Tao of the Day

Another Newbie Tuesday had me talking about #71, Jay K came up to address #47, Melissa, and I broke down #39 and Marianne got #26.
#26 "Wasted Movement"
Without knowing darkness
Light is mysterious and distracting.
Without knowing stillness
All movement is wasted.
This is why the Master travels
And never leaves home.
No matter how amazing the manifestation
She knows there is nothing that she is not.
Why should anyone seek to be influenced or entertained?
If you let yourself be entertained
You lose touch with your root.
If you let yourself be influenced
You lose touch with who you are.
#39 "Unity"
Unity is the standard
When achieved, all things are harmonious.
Heaven achieved it through purity.
Planets achieved it through solidity.
Beings achieve it through purpose (life),
Generation after generation,
Every individual being finds
Their own unity, their own harmony.
If Heaven were to lose its purity
So too its union with the Planets.
If Planets were to lose their solidity
So too their union with Beings.
If beings were to lose their purpose (lives)
Without unity, all would perish and decay.
The Master honors everything in every form,
She knows that there is nothing between the highest and lowest,
Differentiating we lose touch with Unity.
Always adjusting to find Unity
The Master lets herself be lived,
Constantly being renewed and shaped by Tao,
Rugged and full of resolve.
#47 "Engaging with Manifestation"
You can understand all things touched by Tao
Without leaving your room.
You can see all things touched by Tao
Without opening your eyes.
The more you trust the manifestation
The less you trust yourself.
Thus, the Master never engages manifestation
Without first having engaged herself.
In so doing she achieves everything
Without ever having considered it.
#71 To Know We Don't Know"
To be aware that one does not know is healthy for all things.
Avoiding awareness of this is a current plague.
By acknowledging you have been infected
You can become aware and move toward healing.
The Master has cured herself
She is aware that she does not know.
She is healthy in all aspects.

A great episode with a lot of random numbers but all aligned and unf conversations too. #7 is what I started out talking about. Marianne joined me for #58 and Melissa for #35. Sandy wrapped things up wiht #66.
#7 "The Wisdom of Not Having Preference"
Tao is infinite
It doesn't grow old or tired.
Because it has no preference for itself
It can always persist.
The Master puts herself last
And always finds herself first.
By being detached from preference
She can give herself to what is
And find fulfillment there.
#35 "The Senses Distract"
Those who know Tao cannot be harmed.
They removed resistance and peace remains,
Even amid great pain and danger.
Exciting the senses will distract people,
While they see Tao as a silly waste of time.
If you look for it you will see nothing
If you listen for it, you will hear nothing
If you use it, it will support you forever.
#58 "To Oversee, Don't Interfere"
In overseeing anything, don't interfere,
Let everything flourish in its own time.
Interfering, you get met with resistance
Or worse, apathetic adherence.
Misery and misfortune are tied to expectation.
To expect success is to focus on failure,
To expect happiness is to invite misery,
To expect moral adherence is to flirt with tragedy.
There is no escaping it, expecting good yields bad,
This is interfering, it has always been true.
The Master therefore is content to simply be an example
She has no desire to impose, and trusts all she oversees,
She is firm but yielding, she is sharp, yet none are cut by her
She is radiant, but easy on the eyes.
#66 "Leading from Behind"
There are great benefits to humility
All rivers flow to the sea
Because its position is lower.
The Master emulates this by always being a servant,
Inspiring from below, leading from behind,
No one is oppressed, they find their own way.
Like rivers so too will the people flow to the Master,
Never feeling oppressed or as if they are in danger,
The whole world supports her and keeps her in their hearts.
Without a reason or a desire to compete
She is never met with competition.

A good conversation I had with myself about #47 lead to Jay K selecting the random #41 and Melissa #50.
#41 "Laughing at Tao is Perfectly Reasonable"
Those who live with sincerity, when they hear of Tao, immediately begin to embody it.
Those who live casually, may trust it at times, but aren't quite sure what do with it.
Those who embrace the manifestation completely laugh and scoff at the very idea.
If they didn't laugh and scoff, it wouldn't be Tao.
Therefore, you may have noticed:
Progress doesn't always seem to advance.
Beauty oft times can come off as obscene.
The powerful can tend to seem weak.
True love can appear tough or indifferent.
Wisdom can be mistaken as childish.
Great art can appear unsophisticated.
Tao is hidden in all of these,
Imparting what is needed,
Completing everything.
#47 "Engaging with Manifestation"
You can understand all things touched by Tao
Without leaving your room.
You can see all things touched by Tao
Without opening your eyes.
The more you trust the manifestation
The less you trust yourself.
Thus, the Master never engages manifestation
Without first having engaged herself.
In so doing she achieves everything
Without ever having considered it.
#50 "Awareness of Death"
Every being is entrusted with life for a time
However, it is only a prelude to death.
Some live as optimists, embracing life,
Others live as pessimists, embracing death,
Some even live in preservation,
Passively living, advancing toward death.
The Master lives aware of her appointment with death,
This brings her to knowing Real Life.
She cannot be harmed by rhinoceros or man
Her movements flow from her being.
She cannot be fooled by illusion or hallucination
Her actions flow from her being.
She has freed herself of all separateness
Even the distinction between life and death.

