Changing Places

The mind that turns ever outward
Will have no end to craving.
Only the mind turned inward
Will find a still-point of peace.

It seems people never tire of seeking new thrills. They crave entertainment, and they want newer, sharper experiences. Events do not even need to be actual — people are more than content with recreations, displays, and stimulating machines. Music must be amplified. An historic location must have museums, shops, and festivals. Life must have elaborate ceremonies with images, music, speaking, dining, and drinking.

Followers of Tao regard all reality as being projections of our minds. All phenomena are subjective and relative. Therefore, it is folly to further entangle ourselves in confusion. True reality lies in withdrawal from the swirling variations of the outside world. It lies in looking within and then slowly peeling away the layers of subjectivity. What will remain is not a core of objectivity, but a kernel of truth that absorbs rather than reflects. If we enter into this kernel, our minds cease to continue their habits of creating stimulating realities, and we enter into a silence that feels perfect and whole.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

I’m easily entertained. The comfort of a good book, a golden retriever curled at my feet, or a cat in my lap is quite entertaining. I don’t watch much television anymore, pretty much only listen to music while I’m driving, and am not much of a thrill seeker these days. Quiet meditation is a lot more fulfilling for me than an evening of noisy crowds.

From my artist friend John today:

A solitary crane
In the winter
Needs no jewels.

A single crane standing unconcerned in the in the falling snow is the very image of independence. It needs no one, it is secure in its environment, and it is capable of going through life alone. Its independence stems from self-sufficiency.

It needs no clothing, no wealth, no status. It is content, even glorious in its naked identity. So too with ourselves: There is no need for dazzling clothes, an impressive career, an awesome temple, not a bejeweled master. What we want is something far beyond such externals.

What facets of your personality are encumbrances? What personal aspects prevent you from being independent? These are the areas that will define your self-cultivation, for you must strive to stand alone. This doesn’t mean that you won’t ever join with others, but you will do so as an individual who will cooperate just as much as is necessary. In this way, you will never be lost in a group, and you will never fear being alone.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

I have an almost instantaneous reaction to the word “Independence” – it is a mix of happiness, joy, and pride. I love being independent, not needing to rely on other people. At times I am almost counterdependent, going too far in my independence, and I have to remind myself that our lives are always interwoven with those of others, unless we truly choose to become the hermit in the hills.

But I am reminded that I have and need others in my life, that I am not now and never have been fully independent, and probably never really will be. I think I will always need people to love in my life and care about, and want others to love and care about me as well. So perhaps the Tao and i will have to disagree a bit about needing full independence, just as the cranes above recognize that they need each other and dance in joy to attract each other.

I look now at how far our country has leaned in its independence, and I know it is a false house of cards. If China and Japan choose to call in our debt to them, the house falls down. Soon we’ll see the effects of becoming an arrogant nation, thinking we are above needing others.

We all start dependent as children, and some of us grow to be independent of most others as adults. But there is a higher value even than independence – interdependence – being able to be relied on by others and to rely on them as well. That is the value I strive for in my own life – to be someone others can count on, and know others well enough to identify and rely on those I can count on. Only in interdependence can everyone achieve together what no one could achieve alone.

I would like to see America become that kind of country as well. Not one that stands alone, but one that stands with others, and works with others to make everyone’s world a better place to live – not just the wealthy and connected, but all people, of all countries. Isn’t that a more worthwhile goal? Isn’t that worth trying to create in America, instead of a rogue nation that walks by itself, and lets the poor and sick starve while the wealthy live high on the hog? I think so, anyway.

Let’s celebrate our independence, indeed, but make the long-term goal to be able to celebrate interdependence day, and invite all countries to celebrate with us. What a sight that would be!

Fire feeding on fire.

Everyone understands that burning wood produces fire. But when fire feeds on fire, that is a rare condition that yields the greatest illumination. Two flames come together and yield light more magnificent than either could have given forth alone.

In the case of community activity, this means that when one cooperates with others, the accomplishments are greater than what the individuals can do on their own. Such a situation requires a harmony that will generate ideas, inspiration, as well as momentum for growth and action. If the combinations occur properly, the results will be like fire upon fire and will illuminate the world. Sometimes, the combination comes down to just two people. If two people join forces, neither sacrificing their individuality, but only lending their power to an endeavor, there will be a wonderful situation that will both benefit others and encourage greater growth in the two people as well.

