Source: Tao Te Ching, Ch. 1, as interpreted by Ursula K. LeGuin (1998)
Context: The way you can go
isn't the real way.
The name you can say
isn't the real name.
Heaven and earth
begin in the unnamed:
name's the mother
of the ten thousand things.
So the unwanting soul
sees what's hidden,
and the ever-wanting soul
sees only what it wants.
Two things, one origin,
but different in name,
whose identity is mystery.
Mystery of all mysteries!
The door to the hidden.
“A thing isn't quite real until you name it.”
Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifi5KkXig3s "Biblical Series IV: Adam and Eve: Self-Consciousness, Evil, and Death"
Laozi book Tao Te Ching
Source: Tao Te Ching, Ch. 1, as interpreted by Stephen Mitchell (1992)
Context: The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
The unnameable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.
Laozi book Tao Te Ching
Source: Tao Te Ching, Ch. 1, as translated by J.H.McDonald (1996) http://www.wright-house.com/religions/taoism/tao-te-ching.html [Public domain translation] <br class="br">Context: The tao that can be described<br>is not the eternal Tao.<br>The name that can be spoken<br>is not the eternal Name.<br>The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth.<br>The named is the mother of creation.<br>Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery.<br>By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real.<br>Yet mystery and reality<br>emerge from the same source.<br>This source is called darkness.<br>Darkness born from darkness.<br>The beginning of all understanding.
“Music… can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.”
Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist
“In God's name, you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion!”
Paddy Chayefsky (1923–1981) American playwright, screenwriter and novelist
Network (1976)
Context: You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to believe that the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you: you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube! This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God's name, you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion!
“Today we're going to try and say his name…OH! OHHH! Can you even say a part of his name--OH! OHHH!”
Sam Kinison (1953–1992) American comedian
Louder Than Hell (1986)
