The Tao Te Ching for Astrologers: Verses 27 & 28

Transcript:

Hi, everyone, this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology, and today we are continuing with our series on the Tao Te Ching for astrologers. We are going to be looking at verses 27 and 28 of the Tao Te Ching. Now, if you are new to this series, you do not have to have watched any of the previous episodes to get something out of the episodes; they can be watched as standalone episodes. You can also go back and watch them sequentially. The Tao Te Ching is packed full of wisdom and shares a lot in common with the earliest philosophers who studied and practiced astrology and so we are doing kind of like a cross-comparative philosophical study.

The point of the series is really to make sure that at least once a week, we are reflecting on why we're doing this and why are we here listening to astrology and what is the spiritual heritage behind this practice? There are many wisdom texts from around the earth that, I think, often say very similar things. I'm also hoping to help people who may be newer to spirituality or spiritual philosophy to gain an appreciation for a diverse body of Wisdom literature. I come from the bhakti yoga tradition; I grew up with a kind of a very liberal, contemplative, mystical, Christian background. I find that many of the spiritual texts from around the world that mean something to me all sort of point me in the same direction. They point me toward love, peace, and cultivation of all the best virtues, and they constantly; studying these texts every day of my life.

Generally speaking, as a practice every day, taking a look at the Bhagavad Gita or the Tao Te Ching, it helps reorient me. Yeah, this is why I'm doing what I'm doing and I have to do that for myself to not only come up with good creative content, but to make sure that I'm getting what I'm supposed to be getting out of, not only my career, but you know, my interest in astrology, personally.

So anyway, all of that being said, don't forget, before we dive in today, like and subscribe, share your comments in the comment section and click the notification bell for updates if you want to know when I'm going live. Transcripts of my daily talks can also be found on my website, everyday at nightlightastrology.com. When you are there, be sure to check out my readings and courses and if you have any questions about anything, email us info@nightlightastrology.com.

All right, I'm gonna go ahead and put the verses for the day up on the screen and I'm actually going to put this into full-screen mode. I'm going to read the verses, and the way that I do this is I read through one verse, I read through both verses, and then I return and read the first verse and then offer some reflections and then, I read the second verse and offer some reflections. So here we go with verse 27.

A knower of the Truth travels without leaving a trace speaks without causing harm
gives without keeping an account
The doors he shuts, though having no lock, cannot be opened
The know he ties, though using no cord, cannot be undone
The Sage is always on the side of virtue so everyone around him prospers
He is always on the side of truth so everything around him is fulfilled
The path of the Sage is called “The Path of Illumination”
He who gives himself to this path is like a block of wood that gives itself to the chisel
Cut by cut it is honed to perfection
Only a student who gives himself can receive the master’s gift
If you think otherwise, despite your knowledge, you have blundered
Giving and receiving are one
This is called, “The great wonder” “The essential mystery” “The very heart of all that is true”

Verse 28,
Hold your male side with your female side
Hold your bright side with your dull side
Hold your high side with your low side
Then you will be able to hold the whole world
When the opposing forces unite within there comes a power abundant in its giving
and unerring in its effect
Flowing through everything It returns one to the First Breath
Guiding everything It returns one to No Limits
Embracing everything It returns one to the Uncarved Block
When the block is divided it becomes something useful and leaders can rule with a
few pieces of it
But the Sage holds the Block complete
Holding all things within himself he preserves the Great Unity which cannot be ruled
or divided

Okay, let's go back to 27. We'll read it again, and then we'll offer some reflections here.

A knower of the Truth travels without leaving a trace speaks without causing harm
gives without keeping an account
The doors he shuts, though having no lock, cannot be opened
The know he ties, though using no cord, cannot be undone
The Sage is always on the side of virtue so everyone around him prospers
He is always on the side of truth so everything around him is fulfilled
The path of the Sage is called “The Path of Illumination”
He who gives himself to this path is like a block of wood that gives itself to the chisel
Cut by cut it is honed to perfection
Only a student who gives himself can receive the master’s gift
If you think otherwise, despite your knowledge, you have blundered
Giving and receiving are one
This is called, “The great wonder” “The essential mystery” “The very heart of all that
is true”

When I think about this, in relation to astrology, I think about what we are trying to become as we live through every single transit that comes along and affects us. Our natal chart is like a garden, like a karmic garden with everything, all different kinds of plants and flowers, fruits growing in it and we, in many ways, are required to do nothing in life but just walk through our experiences and receive them as gifts. If we have the right disposition, and I'm not saying that we always do or that it is easy to have the right disposition.

