Verse 52 - Living by Returning to the Mother

[Eva Libre]

52nd Verse

  

All under heaven have a common beginning.

This beginning is the Mother of the world.

Having known the Mother,

we may proceed to know her children.

Having known the children,

we should go back and hold on to the Mother.

 

Keep your mouth shut,

guard the senses,

and life is ever full

Open the mouth,

always be busy,

and life is beyond hope.

 

Seeing the small is called clarity;

keeping flexible is called strength.

Using the shining radiance,

you return again to the light

and save yourself misfortune.

This is called

the practice of eternal light.

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

 

All under Heaven have a common beginning.

         This beginning is the Mother of the world

and my eternal mother.

 

 

Do The Tao Now

 

Plan a day dedicated to examining the smallest life-forms that you can find.  Become a witness to a spider creating a web, a sand crab scurrying along the beach, or a fly buzzing about on the wall.  Take an imaginary trip through your insides, examining the life-forms that reside in your intestines, in your bloodstream, or in the lining of your eyes - all creatures that you'd need a powerful microscope to be able to see.  Meditate on the Mother birthing these little bacteria in order for you to exist.  Experience the way viewing your body through the infinitesimally tiny life that's part of you affects you.  Living by returning to the Mother will provide you with a clarity you've never experienced before.

 

 

Source - Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life (Living the Wisdom of the Tao)

by Dr Wayne W Dyer

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Open mouth - spirit escapes.  Closed

mouth - spirit connection excellent !

 

Think of your mouth as a gate that guards your spirit: When you speak to others, become conscious of the need to close the door and allow your spirit to be safely ensconced within you.  Make the same mental shift with your ears: Keep them sealed when it comes to rumors and petty conversations.  Use fewer words; commit yourself to long periods of listening; and eliminate giving advice, meddling and participating in gossip.

 

Cultivate your strength with the flexibility of consciously deciding when to involve your speaking and auditory senses.  When you're inclined to get into other people's business, remember that your eternal Mother's one and only voice is silence.  Do likewise, and you'll feel yourself holding on to her in freedom and bliss, thus returning while living !

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Seeing the smallest mystery reveals the grandest mystery.

 

By begin attentive to smallness, you cultivate your desire for clarity.  Noting the same spark in microscopic creatures that animates you is a way of exploring life as a return trip rather than a dead end.  What seem to be the tiniest mysteries of life lead to an experience of the shining radiance that comes from an appreciation for all that you encounter.  You and the Mother who birthed you and everything else are one.  By seeing the small, you gain this clarity, which is the return trip you're encouraged to make while alive.  Now your world begins to look very different, as you see originating spirit everywhere.  Nothing is viewed as ordinary, inferior, or unwanted anymore.

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

 

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

The Tao which originated all under the sky

Is to be considered as the mother of them all.

 

When the mother is found,

We know what her children should be.

When one knows that he is his mother's child,

          and proceeds to guard

          the mother that belongs to him,

To the end of his life he will be free from all peril.

 

Let him keep his mouth closed, and shut up

          the portals of his nostrils,

And all his life he will be exempt from laborious exertion.

Let him keep his mouth opened,

          and spend his breath

          in the promotion of his affairs,

And all his life there will be no safety for him.

 

The perception of what is small is the secret

          of clear-sightedness;

The guarding of what is soft and tender

          is the secret of strength.

 

Who uses well his light,

Reverting to its source so bright,

Will from his body ward all blight,

and hides the unchanging from men's sight.

   

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Compensation", "The American Scholar" (address) and "Resources"

 

Under all this running sea of circumstance,

          whose waters ebb and flow with perfect balance,

          lies the aboriginal abyss of real Being.

Let me see every trifle bristling with

          the polarity that ranges it instantly

          on an internal law.

And the shop, the plough, and the ledger

          refer to the like cause by which

          light undulates and poets sing.

The world lies no longer a dull miscellany,

          but has form and order;

There is no trifle, there is no puzzle;

But one design writes and animates

          the farthest pinnacle and the lowest trench.

