Taoism and Lao Tzu
I think any study of life and our endeavors, eventually leads to what we know as death and what if anything comes next. Lao Tzu had been experiencing how we perceive both his entire life. He had seen how our decisions and experiences enabled us to see both clearly. How cause and effect dictate what follows.
His writing the Tao Te Ching was in practice how it comes down to virtue. Both our own and what we create that impacts how we live. Lao Tzu was a renowned advisor to governments who often was credited for giving fateful good advice.
He left us with what would be seen as the beginning genesis of Taoism, but ultimately it was how we see ourselves in the here and now on Earth, that continues our own story beyond death and Heaven. What he ultimately spoke to was the “path to or of transcendence”.
In chapter/verse seventy-five Lao Tzu speaks to the reasons people are hungry and starve is because there is too much tax on the grain people eat. This leads to the reason common people are hard to be ruled and think so little of death because those above them think so much of their own life.
They, therefore, take fear of death lightly. That those who do not act or do nothing for the purpose of living appear to be superior to those who love or value life.
I think what Lao Tzu is saying is that in every living being potentiality is present, like a spark of consciousness or even cosmic enlightenment and only our own blindness prevents us from recognizing or seeing this.
That the greater our own imperfections, the more we are inclined to see the faults of others, while those who have gained deeper insight can see through these faults into their essential nature.
Therefore, our greatest attribute is when we recognize the divine qualities of all (the ancients called the “the ten thousand things”) and that we should learn to respect the nature of all of them.
That we live in exactly the world we deserve and should recognize the faults of others as our own, though they may appear in different form. To what was to become a central theme of Eastern philosophy of virtue and self-perfection which makes us worthy of a better world but also partners in its continuing creation.
Finally, to what Lao Tzu and Taoism speak to as something not based on theoretical knowledge, but on direct experience giving a sense of certainty not merely an abstract idea, but an attainable state of mind, to what some would say the tangible reality we can speak to as well. That the sense of what remains unknown will always be present. That once the words of Lao Tzu are translated a hundred times, that there will be a hundred versions. The times change and the only thing set is the meaning changes around the edges. while living with virtue never changes.
Verse 75 – Finding our place in Heaven
For those who have not taken up their personal journey; for those who have not awakened midstream to find themselves embracing something beyond themselves that cannot be explained but makes perfect sense.
For those who fail to pass judgment on themselves and all around them, yet see clearly, does not the final answer come forward with how they perceive their own death and innate fear of losing what life they have until they figure it out.
Throughout the ages and passed along from each generation and centuries too numerous to mention has not this overriding question of immortality and the efforts to embrace it been the endeavor of even the most devout sage with thoughts of death and destiny and questioning who we are to judge the will of Heaven.
The sage is guided by the knowledge that as long as people fear death, forces close by will always be near to do them in. If we in turn substitute the Will of Heaven for our own, are we ourselves likely to meet our own untimely end?
If as stated earlier, the Net of Heaven is all-embracing its mesh remaining wide so that nothing escapes it, then does not everything eventually find its rightful place under Heaven?
第75节 寻找我们在天堂的地位
对那些还没有完成旅行的人，对那些没有唤醒内心去发现自己，接受某些超越自我，难以解释但
颇有意义的东西的人，对那些不能通过自己和众人评审的人，他们可以清楚地看到，如何对待死亡和失去生命天生的恐惧，最后的答案必须有他们自己找到。
自古以来，世世代代，永恒生命这个问题和寻找这个问题的努力多不胜数。纵然是最具好奇心，对死亡和命运富有见解的圣人，都对我们是谁这个问题产生过疑问。
圣人知道，只要人们恐惧死亡，自然的力量总是几乎致他们于死地。假如我们轮流用上苍的意愿代替我们的意愿，我们可能会过早地结束我们的生命吗？
如同上述，假如天网打开，任意逃脱，是否万物最终发现它们在天底之下的地位？
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