Changing Places

My poor kitty Willis is in the kitty hospital tonight with a bladder infection… I feel like I’m waiting for one of the kids to come home….

Lending Standards Plumb New Depths
“Their primary lending unit, World Savings, is now offering on owner-occupied homes 90% loan-to-value, no-income-verification, cash-out refinances into negatively amortizing, adjustable-rate mortgage loans. There is no liquid-reserve minimum, nor is there a stated-minimum credit score. This type of loan was not available even through the sub-prime private lending market just five years ago. Today it is being made available by the company that has built a reputation for soundness, ethics and character that makes Warren Buffet[t] pale in comparison. Do ya think Herb and Marion know what is happening in their company? If the icons of business ethics are doing this what do you suppose the rest of the industry, comprised of mere mortals, is doing?

Scary stuff, indeed….

Norma Penchansky-Glasser, Pivotal Space

Some days, you and I go mad.
Our bellies get stuffed full,
Hearts break, minds snap.
We can’t go on the old way so
We change. Our lives pivot,
Forming a mysterious geometry.

Life revolves. You cannot go back one minute, or one day. In light of this, there is no use marking time in any one position. Life will continue without you, will pass you by, leaving you hopelessly out of step with events. That’s why you must engage life and maintain your pace.

Don’t look back, and don’t step back. Each time you make a decision, move forward. If your last step gained you certain amount of territory, then make sure that your next step will capitalize on it. Don’t relinquish your position until you are sure that you have something equal or better in your grasp. But how do we develop timing for this process?

It has to be intuitive. On certain days, we come to our limits, and our tolerance for a situation ends. When that happens, change without the interference of concepts, guilt, timidity, or hesitancy. Those are the points when our entire lives pivot and turn toward new phases, and it is right that we take advantage of them. We mark our progress not by the distance covered but by the lines and angles that are formed.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

“We mark our progress not by the distance covered but by the lines and angles that are formed.”

I really like that line. Sometimes people seem so focused on moving straight ahead, and don’t even realize they are actually sliding sideways, or that they’ve run into a wall and can’t possibly move forward any longer the way they are going. Or our lives take what seems to be a sideways turn, that ends up leading us in the right direction. Or we might realize that we need to turn a corner before we can start moving in the right direction again. How can you even move through the day without changing the direction you are walking? So why do we think life always moves forward in a straight line?

I try to get to yoga at least once a week (not very succesful at this lately, unfortunately…) and the great thing about yoga is moving your body through so many different positions and angles. If you can do a little more in the pose every week, you’re making progress. You might not always be in perfect form, but that’s ok too. I try to incorporate at least a bit of yoga into every day - a forward bend here, a spinal twist there, or going through a few sun salutions for a five minute workout. We need to move through different positions throughout the day, not stay in the same fixed position all day.

And so it is with our lives. We need to keep moving, and changing, and growing. If we become stagnant, too full, or try too hard to cling to something or someone that doesn’t want to be part of our lives anymore, we will go mad, or become unhappy, or snap. Yeah, been there, done that, too. And things changed. And now, I’m happy, fulfilled, and no longer searching for anything outside of myself to make my life better. I am becoming the woman I’ve wanted, and each day, I can look at that poem, which is posted in my bathroom, and smile, because I am more that person every day.

Place the word Tao
Into your heart.
Use no other words.

Why do so many people seek foreign religions? Why are so many of our philosophies translations from other languages? Surely we are all human beings, with hearts and minds, two hands and two legs. Each of us needs spirituality, but why must we always look abroad?

People who investigate Tao ask whether they have to be Chinese to benefit from it. It is true that part of the study of Tao is strictly Chinese. It is also true that this Taoism has never been exported — unlike Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, or Judaism — and has never been preached beyond the Five Sacred Mountains of China. It is elitist, to protect itself from coarse unbelievers. But this Taoism is not the Tao you need.

The true Tao is of no nationality, no religion. It is far beyond the conceptions of even the most brilliant human being, so it cannot be the property of one race or culture. The need to understand Tao is universal; people just give it different names in their native languages. Tao is the very essence of life itself, so those who are alive always have the possibility of knowing Tao. It is meant to be found in the here and now, and it is within the grasp of any sincere seeker.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

A lot of us think we need gurus or spiritual guides to learn some mystical religion or have a spiritual experience. I think what we really want is a deep connection to the world, something that doesn’t feel artificial or superficial. We’ve been through the experience of the grand church services intended to awe and overwhelm us, and while exciting for a time, still end up feeling empty.

But Tao is all about being empty! It is about having room inside for the Tao to enter, to realize that when you are empty, you become a vessel for whatever awaits to fill you. And if you open to the Tao, that is what you become filled with. Whoever you are, wherever you are.

Of course, lots of other things will try to fill that space as well. Sometimes, people try to fill it with drugs or alcohol or another harmful substance. Sometimes they fill it with Christianity or another religion, which is fine. Sometimes they fill it with stuff, going on a material binge of thinking buying something new and shiny will make them feel better. Sometimes they fill it with other people, like my mom did for years, taking care of so many others while neglecting her own health and well-being. Some people fill it with work, never taking time for themselves or for family and friends.

