Tao Thought: Solstice and Tao Te Ching Verse Fifty-Six

When the true light appears,
The entire planet turns to face it.


The summer solstice is the time of greatest light. It is a day of enormous power. The whole planet is turned fully to the brilliance of the sun.

This great culmination is not static or permanent. Indeed, solstice as a time of culmination is only a barely perceptible point. The sun appears to stand still. Its diurnal motion seems to nearly cease. Yesterday, it was still reaching this point; tomorrow, it will begin a new phase of its cycle.

Those who follow Tao celebrate this day to remind themselves of the cycles of existence. They remember that all cycles have a left and a right, an up side and a down side, a zenith and a nadir. Today, day far surpasses night, and yet night will gradually begin to reassert itself. All of life is cycles. All of life is balance.

So celebrate, but be not proud. For whenever you celebrate high achievement, the antithesis is also approaching. Likewise, in misfortune, be not sad. For whenever you mourn in grief, the antithesis is also approaching. Those who know how to reach the peak of any cycle and remain glorious are the wisest of all.

solstice
365 Tao
Daily Meditations
Deng Ming-Dao (author)
ISBN 0-06-250223-9

56

Those who know don't talk
those who talk don't know

Seal the opening
close the gate
dull the edge
untie the tangle
soften the light
join the dust
This is called the Dark Union

It can't be embraced
it can't be abandoned
it can't be helped
it can't be harmed
it can't be exalted
it can't be debased

Thus does the world exalt it

— RED PINE


56

Those who know don't talk.
Those who talk don't know.

Close your mouth.
Block the door.
Quiet your senses.
Blunt the sharpness.
Untie the tangles.
Soften the brightness.
Be one with the dust,
and enter the primal oneness.

One who has merged with Tao in this way
can't be courted,
can't be bought,
can't be harmed,
can't be honoured,
can't be humiliated.

He is the treasure of the world.

— BRIAN BROWNE-WALKER


56

Those who know don't talk.
Those who talk don't know.

Close your mouth,
block off your senses,
blunt your sharpness,
untie your knots,
soften your glare,
settle your dust.
This is the primal identity.

Be like the Tao.
It can't be approached or withdrawn from,
benefited or harmed,
honored or brought into disgrace.
It gives itself up continually.
That is why it endures.

— STEPHEN MITCHELL