I've been told that this is one of the most widely known and popular verses from the Tao Te Ching. It is no exaggeration to say that it has me tearing up a bit reading it. Life is very good, when we let it be good—when we get out of our own way.

Verse 25

Dyer Translation

There was something formless and perfect

before the universe was born.

It is serene. Empty.

Solitary. Unchanging.

Infinite. Eternally present.

It is the Mother of the universe.

For lack of a better name,

I call it the Tao.

I call it great.

Great is boundless;

boundless is eternally flowing;

ever flowing, it is constantly returning.

Therefore, the Way is great,

heaven is great,

earth is great,

people are great.

Thus, to know humanity,

understand earth.

To know earth,

understand heaven.

To know heaven,

understand the Way.

To know the Way,

understand the great within yourself.

Verse 25

Kwok, Palmer, Ramsay Translation

Before the world was

And the sky was filled with stars...

There was a strange, unfathomable Body.

This Being, this Body is silent

and beyond all substance and sensing.

It stretches beyond everything

spanning the empyrean.

It has always been here, and it always will be.

Everything comes from it, and then

it is the Mother of Everything.

I do not know its name. So I call it TAO

I am loath to call it greater than everything',

but it is.

And being greater, it infuses all things

moving far out and returning to the Source.

Tao is great.

Tao, the Great!

It is greater than Heaven,

Greater than the Earth —

Greater than the king.

These are the four great things,

and the ruler is the least of them.

Humanity is schooled by Earth;

Earth is taught by Heaven,

And Heaven is guided by the Tao.

And the Tao

goes with what is absolutely natural.

Verse 25

Dale Translation

What preceded life? The earth.

What preceded the earth? The universe.

What preceded the universe?

The soundless and shapeless, origin of origins,

ever transforming and having no beginning nor end.

This mother off the universe is boundless, and nameless.

But if we wanted to share with you anything

about this remarkable non-executing executor,

we must invent a name for it.

We will call it the Tao because Tao means great.

Incredibly great because it occupies infinite space,

being fully present in the whole universe, and in

every infinitesimal particle.

Because this Great Integrity created the universe,

and the universe created the earth,

and the earth created us, we are all incredibly great.

Life derives from the nature of the earth.

The earth derives from the nature of the universe.

The universe derives from the nature of the great integrity.

And the great integrity is the omnipresent, omnigenous omniform,

the universal material and spiritual substance

and the holoversal interlinkage and coition of existence.

Dyer's thoughts on this verse:

Many of the scholars who have written about the Tao Te Ching over the centuries consider this 25th verse to be one of the most significant lessons in the entire manuscript. In my research, all the translations of this passage actually include the word great to describe it.

This verse tells the story that even before the beginning there existed “something formless and perfect.” It goes on to say that this formless perfection is the “Mother of the universe.” Even though it’s nameless, it’s called the “Tao,” and it’s synonymous with what is great. That is, there’s nothing within the Tao that is the opposite of great—there’s nothing that’s puny, insignificant, weak, unimportant, or even average.

The story appears to want the reader to realize there’s a pure, timeless energy that’s within everything on the planet and that remains uncontaminated by the solid appearance of form. The conclusion is a directive to the student, who is you, the reader. To know this formless perfection, you must “understand the great within yourself.” You’re the central character in this wonderful saga!

Since you’re animated by the eternal Tao, this tale’s message of greatness invites you to change the way you live and to see the life you’re living change. You can begin to do so by examining thoughts and ideas that are inconsistent with this phenomenal observation made by Lao-tzu, which has been echoed by others throughout history. In her book The Journey, which was published in 1954, Lillian Smith describes it like this:

The need that one feels every day of one’s life, even though one does not acknowledge it. To be related to something bigger than one’s self, something more alive than one’s self, something older and something not yet born, that will endure through time.

That enduring “something” confirms your greatness, your absolute connection to the infinite. There’s a sense of being permanently aligned with a sort of senior partner that is greatness itself.

