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Theme: “In the Nothingness of Ein Sof
is the fullness of its essence.
For Form is Emptiness. And Emptiness is Form.
The nought is bearer of The All.”
And language is our confabulation.
A confabulation of the multiple.
Our confabulation of “10,000 things.”
Use of languages,
a lexicon artifact,
with syntactic rules,
and with semantic structures,
is a study by itself.
I was a teacher.
Professor of linguistics.
Psycholinguistics.
How mind processes language.
How we interpret the world.
I was a teacher.
Student of word usages.
How language is used…
with both noun and verb phrases,
in composing sentences.
Steeped in languages,
I developed a passion.
Became word punster,
making language my folk art;
a reservoir of wisdom.
How words have meaning;
many quite ambiguous,
and multilayered,
context interdependent,
that cannot be overlooked.
Tao teaches us
how life seems multilayered;
itself a puzzle,
full of ambiguities…
that we are tasked to decide.
In this decoding,
in which life is like a maze,
we will find contrasts.
But the search must continue,
until we find unity.
There are many paths,
some conducted quite alone,
that lead to Tao.
Life offers many pathways.
Some crooked and, yes, some straight.
Some choose singleness,
the singleness of purpose.
An inward turning,
that’s ‘set apart’ from others;
as the life of a hermit.
Some choose company,
to live this life with others;
in life partnerships.
To learn from one another;
forging pathways together.
Life as a hermit…
can produce enlightenment,
can provide wisdom;
but not without the Tao;
not without the Inner SELF.
Tao looks at both,
while seeking the impartial;
path of non-action.
By acting — without acting;
following path of Wu-Wei.
Language as hindrance,
is made of divergences;
of oppositions.
Based on what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong.’
On what is ‘good’ or is ‘bad.’
Language and contrasts —
was something that I studied,
long before Tao;
becoming a professor…
in this noble discipline.
I was a teacher —
with bare knowledge of Tao.
Not yet a student.
Discussing art of language…
without aid of the Tao.
I was a teacher.
In my retirement years,
I am a student.
A student of the Tao.
And the role of opposites.
That they are contrasts
which together make wholeness.
One needs ‘The Other’ —
for us to understand SELF…
and our sense of Existence.
The SELF and Tao —
made of the same warp and woof,
are lifetime partners.
They are master artisans;
and we are all their subjects.
Tao informs us…
about the relationship —
of SELF to the world.
Tao is teaching…
about our own true natures.
The Tao discerns…
that the natural order —
of the universe…
is about knowledge of Self.
That — is Fundamental Truth!
Such an arcane Truth…
comes from teaching and learning.
The two in concert:
The Teacher as ‘The Father.’
Child as ‘Father-of-the-Man.’
Teaching is learning.
How else can one know Tao —
except as student…
sitting at the very feet,
of One who is “The Master?”
Mary knew this Truth,
sitting at her Master’s feet,
as a disciple;
knowing the ‘One Thing’ required
to inherit “The Kingdom.”
While sister, Martha,
focused on 10,000 things,
Mary stayed focused;
humbled herself in prayer;
turning inwardly to Truth.
From humility,
by humbling our outer selves,
we turn to Tao,
sitting as a disciple,
and thus turning inwardly.
The inward turning —
is that of a disciple;
is that of student,
turning to embrace Psyche,
and in sync with the Tao.
I was a teacher.
In my retirement years,
I am a student.
A student of the Tao.
And the role of the opposites.
Consider this, friend.
Tao knows that The Teacher,
in order to grow,
must also be The Student.
One is linked to The Other.
So as a teacher,
having become a student,
and a disciple…
of the Wisdom of Tao,
I have a different outlook.
Opposites as pairs,
are much more than antonyms.
They work together…
to explain how the world works:
In Harmony as Oneness.
Tao is Teacher.
Tao is Master Teacher.
Teacher of Wisdom.
And we are its disciples.
Some compliant — and some not.
The path to knowledge —
of ourselves and of the world,
is by Tao’s path.
A path that leads to ‘The Way’ —
of opposites united.
This — Life desires:
Relationship to the Self;
to the Inner Self;
residence of the Tao —
and of finding unity.
As a living soul,
who do you say that you are?
Do you KNOW your SELF;
that you are a child of Tao —
of Godly circumstances?
Consider this, friend:
The truth of knowing thy SELF,
is by NOT judging.
‘Tis Beginning of Wisdom;
of Alpha and Omega.
Not judging others.
An existential wisdom —
that can be discerned;
by focusing on Spirit,
the source of all unity.
Tao is Wisdom.
Tao is non-judgmental;
seeking harmony.
The harmony and balance,
opposing oppositions.
