One: 2
Jonathan Star, 2001
Tao is both Named and Nameless.
As Nameless, it is the origin of all things.
As Named, it is the mother of all things.
D C Lao, 1963
The nameless was the beginning of heaven and earth,
The named was the mother of the myriad creatures.
Lok Sang Ho, 2002
Emptiness is the origin of heaven and earth
Existence is the mother of everything that had a birth.
Commentary:
Star begins his verses with the addition of the 'The Tao is…' and thus creating a context for the two verses that I believe he is correct in presenting. Lao Tzu is continuing to describe the nature of the Tao. The Tao is both Named and Unnamed. Cleary revels that the Tao is both Nonbeing and Being. It is important to note that the Nameless is also Nonbeing – these are the beginning of heaven and earth – the totality of the universe. While at the other end of the continuum is the Name, the Named which is also Being – these are the mother of 'ten thousand things' – i.e. all things.
What is going on here?
It is important to realize that naming is what we humans do.
But the thing itself, it's true essence is something that exists before humans came about to name it. The things itself as Alfred Korzybski tells us is not the word. The thing itself is preverbal. The thing itself is nonverbal reality.
By the act of creating names we created all things. By the act of creating names we give meaning and a context to all things that is how we give birth to those things. We take in the seed from the pre-verbal experience of the thing itself into ourselves through our senses and we process that pre-verbal and nonverbal experience of the thing and in that processing of that event and experience we come to understanding – which we then bring into the verbal. The creating of the verbal out of our preverbal and nonverbal experiencing of the world around us is a receptive, gestating process – hence referred to by Lao Tzu as acting as a 'Mother'.
By our noticing the things around us, by giving those noticed things names they now have significance to us – hence they 'exist'. What we do not notice is for us, individually and/or collectively, 'nonexistent'.
The heaven and the earth and everything therein existed before there were humans and will presumably exist after we individually and we as a species, die. The heaven and the earth is the pre-verbal and nonverbal reality; the external reality beyond our mental processes – our process of verbalization – of giving birth to names. By the acts of noticing and naming we give birth to things – they come into existence for us humans.
As Witter Bynner notes in his translation – before there were humans when the heaven and earth first came into being – at the time of the 'Beginning' there were no words. We humans created out of matter as a process of the evolution of living matter on this earth – once we came to be, we ultimately through our minds created language - we gave birth to words.
They are saying that the Tao as ordering principle of the cosmos is the nameless origin of all things – from the principle of order and structure matter and energy come to manifest into the physical universe.
They are saying that the Tao as the ordering principle within the human mind is the Named – the ability to verbalize and make words and thus to give birth to all things that we choose to be aware of.
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Comments: 7
Hmm...not sure what your question means.
But if you are asking: what am I 'searching for' by posting these commentaires on the Tao Te Ching, then comments which say you find what I am saying useful, or comments agreeing with my understanding of the text, or comments saying you see other meanings in the text, or comments saying you disagree with my explaination of the text, are all possible responses.
By giving names for things we 'create' a thing we have chosen to become aware of. The more interest we show in a thing the more names we create for all the subtle nuances that we recognize - hence create the ten thousand things out of what otherwise could be just one.
Years ago I gave a course to persons associated with ELDERHOSTEL. In it I was trying to develop a simple way to 'create' easy linkages within and among 'dualities'. I called them 'TETRADS.
I developed dozens of them to make points about both realities and hiddennesses. (present 'darknesses'). Darkness can be metaphorically construed as 'not yet fully conscious'.
One such was GOD: PERSON::INFINITE:FINITE. Just for starters. I did discuss the TAO in the short course, but from the perspective of its ability to generate analytically discussable alternatives as we viewed both 'reals' and 'hiddennesses. Really the mathematical like discussions were essentially deliberations about the creation of both permutations and combinations, ALTERNATIVES, whenever looking at significant issues. I have never 'seen' the material that you, in this article, have brought to my attention, and I deeply thank you for that opportunity to learn further about religion linkages. Especially East and West issues.
My friend Jerry K. and I, here in GATHER have had some deliberations about 'formulae' and learning, and I recall your contributions too in your materials about Cabbala and the Tree of Life. I have tried to think about your 'named and nameless', and Jerry's "(+) = (-)" , and 'tetrads' since reading this fine piece by you and have another to contribute, which is a sort of Gimmicky. It is a pseudo- FORMULA:
won(ALL)der = ONE
Sort of like: ALL is a subset of what already (temporally speaking) IS, which is INFINITE WONDER. ONE is GOD appearing as the WORD of GOD (Information busily creating material and intelligently designed 'things' from shaping forms). Ex-nihilo(?). Or from the intelligent WORD of our infinite CREATOR? Or CREATIVE PROCESS? Or CREATING CREATIVE PROCESS? GOD?
Translated; In our 'human experiences' there are the 'reals' and to-become 'potential reals' (presently emerging but in darkness and still 'hidden from consciousness'). Using the 'tetrad' logic I would note that the 'Real is to the Potential FULLER Real as Human EXPERIENCE is to Human(-God Creative) THOUGHT.
There is a sort of 'wrap up in the Bible's 4th Gospel in the New Testament according to St. John:
John [I.1-5] : (Some emphases added)
"(1) In the beginning was the WORD and the WORD was with God, AND THE WORD WAS GOD. (2) The same was in the beginning with God. (3) All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. (4) In him was LIFE; and the LIFE was the the LIGHT of man. (5) And the LIGHT shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."
I see amazing relationships here between the TAO and the NEW TESTAMENT (in John).
In tetradic form, I suppose, there is this imperfect suggestion:
LIFE: LIGHT::WORD (i.e.intelligence): CREATIVE WONDER.
and also
PERSON:GOD::ALL(in light and temporary darkness):ONE
Dick
Tried to read this during lunch while at work....not even brain power at the moment for me to follow this...I will have to re-read and ponder at a different time.