More on the Tao te Ching

Their work was done and their undertakings were successful, while the
people all said, 'We are as we are, of ourselves!'

-Lao Tzu

 

 

My understanding of  James Legge's translation of Chapter/Verse 17-24 of the Tao Te Ching

 

 

17

 

Faith in rulers will wax and wane but the best rulers are the quiet ones who leave the people believing they accomplished what needed to be accomplished themselves.

---

18

 

Without observance of the Tao people became self-righteous and sought their own terms of goodness to follow leading to hypocrisy. Society, in terms of family and politics, may put on unnatural airs and use knowledge rather than the natural intelligence if they do not let the Tao to guide them.

---

19

 

If leaders? put aside their specialness, their wisdom (external knowledge), their appearance of goodness and self-righteousness, their tricking and scheming for gain…it would make the people better, more compassionate and kind, and more honest.

---

20

 

Knowledge and wisdom is not necessarily  a good thing. Lao Tzu compares himself to the majority of “learned” men who seem to be loyal, willing, seeking to answer all questions, pleased with themselves for what they have attained or own, their ability to judge and discriminate, their plans for doing etc.  He states that in comparison he seems dull, confused, stupid, poor but what sets him apart is his value of the Tao. It makes him real.

---

21

All action comes from the Tao which cannot be seen or touched.  It is dark and obscure, eluding light, yet it is the profound eternal truth behind all creation (existing things).

---

22

 

Less (partial) is more. Those who have few desires will attain them…those with many will get lost.  Man sets himself a part when he ceases to strive. The true sage who honors the Tao shines because he is free from a need to be seen; distinguished because he is free from a need to assert self; acknowledged because he is free from the need to boast; superior because he is free from the need to be more than.

---

23

 

It is important to have faith. If even the harshest things in nature (strong winds and heavy rains) cannot last all day how can man expect to have his own energy last forever without faith?  Silence without speech shows that he is obeying the ebb and flow of his own nature like the Tao. If one agrees with the man who is seeking the Tao they too will seek it.  If one agrees with the man who is happily manifesting the Tao, they too will manifest it happily.  But if one agrees with the man who fails to seek or manifest the Tao he too will lack faith.

---

24

Those who truly follow the Tao stand firmly without self display, assertion of  own views, boasting or self-conceit.

 

 

All is well in my world

The Grace-Myself-might not obtain

Confer upon My flower-

Refracted but a countenance-

For I- inhabit Her-

-Emily Dickinson

 

Is Illness Real?

We are not victims of aging, sickness and death.  These are parts of scenery, not the seer, who is immune to any form of change. The seer is the spirit, the expression of eternal being.
-Deepak Chopra ( Brainy Quote)

Over the last few weeks I have not been feeling physically well and I once again began to question this idea, that sickness is just an illusion.  It doesn't feel like much of an illusion yet the idea that it may be, wracks me with guilt.  Why am I experiencing illness that is limiting my life  if it isn't real?  What is wrong with me? Am I delusional or looking for secondary gains? Isn't what others see and say more important than what I feel?

The emotional component and the story associated with my experience of illness s is  often much worse than the actual physical symptoms. I do what others tend to do in such situations.  I seek validation...an answer that makes my story real.

Looking for the Validation of Story

In an attempt to understand what the body is doing we often seek a label, a name and some form of validation, do we not? 

I have spent many unsuccessful and shame inducing years attempting to get one solid diagnosis from medicine for what was going on in my heart (and the hearts and vessels of family members).  I or "it" was questionable in the eyes of others. So I collected past evidence to verify the plot.  That didn't seem to matter in changing the opinion of others, no matter how I relayed it. Past, then,  was insignificant in the 'naming' of this story.

I couldn't project the validity of my story into my future either  without a label. (With no diagnosis, there is no prognosis) .  I therefore couldn't build any story around it that I could identify with. My future story would remain a script unwritten.

I am actually grateful it turned out the way it did.  Because I did not succeed, I had to seek alternative means of coping with my perceived experience. This led me away from my psychological dependence on labelling, other validation, and story building that often comes with the experience of not feeling 100%. 

It actually led me back to the now and to  experiencing the body, mind and soul in each moment. I have come to see it all as a story that isn't significant or even all that real

So illness isn't real?

No 'illness' isn't real.  "Diabetes, Cancer and Heart Disease" are not real. "Arthritis, Colitis and sciatica" are not real.  "Illness" isn't real.

Say what??? I can see what is happening in my body...it is real.

Your symptoms  are real.  You feel what you feel. 

The signs may be real. Maybe you or others see, hear, smell, taste, or feel what is going on in your body that validate it is no longer in balance. That part is real.

The reality of the illness is only what you experience in the moment (Tolle)

Right now your glucometer may be  showing you that your  blood sugar is sky high or you are experiencing the wooziness of a low blood sugar because you forgot to eat after you took your insulin. That is real.

Right now you may be feeling a mass  somewhere on your flesh as you and your physician view some big dark spot on a Radiology report.  That is real. 

