Dynamics of Not-Two

Embodiment of the Other as the Peace beyond Understanding

- / -

The above warning applies to the reflection below on the nature of the Tao of Not-Two as evoked by the explication Not-Two is Peace: the ordinary people's way of Global Cooperative Order by Adi Da (2006). It is based on Tao Te Ching Interpreted Succinctly: a 9-fold pattern of 81 insights presented as phrases (2003). Navigational implications are explored in Hyperspace Clues to the Psychology of the Pattern that Connects. For further reading, see: Documents relating to Patterns of I Ching / Tao te Ching, Documents relating to Existential Engagement and Embodiment. [Links are provided to alternative complete translations].

1. Journeying through unnaming the myriad patterns of the past --
that hide the emergent implicate order with which they are strangely identical [m/n/x]

2. Engaging without engaging --
for labeling anything engenders a complement with which it is called endlessly to dance [m/n/x]

3. Cultivating non-engagement --
with what has already emerged from the implicate order [m/n/x]

4. Having been there; having done that --
"not this; not that" [m/n/x]

5. Engendering through complementarity --
without gain [m/n/x]

6. Completing --
as the enduring call to engendering [m/n/x]

7. Enduring --
through centering on what ultimately nourishes [m/n/x]

8. Easing forward, going wherever, without competition --
seeking depth, like water [m/n/x]

9. Avoiding excess --
and the problems it brings [m/n/x]

-- / --

10. Centering through learning; knowing through not-knowing --
reflecting without distorting; instigating without owning; leading without ruling [m/n/x]

11. Benefiting from what is not --
through its framing of what is [m/n/x]

12. Sensing the inner --
to avoid desensitizing the outer [m/n/x]

13. Governing others appropriately --
through recognizing their exemplification of oneself [m/n/x]

14. Living the present --
through recognizing the undifferentiated nature of ancient beginnings [m/n/x]

15. Subtly stilling to clarify the troubled; elusively moving to enliven the inert --
strangely fulfilled by unfulfilment [m/n/x]

16. Accepting wisely the enduring cycle of beginning and ending --
to ensure the enduring peace that offers the freedom for open-hearted magnanimity [m/n/x]

17. Acting simply, enabling others to value their own initiatives --
since such insightful leadership is hardly recognized --
[m/n/x]

18. Failing to exalt merit --
that induces hypocrisy and disorder, disguised behind a screen of fashionable values [m/n/x]

-- / --

19. Being untroubled through needing little and wanting less --
irrespective of rules, injunctions and seeking after merit [m/n/x]

20. Living uncertainty, confusion and strangeness --
in awkward contrast to those whose clarity derives from polarization [m/n/x]

21. Knowing the strange uncertainties offered in the moment --
by the spirit of the elusive, from time immemorial [m/n/x]

22. Acting contrarily --
as an appropriate way of expressing the integrity of that which can only be understood through paradox [m/n/x]

23. Being in the moment --
through trusting in the power of the moment [m/n/x]

24. Avoiding disproportion and self-satisfaction --
to ensure healthy development [m/n/x]

25. Following the unnamable --
sustained by the unchanging that evokes it, through the process of following it in the moment [m/n/x]

26. Becoming insightful through assiduous handling of obligations --
progressing effectively based on a core of stillness [m/n/x]

27. Educating the challenged as the inspiration of the wise --
whether or not that is appreciated [m /n/x]

-- / --

28. Knowing the other, and retaining one’s identity and quality --
as the true source of power and renewal [m/n/x]

29. Doing "nothing" to the world --
for, as a sacred entity, doing "anything" to possess it is to degrade and lose it [m/n/x]

30. Leading through inspiration that does not seek to win --
in contrast to the vanquishing of others that degrades all concerned [m/n/x]

31. Using weapons, when there is no choice, with a calm, still mind --
since enjoying their use, and their killing of people, is to lose one’s share in the common good [m/n/x]

32. Knowing when to cease making essential distinctions --
as the key to safeguarding that which ensures integrity and vitality [m/n/x]

33. Applying to oneself the skills developed successfully to deal with others --
as a key to appropriate action and a quality of wisdom and greatness [m/n/x]

34. Achieving greatness without great doings --
as accomplished by the wise [m/n/x]

35. Holding fast to the eternal process through the very ordinary --
as the preferred key to its significance [m/n/x]

36. Prevailing through weakness --
as necessarily following the rise and dominance of the stronger [m/n/x]

-- / --

37. Self-organizing of myriad things --
as naturally entrained by the stillness in unnaming and unshaping [m/n/x]

38. Abiding in letting go and doing nothing --
as superceding clinging to power towards a determined end, in the righteous light of premature understanding or obedience to directives [m/n/x]

