Special Conditions for Spiritual Transformation

 The topic of aging is one that interests older people.  I have read numerous books and articles about aging and dying.  

Aging Well  By Michael P. Garofalo

Thee is a book titled "The Grace in Aging: Awaken as You Grow Older" by Kathleen Dowling Singh, 2014. 

She lists a number of  Special Conditions for Spiritual Transformation:

"Opening to our own mortality is a liberation from pettiness and the smallness of selfing.  It allows release from the inessential.

Withdrawal allows freedom from the blind habits upon which we impute our sense of self.

Silence engenders a liberation from illusions and from the internal monologue that so convinces us of the reality of self. 

Solitude brings us to a stable platform from which we can liberate attention from attachments.

Forgiveness liberates us from anger and from judgment.  It allows a release of attention from the mental affliction of aversion.

Humility unfolds into freedom from pride and the illusions of perfectionism.  It is a liberation to ordinariness. 

The practice of moment-by-moment presence, breath-by-breath awareness, emancipates attention from frivolity, from all that is meaningless, from all of the ways in which we squander this precious human life.

Commitment entails "taking the one seat." It is a way of describing the conditions of a committed, earnest practice and the choiceless conditions of dying.  It liberates us from wavering, from wandering in our attention and intention.  Taking the one seat eliminates the escape routes.

The work of life review, leading to life resolution, releases us from our story.  It is the work of self-inquiry.  It engenders a liberation into the freedom of presence-into experiential attention, free from narrative.

Opening the heart liberates us from the limitations of fear.  It is here that we enter into awareness beyond self.  It brings us to communion, directly into love. It is one of the great tasks and the great joys of human experience.

Open the mind is to make space in the mind.  It emancipates our attention from the distractions of assumptions and reactions.  It also frees us from our beliefs, from all that we think we know.  It allows entrance into the wonder of the great mystery and the wisdom clarity of direct knowing.  It allows entrance into the wonder of the great mystery and the wisdom of clarity of direct knowing.  It, also, is an essential task of awakening." - page 90.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 13

 Dao De Jing, Laozi 

Chapter 13

"Let favor and disgrace be warnings
let honor and disaster be your body
and why should favor and disgrace be warnings
favor means descending
to gain it should be a warning
to lose it should be a warning
thus should favor and disgrace be warnings
and why should honor and disaster be in your body
the reason we have disaster
is because we have a body
if we didn't have a body
we wouldn't have disaster
thus who honors their body as the world
can be entrusted with the world
can be encharged with the world."
-  Translated by Red Pine, 1996, Chapter 13, Taoteching

Ho-Shang Kung says, "Those who gain favor or honor should worry about being too high, as if they were at the edge of a precipice.  They should not flaunt their status or wealth.  And those who lose favor and live in disgrace should worry about another disaster."

Ssu-Ma Kuang says, "Normally a body means disaster.  But if we honor and cherish it and follow the natural order in our dealing with others and don't indulge our desires, we can avoid disaster." 

Huang Yuan-Chi says, "We all possess something good and noble that we don't have to seek outside ourselves, something that the glory of power or position cannot compare with.  People need only to start with this and cultivate without letting up.  The ancients said, 'Two or three years of hardship, ten thousand years of bliss.' "

Lao-tzu's Taoteching  Translated by Red Pine (Bill Porter).  Provides a solid verbatim translation and shows the text in Chinese characters.  Includes around 10 brief selected commentaries for each Chapter of the Taoteching, drawn from commentaries in the past 2,000 years.  San Francisco, Mercury House, 1996, Second Edition, 184 pages.  An invaluable resource for brief commentaries.  Chapter 13, pp. 26-27. 

For those wishing a Zen Buddhist/Taoist interpretation of the Tao Te Ching, I recommend the following two books:

Grigg, Ray, Zen Tzu. Transcription of the Tao Te Ching from a Zen Buddhist perspective. 181 pages, 2021. VSCL

Bright-Fey, John. The Whole Heart of Zen: The Complete Teachings From the Oral Tradition of Ta-Mo. Crane Hill Publishers, 2006. 298 pages. 

