I'm working my way toward the first quarter pole in my series on the Tao Te Ching. When this idea first popped into me little noggin, I think I sort of forgot that one verse per day meant that I was committing to an endeavor that will span into the first week of October! Mind you, I'm not complaining; I'm enjoying this trip down the river and I sincerely hope a lot of you are paddling along with me.
My thoughts on this project have evolved. Initially, I had planned to do what most other Taoist-minded people do when deciding to tackle this ancient work -- I simply was going to showcase my specific interpretation of each verse. However, as I mulled this over in my mind, I realized that doing such might suggest that I view myself as something of a sage and that couldn't be further from the truth!
Look, this is not to say that I don't have sagacious moments, but, by and large, I'm just a humble bumpkin meandering down a road.
But it goes further than that. One of the points I make over and over again is that coming to understand Tao is like sewing a tapestry. While we each must take the needle in hand, the tapestry is sewn of many fabrics. While each stitch is our own, the patterns used may be thousands of years old.
In other words, none of us should rely on one reading or interpretation of the TTC. Each of us possesses biases and blind spots. If we hold to only one specific translation or rendition plus one specific interpretation, then a living and breathing document soon turns into unmitigated dogma. We become rigid in our beliefs and this flies in the face of the Taoist metaphors of water, silk, and the uncarved block.
So, I've made it a point to treat this series as a research project. While you're certainly going to get my take on each verse, I'm working hard to include many other voices too. My office is strewn with books -- those that I own and those from the library. I'm cataloging each one so that I have an index of quotes and commentaries to draw from for most verses.
In addition, I continue to search the internet for even more voices and one of the folders in my ForeFox browser has grown fairly large.
Yet, for all these different voices, the most important voice is your own. While it is my sincere hope that this 81-day presentation of a wide variety of perspectives helps YOU to come to an understanding of the themes expressed in each verse, in the end, what matters most is your own unique interpretation.
So P-L-E-A-S-E, don't take anything you read on this blog as the gospel truth. All it represents is the Gospel of The Rambling Taoist. To live a genuine life in Tao, we each must write our own.
My thoughts on this project have evolved. Initially, I had planned to do what most other Taoist-minded people do when deciding to tackle this ancient work -- I simply was going to showcase my specific interpretation of each verse. However, as I mulled this over in my mind, I realized that doing such might suggest that I view myself as something of a sage and that couldn't be further from the truth!
Look, this is not to say that I don't have sagacious moments, but, by and large, I'm just a humble bumpkin meandering down a road.
But it goes further than that. One of the points I make over and over again is that coming to understand Tao is like sewing a tapestry. While we each must take the needle in hand, the tapestry is sewn of many fabrics. While each stitch is our own, the patterns used may be thousands of years old.
In other words, none of us should rely on one reading or interpretation of the TTC. Each of us possesses biases and blind spots. If we hold to only one specific translation or rendition plus one specific interpretation, then a living and breathing document soon turns into unmitigated dogma. We become rigid in our beliefs and this flies in the face of the Taoist metaphors of water, silk, and the uncarved block.
So, I've made it a point to treat this series as a research project. While you're certainly going to get my take on each verse, I'm working hard to include many other voices too. My office is strewn with books -- those that I own and those from the library. I'm cataloging each one so that I have an index of quotes and commentaries to draw from for most verses.
In addition, I continue to search the internet for even more voices and one of the folders in my ForeFox browser has grown fairly large.
Yet, for all these different voices, the most important voice is your own. While it is my sincere hope that this 81-day presentation of a wide variety of perspectives helps YOU to come to an understanding of the themes expressed in each verse, in the end, what matters most is your own unique interpretation.
So P-L-E-A-S-E, don't take anything you read on this blog as the gospel truth. All it represents is the Gospel of The Rambling Taoist. To live a genuine life in Tao, we each must write our own.
"To live a genuine life in Tao, we each must write our own."
ReplyDeleteAh, the beginnings of wisdom! ;^)
Namaste....
Very well said. The same humility should apply to the reading of all sacred texts.
ReplyDelete:D :D :D
ReplyDeleteAh, RT, I love reading your interpretations of the Tao. Indeed, I struggle with a "voice of authority" tone when writing about issues in which I feel myself barely, if at all competent, so you have my greatest sympathy. But your ramblings are often a refuge of bemused delight and wonder at the prospect of wisdom yet to be attained, in this internet which overflows with angry certainties. I think you.
Really, your step-by-step progress through the Tao makes me think of something I did on a poetry message board once. First I struggled for weeks (months? I don't remember) to establish a culture of creative criticism. Then I worked to instill the basic principles of positive critique in the regulars who were willing to listen to me and others with their own views. Only then, after this, did I take my great big honking enormous poem in fifty verses out and post it, verse by verse, offering pretend-money rewards for anyone who'd give me notes.
I have this feeling that's the sort of thing you wish to do with your tour through the Tao. You want to happily display what you've done so far, yes, but you are most eager for anyone to come along and give you fresh insight as well. :) You just seem like that kind of cool.
I will endeavor to contribute.
PS. "I think you", in the first paragraph, was supposed to be "I thank you." Stupid fingers typing without looking!
ReplyDeleteFiat Lex,
ReplyDeleteOoh, you have me pegged! What I want to get out of this is twofold: 1) To present many different voices to provide others with the impetus to find or return to their own voice and 2) For others, as you suggest, to share their insights to make each verse richer, though goal #1 is far more important than goal #2.
Cecil, I couldn't agree with you more!
Donna, don't we know it! : )