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Nillion said: I like those. This is from the translation I mention by John C. H. Wu:
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Tao can be talked about, but not the Eternal Tao. Names can be named, but not the Eternal Name.
As the origin of heaven-and-earth, it is nameless: As "the Mother" of all things, it is nameable.
So, as ever hidden, we should look at its inner essence: As always manifest, we should look at its outer aspects.
These two flow from the same source, though differently named; And both are called mysteries.
The Mystery of mysteries is the Door of all essence.
This is the only English language translation of it that I follow or accept.
I'll give a brief explanation of why. Here is the second part of chapter 5 of the translation I use:
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Between Heaven and Earth, There seems to be a Bellows: It is empty, and yet it is inexhaustible; The more it works, the more comes out of it. No amount of words can fathom it: Better look for it within you.
Here is one from a website that claims to explain Tao:
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Is not the space between Heaven and Earth like a bellows? It is empty, but lacks nothing. The more it moves, the more comes out of it. A multitude of words is tiresome, Unlike remaining centered.
Another from a different website:
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May not the space between heaven and earth be compared to a bellows? ‘Tis emptied, yet it loses not its power; ‘Tis moved again, and sends forth air the more. Much speech to swift exhaustion lead we see; Your inner being guard, and keep it free.
Another:
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The space between Heaven and Earth is like a bellows; it is empty, yet has not lost its power. The more it is used, the more it produces; the more you talk of it, the less you comprehend. It is better not to speak of things you do not understand.
Another:
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How the universe is like a bellows! Empty, yet it gives a supply that never fails; The more it is worked, the more it brings forth. By many words is wit exhausted. Rather, therefore, hold to the core.
I know I should not be sharing this causally but here is the explanation of this using the translation of John C. H. Wu:
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Between Heaven and Earth, There seems to be a Bellows:
You are the thing that connects heaven to Earth, a human being, feet on the ground, head in the air and inside you, between the ground and your feet are your lungs.
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It is empty, and yet it is inexhaustible; The more it works, the more comes out of it.
When you breathe you inhale and exhale using the empty space. The more you do this the more the air comes out of you.
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No amount of words can fathom it: Better look for it within you.
The bellows it is talking about it literally inside you. We call them lungs.
I won't really discuss the Tao much, nor argue about it or explain the chapters, but it is a way rather than a thing. There are actual applications and meanings of the teachings that are precise and specific but they are written in a special way that both conceals their meaning and contains it for those who know and follow the way.
I follow Tao but I don't really like to discuss it. It is not really a thing to discuss.
So regarding Tao being ordinary mind I am sure that made sense to the person in the quote and others who read it but it is not the Tao I know and follow. There is a lot that Zen tradition and Tao have in common. Original mind is part of that. I don't disagree there, but that Tao is a mental state is not something I can accept personally.
Though I could be making this all up and be lying or be totally confused about it and not have any truth to share about these things.
Regarding the quote about truth, I agree with it, but see it as about the truth of the ineffable, not the truth of things like how much a person weighs when they step on a scale. I believe there are limitations to what human beings can know and the more we try to understand them then the further from understanding them we get. A single thought or emotion can be a blinding and distracting thing. Original mind lacks those distractions and is required to follow the way. Focusing on breathing is a widely used method in regards to that. As is the training of the mind and body. The bull needs to be tamed, after all.
Please regard anything I write as nothing more than an opinion. I could be wrong, lying, insane or maybe even a bot, you never know. These are just words on a screen, after all. I share a lot of stuff that I probably shouldn't, for one reason or another. I ask for your forgiveness for this.
Thanks for your reply. Wanted to get to this sooner but real life got in the way, and completely forgot about it. To break the ice, first a little jesting (but a gem nonetheless) 
Tang dynasty poet Bo Juyi (772-846);
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Those who speak Know nothing; Those who Know Are silent. Those Words, I'm told, Were uttered By Lao-tzu. If we're to believe That he himself Was someone who Knew, Why did he end up Writing a Book Of Five Thousand Words?