 

There is always life for the living;

          What a man has done a man can do.

          Every man is provided with a key to nature,

          And that man only rightly knows himself

          as far as he has experimented on things.

[Eva Libre]

Deborah Hart Yemm writes:

This paragraph surprised me –

 

Who uses well his light,

Reverting to its source so bright,

Will from his body ward all blight,

and hides the unchanging from men's sight.

 

So, I did a little research.  I found it at google books - The Sacred Books of China: The writings of Kwang-taze, books XVIII-XXXIII.  I found it also attached to Friedrich Max Muller dated 1891 - The Sacred Books of the East, Volume 39, Part 1.  Both of these seem to be sourced at their origin from the same place -  "The Tao Teh King" ?

 

Maybe what surprised me is that it seems so much like a Western children's rhyme and not of Eastern thought to me.  However, I could be simply wrong about how it "feels" meaning anything.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

 

52

SIGNIFICANCE

 

The Mother of all is that from

which you draw your mothering.

It is the eternal balance, the

breathing, beating womb from

which all creation arises.

It is eternally giving birth,

eternally conceiving.

 

Close your mouth and allow the

Mother of all to speak in you.

 

Keep busy, fluttering and

chattering, and you cannot hear

Her voice.

 

Observe the child to know

the mother.

 

Observe the insignificant to know

what matters.

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

 

That which creates the universe

          is the Mother of the world

By knowing the Mother

          one knows her children

By knowing her children

          one comes to know her

Such is their unity

          that one does not exist without the other

 

Fully embrace your life

          and you will share in the glory of creation

The Mother herself will be your guardian

And all her creation will be your guide

Stay with the Mother, shut the mouth, close the gates

          and you are never in trouble

Abandon the Mother, open your mouth, be busy with others

          and you are beyond all hope of rescue

 

Seeing your own smallness is called insight

Honoring your own tenderness is called strength

 

The sun in all its glory

          reveals but a passing world

Only the inner light illumines eternity

Only that light can guide us back home

 

Have faith

Follow your own shining

Be aware of your own awareness

On the darkest nights you will not stumble

On the brightest days you will not blink

This called

          "The Practice of Eternal Light"

[Eva Libre]

Tao Te Ching - The Classic Book of Integrity and The Way by Lao-Tzu

A New Translation by Victor H Mair

based on the recently discovered Ma-Wang-Tui Manuscripts

 

52 (15)

 

          Everything under heaven has a beginning

               which may be thought of as the mother

                         of all under heaven.

          Having realized the mother,

               you thereby know her children.

          Knowing her children,

               go back to abide with the mother.

          To the end of your life,

               you will not be imperiled.

 

           Stopple the orifices of your heart,

           Close your doors;

                your whole life you will not suffer.

           Open the gate of your heart,

           Meddle with affairs;

                your whole life you will be beyond salvation.

 

            Seeing what is small is called insight,

            Abiding in softness is called strength.

 

            Use your light to return to insight,

            Be not an inheritor of personal calamity.

 

This is called "following the constant".

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

All under Heaven has a generatrix, which we regard as the mother of all under Heaven.

 

Having been good at its [all under Heaven's] genesis, it is good at rearing and nurturing it.  This is why, because "all under Heaven has a generatrix", we can regard it as the mother of all under Heaven.

 

Once one has access to the mother, through it he can know the child.  Once one knows the child, if he again holds on to the mother, as long as he lives, no danger shall befall him. (1)

 

The mother is the roots, and the child is the branch tips.  It is by having access to the roots that one knows the branch tips.  It is by having access to the roots in order to pursue the branch tips. (2)

 

Block up your apertures; close your door,

 

The "apertures" [dui] (3) are where the desire for things arises.  The "door" is where the desires for things enters.

 

And to the end of your life you will never be exhausted.

 

Tending to matters without conscious purpose [wushi], one remains forever at ease.  Thus "to the end of your life you will never be exhausted." 

