Tao Te Ching: Chapter #1

1
The Tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao

Q:
The moment we try to conceptualise it with words will inevitably fall short. And that is because it is a matter of when we try to conceptualise something that we don't know and we cannot express correctly, or something that we cannot conceptualise, because, after all, is it too high for our normal mind?

A:
The Tao is the source of all existence, so it contains everything. When we verbalise it or define it, we are essentially trying to reduce it to a category, which is only a proxy. However, a proxy is not a real thing (just as the word hammer won't help you hammer a nail). 

The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Q:

Animals don't name things; that's something that we do. We use the name, broadly speaking, to refer to things, and when we do, we basically distinguish a single thing from the "all", so a particular thing is born. But why is only the unnamable the eternally real?

A:

The unnamed is what it is before it was something, and it was the place (or the source) in which everything was born, again the Tao.

Naming things is the act of picking something from the "background", but it cannot last because it does not exist by itself; Named things only exist in relation to the source (the unnamed unity), and in relation to all other named things, which are by their nature impermanent.

Free from desire, you realise the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Q:

The ability to perceive the mystery (the Tao? A fundamental truth?) is based upon a state of being. Free from desire, you will see the unnamed, but when you desire something, you will only see the manifestations, or the named things.

A:

From desire will be born the attachment that focuses on a particular thing (a named thing). Free from desire, we will see what it is beyond the named things, the unity of the Tao.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.

Ok. If the mystery is the Tao, then the manifestations are the named things based on the "mystery".

This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

The Tao. Darkness as a metaphor, not some moral judgement (of course). Darkness as something unknown, without a form. Darkness within darkness, as something unknown of which we ignore even the origin (or something really, really unknowable).

Q:

Why is the Tao the gateway of all understanding? 

A:

Because true knowledge is not about accumulating facts on separate things. But it's all about the fundamental principle that governs all things and from which all things are born (distinguished from).


Conclusion

The only way to connect with the Tao is by practising non-attachment. Transcending the desire is basically switching focus from a named thing to the unnamed mystery. When the noise is gone, we can realise the oneness of things.

The idea is not to refuse goals and living in a cave, but to act in according with the Wu Wei principle, i.e. not forcing. When we set goals, we are normally attached to an exact output, to a specific execution (i.e. perfectionism). We suffer if we fail in pursuing that goal, and we suffer if we achieve that goal because we act upon an egotistic push that cannot ever be satisfied.
Instead, from a Taoist point of view, we should have a different attitude. We could still have a plan, but without a specific attachment to a specific outcome, and acting with spontaneity. If there is a failure, just accept and adapt, rather than suffering from frustration.

But I think I'm overdoing it here. For now, I just want to focus on the fact that according to Taoism's most important text, if I still focus on "named" things, if I crave those things, I will only look on the surface.


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