Great things about Tao: It’s free, it’s easy to learn about (81 verses!) and yet you can study it for a lifetime, always learning something new, it takes as much or as little effort as you want to give it, and it will never try to run your life - it only tells you how things are, and you do with that what you will.

Not-so-great things about the Tao: Nobody tells you what to do, you have to figure it out yourself. People look at you funny when they ask about it and you just smile and say, “those who know, do not speak”, with that little Mona Lisa grin. (ok, I actually find that one amusing, realy) You get really distracted by little things like hummingbirds, which are fabulous little creatures, or staring at the pattern on the leaf of a plant you haven’t seen before. You find humor in things other people take very seriously, and end up laughing at odd times. You get new insights at weird times and find yourself writing them down or making drawings on all kinds of things. You can’t write a paragraph without having to pause and tickle a cat. It takes an hour to do a post on the Tao because you’re having too much fun playing with Google images….

Governor digs fixing potholes / San Jose crews destroy part of road for staged event

WHO WEARS WHITE PANTS TO FILL POTHOLES??????

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger traveled to a quiet San Jose neighborhood Thursday, and — dogged by protesters — filled a pothole dug by city crews just a few hours before, as part of an attempt to dramatize his efforts to increase money for transportation projects.

The choreographed press opportunity — at least the governor’s fourth recent event involving transportation issues — seemed aimed as much at thwarting the demonstrators who have followed Schwarzenegger for weeks as grabbing new attention for his proposal.

Schwarzenegger strode toward television cameras on Laguna Seca Way to the sounds of the Doobie Brothers’ “Taking it to the Streets,” while flanked by 10 San Jose city road workers wearing Day-Glo vests and work gear. After speeches by the governor and city officials, a dump truck backed up and unloaded a mound of black asphalt and, as television cameras recorded the moment, Schwarzenegger joined the work crew, taking up a broom and filling the 10-by-15-foot hole, later smoothed over by a massive roller truck.

“I’m here today to let everyone know that we’re going to improve transportation all across our state,” said Schwarzenegger, highlighting his proposal to fully fund Proposition 42 and restore $1.3 billion in transportation money to the current state budget.

The governor’s brief San Jose appearance, announced at the last minute, left some residents scratching their heads.

“For paving the streets, it’s a lot of lighting,” said resident Nick Porrovecchio, 48, motioning to a team of workmen setting up Hollywood-style floodlights on the street to bathe the gubernatorial podium in a soft glow.

Porrovecchio and his business partner, Joe Greco, said that at about 7 a.m. they became fascinated watching “10 city workers standing around for a few hours putting on new vests,” all in preparation for the big moment with Schwarzenegger.

But their street, he noted, didn’t even have a hole to pave over until Thursday morning.

“They just dug it out,” Porrovecchio said, shrugging. “There was a crack. But they dug out the whole road this morning.”

“It’s a lot of money spent on a staged event,” said Matt Vujevich, 74, a retiree whose home faced the crew-made trench that straddled nearly the whole street. “We still have the same problems. Everything’s a press conference.”

Fairfield County Weekly: Listening to Women About Abortion

Listening to Women About Abortion
A new wave of abortion rights activism is spreading across the country–from zines to documentaries– that focuses on telling women’s stories rather than spouting stale feminist aphorisms

by Jennifer Baumgardner - May 26, 2005
TARA TODRAS-WHITEHILL PHOTO
Feature

Aspen Baker was born in a trailer on the beach in San Diego on the third anniversary of Roe v. Wade . Her parents were “surfers, but surfing Christians,” said Baker, now 29, who was home-schooled. Her mother was a former Catholic, and Baker was raised in a non-denominational Christian church. Baker was pro-choice, but she also knew that she could never have an abortion herself. Just after she graduated from Berkeley, she learned she was pregnant.

“Initially, I believed I was going to be a mother and have the baby,” she said. She was living with roommates, working as a bartender–”Imagine the eight-months-pregnant bartender,” she laughed–and she sensed that the relationship she was in was not going to last. She would be a single mom. Two co-workers at the bar told her that they had had abortions and felt it was the right choice. While Baker gradually realized that she didn’t want to have the baby, the decision to have an abortion was hard.

“When I finally went, it was in a hospital, and I had a nice doctor who explained the procedure to me, and plenty of counseling beforehand,” she said. “I was so grateful for the positive medical experience, despite my ambivalence.”

She assumed that at some point, though, someone at the clinic was going to tell her how to get follow-up counseling. But no one did. “I didn’t bring it up myself because if it’s not something that they do, then I figured that my feelings were abnormal and would go away,” she said.

They didn’t. In fact, her confusion and sadness only increased. “I thought I’d never have an abortion–and now I had,” Baker said. “I questioned my moral beliefs as a human rights activist. I didn’t believe in the death penalty. I felt bad about the boyfriend, who had gotten back with his ex.”

When she told her parents, who were divorced, her mother refused to talk about the abortion. “When I told my dad, he cried all night and told me that this was something I would have to reveal’ to my husband someday,” said Baker, who admitted to feeling very alone. “I cried all of the time, but I didn’t want to burden my friends.”

Her father called her the next day to say he wanted to support her any way he could, he just hadn’t known what to do in the moment. Baker began looking for resources. All she could find were thinly disguised anti-abortion messages. As a feminist, she said, “I didn’t see anything that reflected my experience.”

