You are still convinced that your understanding is a powerful contribution to the truth, and makes it what it is. Yet we have emphasized that you need understand nothing. (ACIM: Text: Chapter 18:IV:7:5-6)
Hmm! In other words...if we understand it or not the truth really doesn't care. It is still the truth doing what truth does. This to me, is one of the biggest take aways so far in my reading of the Tao. Whether we understand the truth, the Tao, the divine Mystery is irrelevant to it. It still is all that It is. And the thing is...we are not going to understand It with our minds...it doesn't work that way.
How could we ever understand or explain the vastness of the universe...the mystery...what forever alludes conceptual thought...with a few words and syllables. (Tolle...somewhat clipped and paraphrased)
What parts of these first eight verses of the Tao stresses this?
The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.
Under these two aspects, it really is the same; but as development takes place, it receives the different names
Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing anything, and conveys his instructions without the use of speech.
He constantly keeps them without knowledge and without desire, and where there is those who have knowledge, to keep them from presuming to act (on it).
How deep and unfathomable it is...
...that of the mind is in abysmal stillness
Our travelling the way is best accomplished when we accept that we know nothing and do not try to fill our moments with ceaseless interpreting, judging, solving and doing. We really cannot understand this vastness, this mystery with our conceptual minds. The more we do so, the farther away from it we get. In peace is every breath Thich Nhat Hanh puts it this way: An overloaded boat is easily capsized by wind and waves. Lighten your load, and your boat will travel more quickly and safely.(pg 52)
We need to let go. We need to learn to say: "I just don't know". And be okay with that.
All is well.
You are still convinced that your understanding is a powerful contribution to the truth, and makes it what it is. Yet we have emphasized that you need understand nothing. (ACIM: Text: Chapter 18:IV:7:5-6)
Hmm! In other words...if we understand it or not the truth really doesn't care. It is still the truth doing what truth does. This to me, is one of the biggest take aways so far in my reading of the Tao. Whether we understand the truth, the Tao, the divine Mystery is irrelevant to it. It still is all that It is. And the thing is...we are not going to understand It with our minds...it doesn't work that way.
How could we ever understand or explain the vastness of the universe...the mystery...what forever alludes conceptual thought...with a few words and syllables. (Tolle...somewhat clipped and paraphrased)
What parts of these first eight verses of the Tao stresses this?
The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.
Under these two aspects, it really is the same; but as development takes place, it receives the different names
Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing anything, and conveys his instructions without the use of speech.
He constantly keeps them without knowledge and without desire, and where there is those who have knowledge, to keep them from presuming to act (on it).
How deep and unfathomable it is...
...that of the mind is in abysmal stillness
Our travelling the way is best accomplished when we accept that we know nothing and do not try to fill our moments with ceaseless interpreting, judging, solving and doing. We really cannot understand this vastness, this mystery with our conceptual minds. The more we do so, the farther away from it we get. In peace is every breath Thich Nhat Hanh puts it this way: An overloaded boat is easily capsized by wind and waves. Lighten your load, and your boat will travel more quickly and safely.(pg 52)
We need to let go. We need to learn to say: "I just don't know". And be okay with that.
All is well.
References
ACIM
Legge. J. (1981) Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm
Tolle, Eckhart (2019) What I am means? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpRshKVMSKk
References
ACIM
Legge. J. (1981) Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm
Tolle, Eckhart (2019) What I am means? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpRshKVMSKk
Monday, March 4, 2019
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Let things be, let yourself be, let everything be and accept it as it is. Nothing more. Nothing less.
James Frey, A Million Little Pieces
Okay...I am addicted to the Tao lol. Just like James Frey in A Million Little Pieces I am transferring my energy to it so I can heal. Of course, it is one of the many things I use to heal from my thinking addiction(which is probably the root cause of most addictions).
There is so much ancient wisdom in the east and it has taken centuries for the West to open up to it. Amazing really. Hmmm! The Toa offers such wisdom.
So what I would like to do, is interpret eight verses at a time. Eight is the sacred number in the East (well 108 is) only because it represents the symbol of infinity maybe? I don't know but anyway. I will do eight at a time. So every few days I will post my interpretations of those eight here.
Please know they are just my interpretations. I read James Legge because he is my chosen translator and try to understand what he meant quickly and from the heart. I often then go back to other translators as well, just to compare. The differences can be astounding! Goes to show what Lao Tzu tried to teach...that the sage should instruct without speech. Words can sometimes get in the way of what was meant.
Anyway here are the first eight:
Verse Two
James Frey, A Million Little Pieces
Okay...I am addicted to the Tao lol. Just like James Frey in A Million Little Pieces I am transferring my energy to it so I can heal. Of course, it is one of the many things I use to heal from my thinking addiction(which is probably the root cause of most addictions).
There is so much ancient wisdom in the east and it has taken centuries for the West to open up to it. Amazing really. Hmmm! The Toa offers such wisdom.
So what I would like to do, is interpret eight verses at a time. Eight is the sacred number in the East (well 108 is) only because it represents the symbol of infinity maybe? I don't know but anyway. I will do eight at a time. So every few days I will post my interpretations of those eight here.
Please know they are just my interpretations. I read James Legge because he is my chosen translator and try to understand what he meant quickly and from the heart. I often then go back to other translators as well, just to compare. The differences can be astounding! Goes to show what Lao Tzu tried to teach...that the sage should instruct without speech. Words can sometimes get in the way of what was meant.
Anyway here are the first eight:
How do we understand the first eight verses of the Tao?
Verse One
We need to understand that beyond what we can see and understand
with our physical forms, beyond what we can name and label with our minds… the
Tao exists. It is the path…the way for
all of us. It a way to healing. But we
cannot get there with our ‘little me’ or ego focus. We cannot understand it conceptually with our
minds …it needs to be experienced as the Great Mystery it is. We need to let go
of what we think we know about it, about Life, about the world and each other
and accept that we do not know.
The world is full of amazing contrast, what we refer to as opposites. Opposites are like two sides of the same coin
and that is okay….both sides are equally valuable and equally valueless. We do not need to judge anything as good or
bad…just accept it for simply being what it is.
We need this contrast. At the
same time we must realize that we make judgments about it in our mind and that
can create resistance to what is. The wise
person doesn’t do. The wise person
focuses more on being than doing. The
wise person goes beyond speech…beyond words and mental concepts to teach. Presence or being with the way is the best teacher. When we are present we go beyond a need to judge
and interpret, to own, to compete, to cling or to do for the sake of
reward, achievement and recognition. We just are
and we allow things to just be.
Third Verse
We must put away our ego tendencies if we want the world to become
a more peaceful place. We need to put
away our own individual desires to own, to flaunt, to be recognized, to be
special or better than…if we want to stop tempting others into self and other
destructive behaviours. The wise man leads others to a state of peace and
social order through helping them empty their minds of tired old belief systems
and conceptual knowledge, takes care of their bodies by filling their bellies,
reduces the power of their egos so they learn to stop resisting life and strengthens
their stability and solidity(their bones). It starts with one mind…our
own. When we have peace and stillness,
good order is universal.
Forth Verse
This verse speaks to the infinite emptiness, the infinite
spaciousness of the Tao. I really see Buddhist like ideology in this verse. The Tao
is deep, unfathomable and a mystery that we will never understand with our
conceptual minds. It is the oldest of the old and came before our understanding
of God (This translation uses the word God…but I don’t know if Lao Tzu would
have. Other translations use the word
…gods, or time etc)
Fifth Verse
Heaven and Earth and the Sage who understands them does not act to
be “good”…they just are. All beings, all things are treated without judgment,
attachment and ideas of specialness. They are treated as sacrificial toys
or humble and useless things (https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/13325/the-meaning-of-grass-dogs-dogs-of-grass)
There is a space between Heaven and Earth; between the physical and the non
physical. That space is like a bellows (
an instrument used by Blacksmith’s that expanded and contracted to let air
out). Even when this space is contracted and apparently empty…when we cannot
see it…it is still there and it doesn’t lose its power. And then when it is expanded and working we
can feel the air of it. The more we speak of it and use conceptual knowledge to understand it, the more tired we
become. We cannot understand it this
way. The inner being is always there guarding
the Tao, allowing it to flow freely but we cannot see that or understand
that…we cannot explain that with words or actions. It must be experienced.
Sixth Verse
In Verse sixth we speak of the eternalness of the Tao. This spiritual essence which is the way
tucked into the valley of the physical does not die. It is actually a feminine
mystery…and is often referred to as The
Great Mother in other translations. It is the root from which heaven and
earth grew. This makes me think of the
female womb, the root chakra. It is long
and unbroken, meaning that it is infinite and indestructible as is its power. It can be used gently without force or
masculine aggression…and without pain.
