May 31, 2012
My Take:   Well, today’s Tao is a pleasant surprise.  I didn’t expect this line of thinking when I opened up the book and saw Mercy.  It’s a very important topic for today’s world, when things are so politicized and religious convictions are becoming increasingly inflexible.  As Deng Ming-Dao says, “Human law is imperfect.”  We’ve gone and created laws and traditions that are bound to be contradictory.  Love thy neighbor, unless he happens to be gay; that’s an abomination.  You can’t uphold both sides if you are to stay true to your word.   It’s an important perspective to say that Mercy is greater than tradition.  And your mercy and understanding comes from your Wisdom.

My Take:

  Well, today’s Tao is a pleasant surprise.  I didn’t expect this line of thinking when I opened up the book and saw Mercy.  It’s a very important topic for today’s world, when things are so politicized and religious convictions are becoming increasingly inflexible.  As Deng Ming-Dao says, “Human law is imperfect.”  We’ve gone and created laws and traditions that are bound to be contradictory.  Love thy neighbor, unless he happens to be gay; that’s an abomination.  You can’t uphold both sides if you are to stay true to your word.

  It’s an important perspective to say that Mercy is greater than tradition.  And your mercy and understanding comes from your Wisdom.

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Filed under: Daily Tao tao taoism daoism 365 Tao deng ming dao 150 Mercy 
May 30, 2012
Daily Tao

#149 - Pivoting

—-

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.

—-

DMD:

  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 a 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.

—-

My Take:

  What are the lines and angles of your life?  What a beautiful concept.  We’re all faced with change; we all reach our limits from time to time.  Life doesn’t move forward in a straight line, you must adapt and pivot.  There are times in my life when I can see significant bends in my decision tree.  Being laid off from my former job, deciding to hike on the AT, coming to Korea, and now marriage.  Each time, except for the marriage, I didn’t see the change coming.  I was presented with an opportunity, and took advantage of it; I stepped forward and changed my direction.

  Remember when you’re faced with a breaking point, it may be an opportunity in disguise.  You’ll keep moving forward, you must; just be prepared to change directions.

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Filed under: Daily Tao tao taoism daoism 365 Tao deng ming dao 149 Pivoting 
May 28, 2012
My Take:   Away camping for the weekend.  Have a good day, everyone!  ^^

My Take:

  Away camping for the weekend.  Have a good day, everyone!  ^^

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Filed under: Daily Tao tao taoism daoism 365 Tao deng ming dao 148 Translation 
May 28, 2012
My Take:   Away camping for the weekend.  Have a good day, everyone!  ^^

My Take:

  Away camping for the weekend.  Have a good day, everyone!  ^^

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Filed under: Daily Tao tao taoism daoism 365 Tao deng ming dao 147 Subservience 
May 27, 2012
My Take:   Away camping for the weekend.  Have a good day, everyone!  ^^

My Take:

  Away camping for the weekend.  Have a good day, everyone!  ^^

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Filed under: Daily Tao tao taoism daoism 365 Tao deng ming dao 146 Insignificance 
May 26, 2012
My Take:   Away camping for the weekend.  Have a good day, everyone!  ^^

My Take:

  Away camping for the weekend.  Have a good day, everyone!  ^^

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Filed under: Daily Tao tao taoism daoism 365 Tao deng ming dao 145 Views 
May 25, 2012
My Take:   Away camping for the weekend.  Have a good day, everyone!  ^^

My Take:

  Away camping for the weekend.  Have a good day, everyone!  ^^

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Filed under: Daily Tao tao taoism daoism 365 Tao deng ming dao 144 Latent 
May 25, 2012
Daily Tao

#143 - Intuition

—-

Hawk doesn’t think during the hunt.

It does not care for theory or ethics.

All that it does is natural.

—-

DMD:

  Animals live simple lives close to Tao.  They do not need to think or reason: They never doubt themselves.  When they are hungry, they eat.  When they are tired, they sleep.  They respond to the cycles of the day according to their intuition.  They mate at the proper season, and they nurture their young according to their own understanding.  When they die, they fall under the teeth of predators or the dispassionate turning of the seasons.

  By contrast, we as human beings depart from the natural norm, and worry about ethical action.  Extremes of behavior have become more varied, running the gamut from the sadistic to the moralistic.  Tao considers all this artificial and unnatural.  Why divorce ourselves from nature?

  The follower of Tao prefers to live completely in concert with Tao, avoiding the interference of theory and excessive thought.  Though one must first learn skill and ethics thoroughly, one must come to embody them so completely that they become subconscious.  Reacting to a situation by asking what is right and wrong is already too slow.  One must intuitively do what is correct.  There should be no foreshadowing of an act, nor doubt about oneself.

