The Primacy of Life

Scott Bradley

The wisdom of trees consists largely in the fact that they require no wisdom. They grow, flourish, die, and recycle; nothing more is required; nothing more need be said. We who question life and seem to require a raison d'etre can, however, learn wisdom from trees. This wisdom resides in an understanding of the essential primacy of life. Life happens, and we, as self-conscious beings, are a particular expression of it. The wisdom of trees is the realization that, like trees, we do not possess life, but are rather an expression of it. In this, we begin to see how we might follow along with life, rather than trying to force life to comply with our agenda. In this is freedom.

In the pivotal story of Yan Hui's realization that he "has not yet begun to exist" found in the fourth chapter of the Zhuangzi, we are told that this understanding happens when he "finds that which moves" him. What is this, if not life? It is life; but it is also something more; or rather, it is something much less: it is qi (vital force), "an emptiness, a waiting for the presence of beings". That which moves us is not us.

Throughout Daoist literature is the metaphor of life as a spontaneous up-welling out of a nameless source, ever-flowing, yet never emptied. It is the mysterious springtime of being. Yan Hui had a glimpse of this up-welling and realized that he did not possess life, but rather was possessed of it. And this sufficed to shake him loose from his sense of being a distinct entity required to exercise control over life and the events it manifests. In this is freedom.

To surrender into life, to let life be what it is and manifest as it will, this is but to surrender into Dao. It is not other than "opening (oneself) broadly to the vastness at the root of things, abandoning (oneself) to it, even unto the very depths".

The primacy of life applies only to the living, for it is the living that experience it. We are in no position to declare the ultimate primacy of anything. We can only speak to and out of this particular experience, and this also is something discovered when we find that "emptiness" which moves us.

You can check out Scott's writings on Zhuangzi here.

Tao Bible - Matthew 5:43-44

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
~ King James version ~

I am good to people who are good.
I am also good to people who are not good.
Because Virtue is goodness.
~ from Verse 49 of the Tao Te Ching ~

This is a good example of the Golden Rule: treat others as we wish to be treated. If I solely am good or kind to those I judge to be good and kind already, it takes no virtue to be so.

It is also not in keeping with Tao -- Tao sees the ten thousand things as straw dogs. As I have remarked before, the sun shines on the "good" and "bad" alike.

If you're interested in reading more from this experimental series, go to the Tao Bible Index page.

Chapter 20D - Doctrine of the Mean

The Master said, "To be fond of learning is to be near to knowledge. To practice with vigor is to be near to magnanimity. To possess the feeling of shame is to be near to energy.

"He who knows these three things knows how to cultivate his own character. Knowing how to cultivate his own character, he knows how to govern other men. Knowing how to govern other men, he knows how to govern the kingdom with all its states and families.

"All who have the government of the kingdom with its States and families have nine standard rules to follow; viz. the cultivation of their own characters; the honoring of men of virtue and talents; affection towards their relatives; respect towards the great ministers; kind and considerate treatment of the whole body of officers; dealing with the mass of the people as children; encouraging the resort of all classes of artisans; indulgent treatment of men from a distance; and the kindly cherishing of the princes of the States.
~ James Legge translation via nothingistic.org ~

Go here to read the introductory post to this serialized version of the Doctrine of the Mean.

The Cracked Crystal Ball

Trey Smith

Over the past two years or so, I have shared many posts with you that zero in on the latest Jobs Report from the US Department of Labor. What astonishes me is that I find the same sort of phrase used month after month in mainstream media reports. It doesn't really matter whether the unemployment rate rises or drops, whether many jobs were added or too few. The phrase is there, nonetheless.

For the May report, as seen in this article from the Christian Science Monitor, the phrase I'm referring to is utilized as well.

What is this phrase? It goes something like this: "below economists’ expectations."

These nebulous economists never seem to get their predictions correct! Every month they predict xxxx or more and, when the report comes out, it's x, xx or xxx. More often than not, they aren't just off by a tad -- they are way off!