Seventh Verse
Heaven endures forever and earth has continued for as long as it
did because they did not live for themselves but for all beings. There is no egoic selfishness in them. Therefore the wise put away their egos and
put the little ‘self’ last. By so doing they find the ‘Greater Self’, the
true Self. The sage treats the ‘little me’ as foreign to his or herself and the
real Self is preserved by doing so. It
isn’t that they have no personal needs.
It is just that these needs are met because they are not ego needs but
the needs of the One Self. The Tao provides
Eighth Verse
In the eighth verse the Tao is compared to the excellence of water. Like water, it benefits everything. In its easy natural flow it can occupy all
things easily and go to those low places man would rather not go. It does not strive or fight its way there…it
just flows. There is also an analogy of
a residence in this verse. A residence is
a home, a place to live and excellence is defined as suitability. Legge’s
translation teaches that the mind is a suitable place to live if it is still;
relationships are suitable if they are virtuous; leadership is suitable if it
secures good order…actions and affairs are suitable if there is ability and all
movement is suitable as long as it is timely. The biggest take away here is that if we as humans do not fight or resist where
we are even if we deem it to be a low position we are showing excellence,
suitability for life and no one will find fault with us. We do not resist the
flow we go with it. We go with the flow
of Tao.
Well that is what I think and feel anyway. and we know how valuable that is lol...
References or to-reads
Frey, James (2005) A Million Little Pieces Sixth Edition. Random House Canada; Toronto
Legge, J. (1891) Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm
Tao Te Ching Translation Comparison https://ttc.tasuki.org/display:Code:gff,sm,jhmd,jc,rh/section:1
Saturday, March 2, 2019
Know Thyself!
I was just thinking about what an amazing time the 6th century BC must have been. So many great, great thinkers walked the planet around that time: There was Socrates in Greece, Lao Tzu and Confucius in China, the Buddha in Northern India. Wow! These individuals stepped out and away from mainstream society, put down tired old dogma and belief, to question. That's what they did...they questioned. They actually traded in the value of conceptual knowledge (maybe with the exception of Confucius) for inner knowing and understanding of the Self. Isn't it amazing that they all lived around the same time?
Just thought that was cool.
I was just thinking about what an amazing time the 6th century BC must have been. So many great, great thinkers walked the planet around that time: There was Socrates in Greece, Lao Tzu and Confucius in China, the Buddha in Northern India. Wow! These individuals stepped out and away from mainstream society, put down tired old dogma and belief, to question. That's what they did...they questioned. They actually traded in the value of conceptual knowledge (maybe with the exception of Confucius) for inner knowing and understanding of the Self. Isn't it amazing that they all lived around the same time?
Just thought that was cool.
...that difficulty and ease produce the one (the idea of) the other....
Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching as translated by James Legge, 1891
Hmm! I am really flying through the Tao but I need to pull back and go back a little...spend some time on each verse...slow it down so I am not so much interpreting it but feeling it.
The second verse is all about opposites or contrast...how there are two sides of the same coin maybe...one allowing the other to be (if only mentally and conceptually).
So as we talked about struggles, challenges and problems we need to see that difficulty gives birth to ease and ease give birth to challenge. (Of course it is believed that the Tao was written in the period of yin-yang in China which would speak to this idea of duality being non duality.) I have often mentioned how life gives us contrasting ropes of circumstance and experience on which to weave our tapestry. One type of rope allows the other to be seen, felt, experienced etc ...creating texture to our lives. We maybe shouldn't judge one as being good or bad...just being...just springing up and not resisting Life by declining to show self.
Of course, all the things used as examples in this verse involve a certain judgment or interpretation, don't they? : Beauty and ugliness, skillful and unskilled, existence and non-existence (takes me back to the Buddhist idea of birth and non-birth), difficulty and ease, height and lowness, notes and tones in music, behind and before etc). All of this involves a certain interpretation, doesn't it? What you may consider beautiful, I may see as ugly. What a 7 foot you deems as short, a five foot 4 inch me might see as tall.
For some reason, Shakespeare's line from Hamlet came back to me instantly as I read this verse. Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so. (Act II, Scene 2)
So maybe that is why the verse goes on to say that the sage manages all his affairs without doing anything. Without judging, interpreting or resisting Life. He just is and things just are. I take that because of a lack of judgment he is wise and able to serve not because of busy work but because of presence. He doesn't have to get lost in doing. Most importantly, he teaches without words, without concepts. What he teaches goes beyond knowledge, without a need to own or possess all the things that 'spring up', without expecting any reward or recognition.
True teaching, true leading goes beyond the judgments of duality. Seeing them yes, understanding how they come to be ...yes...but not seeking to be recognized for this knowledge.
Hmmm!
Interesting. All is well.
Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching as translated by James Legge, 1891
Hmm! I am really flying through the Tao but I need to pull back and go back a little...spend some time on each verse...slow it down so I am not so much interpreting it but feeling it.
The second verse is all about opposites or contrast...how there are two sides of the same coin maybe...one allowing the other to be (if only mentally and conceptually).
So as we talked about struggles, challenges and problems we need to see that difficulty gives birth to ease and ease give birth to challenge. (Of course it is believed that the Tao was written in the period of yin-yang in China which would speak to this idea of duality being non duality.) I have often mentioned how life gives us contrasting ropes of circumstance and experience on which to weave our tapestry. One type of rope allows the other to be seen, felt, experienced etc ...creating texture to our lives. We maybe shouldn't judge one as being good or bad...just being...just springing up and not resisting Life by declining to show self.
Of course, all the things used as examples in this verse involve a certain judgment or interpretation, don't they? : Beauty and ugliness, skillful and unskilled, existence and non-existence (takes me back to the Buddhist idea of birth and non-birth), difficulty and ease, height and lowness, notes and tones in music, behind and before etc). All of this involves a certain interpretation, doesn't it? What you may consider beautiful, I may see as ugly. What a 7 foot you deems as short, a five foot 4 inch me might see as tall.
For some reason, Shakespeare's line from Hamlet came back to me instantly as I read this verse. Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so. (Act II, Scene 2)
So maybe that is why the verse goes on to say that the sage manages all his affairs without doing anything. Without judging, interpreting or resisting Life. He just is and things just are. I take that because of a lack of judgment he is wise and able to serve not because of busy work but because of presence. He doesn't have to get lost in doing. Most importantly, he teaches without words, without concepts. What he teaches goes beyond knowledge, without a need to own or possess all the things that 'spring up', without expecting any reward or recognition.
True teaching, true leading goes beyond the judgments of duality. Seeing them yes, understanding how they come to be ...yes...but not seeking to be recognized for this knowledge.
Hmmm!
Interesting. All is well.
Friday, March 1, 2019
Thursday, February 28, 2019
At the Gate
Where the mystery is the deepest is the gate of all that is subtle and wonderful.
Lao Tzu (as translated by J. Legge; 1891)
So what did you think of Verse One? Did it touch you or did you find yourself saying: "WTF(front door)?
Hmm! I don't know if there is a right or wrong way to make sense of the Tao conceptually. I just read it, feel it, then I jot down what I believe each line to mean right off the top of my head. I do not want to over think it...because when we do that we lose the way.
This first Verse , I believe, is talking about the spiritual path which is the way or the Tao Itself.
Stanza One
It states in the opening line that this 'path' is not necessarily a physical path that one can trod upon. Unlike things of the physical world it is eternal and unchanging. What is eternal and unchanging?: spirit, essence, the non physical.
It is also not something that you can reduce to a label, a thought or a 'name' because again it is eternal and unchanging. The Tao is not something we can truly understand and experience with our bodies and minds.
Stanza Two
In the second stanza Lao Tzu goes on to say (according to this translation) the Tao takes us between the physical and non physical realms. Having no name it goes beyond what is created as form to being the Creator (Originator) of form and formless (heaven and earth). We can look at Tao then as God, Life, The Field etc. The Tao is spiritual and divine. It is non physical.
Then Lao Tzu goes on to say when It has a name...when we give it a name ( and therefore understand it conceptually with the mind) the Tao becomes or is the mother of all things....creator of form and form itself. It is earthly. It is physical.
Stanza Three
The third stanza is speaking to where we, the seeker, must be if we want to truly understand the Tao. We need to be without desire. Without craving and superficial seeking. Sounds a bit like the Buddhist ideology, doesn't it? We cannot expect to find it if we want it with the limitations of our human mind or ego . It is too deep for that. And if we seek it from there we will never hear it.
If we remain with desire, with ego craving... we will only ever catch glimpses of its outer fringes at best. We will never get beyond that superficial understanding of it. We will never experience it or know it completely.
Stanza Four
In the forth stanza where Lao Tzu's words are translated as under these two aspects, I assume the two aspects to be the physical and non physical aspects of the Tao, the nameable and the nameless. Possibly meaning that there is no duality...no two...just one when he says it remains the same. It is only when development takes place that It receives different names or distinctions. I am not sure if 'development' here refers to worldly development, ego development, development of the mind or something else?
