32.
Existence is infinite, not to be defined;
And, though it seem but a bit of wood in your hand, to carve as you please,
It is not to be lightly played with and laid down.
When rulers adhered to the way of life,
They were upheld by natural loyalty:
Heaven and earth were joined and made fertile,
Life was a freshness of rain,
Subject to none,
Free to all.
But men of culture came, with their grades and their distinctions;
And as soon as such differences had been devised
No one knew where to end them,
Though the one who does know the end of all such differences
Is the sound man:
Existence
Might be likened to the course
Of many rivers reaching the one sea.
(Witter Bynner´s version of Tao-Te Ching)
Is cyberspace the "one sea" where the many rivers flow? Are we drops of water that exist, but cease to have an individual existence in that sea? Is this the space where we can experience a collective existence?
6 comments:
This is certainly a poetic translation of the Tao-te Ching. (I've been trying to compare it with two others.)
No, I would say that cyberspace is not the one sea where many rivers flow.
To me it is a place where the drops of water, which are all the time parts of one great ocean, provide mirrors for one another, so they can see themselves reflected. It's not the only place of course. The same thing happens in our little local puddles, where we see one another face to face.
But it's the most global. And also the one which reveals the soul and thoughts of those drops more readily, more verbosely, than we could ever encounter on any street, in any café, in any but the most intimate relationships.
Yes, It´s his version/view. I´ve compared it to others,too, but I like this one better, especially because he made it more poetic.
You know, observing how this generation (born from the late 80´s on) deals with cyberspace is really interesting. They share and appropriate themselves of what is on the Internet naturally. They build spaces and solve problems collectively. They add content selflessly.(too many adverbs :-)
The experience of existence for them is not the same as it was for earlier generations, be it face to face or on the web.
Hi Luciana, I like your blogs here. I will sure follow you here. nice to meet you at one more place.
Dr.j
Hi Dr. J! Welcome aboard!I look forward to your comments and insights!
Luciana,
I like the idea of cyberspace as the "one sea." Many rivers must be flowing into it, but I think we probably can’t see them. But I also have an image of many hot springs bubbling.
I don’t have Lao-Tse’s book in English, so I translated the first part of Section 9 as below.
“The best virtue must be like water. The virtue of water blesses all living things. It does not fight, and it looks content in which all human beings look down.”
Please let me know a better way to phrase it, especially the last sentence. I struggled with it. A friend of mine pointed out for me a few months ago that I should use “which” rather “where” in some cases. But I haven’t mastered it. So I appreciate your suggestion.. And that goes to all the readers. Anyway, I like the spirit of the above phrase.
By the way, I always get confused with Lao-Tsu, Lao-Tze and so on because Japanese and Chinese pronunciations are completely different. In Japanese, we call him Rou-Shi (老子 senior man of virtue), and his teaching Doutoku-Kyo（道徳経 Moral Sutra）. So “Tao Te Ching” seems Doutoku-Kyo.
Keiko, thank you so much! I feel like a baby trying to understand a whole different world and figure out what to do with it, when it comes to Eastern thought and philosophies. More than everything I trust my instincts and try to get the best I can from them. :-)
Post a Comment