This is the first part of my interpretation of Tao Te Ching — a book that had an immense impact on my life. Don’t take it too seriously.

Lao Tzu statue in Quanzhou. Source: wiki

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.

(translation by S. Mitchell)

Doesn’t this text spark interest? It does for me for many different reasons.

I get a strange feeling of “aha, of course!”, but the feeling comes first and only afterwards I’m trying to rationally explain it.

I could also imagine that different people would see different truths in it and would look at it from completely different perspectives. Is that a flaw? Does it mean that the text is vague? Perhaps constructed like the modern astrology readings? So that anyone can see themselves in it and be comforted? I don’t think so. This is different.

Some others would probably see only a bunch of gibberish in this text. Even that is interesting. And it should not be shamed. Tao Te Ching is a deeply intuitive and subjective text and only some minds can resonate with it. Not everyone is gifted with intuitive, allegorical, abstract thinking. People with this type of thinking usually lack other talents and vice versa.

Even I can look at it from different perspectives. A personal perspective — I apply the text to my personal life. A societal perspective — I see it from the point of view of all human beings. A cosmic perspective — I try to only see abstract ideas within it — forces and principles that work within the universe.

Some chapters of Tao Te Ching are quite prone to the cosmic perspective, this one is not. It talks about you and desire — a specific human trait. That doesn’t mean you still can’t look at it that way.

Let me give you my perspective.

The tao that can be told

is not the eternal Tao

Tao. Sometimes it’s translated as The Way, but translating it isn’t too useful. We could say it’s the all-encompassing force behind everything, the eternal Truth, the original principle or… God. After all, it’s these two first lines in Tao Te Ching that tell you the most crucial thing. Tao can’t be explained. Maybe it can be experienced. Maybe you can be inspired to experience it, but you will not figure it out browsing the internet, reading articles like this one.

This is very relevant and important in these days. We live in the times of scientific thinking and we believe that everything can be explained, everything is deterministic and intuition is often just a delusion.

When Lao Tzu written down these words (just allegedly, the exact origin of the text is not known), he didn’t know that one day we’d have Electroencephalography (EEG) that allows recording electrical activity of the brain or that we would study the atomic particles of the universe in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Perhaps he would also change his mind, and he would believe that one day we could explain everything. But I don’t think so.

We are still far away from understanding the universe in a deterministic way. The intuition keeps being a valuable tool that gives valuable insight. Moreover, we still don’t understand it completely, just like we don’t fully understand the origin of consciousness. Shouldn’t we preserve this type of thinking and the mystical states of mind until we don’t understand them completely? Or shall we just allow them to go extinct, just like it happens with all the different plants and animals?

Scientific thinking has proven to be a great tool for inventing technology and improving our material comfort.

Intuitive thinking has proven to be a path to wellness and profound states of consciousness. These states of consciousness lead to a unique type of creativity and art, that inspires people to become better human beings — to themselves and to one another.

We still need both.

The name that can be named

is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.

We live an age of exploration. We love to define, describe and name. By naming we provide closure so that we can move on and advance in our story of innovation.

But then the issue is that the more we know, the harder it is for a regular mortal to think there’s more to be figured out.

Instead of probing our own intuition, instead of listening to our feelings, we accept the established truth.

We live the lives we’re supposed to live. We behave the way we’re supposed to behave. And if we’re not happy, we take a pill or we drink. Tao Te Ching inspires us to seek the unnamable, and to look deep within and to listen to that insight that says what’s the right path forward.

Tao Te Ching reminds us that the unnamable is the eternally real. There’s always insight that comes from within and it’s always worth listening to that inner voice. Objective truth is useful for the development of our civilisation, but personal truth should direct our humble personal lives towards self-realization, integrity and wholeness.

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.

To let your intuition work, you need to open up and slow down. Always rushing forward, you won’t have a chance to perceive deeper connections. You have to believe there’s more. Belief is crucial. If you don’t believe, your mind won’t bother.

Our lives are totally flooded with manifestations. It’s our work culture that promotes busyness, it’s our motto to live our lives to the fullest, to have as many experiences as possible. We see glimpses of other people’s lives in a reduced pixelated form. We jump from thing to another, watching a movie, pulling out a phone, all restless and erratic. The stories of our lives lose coherence. Slowly everything loses value.

Even in our modern world, it’s still time to seek mystery. The first step to see the mystery, you have to believe in it. The second step is to slow down and listen.

This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.

The gateway to all understanding.

I could start pondering that based on Einstein’s famous equation energy and matter are the same. And then perhaps the darkness is the source. But I am not knowledgeable enough to make that point:).

I can refer to my past experiences though and I can definitely see that darkness is a gateway to understanding. You can choose to live your life avoiding any kind of negativity or darkness and you might be happy, but you’ll lack the deeper connections. For a true understanding, you need the other side of the story. To truly understand yourself, you have to know your dark side.

Bullet ant gloves. The ritual of transcending pain.

In a tribe, Shaman is usually someone who dealt with a lot of suffering in their life. A shaman lives a rich inner life, highly connected to their environment and a metaphysical world. Intentional suffering is even a practice in a lot of rituals. Painful tattoos, scarifications, mutilations… or even gloves filled with constantly biting bullet ants.

Through suffering, becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable, you’ll gain the freedom to see the world as it is, instead of clinging from one positive experience to another.

In Norse Mythology, the all mighty God Odin hangs on a tree for nine nights, wounded with a spear, until the magic runes are revealed to him:

Odin’s self-sacrifice. Source: wiki

I know that I hung on a wind-rocked tree,

nine whole nights,

with a spear wounded, and to Odin offered,

myself to myself;

on that tree, of which no one knows

from what root it springs.

Bread no one gave me, nor a horn of drink,

downward I peered,

to runes applied myself, wailing learnt them,

then fell down thence.

(Benjamin Thorpe translation)

The idea of suffering is common in Christianity as well. Jesus is the symbol of suffering, martyrdom is honoured.

It is no big secret that those who had hardship in life are often outliers. They had no other option than to peer into the darkness and learn from it, because they could not escape it. That allowed them to understand themselves and the world and find their own path.

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.