Together we call them the mystery. So regardless if wed ivied them with our minds and no matter what we call them... they are one mystery. The Tao is a mystery...the world of form and formless is a mystery. Life is a mystery. Of course, a mystery is something that is challenging to figure out, to know and understand with the mind.
Where is this mystery the deepest? Where is there less knowing with the conceptual mind? It is at the gate...right at the gate that leads us inward. We might think that the closer we get to understanding something, the less mystery there would be but Lao Tzu is saying it is deepest...there is more mystery, less knowledge right at the gate. Again...maybe conceptual knowledge is not needed to understand the Tao. It is beyond what we can understand with our limited human minds.
I think of this quote from Einstein:
"We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books . It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranges and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations." - Albert Einstein(Goodreads)
What lay beyond this gate? The subtle (the ordinary, the plain, the easily bypassed) as well as the wonderful( the extraordinary, the amazing, all that causes wonder and awe.) So we get right up to the gate of experiencing Life and it is there where the mystery of Life is deepest. Could this mean that the mystery is greater in that space between 'thinking about life' and experiencing it?
I really got hung up on that 'and' in this translation. When we read the subtle and wonderful we are not making distinctions between them. We include all Life behind the gate of our understanding. But what if Lao Tzu actually meant 'between'...what if he was referring to the gate between the subtle and the wonderful...that would change the whole context of this stanza wouldn't it? Oh...oh thinking too much lol.
So in a nutshell...what message do we carry away from this Verse? It doesn't matter if we name it or don't name it; think of it as physical or non physical or if we understand it or not with our conceptual minds (well we will only be able to understand it superficially that way)...the Tao which is the way, the Life force within us, the truth, the true spiritual path will always be the Tao...eternal and unchanging...a mystery.
Well that is how I see it. :)
All is well.
References
Goodreads: http://www.alberteinsteinsite.com/quotes/einsteinquotes.html
J. Legge(Translator) (1891) Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu. From the Sacred Books of the East, volume 39. Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm
Lao Tzu (as translated by J. Legge; 1891)
So what did you think of Verse One? Did it touch you or did you find yourself saying: "WTF(front door)?
Hmm! I don't know if there is a right or wrong way to make sense of the Tao conceptually. I just read it, feel it, then I jot down what I believe each line to mean right off the top of my head. I do not want to over think it...because when we do that we lose the way.
This first Verse , I believe, is talking about the spiritual path which is the way or the Tao Itself.
Stanza One
It states in the opening line that this 'path' is not necessarily a physical path that one can trod upon. Unlike things of the physical world it is eternal and unchanging. What is eternal and unchanging?: spirit, essence, the non physical.
It is also not something that you can reduce to a label, a thought or a 'name' because again it is eternal and unchanging. The Tao is not something we can truly understand and experience with our bodies and minds.
Stanza Two
In the second stanza Lao Tzu goes on to say (according to this translation) the Tao takes us between the physical and non physical realms. Having no name it goes beyond what is created as form to being the Creator (Originator) of form and formless (heaven and earth). We can look at Tao then as God, Life, The Field etc. The Tao is spiritual and divine. It is non physical.
Then Lao Tzu goes on to say when It has a name...when we give it a name ( and therefore understand it conceptually with the mind) the Tao becomes or is the mother of all things....creator of form and form itself. It is earthly. It is physical.
Stanza Three
The third stanza is speaking to where we, the seeker, must be if we want to truly understand the Tao. We need to be without desire. Without craving and superficial seeking. Sounds a bit like the Buddhist ideology, doesn't it? We cannot expect to find it if we want it with the limitations of our human mind or ego . It is too deep for that. And if we seek it from there we will never hear it.
If we remain with desire, with ego craving... we will only ever catch glimpses of its outer fringes at best. We will never get beyond that superficial understanding of it. We will never experience it or know it completely.
Stanza Four
In the forth stanza where Lao Tzu's words are translated as under these two aspects, I assume the two aspects to be the physical and non physical aspects of the Tao, the nameable and the nameless. Possibly meaning that there is no duality...no two...just one when he says it remains the same. It is only when development takes place that It receives different names or distinctions. I am not sure if 'development' here refers to worldly development, ego development, development of the mind or something else?
Together we call them the mystery. So regardless if wed ivied them with our minds and no matter what we call them... they are one mystery. The Tao is a mystery...the world of form and formless is a mystery. Life is a mystery. Of course, a mystery is something that is challenging to figure out, to know and understand with the mind.
Where is this mystery the deepest? Where is there less knowing with the conceptual mind? It is at the gate...right at the gate that leads us inward. We might think that the closer we get to understanding something, the less mystery there would be but Lao Tzu is saying it is deepest...there is more mystery, less knowledge right at the gate. Again...maybe conceptual knowledge is not needed to understand the Tao. It is beyond what we can understand with our limited human minds.
I think of this quote from Einstein:
"We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books . It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranges and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations." - Albert Einstein(Goodreads)
What lay beyond this gate? The subtle (the ordinary, the plain, the easily bypassed) as well as the wonderful( the extraordinary, the amazing, all that causes wonder and awe.) So we get right up to the gate of experiencing Life and it is there where the mystery of Life is deepest. Could this mean that the mystery is greater in that space between 'thinking about life' and experiencing it?
I really got hung up on that 'and' in this translation. When we read the subtle and wonderful we are not making distinctions between them. We include all Life behind the gate of our understanding. But what if Lao Tzu actually meant 'between'...what if he was referring to the gate between the subtle and the wonderful...that would change the whole context of this stanza wouldn't it? Oh...oh thinking too much lol.
So in a nutshell...what message do we carry away from this Verse? It doesn't matter if we name it or don't name it; think of it as physical or non physical or if we understand it or not with our conceptual minds (well we will only be able to understand it superficially that way)...the Tao which is the way, the Life force within us, the truth, the true spiritual path will always be the Tao...eternal and unchanging...a mystery.
Well that is how I see it. :)
All is well.
References
Goodreads: http://www.alberteinsteinsite.com/quotes/einsteinquotes.html
J. Legge(Translator) (1891) Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu. From the Sacred Books of the East, volume 39. Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
The Tao Te Ching
I decided to read the Tao Te Ching again and to try a different translation. The thing about these beautiful ancient texts is a deficit may arise in the translation of them. To go from the archaic Chinese to English takes a great level of expertise. Much could be lost based on the translator's interpretations.
I decided to try this old version from a real expert. Now I have the added challenge to translate from 19th century English lol.
I will only put a few verses out of the 81 here. This is, of course, Verse One. Just read it for yourself ...see what happens inside you and tomorrow I will give my interpretation of it. (For what it is worth, lol)
1
The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao.
The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.
(Conceived of as) having no name, it is the Originator of heaven
and earth;
(conceived of as) having a name, it is the Mother of all things.
Always without desire we must be found,
If its deep mystery we would sound;
But if desire always within us be,
Its outer fringe is all that we shall see.
Under these two aspects, it is really the same;
but as development takes place, it receives the different names. Together we call them the Mystery.
Where the Mystery is the deepest
is the gate of all that
is subtle and wonderful.
The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.
(Conceived of as) having no name, it is the Originator of heaven
and earth;
(conceived of as) having a name, it is the Mother of all things.
Always without desire we must be found,
If its deep mystery we would sound;
But if desire always within us be,
Its outer fringe is all that we shall see.
Under these two aspects, it is really the same;
but as development takes place, it receives the different names. Together we call them the Mystery.
Where the Mystery is the deepest
is the gate of all that
is subtle and wonderful.
J. Legge(Translator) (1891) Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu. From the Sacred Books of the East, volume 39. Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm
A True Teacher?
A true Mahayana teacher should be someone who enjoys simplicity, yearns to be anonymous, and as Tibetans would say, hides in solitude like a wounded animal.
-Dalai Lama ( from my desk top calendar for February 27, 2019...Andrews McNeil publishing/Kansas City)
Funny this should come up for today after I wrote what I did yesterday about teaching. Funny that my superficial self would automatically interpret it as something meant for 'me'. lol Still got a big fat ego, don't I?
Let's cut 'me' down to size using the above quote from his holiness.
Teacher?
I do like to think of myself as a teacher. It is a role I identified with long before I began to awaken so it is a part of my personal history and therefore a part of the little 'self'. As I have mentioned before, I believe we are all teachers and therefore I do not claim any 'special' status. So yeah, on a superficial level and on a deeper level I am okay calling myself a teacher.
Am I a 'true' teacher? What is a true teacher lol? I like to teach truth but I don't know truth yet...still learning. I am not sure where that puts me.
I am not a Mahayana teacher. That is, I (as the little self) am not a Buddhist trained in the Mahayana tradition. So I definitely can't own that one. I greatly respect the years of training and devoted practice that a trainee goes through to establish that expertise. I also love to listen to such teachers in the Mahayana and Zen traditions. But...I cannot pin those credentials to my chest. Besides, I look at Buddha's teaching as a philosophy and wonderful way of healing the mind. I don't seek the religion in it.
