MEDITATIONS: TAO TE CHING CHAPTER FORTY

the first step is to enter the place
from whence you came

the second step is to play in the field of limitlessness

the third step is to demonstrate birth, growth, maturation, and
death

the fourth step is to rest quietly
listening for wisdom and the sacred sounds
watching the web of moving existence all around you

rest
and then

play again

—Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching; An authentic Taoist translation. translated by John Bright-Fey

A guide for meditation: close your eyes and turn your vision inward. Allow your ego to immerse itself in the unconscious void from which it emerged. Enter the reverie, the dream-state, and allow yourself the freedom of a spontaneous inner-journey. Let go of “shoulds” and “should nots,” of labels such as good and bad. See your self not as a singular entity in time and space, but as a process, as iterations, as a multitudinous being emerging, maturing, and then immersing again. Watch without worry your own ego’s cycle of birth and death—then lie with it, quiet, open and listening for the wisdom whispered in the vibration of threads that connect you to the transcendent. And then, awaken; return to life as if to live is to play.

And to me also, who appreciate life, the butterflies, and soap-bubbles, and whatever is like them amongst us, seem most to enjoy happiness.

To see these light, foolish, pretty, lively little sprites flit about—that moveth Zarathustra to tears and songs.

I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance (Nietzsche 40).

Lao-tzu. “Chapter Forty”. Tao Te Ching; An Authentic Taoist Translation, translated by John Bright-Fey, Sweetwater Press, 2014. p.81

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spake Zarathustra. translated by Thomas Common. The Modern Library.