 

But if you open your apertures and deal consciously with things, to the end of your life you will never have relief.

 

Such a one does not shut himself off form the source [of desire] and tries to deal consciously with things.  Thus, although he might live his life to the end, he will never have relief.

 

To see the small is called "perspicacious".  To hold on to softness is called "strength". 

 

Success in government does not consist of just dealing with the large and obvious.  Seeing the large does not indicate perspicacity [ming, literally, "brightness"], it is seeing the small that is perspicacious.  Holding on to strength does not make one strong; it is holding on to softness that makes one strong.

 

Make use of its brightness,

 

Let the Dao shine forth and thereby rid the common folk of delusion. (4)

 

But always let its brightness revert.

 

Do not engage in bright scrutiny. (5)

 

Never let one's person be exposed to disaster: this is a matter of practicing constancy.

 

This means the constancy of the Dao.

 

 

Text, in Italics above, is Wang Bi's commentary.

The notes below, are from the translator, Richard John Lynn -

(deb's note - "section" is used for verse in these notes.)

 

(1)  Cf. section 16, last passage.  Despite a long running controversy over what dui means in the text of the Laozi, the context established by these two passages of Wang's commentary indicates that he seems to have understood the term as meaning something like "apertures", as the apertures of sense, that is, the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.  After weighing other possibilities, this is how Jiang Xichang interprets Wang's references to dui (see Laozi jiaogu, 321-22).  Hatano Taro agrees, though instead of citing Jiang, he cites Lao Jian's Laozi guben kao (Research into ancient editions of the Laozi, first published in 1941), where dui is also identified with the apertures of sense (see Roshi Datokukyo kenkyu, 342).  Lou Yulie ignores all this evidence, cites other (and, in my opinion, weaker) evidence, and instead glosses dui as dao (way, path), which seems a poor fit in the context (see Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 141 n. 3).

 

(2)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 20, last passage; and section 38, paragraph 14.

 

(3)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 65, third passage.

 

(4)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 10, sixth passage.

 

(5)  Cf. paragraph 2 of Wang's commentary to section 49, fifth passage.  The sage should let his brightness, one with the brightness of the Dao, revert to himself and not let it play upon the common folk as the searchlight of scrutiny. Cf. section 58, last passage.

[Eva Libre]

From Stephen Mitchell - tao te ching - A New English Version -

 

In the beginning was the Tao.

All things issue from it;

all things return to it.

 

To find the origin,

trace back to the manifestations.

When you recognize the children

and find the mother,

you will be free of sorrow.

 

If you close your mind in judgments

and traffic with desires,

your heart will be troubled.

If you keep your mind from judging

and aren't led by the senses,

your heart will find peace.

 

Seeing into darkness is clarity.

Knowing how to yield is strength.

Use your own light

and return to the source of light.

This is called practicing eternity.

 

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

In the beginning was the Tao.

All things issue from it;

all things return to it.

 

People are fascinated with the origin of things.  "When did the universe begin ?" they ask.  "Where do I come from ?"  The answers to questions like these are obvious once you get a little clarity.  When did the universe begin ?  Right now (if at all).  A clear mind sees that any past is just a thought.  There's no proof for the validity of any thought other than another thought, and even that thought is gone, and then the thought "That thought is gone" is itself gone.  There is only now, and even "now" is a thought of the past.  Actually, the universe has no beginning and no end.  It's constantly beginning, and it's always over.  Where do I come from ?  From this very thought.  Oops: now I'm gone.

