The Tao of Dark Sages - Chapter 16, Part 3

The Tao of Dark Sages
by Scott Bradley

And so, I spent the next few weeks considering what faith it was that I had to lose and Gabi spent a lot of time with Sue-tzu presumably learning to unlearn.

It wasn’t difficult to find my faiths — what Mark-tzu meant, I think, is any and all belief. And, despite believing that all belief is an impediment to awakening, I realized that I had lots of them and believed them all. Some of them, like belief in my separate existence, are obvious impediments but nonetheless very difficult to let go. Others, like the belief that I should let go of my belief in my separate existence, are more subtle and perhaps even more difficult to let go.

There seems to be no end to this infinite regression of belief. How curious it is, how complete our bondage to thought and belief. How ‘natural’ it is for us to cling to these expressions of our ego-self. One could easily believe that they are, in fact, ‘natural’, and that any effort to transcend them would be ‘unnatural’. And yet. And yet, when you have received just a wee bit of insight into the nature of things, you see how unnatural these apparently natural responses to the world really are.

From whence this insight, you might ask? To which all I can reply is: Open your heart and you will see.

How complete, indeed, is our bondage! And how inevitable, too, is the turning of the conundrum back upon itself: How, if in such self-imposed bondage, can I set myself free? When it comes to quantum leaps, there is no how. Mark-tzu didn’t lose his faith — his faith was lost. He let happen what just happened. But among us mere mortals on the dusty path of growth, there is learning to let go.

Letting go of anything and everything to which we cling, this is the way to emptiness. And emptiness, we know, is the way to fullness.

If you're interested in reading more from this series by Scott Bradley, go here.