Simplicity?
I do enjoy simplicity. I really do. I am so tired of all the drama and the chaos...the busyness this world demands. I want the quiet, the solitude and the peace of simplicity. I am not a renunciant, however. I haven't given up all my materials....but luckily for me, my income and a lot of material assets have been removed from my life by circumstance. I can live without.
Anonymous?
Do I yearn to be anonymous? Hmm...I don't want to be famous or even popular...not really. As a teacher, I want the message I offer to be read and heard. As a writer, I do want publication. There are times in the height of feeling bad about myself ( when ego is in charge) I do look to redeem myself with my writing and think ego things like "When I get published, they will see that I had something to offer...they will understand me . I will redeem myself " etc. Silly I know.
I may never get that and that is okay. The true writer in me just wants to write and I can usually push both shamer and redeemer ego off my computer chair when I do sit down to write. So I do not write to be famous. I write to write. In fact, most of my writing is done using a pen name...so I do remain partially anonymous. I am a fairly shy person by nature, so I don't like to put myself out there too much lol.
I do, however, have an ego like I mentioned before and my ego likes to see readers on my stats. I do not feel comfortable with a lot of readers though...but anything around 30, 40 or 50 a day makes me think, " yeah I am getting through to somebody somewhere". (Actually, I am okay with ten or more) I question the statistic calculations on this site...so I never truly know just how many readers I am getting. I went so far at one point of adding Google analytics to ensure proper tracking. Silly ...ego stuff I know. Obviously, I do not wish to be that anonymous if I am doing that.
Hiding?
I love the last part lol. I do hide in solitude like a wounded animal. I am forever using the analogy that I am off hiding in a corner away from society licking my wounds. So that applies. I do like to hide here in my reclusive healing comfort zone. I know I can't stay here but for now, until I am healed, I hide away like a wounded animal. :)
So I don't know what that makes me. And does it really matter because it really isn't about 'me' anyway, is it? It is about the Deeper I...the greater Self that lies beneath all this superficial stuff. Now that part of me is a true teacher. That part of you is a true teacher as well.
All is well in my world.
-Dalai Lama ( from my desk top calendar for February 27, 2019...Andrews McNeil publishing/Kansas City)
Funny this should come up for today after I wrote what I did yesterday about teaching. Funny that my superficial self would automatically interpret it as something meant for 'me'. lol Still got a big fat ego, don't I?
Let's cut 'me' down to size using the above quote from his holiness.
Teacher?
I do like to think of myself as a teacher. It is a role I identified with long before I began to awaken so it is a part of my personal history and therefore a part of the little 'self'. As I have mentioned before, I believe we are all teachers and therefore I do not claim any 'special' status. So yeah, on a superficial level and on a deeper level I am okay calling myself a teacher.
Am I a 'true' teacher? What is a true teacher lol? I like to teach truth but I don't know truth yet...still learning. I am not sure where that puts me.
I am not a Mahayana teacher. That is, I (as the little self) am not a Buddhist trained in the Mahayana tradition. So I definitely can't own that one. I greatly respect the years of training and devoted practice that a trainee goes through to establish that expertise. I also love to listen to such teachers in the Mahayana and Zen traditions. But...I cannot pin those credentials to my chest. Besides, I look at Buddha's teaching as a philosophy and wonderful way of healing the mind. I don't seek the religion in it.
Simplicity?
I do enjoy simplicity. I really do. I am so tired of all the drama and the chaos...the busyness this world demands. I want the quiet, the solitude and the peace of simplicity. I am not a renunciant, however. I haven't given up all my materials....but luckily for me, my income and a lot of material assets have been removed from my life by circumstance. I can live without.
Anonymous?
Do I yearn to be anonymous? Hmm...I don't want to be famous or even popular...not really. As a teacher, I want the message I offer to be read and heard. As a writer, I do want publication. There are times in the height of feeling bad about myself ( when ego is in charge) I do look to redeem myself with my writing and think ego things like "When I get published, they will see that I had something to offer...they will understand me . I will redeem myself " etc. Silly I know.
I may never get that and that is okay. The true writer in me just wants to write and I can usually push both shamer and redeemer ego off my computer chair when I do sit down to write. So I do not write to be famous. I write to write. In fact, most of my writing is done using a pen name...so I do remain partially anonymous. I am a fairly shy person by nature, so I don't like to put myself out there too much lol.
I do, however, have an ego like I mentioned before and my ego likes to see readers on my stats. I do not feel comfortable with a lot of readers though...but anything around 30, 40 or 50 a day makes me think, " yeah I am getting through to somebody somewhere". (Actually, I am okay with ten or more) I question the statistic calculations on this site...so I never truly know just how many readers I am getting. I went so far at one point of adding Google analytics to ensure proper tracking. Silly ...ego stuff I know. Obviously, I do not wish to be that anonymous if I am doing that.
Hiding?
I love the last part lol. I do hide in solitude like a wounded animal. I am forever using the analogy that I am off hiding in a corner away from society licking my wounds. So that applies. I do like to hide here in my reclusive healing comfort zone. I know I can't stay here but for now, until I am healed, I hide away like a wounded animal. :)
So I don't know what that makes me. And does it really matter because it really isn't about 'me' anyway, is it? It is about the Deeper I...the greater Self that lies beneath all this superficial stuff. Now that part of me is a true teacher. That part of you is a true teacher as well.
All is well in my world.
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Anger
In the presence of anger, peace is impossible.
-Dalai Lama
Getting Angry
We all get angry from time to time don't we? Someone says something insulting or steps in front of us in line ...and something inside gets triggered. We feel the heat coming to the face, the chest tightening and the fists clenching. The sympathetic nervous system is turned on and we straighten up, tense up and prepare to do the first thing on the agenda...fight! We gear up to fight, don't we? Testosterone, the aggression hormone, is said to rise with the cortisol during times of anger. We automatically and instinctually prepare for attack when anger gets triggered.
What? Someone just stepped in front of us and we are going off to war? That doesn't make sense.
The Reaction and The Waking Beast
Well what is actually happening is that we reacted to some external thing, be it an action of another or a thought...a deeper seated and repressed ball of emotion got poked. We woke up the little entity inside us, what Tolle refers to as the pain body. We have given it something to eat and like the Gremlins who get fed after midnight, this sleeping beauty becomes a beast. It feeds off of this minor little thing and possesses us rather quickly taking over our thinking mind. We then react emotionally or behaviourally as a result. In that moment, peace is impossible.
Attack
We attack. And of course, if another individual with ego is involved, they will react to our reaction because their pain body gets awakened by ours. Our pain body will grow stronger and more warrior like with their attack and we will react back. The pain bodies will just grow and grow.
Pain bodies are hungry and cranky when they are awakened abruptly. So it becomes a battle of ego against ego...and in the case of a thought trigger within one individual...it becomes a battle between self and the world. We are indeed at war.
And if this is a collective pain body activation...then we see real war manifesting in our world.
Anger is just an emotion
The thing is... anger is just an emotion. It is nothing more than a wisp of energetic breeze blowing through our psyches. It isn't good. It isn't bad. It just is. If we just allow it to be and then let it pass through...it is gone and does no harm. It is when we cling to it, hold on to it, struggle against it, resist it, deny it and avoid it that it becomes a problem. Stuffed anger gravitates to that ball of repressed emotion inside us, giving it a fire that will burn us alive if we aren't careful. Anger itself is not the problem. Our inability to just let it be...is.
Calming the Beast
All is well in my world.
References
Eckhart Tolle (April , 2012) Dealing with Anger, Resistance, and Pessimism. Eckhart Tolle TV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqX5IFKYFWk
-Dalai Lama
Getting Angry
We all get angry from time to time don't we? Someone says something insulting or steps in front of us in line ...and something inside gets triggered. We feel the heat coming to the face, the chest tightening and the fists clenching. The sympathetic nervous system is turned on and we straighten up, tense up and prepare to do the first thing on the agenda...fight! We gear up to fight, don't we? Testosterone, the aggression hormone, is said to rise with the cortisol during times of anger. We automatically and instinctually prepare for attack when anger gets triggered.
What? Someone just stepped in front of us and we are going off to war? That doesn't make sense.
The Reaction and The Waking Beast
Well what is actually happening is that we reacted to some external thing, be it an action of another or a thought...a deeper seated and repressed ball of emotion got poked. We woke up the little entity inside us, what Tolle refers to as the pain body. We have given it something to eat and like the Gremlins who get fed after midnight, this sleeping beauty becomes a beast. It feeds off of this minor little thing and possesses us rather quickly taking over our thinking mind. We then react emotionally or behaviourally as a result. In that moment, peace is impossible.
Attack
We attack. And of course, if another individual with ego is involved, they will react to our reaction because their pain body gets awakened by ours. Our pain body will grow stronger and more warrior like with their attack and we will react back. The pain bodies will just grow and grow.