Lao-tzu advises you to notice the planet, its people, and the heavens and see greatness. Next, look at yourself and see that you’re a component of them all. That is, befriend what appears to be the great mystery of creation by discovering the greatness within you, then bask in the joy of noting the greatness you share with heaven, Earth, and all of its people. By persistently hanging on to your own “greatness heritage,” you ensure that the always-present Tao is consciously available. From a perspective of greatness, only greatness can emerge from you; from an inner perspective of inferiority, you only attract events that align with those beliefs.

Your greatness won’t be found in a classroom; an apprenticeship; a teacher; or flattering comments from well-meaning family members, friends, or lovers. It is within you. It’s crucial for you to become conscious of the greatness that constantly flows through you—to do so, meet it in meditative moments of gratitude, and cease to be influenced by contrary points of view.

In particular, watch and listen for the critical comments that originate from your own inner dialogue. When such thoughts emerge in your mind, let them tell you what they want. If you allow those not-so-great notions to speak, you’ll always discover that what they really want is to feel good. Give them the time they need to trust that there’s no payoff for their existence, and they will happily merge into the greatness within you. Accessing this quality allows you to participate in the greater whole, where the power of the Tao flows unimpeded by fearful self-judgment. Change the way you live by tapping into this greatness, and the life you’re living will literally change.

Following are the thoughts that Lao-tzu would have you adopt as he wrote out this verse of the Tao Te Ching some 25 centuries ago:

Trust in your own greatness.

You are not this body you occupy, which is temporary and on its way back to the nowhere from which it came. You are pure greatness . . . precisely the very same greatness that creates all of life. Keep this thought uppermost in your mind and you’ll attract to yourself these same powers of creation: The right people will appear. The exact events that you desire will transpire. The financing will show up. That’s because greatness attracts more of its own self to itself, just as thoughts of inadequacy act upon a belief that ensures that deficiency will become your reality. Affirm the following to yourself over and over until it becomes your automatic inner response to the world: I come from greatness. I attract greatness. I am greatness.

Look for beliefs that contradict your status as a being of greatness.

Catch yourself in the midst of any utterance that reflects your belief that you’re average. Silently speak warmly to that belief and ask it what it wants. It may think it has to protect you from disappointment or pain, as it probably did earlier in your existence. But with continued accepting attention, the feeling will always eventually admit that it wants to feel great. So let it! You’re good enough to withstand the passing disappointments and pain that afflict life on this planet—but trying to protect yourself by believing that you don’t embody greatness is overkill.

Look for these misbeliefs and give them the chance to transform to what they (and you) really want. Whatever you desire to become or to attract to yourself, make the internal shift from It probably won’t happen for me to It is on its way! Then begin the process of looking for even minute evidence that what you desire is indeed on its way. It’s crucial to keep this ancient axiom in mind: I get what I think about, whether I want it or not. So think about how fortunate you are to have greatness located within yourself. Now you can live the ultimate paradox: You can be greatness and be nobody, simultaneously.

I remember being around 20 years old, in the town I grew up in: Visalia, CA. It's not a very big place. It's not very small either. It's between those two things: small enough for rumors to bother you and big enough for it to take 25 minutes to get from one end to the other—I'm sure information was faster than the car there, even before the advent of the internet.

I fell in love for the first time in Visalia. It was love at first sight for me—but ended up not working out. I think back on it, and I know all the places where I made errors. This is important to me, because I feel I have room to learn from my mistakes. Lauren is happily married now and has children, and I am thrilled for her, deeply and truly. She is a good person.

What's really painful is making mistakes and realizing you have made them shortly after making them. This was the case between Lauren and I. However, we are not defined by another person.

While we may be defined by our decisions, partially—ultimately, I feel that we just are. We exist I mean. Nothing beyond that. To put it a better way, we all come in and out of each others lives, changing one another, so that we may continue on: all the additional perceptions attached to it, are human notions.

If we look at ourselves as purely animals, we just exist, accumulating life experience in the form of memories. We own our past. It is involuntary in so much as it pertains to it being deposited in the banks of chaos that are our minds. Beyond that, we can chose to own it as a verb, which is more along the lines of accepting it, and not perceiving it as a burden. Perhaps like cargo floating on a rive in tandem with us: effortless.

I am fascinated by the thought of how much more malleable I was in my younger years. I could love, fall out of love, and love again rather quickly. If I were to be honest with myself, I have become far more guarded with my heart over the years.

19 year-old me fell in and out of love with Lauren, was at the forefront of his love of music, had parents who did not encourage the pursuit of music as a career, so he felt as if he needed to find his own footing and encouragement in other places—even if that was just in the daydreams of his own head.

He worked two jobs: one during the day and one during the night. He practiced guitar in between. He kept trying to write songs, but found it extremely difficult to like what he wrote—to genuinely love what was being made by his own creativity.

The first song I ever tried to write was about a young girl who tried to commit suicide off of a freeway overpass. It was a good song—I couldn't see that though, at the time. So I hid it away, and never shared it.

I remember discovering Dave Matthews Band for the first time, and learning all of his songs. I remember meeting a young girl named Robin that same summer. We loved each other in a window of time, before she moved away. In that window of time, I began reading a book that I very much enjoyed called " The Tao of Pooh". I was 20 years old.

It was a very beautiful interpretation of Taoism, in so far as Winnie the Pooh being a prime example of an individual who lives the Tao. I gave it to Robin when she moved to San Jose, along with a few Calvin and Hobbs comic strip books.

In hindsight, I was more malleable in those days—which isn't to say that I am not that way now—I'm just beginning to wonder if I was living more "the way" at that time, than I am now.

Robin was no possession to me. She enriched my life. Hopefully, I enriched hers as well. We keep contact with one another, and I am friends with her whole family. I love them all dearly.

I continued to play guitar. I was also very fascinated with Chess. I played a gentleman named Jason McKaughan at his house in downtown Visalia. He was an amazing musician himself. He was also studying philosophy at California State University Fresno. We would play chess together. He would introduce me to movies and new music that I had never heard of such as Michael Hedges or Charlie Hunter or "The Matrix" or "Deconstructing Harry"—to be honest they are too numerous to name.

I began to learn how to play Michael Hedges and became obsessed with him, much as I did Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan before that. However, I remember showing up to his house to play chess on one day in particular and he had something fun to share with me.

He popped on a song called "Comfortable". He asked me to name who it was. I listened. "Comfortable" displayed amazing songwriting. The lyrics were incredible. His voice had a masculine baritone quality that was very beautiful and entrancing to listen to. I listened the whole way through without saying a word.

When the song was completed, I said "Jacob Dylan?" I knew this wasn't the answer, but it was the closest thing I could think of that matched the timber of his voice. His answer was, "this is Matt Mangano's roommate at Berklee School of Music. His name is John Mayer." I was hooked.

Matt Mangano was also a Visalia native who had just moved to Boston to attend Berklee School of Music. He was there to study recording and sound engineering. He recorded John in the dorm room they shared together. The recordings I was listening to, were those recordings. Matt brought them back with him on summer break and told Jason, this is my roommate John Mayer. Remember his name. He's going to be a big star. Jason was skeptical that this was the case, but there was no denying his talent.

He shared numerous stories with me regarding Matt and John. I began to follow John on my parents old AOL dial up computer. The World Wide Web had just started. John was present on a website he created at johnmayer.com and posted music he wrote to another website called MP3.com. He had left Berklee School of Music after one year there, and moved down to Georgia. I enthusiastically watched and supported his very quick rise to fame.

There were no crowd sourcing platforms at this time. This was all between the years of 1999-2000. Jason McKaughan would go and visit Matt and John at their place in Atlanta, Georgia. John took Jason out to go sight seeing around the South, historical landmarks and so forth. He brought back stories. They were fun to listen to. I shared John's music with people I thought would like it.

When he started to be able to afford to tour, I went out and supported his first tour solo acoustic. He opened for Glen Phillips from Toad the Wet Sprocket. He played a wonderful set over a bunch of people screaming over the top of his music, talking loudly, waiting for Glen to take the stage. He didn't appear bothered by it, but having been there myself, I'm sure it was no fun to have only a quarter of the room listening to you.

