Cobie

Ron Hogan ‘translation’ of the start of Ch. 42 Chapter 42 starts out with some cosmic mumbo-jumbo about Tao making one, one making two, two making three, and three making everything else. I don't know what it means, and, frankly, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Classical Chinese was polysemic. The characters used are 萬 物 (wan4 wu4) 萬 means ‘ten thousand’; it also means ‘all’ 物 means ‘things’; it also means ‘wight’ (a person of a specific kind) The 'two' (sky and earth) are the “intermediate step”. The idea of assistance from sky and earth is also found in the 太 一 生 水 (tai4 yi1 sheng1 shui3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiyi_Shengshui I agree.

Great questions and would love to reply but no time now, another time. Bye for now.

There is no difference. Dao = the One. They’re just different names for the same thing. Like in Christianity there’s loads of other names for God e.g. the good Lord, the Creator, the Almighty. Again, Dao = the One. There’s no difference. Laozi often likes to play with the fact that Clasical Chines was polysemic. So here 生 is used in different meanings in every line: 1. 道 生 一 (yi1 dao4 sheng1) Dao is the One (the origin of all things). 2. 一 生 二 (er4) the One (Dao) created the two (meaning sky and earth) 3. 二 生 三 (san1) the two (sky and earth) produced a few (三 ‘three’ also means ‘a few’) 4. 三 生 萬 物 the few gave birth to all the people that exist now.

There’s a subforum called ‘Forum and Tech Support’. You could make it a topic there.

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Painfully slow a bit earlier, now it’s fine.

Dao. Dao is ‘the One’, “the single Entity at the top“. "the One" was not given birth to; it's the 'unborn', the 'prime mover'. This translates 生 as "gives birth to". But 生 had many different meanings. In this context it means ‘to be’. The first line of your ch. 42 quote in characters is 道 生 一 (dao4 sheng1 yi1) 一 (yi1) in this context refers to 太 一 (tai4 yi1) the ‘One’, the ‘Oneness’. Beginning with the DDJ, in early Daoism ‘Oneness’ is significanct in terms of cosmogony. ‘Oneness’ often appears as a synonym of Dao. 道 (dao4) in this context refers to 一 (yi1). Dao is the origin of everything, which is also called 一 (yi1) 道 生 一 (dao4 sheng1 yi1) Dao is the the origin of all things.

link https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/51354-clear-differences-between-fire-and-water-path/?do=findComment&comment=938910 You can also click on the little arrow in quotes, that will also take you to the post.

Hi Thrice, idk but this thread might be useful.

slow again good practice in patience

fast again

Exactly. I too “chose to”.

for me it has 3 stages: allow, observe, filter

wonderful

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Exactly. One has to become in control of one’s own thoughts.

Laughing in a good way (after I looked up the meaning of “anitya’ ); ‘flux’ indeed, now it works fine again.

@Giles what’s with all cryptic replies and downvoting, I’m putting you on ignore.

I agree. Great intro, welcome to the forum.

Dao is the Mother of us all. 可 以 为 天 下 母 Dao can be regarded as the Mother of all under heaven. (DDJ ch. 25) Of course you can’t, , and a sage (being one with Dao, the Mother) cannot either. Indeed.

This translates 聖人 sheng4 ren2 as the ‘sage’. But 聖人 had many different meanings, it was also a name for the Emperor. 天 地 不 仁 之 以 Heaven and Earth are not humane, treat 萬 物 為 芻 狗 也 the myriad creatures as straw dogs 聖 人 不 仁 之 以 The Emperor is not humane, treats 百 姓 為 芻 狗 也 common people as straw dogs. (DDJ Ch. 5)

it’s fine now. I spoke to early, painfully slow again; logging out.

Oh very slow again.

Yesterday it was slow + Bad Gateway. Working fine now. Thank you.