Pain bodies are hungry and cranky when they are awakened abruptly. So it becomes a battle of ego against ego...and in the case of a thought trigger within one individual...it becomes a battle between self and the world. We are indeed at war.
And if this is a collective pain body activation...then we see real war manifesting in our world.
Anger is just an emotion
The thing is... anger is just an emotion. It is nothing more than a wisp of energetic breeze blowing through our psyches. It isn't good. It isn't bad. It just is. If we just allow it to be and then let it pass through...it is gone and does no harm. It is when we cling to it, hold on to it, struggle against it, resist it, deny it and avoid it that it becomes a problem. Stuffed anger gravitates to that ball of repressed emotion inside us, giving it a fire that will burn us alive if we aren't careful. Anger itself is not the problem. Our inability to just let it be...is.
Calming the Beast
- The trick is to become aware of the pain body within us...just be aware of it. Know that it is looking for a reason to manifest and fight. It thrives on drama, war and chaos.
- Be aware of what triggers and activates it for you. What are your anger triggers? What types of things p*&^ you off?
- Watch yourself when you become angry...just mentally step out of the situation and become the conscious awareness. "Oh my look at me...I am getting all rawled up, aren't I? " That isn't always easy to do being that the reaction often happens so fast and is so all consuming we can get lost in it. Just keep practicing.
- Practice being the witness in other areas of your life. The more present you become in other situations, the more likely you will be present in the midst of an anger reaction.
- Remind yourself that it is peace you want, not what pain body offers.
- Accept and allow the anger in this heightened state of awareness. Be present first .
- Embrace it gently
- Let it go...forgiveness works here.
All is well in my world.
References
Eckhart Tolle (April , 2012) Dealing with Anger, Resistance, and Pessimism. Eckhart Tolle TV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqX5IFKYFWk
It's Not What You Are Doing...
The beauty of embracing deep truths is that you don't have to change your life; you just change how you live your life. It's not what you're doing; it's how much of you is doing it.
-Michael Singer from the untethered soul (page 160)
A Reminder:
Take what I say with a grain of salt and question, question, question.
I am not an expert in any way shape or form. I am not a spiritual master by any means nor do I wish to be. I am a teacher only because we are all teachers and I have learned through my many years of school that teaching is the best way to learn something. I so desperately want to learn. :)
I also cannot stress enough that I am no further ahead on this journey than anyone else. I am far from enlightened. I still have a big fat ego lol. For example: Though I am not actively promoting what I do here nor am I seeking to get compensated for it...I do check my stats daily to see how many readers I get. I know if I get through to just one or two people that is all I need to do, so ego has no place in this. Tell that to my ego however lol. Sigh...Ego gets all inflated when I see 40 + readers in one day like I did today and gets somewhat deflated when I notice that I only have one or two. I do, still very much react to external circumstances. Maybe not as much as I used to but I still have some work to do there
So if I am not a master and I simply do more learning than I do teaching, and if even my ego is getting little to nothing from this, why on earth do I feel compelled to come here everyday?
Why am I not out there living a bunch of exciting experiences...checking off all the things I have on my bucket list like rock climbing some great mountain, bunji jumping or sky diving. Why am I not packing my bags and going off to explore Africa and Australia...among other continents I have only read about? Why am I not gearing myself to shoot for National Geographic or getting my writing out there at all costs? Why am I not working for the Peace Corps or Habitat for Humanity? Why do I not have a PhD in psychology by now? Why haven't I visited a Buddhist monastery in the Himalayans, had a stay in an Ashram in India or drank some Ayahausca with a Shaman on Machu Picchu?
If I am working towards transcending my fear restrictions for the freedom of enlightenment and therefore attempting to live fully, shouldn't I be 'doing' these types of things?
Ahh...but that is just it, isn't it? It's not what you are doing; it's how much of you is doing it. I don't know why I do this other than feeling compelled for some reason to do it. I have really no idea what motivates me to keep coming here, to keep learning and to keep sharing. It doesn't really matter what I am doing here, I guess. I just know that when I am here...I am here 100 % . All of me is here. Hmmm....that is a sign that I am embracing Life, isn't it?
Maybe you can do the same.
All is well.
Singer, Michael. (2007) the untethered soul. Oakland; New Harbinger
-Michael Singer from the untethered soul (page 160)
A Reminder:
Take what I say with a grain of salt and question, question, question.
I am not an expert in any way shape or form. I am not a spiritual master by any means nor do I wish to be. I am a teacher only because we are all teachers and I have learned through my many years of school that teaching is the best way to learn something. I so desperately want to learn. :)
I also cannot stress enough that I am no further ahead on this journey than anyone else. I am far from enlightened. I still have a big fat ego lol. For example: Though I am not actively promoting what I do here nor am I seeking to get compensated for it...I do check my stats daily to see how many readers I get. I know if I get through to just one or two people that is all I need to do, so ego has no place in this. Tell that to my ego however lol. Sigh...Ego gets all inflated when I see 40 + readers in one day like I did today and gets somewhat deflated when I notice that I only have one or two. I do, still very much react to external circumstances. Maybe not as much as I used to but I still have some work to do there
So if I am not a master and I simply do more learning than I do teaching, and if even my ego is getting little to nothing from this, why on earth do I feel compelled to come here everyday?
Why am I not out there living a bunch of exciting experiences...checking off all the things I have on my bucket list like rock climbing some great mountain, bunji jumping or sky diving. Why am I not packing my bags and going off to explore Africa and Australia...among other continents I have only read about? Why am I not gearing myself to shoot for National Geographic or getting my writing out there at all costs? Why am I not working for the Peace Corps or Habitat for Humanity? Why do I not have a PhD in psychology by now? Why haven't I visited a Buddhist monastery in the Himalayans, had a stay in an Ashram in India or drank some Ayahausca with a Shaman on Machu Picchu?
If I am working towards transcending my fear restrictions for the freedom of enlightenment and therefore attempting to live fully, shouldn't I be 'doing' these types of things?
Ahh...but that is just it, isn't it? It's not what you are doing; it's how much of you is doing it. I don't know why I do this other than feeling compelled for some reason to do it. I have really no idea what motivates me to keep coming here, to keep learning and to keep sharing. It doesn't really matter what I am doing here, I guess. I just know that when I am here...I am here 100 % . All of me is here. Hmmm....that is a sign that I am embracing Life, isn't it?
Maybe you can do the same.
All is well.
Singer, Michael. (2007) the untethered soul. Oakland; New Harbinger
Monday, February 25, 2019
A Mild Bruise
You must look inside yourself and determine that from now on pain is not a problem. It is just a thing in the universe...But if you do not learn to be comfortable with it, you will devote your life to avoiding it. If you feel insecurity, it's just a feeling. It's just a part of creation. If you feel jealousy and your heart burns, just look at it objectively, like you would a mild bruise. It's a thing in the universe that is passing through your system. Laugh at it, have fun with it, but don't be afraid of it. It cannot touch you unless you touch it.
-Michael Singer from the untethered soul page 103
Hmm! Them there are mighty powerful words aren't they? Do you agree with them or do you instinctively pull back defensively when you hear them?
The Instinctive Reaction To Pain
Most of us will pull away from them and from anything that tells us pain is not something we have to react too, right? Why? We are conditioned socially and biologically to instinctively react to pain or anything that is deemed uncomfortable. You unknowingly put a hand on the hot burner and a reflex arc takes over so quickly you are not even aware of it. You pull your hand away.
Well our minds are the same. If something disturbing touches the mind, its tendency is to retract, pull back and close off in order to protect itself. Life circumstances, situations, the things our bodies or what other bodies do sometimes disturb us. And sometimes the truth itself is disturbing.
The Truth is seen as painful
The truth that we do not have to stay stuck in our suffering is disturbing to many of us. The reason for that is what Eckhart Tolle calls the pain body and what Carl Jung would have called the collective unconscious.
Huh?
Within us is a body of repressed pain collected over the course of our life time (easy to accept right?) and collected over the course of many generations (maybe not so easy to accept lol). Pain, like all the experiences life provides for us, is simply a current of energy that enters and exits if nothing blocks it. If the mind is resistant to the experience, however, we may block it through a host of defense mechanisms including suppression, repression, denial, and avoidance. We then unconsciously cling, struggle against, project outwardly through blame and rage, stuff down, and/or ignore it. None of these reactions permit the experience of pain to pass through.
A Hungry Little Beast
Many believe that blocked energy accumulates and forms an invisible mass inside us like a separate little entity (Tolle). And this little entity is always hungry...always looking to be fed so it can continue to grow.
What does it feed on?
It feeds on our new emotional experiences and our thoughts especially the negative ones. It feeds on the reactions from others and this idea that Life isn't going the way it should.
