Too Little Time

Let's face it. We live in a complex, fast-paced world. Far too many of us simply don't have the time to sit around to contemplate the meaning of life and other esoteric topics. We've got deadlines to meet at work, kids to ferry to soccer practice, bills to pay, drinks to guzzle down and maybe, just maybe, we will be able to cram in a few brief hours of shuteye!

Perhaps this blog has piqued your interest in philosophical Taoism, but man, there just aren't enough hours in each day for you to find the time to read and digest poetic works like the Tao Te Ching. If this describes your life, take heart! I've scoured the internet for you! And I've found something that may be to your liking: the Tao Te Ching Interpreted Succinctly.

Rather than wade through my 81-day verse-by-verse analysis or reading one of many books on the topic, the cited blog sums up each verse in one measly sentence. That's right. All you need do is read 81 sentences and you're done!

Instant enlightenment!! What could be easier than that?

(Note: You definitely DON'T want to read my analysis of tomorrow's verse. It might put a damper on your enthusiasm.)

It's Gotta Mean Something!

On one of the blogs I follow in Google Reader, Journeyman Philosopher, there was a book review for Above Us Only Sky by Don Cupitt. After reading the review and discussion, I tried to ascertain whether or not I could checkout the book from my local library system. Unfortunately, the book wasn't in the catalog, but a different book by the same author, After God: The Future Of Religion, was available. So, I checked it out.

Here's one of the two reviews on the work from Amazon.com:

Cupitt (philosophy, Emmanuel Coll., Cambridge) redefines what it means to believe in God while accepting that God does not exist. He argues that there is indeed an unseen intelligible, or spirit world, among us. But this world is made up of words and symbols. The world of religion is a mythical representation of the world of language. Cupitt's is a postmodern religion that sees God not as a transcendent reality but as a reflection of human selfhood. According to Cupitt, this conception of religion frees one from the belief in absolutes, which, he says, spells the death of religion. Human beings themselves are the only source of meaning and value. Belief in God, Cupitt holds, is a valuable and interesting form of consciousness. While Cupitt's analysis will not be accepted by many, his book offers a well-wrought argument.

I've only read the first two chapters thus far, but it's a most interesting read. I'm fairly certain I will enjoy the rest of the book and it may well provide fodder for future posts. Here's one excerpt:

...most human beings believe that what they call "life" itself ought to have -- must have -- a Meaning; and by a Meaning they mean an overall narrative explanation in personal and purposive (or teleological) terms. And people reckon themselves to be entirely capable of knowing and fully entitled to know what it's all about. So strongly do they think there is a Big Answer, and that they are entitled to expect it to be made known to them, that any news whatever, good or bad, about what's really going on behind the scenes is highly interesting and welcome. Isn't that why we all have such an insatiable appetite for inside stories, revelations, and conspiracy theories?

Verse 52: In the Beginning

Verse Fifty-Two
The beginning of everything
is the mother of everything.
Truly to know the mother
is to know her children,
and to truly know the children
is to turn back to the mother.
The body comes to its ending
but there is nothing to fear.

Close the openings,
shut the doors,
and to the end of life
nothing will trouble you.
Open the openings,
be busy with business,
and to the end of life
nothing can help you.

Insight sees the insignificant.
Strength knows how to yield.
Use the way's light, return to its insight,
and so keep from going too far.
That's how to practice what's forever.
~ Ursula LeGuin rendition ~

Almost every religion has a creation story. This tale explains how and why the earth and its creatures came to be. It also serves as a mechanism to establish the group that develops the story as the special or chosen people. This is as true for tribal religions as it is for Islam or Christianity. Even the religious form of Taoism follows this scheme.

Philosophical Taoists don't pretend to know the why of creation. We realize that no story nor myth will come anywhere close to the actual particulars. We simply accept that life is and go on from there. For many of us, we don't even consider the concept of "beginning" as a specific event but view the totality of life as an ever unfolding process. Some of us may even go as far as to see existence as a perpetuating circle.

More importantly, we don't view any particular group of people to be more or less worthy than any other. In fact, our worldview stretches beyond the human species. We don't see this world as playground for humans at the expense of any other life form. In essence, it could be said that all things are the children of "God".

This is one of they key points I harp on again and again. Where most religions erect artificial barriers between groups of people or individuals and people vs. other beings, philosophical Taoists see the connection of all things -- we are each a manifestation of the One.

Living in accordance with Tao is open to anything that desires it. There are no creeds nor rituals to follow. There are no prayers to say. You don't have to plop anything in a collection plate. You don't need to heed the pronouncements of clergy. You don't even need to call this essence, Tao.

All you need is to be aware of the connections and to lessen the hold your ego has on your being. Watch nature for clues of the life process. Learn the lesson of stillness, so you can be in better touch with your center. Live a life that is in balance and harmony with all around you.

If You Think Obama Is a Socialist...

The right wing of this country has been throwing temper tantrums accusing Pres. Obama of being a socialist. As a socialist myself, it makes me laugh hysterically. The man isn't even a liberal, let alone a red! Here's a great article "After Obama" from OpEd News that will be the lead story in the upcoming Greener Times.

After Obama
By David Michael Green (professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York).

Eight months into it, it now seems pretty clear that the Obama administration is finished.