Right now you may be experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath as the ECG attached to you shows changes.  That too  is real.

Yes signs and symptoms can be real.  Your body is subject to the wears and tears of Life just as your mind is.  It will occasionally breakdown, mutate and disintegrate like all things of the physical world have the tendency to do.  Those changes in the body can be observed by the body (yours and/or someone else's).  What your body is experiencing right here in this moment is indeed  real.....

However, the 'diagnosis' and the determination of ' illness' isn't real.

Why "Illness" isn't real.

Illness isn't real because it is just a mental concept that exists in past and future. It is just a word that does not have the capability (as no one word does)  to adequately explain 'experience'. Illness is just a label. It is not the experience that is being labelled.

When we present with our so called body imbalances, signs and symptoms get grouped together by well meaning professionals. By using some diagnostic manual, a name is often given to them. That name then determines the course of treatment and the prognosis. Individual experience is not a part of that.

The name is what we tend to get hung up on.  The name is what we build our stories around using past memory and experience...and future  expectations. We go from experiencing the individual body...to playing out a script in our heads created by a collective thought.

These diagnosis' are just mental concepts...words and images attached to a series of signs and symptoms experienced by a body.  They are  pointing fingers pointing to a physical body which simply houses who we really are. We don't seem to look past the finger.


What we do with these mental concepts that really make us sick.

With the mental constructs we create an image that explains  our symptomology and that provides some relief to ego's need to know. Unfortunately, it also takes us from experiencing our moment.

We get hung up on past and future. We use the use past experiences of others to create a mental story in our mind of what that word "means". We identify with past (why I got this and what happened to others who had this), future (what will happen to me) and the so called 'disease' becomes our Life story.  It becomes a story in our minds that we too often live out, a story passed on by the collective and documented experiences of others who also  seen it as a story about them.

Cancer, for example, is only a word...yet it has the potential to cause great fear and grief in us.  It already has a pervasive story built around it. It is that  story built around the the word we fear. not the individual experience of cancer moment to moment.

We never want to see someone plopping that word above our group of symptoms or the symptoms of someone we love, do we?  If that word is used in anyway to describe us we automatically build more  story around it, don't we?  We go directly to our heads and  back to our memory banks to recall others who had that label placed on them.  We believe the story; we become the story!!!

We are told by well meaning professionals who use past survival statistics to determine our prognosis what our chances are. We believe them.  We believe the story our mind is telling us.  We get lost in past and future. And we truly believe we are going to suffer  and spend all our life energy unsuccessfully  'fighting death' because of one word. The real tragedy isn't the experience of so-called  cancer here but our reaction to a word, a label, a name.

Victims of words

We make  past stories associated with a mere word, our story. We identify with those stories and live in past and future.  Instead of seeing and experiencing the symptoms as they occur in each moment, we identify with the label.  We become it. "I am a diabetic.  I am a cancer survivor or a chemo patient.  I am a cardiac patient."  We become the illness and therefor the victim of a 'word'.

What we fail to accept is that diagnosis'  are just words and maps made by the collective professional mind. They cannot be who we are.  We just 'believe' they are.

How do we get beyond the limiting belief in Illness.

We can start by realizing who we are. I mean...who we really are.  Catch yourself referring to an illness label  using "I am".  Remind yourself you are not an illness.  You are not the body.  These things are just scenery. You are so much more.  You are the seer. You are the awareness that watches the blood sugar or the ST waves fluctuate on the machines.   You are not the label, the disease, the bodily changes. Who you are is beyond a mere concept of disease...it is 'nameless, eternal and unchanging.' (The Tao)

Drop the label.  We do not have to identify with the disease we are labelled with do we?  By all means treat it in the ways you see fit but don't become it. If you feel you need to address it, instead of saying, "I am diabetic", simply focus on the symptoms.  " I have high blood sugar according to this machine so I take insulin."

Don't personalize it. Watch those pronouns: "My" and "Mine".  This group of symptoms does not belong to you.  It isn't something the universe is doing to you.  It is just a breeze that is blowing through you just as a different type of breeze may blow through someone else.

Don't build story around your experience. Be aware of that tendency of the mind to remove us from our 'experience' and take us into story. It wants you to see yourself as a victim or a hero to your disease. It wants the drama and the ownership of it.  Try to recognize when it is becoming a story...when you are building a past and future around it, constantly talking about your condition to yourself or others, seeking specialness,  or staying stuck in your mind.  Gently bring yourself back to the present experience.

Experience the now.  The only reality to illness is what you experience in this moment, right here , right now. Be willing to accept and allow this moment no matter what it offers in terms of physical experiences. Put down the past and future concepts and live in the now. Instead of focusing on your past and the past of others who had similar signs or symptoms, bring awareness back to the present moment.  What are you experiencing now? Are you having pain now?  Experience it. (of course...treat it if it is interfering with your Life experience) but experience it. Even if you agree to  having  a label like arthritis stuck to you for treatment purposes ...it doesn't mean you have to experience pain all the time.  That is just a belief.  Symptoms may come and go.  What happened in the past may not be happening now and just because it is happening now, doesn't mean it will continue into the future.  As a nurse, I have seen the consequence of 'anticipated pain' in patients...the fear of it prevented them from enjoying their pain free moments. So stay in the present. There is no other Life but right here, right now.

