When a movie results in a box office disaster, what good can come of it? Did it make sounds? What sounds did it make? When a disaster fails to complete, there must be a following, right? When the disaster goes on Broadway, there must be something to it. And so it goes. Judgements by the few of concepts unfamiliar leave value wanting. Golden sounds find their way to diverse ears before mystic thoughts evolve into evolving minds.
It seems that exceptional people bear exceptional people…but not always. Ancestors surviving the holocaust bequeath perseverance. Those thrust into history’s notes yield notoriety. The credentialed expect more from their offspring. But nothing prepares a child for all that the world holds in store. The past may not be through with progeny, but the future keeps secret the journey for those young. Even the best preparation fails to ensure one’s path or one’s end.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
Life’s journey, with sandwiches with young friends, with thoughtless expectations, with foundering beliefs, leads here. Notes written in despair. Memories clouded by years. Limitation only now acknowledged. The proof may be in the pudding, pudding being destiny and destiny out of view. Take me away but leave the best. Please Mr. please. Don’t let that good stop with one or two. Let it go on…and on.
Bless those who can ignore the present and block the past, for they might live without true suffering until the end. Abuse may make one build strong walls for survival but they must come down when the threat dies. But they don’t. They won’t. Childhood mechanisms grow into adult aberrations which stunt emotional and spiritual growth. When becomes it too late to violently tear down the walls? Listen to yourself.
Radiation Cystitis – What dat mean National Center for Biotechnology Information?
So, THEY say I might have Radiation Cystitis…I want to understand:
What it is?
Why do they think so?
When should I get treatment?
How can treatment help me? How can treatment hurt me?
Where do I get unprejudiced, advice on the subject?
Who is the best person to inform me going forward with treatment?
Which treatment, if I’m convinced to treat, should I choose?
When I write THEY, I mean the medical community as a whole. I’ve discovered a new term for the medical community I speak of: Dogmatic Medicine. There exist only certain medicines and certain surgeries that THEY bless. All non-protocol become heresy. All heretics of such are damned. Hope I’m not sounding too dogmatic right off the club. That being said…
Radiation Cystitis describes the side effect of inflammation and subsequent destruction to the urinary bladder after the use of radiation treatment of – in this paper – prostate cancer. When the primary tumor grows in other than the bladder, radiation leads to unintentional radiation exposure to the healthy bladder tissue. Damage from the treatment can either be acute (within six months) or delayed. Mild symptoms include increased frequency, urgency, painful or difficult urination, and microscopic blood in the urine (hematuria). These symptoms can resolve over time. Harsh symptoms such as urinary incontinence, visible (gross) blood in the urine, and progression of damage to the extent of abnormal urinary tract openings or dead bladder tissue. Radiation stops cell division in cancer cells (in a tumor) and normal cells (surrounding the tumor) and also decreases blood supply to the irradiated area.
In general, the incidence of delayed radiation effects is estimated at 5% to 10%, and severe hematuria occurs 5% to 8% of the time. Once the thin layer of cells inside the urethra die and shed, urine might irritate the urinary tract, veins swell and form scar tissue and vascular restrictions. Severe complaints may include frequency, urgency, dysuria, and blood in urine. Chronic effects can occur months to years later and are caused by thickening, hardening or scarring of tissue. Visible blood (Grade 2 cystitis symptoms), include symptoms which consist of any moderate frequency, generalized spider veins, intermittent visible bleeding, intermittent involuntary urination.
Finding out whether the condition should be labeled radiation cystitis involves cystoscopy and renal ultrasound. Myself, I received brachytherapy for prostate cancer in 1999. I currently experience some of the symptoms for Grade 2 cystitis. These symptoms, while transitory in the past, manifest now as daily nuisances. The fact that these symptoms accompany my daily life calls for action. Watching and waiting continues now for multiple weeks. The dogmatic universe… talks to me right now. I just gotta listen. I know I want the goodies (to live a while longer). Welcome to the goodie room.
Workup urinalysis attempts to rule out bacterial infection and cancer. Protocol requires complete blood count and chemistry panel when historic or gross hematuria presents. Further assessment calls for scoping the bladder and renal ultrasound. Specific drugs (anticholinergic ) relieve the symptoms of Grade 2 cystitis, which includes gross bleeding. First-line treatment involves bladder irrigation and possibly heat treatment. Noninvasive oxygen therapy relieves symptoms and stops progression, with development of new blood vessels.
