Chapter 2

[Cameron]

After this I'll put up the next chapter every day or so and we can meditate on it or let it sink in before giving an opinion of it's meaning.

 

 

2. Abstraction

When beauty is abstracted

Then ugliness has been implied;

When good is abstracted

Then evil has been implied.

 

So alive and dead are abstracted from nature,

Difficult and easy abstracted from progress,

Long and short abstracted from contrast,

High and low abstracted from depth,

Song and speech abstracted from melody,

After and before abstracted from sequence.

 

The sage experiences without abstraction,

And accomplishes without action;

He accepts the ebb and flow of things,

Nurtures them, but does not own them,

And lives, but does not dwell.

[Cameron]

I think this is talking about the oneness of things and how a developed person(sage) sees beyond the seemingly different aspects of life, high and low, beautiful and ugly, sharp and dull. he(or she) has reached the point of seeing the tao which implies a deeper knowing and wisdom about things which goes beyond temporal or karmic identitiies .A kind of profound spiritual attitude that reaches beyond all speculation of truth to truth itself.

 

Accomplishing without doing..I think..means how the develped person completes his or her own tasks without any sense of a personal ego or "I". he or she has risen above the egoic trance most of us are trapped in and accomplishes tasks and drops any attachments easily.