Sit

Chapter 41 of the Ch'u Ta-Kao translation of the Tao Te Ching. 10 minute guided meditation followed by discussion. Chapter 41 is a beautiful passage and one of the ones that originally attracted me to the Tao Te Ching, primarily because it puzzled me. When I was young it seemed both to not make sense and simultaneously to speak to something deep within me.  In the course of exploring the chapter, I ask the question, If all paths are part of the Tao, then why make an effort to follow the Tao? We finish with a short gratitude practice. *  *  * 41. When the superiour scholar is told of Tao, He works hard to practise it. When the middling scholar is told of Tao, It seems that sometimes he keeps it and sometimes he loses it. When the inferiour scholar is told of Tao, He laughs aloud at it. If it were not laughed at, it would not be sufficient to be Tao. Therefore the proverb says: 'Tao in enlightenment seems obscure; Tao in progress seems regressive; The highest virtue seems like a valley; The purest white s