Not in the Big City

One of the blessings with living in a small town in a rural county near forested hills -- far from the hustle and bustle of big city life -- is the routine elements of wildlife that, when seen, amount to little more than a shrug of the shoulders. In this neck of the woods, it's not uncommon in the least to see a coyote crossing the road or a bald eagle flying overhead. Almost any day I desire it, I can watch raccoons feeding or can listen to the hoot of an owl.

The other day I saw two white-tailed deer in the middle of town munching on some greenery. Both were standing catty-corner from South Bend's one grocery store and across the street from city hall. They barely noticed the vehicles moving up and down the street and went about their time feasting on a tasty lunch. After a while, they sauntered up a driveway and then passed between two houses on their way up the hill towards our local hospital.

There have been numerous times -- both day and night -- when I can look out one of the windows in my abode to see one or more deer in my neighbor's yard or in the field across the street. On one such occasion, I walked out in the misty dusk and stood not more than ten yards from several deer. I bet I stood there for ten or fifteen minutes. They didn't seem bothered by my presence at all -- I let them know I was a vegetarian! It was such a communal experience. It felt like I had a glow the rest of the night.

While neither Della nor I have ever seen deer in our front yard, we know they visit the many native plants that have been planted for their enjoyment. Many mornings we can find hoof prints in the bark mulch and they seem particularly fond of our coastal strawberries!

We have yet to see any evidence of mountain lions or black bears, though I know they haunt the hills beyond town. That said, I don't think I'll be too surprised if one night I find a bear visiting the lush green bushes at the northeast corner of the yard. They are bursting with salmonberries and everybody 'round here knows how much bears love 'em.

My only hope is that my cats and those of my neighbors are indoors that night!

Daodejing, Verse 37

Daodejing - Other Voices

Doing Without Doing
Tao abides in non-action,
Yet nothing is left undone.
If kings and lords observed this,
The ten thousand things would develop naturally.
If they still desired to act,
They would return to the simplest form of substance.
Without form there is no desire.
Without desire there is tranquility.
And in this way, all things would be at peace.
- Verse 37, Tao Te Ching (translated by Gie-Fu Feng and Jane English)

Saturday afternoon, after running a multitude of errands gleefully on a warm, sunny April morning, I grabbed my favorite book and decided to take a moment to read whilst appreciating God's gift of nature on display in our backyard. My favorite book, The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff, awaited me on the back porch as I opened to one of my favorite chapters entitled "The Pooh Way". No matter how many times I go back to this book, which explains many Taoist principles through the tales of everyone's favorite simple bear, it seems to resonate ever-powerfully with me. And sitting on back porch, I once again became enraptured in the Taoist principle of Wu Wei. That is, "without action".

To clarify, Wu Wei more specifically means "without interference or meddlesome action". After reading the chapter and staring into the trees for several minutes, I realized that for some time, I've been afflicted with a case of being Far Too Concerned with things. We can all have a tendency to try to do too much to make square pegs fit in round holes, or even to make round pegs fit better in their own holes instead of just letting them fit or not fit. My own actions are sometimes unnecessary and possibly even detrimental! Have you ever had an experience where you try too hard to make something work a certain way? Or maybe you find yourself thinking too much about making something work just right instead of just realizing that Things Are as They Are and going with the flow of it? Hoff puts it this way:

"Wu Wei puts the round peg in the round hole and the square peg in the square hole. No struggle, no stress. Egotistical Desire tries to force the round peg into the square hole. Cleverness develops craftier ways of making pegs fit where they don't belong. Wu Wei doesn't think about it. It just does it. And when it does, it doesn't appear to do much of anything. But things get done."

The idea behind Wu Wei is to Do Without Doing. Or do without Over-doing. Often times it is best to simply allow nature to take its course instead of trying to impose selfish will and desire on a situation or a person. So often... we just know better. Well, we assume we do. We think we know how things should work, will work, or must work. And they very well may... but they may not. But the point is that that is okay. Just let it be. Let it happen and go with the flow.

