Stephen Mitchell's Tao te Ching Tranlation

 Tao te Ching

by Lao Tzu 

Translated by Stephen Mitchell, 1988

Section: Tao

1
The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

2
When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.

The "Ahhhh" Moment

People talk about the "Ah-ha!" moment, but you hear less often about the "Ahhhh" moment. It's something that you might want to try to work into your schedule at least once a day. Maybe even more often if you can.

I have an Ahhhh moment every morning I go to the beach. It usually happens as pre-dawn I hit the apex of the A. Max Brewer Memorial Bridge. I don't know who A. Max Brewer is/was, but I sure like his bridge. Here is a picture of my morning commute. You can just make out the edge of the Indian River (which is actually a lagoon). Majestic. Ahhhh.

Take Yourself By the Shoulders

The other day, I saw a woman outside a Publix grocery store. She was sitting in the shade smoking a cigarette. She might have been waiting for the bus, which was fully open and unattended a few feet away, to return to service.

The expression on the woman's face made me want to take her by the shoulders and shake her and say, "Ask for more from life! Just ask!"

A little while later, I wanted to take myself by the shoulders and say, "Ask for more from life! Just ask!"

Image by Dean Moriarty from Pixabay

You Can Do What You Want

I grew up going to church, where I learned a lot about the Bible. One of the lines from the Bible that has stayed with me is Psalms 37:4:  

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."

I'm quoting it here not as authority, but because it came to mind as I thought about what it means to live a successful life. It's pretty much a tiny little success formula, isn't it? One that might make a lot of sense once we break it down. 

But what does it actually mean? And how does Sammy Hagar, the Red Rocker (pictured left, courtesy of Cigar Aficionado), figure into the equation? Let's take a look.

Take a Breath

 1. Press the play button.

2. Take a breath.

3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 as needed.

Brace for Impact

A couple of the phrases I remember from my Navy days were, "Standby for heavy rolls," and "Brace for impact." 

The first would be announced when the ship was in the trough of a wave. When the waves rolled through, so would the ship from side to side, sometimes violently if the waves were big enough. We always tried to keep the ship's bow (nose) pointed toward the waves, or away from them, but we couldn't always do that for a variety of reasons. And when we couldn't, it could be a real problem.

They would announce: "Brace for impact," when we were about to hit something, like land or an iceberg or another ship. This never actually happened on any ship I was on but we ran drills for everything and that phrase came up in some of those drills. In which case you would have to grab something and hold on tight.

It's one thing to standby for heavy rolls and brace for impact externally, but it's quite another to do so internally. Another word for this phenomenon is "worry." Or "anxiety." And it can cause real health problems. What does such internal bracing accomplish? Does it help the situation in any way? Or does it merely cause physical discomfort?

What to Eat

How do we answer this question, "What to eat?"

Do we look around for the latest diet fad and read the book? Do we sign up for one of the weight loss programs and let someone tell us what we should eat?

Here's an idea: listen to your body. Maybe it knows exactly what to eat.

How would you go about listening to you body? What would that look like? It might look something like this: