Verse 1 | Tao Te Ching | Transcendence, Stereograms, and Zero to the Power of Zero

May 06, 2024 by Mike Vitale in Life, Love, Tao Te Ching

I remember in the 1990’s, there was this visual craze revolving around these seemingly nonsensical posters, with a beautiful tapestry of image—almost looking chaotic, or obnoxiously busy in color, and scope, and density. I believe they are called Stereograms or Auto-stereogram.

They look like complete madness—until one relaxes his or her eyes, crossing them in a sense, akin the feeling of a stare you might have while lost deep in thought—and then suddenly you see something that is amongst the chaos: a three dimensional image, hidden within this two-dimensional picture.

I am a person full of desires, and I am very driven to succeed in my goals. However, I feel that this first verse, the opening words of the Tao Te Ching (Dao de Jing) is an encouragement to relax my gaze, so that I may see the beauty that resides within the bigger picture of life, and love and creation: the universe.

The Universe is a name we gave to something that we are all a small part of, yet we only try to understand—however we do not truly understand it. I think we feel it. We find it when we look outside of ourselves, relaxing our eyes—and we also feel it when we look within ourselves. Deep within ourselves, in calmness and serenity, perhaps focusing on our slow and steady breath. In… out… in… out.

Breathing is the very first thing we ever learned to do in this life—this beautiful life of ours.

… and when it gets difficult, perhaps, that is the best place for us to return: to the beginning. To breath. To the unnamed. To that which is within us, and all around us, and to that which binds us all, yet, we only name is a manner to attempt to understand it, and give boundary to something that has none.

I have been going back to my early youth as of late: I’ve been studying mathematics. I ran across this very strange anomaly that I don’t quite completely understand, even with an individual giving me a completely rational explanation as to why this is.

The Power of a Number. Exponents: a number to the power of itself. The power of a number has its “base” or the larger number that is being multiplied, as well as its exponent, which is the amount of times that this function is occurring. For example 2 to the power of 2 = 4 or 2 x 2 = 4

However, what happens when you do this with the number 0?

0 to the power of 0 = 1

Yes, you are reading that correctly.

Even more fascinating:

Take a calculator and begin using number that are less than zero, by decimals.

For example:

0.5 to the power of 0.5 = 0.7071067812

0.00005 to the power of 0.00005 = 0.9995049482

0.00000000005 to the power of 0.00000000005 = 0.9999999988

As we move closer to zero, the answer grows closer to one.

How beautiful is that? Think about it. Think about this mathematical wonder, in the context of the first Verse of the Tao Te Ching.

Perhaps we see what we want to see, and perhaps we miss everything we don't see.

Leonardo DaVinci has this quote:

"There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who don't see."

Verse 1

Kwok, Palmer, Ramsay Translation

The Tao that can be talked about is not the true Tao.

The name that can be named

is not the eternal Name.

Everything in the universe comes out of Nothing.

Nothing — the nameless

is the beginning;

While Heaven, the mother

is the creatrix of all things.

Follow the nothingness of the Tao,

And you can be like it, not needing anything,

seeing the wonder and the root of everything.

And even if you cannot grasp this nothingness,

You can still see something of the Tao in everything.

These two are the same

only called by different names

— and both are mysterious and wonderful.

All mysteries are Tao, and Heaven is their mother:

She is the gateway and the womb-door.

Verse 45

Tao Ching

Lau Translation

The way can be spoken of,

But it will not be the constant way;

The name can be named,

But it will not be the constant name.

The nameless was the beginning of the myriad creatures;

The named was the mother of the myriad creatures.

Hence constantly rid yourself of desires in order to observe

Its subtlety;

But constantly allow yourself to have desires in order to

observe what it is after.

These two have the same original but differ in name.

They are both called dark,

Darkness upon darkness

The gateway to all that is subtle.

Verse 1

Ames and Hall Translation

Way-making (dao) that can be put into words is not really way-

making,

And naming (ming) that can assign fixed reference to things is not

really naming.

The nameless (wuming) is the fetal beginnings of everything that is

happening (wanwu),

While that which is named is their mother.

Thus, to be really objectless in one’s desires (wuyu) is how one

observes the mysteries of all things,

While really having desires is how one observes their boundaries.

These two—the nameless and what is named—emerge from the same

source yet are referred to differently.

Together they are called obscure.

The obscurest of the obscure,

They are the swinging gateway of the manifold mysteries.

Verse 1

Walker Translation

Tao is beyond words

and beyond understanding.

Words may be used to speak of it,

but they cannot contain it.

Tao existed before words and names,

before heaven and earth,

before the ten thousand things.

It is the unlimited father and mother

of all limited things.

Therefore, to see beyond boundaries

to the subtle heart of things,

dispense with names,

with concepts,

with expectations and ambitions and differences.

Tao and its many manifestations

arise from the same source:

subtle wonder pithing mysterious darkness.

This is the beginning of all understanding.

Verse 1

Wilson Translation

The Way that can be articulately described

is not the Unchanging Way.

The name that can be said out loud

is not the Unchanging Name.

With you mouth unopened, and things left undefined,

you stand at the beginning of the universe.

Make definitions, and you are the measure of all creation.

Thus, being forever without desire,

you look deeply into the transcendent.

By constantly harboring desire,

your vision is beset by all the things around you.

These two enter the world alike,

but their names are different.

Alike, they are called profound and remote.

Profound and remote and again more so:

This is the gate to all mysteries.

Verse 1

Mitchell Translation

The Tao that can be told

is the not eternal Tao

The name that can be named

is not the eternal Name

The unnamable is the eternally real.

Naming is the origin

of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.

Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations

arise from the same source.

This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.

The gateway to all understanding.

Verse 1

Dale Translation

The Tao that can be told

is not the universal Tao.

The name that can be named

is not the universal name.

In the infancy of the universe,

there were no names.

Naming fragments the mysteries of life

Into ten thousand things and their manifestations.

Yet mysteries and manifestations

spring form the same source:

The Great Integrity

which is the mystery within manifestation,

the manifestation within mystery,

the naming of the unnamed,

and the un-naming of the named.

When these interpretations

are in full attendance,

we will pass the gate of naming notions

In our journey toward transcendence.

Verse 1

Dyer Translation

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 desireless, one can see the mystery;

ever desiring, one sees only the manifestations.

And the mystery itself is the doorway

to all understanding.

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, singer, songwriter, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

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Verse 29 | Tao Te Ching | Control And—Maybe Even Surfing

April 17, 2024 by Mike Vitale in Life, Love

Control.

This verse reminds me of the act of surfing. There is a wave. That wave is righteous. When one catches it, it’s exhilarating. There is so much power and energy in that wave. One can glide on it, or cut and ride it. It takes a certain amount of control to do that: to control the board. However, the rider does not control the wave.

The wave is the force of nature. The force of natural order. There is no controlling that.

The same can be said at the point of biffing on a wave and falling into the water, with such force and current driving you along. It’s dangerous. I was taught, to just let go and be still and let the wave take you. When it subsides, then be active.

How much do we try to control with our own ego or self—or more to the point, in the classical definition of the word: too much ego? The Ego is simply our conscious mind, and too much of anything might not be best? This verse is also about excess and extremes as much as it is the natural flow and order of life as an organism on a huge rock in space, floating around a sun, that is within that large organism we call a solar system, within a larger organic system we call a galaxy, within an even larger organism we call a Universe.

Know thyself. I am sensitive. I am also very strong. I am very hard working. I can also be lazy.

Is the answer to avoid extremes? Let us discuss this, please. This is an invitation. However, it would be best to read each of these translations, and not just the Brown translation. You will see the effect that translation has on exact meaning. With all nine of these verses read, perhaps deeper meaning can be construed.

Verse 29

Brown Translation

If you try to grab hold of the world

And do what you want with it,

You won’t succeed

The world is a vessel for spirit, and

It wasn’t made to be manipulated

Tamper with it, and you’ll spoil it.

Hold it, and you’ll lose it.

With Tao, Sometimes you move ahead

And sometimes you stay back;

Sometimes you work hard

And sometimes you rest;

Sometimes you’re strong

And sometimes you’re weak;

Sometimes you’re up;

Sometimes you’re down.

The sage remains sensitive,

Avoiding extremes,

Avoiding extravagance,

Avoiding excess.

Verse 29

Dyer Translation

Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it?

I do not believe it can be done.

Everything under heaven is a sacred vessel and cannot be controlled.

Trying to control leads to ruin.

Trying to grasp, we lose.

Allow your life to unfold naturally.

Know that it too is a vessel of perfection.

Just as you breathe in and breathe out,

there is a time for being ahead

and a time for being behind;

a time for being in motion

and a time for being at rest;

a time for being vigorous

and a time for being exhausted;

a time for being safe

and a time for being in danger.

To the sage

all of life is a movement toward perfection,

so what need has he

for the excessive, the extravagant, or the extreme?

Verse 29

Kwak, Palmer, Ramsay Translation

If a ruler behaves as if he’s invented the world,

He will do no good at all.

The earth is a sacred vessel—

and it can not be owned or improved.