Known as Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT), this therapy shows a 75% response rate. Patients treated within six months of hematuria onset had 96% complete or partial symptomatic resolution whereas those treated after six months had but a 66% response rate.
Possible symptoms or side effects after HBOT include fatigue and lightheadedness. More severe problems include: lung damage, fluid buildup or bursting (rupture) of the middle ear, sinus damage, changes in vision, causing nearsightedness, or myopia, oxygen poisoning, which cause lung failure, fluid in the lungs, or seizures. Side effects are generally mild as long as: therapy doesn’t last more than 2 hours, pressure inside the chamber measures less than 3 times that of the normal pressure in the atmosphere.
Failure of more conservative treatment measures leads to surgical removal of the bladder. Early detection and treatment improve outcomes.
Unprejudiced (read dogmatic) advice on what to do remains sparse as always when it comes to finding answers to medical treatment questions in these United States. Right now, the best person(s) to advise me comprise of my GP (my valued DO) and my new Urologist (my new found trust). The best treatment looks like HBOT but my opinion needs confirmation following the upcoming test results of the next days.
So how did I do?
What it is? Delayed side effect from radiation treatment
Why do they think so? Clinical studies and doctor experience
When should I get treatment? When all the facts are in
How can treatment help me? How can treatment hurt me? HBOT would help to stop the bleeding. It would hurt if HBOT is negligently applied.
Where do I get unprejudiced, advice on the subject? Right now I’m twisting in the wind and must trust the medical establishment. You know…the one that treated me with radiation in the first, the other who told me I had a heart attack and the latest two who offer answers such as statins no matter what the question.
Who is the best person to inform me going forward with treatment? I’m gonna go with answer “A”, my urologist…yeah…whatever he said.
Which treatment, if I’m convinced to treat, should I choose? Least invasive and most trusted…HBOT…unless there’s more to know (teaser: There is…like bladder tumors).
So, THEY want to put me on statins…I want to understand:
what it is?
why am I being herded on to it?
when should I be herded on to it?
how can herding me help me? how can herding me hurt me?
where do I get unprejudiced, non-herding advice on the subject?
who is the best person to inform me going forward without herding?
which, if I’m convinced to take statins should I be herded on to?
When I write THEY, I mean every medical professional I encounter from a diddle-eyed-joe to a damned if I know. There are clinical studies which tout the benefits of statins as great and the side effects as rare. There are observational studies which find that benefits are brought into question and the risk of side effects is significantly higher than the “clinic” counter. Then there are the real life encounters with real herd people (Vern Den Herder) on “the statin”. Their experience with benefit is nil (so far) but their experience with side effects is TOTAL! That being said, I refuse to be SOLD on statins. I prefer, greatly, to be convinced.
Statins are effective in lowering LDL cholesterol. Statins reduce illness and mortality in those who are at high risk of cardiovascular disease. They are used for primary prevention in people at high risk of cardiovascular disease, as well as in secondary prevention for those who have developed cardiovascular disease. Side effects include muscle pain, risk of diabetes and abnormal blood levels of liver enzymes. Also, rare but severe adverse effects, particularly muscle damage. There are various forms of statins. The W.H.O. lists statins as an essential medicine.
Secondary prevention is defined as those having a prior heart attack, stroke, stable or unstable angina, aortic aneurysm, or other arterial ischemic disease, in the presence of atherosclerosis. Patients with vascular diseases reported that simvastatin and pravastatin did not impact cognition. Simvastatin and pravastatin appear to have a reduced incidence of side-effects.
Only a small fraction of side effects reported by people on statins are actually attributable to the statin according to review. Evidence does not support an association between statin use and cognitive decline. The FDA includes a warning about the potential for non-serious and reversible cognitive side effects with the medication (memory loss, confusion).
In observational studies 10–15% of people who take statins experience muscle problems (pain), much higher than those seen in randomized clinical trials. CoQ10 supplements are sometimes used to treat statin-associated myopathy. Myopathy risk was over 10-fold greater if cerivastatin was used, or if the standard statins were combined with a fibrate. Lovastatin promotes muscle fiber damage.
Oh, yeah, here’s one for you: Studies have found that the use of statins may protect against getting osteoporosis and fractures OR may lead to getting osteoporosis and fractures. Dosage, THEY say, is the key.
