video intro (25 min.)
Lao Tzu
(Confucius 551-479 BCE; Siddhartha/the Buddha 563-493
BCE; Pythagoras 570-495 BCE; Cyrus the Great
600-530 BCE)
Departing on an ox
with the Tao Te Ching in hand Those
who know, do not speak; those who speak, do not know. Be
still like a mountain and flow like a river. The
best way to live is to be like water. The
softest things of the world overcome the hardest things of the world. Less
and less do you need to force things, until finally you arrive at
non-action. When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. When
two opponents meet, the one without an enemy will surely triumph. Even
a 1,000 mile journey starts with a single step. Tao (Dao) Yin Yang Wu Wei Ch'i Te (De) and the
Three Jewels all
embedded within the Tao
Te Ching - "way-path/reality"
"virtue/power" "text/means" - "the book of the way to virtue"
- of some 5,000 characters in 81 chapters
"Nine Dragons" hand scroll section, by Chen
Rong, 1244 AD, Song
Dynasty, Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston.
Chuang Tzu 370 - 287
BCE The Unfathomable Source of Existence If there was a beginning, then there was a time before
that beginning. And a time before the time
which was before the time of that beginning. If there is existence, there must have been
non-existence. And if there was a time when nothing
existed, then there must have been a time before that – when even nothing
did not exist. Suddenly, when nothing came into existence, could one
really say whether it belonged to the category of
existence or of non-existence? Even the very words I have just now uttered, – I
cannot say whether they have really been uttered or not. The Butterfly
Once upon a time, I, Chuang Tzu, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of the following my fancies as a butterfly, and was unconscious of my individuality as a man.
Suddenly, I awoke, and there I lay, myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.