The Ten Thousand Things | Tao Te Ching

Tao Te Ching - Verse 1

April 6, 2025 / 53:54/S4:E9 Download MP3

Sam and Joe discuss Verse One of the Tao Te Ching and how it relates to their own experience of reality.

TAO called TAO is not TAO.

Names can name no lasting name.

Nameless: the origin of heaven and earth.

Naming: the mother of ten thousand things.

Empty of desire, perceive mystery.

Filled with desire, perceive manifestations.

These have the same source, but different names.

Call them both deep-

Deep and deep again deep:

The gateway to all mystery.

Joe Loh

Film crew guy and mental health care worker with aspirations of being a small town intellectual one day.

Sam Ellis

Teacher/father/leftist loonie/raised hare Krishna and have never quite renounced it - "I just have one more thing to say, then I’ll let you speak"