{"id":6933,"date":"2023-12-08T09:14:46","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T09:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.168.100.151\/?post_type=portfolio&p=6933"},"modified":"2023-12-08T09:15:34","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T09:15:34","slug":"lao-tzu","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/erikemiranda.com\/en\/portfolio\/lao-tzu\/","title":{"rendered":"Lao Tzu"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTraditional<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tLao Tzu\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

The not seeker<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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There\u2019s enough metaphysics in not thinking about anything.<\/p>

What do I think about the world?
I have no idea what I think about the world!
If I get sick I\u2019ll think about that stuff.<\/p>

What idea do I have about things?
What opinion do I have about cause and effect?
What have I meditated on God and the soul
And on the creation of the world?
I don\u2019t know. For me thinking about that stuff is shutting my eyes
And not thinking. It\u2019s closing the curtains
(But my window doesn\u2019t have curtains).<\/p>

The mystery of things? I have no idea what mystery is!
The only mystery is there being someone who thinks about mystery.
When you\u2019re in the sun and shut your eyes,
You start not knowing what the sun is
And you think a lot of things full of heat.
But you open your eyes and look at the sun
And you can\u2019t think about anything anymore,
Because the sun\u2019s light is worth more than the thoughts
Of all philosophers and all poets.
The light of the sun doesn\u2019t know what it\u2019s doing
So it\u2019s never wrong and it\u2019s common and good.<\/p>

Metaphysics? What metaphysics do those trees have?
Of being green and bushy and having branches
And of giving fruit in their own time, which doesn\u2019t make us think,
To us, who don\u2019t know how to pay attention to them.
But what better metaphysics than theirs,
Which is not knowing what they live for
Not even knowing they don\u2019t know?
\u201cInner constitution of things…\u201d
\u201cInner meaning of the Universe…\u201d
All that stuff is false, all that stuff means nothing.
It\u2019s incredible that someone could think about things that way.
It\u2019s like thinking reasons and purposes
When morning starts shining, and by the trees over there
A vague lustrous gold is driving the darkness away.<\/p>


Thinking about the inner meaning of things
Is doing too much, like thinking about health when you\u2019re healthy,
Or bringing a cup to a spring.<\/p>

The only inner meaning of things
Is that they have no inner meaning at all.<\/p>

I don\u2019t believe in God because I never saw him.
If he wanted me to believe in him,
Without a doubt he would come to talk with me
And come in my door
Telling me, Here I am!<\/p>

(Maybe this is ridiculous to the ears
Of someone who, because they don\u2019t know what it is to look at things,
Doesn\u2019t understand someone who talks about them
With the way of speaking looking at them teaches.)<\/p>

But if God is the flowers and the trees
And the hills and the sun and the moonlight,
Then I believe in him,
Then I believe in him all the time,
And my whole life is an oration and a mass,
And a communion with my eyes and through my ears.<\/p>

But if God is the trees and the flowers
And the hills and the moonlight and the sun,
Why should I call him God?
I call him flowers and trees and hills and sun and moonlight;
Because if he made himself for me to see
As the sun and moonlight and flowers and trees and hills,
If he appears to me as trees and hills
And moonlight and sun and flowers,
It\u2019s because he wants me to know him
As trees and hills and flowers and moonlight and sun.<\/p>

And that\u2019s why I obey him,
(What more do I know about God than God knows about himself?),
I obey him by living, spontaneously,
Like someone opening his eyes and seeing,
And I call him moonlight and sun and flowers and trees and hills,
And I love him without thinking about him,
And I think him by seeing and hearing,
And I walk with him all the time.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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