"Life and death
favor and disgrace
praise and blame
success and failure

all of these conditions confuse and dismay because
they are the same ailment
they cause ill at ease states and related worries.
how does this happen

when favor is acquired so is the fear of losing favor acquired

if someone thinks that the corporeal body is the limit of the self
then the fear that is inherent in the body makes itself known
and is difficult to subside

how can you trust and accept your corporeal limits
in the face of fear
we have fear when a limited self is absorbed in importance

if you view the unlimited word as the self
then you can be trusted with it
because only the person who sees the world as themselves
and their self as the world

will take care of it."
-  Translated by John Bright-Fey, 2006, Chapter 13 

"Because everything changes, a constructed self is always bewildered

by its own contrivances. And because this self cannot control everything's unfolding, the unavoidable consequences are discord, struggle and misfortune. Such is the folly of attaching to an illusion.

A guarded self attracts adversities, so dignity, vanity and pride make it the victim of its own imagination. As challenges are interpreted as threats, its judgment is impaired. 

Since all endings eventually return to beginnings, every contrived self must finally be abandoned.

While the wisdom in everythings unfolding tests those who are hard and forceful, it accommodates those who are soft and yielding. When the formless takes the form of circumstances but keeps its essence, the inner and outer become each other.

Those who are no longer controlled by a contrived self will remember the burden of dignity, vanity and pride.  Therefore, they will welcome the easy grace of humility and the forgiving calm of freedom. So those who 

are no longer the victims of an illusion will remember the burden of needless, getting, possessing and keeping, and will know when enough is enough."

- Translated by Ray Grigg, 2021, Chapter 13 

 

"Favor and disgrace would seem equally to be feared;

Honor and great calamity, to be regarded as personal conditions of the same kind.

What is meant by speaking thus of favor and disgrace?

Disgrace is being in a low position after the enjoyment of favor.

The getting that favor leads to the apprehension of losing it, and the losing it leads to the fear of still greater calamity.

This is what is meant by saying that favor and disgrace would seem equally to be feared.

And what is meant by saying that honor and great calamity are to be similarly regarded as personal conditions?

What makes me liable to great calamity is my having the body which I call myself;

If I had not the body, what great calamity could come to me?

Therefore he who would administer the kingdom, honoring it as he honors his own person, may be employed to govern it,

And he who would administer it with the love which he bears to his own person may be entrusted with it."

-  Translated by James Legge, 1891, Chapter 13 

"Favor bodes disgrace; it is like trembling.

Rank bodes great heartache.

It is like the body.

What does 'Favor bodes disgrace; it is like trembling' mean?

Favor humiliates.

Its acquisition causes trembling, its loss causes trembling.

This is what is meant by 'Favor bodes disgrace; it is like trembling.'

What does 'Rank bodes great heartache, it is like the body' mean?

I suffer great heartache because I have a body.

When I have no body, what heartache remains?

Therefore who administers the empire as he takes care of his body can be entrusted with the empire."

-  Translated by D. T. Suzuki and Paul Carus, 1913, Chapter 13 

"Dread glory as you dread shame.

Prize great calamity as you prize your body.

What does this mean:

"Dread glory as you dread shame"?

Glory comes from below.

Obtain it, you are afraid of shame;

Lose it, you are still afraid of shame.

That is why it is said;

"Dread glory as you dread shame."

What does this mean:

"Prize great calamity as you prize your own body"?

We who meet with great calamities, meet them because we have a body.

If we had not a body what calamity could reach us?

Therefore he who honours the kingdom as his body can govern the kingdom.

He who loves the kingdom as his own body can be trusted with the kingdom."