 

There's nothing mystical about this.  If it seems hard to grasp, that's because it is so simple and clear that a complicated mind can't see it.  What people call "mystical experiences" may be very clear, too, and a kind of grace for a while, but they amount to nothing in the end.  They're not experiences to invite or to reject; they're just movements of the mind.  You can have the most marvelous revelations, you can be shown all of physical creation, from the beginning of time to the end of time, how the universe starts with nothing, goes out to everything, and how, at the point of infinity, it arcs and comes back to itself; how it is like a circle of numbers, and each number is not just a number but also an energy or a vibration of light and sound and color, all perfectly coordinated, without separation; how every being, every material object, every atom, is also a vibration and a number, from zero to infinity; how fire is a number, and air and water and stars; how it is all itself coming back to itself, with its full understanding, everything - pencil, cloud, galaxy, ant, atom - vibrating as a different number and frequency; how the numbers go all the way out and all the way back and return to zero; how the whole universe of form, from the beginning to the end of time and everything in between, is happening all at once, in fire, water, ice, air, rock, clay, human, animal, silence - and it all adds up to nothing.  You can see the origin of the universe and the ultimate meaning of life, everything anyone has ever longed to see, and it will mean nothing, because ultimately everything in the universe is nothing imagined as something, and  you exist prior to anything you think you are.  Even if you experience all the levels and dimensions within one thought, all the veils and loops of it, not even the deepest knowledge has meaning.  Anyone can step into it at any level, and it would be true.  There is nothing that isn't true if you believe it, and nothing that is true, believe it or not.  You are awareness.  It's all-inclusive; it doesn't leave anything out, not from any of the stages.  None of the story is left out.

 

The truth is that everything comes from the I.  If there's no thought, there's no world.  Without the I to project itself, there is neither origin nor end.  And the I just appears: it doesn't come out of anything and it doesn't return to anything.  Actually, even "nothing" is born out of the I, because even it is a concept.  By thinking that there is nothing, you continue to create something.

 

The I is the origin of the whole universe.  All thought is born out of that first thought, and the I cannot exist without these thoughts.  Every story of enlightenment is gone.  It's just one more story about the past.  If it happened five seconds ago, it might as well have been a million years.  The thoughts are what allow the I to believe that it has an identity.  When you see that, you see that there's no you to be enlightened.  You stop believing in yourself as an identity, and you become equal to everything.

 

When mind has nothing to identify as, you experience everything in its beauty as yourself.  I used to see my hands and fingers as amazing transparent things.  I would marvel at the light bouncing off the fingers, inside and throughout the fingers.  It was like watching molecules being born, a body being gathered, all of it radiant, and it wasn't only with my fingers, it was with everything.

 

Everything is just as beautiful now, only I'm not so shocked.  I'm used to whatever universe may appear; it's all acceptable.  It's always new, but now it's more ordinary; it has taken on a maturity, a settling-in.  At the beginning, in 1986, I lived in a state of continuous rapture, so intoxicated with joy that I felt like a walking lightbulb.  But there was a sense of separation in that; I could see how it frightened some people, and how others put me on a pedestal.  The radiance continued, but eventually its experience was to appear as ordinary.  Until it was ordinary and balanced, it wasn't of much value to people.  So if someone asks, it will meet them.  It's mature enough just to meet them.  Nothing special.

 

People gradually taught me, through their example, how to communicate.  Early on, when someone would say, "It's a nice day", I would often feel like giggling.  I might see the statement as the funniest joke I had ever heard.  "Ha-ha !  That's a good one.  They think a day is possible."  If someone asked what my name was, I might say, "I don't have one."  They would ask, "Who are you ?" and I'd say, "I don't know."  They would say, "Your name is Katie", and I'd say, "No, it's not."  They would say, "You're a woman", and I'd say, "That's not my experience."  They would ask, "What do you think ?" and I would say, "I don't."  They wanted to teach me that I was thinking.  A couple of women were adamant.  They wanted so badly to prove I was actually thinking that for two whole days they tried to convince me.  They said, "You have to be thinking if you're talking."  And I'd say, "Well, I'm not."  "But you have to be."  They said that I was in denial, that I was just fooling myself.  Finally I understood.  I said, "Oh, you believe that if thought arises, you did it."  I could hear how they believed that I was thinking.  But the truth is that I'm not thinking.  Thoughts just arise.  Though even that isn't true.  And if it were, I'm not doing the thinking: I'm being thought.