Seeking resolution, she interned at CARAL–the California arm of NARAL, one of the country’s oldest abortion rights organizations. But when she raised the issue of the lack of emotional resources for women, she confronted blank faces. It was as if admitting that she was struggling with her feelings meant that she wasn’t really pro-choice, she said.

Eventually, Baker discovered several like-minded women and they founded Exhale, a non-judgmental post-abortion talk-line for the Bay Area, in 2000. The group tried to eliminate anything in their materials that might stop a woman from calling, including words like “feminist” or even “pro-choice,” even though Exhale is both.

“We didn’t know if we’d ever get a call,” recalled Baker. “But we got our first call the second night. It was from a father who wanted to know how to support his daughter.” Exhale now gets about 60 calls a month–around 10 percent are from men, often wanting to know what they can do to help a daughter or partner going through an abortion. In June, Exhale’s talk-line is going national….

I had two good friends and a relative who went through the awful choice of having an abortion. It’s only through excellent luck that I never had to have one myself - I seem to know my body’s timing well enough that I never got pregnant when I didn’t want to be.

My feeling is that this is the hardest decision a woman can have to make, and I feel deeply for those I know who had to make it. How anyone could feel they have any right to tell them they have no right to make that decision, I don’t know. I don’t understand those who want to control the lives of others. Well, actually I do, but then, I’ve been crazy enough to think I had any place telling other people what to do, once. I’m no longer crazy, though. And I certainly know enough these days to understand that everyone’s path is unique, personal and their own. We don’t live in other’s lives, we don’t know how they feel, and we can’t make their choices for them. Even if they are our friends, our relatives, or, yes, our children.

My niece just made a brave choice to have a baby by herself, and I fully support her. But I would have supported her if she decided not to have her baby as well. I’m proud of her, and always will be - she’s a great woman, and a brave one. As are those who must choose the other way. My heart goes out to any woman who had to choose whether or not to bring a new life into this world. They are all brave, courageous people. Who deserve the ultimate respect that we can give someone else - the freedom to choose for themselves the path their life must follow.

The great Tao is like a flood
It can flow to the left or to the right
The myriad things depend on it for life, but it never stops
It achieves its work, but does not take credit
It clothes and feeds myriad things, but does not rule over them
Ever desiring nothing
It can be named insignificant
Myriad things return to it but it does not rule over them
It can be named great
Even in the end, it does not regard itself as great
That is how it can achieve its greatness

Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 34

Spasms of molten rock
Piled a cone three miles high.
Rain and wind split a hundred towering fingers.
In time, trees strove for leverage in the fissures.
After a million years, condors and snakes took up residence.
Mighty rock, carved walls adorned with
Chartreuse and vermilion lichen –
Man yet more puny on those stones.
How long will it take to see Tao?
Until you no longer hold self-importance.

Compared to the massive movements of heaven and earth, compared to the immensity of geologic time, the greatest acts of humanity and their monuments are beneath significance. We climb the highest mountains, we dive to the depths of the sea, we fling ourselves as close to the sun as we dare, and we are not even on the scale of nature’s measure. In our egotism and our view of ourselves as the center of the universe, we imagine that our lives have some meaning and importance when placed beside the stars and mountains and rivers. They do not. We cannot hope to have any true meaning in the history of the universe. But we can know it better, we can be a better part of it.

If you want to know the force that keeps the sky blue, the stars burning, the mountains high and still, the rivers running, and the oceans flowing, then remove the veil that stands between you and Tao.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

It’s difficult to remember sometimes that, for all that we feel our lives are so important and signinficant, they are not even the blink of an eye in the passing of time. Not so long ago, dinosaurs ruled this planet and the largest mammal was a small shrew. Now, we think we rule the earth, but the simple reality is that the earth will still be here after all of us now alive are long gone. People fret about global warming and climate change, but earth has passed through many ice ages and tropical heat waves long before we were around. And the larger universe will still be around long after our sun dies a cold death.

The best we can do is to enjoy this life and try to make it as good as we can for as many around us as we can, and not treat others as insignificant, since they are no more so than we ourselves are. The smile you give to a passing stranger may be the only one they see all day, so don’t be afraid to be kind even if nothing seems to be returned to you. Recognize the other within those you meet, and know that they are just like you, in so many ways.

Namaste.

Ozy and Millie today….

Samsara

Red sea through pine lattice.
Islands kneel like vassals before headlands.
Rain clouds snag on coastal ridges.
Yarrow stands spectral in the lighthouse beam.

It is difficult to take in the details of a landscape all at once. Our eyes can only focus on one point at a time. We look near, then we look far. We look left, then we look right. Our view of any one subject, if it is too large, is never whole but is a composite image in our minds. The same is true in regard to our approach to Tao.

Tao is continuous, flowing, and changing, but there is no knowing it in a single view. We rely on composite images that we form in ourselves. For a beginner, glimpses of Tao will be random and fleeting. You will stumble on it from time to time, or you will see it in the brief spaces between events. For the mature practitioner, your composite view comes from training, technique, research, and the experience of self-cultivation. But even after years, it is impossible to take in the totality.

