#The Tao

[japanwords]

間 (ma) “emptiness, space, interval”

“Though thirty spokes may form the wheel,

it is the hole within the hub

which gives the wheel utility.

It is not the clay the potter throws,

which gives the pot its usefulness,

but the space within the shape,

from which the pot is made.

Without a door, the room cannot be entered,

and without windows it is dark.

Such is the utility of non-existence.”

-Tao Te Ching

When I was first introduced to Japanese art I was struck by the amount of white space. Being totally different from the art of the Western culture in which I was raised, I questioned its purpose. Why was it there? Did the artist run out of ink? Or ideas? Or was there some deeper reason?

I now know that it is active negative space. It is the artistic manifestation of ma - emptiness, interval or space. It brings balance to the artwork. It gives a refreshing calmness that could not possibly exist if the paper or canvas was completely covered with ink. By its contrasting nature it enhances the positive lines of the ink. Chinese culture also values this “leaving blank”; it is known as 留白 (liú bái) (the two kanji mean “stop” and ���white” respectively).

In a calligraphy work this active negative space is as important as the black lines of ink. The two are inseparable and complement each other, much like taoist yin and yang. In fact one could argue that it is the empty space that is essence of the calligraphy work - the black ink lines exist merely to highlight, divide, and protect this empty space.

Just as the empty space is as important as the ink, ma teaches us that non-being is as important as being, and non-doing is as important as doing. When we embrace non-doing and non-existence, it opens the way for creative exploration and new possibilities, as was understood by Moomins creator Tove Jansson:

“Every children’s book should have a path in it where the writer stops and the child goes. A threat or a delight that can never completely be explained. A face never completely revealed.”

So why not explore the mystery and wisdom of ma? Find the space for nothing. Take the path where the doing stops and the non-doing begins. Take a leap into nothingness and see where ma takes you.

(thanks to @catcrumb for the Tove Jansson quote)

[celestial-ceremony]

the Tao te Ching - Ursula le guin translation

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

"Battle in the Heavens". Nicolas Roerich. 1912.

* * * *

Prayer

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and in thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world.

- A great thanks to Stephen Mitchell’s translation of Lao Tzu’s Tao te Ching

[vintage-tigre]

[kaddyssammlung]

Someone compared Sleep with the Tao

Someone compared Sleep with a chapter that is written in the Tao Te Ching. And I really like it and I just saw this on one of those strange sub-reddits and it was marked as trolling. I don't see it as such. Eckhart Tolle quotes the Tao all the time. Maybe I'm too much of a nerd?! XD Okay I am a giant nerd....

I'm keeping this in here. I need to be able to come back to this. I like it :) Dear strange....I understand and thank you for pushing me into a new direction.

It's probably just meant for me then.

[ganja-laoshi]

The tao that can be told

is not the eternal Tao

The name that can be named

is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.

Naming is the origin

of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.

Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations

arise from the same source.

This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.

The gateway to all understanding.

The Tao Te Ching, Chapter 1

Rendition by Stephen Mitchell

https://taoteching.page.link/5kaA

[the-dewdrop-read-deep]

The Way Back to Our Own True Nature: Wisdom from the Tao Te Ching

“When they know that they don’t know, people can find their own way.”– Lao-Tzu ShareCopied to clipboard The Tao Te Ching – whose name translates as something like The Book of the Way – was written by Lao-Tzu (Laozi) in China at about the same time as Buddha was teaching in India. The tenets of Taoism were deeply ingrained in Chinese life by the time Buddhism spread there centuries later, and…

[remnri]

nice "tao" meet "hu"

pt 1/2 (pt 2)

[japanwords]

道 (dō) “Way”, “Route”, “The Tao”

This is the “-dō” in the Japanese martial arts of judō, kendō and aikidō, as well as shodō (calligraphy), sadō (tea ceremony) and many others. 

Loosely translated, it means “way”, “route”, “path” or “doctrine”. 