Determine what your body might be trying to tell you. There is no doubt in my mind that the physical body reacts to what is going on in the mind.  Therefore I believe all so called disease is in some form or another...psychosomatic.  I know what I am experiencing is psychosomatic.  I am finally okay with that.  We need to be okay with that so we can get back to what the bodily symptoms are really trying to tell us.  There is an important message in that physical experience.  It is trying to tell you there is something in your 'thinking', your 'believing' and your 'perceiving' that needs to be looked at. We may need some  mental health professional or alternative practitioner like an energy healer to help us with that one.

Be Grateful.  That's a hard one, eh?  How can we be grateful for feeling so rotten or for witnessing how our lives are effected by these symptoms?  Remind yourself that Life knows what it is doing.  Everything that seems to 'happen' to us is for a reason we may not be able to understand at this point...but we will eventually.  It will all make sense someday. 

In the meantime be grateful for how you are being led to something greater...that something that lay beyond the body and mind.  So called 'Illness" can actually  be a portal to awakening.

How cool is that?

All is well!

References

Legge, James. (1891)  Translation of the Tao Te Ching. Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm

Tolle, Eckhart. (March, 2019) Eckhart Talks Real Versus Perceived Limitations. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30Qtgduxqxg

Poetry is Grace

I found this from a way back and felt compelled to share it as I meditate and write of Grace. 

I have so many poems tucked away.  I really do need to do up a chap book, even if I publish it myself...not for the ego or any guise of having 'talent' but for what the words teach. Lessons just flow through me when I write poetry...things I am not even aware I am thinking about come from this part of me that isn't me.  It is a lovely mysterious process that I am grateful for.  Poetry itself is Grace.

Grace

 

I set the table with a clean linen cloth,

its corners crisp and ready.

The china reserved for special occasions

is laid  down in an inviting fashion

with the bowls big and deep,

waiting to be filled up.

 

Crystal stem ware twinkles in the candlelight,

casting beautiful speckles of light over

the polished silver.

In the center,

I place a vase of perfect roses,

smiling, happy hosts,

content to be exactly what they are. 

 

I sit myself down at the table I set for her

and I wait for Grace to arrive.

I am ready.

 

 

 

The First Course

 

In she comes,

a vision of angelic loveliness,

effortlessly carrying

the first course of understanding.

Her gowns billow behind her

as she moves forward

in fluid strides.

The past that once clung to her hem

slips off easily

and disappears into nothingness

as she sets down the first course

in the now .

 

I call my brother to me

to join in this festive meal Grace provides.

Together we bow our heads and give thanks

before scooping out big heaps of the learning

laid before us.

 

The Second Course

 

In Grace comes again ...

the future she wore around her neck

vanishes into thin air

and the clocks behind us become quiet and still. 

She lovingly

serves the second course of acceptance.

Leaning forward so we can smell her

sweet perfume,

she offers  motherly instruction on

 the proper use of fork and napkin.

 

I find myself calling out

to the others hovering in the shadows,

hungry for what is being offered.

 

 

They gather at the table with us.

 

She fills all our glasses with

the very thing we thirsted for.

 

 The Third Course

 

Again Grace arrives,

her perfect face

smiling down on all of us

as she places the piece De la resistance

in front of us.

We consume it ravenously,

sharing every morsel with one another.

The more the other eats,

the more our hunger goes away.

"Love"...

she calls her special dish...

"Love."

It fills us so much

 we do not have room for dessert.

 

She smiles at us then,

removes her apron from her waist

and sits at this table,

laughing and talking

teaching and listening.

The candle light flickers

back and forth,

hopelessly competing with

the light that comes from her

forgiving presence.

 

It is a lovely meal.

 

I do not want it to end.

 

Hearing my unspoken words,

Grace whispers to me

over the twinkling crystal

in this timeless moment,

"It doesn't have to."

 

I smile and settle into the eternalness of now.

 

-Dale-Lyn 2012

 

My awareness is aligned with the creative power of the universe.
-Deepak Chopra/Oprah Winfrey (Manifesting Grace through Gratitude)

It is through gratitude for the Present Moment that the spiritual dimension of Life opens up.
-Eckhart Tolle

Mind Fanatic

 I am such a mind fanatic.  I am so, so intrigued by the human mind and I always have been. It just fascinates me to delve into its three layers and to see the how's and whys of human behaviour there. I see the mind as the cause of human suffering and I also see understanding it as the solution.

The power of core beliefs has been amongst one of the many things I have tried to understand. I honestly believe our thoughts and beliefs  are fundamental producers of the Life we are experiencing...both the inner and the outer.


Greater- Self Fanatic

I am also  fascinated by the deeper dimensions of the so called 'self'...which to me is a Self that goes way beyond the limitations of "I", "me", and "mine", that goes way beyond mental concepts and individuality.