This is not an invitation to laziness and indecision. As the verse states, "Tao abides in non-action, Yet nothing is left undone." The key is to take things as they come and accept situations as they are. Then you can work with circumstances, rather than against them. Trying to force things to be the way you think they should be doesn't often work, and can do far more harm than good. We Desire to make things happen quicker, easier, and precisely. But when you let a situation unfold naturally, it can turn out in a way you couldn't have created or predicted. But it may just be better than you could have possibly planned.

But wait! That's not all! This principle has an added benefit: less stressors! It may take some getting used to, but as you accept that things and people will take their course and you Just Do and let things Just Be, more and more you'll find things are much easier to deal with as they come up. There's a saying that goes, "Let go and Let God". If you do believe in God or any overseeing force holding the universe together, there's a confidence in knowing that if you just do things as they come rather than over-thinking and trying too hard, things just work. The confidence of no longer having to be concerned with making a situation exactly what you think it needs to be or making people Behave as you believe they should.

Take time to breathe and allow life to happen for awhile...
~ from Just Bright, author Matt Bright, original post date: 4/21/09 ~

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

The Sayings - If Reading Is Doing

The Sayings of Chen Jen

Number Forty-Three
If reading is doing
being may come.

If reading is thinking
then so it will end.

My words are demanding
for they have but one end
to experience understanding
of what can never be known.

This post is part of a series. To view the index, go here.

Hooray for Nothing

You cannot hurt a space. You can pinch it, you can punch it, you can poke it, you can pry it, but you cannot hurt it. It cannot be rejected, ignored, cursed, or discriminated against for it knows no pain. In emptiness, nothing gets rejected, ignored, cursed, or abused.

~ from Do Nothing: Peace for Everyday Living: Reflections on Chuang Tzu's Philosophy by Siroj Sorajjakool ~

It's funny how we consider space to be nothing. Space connects everything to everything, yet all we see is separation.

I suppose this difference in perspective partially can be explained by the fact that, from the point of view of the ego, only entities that we can knowingly affect have value. As Siroj so aptly states, we can do quite a lot of things to space, yet we can't see if these actions result in any effects. Since we can't quantify, measure or study nothing, we consider it of no import.

But it is in nothingness, space or emptiness that we can lead lives not beset with the emotional pain we each suffer from. If we chose to follow the example it provides, then we would never feel the sting of rejection nor the pain of abuse.

This is an interesting concept -- one that is quite congruent with the Sayings of Chen Jen -- and I will need to ponder it more.

The Sayings - Let All Be

The Sayings of Chen Jen

Number Forty-Two
Let all be.
It most assuredly
is.

Let all go.

This post is part of a series. To view the index, go here.

Spotlight on Changing Places

In this short series to date, all the blogs I've shown the spotlight on are written by males. In this case, I'm going to feature one of the many quality female writers. Donna Woodka is the blogger behind Changing Places and I have followed her blog for quite some time. She's the person who first introduced me to 365 Tao: Daily Meditations by Deng Ming-Dao and she utilizes his writings often as a springboard.

She doesn't post as frequently on her blog as she used to and she explains as much in her About snippet.

Changing Places is about the process of creating and opening up to change. My current interests include spiritual change, business change management, cultural change, artistic change, Tao Te Ching (The Way of Change), interpersonal and relationship change, and lifestyle change. It is also my personal blog, so my own life changes get top billing. The change in social media means a lot of my activity is now on Facebook, Google Reader and Twitter, so follow me there to see more.

Still, while the blogging frequency itself has been diminished, the quality of her writing has not! For example, on the last day of May, she reposted a wonderful piece on Compassion. In it she wrote,

My greatest problem with becoming truly compassionate is letting go of my own ego. I can be compassionate towards others, but I make the mistake of expecting compassion in return. I need to learn to accept that others are not always compassionate, that they will not show me the same courtesy that I show to them, and be ok with that.I forgive others for their transgressions towards me, but others have not forgiven me, and yet, I must still feel compassion for them. My sadness these days is that they cannot open their own hearts enough to forgive, cannot let go of their prejudices. But, Tao teaches acceptance, and acceptance of others own hardness is one of the most difficult things to feel compassion towards.