Natural statins are produced by fungi. Most circulating cholesterol comes from internal manufacture rather than the diet. Liver cells sense the reduced levels of liver cholesterol and seek to compensate by synthesizing LDL receptors to draw cholesterol out of the circulation. Oh, I forgot to mention, this is a known fact but in reference to rabbits.
Inhibiting of lipids binding to protein molecules results in a number of unwanted side effects associated with statins. The multiple effects of statins remain controversial. Statins are divided into two groups which are fermentation derived and synthetic. Natural statins occur in foods such as oyster mushrooms and red yeast rice. The first statin agent was mevastatin produced by penicillium. As of 2016 misleading claims exaggerating the adverse effects of statins had received widespread media coverage, with a consequent negative impact to public health
So, how did I do? Did I get answers to all of my questions…let’s see:
what it is? Statins are effective in lowering LDL cholesterol.
why am I being herded on to it? Secondary prevention for…aortic aneurysm.
when should I be herded on to it? AAA
how can herding me help me? how can herding me hurt me?
Help=if prevents rupture.
Hurt=muscle pain or damage, diabetes, abnormal blood levels, memory loss
where do I get unprejudiced, non-herding advice on the subject?
Critical studies not pharmaceutical company related
who is the best person to inform me going forward without herding?
Non-involved doctor or scientist, non-cardiologist
which, if I’m convinced to take statins should I be herded on to? Simvastatin and pravastatin
Abdominal aortic aneurysm – what dat mean Wikipedia?
So, I have a triple A (AAA) = abdominal aortic aneurysm.
I want to understand:
what it is,
why I have it,
when it becomes dangerous,
how it can be fixed,
where the fix is in my body, and…and…
who gonna do it.
My first stop was my third cardiologist. I say third because my first cardi be tryin’ to frightin’ me into surgery. Oh, you have dangerous cholesterol levels (210). Oh, you need an immediate EKG, stress test, CT scan. Oh, you had a heart attack (shadow on the film). Second cardi be sayin’ don’t you be eatin them dead animals. Eat statins. I do. Why are you here? Where is your scan. Oh, your AAA got bigger. No biggy. Back to the third. Third cardi be sayin’ your second cardi say you havin’ all dem 140 BPs (a single instance). Statins, plaque, AAA, oh my!
AAA is enlargement of abdominal aorta to 3 cm (1.2 inches) or greater. Typically found in men over 50 who smoke. Prevention in non-smokers include treating high: blood pressure, cholesterol and weight. Surgery recommended when AAA grows to > 5.5 cm. Repair may be open surgery or EVAR. The procedure involves the placement of an expandable stent graft within the aorta to treat aortic disease without operating directly on the aorta. Risk of rupture when less than 5.5 cm is below 1% in next year.
EVAR procedure: The procedure can be performed under general, regional (spinal or epidural) or even local anesthesia. Access to the patient’s femoral arteries can be with surgical incisions or percutaneously in the groin on both sides. Vascular sheaths are introduced into the patient’s femoral arteries, through which guidewires, catheters and the endograft are passed.
Without being a smoker, genetics is the most likely explanation for a AAA. High blood pressure contributes to AAA progression. CT scan has 100% success detecting AAA. A rupture occurs when mechanical stress (peak wall stress, PWS) exceeds wall strength (peak wall rupture risk, PWRR). PWS/PWRR are more reliable than diameter in assessing rupture risk.
A diameter between 3 and 5 cm is classified as moderate. For s non-smoker the only prevention mentioned is hypertension treatment. A repeat ultrasound should be repeated every three years for diameters between 3 and 3.9. Intervention when growth is more than 1 cm/year or diameter bigger than 5.5 cm. Medication includes BP and lipid. Repair prior to 5.5 cm is not supported by evidence. EVAR has the benefit of lowering aneurysm related mortality.
A AAA under 4 cm with a growth rate of 0.39 cm/yr has a rupture risk of zero. If over 3.9 but under 5, 0.5-5%. Rupture risk accuracy improves with both PWS/PWRR. The post-operative mortality rate is 1-6% for AAA repaired before rupture.
A biomechanics based approach may be more suitable than current diameter approach. Tortuous anatomies are more complex. Protection against AAA in mice has been discovered in the lab. Another mice study showed that progression and survival can be improved with targeted treatment.
Did I accomplish my stated goals from my first paragraph? Let’s look.