So I read whatever I can, I study scripture both western and eastern.  I read the works of  great philosophers, poets, writers, scientists, psychologists/psychiatrists, and teachers that have walked the planet.  I try to figure it all out on my own as well...to determine what feels right etc.  I observe and I watch humans, including myself.  I meditate and go deeper to ask the big questions. I pray. I teach to learn.

Life Student

I am a life long student of the mind and that which lay as a background to the mind.

It is all so amazing to me.  Even if I never get the answers I seek...the process of asking is so exciting for some reason. And the more I  ask, the more I think I learn.  With the more I think I learn, comes the realization ...the less I actually know and therefore the more I ask. It seems to be a big beautiful cycle that never ends but throughout it all, the more peaceful I become...the more accepting and grateful I am for what is.

I keep my mind open.  I study different things, different modalities both the allopathic and alternative kinds. I listen to different teachers regardless of how they may appear to mainstream society...I pay more attention to the message and how it resonates inside me than I do to them as messengers.

I believe the individual needs to heal so the world heals. I look into healing therapies. So I have been looking into Theta Healing like I looked into other things  and what intrigues me about it is not the miracles its teachers purport to be able to create in a human's experience...not the mystical magical stuff  of transcending through layers of the universe and layers of light to the Creator (though I am not discounting it) ...but the way it seeks to dismantle those core beliefs that impair a human being's ability to live Life fully. That, I believe, is where we have to go to make this world a better place. ...to the mind of the individual, to the collective mind of all.

That collective mind I believe is in the spiritual dimension...the place where we realize once and for all that we are not separate little entities but something much greater...much more unified. It is there we experience the background of Life experience rather than being lost in the foreground of it. It is there where true awareness exists. It is there where we realize there is actually nothing to heal.

Hmmm!

All is well in my world.

References


Tolle, E. (2017) Talk to Your Thoughts. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yrRHaE_7d4

Limiting Beliefs; Obstacles to Grace

It is through gratitude for the Present Moment that the spiritual dimension of Life opens up.
-Eckhart Tolle

Mind Fanatic

 I am such a mind fanatic.  I am so, so intrigued by the human mind and I always have been. It just fascinates me to delve into its three layers and to see the how's and whys of human behaviour there. I see the mind as the cause of human suffering and I also see understanding it as the solution.

The power of core beliefs has been amongst one of the many things I have tried to understand. I honestly believe our thoughts and beliefs  are fundamental producers of the Life we are experiencing...both the inner and the outer.


Greater- Self Fanatic

I am also  fascinated by the deeper dimensions of the so called 'self'...which to me is a Self that goes way beyond the limitations of "I", "me", and "mine", that goes way beyond mental concepts and individuality.

So I read whatever I can, I study scripture both western and eastern.  I read the works of  great philosophers, poets, writers, scientists, psychologists/psychiatrists, and teachers that have walked the planet.  I try to figure it all out on my own as well...to determine what feels right etc.  I observe and I watch humans, including myself.  I meditate and go deeper to ask the big questions. I pray. I teach to learn.

Life Student

I am a life long student of the mind and that which lay as a background to the mind.

It is all so amazing to me.  Even if I never get the answers I seek...the process of asking is so exciting for some reason. And the more I  ask, the more I think I learn.  With the more I think I learn, comes the realization ...the less I actually know and therefore the more I ask. It seems to be a big beautiful cycle that never ends but throughout it all, the more peaceful I become...the more accepting and grateful I am for what is.

I keep my mind open.  I study different things, different modalities both the allopathic and alternative kinds. I listen to different teachers regardless of how they may appear to mainstream society...I pay more attention to the message and how it resonates inside me than I do to them as messengers.

I believe the individual needs to heal so the world heals. I look into healing therapies. So I have been looking into Theta Healing like I looked into other things  and what intrigues me about it is not the miracles its teachers purport to be able to create in a human's experience...not the mystical magical stuff  of transcending through layers of the universe and layers of light to the Creator (though I am not discounting it) ...but the way it seeks to dismantle those core beliefs that impair a human being's ability to live Life fully. That, I believe, is where we have to go to make this world a better place. ...to the mind of the individual, to the collective mind of all.

That collective mind I believe is in the spiritual dimension...the place where we realize once and for all that we are not separate little entities but something much greater...much more unified. It is there we experience the background of Life experience rather than being lost in the foreground of it. It is there where true awareness exists. It is there where we realize there is actually nothing to heal.

Hmmm!

All is well in my world.

References


Tolle, E. (2017) Talk to Your Thoughts. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yrRHaE_7d4

Making Waves to Tap Into Grace

Grace has been defined as the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.
-William Hazlitt


This soul can be made harmonious by tapping into our theta waves.  How do we do that? Through  good old meditation.

A Little on Brain Waves


There are four types of brain waves picked up by modern scientific analysis using equipment such as EEG's and MRI's. These waves are (from fastest to slowest):  Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta
.
Beta waves are those brain waves induced when we are aroused.  They are most active and the fastest occurring at about 15-45 cycles per second. They also have the shortest amplitudes.  The more alert the brain is, the quicker these waves will run.  When we are stressed, as most of  us are, spending much of our time in our monkey minds, we will have lots of Beta waves on our EEGs.