Fire feeding on fire can also mean the swift exhaustion of all energies involved. One must be careful not to lose one’s own personality in any joining. The idea is integration, not assimilation. No matter what can be achieved in joining with others, it is wise to remember that we each walk this path independently. The ultimate truth of the journey and its final rewards are still for each of us to face alone.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

The Shining of the Sun and Moon

The way the sun works, it climbs into the sky in the daytime, thus illuminating the outward, then goes behind the earth at night, thus illuminating the inward. The way the moon works, in the first half of its cycle it produces light, thus illuminating the outward, then in the last half of its cycle it withdraws its light, thus nurturing the inward. Sun and moon, illuminating outside and inside, are all one light.

What I realize as I observe this is the Tao of using illumination. If people can use illumination outwardly, be careful about what they say and do, refrain from any inappropriate conduct, not dwell on anything but the Tao, not be distorted by the power of sensuality, intoxicants, and material goods, not be seduced by wealth or status, success or fame, not be stained by mundane feelings connected to worldly situations, then they can illuminate the outward as do the sun and moon.

If people can use illumination inwardly, do away with falsehood and maintain truthfulness, leave confusion and return to reality, learn to master emotions, clear up feelings, clean the mind, melt away the human mentality and activate the awareness of Tao, carefully avoiding even the slightest errant thought, then they can illumine the inward as do the sun and moon.

When the inward and the outward are illumined, and all is clear, you are one with the light of sun and moon. When developed to its ultimate state, this is a round luminosity which nothing can deceive, the subtle body of a unified spirit, pervading the whole universe. Then you have the same function as the sun and moon.

Awakening to the Tao
By Thomas Cleary, Liu I-ming

Illumination is an interesting word. it can mean to light from without, or from within. In this world, all our energy originally comes from without, from the sun. Within ourselves, all our energy comes from within, from inside ourselves. We can be illuminated by the light of the sun, or by our own inner energy. When we connect with other people, we can make use of even more energy to accomplish greater things.

But another part of illumination is to shed light on other things, to reveal that which was hidden and bring it out into the light. If we ourselves can cast a strong light, we can illuminate those things around us and bring them more clearly into focus, both for ourselves and those around us. Tao helps strengthen that inner light so you can see things more clearly.

Frederick Goodall, Returning from the well
Watercolor, 1867

Angles against lavender sky
Flung far across heaven’s vault.
Unfettered, swallows
Circle back to the nest.

Swallows are famous for their daring speed and the unpredictable path that they take in flight. Yet no matter how far they fly, they circle back to their nests.

The idea of returning is significant for all of us. We must work, explore, travel, and make our achievements in life. No matter how much we strain and how wide we wander, we all need some lodestone, some center from which to operate. For some of us, this is a place, a home. For others, it is merely withdrawal into our own hearts.

Followers of Tao believe that there is a core spirit to which each of us should return. This core spirit is increasingly obscured by our own thoughts and the complexity of civilization. All education, while a necessary evil, is a stain upon the primal soul. Therefore, returning is a process of simplification that throws off the unnecessary problems of socialization. One gradually peels back the layers and makes one’s way back to the unsullied, pure inner person. The time to do this is long, and one needs a great deal of guidance and self-cultivation to achieve it, but until one returns to the natural state, one cannot truly hope to be one with Tao.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

Today is indeed a day of returning for me. We’ve returned to our home to San Diego, after getting my sister-in-law and her husband movied in to their new home in Tucson. I get to return to my blog posting and my normal daily rtoutines. Spring is returning to San Diego, bringing out all the flowers. So I’ll be out in my garden, which is one of my ways of returning to a more natural state.

I started reading Antonio Damasio’s The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness” on the trip home. In it he talks about core consciousness and the core self, as opposed to the autobiographical self. He describes the core self as “a transient entity, carelessly re-created for each and every object with which the brain interacts.” I read that and thought that is the Tao way of seeing, where we see each object we come into contact with as if we are seeing it for the first time. And I think of T.S. Eliot’s poem:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

T.S. Eliot — “Little Gidding” (the last of his Four Quartets)

I think what Tao is about is returning to the core self, the real self that exists without all the crap day to day living piles on top of us. To live without regrets about the past, without expectations about the future, just enjoying where we are now, being content with who we are and what we are doing, no matter what that is. That is the goal of studying Tao, for me, for now.

The painting is by Cynthia Bux, Mooroopna, Victoria. It represents the coming together of groups of people at a waterhole. Each of the images is representative of a group of people from different parts of the Australian continent. The eggs of each group represent the birth and growth of knowledge which is shared when people come together.