What is it?: AAA is enlargement of abdominal aorta to 3 cm (1.2 inches) or greater.
Why is it?: I’m over 50 and may have high blood pressure (not), cholesterol (some), overweight (slightly).
When is treatment? When diameter exceeds 5.5 cm and PWS exceeds PWRR.
How is treatment administered? Place an expandable stent within the aorta (EVAR).
Where the fix is? Under anesthesia, through the femoral artery
Who gonna do it? Cardiologist who treats AAA > 5.5 cm with EVAR after using both diameter and biomechanical assessment.
Learning from Taiwan about responding to Covid-19 — and using electronic health records By Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Cathy Zhang, And Aaron Glickman JUNE 30, 2020
Who beat the Covid Pandemic? If one measures success as fewest coffins per 100k or sustained economy, Taiwan kills the U.S.
On a per 100k basis, the U.S. has 1,200 times as many new Covid-19 graves as Taiwan. The U.S. issued, begrudgingly, stimulus checks to idle workers and ailing enterprises. Taiwan? Not不. By containing the virus, Taiwan prevented deaths and sustained its economy. What are some obvious differences in the two countries? Taiwan is an island. Taiwan is less populous than the U.S. What else?
Doesn’t being an island and having less people automatically give Taiwan an advantage over the U.S. in the fight against Covid? Other factors counter these advantages. Compare population density per square mile in Taiwan 臺灣= 1,680 vs continental United States = 103. Oh, and did I forget to mention her closest (81 miles) neigbor?
So, Taiwan’s successful response to Covid-19 was luck …NOT不!. Taiwan’s proximity to China abides. Since more than 1 million Taiwanese work in China, those workers carry home more than a paycheck. Having nationals working in the country where the pandemic originated and returning home posed danger but that danger never ensued. Why (was this so)?
Culture plus vigilance plus information equals power to the populous.
Taiwan has generated a culture of taking infections from China seriously. For example, Taiwan’s innovative electronic health records system made possible the country’s swift, targeted response to Covid-19. The health card gives the ministry regular, nearly real-time data. The availability of almost immediate data on patient visits allowed the country to efficiently identify, test, trace, and isolate cases. Therefore private patient data provides public populous good. But information potential does not always serve its many possibilities…
Having electronic health records solves nothing but the abstracts of time and space – unless innovatively utilized. The U.S. has come a long with its use of electronic records, thanks in part to the financial incentives built into the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009. What’s the next step for electronic records?
Size and site things. But the Republic of China and the “Land of the Free.” Differ in other and invisible ways.
Taiwan shows that data sharing is a challenge of policy, not technology. Americans’ health records privacy policy trumps technological solutions to national health care concerns. Americans seem reluctant to allow the Department of Health and Human Services to monitor patient encounters. Taiwan solves the riddle while the U.S. burns. When freedom prevents liberty, people die.
Putting privacy policy aside for popular good allows lifesaving innovations. Medicare and Medicaid could adopt something similar to the Taiwanese health card. Why haven’t they? Insurers already get data based on hospital and physician claims, albeit only weeks or months after encounters, making the information less useful for tracking infectious outbreaks. Adapting U.S. electronic health records to an expanded role would be work but not hard work because…
Accepting that hindsight may not always be 20/20, past experience should be the future starting point for developing a Taiwan like system. The U.S. has the benefit of hindsight for what went well and what went wrong with electronic health records development. Hindsight smooths the path 道to take the next step – health record utilization for public good. The U.S. needs a faster, more serious response to public health emergencies. When will this happen? Can it happen without serious revision of the privacy accord?
Shoring up the U.S.’s digital health infrastructure will help improve routine care in the long run while empowering us to better respond to future infectious disease outbreaks.
This short Chapter 40 breathes long on esoteric metaphor and translated words that have meanings quite different from our western understanding of them. Returning. Weak. Being. Non–being. Four challenging concepts in four lines, just twenty-one characters. I have to hand it to him, Lao-tzu must have stayed up late mystifying this conundrum. Too much enigma? Some would say too much riddle. But thanks to Derek Lin, et al, we have a guide through this wonderful and fanciful maze of ancient original thought.
Derek’s comment #1 attaches clearer understanding to his translation, returning is the movement. The words reverses course, reflects back, returns origin, cyclical and pattern all enhance the line #1 translation. Taoist concepts of cycles and patterns and origin return to our consciousness and excites our thoughts as to the meaning of this laconic poetical descriptor. Next, line #2, the word weak ignites strong protest in Western minds, but here it means flexible. Pliant. Mr. Lin further stimulates us, chillingly, with the remark that dead things are stiff and unyielding.