Alpha waves are slower that Beta waves and have a higher amplitude.  Occurring at 9-14 cycles per second, they occur when we are alert, awake but calm.  We would likely see these waves after we completed a complicated mental task and sat down to reflect on it.  If we were to have our brains measured just as we were sitting to meditate, we would also likely see Alpha waves in the slower range.

Theta Waves are the good guys we want to induce in order to tap into grace.  We can get there through meditation ...and some modalities like Theta Healing  purport to  take us directly to "divine grace". These waves are slower than Alpha waves but do not necessarily induce sleep.  We are still awake but very, very relaxed.  They occur at about 5-8 cycles per second. We tend to dip into the subconscious in this state.

Then there is Delta waves which occur with sleep.  They are obviously the slowest waves and have the highest amplitude, occurring anywhere from 1.5-4 cycles per second. We slip into the semi-unconsciousness here.

Waves then  are slowest when we are calm. The amplitude  is also higher in these  slow waves.  So the more relaxed we are the better the mind actually works and the  easier it is to tap into the subconscious mind. We do not want to have our brain waves so slow and high that we fall asleep or go into a coma but we would like to tap into those waves that occur when body and mind are relaxed if we wish to enhance our spirituality.

Another Brain Wave Recently Discovered

There has also been another brain wave discovered in a Buddhist Monk during meditation while he was focusing on attention and compassion.  Gamma waves were recorded on Mathieu Richard during meditation experimentation at  NYU.  This was the first time such a wave was recorded in a human mind opening the door to the mystery of what meditation can provide. 

Ideally...it would be great for all of us to reach that state where we would be sure to tap into the true Self and the Ultimate Grace.  Unfortunately, it may take years of practice to achieve the ability to do so. Theta waves then are the default choice for tapping into our soul/true Self/ higher consciousness/ purusa. They are in a sense our doorway to Grace.

Theta Healing

One way of tapping into these waves and experiencing divine Grace directly is said to be  by using a fairly new modality called Theta Healing. This method was devised by a woman named Vianna Stibel in the 1990's to cure herself from bone cancer. Practitioners are encouraged to visualize transcending from their earth bound energized bodies through the universe and into various layers of light to the white light realm where The Creator (and one is encouraged to use whatever terminology they are comfortable with to visualize the source of all creation) abides. It is believed this realm is the deepest subconscious where self limiting beliefs can be dispelled with the creator's intervention.

I have tried it and have done the associated muscle testing to determine my core beliefs and my success at changing them.  I cannot say, at this point, that it was effective or ineffective.  I am, however, intrigued to continue trying.

Tapping Into that Place of Peace

Whether it through theta healing imagery, plain old fashioned meditation or simply mindfulness...the goal is to tap into Grace which to me is synonymous with that place of peace I long to be in.  That is where we can find inward harmony of the soul. That place of peace is not out there, up there or anywhere but right here and right now.  It is the present moment that brings our awareness of our connection with the Source and that awareness is Grace. 
Every moment is filled with Grace.

Why?

Because, The present moment is my true Self.  Isn't the True Self...the Soul many of us refer to.  Is that not what we experience a connection with when we tap into those Theta waves?  Just saying, just wondering...hmmm?  I would really like to operate more frequently in a state of theta and maybe someday experience the  rare Gamma state others have experienced.

All is well in my world

References


Deepak Chopra & Oprah Winfrey ( n.d.) Gratitude is in the Present Moment from the Manifesting Grace through Gratitude Meditation Series.


Kitney, Anna (March, 2016 ) Theta Healing Meditations & Instant Healing's. Retrieved from  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqjRwkWPn64

Newer, Rachael ( November, 2012) The Happiest Man is a Tibetan Monk. from Smart News.  Retrieved from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-worlds-happiest-man-is-a-tibetan-monk-105980614/

Scientific American (n.d.)  What is the Function of the Various Brain Waves? Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-function-of-t-1997-12-22/

Sivananda Ashram yoga Retreat Bahamas (February 2018) Vianna Stibel: Divine Timing . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV3WeDfGNzU

More on Grace

Grace is like the rain, it falls on everyone alike.
-Deepak Chopra

I am  taking part in the 21 day meditation series offered by Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey.  I was especially moved by the message that grace flows  back to us when we are grateful.

I am not sure what "grace' is...it is just a word after all...a mental construct...an idea and I am not sure exactly where it comes from.  My traditional conditioning would tell me it comes from God and that it is conditional...only passed on to me when I am  worthy or when I do  something special.  I have to earn it somehow.  That means, I will spend most of my life without it. Sigh

The above quote, however, defines  it in a more appealing way  by saying it/ Grace  is instead like nature...non-discriminating,  pouring down on all of us...all beings...in the same cleansing and refreshing way.