My first intention was just to reply with the following, and leave it at that, since it's very relevant to what you wrote, and could potentially make it clear with what was pointed at previously.
Thomas Cleary; Ch'an Foyen - Instant Zen: Waking Up in the Present - Emancipation;
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In ancient times a Zen worthy asked an old adept, “What is essential for emancipation?” The old adept said, “Fog is rising from your feet, reverend!” At these words, the Zen worthy suddenly got the message. Do you know about emancipation? If you formulate the idea that you can understand, then you are blocked off from it. Later, another adept said, “I dare not turn my back on you, master; for fog is rising from your feet!” Then there is the story of when Beiyuan Tong left Dongshan. Dongshan said, “Where are you going?” Tong replied, “Into the mountains.” Dongshan said, “Flying Monkey Ridge is steep—a fine sight!” Tong hesitated. Dongshan said, “Reverend Tong!” Tong responded, “Yes?” Dongshan said, “Why don’t you go into the mountains?” At these words, Tong suddenly got the message. The ancients were quite direct in their ways of helping others. Whenever people came to them, they would show them. In this case, he said he was going into the mountains; what does this mean? People today do not realize clearly, inevitably making an understanding. By a bit of understanding, they have blocked themselves off. One can only investigate comprehensively through experience; one cannot understand just by intellectual interpretation. Once you have comprehended thoroughly with unified comprehension, you will no longer doubt. Nevertheless, this is not easy to maintain. If you have entered into it correctly, you will not backslide. Thus, even if you have clarified what can be understood, that is not comparable to seeing what cannot be understood and also having the ability to maintain it. Then you will always be aware and always be alert. This is why an ancient said, “The normal mind is the path; can one aim for it?” “If you try to head for it, you are turning away from it.” Seeing as how you are not allowed to head for it, then how do you maintain it? It’s not easy! Is this not emancipation? If you seek a state of emancipation, this is what is called a cramp! Xuansha said, “The whole earth is an eon of hell; if you do not clarify yourself, this is a serious cramp.” It will not do to idle away the time.
However, considering your interest into Taoism, and the time you've invested in typing your reply, I'm going a little deeper. Before we get to that, another precious gem, and highly recommended for anybody interested in Taoism:
The Book of Taoist Master Zhuang;
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Every That is also a This, every This is also a That. A thing may not be visible as That, it may be perceived as This. This and That produce each other. Where there is Birth there is Death. Where there is Death there is Birth. Affirmation creates Denial, Denial creates Affirmation. Right creates Wrong, Wrong creates Right. The Taoist's This is also a That, the Taoist's That is also a This.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your preferred translation, and personal interpretation of chapter five, your Tao so to say on this bit, of the Tao Te Ching, that was great, and beautiful insights! I'm going to post excerpts of chapter 1 and 5 from the translation of Ellen M. Chen from 1999, including its commentary (a very dry and literal translation, this is important so the translator doesn't put too much of their own interpretation into it), which is not only extensive, it also refers to a great many commentators (both ancient and modern) and aims to take you back in history to that place and time period, which should be interesting enough to warrant this long wall of text (okay maybe not for everybody ). It's meant purely for educational purposes.
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1 1. Tao that can be spoken of, Is not the Everlasting (ch 'ang) Tao. Name that can be named, Is not the Everlasting (ch 'ang) name.
2a. Nameless (wu-ming), the origin (shih) of heaven and earth; Named (yu-ming), the mother (mu) of ten thousand things. Alternate, 2b. Non-being (wu), to name (ming) the origin (shih) of heaven and earth; Being (yu), to name (ming) the mother of ten thousand things.