There is a way to know Tao directly and completely. It requires the awakening of one’s spiritual force. When this happens, spirituality manifests as a brilliant light. Your mind expands into a glowing presence. Like a lighthouse, this beacon of energy becomes illumination and eye at the same time. Significantly, however, what it shows, it also knows directly. It is the light that sees.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

I got the most interesting fortune just now…

“You will soon be crossing the great waters.”

So, intrigued by this, I started poking around on the internets….

The religions born in India share a common symbol of salvation as crossing the waters. The waters represent the painful existence in the world, plagued by ills, a continual passing from life to death in samsara. Tossed about on the turbulent sea, the wayfarer finds rest only on the
other shore, the firm ground of Nirvana.
In the Judeo-Christian scriptures, crossing the waters is also a symbol of salvation, drawn from the historical tradition of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea under divine protection and later crossing the Jordan River to reach the promised land.

Carry us across,
as by a boat across the sea, for our good.
Shining bright, drive away our sin.
– Hinduism. Rig Veda 1.97.8

The body, they say, is a boat and the soul is the sailor.
Samsara is the ocean which is crossed by the great sages.
– Jainism. Uttaradhyayana Sutra 23.73

Even if you were the most sinful of sinners, Arjuna, you could cross
beyond all sin by the raft of spiritual wisdom. –Hinduism. Bhagavad Gita 4.36

Strive and cleave the stream. Discard, O brahmin, sense-desires. Knowing
the destruction of conditioned things, be a knower of the Unmade. — Buddhism. Dhammapada 383

Few are there among men who go across to the further shore; the rest of
mankind only run about on the bank. But those who act rightly according to the teaching, as has been well taught, will cross over to the other shore, for the realm of passions is so difficult to cross. –Buddhism. Dhammapada 85-86

29. K’an / The Abysmal (Water)

above K’AN THE ABYSMAL, WATER
below K’AN THE ABYSMAL, WATER

This hexagram consists of a doubling of the trigram K’an. It is one of the eight hexagrams in which doubling occurs. The trigram K’an means a plunging in. A yang line has plunged in between two yin lines and is closed in by them like water in a ravine. The trigram K’an is also the middle son. The Receptive has obtained the middle line of the Creative, and thus K’an develops. As an image it represents water, the water that comes from above and is in motion on earth in streams and rivers, giving rise to all life on earth.

In man’s world K’an represents the heart, the soul locked up within the body, the principle of light inclosed in the dark–that is, reason. The name of the hexagram, because the trigram is doubled, has the additional meaning, “repetition of danger.” Thus the hexagram is intended to designate an objective situation to which one must become accustomed, not a subjective attitude. For danger due to a subjective attitude means either foolhardiness
or guile. Hence too a ravine is used to symbolize danger; it is a situation in which a man is in the same pass as the water in a ravine, and, like the water, he can escape if he behaves correctly. — I Ching

Fun stuff, no?

Kabo Peasants’ War, a 1989 group work by Our People’s Art Institute (Kyore Misul Yon’guso)

Old man:
Dissent is not disloyalty.
Be careful before you retaliate.
Your steel wrapped in cotton
May only be brittle bone wrapped in fat.

No one is a supreme authority. People seek leaders, priests, gurus, and hermits thinking that someone has a precise formula for living correctly. No one does. No one can know you as well as you can know yourself. All that you can gain from a wise person is the assurance of some initial guidance. You may even spend decades studying under such an extraordinary person, but you should never surrender your dignity, independence, and personality.

There is no single way to do things in life. There are valid paths, even though they may differ from the ways of respected elders. Diversity is good for tradition. Too often, elders confuse dissent with disloyalty and punish people for the crime of having a different view. They are no longer in touch with Tao but instead mouth self-serving convention. Perhaps the panic of their own impending death makes them clutch. When the leaders become repressive, it is a sign that their time is drawing to a close.

A saying about old masters was that they were like steel wrapped in cotton: They appeared soft on the outside but still held great power on the inside. We all hope for elders like that. But oftentimes, the old masters have lost their mandate of Tao. Then, when tested, they are merely brittle bone and fat. How can we respect such people?

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

There are so many people in America that I have lost respect for these days, I can’t keep count anymore. My dissent is quiet, but for me, it is effective. I live more simply than I can afford to, spend my dollars to buy from companies that treat their people and the environment well, buy organic products whenever possible, don’t bother with fancy clothes or makeup very often or any of the trappings most Americans seem to care for. I grow an organic garden with lots of native plants. I speak up about the events going on in the world and am honest about my own feelings in life, often to the point of losing people from my life who once called themselves my friends but proved otherwise. I support those people and causes that are working to create something better in this country and in the world. I raise my children to be independent, thoughtful people instead of mindless worker bees or consumers.

To me, dissent is not just attending a protest event or writing a letter to the editor or calling your Senator, alothugh those are good things to do when it’s needed. It is about how I live my life, the things I value, the lessons I teach my children and share with those around me. I had thought perhaps this posting would turn out much differently, full of angry words or my own personal disgust at what is going on in this country right now, but I find, instead, the calm center that knows my life as it is lived every day is my own best protest. To those who would have me mindlessly follow their God, or rather, their interpretation of their God in order to increase their own power over me and others, I simply say, you’ve failed. I think for myself, and live my own life, and that is what you hate most of all, isn’t it?

The ultimate dissent is simply knowing yourself.