Humorously, lines #3 and #4, when translated by Microsoft Word, yield
Everything is born in the world/There are born in none.
Fortunately, DL expands on this with four paragraphs. He first delineates his translated words of being and nonbeing. Then he explains further with an example using a tree metaphor. Seed, fruit, parent are iteratively presented until non-existence seems to be proved and, then, the exciting idea of pure potential lays at our foot. To me, this commentary seems to be an expanded and expressive way of telling us the answer to the age-old question, “Which came first: the red junglefowl or the amniote?”
Wayne Dyer’s translation of chapter 40 originated and exists here due to the pen and prodigy of one team, the very accomplished couple Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English. The only place where the two translations vary significantly occurs when we find in line two where Derek’s weak opposes a Dyer yielding. Since the Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English translation consists of no introduction or afterword, there be little more to add. However, each translated chapter includes a nature photo meant to enhance the verse’s meaning. What did the English picture for forty? How do you envision chapter 40, as a whole?
The Chapter 40 Commentary kept with the long-winded expansions we are used to from Wayne Dyer. He titles this verse as Living by Returning and Yielding…lets see how well he delivers. The first sentence dubs this chapter as one of the greatest teachings, and promises the happiness, contentment, and centeredness of any sage – upon mastery. OK. I’m in. As in the past, we must piggyback on Wayne as takes huge leaps in logic, such as the back and forth to and from contemporary quantum physics and the originating spirit. Wayne says that, whether “you die while alive” or “wait until your body dies”, you must make a trade. Ego for spirit? A big lumbering speck for an infinitesimally small speck? Rocky Colavito for Harvey Kuenn?
WD pulls Christianity into the mix here, notably the former Saul of Tarsus. Quite a guy there. Preaching Christianity, let alone telling the truth, can be hazardous to one’s health. It’s a no small thing that Saul/Paul had friends in high places. Continuing on, one of his paragraphs is packed with death metaphors to the extent that even Wayne recognizes it as humorous, even remarking that it’s an “amusing viewpoint”. That ever-present smirk was intentional, aye? The use of metaphors such as “round-trip tickets” and “return ticket” smack of airy concepts such as reincarnation, rebirth and, oh no, resurrection.
Wayne implores us to “Mentally make an effort to assess every step you’re taking in all aspects of your life.” (Sting, 1983, A&M Records)[i] Do the Tao Now…someone will be watching.
[i] Every breath you take and every move you make Every bond you break, every step you take, I’ll be watching you Every single day and every word you say Every game you play, every night you stay, I’ll be watching you
…
Every move you make, and every vow you break Every smile you fake, every claim you stake, I’ll be watching you
In some ways, being succinct gives us more to talk about. Exploring meaning and intent and individual perception can be a bonding event when conducted intelligently and with consideration. Engaging in dialogs about weakness that explore its range from rigidity to resiliency open individual minds to possibility. When being and non-being and existence get a careful group collaboration, those terms come to life, even when the subject is death. Cycles and patterns when discussed in philosophic terms, bring us metaphors of our lives having seasons, our seasons having storms and rainbows, and those extreme events giving meaning to all of it, to each of us.
What Lao-tzu really intended to communicate with his ancient symbolism, I have no real idea. Perhaps sitting on a mountain cliff, hands folded in meditation – reality might surface. Seeing earth’s inhabitants traversing the indifferent road with their heavy burdens, with their innate strengths – reality might be obscured. Some creatures – more symbol than substance. Others – more internal strength with age. Chop wood carry water. Each must bear the burden to drink of life’s sometimes cruel stream of truth. At times the sky seems to smile but none can avoid her slap when the heavens go brooding. Down it comes. The stars aren’t mean, and neither are scorpions. They just are. Raise your grain. Feed your stock. The four seasons aren’t against you, but neither will they wait. Get moving. Take what is offered in proportion to your needs. Use your hands to plant. Use your feet to dance. And, at last, sit. And wonder.