There were some of us – indeed, many of us, myself included – who thought there was a possibility that Barack Obama might seize this moment of American crisis, twinned with the complete failure for all to see of the regressive agenda, to become the second coming of Franklin Roosevelt.

Many think that was a naïve position from the get-go. I disagree. Not only do I believe that it was a legitimate possibility, I would argue that it was the logical choice even just from the narrow perspective of Obama's personal fortunes. The president is every day committing political suicide by a thousand cuts because he chose not to take that track.

That's certainly his prerogative, and at this point I wish him all the worst of luck in whatever comes next. Since I never assumed he would be a progressive once elected, any bitterness that I feel is not rooted in his failure to become the new FDR. However, I am irate that, in domain after domain, President Obama has become the personification of the very Bush administration policies that Candidate Obama so roundly criticized. And I feel deep hostility toward him about the betrayal of legions of voters – especially the young – who believed his message of hope and thought they were getting a president on their side, not Wall Street's.

More on that in another column. Right now, the question is what comes next? The Obama presidency is probably already toast, though of course anything can happen in three or seven years. But he is on a crash course for a major clock cleaning and, what's worse, he doesn't seem to have it remotely within him to seize history by the horns and steer that bull in his preferred direction. Indeed, near as I can tell, he doesn't even have a preferred direction.

Obama was complete fool if he ever believed for a moment that his campfire kumbaya act was going to bring the right along behind him. Even s'mores wouldn't have helped. These foaming-at-the-mouth lunatics have completely lost all sense and proportion, and were bound to viscerally hate any president left of Cheney, let alone some black guy in their white house. Meanwhile, centrist voters in this country seem pretty much only to care about taxes and spending, and so he's lost them, too, without the slightest rhetorical fight in his own defense. And he's blown off a solid progressive base by spitting in their eyes at every imaginable opportunity, beginning with the formation of his cabinet, ranging through every policy decision from civil rights to civil liberties to foreign policy to healthcare, and culminating with his choice not to even mobilize his email database in support of his policies.

So if he's lost the left, right and center, just who does he think is going to be clamoring to give him a second term three years from now, especially if the economy remains lousy for most people in the country, as it's likely to do regardless of GDP or Dow Jones growth?

There is the possibility that Obama could change course significantly, just as Bill Clinton did in 1995, following the mid-term election in which his most astute political stewardship managed to turn both houses of Congress over to the Republican Party. But Clinton turned to the right and became just a less snarly version of the Republicans, while Obama is already there. I don't really think he could conceivably turn further rightward at this point, and I don't think he has anywhere near the guts to turn to the left and do what he should have done in the first place.

What all this suggests to me is that Obama and his party will manage by 2012 to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and return the GOP – and probably an even nastier version of it than the Bush-Cheney junta, at that – to power. It suggests that the Democrats, who were riding high six months ago over an all but destroyed Republican Party, will be switching places with them within three years time, if not sooner – and all because of their own cowardice, corruption and ineptitude. This outcome is hardly inevitable, but it is fast approaching. Looking out over the horizon, I see five key factors most likely to effect the health and longevity of the Obama administration, and not one of them looks positive.

The eight-hundred pound gorilla rummaging around in the kitchen right now is the economy. Indeed, this factor alone could readily swamp the combined effect of all the others, particularly if it swings dramatically in one direction or another. My guess, as a non-economist (which, of course, only means that I have a better shot at an accurate prediction than the economists do), is that the economy will exhibit some substantial signs of growth over the next three years. But I suspect the recovery will be tepid, even according to establishment measures such as GDP growth or the state of the Dow. More importantly, I strongly suspect that this will be another jobless recovery, like the last ones we've had, and that the new mean standard of living for the middle class will be pretty mean indeed, significantly diminished compared to what people were already struggling to hold on to when the Great Recession began. Personally, I think if American history teaches us anything at all about presidential elections, it is that for an incumbent president this is more or less the worst possible scenario imaginable upon which to go asking the public to punch his ticket again. Americans vote their pocketbook, and that alone is likely to be the kiss of death for Obama's second term aspirations.

Meanwhile, of course, he's also chosen to put healthcare reform on the table as the signature legislative initiative probably of his entire presidency. That's fine, but watching him in action I sometimes wonder if this clown really and actually wants a second term. I mean, if you had asked me in January, “How could Obama bungle this program most thoroughly?”, I would have written a prescription that varies little from what we've observed over the last eight months: Don't frame the issue, but instead let the radical right backed by greedy industry monsters do it, on the worst possible terms for you. And to you. Don't fight back when they say the most outrageous things about your plan. In fact, don't even have a plan. Let Congress do it. Better yet, let the by-far-and-away-minority party have an equal voice in the proceedings, even if they ultimately won't vote for the bill under any circumstances, and even while they're running around trashing it and you in the most egregious terms. Have these savages negotiate with a small group of right-wing Democrats, all of them major recipients of industry campaign donations. Blow off your base completely. Cut secret sweetheart deals with the Big Pharma and Big Insurance corporate vampires. Build a communications strategy around a series of hapless press conferences and town hall meetings, waiting until it's too late to give a major speech on the issue. Set a timetable for action and then let it slip. Indicate what you want in the bill but then be completely unclear about whether you necessarily require those things. Travel all over the world doing foreign policy meet-and-greets. Go on vacation in the heat of the battle. Rinse and repeat.