Imagine if we were referring to weather forecasters and not economists. If they kept predicting sunny skies and high temperatures in the 70s when, in fact, the weather day after day was overcast, rainy and the temperatures were in the 40s, people would stop listening to them! The public would ridicule them.

So, why does the mainstream media continue to listen to economists whose crystal balls appear cracked and beyond repair?

Afternoon Matinee: Close To You - The Story of The Carpenters 4/5

It Could Be You Next Time!

Trey Smith

It seems pretty clear by now that the three young “domestic terrorists” arrested by Chicago police in a warrantless house invasion reminiscent of what US military forces are doing on a daily basis in Afghanistan, are the victims of planted evidence -- part of the police-state-style crackdown on anti-NATO protesters in Chicago last week.

The Chicago Police clearly realized that it would be hard to convince a jury that the homemade beer-making equipment in the house was some dreaded bio-terror weapon, so for good measure they apparently dropped off some glass jars with gas in them and tried to make out that the kids were preparing molotov cocktails. That’s the word from National Lawyers Guild attorneys representing the men. They say their clients and others like them coming into Chicago from out of town to join in protests against the NATO summit were “befriended” by police informants and undercover Chicago Police, who then offered to obtain gasoline or explosive materials like toy rocket motors, and who proposed actions like firebombing police stations.

This kind of entrapment and official deceit by police should alarm every American. It’s bad enough when police plant evidence and lie about evidence in order to win convictions, since it means innocent people will be sent to prison or worse. But with the new post 9-11 terrorism laws, like the state terrorism statutes in Illinois being applied in these cases, it becomes far more difficult for a victim of such police and prosecutorial misconduct to challenge the case against her or him. In terror cases, the government can claim “national security” to hide the evidence and even the identity of the witnesses from the defendants and the courts, the jury and the public, and can avoid ever being questioned about it publicly.

In a worst case, the federal government doesn’t even need to bring the case to trial. If the victim is accused of being a terrorist, under the latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and various executive orders, that person can be locked away indefinitely without trial -- exactly the kind of abuse that led American colonists to rise up against their British colonial overlords 237 years ago.
~ from Planting Evidence to Sow Fear: Chicago Cops are the Terrorists by Dave Lindorff ~

This is another one of those cases in which most people yawn and then go about their daily business. If the government must employ these kind of tactics, they believe, there must be a good reason. Sometimes we must bend the rules a tad (a tad?) to catch those intent on destroying America.

Most of the time, however, the targets aren't intent on destroying anything; they simply represent a political viewpoint the authorities dislike. Arrests of this nature are done for one primary reason: to scare people. It sends an eerie message to anyone who might want to protest the police state. Do so at your own risk!

Why do you think the Obama administration (just like Dubya) has been so intent on working to shield the government from having to divulge critical information in a court of law? When you are allowed to withhold the most pertinent facts, it means you can get away with just about anything! You can plant evidence to your heart's content and nobody will be the wiser.

In fact, you can out and out lie with abandon without the worry of ANY culpability or accountability. It can soon devolve into a one-sided free-for-all.

That is not the hallmark of a free and open society. Not by a long shot.

Line by Line - Verse 70, Line 4

and an authoritative law for the things (which I enforce).
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

My actions are disciplined.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

My actions have principle
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

and his actions were highly disciplined.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

When someone acts out of principle, it too often can catch us off guard. Why? Because we each know how hard it can be to accomplish!

How often do we set out to do the right thing for the situation or circumstance, only to toss it aside for convenience or expedience?

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.

Wanted: Military-Age Males

Trey Smith

This morning [Tuesday, May 29], the New York Times has a very lengthy and detailed article about President Obama’s counter-Terrorism policies based on interviews with “three dozen of his current and former advisers.” The article explains that Obama’s rhetorical emphasis on avoiding civilian deaths “did not significantly change” the drone program, because Obama himself simply expanded the definition of a “militant” to ensure that it includes virtually everyone killed by his drone strikes. Just read this remarkable passage:

Mr. Obama embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties that did little to box him in. It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.