3a. Therefore, always (ch 'ang) without desire (wu-yii), In order to observe (kuan) the hidden mystery (miao); Always (ch 'ang) with desire (yu-yii), In order to observe the manifestations (chiao). Alternate, 3b. Therefore, by the Everlasting (ch 'ang) Non-Being (wu), We desire (yii) to observe (kuan) its hidden mystery (miao); By the Everlasting (ch 'ang) Being (yu), We desire (yii) to observe the manifestations (chiao).
4. These two issue from the same origin, Though named differently. Both are called the dark (hsiian). Dark and even darker, The door to all hidden mysteries (miao).
Detailed Comment 2. These lines and those in (3) can be read in two different ways. The traditional reading (2a, 3a), found in the Ho-shang Kung, Wang Pi, and Ma-wang Tui texts, holds that wu (non-being, nothing) and yu (being, having) are adjectives modifying the characters following them. The Ho-shang Kung commentary understands Tao from two aspects. As formless, Tao is nameless; as heaven and earth giving rise to all beings, it is the named. The named is not Tao as such, but heaven and earth that give rise to all beings: "The nameless is Tao. Tao being formless cannot be named. The named refers to heaven and earth, which having forms, positioning yin and yang, and containing the yielding and the firm, have names." The modern reading (2b, 3b) treats wu and yu as nouns standing by themselves. Modern commentators like Ma Hsu-lun, Kao Heng, Yen Ling-feng, and Duyvendak believe that the traditional reading is wrong. According to them these lines say that Tao, which strictly speaking cannot be named, can be given two names, non-being (wu) and being (yu), depending on how we look at it. If we regard Tao in itself, prior to heaven and earth, Tao is named non-being. If we look at Tao in its relationship to the world, as giving birth to all beings, Tao is named being. The traditional reading, taking Tao to be both nameless (wu-ming) and named (yu-ming), is well supported in the text. Tao is said to be not only nameless (wu-ming, chs. 32.1, 37.2, 41.2), but impossible to name (pu-k 'o ming, ch. 14.2), and having no name (pu ming-yu, ch. 34.2), though at the same time Tao is also the name that never goes away (ch. 21.3). Also, Tao is characterized by the negative, wu, in all sorts of manners. It is not only nameless (wu-ming), but desireless (wu-yii, chs. 34.3 and 37.2), without action (wu wei, ch. 37.1), without partiality (wu-ch 'in, ch. 79.3), without limit (wu chi, ch. 28.2), etc. The same cannot be said of the modern reading. Non-being (wu) and being (yu) as independent concepts appear only in one instance in the text (ch. 40.2). In chapter 2.2 we read: "Being (yu) and non-being (wu) give rise to each other." Here being and non-being are parallel to the difficult and easy, long and short, etc., i.e., complementary opposites in the realm of finite beings. They are not names of Tao as the arche and mother of all beings. The modern reading, however, is superior in conceptual clarity. Yen Ling-feng points out that it brings out more sharply the aspect of pure negation in Tao, while the traditional reading gives only particular aspects of Tao's negative nature, e.g., its namelessness or desirelessness (1959: 14-15). Whichever reading we adopt there is a progression of thought from (1) to (2). The everlasting Tao or Name as the process of becoming is seen in its dipolar aspects as non-being and being, or the nameless and named. As arche Tao is non-being or nameless. As giving rise to the world of ten thousand things and mothering them Tao is being or named. We move from fundamental ontology to cosmology.
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5 1. Heaven and earth are not humane (jen), They treat the ten thousand beings as straw dogs (ch 'u kou}. The sage is not humane (jen), He treats the hundred families as straw dogs (ch 'u kou).
2. Between heaven and earth, How like a bellows (t'o yo) it is! Empty and yet inexhaustible, Moving and yet it pours out ever more.
