Chapter 43 of an anonymous translation of the Tao Te Ching. 10 minute guided meditation followed by discussion.

I'm back! And coming back is not so easy. In today's talk I begin with an update on my whereabouts and on how I'm doing.

Coming back to any practice or commitment after leaving it can give rise to shame. Shame is such a difficult state to endure that a standard response to it is avoidance - avoidance of the thing that causes the feeling of shame to arise, which in this case is the positive act of returning. Because avoidance worsens the original problem of leaving, it further magnifies the shame with every later attempt we make to return.

This has been my dilemma.

We sit, and I discuss judgments, as well as the value of softness in experiencing ourselves and interacting with the world.

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43.

The softest is stronger than the very hardest

That which makes everything be what it is, penetrates everything

Therefore I know that it's wise to leave and not do anything

That one doesn't need lessons for it

That of all doings, leaving is where true happiness lies

In this world only a few understand this.

Intro chime credit: theveryrealhorst, Solfeggio Wind Chimes, MI 528 Hz Single Cut #2, freesound.org

Ending credits: felix.blume, Train passing by in the desert close recording, freesound.org

Chapter 42 of the Dwight Goddard translation of the Tao Te Ching. 10 minute guided meditation followed by discussion.

In today's talk I begin by discussing work, money, their effects on us and on nature, and the conditioned responses that were planted in each of us as children that we didn't get to choose.

Meditation gives us the opportunity to notice those conditioned responses. It creates the possibility for choice, even if only briefly. As you strengthen this through a regular sitting practice, you gain more chances to make choices that resonate with your innermost truth, as opposed to acting out rote responses planted in you by others who were themselves acting unconsciously.

While assigning and then reaching for a goal with meditation is usually counterproductive, this outcome - noticing your inner truth - is a tangible benefit of sitting that we can look forward to, similar to the way facing our fears regularly can increase our ability to act courageously.

I finish with a discussion of Chapter 42.

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42. The Transformation of Tao

Tao produces unity; unity produces duality; duality produces trinity; trinity produces all things. All things bear the negative principle (yin) and embrace the positive principle (yang). Immaterial vitality, the third principle (chi), makes them harmonious.

Those things which are detested by the common people, namely to be called orphans, inferiors, and unworthies, are the very things kings and lords take for titles. There are some things which it is a gain to lose, and a loss to gain.

I am teaching the same things which are taught by others. But the strong and aggressive: ones do not obtain a natural death (i.e., self-confident teachers do not succeed). I alone expound the basis of the doctrine of the Tao.

Intro chime credit: theveryrealhorst, Solfeggio Wind Chimes, MI 528 Hz Single Cut #2, freesound.org

Ending credits: jungh001, Early morning Dzanga Sangha national park, Central African Republic, freesound.org

Chapter 41 of the Ch'u Ta-Kao translation of the Tao Te Ching. 10 minute guided meditation followed by discussion.

Chapter 41 is a beautiful passage and one of the ones that originally attracted me to the Tao Te Ching, primarily because it puzzled me. When I was young it seemed both to not make sense and simultaneously to speak to something deep within me.  In the course of exploring the chapter, I ask the question, If all paths are part of the Tao, then why make an effort to follow the Tao?

We finish with a short gratitude practice.

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41.

When the superiour scholar is told of Tao,

He works hard to practise it.

When the middling scholar is told of Tao,

It seems that sometimes he keeps it and sometimes he loses it.

When the inferiour scholar is told of Tao,

He laughs aloud at it.

If it were not laughed at, it would not be sufficient to be Tao.

Therefore the proverb says:

'Tao in enlightenment seems obscure;

Tao in progress seems regressive;

The highest virtue seems like a valley;

The purest white seems discoloured;

The most magnificent virtue seems insufficient;

The solidest virtue seems frail;

The simplest nature seems changable;

The greatest square has no angles;

The largest vessel is never complete;

The loudest sound can never be heard;

The biggest form cannot be visualised.

Tao, while hidden, is nameless.'

Yet it is Tao alone that is good at imparting and completing.

Intro chime credit: theveryrealhorst, Solfeggio Wind Chimes, MI 528 Hz Single Cut #2, freesound.org

Ending credits: aklop, Hornbill flyby, island of Bugala, Uganda, freesound.org

Chapter 40 of the Dwight Goddard translation of the Tao Te Ching. 10 minute guided meditation followed by discussion.

Today I discuss the difficulty of meditating, the trap of meditating for personal gain or self-improvement, and connect the message of Chapter 40 with the existence and non-existence of our own conscious experience.

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40. AVOIDING ACTIVITY

Retirement is characteristic of Tao just as weakness appears to be a characteristic of its activity.

Heaven and earth and everything are produced from existence, but existence comes from nonexistence. . .

Intro chime credit: theveryrealhorst, Solfeggio Wind Chimes, MI 528 Hz Single Cut #2, freesound.org

Ending credits: chobones, thunderstorm, freesound.org

Chapter 39 of an anonymous translation of the Tao Te Ching. 10 minute guided meditation followed by discussion.

Intro chime credit: theveryrealhorst, Solfeggio Wind Chimes, MI 528 Hz Single Cut #2, freesound.org

Ending credits: kangaroovindaloo, Fryers Forest - Powerful Owl (Ninox Stenua), freesound.org

Chapter 38 of an anonymous translation of the Tao Te Ching. 10 minute guided meditation followed by discussion.

Intro chime credit: theveryrealhorst, Solfeggio Wind Chimes, MI 528 Hz Single Cut #2, freesound.org

Ending credits: sclolex, Field recording of a Great Horned Owl on the night of the Harvest Moon, freesound.org

Chapter 37 of the Ch'u Ta-Kao translation of the Tao Te Ching. 10 minute guided meditation followed by discussion.

Intro chime credit: theveryrealhorst, Solfeggio Wind Chimes, MI 528 Hz Single Cut #2, freesound.org

Ending credits: soundskeep, Recording of a choir of Scops Owls in Rovinj, Croatia 2016, freesound.org

Chapter 36 of the Dwight Goddard translation of the Tao Te Ching. 10 minute guided meditation followed by discussion.

Intro chime credit: theveryrealhorst, Solfeggio Wind Chimes, MI 528 Hz Single Cut #2, freesound.org

Ending credits: carlito62, Blackbird in Forest (southern Sweden), freesound.org

Chapter 35 of the Dwight Goddard translation of the Tao Te Ching. 10 minute guided meditation followed by discussion.

Intro chime credit: theveryrealhorst, Solfeggio Wind Chimes, MI 528 Hz Single Cut #2, freesound.org

Ending credits: vanoosbree, Sea lions at Pier 39 (San Francisco), freesound.org

Chapter 34 of the Walter Gorn-Old translation of the Tao Te Ching. 10 minute guided meditation followed by discussion.

Intro chime credit: theveryrealhorst, Solfeggio Wind Chimes, MI 528 Hz Single Cut #2, freesound.org

Ending credits: yoyodaman234, The sound of wind blowing through trees with birds chirping in the background, freesound.org