Reading time: 5 minutes
Hi everyone,
It’s a pleasure to announce the new format for Tao Te Tuesdays; sparked by the feedback from Scott Bryan.
Other than announcing new posts (which will be about once a month) TTT will now be a weekly newsletter where I will share one chapter from the Tao Te Ching and a short clarifying commentary. I will be as brief as possible and let the TTC shine by itself. We’ll be using Stephen Mitchell's translation. The best by far.
If you’re new to the TTC, there are three characters you should know:
Lao Tzu: The mysterious author of this masterpiece. Nothing is certain about him. All we know is the translation of his name, Old Master (also Old Boy) and he lived somewhere in 6th Century BCE China.
The Tao: Literally meaning The Way. I won’t dare try to explain it in two lines. The entire book is about helping us understand it, so stay tuned for more.
The Master: The man or woman who lives by the Tao and understands it completely.
*A basic rule for reading the TTC, when in doubt trust your own interpretation.
It’s easy to forget that there is a world beyond words. Words are the tools humanity uses to navigate this reality but they are far from perfect. As expressed by the poet Khalil Gibran:
Reality“… is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.”
The Tao is the outside, the cage, and the bird; and the only way to explore it is by living it, not by talking about it.
How do you live it? A great way to start is by embracing “Darkness”. Or put in a more digestible way: not-knowing.
The acceptance of Not-knowing is the gateway to all understanding and the cornerstone of the Master’s diet^1.
You don’t know why that client didn’t take your meeting. You don’t know why you got angry at that moment and you don’t know why you are who you are. In that apparent Darkness, you will learn how to live a peaceful life.
Song Picks of the Week
Kin - Tourist - Another one of the Experimental-Electro-Chill species.
Goodbyes - Joachim Pastor - Melodic House. Awesome combination between Sine waves (clean) and square waves (buzzlike).
Thank you! Looking forward to hearing from you. You can respond by replying to this email. All feedback, comments or questions are more than welcome.
Daniel
Footnotes:
The word ‘Diet’s etymological meaning is “A way of life”. How cool is that?