Dear Wisdom,
Please help us to extract the wisdom in the following passage from the Tao te Ching:
“Music and sweets are passing pleasures, yet they cause people to stop. How bland and insipid are the things of this world when one compares them with Tao? One tastes, but the sweetness turns bitter. One sees, but the colors growth faint. One hears, but the sound fades into silence.” (vs. 35)
What does it mean? Several missives You have told us that humans are on earth to allow God to sense life through us. That would indicate that tasting good food and hearing pleasant music is pleasing to God. Yet the above passage tells us that these pleasures quickly end. Please explain about humans as conduits for God’s pleasure.
Thank You.
Care to comment, Wisdom?
Answer
The important word in this passage is: compares.
Next to God, human creation does not have the energy that one derives when one co-creates with God. When one chooses food over God, they can not be satisfied. They are trying to fill the void that can only be complete with the Divine Lord. If one is using anything of the 3rd dimension as their God, when they die, the distraction is gone.
If one is being with God as they experience the music or food, there is greater depth to life, a purpose to living. There are those who have all the riches and can buy anything without the purpose the soul came to earth, the human is lost and never satisfied. They keep wanting more and never find God’s current of joy.
*If a person’s heart is full of God, they crave nothing else.
There can be enjoyment of society’s pleasures but they are not necessary. The 1st commandment in the Bible is that nothing is put before God. This Tao passage is stating the same thing. You can find much of the Bible’s teachings in the Tao. They both state to love God before all else. All true religions make this statement.
Thank you so much, Wisdom, with joy.
You are welcome our little fingernail.
Fingernails protect the tips of the fingers and are used to help pick up objects. They keep growing back after being trim and are part of the human body. Man usually takes them for granted.
*When one places God 1st, they become aware of the magnificence of life, even down to the fingernails.
Appreciate all aspects of the human body. Being critical stops the flow of appreciation and healing. See even the fingernails as gifts from the Almighty God. Saturate the mind with a grateful spirit so the universe can mirror back joy. This is what will create dreams of the heart.