It is the problem I see in America today. Those who claim compassion also shout for war, and the death penalty, and intolerance of others actions. How can they be like this? If they believe in compassion, they must feel it towards all others, not just those that agree with them and that they like, or those who they see as thinking the same way they do and believing in the same religion. For the sake of their version of heaven, they are willing to put the rest of us in hell. That is not compassion, that is hypocrisy.

And yet…. I must show compassion for them, and not judge them, and understand them and care about them in spite of how they act. This is difficult, but it must be done. Otherwise, I become the hypocrite that I detest.

Compassion, true compassion, is indeed a difficult thing, until we accept that all are one.

See what I mean? You can't go wrong whether you visit her blog, Facebook page or Twitter feed.

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

93 - One Step Too Far

Every achievement brings a wonderful dividend of confidence. We try greater and greater ventures, until we are brave enough to accomplish undertakings far beyond what the average person imagines. When we reach that level of consummate skill, it is a time of both celebration and extreme caution. We are justified to rejoice, for this is the level of ability that we have been striving so long and hard to attain. It is also the time for caution because the foolish will eventually try something too great for them to handle. Pride and passion will lead to their downfall.

~ from 365 Tao: Daily Meditations, Entry 93 ~

There are two veins that run through classic Taoist thought that, at first glance, seem to run afoul of the other. The first is to avoid the edges by keeping to the middle path. The other is the importance of discipline to develop mastery of a particular skill or life itself.

In order to master anything, we must push ourselves beyond that point we see as our outer boundary. We must have the courage to trip and stumble along the journey and to gain wisdom from our errors in thought, judgment and action. And make no mistake about it! Every skilled person has made a boatload of mistakes along the way.

So how does one push themselves to greater heights while, concurrently, staying near the middle of the path? For me, the secret behind this seeming contradiction is that we too often view the middle as a static state. Each time we increase our ability in any area, the middle ground shifts from where it was. Each step toward a higher plane of consciousness moves the middle higher too.

The middle path should serve as our home base. From time to time, circumstances dictate that we travel away from home to test our abilities. As we succeed, our home base moves in step with us. After completion of each new level of understanding, we need to return to hearth of home before venturing out again.

New Voices Along the Path XIX

With this post, I'll finally be caught up with introducing you to all the new links added in the Taoist Wanderers section in the right sidebar. I hope I don't allow myself to get so far behind again! If you know of a Taoist-based link not shown here, drop me a line.

Belief in Life
I can't copy and paste their introductory statement because they've disabled this function because of worries of plagiarism. They advertise themselves as the "New Naturalist Assembly" which is a combination of Daoist, Existentialist, Naturalist, Objectivist and Pantheist thought.

81 Months in Contemplation
I am a soul that recently became aware that it was. Nothing has spoken to me as clearly as Teilhard de Chardin’s quote “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

I am writing this blog for many reasons. I love to write and I missed it. I am capable of transforming myself so I want to start today. Based on results, I don’t finish what I start. I will finish this. I fear confrontation and criticism. I will take comments, ackowledge them, learn from them, and learn to let go.

Houston Elemental Tai Chi
Tai Chi Chuan (taijiquan, or taiji) is an ancient Chinese martial art, practiced by most as a health exercise. Characterized by slow, flowing movements that can approach a state often called "meditation in motion", it offers a gentle, nonagressive approach to strengthening muscles and cultivating chi (qi), the essence of our breath/life energy.

Too much of modern life is devoted to rushing through our "multitasking" activities. For practitioners, taiji is the perfect counterpoint: to slow down, de-stress, and re-focus our lives as we regain a connection to our inner being. This is not some spaced-out sense of feeling good: it provides very real and noticeable physical benefits, external as well as internal.

