17th March 2007
Dynamics of Not-Two
Embodiment of the Other as the Peace beyond Understanding
-- / --
Introduction
Warning: Psychoactive Text
The following text may seriously enhance your psychospiritual health in unforeseen ways. Note therefore that: A reading only depicts to the extent that its capacity to entrain is inhibited A reading only entrains to the extent that any such resonance obscures recognition that one is discovering from where one is then taken by it (seemingly for the first time) A reading only offers a linear sequential explication in time to the extent that one is pulled into a pattern of experiential wormholes that inhibits comprehension of the challenging atemporal pattern of that labyrinth A reading only challenges comprehension to the extent that the exhaustiveness of the pattern conveyed is felt to inhibit rather than enable a response to more profound questions A reading only answers a question enabling growth to the extent that one comes to it without recognizing both how one is the answer to that question in principle and why one is a question calling for a new understanding of what an answer means in practice A reading only offers a meaningless answer to the extent that one fails to recognize the source of meaning to which it points -- as with a dog focusing with enthusiastic puzzlement on the pointing finger of its master -- thereby inhibiting understanding that dog, finger and master are but pieces of the paradoxical mirror through which one may step A reading is only a collection of disconnected sentences and chapters to the extent that one fails to recognize one's role in writing them into a whole as songlines of the noosphere -- as the pattern that connects A reading is only a re-membrance of understanding to the extent that it obscures one's active role in embodying otherness As a reading, the above sentences themselves exemplify the self-reflexive nature of the challenge of any "reading" of reality -- and the "writing" for which it calls |
Comment:
The above warning applies to the reflection below on the nature of the Tao of Not-Two as evoked by the explication Not-Two is Peace: the ordinary people's way of Global Cooperative Order by Adi Da (2006). It is based on Tao Te Ching Interpreted Succinctly: a 9-fold pattern of 81 insights presented as phrases (2003). Navigational implications are explored in Hyperspace Clues to the Psychology of the Pattern that Connects. For further reading, see: Documents relating to Patterns of I Ching / Tao te Ching, Documents relating to Existential Engagement and Embodiment. [Links are provided to alternative complete translations].
Pattern
1. Journeying through unnaming the myriad patterns of the past --
that hide
the emergent implicate order with which they are strangely identical
[m/n/x]
2. Engaging without engaging --
for labeling anything engenders
a complement with which it is called endlessly to dance [m/n/x]
3. Cultivating non-engagement --
with what has already emerged
from the implicate order [m/n/x]
4. Having been there; having done that --
"not this; not that"
[m/n/x]
5. Engendering through complementarity --
without gain [m/n/x]
6. Completing --
as the enduring call to engendering [m/n/x]
7. Enduring --
through centering on what ultimately nourishes
[m/n/x]
8. Easing forward, going wherever, without competition --
seeking depth, like water [m/n/x]
9. Avoiding excess --
and the problems it brings [m/n/x]
-- / --
10. Centering through learning; knowing through
not-knowing --
reflecting without distorting; instigating without owning;
leading without ruling [m/n/x]
11. Benefiting from what is not --
through its framing of
what is [m/n/x]
12. Sensing the inner --
to avoid desensitizing the outer [m/n/x]
13. Governing others appropriately --
through recognizing
their exemplification of oneself [m/n/x]
14. Living the present --
through recognizing the undifferentiated
nature of ancient beginnings [m/n/x]
15. Subtly stilling to clarify the troubled;
elusively moving to enliven the inert --
strangely fulfilled by unfulfilment
[m/n/x]
16. Accepting wisely the enduring cycle of beginning and
ending --
to ensure the enduring peace that offers the freedom for open-hearted
magnanimity [m/n/x]
17. Acting simply, enabling others to value their own initiatives --
since such insightful leadership is hardly recognized --
[m/n/x]
18. Failing to exalt merit --
that induces hypocrisy and
disorder, disguised behind a screen of fashionable values [m/n/x]
-- / --
19. Being untroubled through needing little and wanting less --
irrespective of rules, injunctions and seeking after merit [m/n/x]
20. Living uncertainty, confusion and strangeness --
in awkward
contrast to those whose clarity derives from polarization [m/n/x]
21. Knowing the strange uncertainties offered in the moment --
by the spirit of the elusive, from time immemorial [m/n/x]
22. Acting contrarily --
as an appropriate way of expressing the
integrity of that which can only be understood through paradox [m/n/x]
23. Being in the moment --
through trusting in the power
of the moment [m/n/x]
24. Avoiding disproportion and self-satisfaction --
to ensure healthy
development [m/n/x]
25. Following the unnamable --
sustained by the unchanging that evokes
it, through the process of following it in the moment [m/n/x]
26. Becoming insightful through assiduous handling of
obligations --
progressing effectively based on a core of stillness [m/n/x]
27. Educating the challenged as the inspiration of the wise --
whether or not that is appreciated [m
/n/x]
-- / --
28. Knowing the other, and retaining one's identity and quality --
as
the true source of power and renewal [m/n/x]
29. Doing "nothing" to the world --
for, as a sacred entity, doing
"anything" to possess it is to degrade and lose it [m/n/x]
30. Leading through inspiration that does not seek to win --
in