Susan Seddon Boulet, 1986, Shaman Spider Woman

A warrior takes every person as an adversary.
He sees all their vulnerable points,
And trains to eliminate his own.
A sage has no vulnerable points.

A warrior takes everyone as a potential adversary. He assesses each person that he meets for their strengths and weaknesses, and he places himself strategically. No confrontation is ever a surprise. Protection, competition, honor, and righteousness are his principles.

He is the weapon. Therefore, a warrior trains body and mind to perfection. He knows that the average person has hundred of points where death can enter. For himself, he seeks to eliminate as many of his own vulnerabilities as possible. In combat, he defends one or two points, and the rest of his attention is devoted to strategy and offense. Yet no warrior can eliminate all vulnerable points. Even for a champion, there is always at least one. Only the way of the sage eliminates all weaknesses.

It is said that the sage has no points for death to enter. This makes the sage, who is perfect in Tao, superior to the warrior, who is merely skilled in Tao. The warrior accepts death, but does not go beyond it. The sage goes beyond concepts of protection, competition, honor, and righteousness, and has no fear of death. The sage knows that nothing dies, that life is mere illusion: Life is but one dream flowing into another.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

Most of us train in our lives as warriors. We think of life as a competition, and we set out to “win” things for ourselves. But the reality is that life is as much about cooperation as competition, and many of us don’t really know how to cooperate to produce the most common good, or even to get the things we really want from life. If we could just take them from someone else, it would be so much easier, it seems.

Perhaps what the sage understands is that there isn’t really that much of a need to compete, since there is so little that one actually needs in life, and if you have controlled your ego, there is little that you want, either. You learn to be satisfied with life itself, and draw your pleasure and happiness from the deep connection to life as a whole that you maintain. So life becomes more an experience of cooperation with the world around you, with others, rather than one of competition.

Don’t be fooled by the sage, though - they still know how to kick your ass if it’s necessary.

Courtesy squidblog…

Rubens, The Judgment of Paris

The accused stands helpless before the judge.
Pen is poised to determine right from wrong.
In one arbitrary stroke,
Life is suddenly decided.

Do judges have Tao? Dispassionate to the point of cruelty, making distinctions on the basis of arbitrary rules, can they be a part of a humanistic view of Tao? The answer depends on the context. If you are speaking of the Tao of nature-loving hermits, the answer is no. No one has the right to pass judgment on another. If you are speaking of society, however, those who follow Tao accept the necessity of set rules.

Those laws are the Tao of the society. Once you are in the world of people and away from the world of nature, you are immersed in dualistic distinctions. Then concepts such as righteousness and mercy have meaning. Judgment is the process of comparing ideas in order to find agreement or disagreement with the Tao of society. The facts must be thoroughly examined. Judges trust clearly and wisely apply distinctions. that which agrees is the truth.

In the same way, we are all compelled to examine the ongoing circumstances of our lives. That is part of the responsibility of being human. Embracing Tao will not exempt you from the need to render judgments and make decisions. We are both the ultimate judge and the accused. When your final day comes, you yourself must be the examiner. Did you do well? Or did you squander your precious existence? You must decide.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

“We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It’s one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it’s another to think that yours is the only path.” — Paulo Coelho

I’m not much of one for judging others. I tend to go more from my perceptions than my judgments. I can be very judgmental of myself at times, although I’ve pretty much gotten over that. I hate being judged by others. They can never see more than their own side of things, just as I can never see more than my side. But I think others see me as judgmental and critical at times, even when I’m trying not to be that way. I need to work more on my delivery, I guess.

As for judgment in our society right now, I think it’s crucial that we maintain judges who are as impartial as possible. Recent events have shown that impartial judgment is critical in our society right now, as evenly divided as it is by the moralistic side and the more liberal side.

But these are the kind of judges the right wants appointed now:

Justice Owen, along with Justice Janice Rogers Brown of the California Supreme Court, is now at the center of the partisan battle in the Senate over changing the filibuster rules. Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican leader, said Friday that the two state justices, whose confirmations have been blocked by Democrats, would be brought to the Senate floor as part of the fight over changing the rules.

Justice Owen was, by all accounts, a respected but little-known lawyer in Houston in 1994 when she was first elected to the State Supreme Court with Mr. Rove’s support and tutelage. Her experience up to then largely involved obscure legal cases involving pipelines and federal energy regulations.

At the time, Mr. Rove was helping to make over the Texas Supreme Court from a bench populated by Democrats widely viewed as favorable to the plaintiffs’ bar - the lawyers who sue companies - to the business-friendly Republican stronghold it is today.

Ms. Owen would probably never have had a chance to run for the Supreme Court, because everyone considered it a hopeless task to oppose the enormously popular incumbent, Justice Lloyd Doggett. But when a Congressional seat opened up suddenly, Justice Doggett, a Democrat, decided to leave the court and run for the House. Ms. Owen found herself the Republican nominee in a state turning increasingly Republican.

Mr. Rove, who had helped select her as the Republican candidate, helped raise more than $926,000 for her campaign, almost half from lawyers and others who had business before the court, according to Texans for Public Justice, a liberal group in Austin that tracks Texas campaign donations. Mr. Rove’s firm was paid some $247,000 in fees.
…
Even on the conservative, all-Republican bench that the State Supreme Court had become, Justice Owen occasionally stood out among her colleagues, sometimes in tandem with another justice, Nathan Hecht. In no situation was this more so than in cases involving the interpretation of a state law providing for a teenage girl to obtain an abortion without notifying her parents if she can show a court that she is mature enough to understand the consequences.