If you try to possess it, you will destroy it:

If you try to hold on to it—you will lose it.

Some are leaders, then, and others follow.

Some drift like the wind, and others drive hard.

Some are thick-skinned, and others have no armor;

And some are the destroyers, and others they destroy.

So now you know why

the sage abandons greed,

all false charm—

and evert last iota of pride.

Verse 29

Dale Translation

Those who have most power and wealth

Treat the planet as a thing to be possessed,

To be used and abused according to their own dictates.

But the planet is a living organism,

A Great Spiritual Integrity.

To Violate the Integrity

Is certain to cull forth disaster

Since each and every one of us

Is an inherent part

Of this very organism.

All attempts to control the world

Can only lead to its decimation

And to our own demise

Since we are an inseparable part

Of what we are senselessly trying to coerce.

Any attempts to posses the world

Can only lead to out own dissolution

Since we are an intrinsic part

Of what we are foolishly trying to possess.

The world’s pulse is our pulse.

The world’s rhythms are our rhythms.

To treat our planet with care, moderation, and love

Is to be in synchrony with ourselves

And to live in the Great Integrity.

Verse 29

Mitchell Translation

Do you want to improve the world?

I don’t think it can be done.

The world is sacred.

It can’t be improved.

If you tamper with it, you’ll ruin it.

If you treat it like an object, you’ll lose it.

There is time for being ahead,

A time for being behind;

A time for being in motion,

A time for being at rest;

A time for being vigorous,

A time for being exhausted;

A time for being safe,

A time for being in danger.

The Master sees things as they are,

Without trying to control them.

She lets them go their own way,

And resides at the center of the circle.

Verse 29

Wilson Translation

When a man wishes to take the world and make something of it,

I perceive that this will only end in failure.

The world is an instrument regulated by the gods,

And cannot be fabricated into something else.

He who tries to do this will damage it.

He who tries to grasp it will lose it.

Thus, as for the creatures of this world,

There are those who step forward,

And those who follow;

There are those who breathe through their noses,

And those who breathe their mouths.

There are those as strong as the sting go a wasp,

And those as delicate as a sickly sheep.

There are those who are thrown down,

And those who fall down on their own.

Therefore the sage

Avoids all extreme,

Avoids the arrogant and self-willed,

And avoids the excessive.

Verse 73

Lau Translation

Whoever takes the empire and puts it in order I see will find

There is no stop to it. Now the empire is a sacred vessel. It is

Not a thing that can be put in order. He who puts it in order

Will ruin it; he who holds will lose it.

Some things go forward and some follow behind;

Some blow hot and some blow cold;

Some are strengthened and some suffer setback;

Some are banked up and some are pulled down.

Hence the sage avoids excess, arrogance and extravagance.

Chapter 29

Ames and Hall Translation

If someone wants to rule the world, and goes about trying to do so,

I foresee that they simply will not succeed.

The world is a sacred vessel,

And is something that can not be ruled.

Those who would rule it ruin it;

Those who would control it lose it.

In the way of things:

Some move ahead while others fall behind;

Some breathe to warm themselves while others breathe to cool themselves down;

Some are strong while others are disadvantaged;

Some accumulate while others collapse.

It is for this reason that the sages eschew the excessive, the superlative, and the extravagant.

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

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Infinite Jest | Mike Vitale (Original)

April 06, 2024 by Mike Vitale in Love, Life, Good Music, Music, New Music

In Buddhism, our nature within The Universe is described as self-excitatory intelligence, or in other words, The Universe creates itself, which in turn, creates us, to perceive itself as a Universe. We are all a small piece of some larger cosmic entity, when one stops to think about it.

In Taoism, Verse 1: “The Tao (or way) that can be told, is not the Universal Tao (way). The name that can be named is not the Universal name. In the Infancy of the Universe, there were no names (there was no one to perceive it). Naming fragments the mysteries of life into ten thousand things and their manifestations.”

This is to say, as smart as we might think we are, we do know the Universe. It is a mystery to us. One that we feel, rather than try to rationalize by giving it a name, or giving God a name.

Bill Hicks, a young stand-up comedian, would end his sets with this short sentiment written below. This was a man who had cancer, and knew he was going to die. He started experimenting with hallucinogens to try and help make peace with his own ultimate and rapidly approaching demise:

“Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here’s Tom with the Weather.”

Think about that for a second. It is powerful. You are capable of so much. You are capable of expressing yourself, and bringing joy to others, to create jokes that bring people together in laughter, or to write a song that unites folks under a common thread.

Have you ever thought about how art is the medium in which truth is universally accepted by the masses? That is how comedy works. We laugh, because it’s true. We sing, because it’s true. Truth is subjective. We are all experiencing the Universe subjectively.

