Verse 27 is full of Wu-Wei insights. Rather than thumb-nailing them here, let's let the Verse speak in its myriad ways. Audrey Davis, our artist, returns for another appearance with the quotes, and asks about how Taoism might enable us to face our own deaths (We recorded her words in Asheville's Riverside Cemetery). Mary your days begin in peace, and become wombs for the radical hope growing in you. Marc --- Send in a voice message:...

What do we allow to disturb our peace, equilibrium, and equanimity? Verse 26 reminds us that we do - already - before we get into touchy or tough situations - that we are already: grounded, peaceful, balanced. So why and how do we get off-balance? How do we re-find our balance? This is the teaching of Verse 26. Along the way in this episode, we'll hear from a family deep in this verse's practice, and we'll hear two Buddhist stories on equanimity and peaceful acceptance. The trailer to my...

Most scholars consider Verse 25 to contain the most important words in the entire Tao Te Ching, for these words give us our place - or as I say it, our "anthropology" in the universe. And our place is nested in Tao. As this verse concludes: Know your interconnections: Human beings come from Earth, Earth’s patterns entwine with Heaven’s, Heaven roots in Tao, Tao’s blueprint is Nature itself. Please don't rush over the implications of this conclusion! Here is our quiet confidence that we...

Verse 24 starts off with two ludicrous (and unnatural) images: walking on tip-toe and zombie-walking on straddled legs. These introduce four more unnatural, ego-led ways to be in life, like playing to a crowd, crowing one's opinions, elevation of self, and praising the self -- big head, pride, arrogance, boastfulness, egotism. Etc., etc., etc. Lao-Tzu teaches here how all six are basically the same life-approaches; since each and all try to draw attention to one's self, they are as...

What if truth and trust are practices? Practices that take us right into the heart of Tao, and at the same time, the innermost core of who we are. For are not the two the same? This episode explores how Trust and Truth inter-relate, and how when we practice Trust, we practice the Chinese verb T'ung (同), used 6 times in this verse. Which means something! T'ung means to align, identify with. Like a musician or an athlete, the practices of alignment and identification with Tao lead us into the...

Brian Graves joined me on this podcast, not just as a quote-reader, but as an actual dialog partner during his question about "How does one grade students with a Taoist sensibility?" Verse 22 is our focus this week. No matter what we may feel, or however we may act, there is NOTHING WE CAN DO to separate from Tao. The Tao teaching here SO different from many religions popular today: whatever partial, weaker, or exhausted aspect of life one feels, these are actually our entry points – our...

If you know something to be true, but is hard to express, like a love relationship, or a spiritual conviction, how do you become *confident* that it is the highest thing to which you can dedicate your life? This is the question of Verse 21. Lao Tzu answers his own question with an emphasis on practicing TE, or Highest Virtue. This "TE," by the way is the TE in Tao TE Ching, or the Book about The Way of Virtue. The practice of this Virtue is ever-reinforcing, enabling in one a calm, serene...

We pause every 10 verses to enrich and provide more info than one may find in Tao te Ching text itself. More history, more practices, more background. This episode covers the kind of embarrassing dilemma we in the West have: Our 100+ versions of Tao te Ching in English are separated from Taoism as it has been generated and practiced by actual Taoists in Taoism's home: China. Thus, this episode makes a plea for us to become more educated and conversant about an ENTIRE culture, history, and...

Here is a verse that seems to be autobiographical. The author gets trapped into webs and narratives of others, and has to hide their true self. #go.along.to.get.along When one forgets or compromises one's original self, original virtue, or as the main metaphor for this verse, one's thread to which one holds tightly, all kinds of compromises and "settling" happen. The solution: Remember your roots. Remember your origins. Come back to your senses. Missy Harris is our voice and...

There is a key word in the Chinese version of this text - Chüeh (绝) - that I have come to believe has been under-interpreted. The usual English words used to interpret Chüeh include renounce, abandon, give up, throw away, forget about, banish, get rid of, end, do away with, drop and forswear. There is a wonderful opportunity to re-read this verse with Chüeh being translated as "interruption". Today's episode is my attempt to strengthen (if possible) the idea of 绝 with what it means to...

Verses 17-19 can be read together, so this week's verse 18 continues some of the themes from last week's episode on Verse 17. What happens when you start to abandon your original nature and "descend" or move to another beat or drum? According to this teaching, what happens is that we find myriad ways to lose our true self in the cultures around us, that may - and often do - regard us with contempt, or as a potential ATM. We are better than that, this verse reminds us. We are made for much...

This verse contains the first of five instances of "Ziran" which are the last two words of this verse, meaning, "It all happens naturally." Other ways to translate Ziran include, include "something that happens by itself constantly," spontaneously self-so, or “It is so by virtue of its own” and “the nature of what is so”. Ziran is the result of acting silently, without fanfare or drawing ANY attention to self, and practicing the highest virtue - Tao, or, the "greatest thing above or...

Radical emptiness, teaches Taoism, includes the emptying of fears. You know as well as I that life can be a fearful place. Before the ends of our lives, so much will happen that no one could predict. Lots may be asked of us, of our health, by our loved ones. It could be quite easy to hide somewhere we feel we would be impervious to life’s existential challenges, slings and arrows. VERSE 16 teaches us that a life clinging to false things, ideas, and fears is a diminished life indeed. Rest...

