Shawn Tedrow
I am not a believer that spirituality is just a clever-brain-game of rearranging perceptions of the mind. I personally think that type of mental practice has its benefits, but is tethered by limitations.
Living the way of Tao is not just something that occurs within the cognitions of the mind. Living the Way of Tao is found in the way we live our lives. Harmony is not a lofty thought. It is a life lived.
Tao is taught and learned in our daily living. After-thoughts and reflections are borne from living. Contemplative thinking, independent of living, is delusional.
Don't talk to me about harmony; show it to me by the way you live, and then talk to me about it.
You can check out Shawn's other musings here.
"Don't talk of wu, don't talk of wei, don't talk of tao...show me." --Eliza "Do-little"
ReplyDeleteDaily doing, daily practice is essential.
Still, discussion of spiritual topics, techniques, and reading the literature helps keep one focused on living The Way.
I agree with the balance of what you are saying except I think you are missing one point I was trying to emphasize. It is the delusion of "just" talking about high and lofty spirituality that is not wrought from living. In other words, our talking needs to be more aligned with experience. If our talking is about high and lofty goals without any experiential living of those goals, it is delusional. I rarely quote the bible but I find this scripture in the book of James interesting; "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves". An individual can get caught in the delusion of just hearing and saying cool, mind-tingling words, as if the cooler the words, the bigger the spiritual stature one has achieved. Spiritual words that we speak should be borne from life experiences. Tell me about harmony that you know, and not some clever way of using words of what you think it is.
ReplyDelete"As Chuang-tse put it: " To him who dwells not in himself, the forms of things reveal themselves as they are. He moves like water, reflects like a mirror, responds like an echo. His lightness makes him seem to disappear. Still as a clear lake, he is harmonious in his relations with those around him, and remains so through profit and loss. He does not percede others but follows instead." [Hoff, B Te of Piglet]
Delete& also:
Delete"To know things unconsciously is good, but to pretend you know what you don't is sickness. To avoid sickness, one must be aware of the sickness of sickness." TTC
[sickness --> delusion/deceit/denial]
In a manner of speaking, I find the last line of this post to be odd. It sounds to me like you are directing your comment to one or more specific readers/authors of this blog and yet, since you've never met any of us face-to-face, you would have no way of knowing if we live in balance without us discussing it via this medium.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, if we discuss it here, but you don't see us "live it," then you don't value it and yet you are unable to see us "live it" because we're each here (wherever we are) and you are there.
Trey,
ReplyDeleteYou are over reading into this and being over sensitive. When I wrote this it was with a broad brush that covers "our" human inclinations. It WASN'T directed at anyone specific.
I don't think I'm over reading your last sentence at all. You wrote, "Don't talk to me about harmony; show it to me by the way you live, and then talk to me about it." There are a lot of ways you could have phrased that which would give one the sense that you meant it in a generalized way. But you instead phrased it as a directed comment towards a particular someone or someones.
DeleteThis takes me back to my original point. You have no way of knowing how well any of us live or try to live in balance. Your only clue -- pertaining to, at least, three of us -- is what we choose to write and share.
Trey,
DeleteIf you are insistent on interpreting my words that I was directing this post specifically to some of the Rambling Taoist here, I then can't communicate with you from a fair and unbiased platform. When I said those words I was speaking to the audience and myself. I do not know what else to tell you except what it was.
If you are determined to think differently and not accept my "simple" explanation, I do not know what to say. You have mentioned to me that you have a problem with taking words too literal. Maybe this is one of those times?
I still get a sense that some kind of a sensitive nerve was touched, and because of that we are now not communicating very well with each other.
Trey,
Delete'a' - 'u' : Rambling/Rumbling
And I was just kind of making a joke.
ReplyDeleteSome of what might seem controversial stems from the situation that some do Tao as a spiritual practice; some just do it as a way to get through the day.
What on earth does that mean?
Delete