__________

Rain dripping from eaves
sounds nature’s poetry.
We speak and write to
Explain ourselves.

Knowledge of Tao lodges in the same part of the mind as poetry. That is why the ancients expressed themselves in verse: There is the same quick perception.

When we are in touch with Tao, it is not our academic learning that is speaking, but the spirit of Tao itself. The old texts are very specific about this. That is why there is such a vast difference between the words of scholars and the words of a practitioner, just as the words of academics differ from the words of poets.

At the elementary stages of study, we need to articulate our experiences and let Tao flow through us. Followers of Tao frequently use writing, art, and even poetry as tools for self-discovery. By articulating their experiences, it helps them to understand the stages they are going through. Once they can do this, it satisfies and neutralizes their rational minds. The process clears away intellectualism and leaves the true Tao, which is not subject to words or images.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

articulation
n 1: bringing articulatory organs together so as to shape the
sounds of speech
2: the shape or manner in which things come together and a
connection is made [syn: join, joint, juncture, junction]
3: expressing in coherent verbal form; “the articulation of my
feelings” or “I gave voice to my feelings” [syn: voice]
4: (anatomy) the point of connection between two bones or
elements of a skeleton (especially if the articulation
allows motion) [syn: joint, articulatio]
5: the act of joining things in such a way that motion is
possible

I particularly like #5, joining things in such a way that motion is possible… that is how I think about Tao. Tao shapes things so they can come together in ways that make movement, or change, possible. Tao is the force of change, we are the point of connection. Tao brings us together and we communicate with each other to shape our world and create changes in it.

I love the image I found for this posting – it just speaks Tao to me…

I’ll be off for a few days to help my sister-in-law and her husband in their move to Tucson. San Diego has become too expensive for them, so they sold their house here and are buying one in Tucson today.

Yahoo! News – U.S. Troops Deaths in Iraq Top 1,500

The number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq (news – web sites) has topped 1,500, an Associated Press count showed Thursday after the military announced the deaths of three Americans, while car bombs targeting Iraqi security forces killed at least four people in separate attacks.

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All that we experience is subjective.
There is no sensation without interpretation.
We create the world and ourselves;
Only when we stop do we see the truth.

The world exists, but we cannot truly be one with it in our normal modes of consciousness. Our minds know the world by constructing conclusions from the data of our senses. All that we know is filtered and interpreted.

Therefore, there is no such thing as objectivity or direct knowledge of the world. Everything is relative because we are each condemned to our particular vantage points. As long as we all have different perspectives, as long as perception relies on our senses, then there cannot be an absolute truth. All knowledge from experience, valuable as it may be, is imperfect and merely provisional.

Inner truth is only glimpsed by disconnecting the mechanism of interpretation. If we can withdraw the activities of the senses and isolate that part of the mind responsible for filtering sensory input, then we can temporarily shut off the ongoing process of interaction with the outside world. We will then be in a neutral place that is wholly turned inward. We are left with an absolute state, entirely without distinction or relativity. This is called nothingness, and it is the truth underlying all things.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

We all think we are objective about the world, but we are really all subjective. I chose engineering as a career because it was “more objective” than music and theatre arts, my other major interest at the time. But the politics and subjective opinions of those around me were still there, even if cloaked in more scientific terms. I was still subject to what others thought of me, even though what I did was as good as anyone else’s work.

There is little we can do in this world without being subjected to the opinions of other people. But the world, the universe, the Tao, is not subjective. It is objective. It exists, with or without us. All that we can do is to live our lives as though they matter, even if objectively, it matters little if we are here or not.

It is our interpretation of events and the world around us that determines how we live. The more we live in harmony with the objective world, the world as it really exists, the less we will suffer. We will enjoy our lives more, be happier, be more fulfilled. We don’t have to always be subject to what our senses deluge us with. We can retreat to nothingness, to quiet, calm, and stillness, and be renewed. Then our daily lives become a joy rather than a challenge, as each day is created anew, from nothingness.

In the beginning, there was not the light or the darkness. There was the breath. The slow and steady breath of life emerging from the water – breathe in – the first lesson of life. Breathe out – the second. The third – don’t stop breathing. Even in the womb, we breathe, learning to work the lungs so they are ready when we emerge into the air.

The air feels cold after the warmth of the water. The cold hits all the skin’s nerves, almost painful. And another lesson occurs – cry for help. Cry for a warm body next to yous, a warm blanket wraped around you, warm arms holding your shivering, helpless body.

And another child is born.

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