contrast to the vanquishing of others that degrades all concerned [m/n/x]
31. Using weapons, when there is no choice, with a calm,
still mind --
since enjoying their use, and their killing of people,
is to lose one's share in the common good [m/n/x]
32. Knowing when to cease making essential distinctions --
as the key to
safeguarding that which ensures integrity and vitality [m/n/x]
33. Applying to oneself the skills developed successfully to deal with
others --
as a key to appropriate action and a quality of wisdom and
greatness [m/n/x]
34. Achieving greatness without great doings --
as accomplished by the
wise [m/n/x]
35. Holding fast to the eternal process through the very ordinary --
as
the preferred key to its significance [m/n/x]
36. Prevailing through weakness --
as necessarily following
the rise and dominance of the stronger [m/n/x]
-- / --
37. Self-organizing of myriad things --
as naturally entrained by the
stillness in unnaming and unshaping [m/n/x]
38. Abiding in letting go and doing nothing --
as superceding clinging
to power towards a determined end, in the righteous light of premature
understanding or obedience to directives [m/n/x]
39. Enwholing to sustain the integrity of the subtle --
as enabled by
encompassing the ordinary [m/n/x]
40. Returning from weakness --
through which being is eternally born of nothing [m/n/x]
41. Understanding appropriateness --
as challenged by the contrariness
of
insight inappropriate to its nature [m/n/x]
42. Losing as the key to the cycle of winning and losing --
essential to
wider knowing [m/n/x]
43. Ensubtling to enliven the impenetrable --
that appears permanently
to constrain [m/n/x]
44. Self-constraining fruitfully --
avoiding the traps of
projection [m/n/x]
45. Remaining calm and clear to ensure that the capacity
for appropriateness is renewed --
despite appearances to the contrary [m/n/x]
-- / --
46. Knowing that enough is enough --
as the key to wanting less
[m/n/x]
47. Understanding the truth and opportunity of the moment --
avoiding
its inhibition through seeking elsewhere [m/n/x]
48. Unlearning --
to ensure that things are progressively
governed more fruitfully [m/n/x]
49. Enminding the world to see the ordinary through the eyes of children --
caring for it through them [m/n/x]
50. Living in recognition that this implies dying --
but living
appropriately to remove the fear of that dying [m/n/x]
51. Nurturing life according to natural processes --
neither possessing
it,
claiming it, nor controlling it [m/n/x]
52. Understanding insignificant beginnings and their pathways to endings
from which beginnings arise anew --
in order to avoid unfruitful
dispersal [m/n/x]
53. Ensuring modesty --
so as to avoid inequitable and shameless
accumulation [m/n/x]
54. Ensuring that rules for oneself are consistent with those for the world [m/n/x]
-- / --
55. Knowing harmony as knowing the eternal --
in contrast to achieving maturity
as part of the cycle presaging death [m/n/x]
56. Knowing that discourages talking --
in contrast to the talking that discourages knowing [m/n/x]
57. Avoiding instrumental thinking, initiation of innovative change and regulation of
action --
which tend to be counter-productive and inappropriate [m/n/x]
58. Bumbling on without forcing --
through indirection [m/n/x]
59. Gathering insight to ensure staying power --
irrespective of the
worldly undertakings chosen
[m/n/x]
60. Allowing potentially disruptive forces to have their
place --
within a larger context
[m/n/x]
61. Lying low to ensure integrity and continuity --
""the meek shall inherit
the earth" [m/n/x]
62. Honoring the appropriate as a gift --
in contrast to the fashionable [m/n/x]
63. Focusing on the challenge of beginnings --
as the foundation for any
subsequent achievement, whatever its scope [m/n/x]
-- / --
64. Attending to what may have been neglected
--
in the achievement of undertakings [m/n/x]
65. Being in ignorance of appropriate action --
as empowering
appropriate response
to the unexpected in the moment [m/n/x]
66. Following rather than leading --
as the key to appropriately
sustainable guidance [m/n/x]
67. Leading the mightiest by not presuming to do so --
however
improbable this may seem [m/n/x]
68. Avoiding competition --
to ensure the appropriate use of ability [m/n/x]
69. Yielding to antagonism --
thus disempowering the attacker and
devaluing any resultant victory [m/n/x]
70. Being obscure --
as characteristic of an understanding and mode of
action that is not of this world [m/n/x]
71. Knowing without knowing --
as the only remedy for the sickness of
knowing without not-knowing [m/n/x]
72. Fearing the dangers of acting inappropriately [m/n/x]
-- / --
73. Acting silently, non-competitively, and non-directively --
to readily ensure the most appropriate consequences
[m/n/x]
74. Avoiding the presumptuousness of usurping the judgement on others by the larger scheme of things [m/n/x]
75. Living for more than the pursuit of wealth --
or solely for the sake of
living [m/n/x]
76. Bending in response to pressure --
as the essence of strength and
the
key to survival [m/n/x]
77. Redistributing from those who have to those who have not [m/n/x]
78. Recognizing the counter-intuitive, paradoxical nature of appropriate action [m/n/x]
79. Fulfilling obligations --
as indicative of the subtle power that
eludes
those focused on their rightful claims [m/n/x]
80. Enjoying the freedom of movement in relation to what is to hand, without
yearning
for elsewhere or elsewhen --
or the use of the facilitating devices they
evoke [m/n/x]
81. Doing without outdoing --
avoiding the destructive traps of charm,
contention, and learning [m/n/x]
Links to other translations of the
Tao Te Ching:
m =translation by S. Mitchell; n
=Translation by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English;
x =Line-by-Line
Comparisons of 29 translations (St. Xenophon Library)
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