Tao Te Ching
Tao Te Ching is the second most translated text after the Bible. It was written by a Chinese mystic called Lao Zi who lived about 2500 years ago. It is the foundation for Taoism, as a school of philosophy, not religion. There are lots of wise saying in it that have continuingly inspired many lives across the world. It is written in ancient Chinese way that even most contemporary Chinese may feel difficult to understand. Therefore, it is open to interpretation. I wish to share some of my translated works with you.
Chapter 1: The Mysterious Tao
The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The formless is the origin of Heaven and Earth.
The form is the mother of all phenomena.
Constantly without mind, one observes the Tao’s essence.
Constantly with mind, one observes the Tao’s manifestations.
The two things, formless and form emerge together from the same source but differ in names.
The unity is said to be the mystery, mystery of all mysteries and the door to all wonders.
Chapter 2: The Polarity
The world recognizes beauty because of ugliness, and vice versa.
Form and formless produce each other, difficulty and easiness
bring about each other, long and short reveal each other, high
and low rely on each other, sound and vibration harmonize each
other, back and forth follow each other.
The sages do things spontaneously without attachment, teach without words, allow things to develop on their own without interference, and give birth to all things without possessing them. They never think of taking credit for the prosperity of anything. Hence credits are given and they will always be revered and remembered.
Chapter 4: Mingle with the Dust
The Tao is empty. It can never be filled no matter how much
it accepts. It is deep, penetrating and far-reaching like the
ancestor of all things.Blunt the sharpness, neutralize the conflict,
soften the glare and mingle with the dust.
So obscure and fuzzy, it seems to exist. I don’t know whose child the Tao
is. It may appear before God.
The Medicine Buddha
The Buddha
Green Tara
The Green Tara (female form), together with the White Tara (male form), are the two teardrops of the Compassionate Goddess (Guan Yin in Chinese or Avalokiteshvara in Sanskrit) who vows to help and liberate all sentient beings in the Samsara (cycle of birth and death). Tara are great healer and wish fulfiller. The Green Tara especially caters to females. One of the popular use of the Green Tara's mantra is to evoke the radiant beauty and to bring it inside out. The mantra goes by "om tare tutarre ture swaha".
I shared this mantra with students in my Tai Chi Gong class. One day, one of the ladies told me with great excitement that she was chantting the mantra while swimming in a pool. Suddently someone approached her and told her that she is very beautiful. She is just an average first nation lady at her 60s and never got flattered like this.
Here is one version of the Green Tara mantras.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApJ7JL74XMY
Art work from Gillian Redwood
http://gillianredwood.com/