Chapter 38 set a steep grade for my understanding. It’s appropriate that VIRTUE appears in six of the first eight lines, since Chapter 38 begins the TE section of the 44 chapters of the Tao TE Ching. Perusing these seven lines, I discern that VIRTUE can be thought of an unrefined or native compound found only in humans. It may be measured on a linear scale from High to Low. If this unrefined compound, VIRTUE, can be raised High enough, then the undesired elements, mainly the polluting “virtuous” (gaseous in its natural state), vaporizes. This leaves the pure, desired element known as virtue or DE. However, if VIRTUE remains impure, it, no matter the rating, is considered Low and the value of any residual VIRTUE is lost entirely. High VIRTUE never learns the actions of contrivance or agenda which Low VIRTUE always practices due to the vacuous state left by its devolution…the loss of substance – virtue (DE). I hope this helps. Derek Lin, in his commentary, never really explains how real virtue is either found or lost. Is it given or taken? Taught or thought? In the genes or in the generation. Because life is short, I would say it is better to be motivated and benevolent (comment 2) than inert with only pure virtue. Righteousness seems to be benevolence with a name tag…I never thought of those two terms as being practically related. Wow, etiquette AND use of arms (comment three) …I guess I went to an unaccredited charm school or perhaps those unprincipled principals just “social promotioned” me up and out. Comment four, speaks to us of flowers and fruits and metaphors. Are you mostly scent or substantially substance? Inquiring minds want to know. In DL’s fifth and last comment, he seems to reveal that we all have or can possess etiquette and knowledge, but we should reach higher. First benevolence, next virtue (DE, the pure kind) and, finally Tao…the road less traveled. Wayne Dyer’s translation required that he repeat the translation pieces of his authors (Star and Mitchell) in order to lend a cohesive feel to the couplets describing the highs and lows and contrivances (in WD’s case good and foolish; master and ordinary; acting with and without). It was hard to do a comparison to Derek Lin because the Stephen Mitchell translation he used skipped a beat (see Derek Lin Terms vs Wayne Dyer et al Terms). In my duplication of Wayne Dyer’s commentary on 38, I added Text Boxes to highlight certain of Wayne’s brain droppings. Mr. Dyer finishes with a snippet of poetry, A Rabbit Noticed My Condition, from one of his favorites, St. John of the Cross. The condition SJOTC’s condition was in concluded that, “creatures…are full of knowing”. I immediately thought to myself, “What they know I have no idea.” Having rescued, extricated and buried my own “creatures” who knew only how to enter dire straits without an exit plan, I had to ponder whether St. John’s and W. Dyer’s mythical rabbits (dogs, butterflies, moths, spiders, ants, fish, cats and dear deer) were blessed with the high virtue and mine cursed with only the garden variety kind. After my Translations and Comparisons sections, I placed the Beyond Translations and Comparisons, which includes the recurring Etymology look but also Derek Lin’s snippet on bad translations. Lin quoted Theodore Sturgeon, of whom I was in the dark. He seemed like a fun guy, so I went the extra mile and included additional quotes for this once mushrooming science fiction writer in the END NOTES.
Afterword
So, what do you think? Will the Te (DE) section of the Tao Te Ching be less simplistic and more cryptic than the road past traveled (Tao, chapters 1-37)? No da. From Derek Lin’s attempts to straighten chapter 38 out to Wayne Dyer’s insistence on keeping it unreal, we’re just getting started. From the etymology on chapter 38, I gather that the script keepers had their inky hands full literally depicting such concepts as virtue, benevolence, righteousness, etiquette and the ever elusive justice. When put in the hands clergy or scholar or shaman chief, these confounding ideas reveal themselves in cloaks of many colors in the ideas of us beholders. So sayeth, Theodore Sturgeon, from the depths.
From Derek Lin’s book comments…If we imagine the Tao, we manifest serenity. But – serenity must be consistent. If serenity is consistent, human nature gravitates. If we as humans waffle in our consistent presentation of serenity, human nature levitates. DL’s Comment 1 seems to conflict with Comment 2. One can draw attention to oneself by manifesting the Tao, but the Tao attracts no attention to itself. Can it be so? Comment 3 summarizes this chapter 35. One perspective might be that of quantity and quality. While sensory stimulation holds anticipation, satiation, and memory for moments in time, the great image fortifies the self for all time and its components: future and present and past.
From Derek Lin’s Terebess comments…DL says nothing about consistency in this early commentary. It could be taken that when we hold the image, we attract the flock, when we let them down we incur their mock.
