Tao Te Ching
Magic
Though most of us don’t really believe in magic; the attraction, fascination, and feelings the word brings up may verge on universal. Does it only explain what we don’t understand or does it evoke a deeper, empyrean reality?
According to historians, magic and magicians were the foundation of all science. Ancient communities gave shamans the task of foretelling, predicting, and preparing for the vagaries of nature: drought, fire, famine, flood, and war. In the beginning, the tools for practicing this art came from superstitions, wild guesses, and wishful thinking. Over time however, these practioners noticed that some of these tools worked better than others, some were frequently accurate, some not at all. In order to maintain their place and prestige in the tribe, they not only brought these observations into their advice and predictions; they also began actively researching and testing, looking for repeatable and consistent results. These led to ever-increasing agricultural knowledge, the beginnings of psychology, the study of weather patterns, biology, medicine, astronomy, all probably all the sciences. The tradition hasn't changed that much, mainly the credentials and letters posted after names.
Quotes (75)
“There in the heat of Love, the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover’s whisper, irresistible–magic to make the sanest man go mad.”
“That which is added to and does not increase, is taken away from and does not decrease... fathomless like the sea, inexhaustible; it sustains and gives life to all creation.”
“Worshipping unknown gods with unknown singing, her customary magic, would cover the white moon’s face and darken the sun with cloud.”
“The secret of the magic of life consists in using action in order to achieve non-action.”
“When the world is filled with seeming sin, all mishaps should be diverted into the path of bodhi.”
“For in and out, above, about, below,
’Tis nothing but a Magic Shadow-show,
Round which we Phantom Figures come and go.”
“Mind itself is a vast expanse, the realm of unchanging space. It's indeterminate display is the expanse of the magical expression of its responsiveness.”
“Magic is a powerful faculty, full of mystery and comprising a profound knowledge of the most secret thing, their nature, power, quality, substance and effects.. It is a philosophical science; it is physics, mathematics, and theology.”
“If you realize that you don’t understand… this is the door to all mystery. If you cling to understanding while trying to discover what you don’t understand… this is the door to all misfortune.”
“The ‘valley spirit’… is named the Mysterious Female and the Doorway of the Mysterious Female is the base from which Heaven and Earth sprang. It is there within us all the while; draw upon it as you will, it never runs dry.”
“Use unfortunate events to polish oneself, to find increase within reduction, to change a faulty beginning into a blameless end.”
“The origin of all women may be called celestial, for their power is the offspring of the gifts of Nature; but, by yielding to pride and ambition they soon destroy the magic of their charms.”
“although the absurd, as a rule, predominates, and it seems impossible that the voice of the individual can ever penetrate through the chorus of the befooling and the befooled, there yet remains to the genuine works of every age, a quite peculiar, silent, slow, and powerful influence and, as if by a miracle, we see them rise at last out of the turmoil like a balloon that floats up out of the thick atmosphere of this globe into purer regions”
“Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in fairy lands forlorn.”
“'Miracles have ceased.' Have they indeed? They had not ceased this afternoon when I walked into the wood and got into bright, miraculous sunshine, in shelter from the roaring wind.”
“Perseus wore a magic cap that the monsters he hunted down might not see him. We draw the magic cap down over eyes and ears as a make-believe that there are no monsters.”
“miracles are never a stumbling-block to the realist... if he is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact he would rather disbelieve his own sense than admit the fact.”
“Evidently Proclus does not advocate here simply a superstition, but science; for notwithstanding that it is occult, and unknown to our scholars, who deny its possibilities, magic is still a science... a profound and exhaustive knowledge of natural law—this was and is the basis of magic.”
“I'm not performing miracles, I'm just using up and wasting a lot of paint...”
“Democracy is still upon its trial. The civic genius of our people is its only bulwark and neither laws... monuments.. battleships... libraries... mechanical invention... churches... universities... nor political adroitness can save us from degeneration if the inner mystery be lost.”
“Words have a magical power capable of arousing the strongest emotions and prompting all men's actions. They can bring either the greatest happiness or deepest despair.”
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
“Neither Gautama nor Lao Tzu nor Confucius had any inkling of this idea of a jealous God who would not tolerate any lurking belief in magic or old customs… The intolerance of the Jewish mind did keep its essential faith clear and clean”
“There is, in fact, neither red, green nor yellow magic. There is 'doing. Only 'doing' is magic.”
“Babylonian religion—unlike that of Egypt—was more concerned with prosperity in this world than with happiness in the next. Magic, divination, and astrology were more developed there than elsewhere… From Babylon come some thing that belong to science: the division of the day into 24 hours, and of the circle into 360 degrees; also the discovery of a cycle in eclipses which enabled lunar eclipses to be predicted with certainty”
“Has the world ever been changed by anything save the thought and its magic vehicle the Word?”
“Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave.”
“That is where my dearest and brightest dreams have ranged — to hear for the duration of a heartbeat the universe and the totality of life in its mysterious, innate harmony.”
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel is as good as dead.”
“My religion consists in a humble awe before the higher reality that reveals itself in the smallest details”
“These are my two drops of rain
Waiting on the window-pane…
All the best and all the worst
Comes from which of them is first…
John is there, and John has won!
Look! I told you! Here's the sun!”
“The appearance of things changes according to the emotions; and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.”