3. By many words one's reckoning (shu) is exhausted. It is better to abide by the center (shou chung).
Detailed Comment 1. To detractors of the Tao Te Ching these lines are the most damaging evidence against it as a deeply spiritual tract. In openly declaring that heaven and earth are not humane (jen), that is, they are unkind, these lines have puzzled its ethically-minded Confucian admirers. Recently they have also provided grounds for attack by Christian critics (Lo Kuang: 72-74). Wei Yuan's (1794-1856) comment on these lines is typical of the Confucian effort to divest the Tao Te Ching of this offensive trait and color it with Confucian sentiments:
Lao Tzu saw that in a time of chaos the lives of the people were precarious. Thus touched at heart he said: "Ah! How unkind are heaven and earth at times, treating the ten thousand things like the grass underfoot, letting them live or die by themselves! When the sage is unkind, he treats his people like the trampled grass with no sympathy at all!"
Wang Pi, however, was able to defend these lines without apology:
Heaven and earth follow the natural way of things, they neither act nor make. The ten thousand things govern themselves. Therefore heaven and earth are not humane (jen). The humane one makes and trans forms, dispenses favors and acts. But when things are made and transformed, they lose their genuineness; when favors are dispensed and actions are taken, not all things may flourish. If not all things may flourish, the earth would not be a place bearing forth all things. But the earth has not produced the grass for the beasts and yet the beasts feed on the grass; it has not produced the dogs for humans and yet humans feed on the dogs. Doing nothing to the ten thousand things, yet the ten thousand things all find their right use .... The sage's virtue (te) corresponds to that of heaven and earth. He treats the hundred families as grass and dogs.
Wang Pi's comment brings out the unintentional character of the universe. The non-humane way of heaven and earth means the absence of design. To act humanely is to choose this and reject that, to apply something like Leibniz's principle of sufficient reason allowing certain possibilities to be actualized and others to be suppressed. The humane way is one of conscious selection and planning; Tao's way is pure sponteneity. Because heaven and earth are not humane, having no value distinctions or any principle of selectivity, everything is allowed to come forth, to find its place and use. This inhumanity on the part of heaven and earth, Su Ch'e (1039-1112) points out, is indeed the greatest kindness. The non-providential character of heaven and earth turns out to be real providence to the ten thousand things. Wang Pi interprets ch 'u kou as grass (ch 'u) and dog (kou). In the Chuang Tzu chapter 14, ch 'u kou stands as one term meaning the straw dogs used for sacrifice.
Before the straw dogs (ch 'u kou) are presented at the sacrifice, they are stored in bamboo boxes and covered over with patterned embroidery, while the impersonator of the dead and the priest fast and practice austerities in preparation for fetching them. But after they have once been presented, then all that remains for them is to be trampled on, head and back, by passers-by; to be swept up by the grass-cutters and burned. (Watson: 158-159)
Once a thing has served its purpose, it is speedily destroyed. Heaven, earth, and the sage treat all beings and all people as unfeelingly as straw dogs, mere means in the universal process of becoming. To Hegel, all individuals, even great heroes, are subject to the cunning of reason that victimizes them for the appearance of the higher universal in the world historical process. Existence is a procession in which each individual has an appointed time and place.
Once that role is played out, room must be made for others. Once their objective is attained, they fall off like empty hulls from the kernel. They die early like Alexander, they are murdered like Caesar, transported to Saint Helena like Napoleon. This awful fact, that historical men were not what is called happy-for only private life in its manifold external circumstances can be "happy" -may serve as a consolation for those people who need it, the envious ones who cannot tolerate greatness and eminence. (1953: 41)
The Tao Te Ching does not regard history as the progressive unfolding of the higher universal in the realization of the absolute idea. It is also typically against the worship of heroes (ch. 19.1). There are no great world historical figures in Taoism. Though its benevolence is not to be measured against the standard of human kindness (jen), Tao is a benevolent power (chs. 34, 62, 77, 81). Tao is the great image that brings the blessings of peace and tranquillity to all who come to it (ch. 35.1). Chapter 41.3 says that Tao alone helps and fulfills all. Chapter 79.3 says: "The Tao of heaven has no partiality, it is always with the good people." Yet, in this chapter heaven and earth, functioning as the bellows of the universe, undeniably form the devouring mouth in which all beings must perish. The return of all beings to the womb of Tao is necessary to the continuous pouring out of new beings in the world. Erich Neumann presents the rationale of ancient fertility cults:
The womb of the earth clamors for fertilization, and blood sacrifices and corpses are the food she likes best. ... Slaughter and sacrifice, dismemberment and offerings of blood, are magical guarantees of earthly fertility. We misunderstand these rites if we call them cruel. For the early cultures, and even for the victims themselves, this sequence of events was necessary and self-evident. (1954: 54)
Both the Tao Te Ching and the Chuang Tzu (Watson: 84-95) hold the conviction that the harmony and creativity of the whole is more important than the demands of the individual. Heaven and earth pay no heed to an individual's private needs. The dynamic outpourings of creativity are emphasized, not the right of the individual to stay around and state his or her claims. If the death of the individual is necessary for the unending life of the whole, so be it. In chapter 6 we shall see that only the whole is an inexhaustible and deathless life force.
