Taking a Spin Around the Yard

I don't know about the rest of you, but one of the aspects of blogging I so enjoy is reading about the travels of others wanderers on their own chosen paths. Often times, their words, contemplations and musings strike a definite chord within me and cause me to look at an issue or concept anew.

Since I try to offer as many links to my fellow wanderers as I can find -- both explicitly Taoist or not -- I thought I would take the time to provide excerpts from a few of them in the hope that you too will find their blogs inspiring. The following sample is not extensive and I will try to remember to repeat this exercise every so often.

From A Quiet Watercourse -- The Three Wise Monkeys
I was meditating the other day when something came to my mind about these 3 little fellows.

So we have “See No Evil”, “Speak No Evil” and “Hear No Evil”. There are a few meanings attached to these guys, from outright denial of evil (head in the sand) to a refusal to perform certain actions in case they propagate evil. My own personal focus tends to be a little more on the inner world and I’d like to journey that way, if you’ll consent to walk with me for a minute.

The most obvious meaning is the physical one, literally a “head in the sand” approach, but I feel that this misses the mark. At least, it does for me. I would aim, personally, for the inner eyes, ears and mouth. Not so much a denial of negativity, a refusal to see, but a sense of not allowing your inner self to be blinded, deafened or struck dumb by negativity.

For me there is a sense of trying to see and hear through what may seem to be a simple act of negativity to what underlies it, trying not to let the immediate feelings block that perception...

From Gathering Wisdom -- Why Do We Love?
Love is eternal and is a pervasive, integral part of our True Nature, Source, Self, or God. Everything, including us, springs forth from this infinite Source to enter this material existence. Once here, the Law of Opposites comes into play to create the contrast necessary for everything to assume it's respective definition or form. Without this contrast, nothing would make any sense and our world would appear as an ever-changing chaos overwhelming the senses and causing complete panic from the perception of our Egos. Therefore, Yin and Yang, permeate our entire physical existence and our perception of the material realm...

From The Gnarled Oak -- The Origin of Evil
Evil does not exist as an independent entity operating on is own for the sake of some sense of warped justice or spiteful vengence. All so-called evil conditions, mind states and behaviors stem from the not-knowing of ignorance. Further more, Evil is empty of self and impermanent, arising for a moment and then fading away. The true original sin is not-knowing or ignorance. Human beings are born with the capacity to perform skillful or unskillful actions. And we perform these actions based on the predisposition of our inherited genetic characteristics, environment and mental conditioning. Or for short our inherent nature. We truly are victims of this inherent nature. But we are not completely without some free will, although our intention is only a small factor in the grand scheme of things. We do have the capacity to choose wisely. We can stop evil from arising if we so choose to. Unfortunately our inherent nature seems to be a more powerful factor than our capacity to choose...

From Forest Wisdom -- "a patient willing descent into the grass": A Reflection on Death
Is it only upon reaching "middle age" that most of us really begin to think about the reality of our own death? When we wake up one day and realize that barring accident or disease (which, of course, can take anyone at any age)--were we to live out a life of "normal" longevity--we have now passed a point...we are closer to our graves than to our cradles.

I'm certainly no stranger to such ponderings. Ironically perhaps (but not surprisingly really, if you stop to think about it) such "reflection on death" actually makes one think very deeply and intentionally about one's life...

From Church of the Churchless -- Reality isn't black and white
While it might look like Taoists are big on black and white, this yin-yang symbol actually speaks otherwise.

Yes, there are dualities in the universe. Lots of them: male/female, positive/negative, wave/particle, good/bad ... and on and on and on.

But it's those little circles that tell the most meaningful part of the story -- how there's yin within yang, and yang within yin. The farthest reach of black blends with the beginning of white, and vice versa.

If we think in terms of this or that, we're not seeing reality rightly.

The world appears in shades of gray to eyes attuned to how things are, rather than how we imagine or conceive them to be...