My calligraphy teacher said that studying a Japanese art is considered similar to taking a journey up a mountain. The summit is the refinement of oneself, and there are many ways to do this. Even though the paths are different, the final destination is the same.

道 is also the “Tao” (or “Dao”) of the Tao Te Ching, the natural order of the universe. It cannot be comprehended conceptually, but must be lived and experienced every moment of the day. If we live in tune with the universe and “go with the flow” we will have the chance for great self-actualisation. 

This one-off calligraphy work is able on my Etsy shop here.

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

#You Know What That Is? Growth

[girl4music]

“In Season 6 Gabrielle often does or says the Xena thing and Xena often does or says the Gabrielle thing” 👍🎯

The role reversing and personality swapping was no accident or coincidence. I believe that they did this purposefully because Gabrielle was to take over Xena’s mantle and continue on the Warrior Princess’ legacy and Xena was to sacrifice herself and be immediately reincarnated into her next life as the Mother of Peace.

The role-reversal transitioning was intentionally crafted into the show episode by episode for it to end this way. And it really works because they set it all up with the AU/reincarnation soulmates situations and scenarios.

Xena was neither meant to live the rest of her life with nor meant to die with Gabrielle. But you CAN’T really call it “separation” because they can’t be separated.

The whole point is that they’re together for eternity - sometimes functional as individual beings with their own roles to play, sometimes not - but always (like yin and yang) contradictory but complementary forces…because if they weren’t,… they couldn’t function at all. That’s how ‘yin-yang’ works. You can’t ever separate yin from yang or yang from yin as they’re a nondual nature but they will always appear as distinct from each other precisely because both sides pour and permeate into each other. That’s how their entire dynamic happens. Fundamentally they are whole. They are one. But the only reason they can be that way is because they play distinct dualistic roles that allows them to exist at all. People often don’t understand that about the nature of yin-yang. They see the two sides as separate from one another. As ‘yin’ AND ‘yang’. But they wouldn’t even be able to see either side if yin-yang wasn’t always whole.

So in the same way… If Xena and Gabrielle weren’t always fundamentally whole at the soul level, they could not ever be distinctly different from one another at the human level. They could not function as if separated.

It’s a very difficult thing to explain. Yin-yang is such a fascinating philosophy because in order to understand how it functions, it requires you understand balance. So it is both incredibly simple and incredibly complicated.

Basically, it depends on the perspective which is which.

That’s why yin-yang works so very well for explaining and understanding Xena and Gabrielle as a relationship because those two do not stay still yet they are always perfectly balanced within their relationship even when they’re not as individual characters within their arcs.

It’s The Way. The Tao. Or whatever you want to call it. My character study thesis on them points all this out.

That they’re the human representation of ‘yin-yang’ and are each other’s Way because they’re one soul in two bodies. They’re never separate. They just look it.

And that’s the way it is with everything in existence. That’s the nature of everything. Everything there is. It looks as if it is separate. It is actually not. It can’t be because if it was, none of it would even be there at all.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Taoist Art :: [Red Pine (translator) :: Bill Porter (author)]

* * * *

“The Master allows things to happen. She shapes events as they come. She steps out of the way and lets the Tao speak for itself.” — From: Tao Te Ching Translation: Stephen Mitchell

[alive on all channels]

[goldenjuniper]

some sketches from a few months ago…. i lov ewomen

[averaillisa]

I think they should be insufferable together. actually

[thunderpetal]

Tao seeing Elle feeling like shit about the transphobic climate we live in and deciding to make her a video just showing her being a normal, pretty, girl making art, laughing with her friends and boyfriend, having fun, setting up a whole movie night for him to show it to her, and after it was over, saying ‘that’s how I see you’ while gently holding her in his arms???

[spoopyium]

I don't know why but when he said he sampled the water of Qiaoying Village I just imagined him lapping it up on all fours when no one was looking so I doodled this up 💀💀