Remember, I'll give you a break from questions this weekend, but we WILL do an in-class writing response for Monday. Below are some ideas you might look out for as you read:
* Consider how the poems discuss the idea of attachment: what is right and wrong attachment? Is all attachment (or relationships) flawed? Would having children and helping the people you love be a form of attachment, too?
* How does denial 'give' you something? Is it a contradiction to 'gain without giving'? Don't you have to relinquish something (or sacrifice something) to get something, even the Tao?
* What do you think is the "Mother of the World" that the poems often refer to? Tao? Heaven? or something else?
* What do you think the phrase "be aware of your own awareness" means? Isn't that like "looking at your own looking"?
* What does it mean that you should see the Tao as a person, a family, a country, and a world? How can it be all of these things individually (even if it creates all of them respectively)?
* Why does the Tao always caution you against speaking--or speaking too much? What is specifically wrong with speaking? Do you think writing is the same way?
* How does the universe reveal itself to you? Don't you have to seek it?
* How can difficulty be an opportunity, especially if it limits your opportunities?
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