2. The characters that stand for bellows are t'o yo. T'o is the external cover of the bellows, and yo is the bar that produces the air flow with back and forth movement. Heaven and earth form the furnace that absorbs and remolds all beings. The art of metallurgy was highly developed in ancient China. The beauty of Shang bronzeware has not been matched elsewhere in the world, but the lore of the ancient smiths has not been fully explored. Marcel Granet speaks of Taoism as going back to the days of the guilds of the smiths, custodians of the most wondrous of the magical arts (1926, II: 161). Mircea Eliade says: "The first smith, the first shaman, and the first potter were blood brothers" (1971: 81). It is generally accepted that Taoism, both religious and philosophical, descended from ancient shamanism. There is also a reference to the potter in chapter 11. T'o yo also symbolizes the reproductive activity of the male and fe male. According to Kao Heng, yo also means mou, the male animal, key, or the hill. The activity of the bellows symbolizes the interaction of the male and the female, here understood as heaven and earth. The emptiness between heaven and earth makes for continuous motion explaining the world's inexhaustibility. On yet another plane t'o yo stands for a musical instrument. Yo also means a flute that produces music because of its hollowness. This is how Wang Pi interprets yo. The secret of Tao's inexhaustible creativity thus lies in its emptiness. In the Chuang Tzu, chapter 2, the music of earth is said to be produced by the spontaneity of the wind (Watson: 36-37). The music of heaven is the music of silence, the message in the next verse.
3. The Tao Te Ching generally takes a negative attitude toward speech (yen): Heaven does not speak (ch. 73.2), nature speaks little (ch. 23.1), and the sage teaches wordlessly (chs. 2.3, 43.2). Speech and discourse as the externalization of thought means the loss or falsification of the real. They belong to the coming out process, thus leading us away from Tao. It is by keeping to the silence of the center that one holds on to the root. Shu literally means number or counting. In the Chuang Tzu, chapter 2, there is a passage that states that the counting or numbering from one to two to three pertains to the coming out process that will never lead us back to Tao (Watson: 43). Language and numbers lead to the many, not to the source of all beings. Wang Pi takes shu, number, to mean the reasoning principle (li) in things. In this sense the first line would read: "By many words the principles are exhausted." According to Ma Hsii-lun, shu, number, stands for a homophone, meaning speed or quickness. Language (yen) as the objectification of thought speedily disperses one's life energies so that one becomes quickly depleted. To preserve one's life energies it is better to keep silent. Duyvendak translates chung as the "middle course," giving the impression that these lines refer to the Confucian mean governing speech and action. Such an interpretation is unwarranted. Chung as the opposite of speech means the center that does not come out, hence, does not distinguish or falsify. As chapter 56.1 says: "He who knows does not speak, he who speaks does not know," the Taoist mystic who has the vision of the unceasing creativity of Tao does not argue about the merits or demerits of humanity (jen) and righteousness (i). Was it the same insight that prompted Wittgenstein to say: "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent"?
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