Altogether, it's an astonishingly perfect recipe for getting rolled, so much so that I'm not the first person to have wondered out loud if that was actually the president's intention all along. Look at this freaking fool. Now look at the guy who ran a letter-perfect, disciplined, textbook, insurgent, victorious campaign for the White House. Can they possibly be the same person? And, since they obviously are, is there possibly another explanation for this disaster besides an intentional boot? I dunno. But what I do know is this. Obama's very best-case scenario for healthcare legislation right now represents a ton of lost votes in 2010 and 2012. And the worse that scenario gets, the worse he and his party do. But even a ‘success' in the months ahead will produce a tepid bill, a mistrustful public, an inflamed and unanswered radical right, and a mealy-mouthed new government program that doesn't even begin to go online until 2013. A real vote-getter that, eh?

Which brings us to a third major electoral liability for Obama. Human beings, by and large, like to be led. They like their leaders to inspire their confidence – even when doing so takes the form of the most fantastically shallow dress-up kind of blowhard buffonery, à la George W. Bush – so that they don't have to think too much about how little personal confidence they themselves actually possess. Obama is the complete antithesis of this model of the presidency. He is Harry Reid's incontinent grandmother as president. He is Neville Chamberlain's squirrely little nephew knocking shit over in the Oval Office while he plays “Mr. President”, in-between episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants. He is a bowl of Jell-O. That someone forgot to put in the fridge. He exhibits no competence as a chief executive. He inspires no confidence as a national leader. And, increasingly, his credibility is coming into question. Who wants to vote for that?

Read the rest...

Verse 51: The Efficacy of All

Verse Fifty-One
Way-making (dao) gives things their life,
And their particular efficacy (de) is what nurtures them.
Events shape them,
And having a function consummates them.
It is for this reason that all things (wanwu) honor way-making
And esteem efficacy.
As for the honor directed at way-making
And the esteem directed at efficacy,
It is really something that just happens spontaneously (ziran)
Without anyone having ennobled them.

Way-making gives them life and nurtures them,
Rears and develops them.
It brings them to fruition and maturation,
Nourishes and guards over them.

Way-making gives things life
Yet does not manage them.
It assists them
Yet makes no claim upon them.
It rears them
Yet does not lord it over them.
It is this that is called profound efficacy.
~ Roger Ames and David Hall translation ~

For today's verse, I'm simply going to showcase the words and thoughts of Diane Dreher. I think her analysis is spot on!

The Unity of the individual with nature is central to Taoist philosophy...the Chinese character for nature includes the character for a person with arms outstretched to signify "great," topped by another horizontal line which represents the sky over our heads. Thus do we become great by recognizing our part in the harmony of nature.

The ancient Chinese saw each person as a microcosm, a world in miniature. In elaborate descriptions, they equated our heads with the heavens, our feet with the earth, our veins with rivers, our many bones with the 365 days of the year, our changing emotions with the changing weather. Diseases in humans, like disorders in the world, were caused by imbalance.

A similar vision once prevailed in the West. From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, Europeans saw themselves as microcosms, small versions of the world around them, believing that a great chain of being connected all life...This unified vision was lost when scientific and industrial revolutions developed a new mechanistic paradigm. God became the Divine watchmaker who left the world to run for itself. Factories reduced individuals to specialized parts, cogs in a machine. The sense of life as a sentient, organic whole was replaced by the frantic pace and fragmentation of modern life. People began to measure their worth in terms of productivity -- output -- as if we'd all become machines.

The western world is now on the edge of a new paradigm, and science again leads the way, this time affirming a more holistic vision. From physics we learn the world is composed of dynamic energy patterns...The circle comes round again as we realize once more that no one is an island. We're all intrinsically linked in the dynamic web of life.

Here's a bit more:

Non-Tao people see the world as a collection of disparate parts. Tao people see the underlying unity. By meditating on its shifting cycles they learn personal and planetary balance.

Staying close to nature dispels our illusions of separateness, the excessively developed ego which Taoists call ying (literally "being full of oneself") and Christians call the sin of pride. Nature humbles us, making us see we're only part of an infinitely larger whole. From nature's slow evolving cycles, we learn patience and detachment.

This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.

Twitter and Out

Today I was thinking that it's a good thing that Twitter hasn't been around that long. Can you imagine the havoc it could have wreaked on American history? Some of our greatest speeches have been long and inspiring. People have stood in the heat, cold and adverse weather to hear great thoughts that have gone down in history.

But what if the divine power or, maybe, the guy in charge of the sound system had been a Twitterhead? In that case, the grand speaker would have been cut off at 140 characters and we would never have heard the key words and phrases that we remember to this day.

For example, let's imagine that Abraham Lincoln would have been whisked off the podium after delivering the first 140 characters of the Gettysburg Address. Here's what those in attendance would have heard.

Four score & seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created…

Created what?

Here are a few more memorable speeches of American history. See if you can figure out who said it and what the occasion was. (Each "Tweet" is in a different color.)

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great…

Good evening: This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shape the history of this nation. Each time I have done...

