Living With The Tao Te Ching : Verse 6
The Tao is called the Great Mother:
empty yet inexhaustible,
it gives birth to infinite worlds.
It is always present within you.
You can use it any way you want.
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What's It All About?
This verse speaks to me about potential. Potential is something that could exist but doesn't yet. Much like how just one single acorn seed contains the potential of millions of trees. The Great Mother mentioned in the verse, refers to the feminine energies and attributes of birth, creativity and possibility.
it gives birth to infinite worlds.
As human beings we contain the potential of infinite possibilities. The potential to do good, or harm. The potential to be loving or hateful. The potential to write, paint, walk, run, sing, cry or anything else we choose to do. We can do any of these things averagely, good or we can dedicate our entire lives to becoming an expert. Anything goes.
The magic lies in utilising that potential. The outcome is already here waiting, all it needs to be realised is action and intention. So if you want to learn to be a great painter, you need to paint. But if you want to be a champion cyclist, then you need to ride. if you want to just sit and do nothing, sit and do nothing. All options are there for you right now, but it comes down to choice. What do you choose to do?
You can use it any way you want.
The Tao doesn't care for which path you choose. It's not the path or even the doing that necessarily matters, it is the awareness of the force behind it all that can bring you greater peace and a healthy perspective on the path.
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How To Practically Apply Verse 6 In Ordinary Life
We would benefit greatly if we were able to stop in the midst of our busy lives and feel for even a moment the force, the raw potential that lies behind everything we can see, feel and experience. That invisible force that creates everything perfectly. The beating of our heats, the rush of blood around our body, the minuscule cells that perfectly perform their duty without prompt. The changing of the seasons, the migration of the birds. The storm clouds that gather and move water around the planet. It's all perfect. It doesn't need us to build another business, or play guitar perfectly. It doesn't require our permission to do anything.
Stop for a minute today and appreciate the perfection of the moment that is presented to you right there and then. Not some imagined near future, the present moment. Even if you are stood at a bus stop in the pouring rain waiting for a bus that's late. Be right there. No judgements, no preferences, just in that very moment. Try and sense it's perfection. Your heart still beating. Your eyes seeing. Your fingers feeling the cold.
In seeing the perfection of the moment your truest potential is released. No mind. No analysis. No agenda. No ambition. No desire. Just now.
The acorn doesn't worry about whether it will make it to be a big oak, a small oak or what kind of landscape it will grow in. It just is, without desire, and yet it grows. And it will outlive us all.