Notes from "Tao Te Ching", Dale edition

Gathered notes

(I’ve read the Tao Te Ching a few times, and these gathered notes are what stood out for me this time.)

• The Path is about commitment to transcending our inhumanity. To allow our love and concern for others to define us. To treat everyone with love and respect.
• Naming and labelling fragments the one Reality.
• Opposites create, reveal, and define each other. Just as before and after follow each other.
• We are not separate from the world.
  • We are an inseparable part of what we are senselessly trying to coerce.
  • We are an intrinsic part of what we are foolishly trying to possess.
• Act without acting on. Work without working at.

Raw notes

Introduction

• The lifestyle of the Great Integrity, then, is not about withdrawal from civilisation, not about escaping into a life of meditation. It is about engagement with life. It is about commitment to transcending our inhumanity.

The book

• In the infancy of the universe, there were no names. Naming fragments the mysteries of life into ten thousand things and their manifestations.
• Difficult and easy, long and short, high and low, define each other, just as before and after follow each other.
• Thus do we create what is to use what is not.
• Never seeking fulfilment, (we) are never unfulfilled.
• (The Paradoxes of Returning to the Great Integrity)
  • The first is to embrace simplicity and integrity.
  • The second is to consume only the needs of our body and soul.
  • The third is to allow our love and concern for others to define our essentiality.
• We are an inseparable part of what we are senselessly trying to coerce.
• We are an intrinsic part of what we are foolishly trying to possess.
• The highest virtue quietly serves universal needs. The lowest virtue actively strives for personal success.
• The highest morality serves common needs. The lowest morality is self-serving.
• The movement of the Great Integrity is infinite, yet its character is passive. Being defines every form of life, yet all originate in, and return to, non-being.
• When the ego interferes in the rhythm of process, there is so much doing! But nothing is done.
• Act without acting on. Work without working at.
• When are thousands of people attracted to a sage? When the sage positions themself below people, always listening, tirelessly responding to their needs.
• Since the sage treats everyone with love and respect, everyone loves and respects the sage.
• If you love, you will be fearlesss. If you are moderate, you might always sense abundance in life. If you live in humility, you will be widely trusted.
• The Way of the Great Integrity is like stringing a bow, pulling down the high, lifting up the low.

Notes from the Dale edition of Tao Te Ching.

Added 2024-10-11.