Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 6 -- Lao-Tzu; Reading a Story, Pt. 10

Our passage from the Word of God today is 2 Kings 23:21 which reads: "And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant."

Our quote today is from Samuel Butler. He said: "Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself."

Our first topic for today is "Spirituality as Quest, Part 6 - Lao-Tzu" from the book, "Literature and Spirituality" by Yaw Adu-Gyamfi and Mark Ray Schmidt.

Here are our last two selections from Tao Te Ching.

Chapter 15

The skillful masters (of the Tao) in old times, with a subtle and exquisite penetration, comprehended its mysteries, and were deep (also) so as to elude men's knowledge. As they were thus beyond men's knowledge, I will make an effort to describe of what sort they appeared to be.

Shrinking looked they like those who wade through a stream in winter; irresolute like those who are afraid of all around them; grave like a guest (in awe of his host); evanescent like ice that is melting away; unpretentious like wood that has not been fashioned into anything; vacant like a valley, and dull like muddy water.

Who can (make) the muddy water (clear)? Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear. Who can secure the condition of rest? Let movement go on, and the condition of rest will gradually arise.

They who preserve this method of the Tao do not wish to be full (of themselves). It is through their not being full of themselves that they can afford to seem worn and not appear new and complete.

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Our second topic for today is "Reading a Story, Part 10" from the book, "Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing" by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia.

The Brothers Grimm - Jakob Grimm (1785-163) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859), brothers and scholars, were born near Frankfurt am Main, Germany. For most of their lives they worked together - lived together, too, even when in 1825 Wilhelm married. In 1838, as librarians, they began toiling on their Deutsch Worterbuch, or German dictionary, a vast project that was to outlive them by a century. (It was completed only in 1960.) In 1840 King Friedrich Wilhelm IV appointed both brothers to the Royal Academy of Sciences, and both taught at the University of Berlin for the rest of their days.

The name Grimm is best known to us for that splendid collection of ancient German folk stories we call Grimm's Fairy Tales. This classic work spread German children's stories around the world. Many tales we hear early in life were collected by the Grimms including Hansel and Gretel, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Rapunzel, Tom Thumb, Little Red Riding Hood, and Rumpelstiltskin. Versions of some of these tales had been written down as early as the sixteenth century, but mainly the brothers relied on the memories of Hessian peasants who recited the stories aloud for them.

Now here is one of the stories from the Brothers Grimm called "Godfather Death."

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