Wayne Dyer’s “translation” appropriates the work of five of the ten usual suspects listed in his book’s acknowledgements. Wayne’s commentary dotes on the term transcend, spritzing permutations of it into verb, noun, present participle, third person present tense and adjective throughout his commentary. He transfers into this mode by stating in paragraph two that, “your pleasure is in being at one with what (The Tao) allows it (pleasure, desire, addiction…the good stuff) all to transpire”.
Ancient scholar and neo-Taoist Wang Bi emphasizes that this chapter, in fact all Tao Te Ching chapters, address the ruler exclusively. He likes to refer to The Tao as The Great Image and mother. WB implores the ruler to mimic The Great Image: being less invasive and, therefore, more persuasive. Wang Bi goes on to ponder that if the ruler put his preferences in suspension and tolerated the preferences of his charge, what a wonderful world it would be. I personally thought the last several lines of chapter 35 better fit into the beginning of chapter 36 (i.e. consider in chapter 35 the three declarative “it can not be” and the four directive “one must first” in chapter 36. However, neither scholars nor translators even hint at this reassignment in their work. Also, I have similar feelings about the last lines of the prior chapter, 34, interlocking with the first line of 35 (i.e. see “great” in lines 9,10, 11 in C34 and line 1 of C35).
Comparing Derek Lin and Wang Bi translations, the couplets that got my attention were in lines 3 and 4. Wang Bi’s subscription to the idea that Tao Te Ching addresses the ruler (him) versus Derek Lin’s gender-neutral rewriting stood prominent. WB’s adjectives in lines 3b and 4a, (optimal and fragrant) also stood out, and caused me to search for clues as to what and why and where in terms of Chinese character etymology. Maybe the Wang Bi translator (Rudolf Wagner) took the WB character 泰 (peaceful) substituted for DL character 太 (greatest) and arrived at “peace [would be] optimal” instead of DL’s “harmonious peace”.
As far as Wang Bi’s use of “fragrant” in line 4a, I see such alternate definitions as “bait” and “entice” as possible inducements to choose the euphemism fragrant.
I included an etymology section this time. The original Tao Te Ching used many characters which emanated from nature. This magic can get lost in translation. For what it’s worth, I’ve tried to bring some of this ancient metaphoric construction to the forefront with some original ancient script. Some of the Oracle Bone Scripts are amusing, others confusing and certain ones worth perusing. Though technically correct, when a translator drops the hint of nature contained in the original Chinese character (earth, wind, fire, water, etc.), they not only drop the link to the ancient shamanic past but further distance the sacred text from Laozi’s warning about giving whole meaning to words and names and form.
Derek Lin’s translation implores us to hold on to The Tao and harmonious peace will transit. Sensory pleasures hold transitory value while The Great Image leaves you satiated. Things that can be seen and heard don’t transcend time…but Oh! The Way. DL’s commentary reveals his theory on how to attract friends. He inserts the words “cooking smells attract”[1], not indicated in his translation but synonymous with Wang Bi’s use of the adjective “fragrant”[2].
Mr. Lin’s internet commentary, captured from Terebess website, appears to be an early bread crumb path into his thought process for commentary on TTC 35…somehow it is left to us to get from this early rendition to the commentary printed in his book version.
I’ve concluded that the good news (of Wayne Dyer using pieces of TTC chapters broken off of the original translations of legitimate authors) is that we can evaluate the perspective and quality of several translators in a single swirling pool of divergent and sometimes pseudo credentialed scholarship. I myself would never have known of some of these fellows, let alone thought to look at the text as their eyes have. Wayne’s commentary, much like a quarry, is long and deep and cool and still. You can’t see into it, so you have to take his word for it. Sometimes someone interpreting for us feels good. And feeling good enough.
Wang Bi’s commentary in some cases uses different Chinese characters than Derek Lin. Their translations read similar. WB’s commentary does make note of a future chapter (45) in the Te.
The comparison sections stood unremarkable to me.
The added Etymology section, however, does allow for an expansion on the idea of nature being present in metaphor, metaphor’s inclusion in Chinese character but then, when myriad things of nature vanish from these characters, the result is that all words necessitate definition. When the sage imagined the ideal metaphor for reverence of ancestors to be:
an old man with long hair, bent-over 耂 a child 子 this ideal represented itself in a character 孝.