Meeting the Shadow
Just a simple blog about moving through midlife as a recently (to be) divorced man, nearing age 50. Mixes in a little Taoism along the way.

Tao Ox
A look at a variety of martial arts, Taoist beliefs, and what ever else comes up.

Taoist Path
The Taoist Path School of Alchemy has been designed as an interactive platform for Master Pedram Shojai to be able to teach, consult with, and update students of Qi Gong. Pedram will be conducting a number of seminars and retreats throughout the year and this website will be the “glue” which will allow students to continue learning from home.

Non-English Blogs
Daoism (Romanian)
Urban Daoist (French)

The Sayings - Life and Death Are Equal - 1

The Sayings of Chen Jen

Number Forty-One
Life and death are equal.
Life and death are one.

The life you have
wants life to have
so gladly let life be.

But death will come
and death will have
what death will have
so gladly let death be.

This post is part of a series. To view the index, go here.

Daodejing, Verse 36

Daodejing - Other Voices

...The constantly changing seasons are a powerful metaphor, reminding us that life works in opposites and cycles. The earth gives us both the frigid extreme of winter and its opposite—sweltering summer. Maybe if I patiently endure winter (sipping frequent hot cocoa along the way), then I will value spring that much more when March rolls around. I’ll never miss an opportunity to be outside—and trust me, I usually don’t.

The existence of natural contrasting forces illustrates a fundamental Taoist principle, symbolized by the Yin Yang image. I remember seeing Yin Yang on earrings, posters, pins, and shirts but never knowing what it meant. Now I realize that it embodies two opposing energies which, together in harmony, create the world. The Yang is the active force: bright, pure, and stimulating while the Yin is the receptive force: dark, passive, and tranquil. You need both Yin and Yang to create anything of substance. In Taoist thought, Yin and Yang literally create the Tao, or the underlying force which creates and guides the universe. According to the I-Ching, the Book of Changes, “As the Yang and the Yin displace one another, change and transformation arise.” Although the Chinese philosophers might view notions of good and bad as human constructs, sometimes you have to endure the unpleasant to fully savor the pleasant. As the cliché goes, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Let us briefly consider an example. I can’t have a genuinely healthy meal unless I take the time to cook it and purchase the right ingredients. This is a balancing act—the benefit of a wholesome, delicious meal requires a sacrifice of equal proportion on my part. However, if I spend money on cheap ingredients, like using canned tomatoes instead of farm fresh tomatoes, then I sacrifice nutrition and taste in order to save money. And often cheap food incorporates questionable production methods, such as factory farming, so someone or something pays for the cheap price tag, while the production shortcuts comes boomerang back to us in the form of lower nutrition and hormone-laced food. In short, if I bring less to the table, I get less in return.

This balance of give and take is the quintessence of Yin and Yang. If imbalances exist, nature will find a way to correct them. If you burn yourself out working on projects (too much Yang), then you will probably crash for the whole weekend afterwards (corrective Yin). Nothing can exist without a “flip side.” Every brilliant idea requires hard work to actualize it. Every Saturday spent partying or relaxing requires a Sunday of homework and meetings. And all money earned requires a proportional amount of your time. If you think you’ve found a way to take a short cut-like taking a diet pill instead of exercising-the balances of the universe will surely catch up with you when you start experiencing the side effects. Verse 36 of the Tao Te Ching (the primary Taoist text) states, “To overthrow someone, first exalt them; To take from someone, first give to them.”

Examine your families’ and friends’ personalities. Each one of them has both pleasant and unpleasant traits. For example, perhaps your friend is tons of fun to hang out with, but she’s flaky. Maybe you have a teacher who is a brilliant thinker but is intimidating, or a kind, friendly coworker who talks your ear off. Every positive trait has a shadow-its complementary opposite. Likeable people can be arrogant, quiet people are often thoughtful, and even cruel people could be intelligent or determined.