“the great secret: that by means of poetry all this suffering and effort could be transformed into dream; no matter how much of the ephemeral existed, poetry could immortalize it by turning it into song.”
“Underneath all civilization, ancient or modern, moved and still moves a sea of magic, superstition and sorcery. Perhaps they will remain when the works of our reason have passed away.”
“Magic is the father of science... Many of the most famous and trusted cures in history were magical... It was to the advantage of the magicial to study causes and effects, to find natural means of accomplishing the desired end... our scientists in every filed of research are the direct descendants of those ancient magicians.”
“Obsessed by a fairy tale, we spend our lives searching for a magic door and a lost kingdom of peace.”
“I go forth to seek —
To seek and claim the lovely magic garden
Where grasses softly sigh and Muses speak.”
“performers and spectators are welded into one and have both become active participants in a magic rite, which initiates them into one of the most ancient mysteries which is the origin of all religious life and the beginning of the awakening of man.”
“Ah destiny… touched by that dark miracle of chance which makes new magic in a dusty world.”
“If all was told, supposing there lived a person who could tell all, there would be no mysteries left, and that would be very bad. Man cannot live without mystery.”
“The human woman gives birth just as the earth gives birth to the plants. She gives nourishment, as the plants do. So woman magic and earth magic are the same... In the ancient agricultural world, the Goddess was the only visualized divinity”
“The primitive magician, the medicine man or shaman is not only a sick man, he is above all, a sick man who has been cured, who has succeeded in curing himself.”
“by taking 'magical practices' literally at the beginning, one gradually becomes aware of an esoteric significance not meant to yield its secrets at first glance”
“It was under the rubric of magic that the Taoist church—dividing the territory with freelance wizards, exorcists, and shamans—divided ways to harness higher powers for humane ends.”
“The Tao Te Ching is a magic mirror, always found to reflect our concept of the truth. How easily we find our image in it! From person to person the sense changes, but the truthfulness remains.”
“In truth we are not separate from each other or from the world… there is just one mysteriously palpitating aliveness.”
“All of us live in the unfathomable mystery and infinitude of the universe.”
“Religion, mysticism and magic all spring from the same basic 'feeling' about the universe: a sudden feeling of meaning, which human beings sometimes 'pick up' accidentally, as your radio might pick up some unknown station.”
“In the crystal-mirror theater of Awareness Mind, the supreme artist performs his magical displays. But rare indeed is the clear-insight audience capable of viewing this wisdom.”
“I think that all women are witches, in the sense that a witch is a magical being. And a wizard, which is a male version of a witch, is kind of revered, and people respect wizards. But a witch, my god, we have to burn them. It’s the male chauvinistic society that we’re living in for the longest time, 3,000 years or whatever. And so I just wanted to point out the fact that men and women are magical beings. We are very blessed that way, so I’m just bringing that out. Don’t be scared of witches, because we are good witches, and you should appreciate our magical power.”
“Magic is afoot, God is alive… Magic never weakened, magic never hid… But magic is no instrument, Magic always ruled, Magic is the end… And mind itself is magic, magic is afoot...”
“The point at which we can either extend ourselves further and go towards an unfamiliar brilliance, or return to a more soothing and familiar dimness is the threshold of magic.”
“When we draw down the power and depth of vastness into a single perception, then we are discovering and invoking magic.”
“With the mandalic approach, nothing is excluded, everything finds its place and students move through a world of magic in which they are a tongue of the earth, chanting her song to the stars.”
“Once we give up our heart and brain, the magic begins. We give up our little heart, our little brain, and then we get greater nothingness. Actual magic begins there.”
“In the gap between the disappearance of one thought and the arising of the next, the mind rests in the state of clarity, luminous awareness vibrant with the magical display of energy”
“Take me for a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship
All my senses have been stripped
And my hands can't feel to grip
And my toes too numb to step
Wait only for my boot heels to be wanderin'
I'm ready to go anywhere I'm ready for to fade
On to my own parade”
“Marxism is a flight from the magic of the person and the mystique of hierarchy. It distorts the character of western culture, which is based on the charismatic power of person. Marxism can work only in pre-industrial societies of homogeneous populations. Raise the standard of living, and the rainbow riot of individualism will break out. Personality and art, which Marxism fears and censors, rebound from every effort to oppress them.”
“The key component is not the quality of the materials─what’s needed is magic. If that magic is present, the most basic daily matters and the plainest language can be turned into a device of surprising sophistication. First and foremost, though, is what’s packed away in your garage. Magic can’t work if your garage is empty. You’ve got to stash away a lot of junk”
“A real story requires a kind of magical baptism to link the world on this side with the world on the other side.”
“Our ancestors replaced dogma, tradition and authority with reason, debate and institutions of truth-seeking. They replaced superstition and magic with science.”
“Hafiz shares his intoxication with the magic and beauty of divine life that pulsates everywhere around us and within us. He encourages us to celebrate even the most ordinary experience of life as precious divine gifts.”
“Magic, though, feels effortless… it is simply about knowing it’s there. Training yourself to see it.”
“A ritual is a magical act that makes the abstract concrete and the fictional real. The essence of ritual is the magical spell 'Hocus-pocus [Hoc est corpus] X is Y!... powerful spells that transform a frog into a prince and a pumpkin into a carriage.”
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