Reading tao te ching

Reading is not as simple as interpreting per word to object. It's more of arranging word in the world of imagination. Like self hypnotizing to enter another dimension of the world. Like seeing the world with others eyes.

Words are magically seal our image, sound, feeling, thinking, time, through simple combination of symbol.

I wonder whose the first creator of word.

Lately I've been doing some reading. Tao Te Ching is the book I've been reading lately. The Tao Te Ching was written in China roughly 2,500 years ago at about the same time when Buddha expounded the Dharma in India and Pythagoras taught in Greece. The Tao Te Ching is probably the most influential Chinese book of all times. Its 81 chapters have been translated into English more times than any other Chinese document. Tao literally means "the way".

I haven't finished it yet, and i found something from reading. Not because it teach me a "How to", but because one sentence consists lot of meaning. Many book nowadays are mostly straight forward, easy to understand book. I don't think it's wrong to be straight forward, but it made me realize that there's a lot of different approach to do one thing.

Qur'an, Bible, Bhagavad Gita, and other sacred script are books that use the concept of "one words with thousand meaning". It made me sad that a lot of people or group interpret the script literally. There is more than words in that text. There is world sealed by the bar of code in there. I would dare to say that it has different purpose for different people.

Back to Tao Te Ching, there's some sentence that made me relaxed and smile.

Part of chapter 2:
"Under heaven all can see beauty as
beauty only because there is ugliness.
All can know good as good only
because there is evil."

Chaper 7:
"Heaven and Earth last forever.
Why do heaven and Earth last forever?
They are unborn,
So ever living.
The sage stays behind, thus he is ahead.
He is detached, thus at one with all.
Through selfless action, he attains fulfillment."

Save the text for later, night is coming. Good night :)