Accepting the necessity of opposites creates a sweet sense of tolerance during times of unpleasantness and cultivates the wisdom that we reap what we sow. When homework overloads us, when friends and parents clash with us, or when the sky is dim with clouds, we can remember that this isn’t the apocalypse. Like the changing seasons, our lives will forever cycle between winter and summer. As the Tao Te Ching states, “It is the flow of nature, an eternal decay and renewal. Accepting this brings enlightenment, ignoring this brings misery.”
~ from Sun Drenched Clarity, author Michelle Martin, original post date: 1/29/10 ~

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

Beyond the Logical Mind

A man went fishing, and a bystander observed him measuring every fish he caught. If it was longer than eight inches, he would throw it away. When asked what he was doing, the fisherman replied, "My frying pan is only eight inches wide."

~ from Do Nothing: Peace for Everyday Living: Reflections on Chuang Tzu's Philosophy by Siroj Sorajjakool ~

I think this brief story well captures the limitations that humankind places on understanding and knowledge. Like the frying pan, our rational minds have parameters that are defined by our finiteness and, when we try to speculate on the infinite, we try to confine it within the borders of logic -- what our minds can fathom.

But, as Sorajjakool and many other Taoist authors have asserted, the nature of existence is beyond rational conceptualization. Each and every time we attempt to frame it in word and thought, we commit an injustice. We create a caricature of an essence beyond definition and come to treat this caricature as reality itself.

For me, this is one of the reasons why I find the Zhuangzi so much more difficult to write about than the Tao Te Ching. While the latter speaks in metaphors -- which can more easily be teased out with congruent metaphors -- the main vehicle for the former is the paradox. The logical mind can get a partial grip on the words of Lao Tzu, but rationality is more a hindrance when trying to tackle Chuang Tzu.

The Sayings - There Was a Man

The Sayings of Chen Jen

Number Forty
There was a man
who saw a rat
and realized Unity.

My head is bald.
My nose is flat.
But through my words
who can tell
a rat I just might be.

This post is part of a series. To view the index, go here.

Peace

Regardless of a person's religious or philosophic persuasion, I hope this song resonates with you as much as it does with me.

The Sayings - What Difference Memories?

The Sayings of Chen Jen

Number Thirty-Nine
What difference memories
happy or sad?

In death all things are equal
and through this gate you soon
will pass.

Transcend this senseless caring.
Close the book.
Let the story go.
Let yourself be free.

This post is part of a series. To view the index, go here.

The Double-Edged Sword

There was once a community that lived in fear of a gang of thugs who lived on the outskirts of town. For the most part, they didn't cause too much overt trouble. The people put up with the gang solely because they brought fresh fruit to the town market each weekend.

One day one of the thugs came into town and started beating up people. Wielding a baseball bat, he smashed store windows, turned over trash cans and hit people as they scurried about. The small police force tried to corral him, but he was a huge brute and, to be frank, they were all scared of him. For a man of his size, he was also very shifty. Each time the police thought they had him cornered, he effortlessly eluded capture.

The police chief called a town meeting. "Folks, we can't seem to apprehend this fellow," he told the townspeople. "I know a lot of you are worried that his brothers-in-arms will soon join in and then no one will be safe." People nodded in agreement.

"So, we have a plan," he continued. "We believe the best way to head off an even worse disaster is to sneak out to the edge of town to capture the rest of the thugs while they sleep. If we can get the rest of the gang in jail, it will make it that much easier to deal with this one fellow causing all the havoc."

To his amazement, the townspeople protested. "Who will bring us fresh fruit then?" they cried in unison. "I need fresh fruit for my award-winning pies," screamed Sally Jabonski. "Without fresh fruit, less people will come to our town market and that will hurt our economy," said Mayor Dumplestinger.

The police chief threw up his hands. "If we don't arrest the gang now, it could bode serious trouble down the road."

******************************

This isn't a perfect analogy, but, for me, it's close enough to describe the situation in the gulf in terms of the debate for the deep water drilling moratorium. Though a deep water well is THE cause of the devastation hammering the people of the gulf, many are just as outraged that the federal government is not allowing other deep water wells to operate.