-  Translated by Isabella Mears, 1916, Chapter 13  

"Favor and disgrace are things that startle;
High rank is, like one's body, a source of great trouble.
What is meant by saying favor and disgrace are things that startle?
Favor when it is bestowed on a subject serves to startle as much as when it is withdrawn.
This is what is meant by saying that favor and disgrace are things that startle.
What is meant by saying that high rank is, like one's body, a source of great trouble?
The reason I have great trouble is that I have a body.
When I no longer have a body, what trouble have I?
Hence he who values his body more than dominion over the empire can be entrusted with the empire.
He who loves his body more than dominion over the empire can be given the custody of the empire."
-  Translated by D. C. Lau, 1963, Chapter 13   


寵辱若驚.
貴大患若身.
何謂寵辱若驚.
寵為下.
得之若驚.
失之若驚是謂寵辱若驚.
何謂貴大患若.
身吾所以有大患者為吾有身.
及吾無身.
吾有何患.
故貴以身為天下若可寄天下.
愛以身為天下, 若可託天下.
-  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 13


ch'ung ju jo ching.
kuei ta huan jo shên.
ho wei ch'ung ju jo ching.
ch'ung wei hsia.
tê chih jo ching.
shih chih jo ching shih wei ch'ung ju jo ching.
ho wei kuei ta huan jo.
shên wu so yi yu ta huan chê wei wu yu shên.
chi wu wu shên.
wu yu ho huan.
ku kuei yi shên wei t'ien hsia chê k'o chi t'ien hsia.
ai yi shên wei t'ien hsia, chê k'o t'o t'ien hsia.
-  Wade-Giles Romanization, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 13


"Los santos decían: "Alabanzas y culpas causan ansiedad;
El objeto de la esperanza y el miedo está en tu interior".
"Alabanzas y culpas causan ansiedad"
Puesto que esperas o temes recibirlas o perderlas.
"El objeto de la esperanza y el miedo está en tu interior"
Pues, sin un Ego, no pueden afectarte la fortuna o el desastre.
Por tanto:
El que observa al Mundo como se observa a sí mismo es capaz de controlar el Mundo;
Pero el que ama al Mundo como se ama a sí mismo es capaz de dirigir el Mundo."
-  Translated by Antonio Rivas Gonzálvez, 1998, Tao Te Ching, Capítulo 13

"Accept honors and disgraces as surprises,

Treasure great misfortunes as the body.

Why say: "Accept honors and disgraces as surprises"?

Honors elevate (shang),

Disgraces depress (hsia).

One receives them surprised,

Loses them surprised.

Thus: "Accept honors and disgraces as surprises."

Why say: "Treasure great misfortunes as the body"?

I have great misfortunes,

Because I have a body.

If I don't have a body,

What misfortunes do I have?

Therefore treasure the body as the world,

As if the body can be entrusted to the world.

Love the body as the world,

As if the body can be entrusted to the world."

-  Translated by Ellen Marie Chen, 2000, Chapter 13

"You are in everything,

 Everything is in you. 

 Create hope and fear and you throw away the Dao. 

 Create happiness and sorrow and you will collapse. 

 Keep your feet on the ground. 

 Love everything as you love yourself. 

 Then everything is within your reach."

 -  Translated by Ray Larose, 2000, Chapter 13

"Honor and dishonor both move us
Because we are troubled by having a self.
Why do we say that honor and dishonor move us?
Because honor lifts us upward
And dishonor lowers us downward,
Thus, when we are honored we are moved.
When we are dishonored we are also moved.
That is why honor and dishonor are both said to move us.
Why do we say that the great trouble is having a self?
Because we have great trouble simply because we have a self.
If we are selfless, then where is the trouble?
If we identify our self with the world,
Then within our self there is the world.
If we love the world as we love our self,
Then within our self there is only the world."
-  Translated by Chang Chung-Yuan, Chapter 13

 
"The honor and the disgrace are like emotional impacts.
The disaster is regarded as the threat to life.
What does it mean by "The honor and the disgrace are like emotional impacts?"
The honor is awarded to subordinates.
When the honor is obtained, people are thrilled;
when the honor is lost, people are depressed.
So they are emotionally impacted.
What does it mean by "The disaster is regarded as the threat to life?"
The reason we feel threatened because we care too much about ourselves.
If we are selfless, who can threaten us?
To those who can sacrifice themselves for the world, we can trust them with the world.
To those who love the people more than themselves, we can handle the ruling power."
-  Translated by Thomas Zhang, Chapter 13    

