John (12-18)

"Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end." (John 13.1) Every now and then, I noticed how we are reminded of Jesus' eternal and unconditional love towards humanity. It is impressing that aside from the fact that he knew who was going to betray him, he knew his unfortunate destiny, Jesus was able to remain loyal, something most of us strive to achieve.

In chapter 13, a charming scene is described. After finishing supper, Jesus washes and cleans of of his disciples feet. "After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe themwith the towel wherewith he was girded." (John 13.5) I found this to be extremely humble, for him to surrender to the ground and wash one's feet. However, this is not the point I found most surreal. As he is admired by one of his disciples, Peter, for such an act, he then encourages them to do the same to one another. "If I then, yourLord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him." (John 13.14) This is one of the most true and simple teachings I have found so far. What this is basically saying is that the servants are not greater than their lords, nevertheless, we must learn to serve one another willingly.

"A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." (John 16.21) This is a nice comparison, I think, the way Jesus describes his own death as a new child's birth. It might seem paradoxical, describing death and birth, however this is exactly what he wants his disciples to understand. He might be going away from this world and leaving his bone and flesh body, but all of this is required in order to reach the eternal kingdom. He might die, but Jesus wants us to see death as a path, a door towards a better place.

The Gospel According to St. John (7-11)

“When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.” (John 6.15) I would like to begin with this line, for I’m not sure what to believe. Should I take this as an example of God’s humbleness and simplicity, or rather a cowardly act? All along I have been trying to ignore the fact that I’m a Christian in order to have a less biased point of view and focus more on understanding these texts. However, I must accept that reading the New Testament has provided me with more concepts to feed my faith. And like I have said before, besides the fact that the reading of these excerpts is perhaps completely academic, I try to get a little more out of it, explore it more deeply. I guess this is why I enjoy reading it overall.

“My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.” (John 7.16) Once again, Jesus portrays himself as a messenger, a kind of real connection between God and humans. His fairness and equality and more than evident throughout the texts as he performs miracles and cares for the underprivileged. Moving on, chapter 8 presented a particular situation that I had never heard of before. It calls my attention due the amazing message it leaves behind. It talks about a woman caught in adultery, and how the tradition stated, she should be stoned. However, Jesus interferes. “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (John 8.7) “ And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.” (John 8.9)Jesus proves once again how forgiving he is, how loyal, and how understanding. It leaves a strong message behind, like I said, because we usually tend to judge others for their actions, unaware at our own flaws. It is easier to see the bad things in others, and some might even enjoy thinking or watching what the consequences are, but how many times do we do that to ourselves? How many times do we sit and look back at our mistakes? If we do so, for one reason or another, we will tend to minimize their real degree.

Last point I’d like to make is one that appears in chapter 10. All along we have seen that Jesus’ teaching are heard and often obeyed. Nevertheless, we are now aware that not everyone was in agreement with what he had to say, “ There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. ²⁰ And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him? ²¹ Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?” (John 10.20-21) I found it awarding that God knows about our flaws, he knows that we are unfair, but stills has the courage to show us the way.

The Gospel According to St. John (1-5)

We are now moving into the New Testament, the Gospel According to John. It is interesting to see that even though there is no evident change whatsoever in the actual text’s content, the Old and New Testament differ enough to be divided. The beginning of John, it was interesting to me for it kept making reference to the “Word”, which I immediately assumed was the Bible itself, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1.1) Especially the last part leaves it clear that the Bible is in fact God, therefore encouraging us to follow it word by word. Further on, and the way I see it, the Bible tries to explain how God created everything there was to be made. However, I couldn’t help but to be brought back to one of the most controversial questions of religion. If God created everything, then how did he come into existence in the first place? Nevertheless, if I have learned something from reading more and more of these complicated texts, it is the fact that we must not take everything literally. In this particular case for example, I should instead think that these passage is making reference to God’s greatness and power over everything.

Confusion arose when the narrator’s voice was changed. I mean, at first I thought this Gospel would be written from John’s point of view, expressing in first person what he himself was experiencing. But I was surprised to see that John was referred to in third person, as if it was someone outside of it all that wrote it. Moving, on we are presented with a narration of Jesus’ many miracles. First off, and one that called my attention for I had heard of it before, was him turning water into wine. Although not in the same context, this is one of the most popular of his miracles I must say, and to me it symbolizes God’s power to turn even the simplest, dullest things into something majestic. In chapter 2, another popular and important scene is mentioned. As Jesus arrives at Jerusalem at one of the temples, he appears to be immensely offended by the presence of merchandisers in this spot. He orders for them to be removed and says “Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.” (John 2.16) This is actually a crystal-clear example that we should not use faith, or religion, as a sort of excuse to benefit ourselves. In this case, people were taking advantage of the temple to make some business, obviously throwing away its real purpose.