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the Union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. Today is a…

Good evening, my fellow Americans: Tonight I want to speak to you of peace in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. No other question so preoccupies our people. No other dream so...

I am proud to come to this city as the guest of your distinguished Mayor, who has symbolized throughout the world the fighting spirit of West Berlin. And I am proud -- And I...

New Voices Along the Path VII

Here are some new links added in the "Taoist Wanderers" section of the right sidebar.

A New Shade of Black

From Mr. Methodic: The Way I See The Way. My thoughts about Tao (Dao) and Taoism. It's a new blog, but it already contains some excellent content.

Cook Ding's Kitchen

Featuring a stew consisting of a look at history, poetry (mostly haiku and cinquains), strategy, Zen, books and movies, Daoism, martial arts, Japanese language study, art, tea, and commentary on the events of the day that leave you wondering “who needs fiction?”// "Though my neighbors are barbarians, and you, you are a thousand miles away, there are always two cups at my table." - Tang Dynasty.

Dao Digital
Thoughts on art, technology, and philosophy. A recent post deals with Religious Naturalism.

Daoism in Brief

A one-page discussion of Lao Zi (or Laozi, Laotze, Lao Tze, Lao Tse, Laotzu, Lao Tsu - I've seen 'em all and more) and the Dao De Jing (or Daodejing, Tao Teh Ching, or Tao Te King, etc.).

Feel the Qi

At FeeltheQi.com, you can receive updates on Tai Chi and Qigong research projects, information and libraries on learning the practices of Qigong and Taiji (Chi Kung and Tai Chi), weekend and week-long retreats, professional training opportunities with the Institute of Integral Qigong and Tai Chi, private lessons, and the global impact of the Qi Revolution that is rapidly spreading throughout the globe; travel to China; health secrets of Chinese medicine; offers for free downloads and announcements of free teleconferences through our Energy Empowerment Newsletter.

Healing Tao Britain

The aim of Healing Dao Britain is to encourage and help people to take responsibility for their physical, emotional, mental and spiritual life and health. Mantak Chia's Universal Healing Tao is a practical system of self-development that enables the individual to complete the harmonious evolution of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual planes through a series of meditative and internal exercises. The practitioner learns to increase physical energy, release tension, improve health, gain the ability to heal oneself and others and become physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually independent.

Legacy of Tao

Legacy of Dao is a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading ancient Daoist wisdom in the modern world. We wish to make ancient Daoist knowledge and practices available to everyone; to encourage their application for the enhancement of health, harmony, and prosperity; and to promote their understanding for the improvement of environmental peace and quality of life.

Living Tao Foundation

Living Tao Foundation is a non-profit educational and cultural arts foundation. We provide programs in Tai Ji and contemporary Taoist philosophy and related disciplines. Our intention is to support everyone in enjoying healthier, more creative and productive ways of living.

Meaning of Tao Te Ching
A project of the author of Tao Wow. It provides some brief notes to stimulate conversation.

Verse 50: No Place for Death

Verse Fifty
Those who leave the womb at birth
and those who enter their source at death,
of these; three out of ten celebrate life,
three out of ten celebrate death,
and three out of ten simply go from life to death.
What is the reason for this?
Because they are afraid of dying,
therefore they can not live.

I have heard that those who celebrate life
walk safely among the wild animals.
When they go into battle, they remain unharmed.
The animals find no place to attack them
and the weapons are unable to harm them.
Why? Because they can find no place for death in them.
~ John McDonald translation ~

When we accept the notion that we are part and parcel of the one universal reality (Tao, God, truth, being, etc.), we can get an inkling of the idea that life and death merely are different sides of the same coin. The moment we're born, we move ever closer to death. Yet, as nature illustrates, death leads to new life. It's a self-perpetuating cycle.

As the fellow from the blog Tao Wow writes it,

The true I, the Tao, not the I with your name, lives forever. If you can know you as Tao, and avoid the grasping to self, looks and longevity, you will never grow old and never die.

By understanding intuitively that life and death go hand-in-hand -- neither can exist without the other -- we need to honor both in their own time. While alive, we need to embrace our lives in a body hug. I like what Nina Correa has to say on this issue.

How can some people appear to be so invincible? Maybe it's because they find so much joy in life that they don't let the fear of death preoccupy their thoughts with a sense of pending doom. Even when hardships confront them, they're able to appreciate the fact that they're still alive and make the best of what they've got. None of us know for sure what (if anything) will happen to us after we die. To reject any of the wonderful things on this earth due to worry, anxiety or fear is to deny the very existence we've been given in this playground.

Life is precious. We don't genuinely understand why it exists or what happens when this phase of our being comes to its end. Since this is the only part that we can experience in the here and now, it just makes sense to live it to its fullest. If we focus the majority of our attention on what comes next and then it turns out there is NO next, we will have wasted our one opportunity.

Don't look this gift horse in the mouth. Live and love with all your might.

This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.

Comfort Food

Just out of curiosity, what is your favorite comfort food? For years, mine was almost anything with peanut butter on or in it. In my youth, my answer would have been peanut butter/chocolate ice cream.

These days, however, my number one comfort food/snack is healthy and I generally consume it twice daily. It's...drum roll, please...a bagel. I love bagels, particularly those with sesame seeds. They are very low in bad fats and don't constitute that many calories.

