotes

(1) Lao-Tzu, The Way of Life (Tao Te Ching). Trans. R.B. Blakney. New York and Scarborough: New American Library, 1955, 20, 72. All quotes from the same book.

(2) 1, 53.

(3) 52, 105.

(4) 6, 58.

(5) 59, 112.

(6) 35, 88.

(7) 16, 68.

(8) 33, 86.

(9) 1, 53.

(10) 22, 74.

(11) 32, 85.

(12) 2, 54.

(13) 1, 53.

(14) 32, 85.

(15) 41, 94.

(16) 14, 66.

(17) 21, 73.

(18) 47, 100.

(19) 22, 74.

Download here: https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Chinese-Mysticism-The-Way-of-Life_text.pdf