TAO TE CHING - a study/understanding (Kingdom, experience, eternal)

[zenzero]

Friends,
Let us all join to have an understanding of this beautiful book. It has only 81 chapters.
The story of Lao Tzu is also very beautiful in the history of human conciousness.
Some version said that he had reached to TAO/nothingness/god/etc and as it is something each individual hasto experience and no words can be told to make others understand he thought of spending his days in the himalayas meditating. Every person in the kingdom knew that this man has achieved it so did the emeror. When he ws on his way to the himalayas the news reached the emperor who immediately called his royal guards to seal the borders , arraest LAo Tzu and ask him to transmit his knowledge before leaving. Finally what came out of it was the most profound words of wisdom using the least words.

Those who wants a copy can download this from:
http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~p.../taote-v3.html

Today we shall try to understand the FIRST stanza and everyone can write if there are differences in versions or in understanding the same. We shall try and reach a concencual understanding before going to the next stanza.
[Below the lines whatever appears in RED within brackets is the understanding here]

1

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

[ Truth once spoken does not remain so, One cannot give it a name]

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

[Truth cannot be given a name as naming anything is the begining of converting it into an object]


Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

[ The mystery can only be solved by getting away from desires/mind as the mind will grasp the truth only as a manifestation which will again be coloured according to the individuals desires]

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

[ Yet, the source of all manifestations as well as understanding the mystery/truth lies in darkness/mind. Mind is both the source of manifesting as well as the door to solving the mystery]

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

[ the same mind is needed to reach to the truth but has to take conciousness through all the layers of the mind -darkness upon darkness i.e. the concious to the sub-concious to the unconcious and id. The end of the tunnel of darkness light enters and once light is reached darkness is no more visible]

Please restrict to the subject matter of understanding the stanza so as to remain focussed throughout the discussion. kindly do not REACT but RESPOND.

Love & rgds