Of course, I DO add a fat component to my twice daily ritual, but it's really beneficial fat! My favorite way to prepare my sesame bagel is to split it in half and pop it in the toaster. Once it becomes a golden brown, I drizzle virgin olive oil and granulated garlic all over it. I savor each bite. (I'm thinking about how much I'd like a bagel right now, but we're out of 'em! Waahhh!)

So, what about you?

New Voices Along the Path VI

Here are some new links added to the "Fellow Wanderers" section plus one in the Asperger's section (marked with an asterisk) in the right sidebar. Show 'em some love!

A Beautiful Soul
Hello, my name is Anna and I am a Registered Yoga teacher in NJ. I currently teach yoga & meditation to at-risk adolescents girls in a group home. I help them to adjust to their unfortunate circumstances by teaching them how to renew the mind, body, and spirit. Healing comes from addressing the whole body, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

I am also a graduate student, studying Forensic Psychology. It is my goal through this blog to build the bridge between psychology and spirituality. I believe that spirituality is the missing link in all treatment of mental health, and my goal is to bring awareness and understanding to a place where Eastern philosophy meets Western Science.

Adventures in Solitude
In essence, it is what I refer to as my own spiritual journey. For me, this journey (Adventure) began in my mid twenties and continues today at 32. While embarking on my spiritual journey, I’ve learned that self exploration is never an easy task, for it requires deep introspection and facing many of the fears and insecurities that are deeply embedded in the psyche. On the other hand, I’ve also learned that embarking on this spiritual journey has proved to be an amazing Adventure! Like the choose your own Adventure novels I read as a kid, on my spiritual journey I not only get to choose my own Adventure, I am the protagonist and whether the Adventure takes it’s form through meditation, yoga, writing, photography, riding my bicycle, exploring the city, or traveling, I have uncovered a space of deep inner peace. A space that I was never fully aware of until most recently! It is with my deepest sincerity and an open heart that I hope this forum will provide a space to collectively explore the idea of spirituality, consciousness and creativity together. All thoughts, ideas and forms of expression are welcome and encouraged.

Adventure Scout
A blog by Cym, it's purpose is to educate yourself, build freedom, explore the world. Her most recent post is entitled, "Why I Deleted my Twitter Account and Why You Should Too". That alone allows me to give her blog a big thumbs up!! : )

Clouds of Thought
My name is Rose; it's nice to meet you. Welcome to my self-discovery blog. Help yourself to a drink of herbal tea, water or milk and nibble on an oatcake, bourbon biscuit or some crystalised ginger. Please click on my Characters tab to find out more about me and the characters mentioned on this blog.

*Here's the Thing...
I am a private music instructor and an Instructional Assistant in an ASD program. I have three sons - Don, David and Rory. My favorite way to spend my time is with my partner, Bob. He has three kids - Bob, Kristy and Rachel, and three grandhildren - Bobby, Selena and Kadin. Weekends are spent either at the shore or at home poolside or working in the yard.

Running Towards Stillness
Stephen Legault is a writer, activist, organizational development consultant and fundraiser who lives in Victoria, BC and Canmore, Alberta. Stephen started writing in 1988. Kicked out of his high school biology class, he bought a notebook and sat down in the woods near his Burlington Ontario home and wrote some really awful, angst ridden poetry. Since then, Stephen has written for the Globe and Mail, Canadian Geographic, Outdoor Canada, Canadian Wildlife, and dozens of other periodicals and newspapers. His first book, Carry Tiger to Mountain: The Tao of Activism and Leadership was published in April of 2006 by Arsenal Pulp Press.

The Humanist Contemplative
Humanist Contemplatives focuses on self improvement, introspection, and achieving eudaimonia (the flourishing, good life). Some may meditate or engage in other contemplative practices. They seek to experience the profound in the arts and explore new ideas and traditional inspirations on spirituality in a naturalistic context. They strive to be virtuous and compassionate in character.

The 10,000 Things
Meanderings along the Way. "To study the Buddha Way is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self, and to forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things." - Eihei Dogen Zenji

Zen Mom
May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be free. May all beings awaken to the light of their true nature.

Comings and Goings

Blogs are like anything else in life: They are born, live and then get deleted! Over the past month or so, two of my favorite blogs -- Forest Wisdom and Bruce Droppings -- have simply vanished into the virtual mist. In fact, the Bruce of Bruce Droppings just dropped his blog yesterday. I will miss my routine visits at both of them.

Another of my favorite blogs --greenInk -- has been dormant for over one year. It's still intact out there in the blogosphere; at least, last time I checked. Mr. Sage's Philosphical Taoist Page also disappeared, but I found its wayback page and it's still sitting over there as a link in the right sidebar.

Every time I start lamenting about the blogs I miss, I discover new gems which I will continue to feature on this blog periodically in the "New Voices Along the Path" series.

Just like with people we meet face-to-face along the way, it's important to embrace and enjoy our favorite blogs each time we stop by for a visit. We never know when they will cease to be and ya don't want to realize how much you respect or cherish the connection until that day it's gone.