Consider Tao:
It teaches us deepest truths:
Truth of Yin and Yang.
Beyond language and contrasts.
Wisdom of Tao Te Ching.
Yet we must let go…
of our outer attachments;
and turn inwardly…
to that which is permanent,
to discover ‘The Nameless.’
To know the Tao,
is to restrain the ego…
from being puffed up.
Being emptied from the outside.
To find fulfillment within.
Jesus is Teacher.
Jesus is Divine Master.
Jesus knows Tao.
Born of flesh and of Spirit,
Jesus is the Finisher!
About this poem
A STATEMENT OF OUR MORAL FORTITUDE: “To thine own [core Taoist] self be true, and it must follow , as the night the day. Thou canst not then be false to any man” (A monologue by Polonius, adviser to King Claudius, in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3, line 84). Like the Ein Sof of Kabbalah tradition, the true essence of the TAO transcends all human comprehension and limitations. The TAO Te Ching, as an ancient philosophy of non-judgmental impartial principles, prefigures the teachings and practices of Our Lord, Jesus, The Christ recorded in the Holy Bible. Attributed to Lao Tzu (the name translates as “Old Man”), a legendary Chinese philosopher (circa 604-631 BCE), the Tao Te Ching is constructed of eighty one poems, each poem being traditionally called a chapter. To explain this poem of mine, I shall cite Chapter Two of Tao Te Ching, which is a reading of the poem entitled “Language and Contrasts.” In this poem, translated from Classical Chinese into modern English by Chad Hansen, in the illustrated text, “Laozi Tao Te Ching on The Art of Harmony,” the underlying message is that language and its lexicon of extensive dimensions are of such nature that when we employ vocabulary in ordinary and in everyday conversations and usages, we of sheer necessity invoke our awareness and knowledge of a world inhabited by contrasts and opposition. This by itself does not provide as much wisdom as we would like to believe. Rather, it provides very little in-depth insight or wisdom. Instead, and in retrospect, it moves us away from Tao which dwells on the Wu Wei principle of the underlying balance and harmony in nature. What Tao demonstrates most profoundly is that language is essentially a sophisticated semiotic system that is embedded with permutations of syntactic parsing and semantic contrasts designed for human communication, but not offering much wisdom concerning the deep structural nature of reality, ongoing scientific research and philosophical argumentations notwithstanding. Here now is a rendering of the poem in nineteen lines from Chapter Two of Tao Te Ching. LANGUAGE AND CONTRASTS: “When all the social world regards beauty as ‘beauty’/ Here already is ‘ugly’./ If all treat mastery as ‘being good at’ things./ Here already is ‘not being good at’ things./ Thus ‘presence’ and ‘absence’ mutually sprout./ ‘Hard’ and ‘easy’ mutually inform./ ‘Long’ and ‘short’ are mutually gauged./ ‘High’ and ‘low’ mutually incline./ ‘Sound’ and ‘tone’ mutually blend./ ‘Before’ and ‘after’ mutually follow on./ Using this: sages don’t act on constructs in addressing affairs;/ They practice a ‘don’t use-language’ teaching./ 10,000 natural kinds are made by it/ Yet don’t express anything./ Sprouting, you don’t treat them as ‘existing’./ Acting on constructs, you don’t rely on anything./ Success taking form, you don’t dwell on it./ In general, they simply don’t dwell on it,/ And in that, they don’t lose it.” I offer a closing message to readers: Recognize and acknowledge contrasts for what they are. But pray, don’t dwell on contrasts; don’t preoccupy yourselves by assigning moral or ethical values to them. Accept them in their own natures without impositions, as demonstrations of The Way, of the un-carved block, of the Wu Wei of Tao in harmony and balance. There is yet another dimension of deep mystery to our quest for knowledge of reality and ultimately of ourselves. As the Tao seems to suggest, reality has its own wisdom, its own internal system of “fuzzy” logic, its own internal truths and arrangements, its own laws and its governance that will forever befuddle humankind in the everlasting pursuit to understand the fundamental nature of the “superposition” of consciousness and its indefinite state; both personal and public, both singular and collective, both earthbound and cosmic; and, ironically, the profound uncertainty of the innermost natures of our very own selves. This is what modern day physicists, philosophers and mathematicians describe subjectively as “the hard problem of consciousness.” So for the moment we are left to live with the irony that the innermost core of our being may be scientifically unknowable; even as the divine architect of all existence is eternally unknowable. more »
Written on February 18, 2023
Submitted by karlcfolkes on February 18, 2023
- 5:38 min read
- 3,512 Views
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"Poetry.com" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LTD, 2026. Web. 24 Jun 2026. <https://www.poetry.com/>.
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