It is a constant work, which is why I believe we need daily spiritual practices, including reading texts like these. But if we have the right disposition, then every karmic season of our life, every season of outcomes, meaning the planets moving above, affecting our birth charts causing, so to speak, things to grow in the garden of our life, and often, much to our surprise, or our chagrin, not because we've necessarily chosen or planned everything, in spite of our desires or intentions or our fears, things just happen. As they happen, it's been my experience, both in my own life and in the lives of those people that have really inspired me, including teachers, friends, my wife, my kids, my family, the people who are able to somehow look at every experience and say, What is this here to give me and not, you know, give me so that I might be more wealthy or powerful than some other person.

But if I look at the universe as a benevolent place that is kindly teaching me, teaching me about love and pain and beauty. If I can look at it as though the universe, if I can look at the universe as though it is a giving generous place. Then I somehow experience everything as a gift, and I become like the block of wood that gives itself to a chisel cut, cut by cut. Because let's face it, the experiences that the planets described are often difficult.

This is why we do a series called grabbed. This is why the planets were called grahas, grabbers. It's not easy to be honed to perfection by means of pure experience. Cut by cut, were honed to perfection, though when we receive experience from the standpoint of appreciation. Only a student who gives themselves can receive the Master's gift. If you think otherwise, despite your knowledge, you have blundered, there's a kind of surrender to the nature of our fate of the unfolding of our lives of whatever each planetary transit has to offer. That makes or breaks how we end up experiencing our lives.

This is why studying astrology is so helpful. Because we have a way of relating to every season of experience that makes that experience more than just a one-sided thing, it's very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that our experiences mean only one thing or that we can only experience or react to them in one way. When you have planets, you have jewels that have so many different sides for the light of our consciousness to bounce off and glisten. When we just give our conscious attention to them. It's like, oh, reflect on this Saturn transit or reflect on Venus or Jupiter doing this or that. And suddenly, your experience is multifaceted. And it's that reflective, appreciative mode of living.

That allows us to be the student giving themselves and receiving the Master's gift. Giving and receiving are one this is called the great wonder, the essential mystery, the very heart of all that is true. What is amazing is that if we receive experience in this way, the people that I love the most I said I started off saying that they live this way. The people that I appreciate the most that have taught me the most about how to be a better person. What I've observed in them has been the ability to appreciate experience to stay curious about it, interested reflective upon the nature of experience as though they're always treasure hunting for God in their own midst.

That doesn't mean it's easy. It's not some Pollyanna positivity we're talking about here. Appreciation is, you know, it's forged in the fires of experience, as much as it is a simple kind of mindless act of gratitude, which is also good. Sometimes it's just good to be like, Look, I don't know, but thank you.

The people I love have taught me how to be this way and the sages talk about being this way and what's so amazing is that if we live this way, receiving experience, receiving the planets as it, whereas though they are here to help us, then everything that we do and become in return becomes an act of giving.

It is this mode of conscious receiving of the planets that translates into conscious giving of love and appreciation and the same exact qualities to other people, every experience that we have is also an experience we are participating in. And by doing so, in the right spirit, we are giving to other people the same spirit. The great wonder, the essential mystery, the very heart of all that is true. It's a beautiful, beautiful passage.

Verse 28

Hold your male side with your female side
Hold your bright side with your dull side
Hold your high side with your low side
Then you will be able to hold the whole world
When the opposing forces unite within there comes a power abundant in its giving
and unerring in its effect
Flowing through everything It returns one to the First Breath
Guiding everything It returns one to No Limits
Embracing everything It returns one to the Uncarved Block

Well, I love this verse as well. We could say the male side and the female side are really the yin and yang side, which is, which are two aspects of experience that are really applicable to us, no matter what our gender identification may be, or our sexual orientation might be. We could say, for example, that there is a centrifugal and centripetal force. There's force that moves from the center outward and has, you know, kind of stereotypical masculine qualities. But we shouldn't limit that to, you know, we should not limit that to just one sex that's present in all human beings and it's present in the animal kingdom; it's present in nature; it's present in physics and then, we have the receptive side, where energy is moving in toward the center, as opposed to moving out from the center.

So the point of this verse aside from that is that there are the world is like this beautiful, unending interaction of opposites. And the teaching of this verse is that we can hold those opposites simultaneously within. This is one of the reasons that while I'm a political person and have political points of view, I tend to refrain from getting involved in politics because I am someone who is trying to focus on learning how to allow conflicting voices and tensions archetypally to coexist within myself to learn how to be curious about the union or tension of opposites within my heart. And I find that a lot of what exists in the sphere of social media around politics is just about opposites trying to beat one another down. And I think there's a way of being political or being anything that allows for the tension of opposites to be held in a sensitive way, in a way that does not have to leave decency or thoughtfulness, or civility aside. That's something that I'm; you know that I that's one of the places in me that I find myself having to work to hold the tension of those opposites.