Counterterrorism officials insist this approach is one of simple logic: people in an area of known terrorist activity, or found with a top Qaeda operative, are probably up to no good. “Al Qaeda is an insular, paranoid organization — innocent neighbors don’t hitchhike rides in the back of trucks headed for the border with guns and bombs,” said one official, who requested anonymity to speak about what is still a classified program.

This counting method may partly explain the official claims of extraordinarily low collateral deaths...

For the moment, leave the ethical issues to the side that arise from viewing “all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants”; that’s nothing less than sociopathic, a term I use advisedly, but I discuss that in the separate, longer piece I’ve written.
~ from “Militants”: Media Propaganda by Glenn Greenwald ~

What Greenwald is referring to above is one of the "jobs" of government that few people grasp. Government is in the business of providing contorted legal definitions for words and phrases! These definitions often contradict the definitions society has agreed on, but, in time, the government's definition becomes the standard definition. The reason that this is so is due to the fact that the compliant mainstream media repeats these fractured "definitions" ad nauseam and this insistent repetition worms its way into people's heads!

Take, for example, a subject I've written about numerous times before: unemployment. The standard definition of unemployment means not to be employed. But the US government has found that the standard definition doesn't work for their political agenda, so they have narrowed the definition considerably. If an individual is out of work, but isn't actively looking for jobs that can't be had anyway, they are excluded from the "official" definition. The same is true for those individuals who seek full-time employment, but can only muster a part-time job.

In this particular case, narrowing the definition allows the government to limit the number of individuals who are deemed officially to be unemployed and this limitation allows the government to publish an unemployment rate that is far lower than reality!

When it comes to civilian deaths caused by the drone campaign, the government goes in the opposite direction by expanding the definition of the word, militant. By including almost everyone in a particular geographic location, government officials can look at us with a straight face and declare that ONLY "militants," not any civilians, were killed!

Imagine if you or I employed this same strategy in defining the word, pedophile. Instead of using it solely to identify those individuals who are sexually aroused by and victimize children, we included every person the pedophile comes in contact with on a daily basis (e.g., barber, banker, waitress, sales clerk, minister, etc.). We could then tell our neighbors with a straight face that our town is being overrun with pedophiles and every one of them needs to be locked up with the key thrown away!

Chapter 20C - Doctrine of the Mean

"The duties of universal obligation are five, and the virtues wherewith they are practiced are three. The duties are those between sovereign and minister, between father and son, between husband and wife, between elder brother and younger, and those belonging to the intercourse of friends. Those five are the duties of universal obligation. Knowledge, magnanimity, and energy, these three, are the virtues universally binding. And the means by which they carry the duties into practice is singleness.

"Some are born with the knowledge of those duties; some know them by study; and some acquire the knowledge after a painful feeling of their ignorance. But the knowledge being possessed, it comes to the same thing. Some practice them with a natural ease; some from a desire for their advantages; and some by strenuous effort. But the achievement being made, it comes to the same thing."
~ James Legge translation via nothingistic.org ~

Go here to read the introductory post to this serialized version of the Doctrine of the Mean.

Daily Tao - I Know Only Being, Not Right or Wrong

False: "There are forces of good and evil in the world"

Why false? These are concepts, they have no reality.

"There are forces of up and down in the world"

"There are forces of late and early"

See? Makes no sense.

Daily Tao is a reprint from Ta-Wan's blog, Daily Cup of Tao, which offers one post per day for an entire year. You also can read these posts in an ebook.

The Easy Way

Scott Bradley

It is easy to wipe away your footprints, but difficult to walk without touching the ground. It is easy to use deception when you are sent into activity at the behest of other humans, but difficult to use deception when you are sent into activity by Heaven.
(Zhuangzi, 4:10; Ziporyn)

I follow a path that I call The Simple Way, the simple realization that no path need be followed, since all is already complete. There is nothing to achieve, since there is no gap between One and not-One. In the context of the inclination to judge and consequentially condemn on the basis of failure to achieve, I understand this as "there are no conditions to meet". Completion is already true of all that is. All is well.