For this region, oil both is an ever-present environmental danger AND the economic lifeblood of their communities and households. So, while they rail against BP and this one solitary well, they are forced to accept the danger of other potential ecological catastrophes in order to put food on the table.

While I most assuredly support the moratorium -- safety first -- I can at least understand the rather schizoid position of far too many gulf residents: the very thing that may destroy their way of life is concurrently one of the chief means that built that way of life.

Like it or not, oil runs through their veins.

The Sayings - Drift. Meander.

The Sayings of Chen Jen

Number Thirty-Eight
Drift. Meander.
Ramble. Wander.

Aimlessly. Contentedly.

Cast off the lines!
The great Void awaits,
a vast and empty sea.

This post is part of a series. To view the index, go here.

Daodejing, Verse 35

Daodejing - Other Voices

The Role of Meditation in the Contemplative Approach to Mental Health
“Hold fast to the Great Form within
And let the world pass as it may
Then the changes of life will not bring pain
But contentment, joy and well being”
Tao Te Ching, Verse 35

My client walks in and begins crying; covering her face, she is looking down, searching for some thing, some words to identify her experience. She speaks in anxious circles, words revealing nothing but the space that she cannot find comforting. She admits that her life is “dominated by thoughts” and that she is constantly mining for a jewel that will explain what is going on.

As she seeks to find meaning, to understand, I feel her pain and suffering, but am also aware that I do not want to add to her experience with probing questions that would distract her. And I don’t wish to take away from her experience by offering soothing words that would only serve to temporarily mute her inner noise. Instead, I just sit with what is revealing itself, with what is arising in the present moment. In this being together, it is understood that nothing needs to change, that there is no pressure to interpret or to understand.

She squirms while watching me as we sit in this process of not adding to or taking away from her experience. She reports as she sits looking down, “It’s like I wake up and am in this body, and I wonder, ‘Is anything there if I’m not obsessing?’” She elaborates, “I’m looking for a mental formula that proves I exist, but I can’t find it!” She is genuinely curious about her experience of confusion.

In this act of being present to one another (without an agenda that something needs to be different) there is a sense of completion despite her conflict, her anxiety, and her questions regarding what signifies an experience of being alive. This sense of completion arises from not needing to change or to maintain a condition. Just like in meditation, we view our thoughts, our emotions, and our sensations as passing conditions and don’t need to do anything about them.

The two main benefits of meditation are the attainment of another way of perceiving and relating to reality and more enjoyment in life in general. These benefits are cultivated by quieting the mind through concentration and insight practice. Sitting quietly, we place all of our attention on watching the breath go in and out. A few seconds later, we notice our leg feels stiff, our nose is running, there is a pain in our forehead. We are wondering what’s for dinner. We notice we’ve been thinking with a sense of dread that there may be a problem in our relationship. As soon as we see we are distracted, we gently pull our attention back to the breath.

There is no attempt to explore or understand any of the experience that distracted us. Instead of analyzing any “thing,” that arose, we work with the structure of the mind itself by strengthening its ability to not attach to the passing phenomena of experience with any emotional reactivity. The ability to learn how to rest and to feel at home in our body is cultivated in the practice of meditation. This practice is an invaluable adjunct to the psychotherapeutic process...
~ from GoodTherapy.org, author Linda Jame, LCSW, original post date: 2/24/10 ~

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

Wishing for a Nightmare

The one element that could make the BP oil spill even WORSE than it currently is would be a major tropical storm in the gulf. A hurricane of any magnitude -- even a large tropical depression -- would send all the ships and people to shore. The weather system would most likely hasten and magnify the oil surging inland. Any sane and compassionate person would cross their fingers twice in the hopes that such a storm doesn't happen this year.

Yet, with that said, I have a sneaking suspicion that the higher ups in the Obama administration and the people at BP are indeed crossing their fingers...in the hopes that a major storm does hit the region and sooner before later!