 

It became more mature, more grounded.  It had to understand the world of its old internal self, it had to get used to its own appearance as a personality, it had to get used to its own mirror image, as people's stories gave it identity.  It was like holding up a mirror to a young child, and she doesn't show any interest in it, because she doesn't see the image as herself.  Then one day you put on a new dress on her, and if she understands that it's an image of herself, she is filled with delight, and when she looks into the mirror she sees the whole world and all the galaxies.  That is my body.  It's my dress and my nakedness.  All things appear simultaneously.  All of it is me, now.

 

Every year what I call "the great scam" becomes more unrecognizable.  I move from the truth and say, "It's a tree.  It's a sky.  I'm a Katie" - for love's sake, to meet people where they are.  Its language has become ordinary.  It doesn't appear as smarter or dumber than other people.  It doesn't appear as more or as less.  It just watches and waits.  The more it chameleons and takes on sameness, the more powerful it becomes, the more trusted it is, and the more profound is the penetration.  I will say or do anything that's natural.

 

It's mature now.  When people ask me my name, I'll say, "Katie".  I'll say, "It's cool this evening", or "Come look at the clouds, sweetheart", or "Don't the roses smell sweet ?"  If you tell me it's a tree, I'll agree with you.  So you let me into your heart, and then I penetrate.  And if you have no interest in the truth, then we can just sit together and have a wonderful time.

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 52 –

 

This verse tells you that it's valuable and important to realize that your life is more than just a linear experience happening in time and space.  That is, you more or less currently view your time on Earth as a straight line from conception to birth - you'll move through predictable stages of development, concluding with death, where you'll meet up with the mystery that awaits you on the Other Side.  Lao-tzu is inviting you to see that your existence is a return trip to the place where all the planets' creations emerge.  He wants you to realize that you have the ability to enjoy this mysterious beginning before your physical ending.  This mystery, which is in each and every one of the 10,000 things, is referred to by Lao-tzu as the "Mother", or the symbol of what lies beyond all that seems to begin and end.

 

Start your journey back to the Mother by contemplating the first two lines of this verse of the Tao Te Ching: "All under heaven have a common beginning.  This beginning is the Mother of the world."  Let this thought filter into your physical being and create a state of awe about your existence, which emerged out of no-thing-ness.  Know that this unseen Source that births every single thing also birthed you.  Like electricity streaming through a conduit, the mysterious nothingness flows through and sustains all of life, including you.  It's a constant invisible, soundless, odorless force, which isn't immediately available to your sensory self.

 

It's vital that you spend a few moments each day getting to know your (and my) eternal Mother, which you can do by simply acknowledging her presence and silently communicating with her.  Once you decide to know and honor her, you'll begin to change the way you look at all of her children, including yourself.  You'll view all of the 10,000 things as offspring of the Mother, and you'll look beyond the temporariness of their appearances to see the Tao unfolding.  This is what Lao-tzu means when he asks you to know the children not as separate from their Mother, but as the Mother herself.  So see all of creation as originating in the Mother, and then "go back and hold on to" her.

 

How do you embark on this return trip to your eternal Mother ?  Lao-tzu advises that you close your mouth and seal your ears to ensure that your spirit isn't frittered away on worldly activities.  In other words, spend time with the maternal part of yourself, and seek clarity by noticing the Tao in the small and the large.  Practice abandoning rigidity, and instead cultivate elasticity to improve your strength.  Lao-tzu concludes by telling you that this way of seeing the world is "the practice of eternal light".  See that light in the tiniest insect, and even in the invisible particle that forms that little creature's leg.  It's the same light that beats your heart and holds the universe in place - so allow yourself to not just be in awe of the insect but to be that insect.  In this way, you find clarity through "seeing the small", and you'll improve the power of your new way of seeing through your flexible viewpoint.  Change your linear thoughts about your presence here on Earth, and begin to see your life change right before your eyes !