Understanding the Tao te Ching Chapter 16: Meditation and Enlightenment

16.

Seek to attain an open mind (the summit of vacuity). Seek composure (the essence of tranquillity).

All things are in process, rising and returning. Plants come to blossom, but only to return to the root. Returning to the root is like seeking tranquillity; it is moving towards its destiny. To move toward destiny is like eternity. To know eternity is enlightenment, and not to recognize eternity brings disorder and evil.

Knowing eternity makes one comprehensive; comprehension makes one broadminded; breadth of vision brings nobility; nobility is like heaven.The heavenly is like Dao. Dao is the Eternal. The decay of the body is not to be feared.

Interpretation:

Taken by itself, this chapter is a good lesson on the value of meditation.  Open the mind, seek the quiet and calm within.  See the rising and falling of life.

Taken in the context of earlier chapters that advised against desire for wealth and fame, this chapter can be seen as a description of what the Taoist seeks instead. 

If we are clear of mind, the author says, we will see in the world around us a natural rising and blossoming and then an equal natural return to "the root."   Realization of this natural cycle not only in the world around us, but also within ourselves leads to great peace.  Even death itself will not be feared.

Perhaps here is a good place to mention a very important detail; Taosit tend to be very happy people.  This is not always obvious from ancient poems and stodgy interpreters but it is the case.  Look at it this way, if you are so freed of your burdens that you do not even fear death, doesn't it follow that you have relaxed quite a bit and are free to enjoy things more?

Understanding the Tao te Ching Chapter 14: Understanding the Present

14.

It is unseen because it is colorless; it is unheard because it is soundless; when seeking to grasp it, it eludes one, because it is incorporeal.

Because of these qualities it cannot be examined, and yet they form an essential unity. Superficially it appears abstruse, but in its depths it is not obscure. It has been nameless forever! It appears and then disappears. It is what is known as the form of the formless, the image of the imageless. It is called the transcendental, its face (or destiny) cannot be seen in front, or its back (or origin) behind.

But by holding fast to the Dao of the ancients, the wise man may understand the present, because he knows the origin of the past. This is the clue to the Dao.

Interpretation:

This particularly poetic chapter reminds us once again that the Tao is not something that can be understood by thought.  We can cannot see it, touch it or hear it, yet we can see that all the things of the universe rise from some eternal flow; the boundless energy of the universe.  If it cannot be understood as a thing but as the thing that came before things, how can we know it?  We know it by its action, by its presence.  Any word, thought, blog about the Tao can only be the first step, the signpost that shows the way.  These words are the end result of untold eons of the ceaseless flow of the Dao, and they will be left behind in the endless, shapeless dance.

You cannot find Tao here.  This is only one moment.   Let go your mind.  Let go your questions.  There is the gateway, there in the endless receptiveness of your unclouded mind.