This week, a most revolutionary verse, one that asks us "to checklist" our operating values in life with the most ancient of values and practices of the pre-Taoist masters. What are these? Care, alertness, being courteous and honorable, fluid, malleable and supple, receptive and open, clear of distractions, and patient. Meditate on this: When one practices these values, are we not more human?? May your days begin in peace, and become wombs for radical hope! -Marc Mullinax I am looking...

In this second bonus episode, I demonstrate how, using free will and awareness, we can reframe, or transform, the crap which we hate, into positive and life-affirming acts of compassion. It is a simple process, this reframing, but few practice it, as we fall into unquestioned habits that transform the goodness of this world into things we think of as evil, or not worthy of our time. Here is the link for the Three Vinegar Tasters. May your days begin in peace, and become wombs for...

In Verse 14, Lao Tzu re-emphasizes with rather direct energy his past themes of emptiness of mind and senses, in order to gain a renewed emphasis on the PRESENT (rather than a re-tread of the past, or anxiety about a fictional future). It is indeed possible – right now, and exactly where you are – to live in accord with all creation. For in the now/here/this is all the teaching one needs. Of other teachings one needs little. The peaceful person, or animal, lives in the clear-eyed,...

In this Verse 13, Lao Tzu teaches us to mistrust the small mind beliefs about our body, so we can (1) recognize how our ego is at work in order to counteract it, and (2) learn to fall in love with our natural and Tao-birthed bodies, even if we need to fall back in love with them. This podcast is an original labor of love, designed, written, and co-produced by many, whose central idea is that Tao te Ching is good news for today. Tao still speaks. Mickey Moreno spoke our quotes this time....

In this episode treating Verse 12 of Tao Te Ching, we are given a choice: To pay attention to our unedited desires and cravings for what Lao Tzu calls the myriad swirl of the 10,000 things. OR, to pay attention, mindfully and with discipline, to the miraculous nature of the present moment, the present time, and the present circumstance. This is how to avoid soul-chaos. This podcast is an original labor of love, whose central idea is that Tao te Ching is good news for today. Tao still...

We have used the word "empty" or "emptiness" in our episodes 107 times already! And here yet another verse on emptiness! Don't worry, for today, I give the mic over to the players in this verse: "Hub," "Bowl," "House," and "Open Door." (Lots of fun!) This podcast is an original labor of love, designed, written, and co-produced by many, whose central idea is that Tao te Ching is good news for today. Tao still speaks. Ryan Wallace spoke our quotes this time. Audrey Davis is our artist. Molly...

This bonus episode treats the myths and narratives of our forgetfulness to live as full humans, alive, and in community with all creation, which is NOT dead. I treat the myths and narratives given us by Genesis 1, ancient Mesopotamia, Greek philosophy, and the Enlightenment. May your days begin in peace, and become wombs for radical hope!! Marc Mullinax - [email protected] --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/marc-mullinax/message

IMAGINE a world without acquisition for ego's sake. We know how the aim of the unchecked ego is EVER to gain, acquire, and surround itself with trophies of its accomplishments. Can this be reversed? Can we live for others instead of living only to feed our desire for more accomplishments, more acquisitions, more ego-assisted schemes? The answer is a resounding YES, WE CAN! My translation of this verse aims to show how "taxing" it is to live for, serve, and purchase for only for one's Self....

Verse 9 of Tao te Ching. At its core, this verse portrays Taoism’s vision of teaching an individual, a community, or even a civilization, to “let go”. Be careful, this verse advises, in how far one goes, or how widely we extend ourselves, or how deeply we may want to insinuate ego into our lives and projects. By letting go, by “retiring early” in one’s schemes, one returns to one’s natural, spontaneous, originally peaceful state. Holding on to unnatural desires leads only to hopeless gain,...

To observe water in all its manifold forms is to study Tao at its most essential. Listening to water sharpens our ears for hearing Tao. Today's episode departs from the usual teaching, and instead features an "interview" with water.  This podcast is an original labor of love, designed, written, and co-produced by many, whose central idea is that Tao te Ching is good news for today. Tao still speaks. Thanks to Tom Burnet for his voice and question. Audrey Davis is our artist. My brother Ben...

In this episode, we get simple ... and ethical. If Heaven and Earth (or Tao) last forever, how do they do it? (Spoiler alert: They live for others, and not for themselves.) Teased out in this verse is the same question for us. How may we endure? The answer is as simple as it may "seem" difficult to practice, but I make the bold assertion that our endurance and living long is no different from Tao's (after all, Tao birthed us, right?). We endure by finding our fulfillment in the filling and...

There are but 25 Chinese characters in this verse, Tao te Ching's second shortest verse. Here the amazing teaching about The Feminine Nature of Tao. Until now, Lao Tzu has refrained from any anthropomorphizing of Tao. But in this verse, he links Tao with the Feminine, the Mother, the Womb. We start off with comparisons in 9 English translations for the Chinese word for woman (牝). Then we explore how deep this Feminine idea goes in Taoism's understanding of creation. Noteworthy is Lao Tzu's...