The Tao That Can Be Followed Is Not the Eternal Tao - Lao Tzu

Written on May 9, 2008 by Tom Stine


The Tao that can be followed is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the origin of heaven and earth
While naming is the origin of the myriad things.
Therefore, always desireless, you see the mystery
Ever desiring, you see the manifestations.
These two are the same—
When they appear they are named differently.

This sameness is the mystery,
Mystery within mystery;

The door to all marvels.

—Lao Tzu



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Posted in: Guru Quotes
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Clay Collins | The Growing LifeNo Gravatar  said
on May 9th, 2008 at 1:46 pm

Thanks so much for sharing this. I love this poem.

Clay Collins | The Growing Life’s last blog post..The Life Hack Misnomer

EvanNo Gravatar  said
on May 9th, 2008 at 6:02 pm

Hi Tom,

The phrase I love most is “these two are the same” - this just seems bottomless, it goes on and on.

Tom StineNo Gravatar  said
on May 9th, 2008 at 7:02 pm

@Evan I love it, too. It does go on and on.

@Clay You bet. It is beautiful. The ultimate anti-hack, eh? ;-)

DavidyaNo Gravatar  said
on May 10th, 2008 at 8:13 pm

Naming is the origin. In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God. The 2 are the same.

Davidya’s last blog post..Living the Dream


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Guru Quotes

Behind most spiritual practices is the belief that you have to get someplace you’re not- a destination called realization or enlightenment. But realization isn’t someplace else; it’s the naturally occurring human state. It doesn’t belong to anybody. It’s who we all are. Spiritual practices also set up many pictures of what this state looks like. For example, when I described how much fear was present, people told me the fear meant that something must be wrong, because fear was an indication that I wasn’t in the proper state. But fear is just what it is, and it’s there too in the vastness of who we are.

—Suzanne Segal

In spiritual life there is no room for compromise. Awakening is not negotiable; we cannot bargain to hold on to things that please us while relinquishing things that do not matter to us. A lukewarm yearning for awakening is not enough to sustain us through the difficulties involved in letting go. It is important to understand that anything that can be lost was never truly ours, anything that we deeply cling to only imprisons us.

—Jack Kornfield

Those who awaken never rest in one place.
Like swans, they rise and leave the lake.
On the air they rise and fly an invisible course.
Their food is knowledge.
They live on emptiness.
They have seen how to break free.
Who can follow them?

—Siddhārtha Gautama, The Dhammapada

We always want someone else to change so that we will feel good. But has it ever struck you that even if your wife changes or your husband changes, what does that do to you? You’re just as vulnerable as before; you’re just as idiotic as before; you’re just as asleep as before. You are the one who needs to change, who needs to take medicine. You keep insisting, “I feel good because the world is right.” Wrong! The world is right because I feel good. That’s what all the mystics are saying.

—Anthony de Mello

What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind.

If a man speaks or acts with an impure mind, suffering follows him as the wheel of the cart follows the beast that draws the cart.

What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind.

If a man speaks or acts with a pure mind, joy follows him as his own shadow.

—Siddhārtha Gautama