On Being Dao

Scott Bradley

There is always a tension between not-knowing and imagining the implications of intuitive sense. I do not wish to believe anything as objectively true, on the one hand, and yet some guiding vision seems necessary to make spiritual exploration possible, on the other. One way to alleviate this tension is to understand that the true objective is personal transformation, not objective Truth. Lies may be just as effective in this endeavor. You don't have to get it right to get it.

I have an overwhelming sense of the Oneness and Unity of Reality. It need not be true to effect personal transformation. I choose to imagine and identify with the implications of this Unity as being true in me, you, and all things. I understand absolutely every scintilla of everything as Dao. I am Dao. You are Dao. All is Dao. If there is one particle of anything anywhere that is not Dao, then there is no Dao — at best there is only God, bearded or otherwise.

When it is said, "I am Dao", one might think that this awareness somehow fills and animates the egoic consciousness, encouraging it to assert itself egoically, yet it precisely the opposite. The deeper the realization, the more one loses this imagined self. One does not retain insular individuation when identified with Vastness.

Yet, even this ego delusion is Dao. Even this personal mess is Dao. All of it. In every way conceivable. Can you own this? Can you occupy this? Can you be this? This is where it begins. This is where the rubber hits the road. Unity begins at home. And when it arrives there, there is nowhere else to go, nothing else to be.

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