#2. Tue, May 6th
The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao. But so many people seem to think that it is. I remember a few weeks ago when I was in Ashland as a pre-candidate. I was in a car with members of the search committee. It was a Sunday morning. We were on our way to Klamath Falls for me to preach at a neutral pulpit.
Dave Johnson was sitting in the back seat. I don’t remember exactly how it came up, but he uttered those words about the Tao. I turned around and beamed at him. I had used that quote, the first words of the Tao Te Ching in my ministerial packet. I told him that I had studied Mandarin Chinese when I was an undergraduate in the hopes that as I learned the language, my Western mind would enlarge to understand more deeply Eastern thought.
The Tao that can be named is not the eternal unchanging name. The myths in Genesis 2 and even in Rumple Stiltskin imply that to name something means to have power over it. And it is often true with regards to our fears that when we are able to name them, something shifts and they seem more manageable. The first chapter of the Tao offers an additional perspective. Naming things might give us a sense of control over life and events, but the absolute mysteries of the Universe can not be named in this way nor can they be controlled.