This is just a point of view, a perspective by which to realize peace in the present irrespective of an inability to be at peace in general. It is a way to forego striving so as to be able to experience that for which I would otherwise only strive. All that is required is a suspension of the tyranny of right and wrong. Free of this attribute of the "understanding consciousness", that which was strived for and could not be achieved by virtue of the striving, is fulfilled. For though not-One is also One, the more One that one can experience, the more peace one has. And this, I believe, is a worthy value.

This Simple Way might be compared profitably to the Easy Way. The Easy Way is that which deceives itself; it says that all is well and then covers the tracks of its unwellness. The Simple Way, to be honest and true, does not pretend to existentially be what it is not; it acknowledges the mess, even while affirming that every mess is Dao. This tension does not resolve itself to a logical formulation; as I so often say, life and reality do not resolve to logical explanations.

It would be easy enough, writing here, to wipe out traces of my not-Oneness and pretend that I walk without touching the ground, but that would be hypocrisy. And what bothers me most about hypocrisy is not that I would be deceiving you, but that I would be deceiving myself. And that would be to lose the Whetstone of Heaven by which growth is made possible.

You can check out Scott's writings on Zhuangzi here.

Chapter 20B - Doctrine of the Mean

"Benevolence is the characteristic element of humanity, and the great exercise of it is in loving relatives. Righteousness is the accordance of actions with what is right, and the great exercise of it is in honoring the worthy. The decreasing measures of the love due to relatives, and the steps in the honor due to the worthy, are produced by the principle of propriety.

"When those in inferior situations do not possess the confidence of their superiors, they cannot retain the government of the people.

"Hence the sovereign may not neglect the cultivation of his own character. Wishing to cultivate his character, he may not neglect to serve his parents. In order to serve his parents, he may not neglect to acquire knowledge of men. In order to know men, he may not dispense with a knowledge of Heaven.
~ James Legge translation via nothingistic.org ~

Go here to read the introductory post to this serialized version of the Doctrine of the Mean.

When One Leaves, The Other Returns

Trey Smith

Though I certainly do not like the situation I'm in, I have found that I need to take the anti-inflammatory pain medication that I have been prescribed. About one week or so ago, I took it for two or three days and it decreased the pain in my left hip and knee down to a tolerable level. However, within 2 or 3 days of NOT taking it, the pain and immobility returned again. So, reluctantly, I'm back on it.

To be able to walk around using only a cane -- not a walker -- is a big plus. In fact, around the house, I've found that I don't even need the cane! While it is a relief not to feel constant pain in my hip/knee, I am not pain-free. For reasons I don't understand, the sciatica in my right leg has returned. Consequently, when I do use the cane, it's now in the other hand!

I have found it to be very interesting and odd how this seems to work. When my left hip and knee are inflamed, the sciatica on my right side disappears altogether. When the inflammation on the left side decreases substantially, the sciatica reappears. The medication I'm taking seems to have no impact on the sciatica because, over the past 10 days, my right leg only gives me trouble when I'm taking it.

The upshot of this little report is that I seem to be hobbled in one form or another. I suppose, if I have my druthers, I would rather deal with the sciatica problem than the hip inflammation. The latter makes walking extremely difficult, even for short jaunts of a few feet. The former simply impacts my endurance. I can putter around fairly well as long as I don't stand for very long or try to walk very far.

Of course, it should go without saying that I would prefer not to have to deal with either...but that seems to be out my hands!

Afternoon Matinee: Close To You - The Story of The Carpenters 3/5

An Ugly Sign of the Times

Trey Smith

Don Larsen, the famed Yankee right-hander who threw the only perfect game in postseason history, is preparing to auction off the uniform he wore during that timeless performance in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series.

The New York Times notes that the uniform worn by Larsen's catcher Yogi Berra fetched more than $500,000 at auction. One would assume Larsen's duds would command an even higher price.