In one dissent, Justice Owen said the teenager in the case had not demonstrated that she knew that there were religious objections to abortion and that some women who underwent abortions had experienced severe remorse.

Speak out about how you feel about the importance of impartial judges in our society today by signing this petition

Neither drug-induced
Nor self-induced visions:
Pierce all visions,
To see the void.

Tao is not to be found through drugs or any external means. While you most assuredly will have visions, how will you know what they mean? No matter how vivid, no matter how seemingly profound, they must be understood in order to be useful. By contrast, meditation also brings visions, voices, feelings, and absolute certainties. But prior philosophical inquiry is essential preparation for these experiences. The practitioner can instantly fit new experiences into a frame of reference. There is no confusion, and one can distinguish the true from the false. After all, even the perceptions of meditation may leave room for doubt.

Not everything that one receives during spiritual inquiry is true. Some are deceptions, and one must be able to see through them. The form that visions take is a function of your own degree of mental sophistication. As such, they are still in the circumference of your mind. If you want to receive impulses from the true Tao, you should know that they do not come was visions. Receiving Tao is to enter into a state of consciousness. Followers of Tao may indulge in a spiritual vision for a time, but they eventually learn that there is something more important than the endless exploration of visions. The eventual object is to transcend all enslavement to perception. Only in attaining that state can one adequately judge reality.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

External visions and voices can be misunderstood. Even saints have misunderstood what God has said to them. Divine communications of an intelligible kind have to be filtered through the human psyche and one’s cultural conditioning. … Since one can never tell which percentage group a particular communication belongs to, if one follows these communications without discretion, one can get into all kinds of trouble. There is no guarantee that any particular communication to an individual is actually coming from God. — Open Mind, Open Heart, Thomas Keating

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens. — Carl Jung

It is only the women whose eyes have been washed clear with tears who get the broad vision that makes them little sisters to all the world. — Dorothy Dix

Because of the interconnectedness of all minds, affirming a positive vision may be about the most sophisticated action any one of us can take.” –Willis Harman

“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.” — Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)

I would give all the wealth of the world, and all the deeds of all the heroes, for one true vision. — Henry David Thoreau

“Seeing within changes one’s outer vision.” — Joseph Chilton Pearce

“Finally, I realized what makes my garden exciting is me. Living in it every day, participating minutely in each small event, I see with doubled and redoubled vision. Where friends notice a solitary hummingbird pricking the salvia flowers, I recall a season’s worth of hummingbird battles.” — Janice Emily Bowers, A Full Life in a Small Place, 1993

Ah, that last quote touches my heart… it so fits my own vision of my garden!

I tend to think of visions in terms of my perception of things I want to accomplish, more so than actual visions one might see as if in a dream. Meditation becomes a way to relax into a state of mind that lets you focus calmly and clearly on the life going on around you, and incorporate your own perception of what things ought to be like with the reality around you, rather than imposing your perceptions on the world at large. When I meditate, I can at times see colors and patterns, but I think of them more as optical illusions than anything else, things you see in a resting state or before falling asleep. I’ve had migraine headaches with the typical migraine swirl pattern, I’ve had cataracts and had them removed, so I’m pretty used to seeing things in different ways, quite literally.

I don’t feel especially enslaved to my own perceptions. I certainly know that others see things in different ways, and I know that the actual reality is different from those things I perceive, since I can’t see in infrared, although after cataract surgery, I do see some ultraviolet, which makes colors and things “brighter” than those most people see. I spent weeks just admiring blues and yellows before I got used to it, they were so vivid.

After a time studying Tao, you become less attached to your own perception of things, you own visions. You are more in tune with what is actually taking place, and you see the patterns of where things are moving. You can choose to align yourself with those patterns, or, if you need to break a pattern, you can keep still and let it flow around you. Sometimes you do get swept into the current of events, but even then, with the help of meditation, you learn to steer yourself back to the shore and regain control. The beauty of Tao is you always have the opportunity to at least be in control of yourself and what you feel. In fact, you learn to realize that is all you can possibly control most of the time! Meditation is sort of the key to developing that serneity that lets you accept life as it is, change what you can (yourself, mostly), and know the difference.

Relaxation
Is total peace.

When you relax completely, there is total silence. No thought enters the mind, no problems arise from the body, no memories grip the spirit. This overwhelming sense of tranquility is really all meditation is about. The neutral stillness of the mind renews the tired soul, and this is regeneration.

Even if you don’t follow a formal meditation program, it is good to sit quietly for a little while every day. This form of rest should be as regular as sleeping each day. If you can sit still and just relax completely, you are actually meditating. All the various forms of complicated techniques and visualization exist because people can’t bring themselves to this very simple state of relaxation. Their minds are constantly racing, their bodies are out of balance, and the worries of the day weigh heavily upon them. They cannot let go, so they need a formal routine to follow. But if you can simply sit down and empty yourself, you will experience a wonderful silence and a deep, satisfying sense of peace.

