According to Aurelius, everything is already predetermined, but you can still choose how to respond. He wants to have his cake and eat it too: you can’t have a deterministic universe and, at the same time, free choice in your response, since the response ultimately influences that same universe
Together they form a wonderful and poetic painting
Reading between the lines of the Dao De Jing evokes a faintly shamanic feel. Did natural hallucinogenics play a role in the development of those concepts? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klUoFm0wca8
This week is my 62^(th) birthday and I now realize that I've always been a bit of a daoist by nature. But aside from occasionally throwing the I Ching, with astonishing results by the way, or being struck by the beauty of the Yin Yang symbol, I really had no idea what this is all about. Until, a few years ago, I discovered the Dao De Jing.
Ancient texts are my De, so to speak, and I “diligently embarked on it” as vers 41 puts it. In my own translation that is, which I've now finally completed. Not that it's perfect, but we made it into an audiobook and published it on YouTube. So I can't change anything anymore: any mistake still there I will regret but won't correct.
Since my hobby is creating YouTube videos that no one ever watches, I used my skills to add beautiful, dreamy imagery worthy of the title “Dao De Jing – Theory of Everything.” Unfortunately my audience is too small to earn any money, but I do believe people might enjoy it, if only they knew of its existence.
Here's a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klUoFm0wca8
And to the text: https://www.onceuponadecade.com/dao-de-jing/