Today was a robust Monday with Sany and #9 Jay K chose #6 and Melissa picked #44, her angel number from the weekend. I went into #73 to fill time until Terilyn came up and we selected #26 for her.
#6 "The Great Feminine"
Everything is born from the feminine,
Even Heaven and Earth.
The Feminine that births is a Mother,
She nourishes and supports without possessing.
Despite your awareness of it
You are using it right now.
#9 "The Danger of Extremes"
Having to prove yourself
Will allow challenges to best you.
Focus your attention on money
And lose sight of what is valuable.
Keep in mind outside influence
And you will be its prisoner.
Do what you do and move on,
It isn't yours anyway.
#26 "Wasted Movement"
Without knowing darkness
Light is mysterious and distracting.
Without knowing stillness
All movement is wasted.
This is why the Master travels
And never leaves home.
No matter how amazing the manifestation
She knows there is nothing that she is not.
Why should anyone seek to be influenced or entertained?
If you let yourself be entertained
You lose touch with your root.
If you let yourself be influenced
You lose touch with who you are.
#44 "The Influence of Excess"
Fame or integrity; which of these do you focus on seeing and obtaining?
Possessions or fulfillment; in which do you spend your time investing?
Success or failure; of which has offered you the most growth?
Under the influence you spend yourself
Accumulating only loss and regret.
Fulfill your needs and be content,
When you know excess is excessive
You'll be open to receiving harmony.
#73 "Nothing Falls Through"
There are men who love feeling, and to feel they kill.
There are men who love feeling, and to do so remain calm.
Who is to say which will experience more turmoil?
There is purpose in walking with death, as there is in walking with life.
The inner workings of Tao can never be understood;
It makes no commands, yet all things come on their own accord;
It never acts; but all things act on its behalf;
It is empty, yet within it lays all things and their Master Plans.
Tao is a net holding all things together, connected.
Its mesh is wide, but it holds so well nothing falls through.

I started out talking about living reasonably in relationships and read #1 then was joined by Melissa who chose #39, Loyce, and her choice #17, and finally Sandy with #72.
#1 "Expressing Tao"
Words are particular,
They cannot express Tao.
To have a name is to be limited to manifestation
That which is nameless is the source of manifestation.
Self-referential, those who name, name themselves.
Want to experience the depth of the mystery? Stop identifying.
Want to experience the shallowness of the manifestation? Differentiate.
Either way no one can tell,
The difference is in your experience.
#17 "Of Masters and Leaders"
In the time of the great Masters there were no leaders.
Then, those whom the people loved, led the way.
After having created the position
The people feared their leaders,
Then they despised them.
Having created leaders, their faith in Tao was diminished.
Having become a leader, his trust in the people was diminished.
When there are great Masters there are no leaders
She works day and night and says nothing about it,
When the work is done the people say
"Amazing! We did it all by ourselves!"
#39 "Unity"
Unity is the standard
When achieved, all things are harmonious.
Heaven achieved it through purity.
Planets achieved it through solidity.
Beings achieve it through purpose (life),
Generation after generation,
Every individual being finds
Their own unity, their own harmony.
If Heaven were to lose its purity
So too its union with the Planets.
If Planets were to lose their solidity
So too their union with Beings.
If beings were to lose their purpose (lives)
Without unity, all would perish and decay.
The Master honors everything in every form,
She knows that there is nothing between the highest and lowest,
Differentiating we lose touch with Unity.
Always adjusting to find Unity
The Master lets herself be lived,
Constantly being renewed and shaped by Tao,
Rugged and full of resolve.
#72 "With Nothing to Teach"
The knowledgeable, having lost their sense of awe, seek to be entertained.
Losing themselves in that process, they turn to more knowledgeable authorities.
Do not make light of what is important to people, and they will respect you.
Therefore, The Master, although she knows herself, she is not arrogant.
She loves herself as she is, but she also loves others as they are.
She has nothing to teach, and the knowledgeable have nothing to learn.