When the opposing forces unite within there comes a power abundant in its giving. Isn't it amazing that there is instruction here force if you learn how to hold the tension have any kinds of opposites within you, that does not mean that you perfectly blend them or harmonize them. It's when the phrase the opposite opposing forces unite within; it means that it doesn't mean that they aren't still opposing forces; it means that opposing forces have found some way of working cohesively. For most people, a phrase that will explain that better is about holding the tension of opposites and learning how to hold the tension of opposites. If we learn how to do this, then the verse says, there comes a power abundant in its giving, that the result is some kind of powerful, effectiveness, not like power, I'm greater and mightier, I'm stronger and more dominant than you power as, effective; power as in, able to work in the world sensitively, but strongly, strong at the same time sensitive and strong, like a tree bends, but it doesn't break. It's strong, but it's flexible.

This is a lot of what about, of what yoga is trying to help us cultivate is both strength and flexibility at the same time. For example, in Asana, there comes a power abundant in its giving. In other words, if you're able to hold the tension of the opposites within, there's an effective, powerful abundance that starts overflowing from you and becomes very generous. It's something like when we say that this is the path of the sage, the sage, or the path of illumination, become like a little sun, light, bright, and life-giving generous, abundant. When we become that way, the world changes. If we want the world to change, it's not because we enforce our will, because we have the righteous way. Even if you have the righteous way, the way in which to influence the world toward a path of righteousness comes from people who are learning how to sensitively walk with peace and mercy and compassion, and tolerance and patience, and kindness, as well as strength and truth. So that you can, you know, none of that happens unless you start by holding the tension of the opposites.

Now, it says unerring in its effect; it doesn't make mistakes, this kind of power, flowing through everything, returns one to the first breath. This is a way of being connected to that Tao, that source. Guiding everything, it returns one to no limits embracing everything; it returns one to the uncarved block. It's as though even though experience is shaping us into this, you know, perfecting us in a sense, every experience shaping us intimately. There's a sense in which the more that we allow for experience to do this, the more that even though we're individualizing, we're individuating As Carl Jung would say, there's something about who we are, that the brightness of that source within us becomes more luminous. It's the weirdest thing. It's like if you hang out with people who are really sagely, they are very individually unique; like you, they're distinguishable. You're like, oh, you can't mistake that person, that personality. And yet one of the defining features of their personality, in their own experience, you could say too, is that they feel close and like they're still an uncarved block. Well, I think a lot about Thich Nhat Hanh, who is like one of my favorite teachers of all time. And if you ever around him, there's something about him that is he's just such he has individuated spiritually, you know, he's individually so unique, his personality and his character, and yet there's something about him that makes you remember or feel close to that almost like baby, uncarved. It hasn't been touched. It's almost like pure. It's a funny dichotomy that the more in, the more we individuate spiritually, the more we resemble a pure, untouched thing or state. It's amazing.

So in astrology, this goes back to those two opposing forces in the sky, the primary motion and the secondary motion which we talked about last week. There's something unchanging and eternal within all of us that the ancient astrologers associated with the primary motion of the sky. All the while, that individual spirit soul finding itself in a body is being individuated through experience. As it individuaits, it is also awakening and remembering and becoming closer and more closely identified with With its untouched, original nature; it's a paradox. And the same thing is being taught to us here when it says to learn to hold the tension of the opposites, the formed and the formless, the masculine and the feminine, the bright and the dull, the high and the low, learn how to hold them within, you become more unique, more personally individualized, while also being sort of pure, and almost like, almost like resembling like a pure, innocent state. This is the path of illumination. The ancient sages, of course, believed that by following the planets and paying attention to them. And by living a reflective lifestyle as we see the planets carving out our day-to-day individuation that in doing this, we remain close to or we cultivate that original pure state.

Well, these are just my rambling reflections on the Tao Te Ching. I hope that they're helpful for you and remind you of why you love astrology as much as they remind me of why I love astrology and how much wisdom there is from all over the world. And so many different traditions and some of these traditions had completely different astral Omen traditions too; the Chinese have their own Zodiac. So hopefully, this also just gives us an appreciation for the myriad number of ways in which this divine knowledge has shown up in human history. And all the ways that will continue to show up and surprise us with new things too. All right, well, that's what I have for today. I hope you guys are having a great week, and we will see you again next time. Bye.