Verse 49: Connecting with All

Verse Forty-Nine

A wise person is constantly without pre-conceived notions.
In that way she's able to allow the hearts of others to penetrate her own heart.
She sees those who are good as being good.
She sees those who are bad also as being good.
Her De is imbued in goodness.
She sees those who are sincere as being sincere.
She sees those who are insincere also as being sincere.
Her De is imbued in sincerity.

A wise person is affected by the whole world,
Breathing in deeply the actions of the whole world into every recess of her heart.
All the common people concentrate with their ears and eyes.
Then the wise person connects intimately with all of them.

~ Nina Correa translation ~

From my vantage point, even the most evil people in the history of the world have some good in them. Conversely, those few saints who've trod the earth have some evil in them. Having both elements is part of being human.

And so, when I read in Verse 49 that we each should treat the good person and the bad person in the same manner, I simply take it to mean that we should treat everyone with the same amount of dignity and respect. If an individual -- who is a mix of good and evil -- only treats the good person in this way, it certainly doesn't say a lot about them! You end up being no better than the so-called bad person.

In her commentary to this verse, Nina Correa writes,

When a person's heart is filled with goodness and sincerity, she sees goodness and sincerity all around her. Rather than looking for ways to condemn others or prove them to be liars, she simply accepts them as being as good and sincere as she is. If another person is bad or insincere, that doesn't really affect how she relates to them. Each person has to deal with those issues within themselves, and by seeing the goodness in others there's a possibility others will see the goodness within themselves and allow it to come forth.

In a manner of speaking, Correa is referring to the idea of "pay it forward". When each of us treats others with respect, it can cause a ripple effect that reaches far and wide. It will most likely touch lives that we're unaware of. Just as important, it will touch our own life in ways we can't fathom.

Another way to express this sentiment comes from Diane Dreher.

Living the Tao combines purpose with detachment. Tao people express what the Chinese call pu shih, accepting all that comes in the rhythm of life.

In the end, we have no control over anyone but ourselves. When we shed our prejudices, bias and preconceived notions, we encounter each person anew. If we interact with them as if there's a clean slate, the default position for most people is to treat others with respect and sincerity.

This is not to suggest that any of us should allow ourselves to be bullied and victimized. A person can be respectful and sincere, yet still be firm and resolute. Too often, people like to treat Taoist maxims like this as if each is a call for passivity. While being passive is a needed component of life, it is not called for in every situation.

Remember that water always seeks the lowest point, but rushing water can be far from passive!

This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.

It's HER Fault, Anyway

My last post talked about the many sexual escapades -- moral and not -- featured in ye olde bible. However, that's not the worst of it. As the information provided by the links cited show, more often than not the woman or women involved in any given situation seemed to shoulder much of the blame.

Of course, this should surprise no one because the bible goes out of its way to denigrate the female gender. In fact, this is why conservatives believe that God hates homosexuality, particularly in men, because gay men supposedly are "choosing" the role of the female.

Women get the shaft almost from the very beginning. God decides to create a being "in his image" and, wouldn't you know it, it's a guy! The newly created fellow whines that he needs a mate and, rather than creating a woman from the dust as man had been created, God pulls a rib out of Adam. So, all women owe their existence to Adam's ribcage!

When the nubile pair gets tossed out of paradise, who gets the blame? Eve, of course. She ate the forbidden fruit first AND beguiled the man with her feminine ways. From there on out, women become the central scapegoats of a myriad of problems and consistently endure second-class status as little more than a man's property.

I have to be honest, it just blows my mind that anyone would accept such asinine tripe as the way things are supposed to be, that a god would condone such abject male chauvinism. Yet millions of people -- including countless numbers of women -- go to their graves believing this crap.

I much prefer Taoism's perspective that yin and yang -- female and male -- exist in all things, including each of us. Both work in tandem to make life possible and one is not superior to the other.

Bare Naked Breasts

If you listen to fundamentalist Christians, one of the great downfalls of modern society is the carnal nature of television programing (and films). A person can turn on the telly at almost any hour of the day or night and view all sorts of fornicating, rape, leering and things that make them shudder. And who is responsible for all this lusty foreplay? Why it's all of us godless cretins! I suppose that includes philosophical Taoist too!!

Interestingly enough, there isn't as much as one sentence in the Tao Te Ching that specifically refers to ANYTHING sexual. There are no stories of gang rapes, incest, or leering at a friend's wife. While a person can't find any such references in the TTC, guess where you can find all these sex-crazed instances and more?

In the Christian Bible!!

I find it highly ironic that the people who run around desiring to censor the public airwaves are the very same people who hold up this carnal book as the measure that all people should live by. While the TTC would earn a G rating, many portions of the bible would garner an R or X rating.

The Old Testament is packed full of stories of rape, incest, and all kinds of debauchery. Even worse, in many instances, we're told that God approves of these actions!

And that's not all. We also find God instructing his followers on the fine art of kidnapping, enslaving other humans beings and rampant murder. In many instances, pillaging and stealing are encouraged as well.

Consequently, if we used the stories told in the bible as a blueprint for what could be shown on TV and film, it would look a lot like what we can see now -- maybe even a tad bit more lurid.

So what are these folks squawking about?

