Most scholars consider Verse 25 to contain the most important words in the entire Tao Te Ching, for these words give us our place - or as I say it, our "anthropology" in the universe.

And our place is nested in Tao. As this verse concludes: Know your interconnections: Human beings come from Earth, Earth’s patterns entwine with Heaven’s, Heaven roots in Tao, Tao’s blueprint is Nature itself.

Please don't rush over the implications of this conclusion! Here is our quiet confidence that we are already interconnected with Tao. This is our "Epic Résumé".

Huge thanks to David Wollert for his voice and question on sailing (!!).

May your days begin in peace, and be practices for radical hope. -Marc Mullinax ([email protected])

Verse 24 starts off with two ludicrous (and unnatural) images: walking on tip-toe and zombie-walking on straddled legs. These introduce four more unnatural, ego-led ways to be in life, like playing to a crowd, crowing one's opinions, elevation of self, and praising the self -- big head, pride, arrogance, boastfulness, egotism. Etc., etc., etc.

Lao-Tzu teaches here how all six are basically the same life-approaches; since each and all try to draw attention to one's self, they are as unnatural as they are toxic. Each has this unfortunate side effect: they render a person UNABLE to see and practice everyday Tao.

But there is good news! Practice trust in and truth with Tao. It is possible to release ego's hold, turn the UNABLED into ENABLED.

Jimmy Knight, a college career advisor, joins me on the episode with great questions and discussions on how this verse applies to students of any age.

May your days begin in peace, and practices for hope.

Marc Mullinax

What if truth and trust are practices? Practices that take us right into the heart of Tao, and at the same time, the innermost core of who we are. For are not the two the same?

This episode explores how Trust and Truth inter-relate, and how when we practice Trust, we practice the Chinese verb T'ung (同), used 6 times in this verse. Which means something!

T'ung means to align, identify with. Like a musician or an athlete, the practices of alignment and identification with Tao lead us into the wisdom that we, the Universe, and Tao, are each and all made of the same stuff, and by the same spontaneous practices.

Thanks to Susan Carleton for your good work with the quotes and her real-life question!

May your days begin in peace, become wombs for radical hope, and rest in the power and practices of trust.

Brian Graves joined me on this podcast, not just as a quote-reader, but as an actual dialog partner during his question about "How does one grade students with a Taoist sensibility?"

Verse 22 is our focus this week. No matter what we may feel, or however we may act, there is NOTHING WE CAN DO to separate from Tao. The Tao teaching here SO different from many religions popular today: whatever partial, weaker, or exhausted aspect of life one feels, these are actually our entry points – our passports – to wholeness and unity. The person who models this wholeness is a force of Nature.

Audrey Davis drew. Molly Hartwell sang. Fortress Press holds the copyright for any use of my Tao Te Ching translation. And without you, where WOULD we be? Thank you for your attendance in this class on Taoism.

May your days begin in peace, and become wombs for radical hope.

Marc Mullinax

If you know something to be true, but is hard to express, like a love relationship, or a spiritual conviction, how do you become *confident* that it is the highest thing to which you can dedicate your life?

This is the question of Verse 21. Lao Tzu answers his own question with an emphasis on practicing TE, or Highest Virtue. This "TE," by the way is the TE in Tao TE Ching, or the Book about The Way of Virtue.

The practice of this Virtue is ever-reinforcing, enabling in one a calm, serene confidence (not certainty) or intuition that there actually is a Tao, and this Tao CAN be cooperated with.

The more we cooperate with Tao, the more confidence we have in Tao's paths and ways as we live them out.

Thanks to Dale Roberts for his voice in this episode, including a rather comprehensive question.

We pause every 10 verses to enrich and provide more info than one may find in Tao te Ching text itself. More history, more practices, more background.

This episode covers the kind of embarrassing dilemma we in the West have: Our 100+ versions of Tao te Ching in English are separated from Taoism as it has been generated and practiced by actual Taoists in Taoism's home: China.

Thus, this episode makes a plea for us to become more educated and conversant about an ENTIRE culture, history, and tradition that gave us this one sliver of Taoism - this Tao te Ching text. If you know only Tao te Ching but not Taoism itself as a living culture, this episode introduces Taoism's practices.

I make reference in the episode to (1) my "spiritual terrorism" blog, when Japan weaponized a Taoist practice (http://allkoreaconsidered.blogspot.com/2017/07/spiritual-terrorism.html) and (2) and to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/daoism-religion/)

May your days begin in peace, and become practices with which you weave radical hope, for you, and your communities.

Marc Mullinax - [email protected]

Here is a verse that seems to be autobiographical. The author gets trapped into webs and narratives of others, and has to hide their true self.

#go.along.to.get.along

When one forgets or compromises one's original self, original virtue, or as the main metaphor for this verse, one's thread to which one holds tightly, all kinds of compromises and "settling" happen.

The solution: Remember your roots. Remember your origins. Come back to your senses.

Missy Harris is our voice and question-asker.

May your days begin in peace, and become the threads with which weave radical hope.

There is a key word in the Chinese version of this text - Chüeh (绝) - that I have come to believe has been under-interpreted. The usual English words used to interpret Chüeh include renounce, abandon, give up, throw away, forget about, banish, get rid of, end, do away with, drop and forswear.

There is a wonderful opportunity to re-read this verse with Chüeh being translated as "interruption". Today's episode is my attempt to strengthen (if possible) the idea of 绝 with what it means to practice a "holy interruption" as a spiritual practice.

The trickster Matt Buys is my quote-reader and question-asker. Audrey Davis is our esteemed artist. Molly Hartwell sings her “Put Your Roots Down.” Fortress Press holds the copyright for quotations from my Tao Te Ching translation. Thanks to you for your attendance in this class on Taoism.May your days begin in peace, and become wombs for radical and "interruptive" hope.

Marc Mullinax - [email protected]

Verses 17-19 can be read together, so this week's verse 18 continues some of the themes from last week's episode on Verse 17.

What happens when you start to abandon your original nature and "descend" or move to another beat or drum? According to this teaching, what happens is that we find myriad ways to lose our true self in the cultures around us, that may - and often do - regard us with contempt, or as a potential ATM. We are better than that, this verse reminds us. We are made for much better.

Can we listen?

Stephanie McLeskey gave voice to our quotes and question this week. Audrey Davis is our esteemed artist. Molly Hartwell sings her haunting song, “Put Your Roots Down.” Fortress Press holds the copyright for quotations from my Tao Te Ching translation. Thanks to you for your attendance in this class on Taoism.

May your days begin in peace, and

become wombs for radical hope.

Marc Mullinax - [email protected]

This verse contains the first of five instances of "Ziran" which are the last two words of this verse, meaning, "It all happens naturally." Other ways to translate Ziran include, include "something that happens by itself constantly," spontaneously self-so, or “It is so by virtue of its own” and “the nature of what is so”.

Ziran is the result of acting silently, without fanfare or drawing ANY attention to self, and practicing the highest virtue - Tao, or, the "greatest thing above or beyond." This practice is the true practice of transparent leaders, parents, neighbors, or colleagues.... Things just seem to happen naturally on their own.

Deborah Lynn gave voice to our quotes this week. Her question stumped me, and so I am asking you listeners to help me answer her.

Audrey Davis is our esteemed artist. Molly Hartwell sings her haunting song, “Put Your Roots Down.” Fortress Press holds the copyright for quotations from my Tao Te Ching translation. Thanks to you for your attendance in this class on Taoism.