39. Enwholing to sustain the integrity of the subtle --
as enabled by encompassing the ordinary [m/n/x]

40. Returning from weakness --
through which being is eternally born of nothing [m/n/x]

41. Understanding appropriateness --
as challenged by the contrariness of insight inappropriate to its nature [m/n/x]

42. Losing as the key to the cycle of winning and losing --
essential to wider knowing [m/n/x]

43. Ensubtling to enliven the impenetrable --
that appears permanently to constrain [m/n/x]

44. Self-constraining fruitfully --
avoiding the traps of projection [m/n/x]

45. Remaining calm and clear to ensure that the capacity for appropriateness is renewed --
despite appearances to the contrary [m/n/x]

-- / --

46. Knowing that enough is enough --
as the key to wanting less [m/n/x]

47. Understanding the truth and opportunity of the moment --
avoiding its inhibition through seeking elsewhere [m/n/x]

48. Unlearning --
to ensure that things are progressively governed more fruitfully [m/n/x]

49. Enminding the world to see the ordinary through the eyes of children --
caring for it through them [m/n/x]

50. Living in recognition that this implies dying --
but living appropriately to remove the fear of that dying [m/n/x]

51. Nurturing life according to natural processes --
neither possessing it, claiming it, nor controlling it [m/n/x]

52. Understanding insignificant beginnings and their pathways to endings from which beginnings arise anew --
in order to avoid unfruitful dispersal [m/n/x]

53. Ensuring modesty --
so as to avoid inequitable and shameless accumulation [m/n/x]

54. Ensuring that rules for oneself are consistent with those for the world [m/n/x]

-- / --

55. Knowing harmony as knowing the eternal --
in contrast to achieving maturity as part of the cycle presaging death [m/n/x]

56. Knowing that discourages talking --
in contrast to the talking that discourages knowing [m/n/x]

57. Avoiding instrumental thinking, initiation of innovative change and regulation of action --
which tend to be counter-productive and inappropriate [m/n/x]

58. Bumbling on without forcing --
through indirection [m/n/x]

59. Gathering insight to ensure staying power --
irrespective of the worldly undertakings chosen [m/n/x]

60. Allowing potentially disruptive forces to have their place --
within a larger context [m/n/x]

61. Lying low to ensure integrity and continuity --
“the meek shall inherit the earth” [m/n/x]

62. Honoring the appropriate as a gift --
in contrast to the fashionable [m/n/x]

63. Focusing on the challenge of beginnings --
as the foundation for any subsequent achievement, whatever its scope [m/n/x]

-- / --

64. Attending to what may have been neglected --
in the achievement of undertakings [m/n/x]

65. Being in ignorance of appropriate action --
as empowering appropriate response to the unexpected in the moment [m/n/x]

66. Following rather than leading --
as the key to appropriately sustainable guidance [m/n/x]

67. Leading the mightiest by not presuming to do so --
however improbable this may seem [m/n/x]

68. Avoiding competition --
to ensure the appropriate use of ability [m/n/x]

69. Yielding to antagonism --
thus disempowering the attacker and devaluing any resultant victory [m/n/x]

70. Being obscure --
as characteristic of an understanding and mode of action that is not of this world [m/n/x]

71. Knowing without knowing --
as the only remedy for the sickness of knowing without not-knowing [m/n/x]

72. Fearing the dangers of acting inappropriately [m/n/x]

-- / --

73. Acting silently, non-competitively, and non-directively --
to readily ensure the most appropriate consequences [m/n/x]

74. Avoiding the presumptuousness of usurping the judgement on others by the larger scheme of things [m/n/x]

75. Living for more than the pursuit of wealth --
or solely for the sake of living [m/n/x]

76. Bending in response to pressure --
as the essence of strength and the key to survival [m/n/x]

77. Redistributing from those who have to those who have not [m/n/x]

78. Recognizing the counter-intuitive, paradoxical nature of appropriate action [m/n/x]

79. Fulfilling obligations --
as indicative of the subtle power that eludes those focused on their rightful claims [m/n/x]

80. Enjoying the freedom of movement in relation to what is to hand, without yearning for elsewhere or elsewhen --
or the use of the facilitating devices they evoke [m/n/x]

81. Doing without outdoing --
avoiding the destructive traps of charm, contention, and learning [m/n/x]

Links to other translations of the Tao Te Ching:
m =translation by S. Mitchell; n =Translation by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English;
x =Line-by-Line Comparisons of 29 translations (St. Xenophon Library)