is it best to practice non speach. and focus on action?

[Taoway]

Stop thinking, and end your problems.

What difference between yes and no?

What difference between success and failure?

Must you value what others value,

avoid what others avoid?

How ridiculous!

 

Other people are excited,

as though they were at a parade.

I alone don't care,

I alone am expressionless,

like an infant before it can smile.

 

Other people have what they need;

I alone possess nothing.

I alone drift about,

like someone without a home.

I am like an idiot, my mind is so empty.

 

Other people are bright;

I alone am dark.

Other people are sharper;

I alone am dull.

Other people have a purpose;

I alone don't know.

I drift like a wave on the ocean,

I blow as aimless as the wind.

 

I am different from ordinary people.

I drink from the Great Mother's breasts.When developing a strong mind and character. A character of the way. Is it best to speak as little as possible? To not at all speak of what you are going to do and just do it?

I find my self sometimes engaging in conversation about what I am going to do. What I want to do. What I need to do.

 

 

Also this chapter of the tao te ching. Although powerful is somewhat confusing me. In another translation the translator uses the word depressed. "I am alone depressed"

I dont understand this part. I see the path of not getting involved in the shows the entertainment the lively hood and being content with the simple life. But this single chapter is very dark.

Is it an extreme to show the nature of the empty depths of tao?

 

Here is the chapter

[Cheshire Cat]

[...]I am different from ordinary people.

I drink from the Great Mother's breasts.When developing a strong mind and character. A character of the way. Is it best to speak as little as possible? To not at all speak of what you are going to do and just do it?

I find my self sometimes engaging in conversation about what I am going to do. What I want to do. What I need to do.

[...]

 

In my limited experience, I've found that to not state your intentions has the power to keep them strong enough to manifest.

When you share them, they lose some power... not necessarily the means to manifest, but still they lose power.

[doc benway]

Speech is both internal and external.

It is extremely effective for communication with others.

Entirely over-rated as communication with oneself.

 

Our internal dialogue is simply a narration, after the fact. 

A holding onto the past, a longing for the future, a labeling of the present.

We are never more in touch with ourselves when still and silent, never farther when lost in the internal dialogue.

 

The one who would focus on action is not different than the one who is focused on narration.

I think the sage is not afraid to speak but is silent even in speech.

Ready to act but not focused on action, rather allowing action to occur as it is needed.

[Taoway]

In my limited experience, I've found that to not state your intentions has the power to keep them strong enough to manifest.

When you share them, they lose some power... not necessarily the means to manifest, but still they lose power.

Hey I guess it waa true when people say if you tell them your wish, it wont become true

[Taoway]

Speech is both internal and external.

It is extremely effective for communication with others.

Entirely over-rated as communication with oneself.

 

Our internal dialogue is simply a narration, after the fact.

A holding onto the past, a longing for the future, a labeling of the present.

We are never more in touch with ourselves when still and silent, never farther when lost in the internal dialogue.

 

The one who would focus on action is not different than the one who is focused on narration.

I think the sage is not afraid to speak but is silent even in speech.

Ready to act but not focused on action, rather allowing action to occur as it is needed.

Wow thank you that is a great answer! Wei wu wei

[Marblehead]

If we hide our intentions it will be only we who are responsible for their outcomes.  Tell others and you have already lost.

[Taoway]

If we hide our intentions it will be only we who are responsible for their outcomes. Tell others and you have already lost.

Then if we do tell. That is when we may fall into the cycle of blame. And with blame there is no end to such things.

Sometimes. But I sometimes have to be careful not to also blame my self. Because this puts me back steps as well

[ilumairen]

Words are such wonderful dangerous things.

[Silent Answers]

Don't view it as dark and moody...it's satire. The verse pokes fun at the labels others give him, while at the end of each stanza he alludes to the beauty and truth behind those labels...that in reality what he has, is what they actually seek but can't see it when it's right under their noses.

[Marblehead]

Then if we do tell. That is when we may fall into the cycle of blame. And with blame there is no end to such things.