Many of us believe that when Life doesn't go the way we think it should, when we are faced with one challenge after another that God ( this higher power we may or may not adhere to and that we may define in a myriad of ways) is out to get us. 

I often catch myself trapped in an old belief system...that I am being punished for something that makes me unworthy...maybe simply being? I know it is irrational but for years that belief somehow dominated my thinking therefore my feeling and therefore my believing.  I thought there was something 'personal' in it.

Now that I am more aware, I am  conscious of it and I have the power to disbelieve it, to let this old tired Self-destructive belief go.  I choose grace instead. I smile as I hold my face up to the rain.  I, as do all beings on this planet, deserve Grace's healing water.

According to Oprah Winfrey, Grace is the knowing that we are heard, known, understood and a part of something bigger and wonderful.  We reach elements of this knowing every time we are grateful for what is.  Grace responds to our gratitude, gently and sweetly like spring rain allowing us to grow.

Hmmm!  How beautiful is that?

All is well in my world.

References

Chopra Meditation Center.( n.d.) Day Four: Grace is Replying. Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra: Manifesting Grace Through Gratitude

10,000 Things: 10,000 Names

Because phenomena seem, even to our senses, to exist from their own side even though they do not, we mistakenly accept the view that phenomena exist more substantially than they actually do.
- the Dalai Lama

6th Century BCE Quantum Physicists

I think the Buddhists (and Taosits...maybe all philosophies that arose from  those 6th century BC thinkers) understood the rational behind the Double Slit Theory before it was even proposed. lol

I have been subliminally pulled towards Quantum physics again in the last couple of days.  I went from studying some of the Buddhist doctrine to re-reading the Tao to listening to Jon Kabat-Zinn to watching videos where Shantena Sabbadini discusses the connection between quantum physics and Lao Tzu's wisdom and most recently  to listening to some old lectures from  David Bohm . I was pointed there, then there, then there and then here lol.

Why Physics?

Being math and 'physics' challenged to the core...I mean absolutely stupid in those areas...I cannot understand why I was led back to it. Maybe to realize that  all things I was pointed to were  connected. (If only by a conceptual map in my mind. :)) If they are connected, maybe all things are and if all things are connected maybe they were never separated in the first place by anything other than thought or a name.

What is in a Name?

What I have realized once again was the power that exists in a name or category.  When we name something we specify it from the general, we dissect this something from the whole, we abstract it in part, leaving most of what it actually is behind, we then define it, limit it, categorize and group it based on its similarities with other phenomena, and therefore we make distinctions.

10,000 Things

We make what Lao Tzu referred to as  the 10,000 things out of one thing. What this naming does is divide the whole into parts...into what many translations refer to as "10,000 things" and what Legge refers to as "all things" . 
(conceived of) as having a name, it is the mother of all things
and in other translations:
The name, once introduced, becomes the mother of 10,000 things. (http://www5.csudh.edu/phenom_studies/laotzu/taoteching.htm)

Before the naming all so- called things, which were actually no-thing,  were one and after the naming they were many. 

Names, Thoughts and Concepts

Naming is what thought does, right? It is a form of judgment and labelling we do to make sense of our world. We name to group and categorize...make sense of our perceptions and therefore our  thoughts about what we are perceiving. Then when we are confronted with something we seen or heard before... the name calls upon the concept related to that thing.  The name brings us back to thought.  It take us out of the actual experience back to the thought of it. 

Helen Keller

Bohm describes this conceptualization tendency of the human mind  beautifully when he explains the Helen Keller story.  How she, without having the usual means of perception (sight or hearing) was introduced to the idea of concepts ( advanced thought) through names scratched onto her palm by her teacher.  At first the scratching  made no sense to her at all because she had no idea what a concept was. Eventually, however, she connected that the water in whatever form she was experiencing it was still water. It had a name.

Prior to that 'understanding' she seemed  feral, disconnected, alone in her experience.  Everything, to her, would have been One dark and silent thing...without distinction.  She did not understand "10,000 things"  but with the understanding of  a relatable concept through naming water, she was removed from her isolation.  Now that is a good use of naming right?

Division

Yet what also happened was she was removed from understanding the wholeness of who she was.  The Universe she knew was suddenly divided as separate parts of it were abstracted to form scratches on her hand.  If things around her were separate, there had to be an "around" her and there had to be a her. She herself became a separate thing with distinct borders that separated her from everything else...a "me", an "mine", a "I". 

As soon as she formed that "little me" she would have become lost like the rest of us...endlessly searching for more 'things'. The story depicts her running around excitedly after coming to terms with conceptualization...looking for the names of other things, looking for more physical world knowledge.  She wanted a  name for every one of those 10,000 things.  She began to strive.  :)

The Down Side to Naming

I have to wonder if  she, as an expression of Life,  would have become lost in the naming, the thoughts and the concepts. Did those names scratched on her hand , rather than the experience of wholeness,  become her reality? Did phenomena became substantial for her as the Oneness of all things slipped away?  Did the scratches on her hand become her reality instead of what they pointed to?  Did naming the water become more important than experiencing the water?

Do you see what I am getting at?