I would also like to emphasize on some aspects mentioned later on. In chapter 4, Jesus tells us how we must drink the water he provides for us, for it will keep thirst away. “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: ¹⁴ But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4.13) Once again, do not take things the literal way. In my way of interpreting it, Jesus does not refer to water itself, but rather the belief in God itself. It actually makes sense, if we feed our faith upon Jesus, we will end up living a joyful, everlasting life. Otherwise, problems and doubts are sure to arise in our way.

Tao Te Ching: 47-end

Chapter 47 began in a rather interesting way. Like we have previously observed, the Tao Te Ching is paradoxical, reflecting the entire contradiction of life itself. Stating that “Without going outside, you may know the whole world. Without looking through the window you may see the ways of heaven. The farther you go, the less you know.” (Forty-seven), the Tao encourages us to seek for whatever it is we’re looking for without going away. It even says that “the sage knows without traveling; He sees without looking; He works without doing.” (Forty-seven). As I see it, it all comes back to the fact that we must learn how to understand what we have within our surroundings, understand the simple things first rather than search in the unknown. Further on, we are informed that in order to pursue the Tao, things must be dropped. Unlike learning, where everyday something is acquired. This concept I had heard before, the simple fact of letting go of material things in order to reach true happiness. This is another teaching I have found tremendously enriching to be honest, for we often search for happiness in places we shouldn’t, achieving the complete opposite.

Later on, the concept of Virtue is described a little more, “I am good to people who are good. I am also good to people who are not good. Because Virtue is goodness. I have faith in people who are faithful. I also have faith in people who are not faithful. Because Virtue is faithfulness.” (Forty-nine). From this passage, I immediately made reference to what Jesus said about being good to those who are not. I believe that if this idea was actually applied, we would live in a better world because we tend to focus our attention on those that are going on the right path rather than helping those that are not. Furthermore, the Tao says that silence is knowledge, that “Those who know do not talk. Those who talk do not know.” (Fifty-six). So “Guard your senses” but how is that so? Besides, I found myself very confused at the last lines of this same chapter, “He who has achieved this state is unconcerned with friends and enemies, with good and harm, with honor and disgrace. This therefore is the highest state of mind.” What this is actually saying is that a man that achieves this kind of superior state won’t be able to tell the difference between friends and enemies, good and harm. Isn’t this completely contradicting?

Next chapters talk more and more about how to govern the people. “Rule a nation with justice. Wage war with surprise moves…. The more laws and restrictions there are, the poorer people become. The sharper men’s weapons, the more trouble in the land. The more rules and regulations, the more thieves and robbers.” (Fifty-seven) This kind of knowledge I find extremely truthful, as well as other concepts that the Tao introduces.

To conclude, another passage I found rich in content was close to the end, “Knowing ignorance is strength. Ignoring knowledge is sickness.” (Seventy-one) Once again, the wise ones know about problems, however they manage to learn how to apply those mistakes in a rightful way.

Tao Te Ching: 29-47

As I read through the Tao, I am beginning to see a certain repeating concept, I believe. Previously, the Tao stated that we should not interfere with the natural course of things, of everything. Now in chapter 29 I see this coming up again: “The universe is sacred. You cannot improve it. If you try to change it, you will ruin it. If you try to hold it, you will lose it.” (Twenty-nine). In my interpretation, we are encouraged to let things flow naturally, therefore performing “inaction”. It was a connection I made, the fact that in the Tao we are constantly taught to do nothing, "A truly good man does nothing / Yet leaves nothing undone." (Thirty-eight), and the concept of “inaction” that the Bhagavad-Gita introduced to us.

So, the way I understand it, by doing absolutely nothing we leave nothing undone. How is that so? Probably by remaining completely inactive in a way we have nothing pending to be done. Get it? Every single thing we leave undone is left that way because we planned for it to be done. So if we set off our minds and do nothing, nothing is left undone. Confusing actually. But aside from my lame interpretation, I still found it strange that one can attain success by remaining inactive. Isn’t all the opposite? Performing positive actions and helping other through what you have?

Further on, the Tao goes into war. Clearly it is against it, for it portrays the use of weapons as a bad action, one which the wise evade. “Good weapons are instruments of fear; all creatures hate them. Therefore the followers of Tao never use them. The wise man prefers the left.” (Thirty-one). This is actually pretty useful nowadays, were we live in such a violent society. This is another example were the Tao can be used to society’s advantage.

