Tao Te Ching, Verse X: Seeing The Perfection In Absolutely Everything

Tao Te Ching, Verse X: Seeing The Perfection In Absolutely Everything

For no specific reason in the world writing this blog improves my self-esteem (which is extremely valuable and extremely rare with neurodivergence).

More so than the other two blogs.

The other two I do out of love.

Love for software engineering, love for the code.

This one I do too.

But it significantly improves my self esteem.

To the point of where I want to keep on doing it. Every day, almost. Ahem.

Let's see.

Can you cleanse your vision until you can see bliss in every direction?

I don't really understand or like this translation.

I don't really like it or get it (the one below).

I am just using it because it's the most readily available version on the internet - if you are looking for a book do Stephen Mitchell or Brian Browne Walker. Hands down. They are the experts.

So I know that one of those two has the line - oh yes and there is the match in below - "Can you cleanse your vision until you see bliss in every direction?" And here is says that: "Washing and cleansing the primal vision, can you be without stain?"

What does this mean?

Can you see everything as perfect? Can you see everything as how it is meant to be? Can you see everything that comes up as being the best possible thing that could happen to you? Can you see every moment as being the best moment of your life? Can you see every moment as being a reflection of perfection, of healing, of bliss? When I was a bit of a negative Nancy, I once went out into the forest. And I could hear the trees.

They were saying it to me.

"Can you cleanse your vision until you see bliss in every direction?" And I realised that I had no time, and that life was too short. Life was too short for me not to see everything as perfect. Everything is perfect. Francis Lucille refers to it as "The Permanent Miracle."

What does this mean for me in software engineering?

This means for me that I see the perfection in absolutely everything.
  • Comments on my PR? That's great. This means that I have absolutely lots and lots to learn from them - I am sure.
  • Boss assigns me a new ticket? That's great. I can't wait to get stuck into this thing.
    • I can't wait to get stuck into these tasks and see what I will learn from them.
    • I can't wait to see and I wonder what I will discover 🔍🔍🔎
  • New manager? That's great, it was time for a change ( - although I hope it doesn't happen too quickly this time round - it happened a LOT and in very very rapid succession in my last job - I really like who I am working with right now tbh - I hope we get to keep it this way at least for a while).
  • Didn't get time to finish my tasks in the day? (This happened today and I have a hard cutoff point for working this week arrrrgh). No problem.
    • I will do the tasks better next time round. The fact that I will approach this anew next week will mean that I will see something I didn't see before - I might have missed something this time round.
  •  Lots and lots of answers to questions that I don't understand on a questions channel? No problem. First and foremost I focus on how grateful I am for the fact that someone has answered questions for me. People have taken time out of their busy days to help me - wow how grateful I am how kind! If I don't understand everything that's alright. I focus on finding out the solution in the best way I can. I thank everyone for their time equally and graciously regardless. I am so grateful and so lucky to have other developers that want to help. How lucky I am!!!
  • It feels like I am frustrated, it feels like I am overwhelmed and it feels like I am stuck with my goals. HOW LUCKY I AM!!! How lucky I am to feel so overwhelmed! It means that I am growing fast and it means that I am moving very very quickly. 
    • How grateful I am to be working somewhere where the standards are so high.
    • How grateful I am to be working somewhere where the bar is very, very high.
    • How amazing it is and how grateful I am to have a manager that sets me such clear goals and tasks! 
    • And how amazing it is to be growing at such a pace that I am growing at currently.
  • I am feeling overwhelmed, and confused, and I am struggling to prioritise, and I have too many tasks.
    • HOW AMAZING! HOW WONDERFUL! HOW BRILLIANT, This is another wonderful exercise in prioritisation, this is a wonderful chance for my to break down and prioritise my tasks. I will probably get some more focus and some context on each of my tasks by prioritising this, well done! ✅
Golden sparkles and beautiful gilded lettering in the style of tarot. Text reads: everything is gold.

Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - chapter 10

Carrying body and soul and embracing the one,
Can you avoid separation?
Attending fully and becoming supple,
Can you be as a newborn babe?
Washing and cleansing the primal vision,
Can you be without stain?
Loving all men and ruling the country,
Can you be without cleverness?
Opening and closing the gates of heaven,
Can you play the role of woman?
Understanding and being open to all things,
Are you able to do nothing?
Giving birth and nourishing,
Bearing but not possessing,
Working yet not taking credit,
Leading yet not dominating,
This is the Primal Virtue.
A screenshot of the above poem - text is identical.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tao Te Ching, Verse II: Make Your Work Impersonal

Image
Tao Te Ching, Verse II: Make Your Work Impersonal I want to draw your attention to the last two lines of the verse. "Work is done, then forgotten. Therefore it lasts forever." This ties in pretty well with one of my favourite quotes of all time, which is: "The love we give away is the only love we keep." As a Software Engineer, I don't like to take any credit for my work. I don't mean this in a workplace setting. I mean that ultimately, my work doesn't come from me. It comes from something greater than myself. I discovered coding for the first time at the tender age of 28. It immediately felt impersonal. Immediately it felt like a gift or talent that was given to me that was not mine. Almost overnight, I dropped everything to pursue this calling. I was so grateful to have been single, living a quiet (in its own way) life with no commitments outside of work, and no real social life (booo! we are still working on that).  I was completely free to pursue wha
Read more

Tao Te Ching, Verse III: Celebrate Everyone

Image
Tao Te Ching, Verse III: Celebrate Everyone In Software Engineering, I don't think that we should put some people above others. One of the greatest aspects of being a software engineer is being humble and we should cherish this. If we place way too much emphasis on glorifying certain engineers, we take away from the talents of others.  It is for this reason that terms such as "10x" engineer or "rockstar engineer" can be problematic (a lot has been said about this but it is outside of the scope of this blog post). If we place too much emphasis on the glory of becoming a Staff Engineer, then people will not enjoy the journey (or even just on becoming a Senior). Edit: and also a Staff Engineer recently once told me (or reminded me) that Staff Engineers get to code less. Booo!!! This is rubbish!!! What a shame. We are here to enjoy the journey We are here to enjoy the journey.  A former colleague once told me that a crazy-senior ex-colleague of ours once told him: d
Read more

Tao Te Ching, Verse VI: Go With The Flow

Image
Tao Te Ching, Verse VI: Go With The Flow "Use it; it will never fail." I am getting closer and closer to talking about this on my platforms and for some reason it seems that maybe today is the day. I have spent the last 15 years of my life suffering with an extremely debilitating health condition. That's it; the cat's out of the bag. I was expecting to reveal it some day but maybe not like this. I have spent the last 15 years of my life suffering with really serious non-epileptic seizures; they have definitely lessened in recent years and that's why I can work; they have improved dramatically in the last year or so as well and apart from a recent flare up they have been infinitely much, much, much, much better. I don't take anything for granted. I don't take the ability to walk down the street for granted. I don't take the ability to work for granted. I didn't take the ability to study for granted and I probably should continue not to take the abil
Read more