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You're Gonna Live Forever in Me | John Mayer

March 30, 2024 by Mike Vitale in Life, Love, Good Music, New Music

I love the sentiment of this song. It’s beautiful. It made me cry the first time I heard it. John has grown into such a wonderful songwriter. He’s always been special, but he only grows to new boundaries with every album he releases. May this trend continue as we grow old, together, in the same lifetime.

He starts with the Macro, and as the song progresses, into the Micro of Human Relationships.

It’s a stunning piece of work. If you are unfamiliar with the song, I highly recommend listening to it. He performed it on piano, but I have a deep fascination with adapting piano songs to guitar, so I did that with it.

Most importantly: we are animal, living symbiotically on a planet in orbit around a sun, which is one of a billion solar systems, orbiting around a super massive black hole, which is one of a trillion of other galaxies, in a rapidly expanding Universe. We are all part of that—and perhaps that is what so many religions describe in their sacred texts—simply asking or maybe urging: treat others the way you would want to be treated yourself, because we are all a small piece of the same thing, and we live eternally inside that. Forever and ever. Amen.

YOU’RE GONNA LIVE FOREVER IN ME

words and music by John Mayer

A great big bang and dinosaurs
Fiery raining meteors
It all ends unfortunately
But you're gonna live forever in me
I guarantee, just wait and see

Parts of me were made by you
And planets keep their distance too
The moon's got a grip on the sea
And you're gonna live forever in me
I guarantee, it's your destiny

Life is full of sweet mistakes
And love's an honest one to make
Time leaves no fruit on the tree
But you're gonna live forever in me
I guarantee, it's just meant to be

And when the pastor asks the pews
For reasons he can't marry you
I'll keep my word and my seat
But you're gonna live forever in me
I guarantee, just wait and see

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

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"Infinite Jest" | Mike Vitale (Original)

December 10, 2019 by Mike Vitale in Life, New Music

Faith is a curious creature, who even when roaming the confines of a dictionary, grazes on the delights of strange words:

faith
/fāTH/
Learn to pronounce
noun
noun: faith
1.
complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
"this restores one's faith in politicians"
2.
strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.

I have had times in my life where I have lacked faith, and yet others where the fruits of faith were in overabundance for harvest.

There is so much that we feel in this world... versus say, think in this world—and the grey area between those two opposing forces of dichotomy seems to be where this creature dwells, grazing on those strange delights of words I was mentioning earlier—perhaps, waiting to be noticed, so that another may appear, just like it—like the spooky action at a distance that Einstein talked about in 1947.

Something like quantum entanglement in the realm of particles and quantum mechanics is so incredible to behold, but it doesn't mean we understand how it works.

We instead just might observe a photon lighting up, and find another just like it, identically lighting up at exactly the same time, in an opposite place in the universe (which we have, and continue to). We build computers using these discoveries, yet we are no closer to understanding how something can be a hazy cloud, until it is observed. I know all of this sounds like nonsense, but it is what quantum mechanics is trying to make sense of, at the moment. We have people postulating that we all live inside a holographic projection, right now, in an effort to find a unifying theory for everything. It's called The Holographic Principle.

I don't know where to begin trying to understand things as wacky, intangible, and deep as this—but then again, maybe that's the reason why its this convoluted in the first place. Who knows for sure? Not me. But, I can write a song about it.

Infinite Jest
words and music by Mike Vitale

Maybe God gave the punchline
And we were too young to interpret the meaning
Or maybe we’re all just a comedy of errors
And so on and on logic wrestles with feeling

Universe, are we all alone
in an endless space full of human abstraction?
The chills running up and down my spine
A conversation, or just a chemical reaction?
And if God already tipped its hat and gave its last regard
With infinite jest and a question written in the stars

Who here thinks God’s got a sense of humor?
Maybe one day it’ll raise your hand
Despite what you’ve read between wonderment and rumor
Our only sacrament is our ability to understand

The chicken from the egg?
Or the egg from the chicken?
We take it all so serious with our scientific method
If we could learn to laugh with egg on our face rather than be angry, indifferent, and tepid

and mixed up somewhere between particles and strings and the king of kings...
We might find an answer
Or maybe God just speaks in stones and trees and the bones of things like an exotic dancer

Thanks to everyone on Patreon for helping me to make music videos, and to record, mix, and master music all the music I've been posting to Spotify, Apple Music, and all the streaming services. I'm very grateful.

If you are interested in being a part of it, you can learn more here: http://www.patreon.com/mikevitalemusic

A very special thanks to patrons Amy Armitage and Fernando Gallegos.