One should try to return to a relaxed state on a regular and periodic basis. The simple reason for relaxation is that it renews us, purifies us, and leaves us with a profound feeling of serenity. It is not a ritual. It is not a religious obligation. It is a wonderful state away from problems. In it, we are poised in our natural state.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

I guess I should have posted this photo for cat-blogging Friday… oh well, a bit late.

However you relax today, have fun!

Fish Symbols

The pre-Christian history of the fish symbol:

The fish symbol has been used for millennia worldwide as a religious symbol associated with the Pagan Great Mother Goddess. It is the outline of her vulva. The fish symbol was often drawn by overlapping two very thin crescent moons. One represented the crescent shortly before the new moon; the other shortly after, when the moon is just visible. The Moon is the heavenly body that has long been associated with the Goddess, just as the sun is a symbol of the God.

The link between the Goddess and fish was found in various areas of the ancient world:

In China, Great Mother Kwan-yin often portrayed in the shape of a fish.

In India, the Goddess Kali was called the “fish-eyed one”.

In Egypt, Isis was called the Great Fish of the Abyss.

In Greece the Greek word “delphos” meant both fish and womb. The word is derived from the location of the ancient Oracle at Delphi who worshipped the original fish goddess, Themis. The later fish Goddess, Aphrodite Salacia, was worshipped by her followers on her sacred day, Friday. They ate fish and engaging in orgies. From her name comes the English word “salacious” which means lustful or obscene. Also from her name comes the name of our fourth month, April. In later centuries, the Christian church absorbed this tradition by requiring the faithful to eat fish on Friday - a tradition that was only recently abandoned.

In ancient Rome Friday is called “dies veneris” or Day of Venus, the Pagan Goddess of Love.

Throughout the Mediterranean, mystery religions used fish, wine and bread for their sacramental meal.

In Scandinavia, the Great Goddess was named Freya; fish were eaten in her honor. The 6th day of the week was named “Friday” after her.

In the Middle East, the Great Goddess of Ephesus was portrayed as a woman with a fish amulet over her genitals.

The fish symbol “was so revered throughout the Roman empire that Christian authorities insisted on taking it over, with extensive revision of myths to deny its earlier female-genital meanings…Sometimes the Christ child was portrayed inside the vesica, which was superimposed on Mary’s belly and obviously represented her womb, just as in the ancient symbolism of the Goddess.” Another author writes: “The fish headdress of the priests of Ea [a Sumero-Semitic God] later became the miter of the Christian bishops.”

The symbol itself, the eating of fish on Friday and the association of the symbol with deity were all taken over by the early Church from Pagan sources. Only the sexual component was deleted.

Bronze Okimono by Toyoaki , ca 1885

Barrel maker planes staves to exact angles.
His shavings glow in the afternoon sun.
He joins fragrant wood together,
Fitting shoulders like building an arch.
Until the bands, there is no barrel.

There is no barrel until the cooper builds it. Until then, there are pieces of straight-grained wood, shavings, a round bottom, and metal bands, but there is no barrel. All parts are there, but they need to be composed in order to take shape. It is the same with the facets of our personalities. Until they are held tightly together as a single unit, there is no completeness, and usefulness will not be forthcoming.

Spiritual practice can be the outside order that the personality needs. While such an order can be initially restricting, perhaps even feel artificial in its arbitrariness, it is absolutely necessary. It is a means to an end. Perhaps at the end we will not need such structure, but neither will we reach the end without the means. Before we leave the image of the barrel, there is one more thing to notice about it. A barrel encloses only one thing : void. That is the way it is with us, too. All the pieces of our personality, no matter how perfectly formed, only enclose what is inside us. All spiritual practice, while it may bind us into a cohesive whole, points to the emptiness of the center. This emptiness is not nihilism but the open possibility for Tao to enter. Only with such space will we have peace.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

I’ve spent a lot of my time the last few weeks creating empty space. We cleared out all the bedrooms for new carpeting, rebuilt a couple of walls that had molded due to a leaking door, fixed the door, painted rooms and ceilings, and finally, had three lovely empty rooms with brand new carpeting and paint. Ah. Such a lovely feeling of empty space!

Of course they are now all being filled up again with our stuff, and the kids rooms are a mess while they figure out where everything will go. But the kids rearranged their rooms and we created some new empty space for them, and less furniture is coming back into the rooms than left so there is more open space in all the bedrooms now. My youngest decided to ditch his bed and just have his mattress on the floor, so his room looks bigger. They’ve both ditched their dressers in favor of a smaller storage bin arrangement. Well they are teenagers so permanence isn’t an issue for their furniture, anyway. In our room a bookcase is coming out, but makes way for our dresser to emerge from the closet, freeing space in the closet.

So that is a way of dealing with physical space. But how do we clear out our mental space, to make way for the Tao to flow more freely? My own way is through these meditations I do each day, clearing my thoughts, making space for a small bit of thinking about life as a whole rather than in isolated bits and pieces. I wander through my garden and see what new thing is growing, what needs to be trimmed back a bit, what needs more water or a bit of attention, and find my mind has calmed. I don’t really think of these things I do as a spiritual practice, but they are about as close to one as I get these days.