—-

My Take:

  You have to learn skill and ethics so thoroughly, they become part of your subconscious.  You have to become so good at everything you do, so deliberate in their executions, that you can allow your intuition to return and guide you.  We all have so much learning to do to reach this level.  It would be a lifetime’s achievement.

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Filed under: Daily Tao tao taoism daoism 365 Tao deng ming dao 143 Intuition 
May 24, 2012
Daily Tao

#142 - Leisure

—-

Bird chirp, vanguard for coming rain,

Dog bark skitters through twilight village.

Smoke raises a column through the pines,

Contented families dine in golden windows.

—-

DMD:

  Life’s pulse is gauged in the hollows, the intervals between events.  If you want to see Tao, you must discern these spaces.  This requires leisure, the chance to sit and contmeplate, and the opportunity to respond to inner urgings.

  If you can find a place to retreat, you can make a life where Tao will flood into you.  Out in the woods, or in the mountains, or even in small villages where the times are slow paced and the people sensitive to nature, there is the possibility of knowing the deep and the profound.  Only when you have the time to accumulate an unshakable belief and faith can you glimpse the Tao in which there is restfulness and a natural sense of what is right.

—-

My Take:

  One of the reasons we love camping so much!  Dani and I have been camping a lot lately, and we’re going again this weekend.  Something about being in the woods brings you closer to nature, of course, but there’s that feeling, too; we all know it.  When you’re out there, everything seems…at peace.  Connected.  Natural.  Happy.  It fills us with this feeling.  Go out and enjoy nature today, and you’ll feel it, too.  It’s the easiest way to find Tao in your everyday life.

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(Notes: 5)
  
Filed under: Daily Tao tao taoism daoism 365 Tao deng ming dao 142 Leisure 
May 23, 2012
Daily Tao

#141 - Wrinkles

—-

Lines on the face, tattoos of aging.

Life is proved upon the body

Like needle-jabs from a blind machine.

—-

DMD:

  The older one gets, the more one is conscious of aging.  We can barely remember childhood innocence and exuberance.  We are surprised by the youthful vitality and unmarked face when we see earlier photos of ourselves.  When we look in the mirror, we reluctantly acknowledge the aging mask.  It seems that there is no escaping the marks of life.

  Every experience that we have, everything that we do and think is registered upon us as surely as the steady embroidery of a tattoo artist.  But to a large degree, the pattern and picture that will emerge is up to us.  If we go to a tattoo artist, it is we who select the picture.  In life, it is we who select what we will become by the actions we perform.  There is no reason to go through life thoughtlessly, to let accident shape us.  That is like allowing oneself to be tattooed by a blind man.  How can you help but turn out old and ugly?

  Whether we emerge beautiful or ugly is our sole responsibility.

—-

My Take:

  Wrinkles. We’ll all try to cover them up when we’re old.  But what do they show?  I think they show a life well lived.  I think they show who you’ve been.  Are the wrinkles on your face from scowling or are they laugh lines?  Do they show you’ve had a hard life?  It reminds me of a woman we met in Mongolia; she was our tour guide’s mother.  She was only 64 years old, but if she was American people would probably think she was in her 80’s or 90’s.  Her face was so wrinkly, tan, and leathery from living in the Gobi Desert her whole life.  All of their faces were that way.  Now, they had no choice because they lived under the sun all those years.  But they still had the laugh lines. 

  The expressions on your face today will eventually stay like that, not the way your mother used to warn you about, but as wrinkles.  Be mindful of the wrinkles you’re making, they come from your thoughts and attitudes now.

 

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May 22, 2012
Daily Tao

#140 - Dissent

—-

Old man: Dissent is not disloyalty.

Be careful before you retaliate.

Your steel wrapped in cotton

May only be brittle bone wrapped in fat.

—-

DMD:

  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 tough 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 they 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?

—-

My Take:

  You must question your teachers.  Dissent is necessary in a free society.  These days I believe we have more dissent than any other time in my life, both at home and abroad. While that may lead to discord now, I believe we’re changing the future for the better.  A diversity of opinions and views will only make us stronger.

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Filed under: Daily Tao tao taoism daoism 365 Tao deng ming dao 140 Dissent 
May 22, 2012
Daily Tao

#139 - Marriage

—-

Wall of flames, bridge of tears.

Snowflake on newly forged links.

—-

DMD:

  For a marriage to last, a couple must go through great travails and hardships.  It is like a process of forging steel links together.  The iron must be heated to a high degree and then plunged into cold water.  A marriage alternates between the heat of passion and love and the chilling times of tragedy, conflict, and adversity.  An enduring marriage becomes like tempered steel.

