A Place to Start
So, I’ve been working my way through all of the episodes of the X-Files over the last several months and I ran across an episode in season
7 that was written and directed by Gillian Anderson (who plays Scully) called “All Things.” You can get some details on the episode at TV.com.The episode is filled with Buddhist and Taoist imagery and sounds, and the theme revolves around the interconnectedness of things and the need for one to slow down, live in the moment, and to be open to the lessons of our world and the thread of our lives. To me, this is one of the best episodes of a show that is filled with great episodes.
So here is my project. Gillian Anderson’s beautiful creation brought back many ideas that I have not paid enough attention to lately in my life. I was first exposed to these ideas when I took a life-changing course at Loyola University when I was an undergraduate, Zen I. The course was taught by Ben Wren, a deeply flawed individual, but an excellent teacher. At the time he was a Jesuit priest, but he left the priesthood not long after Pope John Paul II wrote his letter extolling Catholics not to be ensnared by the teachings of Eastern mysticism and spirituality. What a fucker that guy was. The now (thankfully) dead Pope, that is. Ben Wren married soon after he left the priesthood and lived for about 10 years until he died recently here in the New Orleans area. Father Wren, as I knew him then, had a saying to describe my current position in the world; he would say, “You have lost your thread.” So this blog is an attempt for me to pick up the thread, as it were, and reinvest my energies in the actual practice of the things I believe to be the best way of life offered by any spiritual tradition I am aware of.
Here’s how I envision this attempt to pick up the thread. I will be using a fantastic version of a classic of Eastern thought, the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu. The edition is the one I used in Wren’s class and is translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English. The text is filled with beautiful photographs and calligraphy. You can see inside it and purchase it if you like on Amazon.com. I will read a page of the text, spend some time meditating afterwards, and then write a post on the blog using the page from the book as a jumping off point for the post. I also hope to have the ideas and impressions I take away from the reading inform some of my pottery and drawing, which I will try to share through images in the blog. At the very least, I hope to get back into the habit of regular meditation and writing, both of which I really love. I hope that my thoughts will engender some interesting conversation with and among any readers who find their way here.
Online Translations
Here’s a short list of online translations if you want to follow along and don’t want to buy the text I am using. The list comes partly from the Wikipedia article on the Tao Te Ching and even includes a link to a version setup for running from your iPod as Notes. I think it is useful to consult several translations because they often vary widely and, because of the necessary interpretation that is integral to this kind of translation, they may all be equally valid.
- Daodejing - Original text arrayed with translations in English (Waley, Lau), French (Julien), German (Wilhelm) and modern Chinese. This site is really excellent. It includes the original Chinese ideograms with word by word translations available when you hover your cursor over the character. You can also hide or display each of the translations independently. The parent site includes similar translations and presentations of several other sacred Chinese texts.
- English Translation by James Legge (1891) at Internet Sacred-Texts archive
- An online translation by Charles Muller is available at Professor Muller’s site: Daode jing
- An online translation by j.h. mcdonald is available at Religions and Scriptures: Tao Te Ching
- An online interpretation by Ron Hogan is available in several formats at Beatrice.com: Tao Te Ching
- An iPod formatted version of this translation is available at SwiftlyTilting.com: The Tao Te Ching for your iPod