A typical webpage created by Mike Garofalo for each one of the 81 Chapters (Verses, Sections) of the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi) includes 25 different English language translations or interpolations for that Chapter, 5 Spanish language translations for that Chapter, the Chinese characters for that Chapter, the Wade-Giles and Hanyu Pinyin transliterations (Romanization) of the Mandarin Chinese words for that Chapter, and 2 German and 1 French translation of that Chapter.  Each webpage for each one of the 81 Chapters of the Tao Te Ching includes extensive indexing by key words, phrases, and terms for that Chapter in English, Spanish, and the Wade-Giles Romanization.  Each webpage on a Chapter of the Daodejing includes recommended reading in books and websites, a detailed bibliography, some commentary, research leads, translation sources, a Google Translate drop down menu, and other resources for that Chapter. 

  

Chapter 13, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu.  Complied by Mike Garofalo.  

Chapter and Thematic Index (Concordance) to the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List

A Daoist Druid's Final Journey 

An Old Philosopher's Notebooks

Dao De Jing, Laozi, Chapter 24

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
Chapter 24

"He who stands on tiptoe does not stand (firm);
He who strains his strides does not walk (well);
He who reveals himself is not luminous;
He who justifies himself is not far-famed;
He who boasts of himself is not given credit;
He who prides himself is not chief among men.
These in the eyes of Tao
Are called "the dregs and tumors of Virtue,"
Which are things of disgust.
Therefore the man of Tao spurns them."
-  Translated by Lin Yutang, 1955, Chapter 24

"By standing on tiptoe one cannot keep still.
Astride of one's fellow one cannot progress.
By displaying oneself one does not shine.
By self-approbation one is not esteemed.
In self-praise there is no merit.
He who exalts himself does not stand high.
Such things are to Tao what refuse and excreta are to the body.
They are everywhere detested.
Therefore the man of Tao will not abide with them."
-  Translated by Walter Gorn Old, 1904, Chapter 24

"It is not natural to stand on tiptoe, or being astride one does not walk.
One who displays himself is not bright, or one who asserts himself cannot shine.
A self-approving man has no merit, nor does one who praises himself grow.
The relation of these things (self-display, self-assertion, self-approval) to Tao is the same as offal is to food.
They are excrescences from the system; they are detestable; Tao does not dwell  in them."
-  Translated by Dwight Goddard, 1919, Chapter 24   

"Those who are on tiptoes cannot stand
Those who straddle cannot walk
Those who flaunt themselves are not clear
Those who presume themselves are not distinguished
Those who praise themselves have no merit
Those who boast about themselves do not last
Those with the Tao call such things leftover food or tumors
They despise them
Thus, those who possesses the Tao do not engage in them"
-  Translated by Derek Linn, 2006, Chapter 24  

企者不立.
跨者不行.
自見者不明.
自是者不彰.
自伐者無功.
自矜者不長.
其在道也, 曰餘食贅行.
物或惡之.
故有道者不處.-  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 24 


ch'i chê pu li.
k'ua chê pu hsing.
tzu chien chê pu ming.
tzu shih chê pu chang.
tzu fa chê wu kung.
tzu ching chê pu ch'ang.
ch'i tsai tao yeh, yüeh yü shih chui hsing.
wu huo wu chih.
ku yu tao chê pu ch'u.
-  Wade-Giles Romanization, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 24 



"Standing tiptoe a man loses balance,
Walking astride he has no pace,
Kindling himself he fails to light,
Acquitting himself he forfeits his hearers,
Admiring himself he does so alone.
Pride has never brought a man greatness
But, according to the way of life,
Brings the ills that make him unfit,
Make him unclean in the eyes of his neighbor,
And a sane man will have none of them."
-  Translated by Witter Bynner, 1944, Chapter 24  


"He who stands on tiptoe is not steady,
He who holds legs stiffly cannot walk.
He who looks at self does not see clearly.
He who asserts himself does not shine.
He who boasts of himself has no merit.
He who glorifies himself shall not endure.
These things are to the Tao like excreta or a hideous tumour to the body.
Therefore he who has Tao must give them no place."
-  Translated by Isabella Mears, 1916, Chapter 24  