  It is difficult to go through life alone.  We all need support and the sense of belonging that comes from working toward goals shared with another.  For such a relationship to work, there must be a basic compatibility of values, outlook, and purpose.  It is an inadequate cliche that husband and wife must be friends as well as lovers.  Two mates can know a loyalty found in no other type of relationship.  Yet even in the face of such strength, Tao reminds us of the need for moderation.

  Ultimately, all relationships are temporary.  False attachment to another can become an addiction, a voluntary bondage detrimental to clear perception.  We should not bind another to ourselves, should not define ourselves by our marriage, should not force another to stay with us.  But if chance allows us to walk together, who is anyone to challenge our choice of walking companions?

  When it is time to part, then it is time to part.  There should be no regrets.  The beauty of marriage is like the fleeting perfection of a snowflake.

—-

My Take:

  I am in love with the first paragraph of DMD’s writing.  I can’t wait to be married to Dani in 89 days.  It really is a cliche, but she is my best friend.  We never tire of each other; we complement each other in every way; and our love is as deep as an ocean and as strong as tempered steel.  We are not getting married for marriage’s sake; she is my partner in life and this is the way to seal and symbolize that.  I am so excited for our big day.

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Filed under: Daily Tao tao taoism daoism 365 Tao deng ming dao 139 Marriage 
May 22, 2012
Daily Tao

#138 - Scholasticism

—-

Ocean inside a skull-cup,

Seeking the universal code in letters.

The mind is like a flower on icy water:

An eye within the petals.

—-

DMD:

  The intellect is one of the thorniest problems for a spiritual aspirant.  One cannot do without it—indeed, it is essential—and yet one cannot allow it to remain totally dominant.  The intellect must be fully developed before it is brought to a point of neutrality.  Unless this is done, it will act as a block, and there will not be any ultimate spiritual success.

  Scholarship is thus an important first step.  Education is a means of gaining access to the conventional world, of satisfying our curiosity, and of avoiding superstitious tendencies.  There can be no talk of delving into philosophical mysteries if one has not even satisfied one’s curiosity about nature, civilization, mathematics, and language.  But once mental cultivation is achieved, one must focus increasingly on a part of the mind that is far beyond the scholarly.

  The intellect uses discrimination, categorization, and dualistic distinctions in highly sophisticated ways.  By contrast, spiritual contemplation involves no discrimination, no categorization, and no dualism, so it has very little need for scholasticism.  It is pure action that requires the totality of our inner beings.  It needs pure involvement, not mere study.  The proper use of intellect is to give it free play, develop it to an extraordinary degree, and yet to leave it behind when spiritual action is required.  A sage knows how to balance and combine both.

—-

My Take:

  I think this is one of the ways Taoist thought has benefited me the most.  I tended to over think, over analyze, and intellectualize everything.  There’s nothing wrong with being smart, and as DMD says, it is necessary.  But you have to find the balance.  When you are in pursuit of spirituality, you need to distance yourself from that kind of behavior.  You need to Just Be, and relax.  You need to think connectedly, not categorically.  Just like everything in life, you need to have balance.

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Filed under: Daily Tao tao taoism daoism 365 Tao deng ming dao 138 Scholasticism 
May 18, 2012
Daily Tao

#137 - Vulnerabilities

—-

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.

—-

DMD:

  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 hundreds 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.

—-

My Take:

  In the way that the sage looks beyond death, we too can use this attitude to deal with hardships in our life.  While today’s topic is a little extra philosophical today, we can still make its lesson useful in our daily lives.  The sage knows that life is merely an illusion, a dream.  If you can’t be that esoteric in daily life, then just remember to keep things in perspective, as the sage would.  While day-to-day life here on Earth may seem trying, think of all the hardship in the world.  Think of how lucky you are to be alive.  Think of how good it feels to be able to get up each morning and start again.  Don’t try to be like the warrior, focused so solely on the tasks in front of him.  Take a step back and keep perspective, and be happy.

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Filed under: Daily Tao tao taoism daoism 365 Tao deng ming dao 137 Vulnerabilities 
May 17, 2012
Daily Tao

#136 - Judgment

—-

The accused stands helpless before the judge.

Pen is poised to determine right from wrong.

In one arbitrary stroke,

Life is suddenly decided.

—-

DMD:

  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.

  These 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 must 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.

—-

My Take:

  Tao is full of duality.  Right and wrong is of course one of the most important principles.  But think about how life is connected.  We are connected to nature, to the stars, and to each other.  We are all part of the same world, the same life. Some go as far to say that we are the universe’s developed consciousness, and we are just the universe experiencing itself.  If we are so deeply connected, then all transgressions are really done to ourselves.  If we are all one, one Self, then in the end, you are the final judge as well.  You are the sinner and the savior, the wrongdoer and the victim.

  Did you do well?  Or did you squander your precious existence?

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Filed under: Daily Tao tao taoism daoism 365 Tao deng ming dao 136 Judgment 
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