Pointing Fingers

I wrote about the Zen student's confusion with the pointing finger and about the student getting reprimanded by his teacher for  speaking during a beautiful sunset in previous entries. Sabbadini, to make this point,  refers to a  picture of a pipe with the caption translated form French to mean, "This is not a pipe". 

If you ask a viewer  what that is , they will likely say it is a pipe.  But it is not a pipe.  It is a picture of a pipe.  It is a small abstraction of what a pipe actually is.  You cannot pick it up and hold it in your palm.  You cannot feel the smoothness of it, or smell the sweet tobacco or taste it.  It is just a picture symbol...like a name...only depicting a small portion of what that something is. In itself, like a name or a thought, it is so limited.  But maybe, if it is a good representative, like a good ad would make it,  it will lead you to go to a real pipe. It points the way.

Names, thoughts and words are just pointing fingers ...advertisements that call upon thoughts and concepts.  They take us from 'experience' back into the mind. They serve a purpose.  They allow us to understand each other and make some sense of our physical world but we have to be very, very  careful with them.

We can get lost in them.  We can see them as our reality.  We can stop at them instead of going to where they are pointing to.  We can strive and cling and hold onto them at the expense of our own wellness.  We can defend and attack because of them.  We can isolate, separate and segregate because of them.  Names can do damage if we invest too heavily in them. This is what the  Buddha refers to in his teachings. Thinking can be the source of our suffering both individually and globally.

Does that make sense?

I hope so because I can not say any more on the subject and I definitely cannot scratch it on the palm of your hand.

All is well.

References

Bohm, David. (June, 2018) David Bohm: Thought is an  Abstraction. David Bohm Society. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_fbK2E0XEc

Legge, James (1891) Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm

Science and Non-duality (July, 2015) Laotzi and Quantum Physics-Shantena Augusto Sabbadini.  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcKbpMIelMo

Shimomissi, Eiichi(1998) Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching. Retrieved from http://www5.csudh.edu/phenom_studies/laotzu/taoteching.htm

Holding Infinity(the lotus flower) in the Palms of Our Hands

Nothing is to be clung to as "I", "me" or "mine."
-The Buddha

Hmmm!  Have you heard the lotus sermon in the Zen Buddhist tradition ( in every Buddhist tradition actually but this one sermon became the basis for Zen).

The Lotus Sermon

One day the Buddha was sitting with his five disciples during a sangha.  Before him was a pond where beautiful lotus flowers floated. 

The disciples looked expectantly to their teacher for him to expound his usual wisdom but that day he merely dipped his hand into the muddy water and pulled out a lotus flower.  Holding it in the air with its roots still dripping with pond water, the Buddha remained silent. Saying nothing, he showed the flower to each of his students who fervently and unsuccessfully went to their minds to look for the meaning of what their teacher was trying to impart.

The Buddha went from one student to the next until he got to his last student Mahakashyapa. Mahakashyapa looked at the flower , his eyes alight with Buddha's wisdom, and smiled.  Buddha smiled back giving him the flower.

This one student  understood the lesson!  No one else did.

Seeing the Whole Picture

What Mahakashyapa got was that in that flower existed the whole universe.  He not only saw the flower that his teacher held out like the other students did, but he saw the ocean, the sky, everyone and everything.

William Blake, much, much later, wrote a poem about karma that spoke to this understanding.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand 

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower 

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 

And Eternity in an hour

 

 

Getting Past the Veil of "me"

What a wonderful lesson for all of us. what this understanding entails is the true message of all Buddha's teachings. When we can get past the veil of 'me' that exists in most of our minds...we too will be able to see the connectedness of everything.  It is this clinging to those awful pronouns of "I", "me" and "mine" that stops us from remembering who we are beneath our stories.

It is attachment to these pronouns and our so called stories that keep us stuck in this idea of suffering or Dukkha.  It is this clinging to ideas we have of ourselves and others and the world that keep us small and separated from the whole....that in turn leads to fear based behaviours like addiction, violence and isolation. 

We fail to see that we are not subjects looking at an object...we are the lotus flower.  We are not broken, isolated beings we are connected and part of everything.

Remembering

We just forgot who we were.  We need to remember.

Deepak Chopra in his conversation with Jon Kabat-Zinn tells us that remembering is remembering (reconnecting) the wholeness of the dismembered.

When you see yourself in an object, the experience is beauty.  When you see yourself in another person, the experience is love. -Deepak Chopra

How beautiful is that?

Back to the Tao...again

I go back to the Tao to understand the lesson Buddha's best student understood so quickly.  In Verse 22, James Legge translates Lao Tzu's wisdom as:

Therefore the sage holds in his embrace the one thing(of humility),
and manifests it to all the world.
He is free from self-display, and therefore he shines;
from self-assertion, and therefore he is distinguished;
from self-boasting, and therefore his merit is acknowledged;
from self-complacency, and therefore he acquires superiority.
It is because he is thus free from striving
that therefore no one in the world is able to strive with him.

So much wonderful wisdom to learn from, heal with  and experience.