When it is feeding, when it is triggered and reactive, it is all consuming...We get lost in it; we become it like we were possessed by it. The mind appeases it by providing more and more negative thoughts for it to munch on. It goes out into the world around us searching for food in the form of grievances, resentments, what's wrong etc .
The pain body (that big accumulation of repressed pain) comes to the surface to feed on what it is given by the mind. It is hard to fill. It needs more and more and more.
Addictive Quality to Human Pain
That is why there is almost an addictive quality to human pain.When we are lost in our pain, we don't want to be free of it. It is who we are, right? We wonder: if we get rid of the pain who will we be? We often subconsciously resist getting better. Try telling a person in the height of their possession by repressed pain that there is a way to be free of it and see what happens. You will probably meet with something akin to Linda Blair's rotating head.
Of course this is all happening at the subconscious level and happening as quickly and as automatically as the nerve impulse from the burning hand is being carried to the spinal nerves and back. It is a reaction. All because we have come to see pain as a problem and something to with draw from.
So what do we do about it?
All is well in my world.
References
Michael Singer (2007) the untethered soul. Oakland: New Harbinger
Eckhart Tolle (Sept, 2017) The Pain Body.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gzoooxb6M4
-Michael Singer from the untethered soul page 103
Hmm! Them there are mighty powerful words aren't they? Do you agree with them or do you instinctively pull back defensively when you hear them?
The Instinctive Reaction To Pain
Most of us will pull away from them and from anything that tells us pain is not something we have to react too, right? Why? We are conditioned socially and biologically to instinctively react to pain or anything that is deemed uncomfortable. You unknowingly put a hand on the hot burner and a reflex arc takes over so quickly you are not even aware of it. You pull your hand away.
Well our minds are the same. If something disturbing touches the mind, its tendency is to retract, pull back and close off in order to protect itself. Life circumstances, situations, the things our bodies or what other bodies do sometimes disturb us. And sometimes the truth itself is disturbing.
The Truth is seen as painful
The truth that we do not have to stay stuck in our suffering is disturbing to many of us. The reason for that is what Eckhart Tolle calls the pain body and what Carl Jung would have called the collective unconscious.
Huh?
Within us is a body of repressed pain collected over the course of our life time (easy to accept right?) and collected over the course of many generations (maybe not so easy to accept lol). Pain, like all the experiences life provides for us, is simply a current of energy that enters and exits if nothing blocks it. If the mind is resistant to the experience, however, we may block it through a host of defense mechanisms including suppression, repression, denial, and avoidance. We then unconsciously cling, struggle against, project outwardly through blame and rage, stuff down, and/or ignore it. None of these reactions permit the experience of pain to pass through.
A Hungry Little Beast
Many believe that blocked energy accumulates and forms an invisible mass inside us like a separate little entity (Tolle). And this little entity is always hungry...always looking to be fed so it can continue to grow.
What does it feed on?
It feeds on our new emotional experiences and our thoughts especially the negative ones. It feeds on the reactions from others and this idea that Life isn't going the way it should.
When it is feeding, when it is triggered and reactive, it is all consuming...We get lost in it; we become it like we were possessed by it. The mind appeases it by providing more and more negative thoughts for it to munch on. It goes out into the world around us searching for food in the form of grievances, resentments, what's wrong etc .
The pain body (that big accumulation of repressed pain) comes to the surface to feed on what it is given by the mind. It is hard to fill. It needs more and more and more.
Addictive Quality to Human Pain
That is why there is almost an addictive quality to human pain.When we are lost in our pain, we don't want to be free of it. It is who we are, right? We wonder: if we get rid of the pain who will we be? We often subconsciously resist getting better. Try telling a person in the height of their possession by repressed pain that there is a way to be free of it and see what happens. You will probably meet with something akin to Linda Blair's rotating head.
Of course this is all happening at the subconscious level and happening as quickly and as automatically as the nerve impulse from the burning hand is being carried to the spinal nerves and back. It is a reaction. All because we have come to see pain as a problem and something to with draw from.
So what do we do about it?
- The trick is to change the way we see pain. To stop labelling it as something bad. Pain is just something in the universe. It is neither good or bad...until thinking makes it so. It is no big deal until we make it a big deal.
- We have to be aware of these hungry little beasts, past pain, inside us so we stop feeding them. Once we shine the light in their faces they shrivel up and become small. We are less likely to react.They are creatures that like to do most of their nasty work in the dark.
- Don't avoid or repress or numb from pain. Be aware of your tendency to do that...just be aware .
- Allow pain to simply be what it is. Don't fight or struggle against it. Resistance only makes it stronger. Remember: it is just a feeling.
- Take it a step further and do what Buddhism teaches...gently soothe, hold and embrace your pain like a mother would hold a crying baby.
- You can take it in even farther when you are ready...to laugh at it and have fun with it just as you would a comical, fun experience.
- Don't be afraid of it. Don't withdraw from it because it is uncomfortable.
- Learn to relax into it and see it more as a way out than something that keeps you trapped inside.
- Know that it won't hurt you unless you strike out at it. embrace it and hold it gently in your being instead...so that it will eventually feel the compassion it needs to leave and move on.
- Let go
- Be present: The unhappy me that lives through past and future dissolves when we become present. (Tolle)
All is well in my world.
References
Michael Singer (2007) the untethered soul. Oakland: New Harbinger
Eckhart Tolle (Sept, 2017) The Pain Body.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gzoooxb6M4
Sunday, February 24, 2019
You Are
You Are...
Your story written on pages
that are now tattered around the edges
and turning yellow...
does not describe who you are.
The photos with the turned up corners
and fading images
that you display in albums
on your coffee table...
do not show who you really are.
The memories that dance
through your scattered dreams
and the wishes for something more
that fill you with a pain
and an expectation
you will not let go of...
are not you.
This aging body
with its lines,
creases
and ailing organs
is just a shallow carcass
housing something greater...
it is not you.
The title you pin to your chest
or hang in a frame with black casing
on you wall
is only a role you play...
it isn't you either.
The judgements
and interpretations
you make of the things
that pour through your senses
and jumble around in your frontal cortex...
are not you.
The noisy and ceaseless
thinking in your head
that constantly competes
with the thumping of your heart...
is not you either.
Your pain,
your sorrow,
your hope
for something better tomorrow
are just mental wisps
that are meant to move through you
before they disappear...
they are not you.
Your seeking,
your clinging,
your resisting,
your struggling
against all that is ...
is not you.
This world you live in
that seems so solid and tangible
is nothing more
than vapour and mist
and all that you think
you are within it
is nothing more than smoke...
it is not you.
You are beneath all this...
a stage for all this....
a backdrop of perfection
created in
perfect stillness,
perfect quiet,
perfect awareness.
You are what watches
without disturbance
all the forms that dance
around upon you,
that play and act the parts
the world of form scripts.
You are what is aware
of the drama,
the beauty,
the suffering
unfolding
without judgment
or critique...
just awareness.
The breath you breathe
is the curtain
that slowly opens and closes
over this world,
drawing you inward
to the space that is everything.
You are that breath.
You are that everything.
Your story written on pages
that are now tattered around the edges
and turning yellow...
does not describe who you are.
The photos with the turned up corners
and fading images
that you display in albums
on your coffee table...
do not show who you really are.
The memories that dance
through your scattered dreams
and the wishes for something more
that fill you with a pain
and an expectation
you will not let go of...
are not you.
This aging body
with its lines,
creases
and ailing organs
is just a shallow carcass
housing something greater...
it is not you.
The title you pin to your chest
or hang in a frame with black casing
on you wall
is only a role you play...
it isn't you either.
The judgements
and interpretations
you make of the things
that pour through your senses
and jumble around in your frontal cortex...
are not you.
The noisy and ceaseless
thinking in your head
that constantly competes
with the thumping of your heart...
is not you either.
Your pain,
your sorrow,
your hope
for something better tomorrow
are just mental wisps
that are meant to move through you
before they disappear...
they are not you.
Your seeking,
your clinging,
your resisting,
your struggling
against all that is ...
is not you.
This world you live in
that seems so solid and tangible
is nothing more
than vapour and mist
and all that you think
you are within it
is nothing more than smoke...
it is not you.
You are beneath all this...
a stage for all this....
a backdrop of perfection
created in
perfect stillness,
perfect quiet,
perfect awareness.
You are what watches
without disturbance
all the forms that dance
around upon you,
that play and act the parts
the world of form scripts.
You are what is aware
of the drama,
the beauty,
the suffering
unfolding
without judgment
or critique...
just awareness.
The breath you breathe
is the curtain
that slowly opens and closes
over this world,
drawing you inward
to the space that is everything.
You are that breath.
You are that everything.
© Dale-Lyn (Pen) 2019
Knowing Who You Are Beyond the Form
True happiness is simply knowing who you are beyond the form-
Eckhart Tolle
So as we continue our search for healing we let go of these ideas of happiness that make it dependent on what happens around us, in us or to us. We also let go of this idea we have of self as the pain we experienced. So if we do that and if we relinquish the demands we place on the world, we just might find what we are looking for.
