The Tao Te Ching for Astrologers – Verse 81

Hey everyone, this is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology, and today we're looking at the last verse of The Tao Te Ching. And this is the final episode in my series on The Tao Te Ching for astrologers. So it has been a real joy to go through this sacred text together with all of you and reflect on it in light of our study and practice of astrology. I hope that you have enjoyed the series. If, for some reason, you're visiting the series for the very first time, enjoy it; you don't have to have seen any of the previous episodes. You can jump in anywhere, even today.

So we have one final verse left. And as always, we're going to look through this verse twice. We're going to read through it once and read through it again. And on the second time through, we'll pause to reflect on it in light of our study of astrology. Now, I want to say a few things about this series and what I hope it has accomplished. But I will save that until the end, and we will get right into it. So before we do that, of course, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share your comments and reflections. It really helps the channel to grow. You can find transcripts of any of my daily talks on my website, which is nightlightastrology.com.

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Okay, well. Remember, we have been using the Tarcher Cornerstone edition of this, translated by Jonathan Star. I love this version. And I hope that this series has honored Tarcher and Jonathan Star as well as obviously the Tao Te Ching. And in reading from this, I just hope that people will pick up a copy and keep it by their desk so that they can always read this text and get something good out of it. This is the text that I have used daily by my side, along with things like the I-Ching for the sake of inspiration for the content on my channel. So anyway, this is the final verse. We're going to get right into it.

Verse 81
Words born of the mind are not true
True words are not born of the mind
Those who have virtue do not look for faults
Those who look for faults have no virtue
Those who come to know it do not rely on learning
Those who rely on learning do not come to know it
The Sage sees the world as an expansion of his own self
So what need has he to accumulate things?
By giving to others he gains more and more
By serving others he receives everything.
Heaven gives, and all things turn out for the best
The Sage lives, and all things go as Tao goes
all things move as the wind blows.

A beautiful final verse of the series. Let's read it through again. And then, we'll pause and offer some final reflections.

Words born of the mind are not true. True words are not born of the mind. This is an important piece of the verse. For ancient astrologers, the study of astrology was a way in training the mind to the logos. Remember the logos being like a higher sense of truth. Remember that astrology is called Astrologia. And the logos via meaning, the study of the logos of the stars, the stars are capable of speaking to ultimate eternal truths.

And when we meditate on the stars as a way of life, they're at their activities and movements and combinations, and then we see them in our lives, and we are able to actively reflect upon them. We are, in a sense training our mind to see the difference between all of the fleeting opinions, you know, which are part of life, but they come and go, the likes and dislikes, the daily things that get us riled up, and then they fall away.

Often for me, that's like, you know, something to do with the sports teams I follow, for example, which, you know, my opinions about these things really don't matter. But boy, do I like to think that looking at what people are saying about these things on Twitter makes a big difference, you know, but anyway, words born of the mind are not true.

True words are not born of the mind. The mind of the yogic philosophers are like a mirror. And if it's a clean mirror, then we can see reflected upon it something of a higher nature. And for ancient astrologers, the study of astrology was also a kind of entrainment to a higher truth that the mind could perceive. But ultimately, that truth is not something that's just being conjured up by our minds.

Those who have virtue do not look for faults. Those who look for faults have no virtue. Again, I think that what astrology does for us each and every day is it trains us to appreciate that all experiences are flowing forth from higher dimensions of reality or consciousness. And when I say higher, I mean that they're here, and there's nothing wrong or bad about this world. So I don't mean to imply that this world is lower.

But insofar as we live in this world without any sense of the Divine and eternal nature, then, you know, we easily get lost. And in this world, once you start to perceive things through something like the language of astrology, you stop, even though things there are visible faults and flaws. And there are things that we prefer and things that are painful. You stop perceiving things so simply; there's almost a multi-dimensional way that you start to perceive the experience itself. And that really is it's very healing to cultivate that perception.

Those who have virtue do not look for faults. Those who look for faults have no virtue. There's a sense that to remain in touch with our essence with our true nature, that we have to have an appreciating capacity for experience. It doesn't deny the different kinds of experiences that exist in favor of some kind of, you know, feigned neutrality, but rather, it doesn't judge things any longer, at least not superficially.