As for more applicable knowledge, I found an interesting passage in chapter forty-four: “He who is attached to things will suffer much. He who saves will suffer heavy loss. A contented man is never disappointed.” It is a very true thing in fact, and I find it a useful teaching to learn how to be detached from all material things. Actually I believe this is the real way to reach the “sage” or whatever the maximum stage of superiority in the Tao is. Overall, balance!

Tao Te Ching: 13-28

“Accept disgrace willingly.” (Thirteen). Apparently a simple sentence, however I happened to be fascinated by these words. What a reading, I must say, for I have been enjoying the Tao Te Ching more than any of the others we have done before. A perfect combination of values, morals, and religion, but staying away from extremes, unlike the Bible does. It’s pretty exciting too to be able to so easily decipher the words on paper and catch their real meaning; something I had struggled with before.

So back to chapter thirteen, a series of concepts were mentioned that I would like to make emphasize on. To begin, the idea of humbleness is clearly present as we are encouraged to “accept disgrace” and “Accept misfortune as the human condition.” (Thirteen), leads me to infer that human life is in fact misfortunate. Will this change the moment we finish our “work” and go to heaven? I’m not quite sure. Besides, they mention the fact that misfortune can only come along with the fact of having a body, “Without a body, how could there be misfortune?” What exactly does this tell us?

Chapter fourteen offers a different view at the Tao, still powerful and mysterious, formless, indefinable, but now I believe I can picture what it is in a better way. I’m pretty sure it’s not a being, neither a force, but rather a kind of guide, of manual for one to follow, “Knowing the ancient beginning is the essence of Tao.” (Fourteen). Further on, in chapter sixteen, what seemed like a process to reach the Tao appeared. It is as if it was all connected to one another, an action leading to a reaction; something rather obvious I suppose.

Up to chapter twenty-one, I had a hard time getting the essence of the text. As to chapter twenty-one itself, I perceived the relation between Virtue and the Tao. Once again, the Tao proves to overpower every other thing, including Virtue. Essence and faith lie in it too. “When you are at one with the Tao, the Tao welcomes you.” (Twenty three). This confirms again that one must apply whatever the Tao exactly is into one’s life, for it is the only way to become one with it and reach the greatest Virtue.

In general, the chapters whatsoever talk about extremes, balances, and paths. They teach us which one to go on, which one to evade and most importantly, how one must not be caught on unbalanced positions, opinions, actions, etc., for the true essence of life lies in finding that lost balance we once had. In my opinion, the Tao should be considered a more philosophical rather than religious piece of writing, for it does not revolve around the concept of a God or gods, but instead it focuses on living life the right way to its fullest. I’m sure I’ll make some personal annotations further on.

Tao Te Ching: 1-12

Aside from the fact that this text goes beyond my common knowledge and comfort zone, I must admit I enjoyed it very much. Its somehow formal, rather mysterious tone gives the teachings a kind of mystical touch. I also noted the poetic structure in these texts, something that wasn’t as obvious in previous readings.

In the beginning, we are introduced to the concept of the Tao, something I don’t quite get yet. Its majesty and power are quite evident, “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.” (One) I hope to find a clearer definition of what this Tao is exactly further ahead. As for what I understand, it is a powerful force or something similar. Moving ahead, I found another interesting quote that I could actually connect to other assignments, “All can know good as good only because there is evil.” (Two). This explains that every single thought, word, or action, taken must have a balance.

Another example of the Tao’s power, “It is the forefather of the gods” (Four), insinuates that it is superior to any other existing force, in this case, the gods. Apparently, to the author/s of the Tao Te Ching, the Tao represents a surreal, supernatural, “being” I suppose I should call it. Perhaps the Tao can even be a way of life, a path to follow.

I found chapter seven soothing, in a way, for it talks about the existence of earth as well as heaven, it even states that they are both eternal, “Heaven and earth last forever.” (Seven). The concept of heaven and earth is indeed a universal one, an idea I found quite unbelievable. Chapter eight points out the importance of water for life; an interesting thing nowadays. As for chapter nine, one line in particular caught my attention, “Retire when the work is done. This is the way of heaven.” (Nine). It seems like we all have a duty, a “work” we must accomplish in order to reach heaven. I wonder what that is all about.

Once again, contradictions. Like I previously said, I found the book had particular moments in which it put women down, however I found an interesting sentence in chapter ten, “Opening and closing the gates of heaven, can you play the role of woman?” (Ten). What’s going on? Now women are the ones who open the gates of heaven? This chapter I enjoyed, for it made me question my morals and values in life, the reason why I really do what I do.