When the sage ruminated on his thought process, the ideal metaphor for “to think” became:
the brain 囟 and the heart 心 heart yielding 思. Even back then the sage realized that peoples’ thoughts were an inseparably emotion/mind confection. The Oracle Bone Scripts for some of the base characters:
人 (“man”) + 毛 (“hair”) + 匕 (“cane”) – a man with long hair (an old man), leaning on a cane.
子an image of a baby, with a large head and spread arms. The legs are wrapped in a blanket.
囟fontanel + heart心
囟Picture of the top of the head, with X marking the fontanel (gap between bones of an infant’s skull) 囟 started to corrupt into the unrelated 田 as early as the silk script.
Chapter 34 needs a title. Section I, lines 1 & 2, invokes the simile of Tao as great water as in a flood. The first two lines approximate The Tao with the nature and physics of water. In Section II, Laozi further personifies water and The Tao, noting that all living thing depend on it and the work never exhausts, the shelter never ceases and the success of life in nature satisfies this humble, flowing non-entity named Tao. Section III names Tao simultaneously both insignificant and great because of its magnanimity and humility. scrutiny should be applied for this paradoxical interpretation. Section IV appears to be a summary of Chapter 34, seemingly defining greatness as a lack of recognition on the part of Tao and a lack of knowledge of it on the part of the myriad things.
Derek Lin’s comments invites interpretation. First, we might embrace our obstacles in order to achieve contentment or even elevate mutual adaptation. Giving takes a great many forms with us humans and as a consequence, giving hardly resembles it definition. Using water…nature…Tao as a model of a giving entity delivers a stark contrast to the “giving” that has evolved among men. In a single paragraph (3), DL balances the terms insignificant, imperceptible, hidden and easy against greatness, fundamental force, reality and exist(ence)…lots of food for lots of thoughts. Though Laozi seems to personify both Tao and water in this chapter, Lin insists we are talking about the transcendental, emotionless and guileless. He goes on to suggest we emulate that which has no form or substance.
Wayne Dyer’s take on Laozi’s Chapter 34 seeks to examine the concept of greatness rather than the metaphor of water. Wayne sees the Tao as a kind of reluctant leader who provides and protects and persuades but allows individuals to take the ill path of large resistance. When you and I take the position that “life is NOT all about me”, we can acknowledge the quality of others and the generosity of nature. WD touches on some other Taoist themes, such as “don’t waste anything, anyone” (TTC 27): the importance of everyone – possibly antagonists or obstacles – embracing obstacles and taking lessons or maturation from toleration and acceptance.
Wang Bi (226–249), was a Chinese neo-Daoist philosopher who died of sickness at the age of 23. Wang Bi’s most important works were commentaries on Laozi’s Tao Te Ching and the I Ching. Wang’s commentary speaks of Tao as The Way. The Way exists all-encompassing and, most important, is not known to the myriad things. Since The Way is not known, it may be “named” small by man, but it is in reality, great. By not being known and referred to as small, The Way acts without opposition on big things. Difficult things. The Way exhibits an example for each of us…if we only knew.
First there was reality. Then metaphor. Then pictures. Eventually words and distortion. Laozi wrote poetry which exalted nature with characters constructed from pictographs which originally drew from nature’s progeny. Derek Lin compared our embracing of obstacles as akin to water’s natural embrace of its habitation. Wayne Dyer felt that greatness can be reimagined but as in nature not in humanity. Wang Bi says we are best left in the dark as to what guides us, protects us, punishes us. Did you come up with your own title for Chapter 34?
What are your first thoughts? With what did you come to this Chapter 34? With what are you leaving? Reflecting back on the pages presented by the sages Laozi, Derek Lin, Wayne Dyer, Wang Bi and Kahlil Gibran, can bring on a flood of thoughts. But reduce that flood to a flow and that flow to a few sparkling droplets. Small jewels. Gems. Words are inadequate to describe what these wrote, but that’s all we have, most of what we know. Laozi saw The Way, experienced the flood, embraced nature. Derek Lin looked up to the sky and Laozi for inspiration and brought down a rain of cleansing clarity for us from this nebulous, laconic verse. Wayne Dyer saw in those droplets the idea that greatness could be more than self-aggrandizement and plotted a path to follow. Wang Bi pulled back from even metaphor and wanted us to know what we can’t know – the dark. That which is behind the curtain. Kahlil Gibran delineated the physical from the ethereal with regard to children for whom parents can care for but cannot think for, or dream for, or hold on to. Don’t try to know it all, just try to know.