Those who come to know it do not rely on learning. Those who rely on learning do not come to know it. Now, for me, as an astrologer, I would say that this is one of the most important. For me, it's axiomatic. It's like a starting point. In astrology, there's book learning, there's historical learning, and there are techniques. And there are, let's say, there's kind of like an academic level at which Astrology can and, you know, on a certain level should be learned.

But there's nothing that substitutes for reading birth charts, for example, to get to know this, the living spirit of astrology, to actually have astrological experiences and reflect on them, to actually read charts for people and see astrology at work to actively reflect on the universe through a daily relationship with the stars. There's a kind of learning that's there. It's a kind of learning that is people who really get astrology.

In other words, know that the ultimate teacher is the astrological experience itself, reading charts, living a life where the symbols come alive. This is where we really learn astrology. And that's why we do our grabbed series, where we share stories that you guys have from your daily lives.

The Sage sees the world as an expansion of his own self. So what need has he to accumulate things by giving to others he gains more and more. This is a kind of universal generosity that you find in many religious traditions and spiritual teachers, and wise people of all walks of life have said something like this, which is that when you start to see the world as this perfectly orchestrated reflection of divinity of this higher world of archetypal forms, that the ancient astrologers said that it was, then there's a way in which you kind of let go of trying to, you know, gradually loosens the hold of power and the desire to dominate or be special or important above others.
It can foster within us a greater sense of generosity and compassion. Not that I have any of those things realized myself, but I can say that astrology has helped me with those things.

By serving others, he receives everything heaven gives, and all things turn out for the best. The Sage lives, and all things go as dow goes. All things move as the wind blows. When we have astrology in our lives, it is a form of trust that grows in the nature of life itself. And in the nature of the way that things turn out. We are often caught up in the way that things turn out unconsciously and in our own faults and flaws. And I think what astrology does for me is it gives me an awareness that that is okay. That's part of how we live and learn and grow. And thank God we have astrology as a language to help us align ourselves with this unfolding of life and experience. The different seasons of life, the different kinds of experiences that come; thank goodness we have these beautiful symbols that allow us to actively reflect upon and engage with the nature of experience itself, no judgment attached to whether it is good or bad, but growing appreciation for its beauty, and its intelligence, its mystery.

Astrology, as a day to day journey, helps me to develop something like an intimacy with myself, with others, with the world with the universe. And as it does, so, there is a sense that I am following like a meandering river with currents that are moving, and you can feel it, and that it comes and goes, I lose it, and it comes back. It's a way that can't be named, ultimately. And so I hope that in this series, those of you who have followed it from start to finish have gotten something out of this that deepens your deepens your life and has been healing and useful.

I hope that it's helped you appreciate astrology as a great wisdom tradition and not merely as a tool for prognosticating daily or weekly, or monthly events because it is that, but why are we doing that? Why do we look at the weather and us as it's not for ancient astrologers quite as mundane as looking at physical weather, although it can be, and in a sense, it should be. But there's also a spiritual and transformative reason behind the downloading and early transmission of this language.

So I think using the Tao Te Ching to open that up a little bit more has been the real purpose of this series. And it has been humbling and a great joy really to make this series. I've looked forward to it every week and have really appreciated hearing what you guys have had to say throughout the series. We'll always do more of these. In the next series we're moving to, we'll be going back to looking at a planet in profile. We're going to take the moon through the Zodiac slowly over some of the months to come.

But for now, I hope that you'll also be able to; we're going to archive this series, and you can go back and listen to it at any point in time for daily meditation. And we'll come to more sacred texts in the future and continue the kind of the spirit of this series with other sacred texts. So that is what I have for today in this final episode. Again, a big thank you for everyone, to everyone for making this series a success. I don't know how many episodes we ended up having; I think it was probably around 40. And it was almost a year long that we took with this, and I so appreciate everyone for tuning in and giving such nice feedback and realizations along the way. All right. Well, that's it for today. And that is it for our series on the Daodejing for astrologers. Take it easy, everyone. Bye