The Daodejing (Tao Te Ching) uses a colorful phrase for simplicity: uncaved wood (often wrongly translated as uncarved block). Uncarved wood is an interesting metaphor, as wood in its untouched state is unique. No two pieces are exactly the same. We might be tempted to think that a carved block is simpler, as just a basic shape. But carving wood into basic shapes to make them simple is to confuse simplicity with uniformity and conformity. The Daodejing invites us to recognize the uniqueness of wood that has grown in harmonious balance with its environment as simple. The effort to impose a uniformity, to enforce a conformity, to generalize and abstract — this is in fact the complexity. Join the Kinship Cafe discussion this week as we explore uncut wood and simplicity in chapter 28 of the Daodejing (Tao Te Ching). Find the link in the calendar.

Just came across this quote from the introduction to the Tractatus that I think would apply perfectly to the Daodejing.

Sound familiar? 😉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9mIyxcYc6U

Have you ever experienced a spiritual awakening? My first spiritual awakening happened in 2004. I grew up as a rational, materialistic atheist in the Bible Belt, and for the first 22 years of my life I had no conception whatsoever of spiritual consciousness. Something I was deeply passionate about (you might say obsessed with) from very early on was martial arts (I basically wanted to be a Ninja Turtle). So when I was 10 my parents signed me up for lessons at the local taekwondo chain school. It was the kind of place where I started at age 10, had a black belt at age 12, and a second degree black belt at age 14. After that I branched out into other martial arts, including Chinese, Japanese, Brazilian, and Filipino styles. What they all had in common was that they were all external styles, meaning that the emphasis was on athleticism and external results: lots of jumping around, kicking high, and doing various kinds of stunts. Something else that interested me from a very young age was ancient stories and mythology. I enjoyed reading the Greek myths, and I found and read copies of the Panchatantra and the Tao Te Ching. I thought the Panchatantra was really cool, but at the time the Tao Te Ching didn't make any sense to me and came across as a bunch of gobbledygook. In college I studied math and physics, but I went to a small, private liberal arts school where you had to learn a little bit of everything. The class I took for my religion elective was Buddhism. I learned about the story of Prince Siddhartha Gautama sitting under the Bodhi Tree and experiencing satori, the “instantaneous awakening”, and arising as the Buddha, the “awakened one”. They were cool old stories, but at the time meant nothing to me beyond that. I also kept learning new martial arts, including Japanese, Chinese, and Brazilian styles, all still externally focused. I tried out a tai chi class, but found I didn't have the patience for it at the time. For graduate school I moved to the west coast, still studying math and physics, and still on the lookout for new martial arts to learn. One day I saw a flier for a place called the Kung Fu Academy and decided to check it out. It turned out this was a school that taught internal kung fu, largely rooted in the tai chi classics. If it had been called "the Tai Chi Academy" I probably wouldn't have gone, due to my earlier boredom when I tried a tai chi class, but I found the training to be very effective for where I was in my development.

Here's another online text version of the Daodejing that's searchable (helpful when you want to find a particular passage but don't remember the number): https://timelessminutes.com/tao-te-ching-complete-text/