So why is Larsen going to part with such a cherished personal artifact? "I'm auctioning the uniform to provide my grandsons with enough money for a college education," said Larsen, now 82. "What the uniform actually sells for is not that important to me; whatever happens, happens. I'm just hoping for enough to help the grandkids."
~ from Don Larsen to Sell 1956 World Series Perfect Game Uniform by Dayn Perry ~

If you aren't a baseball aficionado, you're probably thinking to yourself, "Big deal. Larsen wants to sell his uniform." But, I gotta tell you, this is an ugly sign of the times.

A perfect game occurs when no one from the opposing team reaches base. Every batter who steps to home plate makes an out. As Wikipedia tells it, "Over the 143 years of Major League Baseball history, there have been only 21 official perfect games by the current definition."

Think about that for a minute. Hundreds of thousands of major league baseball games have been played over this period and ONLY 21 perfect games have been pitched. It truly is a remarkable feat.

But this particular perfect game was even more remarkable. It is the ONLY one that was pitched during a World Series (the championship).

Times are so bad that Don Larsen is willing to part with an irreplaceable memento from one of the most famous baseball games ever played. Why? Because you need to be fricking rich these days to send yourself, your kids or your grandkids to college!

I don't whether to bawl uncontrollably or scream profanities! Hell, maybe I'll do both.

Line by Line - Verse 70, Line 3

There is an originating and all-comprehending (principle) in my words,
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

My words have ancient beginnings.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

My words have basis
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

His words stemmed from ancient wisdom,
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

Since the beginnings of human history, we have had a basic idea of how to comport ourselves. We've understood that what has become known as the Golden Rule is one of the best ways to live peaceably and justly in a social setting. But knowing something and actually DOING IT are two different things altogether.

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.

I Signed -- Will You?

Trey Smith

In the trio of unalienable rights outlined in the Declaration of Independence, the reason “life” was listed first should be obvious: If you aren’t alive, you can’t have liberty or pursue happiness (or much of anything else, for that matter). That’s why this week’s revelations about President Obama personally overseeing a “Kill List” is so significant — the president’s extralegal actions undermine the very right from which all other rights exist. And it’s why I launched an official White House petition asking the president to create a “Do Not Kill” list that would at least allow Americans to protect themselves from being deprived of their lives at the hand of the president.

Following the lead of other government-administered lists like the “Do Not Call” list and the “No Fly” list, the petition’s proposal is straightforward. It reads:

The New York Times this week reports that President Obama has created an official “Kill List” that he uses to personally order the assassination of American citizens. Considering that the government already has a “Do Not Call” list and a “No Fly” list, we hereby request that the White House create a “Do Not Kill” list in which American citizens can sign up to avoid being put on the president’s “Kill List” and therefore avoid being executed without indictment, judge, jury, trial or due process of law.

Sadly, the need for the government to create a “Do Not Kill” list is no longer theoretical. As the Times (and other media) have reported, the president ordered the execution of American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki without so much as charging him with a single crime, much less convicting him of one. The Times reports that in doing so, the Obama administration issued a memo claiming that the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process (i.e., a right to formal charges and a trial by a separate co-equal branch of government) can now “be satisfied by internal deliberations in the executive branch.” As if underscoring the extrajudicial nature of the actions, even the memo remains secret.

Today, this kind of execution has become the norm. According to the Times, since the al-Awlaki killing, the White House now convenes “Terror Tuesday” meetings attended by various agency officials and President Obama’s top reelection strategist, David Axelrod. These meetings are specifically focused on deciding which American citizens and foreigners will next face due-process-free assassination. The newspaper additionally reports that the administration’s official rationale is that anyone the president orders killed is, by definition, “up to no good.” As Philadelphia Daily News columnist Will Bunch notes, that’s the same word-for-word rationale George Zimmerman used to justify hunting down Trayvon Martin.

