Hello - Could someone please give a detailed explanation of the first verse of the Dao De JIng? I have read many interpretations but still not completely satisfied with what I have come across so far. I would really appreciate to read your version/understanding of it. Thank you in advance for your response.
The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named is not the eternal name
The nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth
The named is the mother of myriad things
Thus, constantly free of desire
One observes its wonders
Constantly filled with desire
One observes its manifestations
These two emerge together but differ in name
The unity is said to be the mystery
Mystery of mysteries, the door to all wonders
Hopefully, this is helpful to you.
To grasp Dao is to observe, the expansive and inclusiveness in one's experience.
Words simply is'nt enough to sum up one's experience. When we see, hear, sense and feel in all aspects of our experience, words is merely pigeonholeing we can experience.
When calm and collected, without desire, without direction, we take in all of what we can experience in an absorptive manner, without judgement, we sense awesomeness in our experience.
When calm and collected, with desire, or with a sense of purposefulness, we see emerging patterns arising in nature. What is nature? Everything is nature,. What emerging patterns, we see a rise in patterns,movement, direction according to our own individual attunements. Because with desire, we formulate.
We are all attuned to different aspects of Dao, or phenomena and we apply accordingly, or we do not, we simply abide.
To know Dao is to simply quiet our inner chatter, our emotional disposition, and observe. As we quieten ourselves more and more, we observe more, experience more expansively and inclusively. What we experience is Dao, at different levels of openess and intent, desire.
Greatly appreciated,sadhu