A hurricane or other major system would provide both entities with needed political cover that both desperately desire. The airwaves would be filled with officials wringing their hands telling us that they were making tremendous progress and, maybe, were close to a solution, but Mother Nature robbed them of the ability to act.

While there is no question that there would still be much public anger regarding how the oil spill had made a bad situation worse, attention would turn to an outpouring of care and assistance for those impacted by the wind, rain and surf.

Yes, I realize this is a jaded perspective, but...

Winning and Selling Redux

I typically don't repost stuff that's appeared here before. I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with this tack; it's just not something I tend to do. Of course, with that kind of introduction, you must KNOW the item below is, in fact, a repost!

I've been rereading some of my first writings on this blog from 2005 in order to examine how my own thoughts have evolved. On some topics, I can see quite a bit of movement. In other cases, however, the movement is far more subtle.

The post below is one of the first ten to appear in this venue.

I've come to realize that one of the major communications problems we have in this country is the way different people conceptualize the world. There are two terms I often see in relation to the world of ideas that are foreign to me: Selling & Winning.

I believe that far too many people view ideas as commodities. It's their aim to package these "commodities" in bright packages, replete with a slick marketing campaign, in order to sell the "product" to the masses. Then, if enough people buy the "product", a person can claim victory (i.e., a win).

I don't share these views at all. I don't view ideas as commodities. For me, ideas are always evolving. They aren't static. They never become a finished product. As soon as an idea is shared with others, it morphs into something new. In other words, unlike a car or a missile or a loaf of bread, no singular individual owns ideas. They are part and parcel of the community domain.

This is very similar to the way Native Americans view Mother Earth. Back in the 18th & 19th centuries, the Great White Father was always trying to cajole and bribe Indian Tribes to sell [their] land. The Indians just looked at US negotiators as if they were stark raving mad. They would say something like, "Mother Earth belongs to all creatures. How can we sell you something that all of us already possess?"

Their point, of course, is that nobody can "own" the land. And the same can be said for ideas. If no one owns an idea, how can you sell it? If ideas belong to all as part and parcel of the public domain, why would anyone need to buy one?

The second term used frequently is "winning" or "win". I don't like that term at all. My problem with having a winner is that you must concurrently have a loser. Many of us (me included) often talk about win-win situations, but winning only has meaning if someone, somewhere loses. So, in reality, win-win situations don't exist UNLESS what we really mean is a WIN-WIN-lose situation.

Going further, I'm not interested in ideas that can be conceptualized as "winners". Winning is an amoral concept. For any idea to "win the day", it doesn't necessarily need to be moral, ethical, favorable, honest, fair, just or beneficial. All it needs is for more people to accept it (or more power brokers to accept it) than don't accept it. And, since winning is amoral, it leads us down the road of idea manipulation. It leads to a place where the marketing and the packaging of an idea is far more important than the idea itself. In fact, we often find that the marketing and packaging skew the basic premise of ideas so much that they rarely resemble the idea that one is trying to sell.

The Bush people represent a classic example of this concept in action. They market an idea as the Patriot Act and the true premise of the idea (hidden behind layer upon layer of marketing) has next to nothing to do with patriotism. They market another idea as No Child Left Behind and yet the implementation of the genuine idea itself is leaving children behind left and right.

So, I have no interest whatsoever in selling ideas to win. Both lead down a path I'm not interested in traveling. Any person, of course, has every right to continue utilizing these two terms, BUT it must be understood that I will be unwilling and unable to answer any questions someone may pose to me which feature these two terms as the overriding concepts. A person might as well ask me such questions in Swahili.

The Sayings - Who Are These Sages?

The Sayings of Chen Jen

Number Thirty-Seven
Who are these sages
selling the Tao?

What is this Tao
so easily imparted?

How does this great thronging
lead to the Tao?

I am amazed and bewildered
at how far we will go
to never once attend to
the heart of it all.

This post is part of a series. To view the index, go here.