"Quien se sostiene de puntillas no permanece mucho tiempo en pie.
Quien da largos pasos no puede ir muy lejos.
Quien quiere brillar
no alcanza la iluminación.
Quien pretende ser alguien
no lo será naturalmente.
Quien se ensalza no merece honores.
Quien se vanagloria
no realiza ninguna obra.
Para los seguidores del Tao, estos excesos son como excrecencias
y restos de basura que a todos repugnan.
Por eso, quien posee el Tao
no se detiene en ellos, sino que los rechaza."
-  Translation from Wikisource, 2013, Capitulo 24  

"Standing on tiptoe, you are unsteady.
Straddle-legged, you cannot go.
If you show yourself, you will not be seen.
If you affirm yourself, you will not shine.
If you boast, you will have no merit.
If you promote yourself, you will have no success.
Those who abide in the Tao call these
Leftover food and wasted action
And all things dislike them.
Therefore the person of the Tao does not act like this."
-  Translated by Charles Muller, 1891, Chapter 24


Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything  By David Bellos.  New York, Faber and Faber, 2011.  Index, notes, 393 pages.  ISBN: 9780865478763. VSCL.  



A typical webpage created by Mike Garofalo for each one of the 81 Chapters (Verses, Sections) of the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi) includes over 25 different English language translations or interpolations for that Chapter, 5 Spanish language translations for that Chapter, the Chinese characters for that Chapter, the Wade-Giles and Hanyu Pinyin transliterations (Romanization) of the Mandarin Chinese words for that Chapter, and 2 German and 1 French translation of that Chapter.  Each webpage for each one of the 81 Chapters of the Tao Te Ching includes extensive indexing by key words, phrases, and terms for that Chapter in English, Spanish, and the Wade-Giles Romanization.  Each webpage on a Chapter of the Daodejing includes recommended reading in books and websites, a detailed bibliography, some commentary, research leads, translation sources, a Google Translate drop down menu, and other resources for that Chapter.   

Chapter 24, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Chapter and Thematic Index (Concordance) to the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List

One Old Daoist Druid's Final Journey  

We Are Better Satisfied in Particulars

"Science and psychoanalysis apart, the most profound development in thought since Nietzsche, as far as we are concerned, is the phenomenological approach to the world.  Mallarmé sought "words without wrinkles," Baudelaire cherished his minutes heureuses and Valéry his "small worlds of order," as we have seen: Checkhov concentrated on the "concrete individual" and preferred "small scale and practical answers," Gide though the "systematizing is denaturing, distorting and impoverishing."  For Oliver Wendell Holmes, "all the pleasure of life is in general ideas, but all the use of life is in specific solutions."  Wallace Stevens considered that we are "better satisfied in particulars."  Thomas Nagel put it in this way: "Particulars things can have a noncompetitive completeness which is transparent to all aspects of the self.  This also helps to explain what the experience of great beauty tends to unify the self: the object engages us immediately and totally in a way that makes distinctions among points of view irrelevant."  Or, as Robert Nozick, who counseled us to make ourselves "vehicles" for beauty, said: "this is what poets and artists bring us―the immense and unsuspected reality of a small thing.  Everything has its own patient entityhood."  George Levine call for "a profound attention to the details of this world."  
-  Peter Watson, "The Age of Atheists: How We Have Sought to Live Since the Death of God," p.536

"The idea of one overbearing truth is exhausted."  
- Thomas Mann, translated by James Wood  

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
-  Albert Einstein

"To study the self is to forget the self.  To forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things."
-  Zen Master Dogen

"The more we understand individual things, the more we understand God."
-  Benedict De Spinoza

"God is in the details."
-  Mies Van Der Rohe

"After appreciating and understanding thousands of the details, a common variety God is really superfluous."
-  Mike Garofalo

"Caress the detail, the divine detail." 
-  Vladimir Nabokov

"Details are all there are."
-  Maezumi Roshi

"We think in generalities, but we live in details."
-  W.H. Auden

Gardening and Spirituality

Gardening and Religion

Observations: The Senses