Sometimes. But I sometimes have to be careful not to also blame my self. Because this puts me back steps as well

Excellent point you brought up about self-blame.  I won't suggest that we shouldn't blame ourself when we fail because of poor planning or poor execution of our intentions but I will suggest that if we do the judgements must be fair and accurate.  This is because of what you said in your last sentence. 

[Daeluin]

Also this chapter of the tao te ching. Although powerful is somewhat confusing me. In another translation the translator uses the word depressed. "I am alone depressed"

I dont understand this part. I see the path of not getting involved in the shows the entertainment the lively hood and being content with the simple life. But this single chapter is very dark.

Is it an extreme to show the nature of the empty depths of tao?

 

Here is the chapter

 

Being humble, like water, resting upon the lowest point - these are the keys to unraveling the layers of creation to return to the root of things.

 

New layers are created through transformation of current resources into new shapings and expressions. These transformations follow the patterns of spirals and cycles, and their principles may be understood through the symbolism of the wuxing theory.

 

Earth is like the center of things, the heart of all the layers, and the root of the dao is here.

 

Water is like the low place that functions like stored energy and potential.

Wood is the arousal into movement of this potential energy.

Fire is like the expression and culmination of energy that has been repositioning.

Fire creates Earth, creates a new layer.

Metal is where all these expressions begin to return home, filtered through all the layers of our senses.

Metal is where we discern objectively, seeing all as it is, accepting and allowing its return unconditionally,

Or Metal is where we judge, separating this from that, accepting this but not that.

The shapings of Metal - what it holds vs what is rejected - form a seed utilized by the next cycle of new growth.

The shapings of Metal become encoded in the Water phase as stillness allows the settling and winding up of new potential.

 

This is subtle and complex, but also simple.

 

As we move forward with creation, we are regularly balancing and centering ourselves based on the ever changing environment around us and within us. The emotions we felt yesterday, the work we did yesterday, the mistakes and achievements from yesterday, are all forms of expression that create new layers of perspective, of Earth, for us to work with on integrating with.

 

However, if we want to re-center into the Earth that represents the center of all, there is no need to create new layers of earth. We can place the sincerity of our intent on the Earth that already exists within the emptiness of WUJI.

 

When we rest upon the root of dao as our foundation, we have no need to create new expressions that define new centers. We have no need for epiphanies or exclamations to guide our way back. So we do not emphasize the Fire phase, for fire that is created through intentional actions is based on the reason for those actions. On the other hand, when we place our intention low, we embrace all that has sunk low, and like water reaching the lowest point, it begins to fill up. Even as we focus on what is low, we open to receive what is high. As one fills up, if one is open and humble, one will naturally, over time, become full, and when one is full, the natural manifestation of Fire will occur without intention to ignite it, even as the intention placed within will allow ignition in the form of a fusion that accomplishes the re-integration of the five phase energies back into a unified form.

 

The numerics of creation are:

1 - Water

2 - Fire

3 - Wood

4 - Metal

5 - Earth

 

In internal alchemy is the concept of re-integration of these through the union of the three families of five.

 

Water and Metal unite to become 1 + 4 = 5. Here one's senses are in the mode of full acceptance, accepting all the way it is, and so allowing one's senses of perception to return to and unify with one's potential energy without using the senses to create patterns of desire in one's potential energy.

 

Wood and Fire unite to become 3 + 2 = 5. Here one's spirit is allowed to be still rather than expressing and creating. And in stillness one's spirit is able to become clear and illuminated, and reunites with one's innate spiritual nature, which simply desires peace.

 

These two fives are then able to unite with the existing 5 of Earth, the Will, Intention, and Sincerity. Whole and clear and still, the three families are able to unite together. In this way one avoids the continuation of new cycles, simply settling into the center of things.

 

Of course the above might not feel logical, and is merely from my perspective at this moment. For other perspectives, the daoist classics speak of these things. In general one is expected to figure out how to discover the answer to any questions through self-study until the answers arise spontaneously from within.