Shortly there after, he was signed to Aware Records, which is what that CD up yonder is. He went on tour with a band. I caught him three times during that tour. Once in San Francisco, once in Los Angeles at The Roxy, and lastly at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. He came out after every show and would chat with all of us that attended. John is a very funny guy, and was always a pleasure to talk to. I emailed him once to ask him how to play one of his songs, and he was kind enough to provide the info I was after.

I look back on my life, and I see that around the years of 19 to 21 is when I woke up to art and how much I loved it. I have tried to avidly support local and independent music as I find it. I suppose John was the first musician to not be spoon fed to me by a major label? I had never thought of this before in plain terms, but I suppose that is the truth.

My whole life, I have been living the way. I am sure you can say the same. That's what "Tao" translates to: "The Way." We are all living the mystery is what I mean. Allow me to explain myself a little better—I don't want this to be a Chinese Finger Trap.

I started reading "Change You Thoughts, Change Your Life" by Wayne Dyer. In a nut shell, it is the "Tao Te Ching" by Lao Tzu, but with his interpretation of each concise chapter of "Tao Te Ching" which often reads a bit like poetry. I'll give you an example:

第一章

道可道

非常道

名可名

非常名

無名天地之始

有名萬物之母

故常無欲

以觀其妙

常有欲

以觀其徼

此兩者

同出而異名

同謂之玄

玄之又玄

眾妙之門

Pretty interesting, right? I kid.

Chapter 1

The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao

The name that can be named is not the eternal name

The nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth

The named is the mother of myriad things

Thus, constantly with

out desire, one observes its essence

Constantly with desire, one observes its manifestations

These two emerge together but differ in name

The unity is said to be the mystery

Mystery of mysteries, the door to all wonders

OR alternately it could be translated to this, as we are working from Chinese characters that are no longer in use. This alone is fascinating to me as language allows for so many different interpretations, especially when it has been translated from a translation. This text is nearly 2,500 years old. As far as I know, these both have been translated directly from the original Chinese characters listed above.

The Tao that can be told

is not the eternal Tao.

The name that can be named

is not the eternal name.

The Tao is both named and nameless.

As nameless it is the origin of all things;

as named it is the mother of 10,000 things.

Ever desire less, one can see the mystery;

ever desiring, one sees only the manifestations.

And the mystery itself is the doorway

to all understanding.

This is paradoxical thinking—and very thick. It has the viscosity of maple syrup. Yet, it is also simple. We just are. That is Tao, yet by my reducing things in simplicity of those words of explanation to you, another human being, that is not Tao. But I digress. This is what I was getting at in the words of Wayne Dyer:

.".. enjoy the mystery."

"Let the world unfold without always trying to figure it all out. Let relationships just be, for example, since everything is just going to stretch out in Divine Order. Don't try so hard to make something work—simply allow. Don't always toil at trying to understand your mate, your children, your parents, your boss, or anyone else, because the Tao is working at all times. When expectations are shattered, practicing allowing that to be the way it is. Relax, let go, allow, and recognize that some of your desires are about how you think your world should be, rather than how it is in the moment. Become an astute observer... judge less and listen more. Take time to open your mind to the fascinating mystery and uncertainty that we all experience."

"Practice letting go of always naming and labeling."

There are many things to be interpreted from these very concise lines from the first chapter of "Tao Te Ching." Similarly, there are many things to be interpreted from a lifetime already lived. Beyond that, is living. It's the present moment.

I've enjoyed sharing a bit of my past with you. I've also enjoyed thinking back to a version of myself that is 20 years old. I find it fascinating that I have ran along a twenty year cycle, a continuum, in which it has begun with me reading an interpretation of Tao Te Ching (but with Winnie the Pooh bonus round), and led me back to me reading an interpretation once again, and me arriving at my own paradoxical understanding. In the process of writing that last sentence, I also just realized that putting exclamation points on things can be construed as shouting. However, most of the time, it just means enthusiasm, nowadays.

What a mystery!

- Mike