Just Walk a Path

"What I know, I have to train for in life. Can't be just say it, and read it in some book. No way how to tell what I know. Just a path I walk, and when you on that path, you know. What can be said, one person to the other, just maybe how to walk that path. What you find goin' down the trail only for you alone..."
~ from What I've Always Known: Living in Full Awareness of the Earth by Tom Harmer ~

I wanted to share this brief passage of the words of Salish teacher Clayton Tommy to illustrate that belief systems other than philosophical Taoism feature some of the same themes. If the phraseology above was slightly different, one might think it was written by Lao Tzu or Chuang Tzu!

The reason I have embraced Taoism as my basic philosophic underpinning is that it brings together several ideas into a unified -- not codified -- whole. But I am not naive enough to think that only the great Taoist sages were able to see the world in such terms. I realize that these same ideas and themes permeate other worldviews too. The cited book above has shown that many Indian beliefs and metaphors are congruent with the Taoist perspective.

In the end, the labels utilized are of meager importance. I will continue to search out those belief systems that stress the interconnection of all things and the importance of each person walking their own path.