The demand people place on the manifested world is impossible: "Make me happy!" (Eckhart Tolle)
Frustration with our unmet demands on the world of form can lead to healing
Once we get frustrated enough in our search for happiness out there and in the future...discovering that it just doesn't work that way...we may finally become ready for healing. We may be willing to become comfortable with things, places, people, our bodies as they are. We put away our expectations that they be different and we turn our attention elsewhere...to the quiet space of who we really are beyond the world of form.
We are not the roles we play
In the world of form we take on identities and roles and too often we get lost in them. We are not our family roles ( daughter, mother, father, brother), we are not our social roles ( friend, famous person, wall flower) nor are we the professional roles we take on ( doctor, nurse, teacher, electrician) . We are the simply the spacious stage on which these roles are played. The essence of who we are is formless and we manifest in form. That's all.
Beyond the form to the formless
There is no way to truly 'get this' idea with the conceptual mind (which is form). We need to go beyond the thoughts, feelings, ideas and concepts we identified with to that quiet space of who we really are to know this truth. To know who we really are we need to still and quiet the body and mind and ask the question "Who am I?" Then we listen...not with our busy doing and thinking self... but with the quiet still Self that is always aware. We go there.
Who am I?
Kim Eng, in a video by the same name as that imperative question asked by many sages throughout the ages, takes us through a 20 minute meditation that helps us to connect to Self or at least sincerely ask that question. Please see the link below.
Tapping into that aware space of who we really are beyond form, once or twice a day, will lead to true happiness and healing.
All is well.
References
Eng, Kim (Feb, 2019) Who am I? Guided Meditation. Eckhart Tolle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk5dlmylOZk
Tolle, Eckhart ( March, 2019) Your Unhappiness is Optional .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOCsXSSLYjA
Eckhart Tolle
So as we continue our search for healing we let go of these ideas of happiness that make it dependent on what happens around us, in us or to us. We also let go of this idea we have of self as the pain we experienced. So if we do that and if we relinquish the demands we place on the world, we just might find what we are looking for.
The demand people place on the manifested world is impossible: "Make me happy!" (Eckhart Tolle)
Frustration with our unmet demands on the world of form can lead to healing
Once we get frustrated enough in our search for happiness out there and in the future...discovering that it just doesn't work that way...we may finally become ready for healing. We may be willing to become comfortable with things, places, people, our bodies as they are. We put away our expectations that they be different and we turn our attention elsewhere...to the quiet space of who we really are beyond the world of form.
We are not the roles we play
In the world of form we take on identities and roles and too often we get lost in them. We are not our family roles ( daughter, mother, father, brother), we are not our social roles ( friend, famous person, wall flower) nor are we the professional roles we take on ( doctor, nurse, teacher, electrician) . We are the simply the spacious stage on which these roles are played. The essence of who we are is formless and we manifest in form. That's all.
Beyond the form to the formless
There is no way to truly 'get this' idea with the conceptual mind (which is form). We need to go beyond the thoughts, feelings, ideas and concepts we identified with to that quiet space of who we really are to know this truth. To know who we really are we need to still and quiet the body and mind and ask the question "Who am I?" Then we listen...not with our busy doing and thinking self... but with the quiet still Self that is always aware. We go there.
Who am I?
Kim Eng, in a video by the same name as that imperative question asked by many sages throughout the ages, takes us through a 20 minute meditation that helps us to connect to Self or at least sincerely ask that question. Please see the link below.
Tapping into that aware space of who we really are beyond form, once or twice a day, will lead to true happiness and healing.
All is well.
References
Eng, Kim (Feb, 2019) Who am I? Guided Meditation. Eckhart Tolle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk5dlmylOZk
Tolle, Eckhart ( March, 2019) Your Unhappiness is Optional .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOCsXSSLYjA
Saturday, February 23, 2019
Let Go of Pain as Your Self Identity
To build an identity on past pain is a dreadful limitation.
-Eckhart Tolle
Hmm! On this topic of letting go in order to achieve healing...we go on to understanding the need to let go of our identity of self that we cling to in that little bag of ashes.
Letting Go of the Idea of self as a carrier of pain
As the merchant kept his pain and grief around his neck in order to understand who he was through his suffering...many of us do the same. We cling to past pain, memories and emotions to explain who we are. "I can't be happy because this or that happened."
Trauma exists. Terrible things happen in this world. We get hurt by others and sometime viciously so. When humanity is so unconscious and so unaware of what it is doing...there is bound to be suffering and pain inflicted and received. We are not going to get through Life without pain. That is a given.
But we do not need to keep the pain around our necks like dog tags that define and identify. We are not our pain. We are not our thoughts, not our emotions, not what it is happening around us. We are the silence and the stillness in which these things pass through.
Lost in Pain
Being lost in the foreground of our experience is a normal state for most humans. Most of us are so absorbed in the 'seriousness' of our thoughts, feelings and external circumstances we do not notice the background. Stillness, silence, presence is the back ground. We are the background.
You are not the accumulation of memory and associated thoughts and emotions. You are the eternal, timeless state of consciousness which is presence.(Tolle).
Thought is noise and sometimes there is so much thought, so much noise leading to feeling and attachment to external world understanding that we can't hear the silence. Pain adds a greater intensity to that noise because it allows mind to become more important. It is very easy to become so absorbed in the foreground noise that we become lost in it.
Find the silence Beneath the Noise
Even though we get so busy in our heads that we cannot hear or feel the silence and the stillness...it never goes away. It is still there. We just need to stop what we are doing and listen for it.
Between the words, and the worldly noise there are gaps that silence comes through. Make it a point to listen ...to notice those gaps. The moment you notice silence is the moment you become still inside.
Awareness of outer stillness leads to inner stillness. Awareness of outer silence leads to inner silence. Why? Because thought cannot see stillness or hear silence ...only our inner stillness can. when you notice silence and stillness you have gone beyond thought to presence.
It is there where healing happens.
All is well in my world.
References
Eckhart Tolle (2017) Talk to your Thoughts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yrRHaE_7d4
-Eckhart Tolle
Hmm! On this topic of letting go in order to achieve healing...we go on to understanding the need to let go of our identity of self that we cling to in that little bag of ashes.
Letting Go of the Idea of self as a carrier of pain
As the merchant kept his pain and grief around his neck in order to understand who he was through his suffering...many of us do the same. We cling to past pain, memories and emotions to explain who we are. "I can't be happy because this or that happened."
Trauma exists. Terrible things happen in this world. We get hurt by others and sometime viciously so. When humanity is so unconscious and so unaware of what it is doing...there is bound to be suffering and pain inflicted and received. We are not going to get through Life without pain. That is a given.
But we do not need to keep the pain around our necks like dog tags that define and identify. We are not our pain. We are not our thoughts, not our emotions, not what it is happening around us. We are the silence and the stillness in which these things pass through.
Lost in Pain
Being lost in the foreground of our experience is a normal state for most humans. Most of us are so absorbed in the 'seriousness' of our thoughts, feelings and external circumstances we do not notice the background. Stillness, silence, presence is the back ground. We are the background.
You are not the accumulation of memory and associated thoughts and emotions. You are the eternal, timeless state of consciousness which is presence.(Tolle).
Thought is noise and sometimes there is so much thought, so much noise leading to feeling and attachment to external world understanding that we can't hear the silence. Pain adds a greater intensity to that noise because it allows mind to become more important. It is very easy to become so absorbed in the foreground noise that we become lost in it.
Find the silence Beneath the Noise
Even though we get so busy in our heads that we cannot hear or feel the silence and the stillness...it never goes away. It is still there. We just need to stop what we are doing and listen for it.
Between the words, and the worldly noise there are gaps that silence comes through. Make it a point to listen ...to notice those gaps. The moment you notice silence is the moment you become still inside.
Awareness of outer stillness leads to inner stillness. Awareness of outer silence leads to inner silence. Why? Because thought cannot see stillness or hear silence ...only our inner stillness can. when you notice silence and stillness you have gone beyond thought to presence.
It is there where healing happens.
All is well in my world.
References
Eckhart Tolle (2017) Talk to your Thoughts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yrRHaE_7d4
Friday, February 22, 2019
Happiness & Healing
There is no way to healing; healing is the way.
-Thich Nhat Hanh
I am back and I am back on the topic of healing by letting go.
Letting Go of Our Crazy Idea of Happiness
My last entry on this topic a few posts back stated that in order to heal we need to let go of this idea of happiness we cling to. We tend to look for the big highs, the big thrills that we assume all the others we are following on social media are experiencing in our search for happiness. We assume happiness is a thrill ride that external circumstances provide and one we never want to get off of. We place a lot of comparison and a lot of should and have tos on the experience of life that is unhealthy and self defeating when we do this. We diagnose our selves as being depressed and our lives to be broken if we do not have butterflies in our bellies all the time. We are defining happiness by an 'image' that isn't real.