One Last Day

Today is a decidedly significant one for all the kids in North Pacific County: it's their last day of unfettered freedom. Tomorrow is the first day of school! As an old geezer, I've been looking forward to tomorrow all summer long -- it means the neighborhood will become much quieter during the day. ; )

On the other hand, this transition from carefree days to the school routine does bring back a flood of memories. As a youth, far different than most of my compatriots, I LOVED school. While I looked forward to summer vacation just like every other kid, to be quite frank, I didn't really like it.

Because I didn't have very many friends, summers meant even more time being alone. After about one or two weeks, I was ready to get back to school! Unfortunately, the vacation lasted much longer than that. After awhile, summers became very monotonous, only to be saved...sort of...by family trips.

But here's the interesting part of all this. While I was ready to go back to school in late June or early July, I absolutely loathed the day before school began. For starters, I thought of all the things I could have done during the summer that I never got around to doing. So, I would spend that last day lamenting those wasted months.

The other part of my dread has to do with my Asperger's: Going to school was a new pattern and, as I've detailed in this space before, I don't handle transitions well at all. While I looked forward to the act of being in school, it meant that my routine for the past three months would be drastically altered and this produced massive anxiety every single year.

Once the school year got underway and I established the routine of attendance, this brand of anxiety would dissipate. And I loved the structured routine of school -- far more than almost anyone I've ever met. I didn't necessarily like the social context, mind you, but I liked knowing where I needed to be when I needed to be.

Verse 48: Let It Go

Verse Forty-Eight
Usually,
we try to learn something new every day.

But if we want to get right with Tao,
we have to let go of something every day.

We do less and less,
until we end up doing nothing.
And it's when we do nothing
that we get the job done.

Let events take their course,
and everything will turn out
in your favor.
If you act on your ambitions,
they will never pan out.
~ Ron Hogan rendition ~

As I continue struggling mightily with a major flare-up of my Fibromyalgia, my focusing and concentration skills are almost nonexistent. To this end, I'm simply going to share other people's thoughts on this verse.

Carl Abbott from Center Tao:

One does less and less until one does nothing at all is an awfully hard precept to face, especially in a culture where action and the attendant success is so glorified.

The reason I do anything arises out of a sense that some thing is undone, and I need to correct the situation. The biological origin of this is rooted in the survival instinct, it keeps me doing what I need to do to get food, for example. However, whether I get that new car (or whatever) has nothing to do with survival in any real sense. It’s just that I feel I’m not right with the world until I have it.

When I’m content, the universe looks just perfect and there is nothing in it that is undone. In the pursuit of the way I am tentative and bewildered which enjoins me to see reality on its own terms. From that perspective it’s easy to see the perfection of each moment. And so, quite naturally, I do less every day to change things. Instead my life energy goes toward maintenance. Nothing is left undone in another sense… there are no loose ends.

Dr. Jill Henry of The Mountain Valley Center:

This verse is probably one of the hardest for the Western mind to grasp. We are taught to never be lazy. To always be in control. To work harder and harder. That if we don’t make things happen, they won’t happen at all. Yet the Tao says to do less and less and to not interfere with the world. How can we reconcile these two opposites? Do we believe one and let the other go? We learned to hate. It’s time now to drop the hatred. We learned to distrust. It’s now time to drop the fear.

In truth, less is really more and timing is everything! As we let our lives “take their course”, our lives become on course. As we stop interfering with life, life brings us what we need, exactly when we need it. A state of non-action doesn’t mean not doing anything, it means doing within the natural flow of our life, without struggle.

Nina Correa of The Dao is Open:

As you develop a better connection with your own spirit, it becomes less necessary to take actions that feel uncomfortable or to put effort into coming to conclusive answers for all your questions. As your actions become more and more effortless, it might seem that you're not doing anything at all. But then, as your mind becomes rid of thinking about all the things you "should" be doing, suddenly all the things that really need to get done are accomplished. The superficial and unnecessary actions and thoughts are eliminated, and you start following the spirit within you that will always guide you.

John Lash, author of The Spirit of Tai-Chi: Essential Principles:

Our society praises and rewards the type of learning that results in the acquiring of new facts. The more facts you command, the more useful you are to society. Thus, to remain competitive and successful, you must continually acquire new information. The process continues until you can no longer keep up and then society shoves you aside as useless to let you live out your life with the fading memories of your successes.

The Tai Chi person is engaged in a different type of learning in which things are lost rather than acquired. During his journey, he will lose his ego, his preconceived ideas about the world, his prejudices, his selfishness, his ambition, and his aggression. Such a journey is neither respected nor rewarded by society, but bring the fulfillment of his nature.

This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.

Fer Sale

If you haven't heard the news yet, let me be the first to tell ya -- it's been announced here and here that the worst recession in 70 years is over!! It seems that manufacturing and housing sales rose a bit more than expected and we'll soon return to the times of milk and honey. I'm so deliriously happy I'm going to burn some of my excess millions in the fireplace...oh wait...I don't have ANY excess pennies, let alone dollars!

Maybe the economists are right, but you sure couldn't tell it from my neck of the woods. Most families in Pacific County, Washington, are hurting and hurting bad. How can I tell? On almost every street in the area, one can find a "for sale" sign. These signs adorn homes, cars, boats, trailers, bicycles, golf clubs -- just about anything that can be turned into quick money. I won't be surprised if I start seeing a few such signs on pets!