I spent my Sundays in church as a kid, and found it didn’t add a lot to my life, really. I have tried a couple of times as an adult to go to churches and found much the same. The saying of “You are nearer God’s heart in a garden than anywhere else on the earth” holds more truth for me. That is where I feel spiritual, happy, at home and at peace with the world. People think my garden must take a lot of work, but to me it is a pleasure and not a chore at all.

I think a fine craftsman finds much the same thing. The cooper or craftsman who knows their craft well finds the pleasure in doing the work, and it is truly art for them and not a chore. When I wrote software, there was a very zen-like feeling in getting into the flow of coding, re-working the lines of code until they achieved a state of perfection. It was my own perfectionistic nature at that time that made it a pleasure to do the work.

There is a pleasure in doing things well, in knowing the barrel you’ve created holds water or wine or whatever without leaking, or in knowing you’ve created a space where things can grow or where people can live their lives in a wonderful space you’ve created for them. There is a pleasure in crafting a fine product, or any kind of lasting work. It’s worth taking the time to do things well, and worth taking the time to make space in your life both physically and mentally in order to renew yourself.

Julie Squires - Recognition

Spokes on the heavenly wheel
Keep rotation constant.

Those who follow Tao believe that Tao progresses through phases. They apply this principle to all levels of their outlook, from cosmology to the stages of growth in a person’s life. On the microcosmic level, they point to the rotation of the stars as evidence of smooth progression. In a person’s life, they recognize the stages of aging beginning with childhood and ending with death.

Each one of us must go from phase to phase in our development. If we stay too long in one stage, we will be warped or stunted in our growth. If we rush through a stage, then we will gain none of the rewards of learning experiences of that phase. Subsequent growth will be thrown off-balance; we will either have to go back and make it up, or, in the case of experiences that can never be repeated, lose out on them forever. The proper discerning of these transitions is essential.

As we go through our various stages in life, it is important to mark the shift from one stage to another. Recognition is very important. We must understand that we are leaving behind one part of life and entering another. Sometimes, we mark this with a rite of passage such as graduation or marriage. At other times, it may be a personal declaration made privately. Whatever the reason, it is important to know exactly when to close one phase and when to open the next. That is why it is said that one counts the spokes on the heavenly wheel as it turns: It is the measure of our lives.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

In our society, we tend not to focus too much on rites of passage. We have graduations, marriage ceremonies, and funerals, true, but we don’t really give ourselves the time to appreciate these changing stages of our lives. We rush back to our jobs or whatever without fully appreciating what has changed in our lives. We don’t recognize the real stages of moving from childhood to adulthood, to becoming parents, to becoming elders. We lack respect for the fact that people are going through these changes, encouraging children to “grow up already” instead of respecting that a young adult needs time to adjust, encouraging people to “get over it” when they experience a loss, without taking the proper time to grieve. We treat older women especially as irrelevant to society, failing to recognize their wisdom and what we can learn from their experiences.

Americans look constantly to youth, without appreciation of the wisdom of elders. In our own lives, we deny the changes of our bodies, wanting to stay young-looking, fighting the lines and wrinkles and balding of aging, without embracing the new-found wisdom we might experience as we age. The passage of time is seen as a bad thing, instead of a natural thing.

Much of our society seems geared around impermanence. We move rather than letting our houses grow with us, into spaces that are impersonal and lack reflection of who we are as people. We want the bigger house or car, instead of appreciating the value of a house that we know well and that our children have grown up in. We move them to a new place rather than letting them remodel their own space, creating a changed version of their own space to grow with their ives. We lack the joy of seeing a garden grow and mature into an elegant reflection of ourselves, settling for a characterless patch of lawn and a few trees or shrubs. Where are our rich gardens, full of the flowers we love, that mean something to us? The lilies we ourselves have cut to give to friends in honor of thier birthdays or the loss of a parent, the roses we cut and give to the people we love? Where are the joyous patches of wildflowers changing with the seasons?

We need to mark our own personal passages in life and honor them. We need to design our society to honor all the phases of our lives, instead of ignoring or disparaging them, and give ourselves and others the time and space to truly experience our lives fully, richly and honorably.

Lightning tears temple asunder.
Divine wrath, or natural disaster?

There was a seaside temple in India that was struck by lightning. That minor storm was the vanguard to a full hurricane that eventually ravaged the entire countryside. The old temple was split from its roof line to its foundations. One entire end of the building was parted from its body like a severed head. Was this karma? Was this the punishment of the gods? Or was it simply an old building and an unfortunate accident?
What you say shows your attitude about nature, reality, and whether you believe gods intervene in human affairs. If you insist that there was some reason that lightning cleaved the temple, then you live in a world where uncertainty is the by-product of some supreme being’s emotional whims. If, however, you accept this incident solely as a natural disaster, then you also accept random occurrences in life. Such a viewpoint does not preclude any notion of the divine, of course. It merely states that not everything in nature is administered by some heavenly bureaucracy.

It is a simple fact that lightning split the temple. The meaning of this incident — if there is any — is determined by each person. One person regards it as a disaster, another as a good thing, while a third views it dispassionately. There is nothing inherent in the incident that dictates its meaning. It is enough that we all recognize that it happened.

Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao

Perhaps we all waste far too much time wondering why things happened to us, or to people we know. Regardless of how we feel about God or fate, we all have to deal with the reality of what happens in our lives What does it all mean? We will only be able to determine for ourselves what it means to us as individuals.