It's Our Thinking That Makes Us Sick and Unhappy
It is not a lack of a Life-provided roller coaster that brings unhappiness or that makes us 'sick'. It is our thinking. There is no doubt about it...we are all a little 'cra-cra' when it comes to our thinking. We all need healing because we do suffer.
We are not 'sick' however because we do not have what we assume we 'should' have, that which we erroneously believe all 'the others' have. We are sick because of our expectations and unhealthy seeking. We suffer because of our thinking, our dependency on life being a certain way, our constant seeking for something that isn't real, our past and future focus that takes us from the only Life there is...that is here and now. We are sick because we are lost in our thinking.
Stop and Heal
The Buddhist solution for this, offered by practitioners in places like Plum village where Thich Nhat Hanh lives and teaches, is to stop and heal. Hanh's advice is to simply stop whatever you are doing that leads to suffering. (Healing is possible at every moment, 2013). So if our thinking is causing our suffering, then we just stop thinking. Makes sense right?
But...
Okay, I will admit...that this is too big of a mission for many of us to take on, especially as we start on this healing journey. "How on earth do we stop thinking when we are thinking up to 60,000 thoughts a day?"
Well I believe we do not necessarily stop thinking...we simply refocus away from the mind stuff and back into the feeling and experiencing for a few minutes here and there, starting out until we are spending most of our time experiencing with little to no thought involved. So what we need to do is get out of our heads and into our bodies, our feelings, our lives for a moment or two. Considering that our life is this moment than doing so brings us back to Life.
True Happiness Comes in Small Doses
We also have to put away this 'Big happiness or no happiness' mentality we cling to. Most of true and real happiness comes in small tinctures or doses at a time. We need to learn to recognize, be there and create the opportunities needed to experience these small happiness's ....to revel and appreciate a sunset, a flower blooming, the smell of salt water on the breeze, or the feel of grass or sand beneath our toes. We need to feel the chords of the music of a great symphony, wind blowing through the poplar leaves or the sound of robins on a spring morning vibrating through us, soothing us, energizing us. ...We need to revel in the joy that comes from a smile or a hug, and the peace that comes from being in silence or solitude or being surrounded by peaceful beings be they sentient or not. Then we need to be consumed by love and the reason for being that comes from loving someone else, from compassion and giving. I mean Life is all about these small but bountiful joys, that are right here, right now all around us and in us. Too often we don't even notice these things, let alone feel or experience them, because we are so lost in our heads or because we are too busy seeking the thrill that we assume is happiness.
How Do We Do That?
Healing allows for happiness and it can be possible at every moment. There are steps we can take to get there:
References
Thich Nhat Hanh (2013, March) Healing is possible at Every Moment. Plum Villageonline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzCWBpS67jg
-Thich Nhat Hanh
I am back and I am back on the topic of healing by letting go.
Letting Go of Our Crazy Idea of Happiness
My last entry on this topic a few posts back stated that in order to heal we need to let go of this idea of happiness we cling to. We tend to look for the big highs, the big thrills that we assume all the others we are following on social media are experiencing in our search for happiness. We assume happiness is a thrill ride that external circumstances provide and one we never want to get off of. We place a lot of comparison and a lot of should and have tos on the experience of life that is unhealthy and self defeating when we do this. We diagnose our selves as being depressed and our lives to be broken if we do not have butterflies in our bellies all the time. We are defining happiness by an 'image' that isn't real.
It's Our Thinking That Makes Us Sick and Unhappy
It is not a lack of a Life-provided roller coaster that brings unhappiness or that makes us 'sick'. It is our thinking. There is no doubt about it...we are all a little 'cra-cra' when it comes to our thinking. We all need healing because we do suffer.
We are not 'sick' however because we do not have what we assume we 'should' have, that which we erroneously believe all 'the others' have. We are sick because of our expectations and unhealthy seeking. We suffer because of our thinking, our dependency on life being a certain way, our constant seeking for something that isn't real, our past and future focus that takes us from the only Life there is...that is here and now. We are sick because we are lost in our thinking.
Stop and Heal
The Buddhist solution for this, offered by practitioners in places like Plum village where Thich Nhat Hanh lives and teaches, is to stop and heal. Hanh's advice is to simply stop whatever you are doing that leads to suffering. (Healing is possible at every moment, 2013). So if our thinking is causing our suffering, then we just stop thinking. Makes sense right?
But...
Okay, I will admit...that this is too big of a mission for many of us to take on, especially as we start on this healing journey. "How on earth do we stop thinking when we are thinking up to 60,000 thoughts a day?"
Well I believe we do not necessarily stop thinking...we simply refocus away from the mind stuff and back into the feeling and experiencing for a few minutes here and there, starting out until we are spending most of our time experiencing with little to no thought involved. So what we need to do is get out of our heads and into our bodies, our feelings, our lives for a moment or two. Considering that our life is this moment than doing so brings us back to Life.
True Happiness Comes in Small Doses
We also have to put away this 'Big happiness or no happiness' mentality we cling to. Most of true and real happiness comes in small tinctures or doses at a time. We need to learn to recognize, be there and create the opportunities needed to experience these small happiness's ....to revel and appreciate a sunset, a flower blooming, the smell of salt water on the breeze, or the feel of grass or sand beneath our toes. We need to feel the chords of the music of a great symphony, wind blowing through the poplar leaves or the sound of robins on a spring morning vibrating through us, soothing us, energizing us. ...We need to revel in the joy that comes from a smile or a hug, and the peace that comes from being in silence or solitude or being surrounded by peaceful beings be they sentient or not. Then we need to be consumed by love and the reason for being that comes from loving someone else, from compassion and giving. I mean Life is all about these small but bountiful joys, that are right here, right now all around us and in us. Too often we don't even notice these things, let alone feel or experience them, because we are so lost in our heads or because we are too busy seeking the thrill that we assume is happiness.
How Do We Do That?
Healing allows for happiness and it can be possible at every moment. There are steps we can take to get there:
- Let Go of this idea of happiness you have that keeps you seeking and searching, comparing and feeling broken.
- Know that all the conditions needed for happiness are already around you and in you
- Be willing to be open to the happiness Life has in store for you
- Commit to a practice of healing and start 'now'!
- Catch yourself suffering. Be aware of your thinking and your suffering generated by your thinking.
- Breathe...this is the simplest and most crucial step to our healing. We need to breathe and become aware of that life giving breath going into our bodies and going out. Whenever you find yourself ruminating or caught up in the NST(Non-Stop Thinking)...stop and breathe three big, beautiful breaths and just be aware of that breath entering your body on the in-breath and leaving your body on the out-breath. Breathe.
- Reconnect with your body. When we follow our breaths we automatically become aware of our bodies again. We spend so much of our time disconnected from these vehicles that take us here and there , that allow us to experience the wonders of the world around us because we are so stuck in our heads or lost in our 'busy work'. It is only when they become sick or break down or start screaming at us with pain that we hear them. We need to listen to them now. Each breath takes us back to the body and it is only through the body that we can become truly aware of the treasures around us, that we can sense and feel . We need to get back into our bodies in order to 'experience' life so we do not waste all that precious energy 'thinking about it." How does your body feel right now? Scan it briefly from head to toe...what is going on in there?
- Walk and connect to the earth. Hanh often teaches the value of walking meditation. It is a practice that can be done whenever we are walking anywhere. We focus on breath as we walk and we focus on the feel of our feet touching 'Mother Earth' with each step we take. We connect to the world around us . We connect to the moment we are in. We connect to Life. That connection brings peace and happiness
- Smile. Smile when you breathe; smile when you walk. Smile when you see someone. Smile when you look in the mirror. The best way to discover the healing benefits of a smile for yourself and others is to practice it and find out for yourself.
- Sit in mindfulness or meditation. Make it a point for so many minutes a day to simply sit still, with back erect, and be quiet for a few minutes a day. This may be the closest thing to 'stopping' the mind you will get to and that is okay. You don't have to stop your mind from doing what it does...you just need to stop fighting it, stop believing it, stop being consumed by it. Your Life exists beyond your thinking...find it.
- Be here and now. The most important thing we can do to create happiness in our lives is to simply allow ourselves to be present in this moment...the only moment there is. Be here. Just allow the now to be whatever it is and find the beauty in it anyway.
- Remember It is what is is. That in itself is beautiful and can bring tremendous healing, tremendous peace and tremendous happiness.
References
Thich Nhat Hanh (2013, March) Healing is possible at Every Moment. Plum Villageonline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzCWBpS67jg
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Sorry! Been away from my computer dealing with some family issues...so I haven't been able to write. My eyes and this small screen I have access to, do not support easy writing lol...all is well. I will be back when I can. In the meantime I am still learning so much amazing stuff about life...always gathering grist for the writing mill....for the teaching and the healing. I will be back!
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