This all underscores why we need a “Do Not Kill” list — and thanks to the White House’s new petition system, there’s a chance we can make that a reality. If we get 25,000 signatures, the administration will have to consider the proposal and issue a public response to it. I hope everyone reading this will click here to sign the petition, forward it on to your friends, post it on your Twitter feed and post it on your Facebook page.

If we want the most unalienable of rights to survive, we must speak out now and force the president to at least give us one way to avoid his execution orders.
~ Please Don’t Kill Me, Obama by David Sirota ~

Generally speaking, I'm not a big fan of petitions. They rarely do any good. I'm making an exception, in this case, because I would LOVE to hear the required response from the President. So, I encourage you to sign on. Do your part to help this petition make the 25,000 signature threshold.

Chapter 20A - Doctrine of the Mean

The duke Âi asked about government.

The Master said, "The government of Wan and Wû is displayed in the records, the tablets of wood and bamboo. Let there be the men and the government will flourish; but without the men, their government decays and ceases.

"With the right men the growth of government is rapid, just as vegetation is rapid in the earth; and, moreover, their government might be called an easily-growing rush.

"Therefore the administration of government lies in getting proper men. Such men are to be got by means of the ruler's own character. That character is to be cultivated by his treading in the ways of duty. And the treading those ways of duty is to be cultivated by the cherishing of benevolence.
~ James Legge translation via nothingistic.org ~

Go here to read the introductory post to this serialized version of the Doctrine of the Mean.

Daily Tao - Individual and Dualistic

Did you ever look at the word: Individualistic. And see the mess it infers?

Daily Tao is a reprint from Ta-Wan's blog, Daily Cup of Tao, which offers one post per day for an entire year. You also can read these posts in an ebook.

In the World

Scott Bradley

There is a persistent belief that there are those who involve themselves in the world and those who do not; there are engaged and the hermits. This, I think, is largely a false distinction. Who of us is not entirely "in the world"? Were we to enter a primeval forest and live our lives alone, still we would be in the world of our own creation. Do we not create every "world" in which we live? It is our interpretation of the world that makes it what it "is". In this sense, the political activist and the hermit are both equally in the world.

But there are various ways of being in the world, and these are what lead us to make distinctions. Among these are the belief that we are morally obliged to be engaged in the world (society) and the belief that we cannot 'grow' without being actively engaged with others.

In the case of the first, Daoism cannot agree, for it recognizes no "moral" obligations; what it does recognize, is the primacy of fulfilling our humanity which, we discover, has a definite social aspect. There are no "shoulds" except to say, everything should be what it is. But this is no should at all.

Daoism does teach that the hermit-sage wields a very real, positive influence on the world, not despite her non-engagement, but because of it. But this is only incidental; it is not her answer to "should". Ironically, the sage is sometimes depicted as having to flee still further from society, which would have her engage directly in its affairs, so as to continue her transcendent experience, which (incidentally) positively affects that society.

Whether such a positive influence emits from such a sage or not, I cannot say. Nor do I know that it matters in any case. What I think I can say is that Daoism does not teach the way of a hermit as the only way for a sage; for the experience and psychological way of being-in-the-world of a sage is essentially the same wherever he finds himself and in whatever activity. It is not so much a question of what one does, but how one does it.

In the case of the second distinction, that no true 'spiritual' growth can take place without social engagement, I think Daoism would again fundamentally disagree on the grounds that it would impose obligations on life, when life is perfectly able to be itself without our imposing obligations upon it. We are engaged. And even if, like Tarzan, we were to find ourselves removed from all others (except for apes, of course), we would still have ourselves as 'other' to deal with. There is no 'other' more powerful or immediate than the one we posit within ourselves. We call it myself. Personally, it is this 'other' that is the greatest Whetstone of Heaven that I find challenging me to growth, not external 'others'.

Still, we typically find ourselves amidst other ‘others’ and in this regard, Shi Deqing (1546-1623) makes a valid point when he says, “what really nourishes life is an inner skill that can only be made your own and verified by involving yourself in the ways of the world.”

You can check out Scott's other miscellaneous writings here.