bland tao
 

Where there is Music and handing out dainties
Passing guests stop
But when something belonging with tao is expressed
Its blandness is equal to its lack of flavor.

- lao tzu

Is this from the Tao Te Ching? It brings to mind the vinegar tasters.
http://godbeautyperfectionlove.com/2...negar-tasters/

I cherry-picked part of chapter 35 for that...

I read what you pointed to with interest, and yeah it does summarize things pretty well IMO. But I don't think it tells the whole story as seen by the masters...

for example this:

The collective mind is bright and sunny, gay and prosperous
It is like enjoying a sacrificial ox
It is like ascending a tower in springtime.
The self alone, is so moored!
it is not yet divined on the tortoise-shell
it is like being a baby-child before it smiles.
Unattached, so unattached
The self looks absent of a place to merge.

[quote=FallingLeaves]
..... I don't think it tells the whole story as seen by the masters...
.../QUOTE]
Yes, I suppose it is impossible for any words to tell the whole story.

Yes, thank you.
'Do nondoing, strive for nonstriving, savor the flavorless...'

I prefer this translation for Chapter 35.

All things will come to the man who is at one with the Dao.
For they can feel and find in him peace,
tranquillity, contentment and enlightenment.
People know the taste and smell of good food and the sound of music.
But knowing a description of the Dao is beyond comprehension.
It seems without flavour or sound.
For it cannot be seen or heard, and yet it is the very source of everything.

Much deeper if you give the entire chapter.

In my opinion the Vinegar tasters does not have anything in common with how the Tao seems bland to the unwise. It refers to the different view points of the three main philosophies in China at the time.

The vinegar represents life, and people.

Confused Tzu saw life as sour and in need of rules to correct the degeneration of people.

Buddha saw life as suffering and pain, due to attachments to things like life itself.

Lau Tzu (sounds like' Lousy') saw life as being fundamentally perfect the way it is, as long as things are in their natural state. Life alternates between bitter and sweet, and a wise person sees this and accepts it

Perhaps not, but it is what came to mind for me when I heard that passage. I will have to find my Tao Te Ching translation around here somewhere as that passage does not sound familiar to me. But yes, that is the same interpretation of the vinegar tasters I read (although I assume you meant to type Confucius for the first one). I suppose I made the connection because both the passage and the painting/sketch drive home the point that taste is in the palette of the taster (or the mind of, more technically), as is how one experiences life I suppose.

I'll share my favorite version of #35 so we can see how it talks about this blandness of Tao:

By Gia Fu Feng #35

All men will come to him who keeps to the one,
For there lie rest and happiness and peace.

Passersby may stop for music and good food,
But a description of the Tao
Seems without substance or flavor.
It cannot be seen, it cannot be heard,
And yet it cannot be exhausted.