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The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast

Episode 86, Taoism (Part II - The Tao Te Ching)

The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast

Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane

Education, Philosophy, Society & Culture, Courses

4.8612 Ratings

🗓️ 6 September 2020

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There was once a wise farmer named Oliver who, enjoying the evening's sun at the end of a summer's day, watched on as one of his prized horses escaped from his farm. That evening, having heard the news, Jack and Andrew came to Oliver's farm to express their sympathies. Oliver turned to his neighbours upon their arrival and said, "maybe."

The next day the horse returned, but brought with it six wild horses. Jack and Andrew, seeing the horses from their homes, ran to Oliver's exclaiming his good fortune. Olly turned to the men and said, "maybe."

The following day, Oliver tried to saddle and ride one of the wild horses. He was thrown off the horse's back and broke his leg. Jack and Andrew came to offer their condolences for the misfortune. Sat upright in his bed, without a wince, Oliver spoke clearly to the men once more, "maybe." 

The day after that, conscription officers came to the village to recruit soldiers for the army, but because of his broken leg, Oliver was rejected. 

Relieved, Jack and Andrew came to Oliver to proclaim how fortunately everything had turned out. Olly turned to them and answered, "maybe."

Contents

Part I. The Life of Lao Tzu

Part II. The Tao Te Ching

Part III. Practices

Part IV. Further Analysis and Discussion


Links

Tao Te Ching (Penguin)

Lao Tzu (Stanford Encyclopedia)

Taoism (Stanford Encylopedia)

The Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet, Benjamin Hoff

Compare Translations of the Tao Te Ching

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Pan Pan

0:02.0

Psygast

0:04.0

Part 2.

0:05.0

The Tao Deging

0:15.0

Chapter 1 of the Dow Deging

0:18.0

The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way. The name that can

0:23.5

be named is not the constant name. The nameless was the beginning of heaven and earth. The

0:30.1

named was the mother of the myriad creatures. Hence always rid yourself of desires in order to

0:36.4

observe its secrets. But always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its secrets.

0:38.4

But always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its manifestations.

0:44.1

These two are the same, but diverge in name as they issue forth.

0:48.6

Being the same they are all called mysteries, mystery upon mystery, the gateway of the manifold secrets.

0:55.5

Chapter 8 of the Dowd-Hieh.

0:58.1

Highest good is like water, because water excels in benefiting the myriad of creatures without

1:03.7

contending with them and settles where none would like to be. It comes close to the way.

1:09.8

In a home, it is the sight that matters. In quality of mind,

1:13.6

it is depth that matters. In an ally, it is benevolence that matters. In speech, it is good faith

1:20.6

that matters. In government, it is order that matters. In affairs, it is ability that matters. In action, it is timeliness that

1:30.3

matters.

1:31.3

It is because it does not contend that it is never at fault.

1:39.3

Beautiful, red gentlemen. Hopefully that gives you a nice flavor of the Tao De Ching. It's got some

1:44.8

wonderful literary device in there, hasn't it, this repetition, these clean sentences. It really is a

...

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