Even our local second-hand store is in trouble. Normally, when the economy sags a bit, second-hand stores see an uptick in business as more people find it necessary to eschew new doodads for used ones. But the economy around here has gotten so bad that Wild Bill's is holding a "going out of business" sale with their already low prices slashed by 70%!! The owners had planned to end the sale on August 31, but sales have been so slow that they've extended it.

I know that Della and I are hanging on by a bare thread. So, I hope the learned economists are correct. I'm just not going to hold my breath.

An Intro to the Tao Te Ching

One thing I sort of forgot to do, when I began my series on the 81 verses of the Tao Te Ching, was to write an intro about the history of the book itself. Since I didn't do that AND I don't believe in the need for reinventing the wheel, I suggest you visit A New Shade of Black. Here's a snippet:

A lot of Chinese words can be used as nouns, adjectives, and verbs all at the same time making it difficult to properly translate to English. The original intent can easily be lost. There are numerous translations of Tao Te Ching with more increasingly being made. They can appear as completely different texts. It is worth taking time to read different versions to help fully understand what was meant, especially when the translations consummate each other.

While I'm making suggestions, here's another one. Over at The Journeyman Philosopher, Paul has written an excellent book review of Above Us Only Sky by Don Cupitt. Both of these posts have been added to my Tumble Log.

Climate Wizard

For those of you who, like me, believe that climate change/global warming is here to stay, here's part of an article I read on The Daily Green last night:

On the heels of a National Wildlife Federation report that showed how we can expect more extreme heat waves, thanks to global warming, and in the midst of damaging California wildfires that are among the best indicators of climate change, The Nature Conservancy has published a first-of-its-kind calculator that lets you see just how global warming will affect you in your state: The Climate Wizard.

This is among the first Web-based tools that gives people access to information that has been widely available publicly, but largely locked up in dense pdf documents.

One conclusion: The American Heartland -- Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa -- is in for some serious changes, on the order of a 10-degree jump in average temperature by the end of this century. (Since the last Ice Age, the Earth's temperature has increased about 15 degrees, so that's nothing to sneeze at.)

"The state-by-state, country-by-country temperature projections are part of a new tool called Climate Wizard that allows people to use an interactive map to explore past and projected climate change data on their computers," The Nature Conservancy states in its press release...

I checked out the wizard myself. It indicates that temperatures and precipitation will increase in the South Bend area over the next 100 years. Oh goody, just what we need here -- even more rain!

If you live in Egypt, the wizard indicates your temperatures will rise by 2 - 3 degrees by 2050. If you call Maine home, your temperatures stand to rise by 5 - 7 degrees in the same time period. And, if you happen to live in Alaska or Hawaii, you're out of luck because neither state is listed. That's one of the drawbacks with this tool for now; not every state or country made it into the database.

Notwithstanding the shortcomings, I really hope a lot of people take a look. It brings home the message of climate change in a more personal manner. It's one thing to read or listen to scientists talk about things in general terms. It's quite another, however, when you get to see how climate change might affect your life where YOU live.

Verse 47: Seeing Without Looking

Verse Forty-Seven
Without opening your door,
you can open your heart to the world.
Without looking out your window,
you can see the essence of the Tao.
The more you know,
the less you understand.
The Master arrives without leaving,
sees the light without looking,
achieves without doing a thing.
~Stephen Mitchell translation ~

Because we have been bestowed with eyes and all the optical elements that go with them, we often become fixated on this one method seeing. And so, our lives are filled with blogs, books, movies, paintings, photographs, lists, physical appearances, colors -- the window-dressings of life.

But there is so much more to vision than simply looking upon things through our lenses! People who are legally blind know this intuitively, but it's a lesson we of sight so easily forget.

To know oneself, our eyes really aren't much help. Oh sure, we can gaze upon our visage in the mirror, but that only provides clues to the exterior self. In order truly to come to know who we are and what we stand for, we must look with our heart, our spirit and our very essence.

Of course, a lot of us become very uncomfortable looking within because we often don't like what we see. It's much easier to gaze upon external eye candy because we can do so without any kind of bona fide personal attachment or a feeling that we need to undertake the necessary work to change things.

But, when we find the courage to look within, we begin to understand that what exists inside of us is a picture of the world around us or as Nina Correa states it,

Everything that's happening in the world around you is also happening right within you. Observing your physical body, you can see that there's a war being waged all the time - your white blood cells are constantly doing battle with any infections that invade your body. Your mind works constantly to solve any problem, whether perceived or illusionary. Your emotions can turn just as easily from a blocked traffic jam to a free-flowing drive down a country road. If you can't understand what's going on within you, how can you possibly hope to understand what's going on in the world around you? The nature of Dao is as unexplainable and mysterious as every one of the things in this world, and within you.

In many ways, our own anger can mirror a storm. As our frustration begins to bubble up, it's not unlike thunder rumbling off in the distance. When our temper and angst reach a particular point, it comes streaming out of us like a torrential downpour. As we stomp and fume, it's not that much different than streaks of lightening and claps of thunder. In time, our fury dissipates just as storm clouds break and the sun comes shining through.

If you want to know the world, you must know yourself first. If you don't, then everything -- including your own heart -- will be foreign and unintelligible to you.

This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.