All is well.

References


Blake, William (n.d.) Auguries of Innocence. from Poetry Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43650/auguries-of-innocence


Deepak Chopra in Conversation with Jon Kabat-Zinn (Nov, 2017) The Chopra Well. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyqGrwujf-0

Legge, James ( 1891) Translation of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm

The Flower Sermon.(n.d.) from Buddha's World. Retrieved from http://www.katinkahesselink.net/tibet/flower-sermon.htm

Dhanya Vad

Grace is not part of consciousness; it is the amount of light in our souls, not knowledge or reason.
-Pope Francis (Brainy Quotes)

Grace


Grace is not something you go looking for.  It is something you already are.  It is not something knowledge or reason provides...it exists beyond the limitations of mind, action and speech.

You are already whole, complete and perfect.  Do you believe that?  Most of us don't...so we spend vast amounts of energy and clock-time  looking out there for this something that is in here.

We already Have It; We already Are It

We strive to 'know' what grace is and where it can be found...instead of simply getting out of our own ways and letting Grace shine from where it has always been. It is not about us and what we think and do. We don't do life, Life does us.  We do not breathe...we are breathed. We don't become, we are. How come we have such a hard time getting that?

Jon Kabat-Zinn , a wise mindfulness teacher and founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction reminds want -to-be mindfulness teachers that there is no "there".  There is just here and now and if we really want to find grace and all the happiness we tend to externally strive for, we just need to get out of our own ways. It is all about letting .
"Let the beauty that is us interconnect with the beauty that is the whole world."

It is not about doing, it is simply about being what we already are.  The Buddhist heart sutras also reminds of this:
No place to go, nothing to do, nothing to attain.

We already are, we already have what we are looking for.  We just keep forgetting that. We need to remember. To remember is merely to restore to your mind what is already there. (ACIM; T:10:II:3:1)

Gratitude

One simple way of getting there is through the practice of gratitude. Gratitude, according to Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey, in their 21 day meditation series entitled Manifesting Grace through Gratitude, shifts attention from our automatic and problematic tendency to resist Life to accepting everything the present moment has to offer. When we can learn to embrace all we are given we will find happiness, we will find the peace we long for, we will find Grace. When I am grateful, I find my grace.

We do not need to strive to attain; we do not need to do; we do not need to know anything conceptually to experience grace...we just need to be willing to sit and experience Life in the present moment, regardless of what is happening in us or around us. And be grateful for it.  It is that simple.

All is well in my world!

References

ACIM (2007) A Course in Miracles: combined Volume. Text. Mill Valley: Foundations for Inner Peace

Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey(2019) Day 1: The Path to Grace Begins Today, from The 21 day Manifesting Grace through Gratitude  series. Chopra Center Meditation. com

Jon Kabat-Zinn (2018) The Art Of Teaching Mindfulness. Wisdom 2.0. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEGcTTLMDow

Compassion and the Self

Compassion strengthens your outlook, and with that courage you are more relaxed.  When your perspective includes the suffering of limitless beings, your own suffering looks comparatively small.
-Dalia Lama


I'm back and man is it good to be back.  Even though we had to leave our now stable patient behind, coming home was a bit of a necessity for me for all kinds of reasons.  We can get to the point in our caring and being there when  we are no longer serving, giving or helpful.  This point can be reached  if we fail to take care of ourselves.

After two full weeks of being totally immersed in this crisis at the neglect of everything else, including my own health...it was time to step away for fresh air ( and unfortunately into another ongoing crisis sigh!) Oh well, we need to remember that it is what it is....  that simple.

Compassion

Compassion is a wonderful healing medicine.  I have discovered, because of the extreme nature of some of the crisis' I have been dealing with,  that compassion for others removes us from our self centered focus. It takes us to something greater and more powerful than our own incessant whining. It takes us away from body focus and into that space the Tao and Buddhist doctrine speaks of.

An Example

On that Saturday two weeks ago, I was literally becoming ill.  I had a fever, was achy all over, chills, sweats...flu like symptoms on top of the ongoing pelvic pain I was experiencing.  I had resigned myself to a day in bed.  When D. came home to tell me he had to call an ambulance for his son...I got out of bed , put aside any intentions I had to allow myself to be sick and I went into crisis mode.  On encountering the crisis everything just went away or at least I was able to get beyond it. For a period of time I was removed from awareness of my own symptoms...my own demanding life experiences etc.  I realized so profoundly that this Life was not all about me and  that this body was something I was meant to use in the service of others!  I suddenly had much, much compassion for other beings...all beings actually. I forgot about 'me'.  It was amazing really...freeing...like I really had a fever that disappeared.

But...

Forgetting about 'little me' is a  great thing...but forgetting about ourselves as part of the larger Self, the larger whole isn't always so  so healthy. Compassion  has to transfer to Self as well.

Don't Be a Martyr

Martyr syndrome develops when compassion for others at the 'expense of self' becomes the ego focus.  It is actually self-serving but in a very unhealthy way.  Ego strives on victim hood...and martyrs claim such status. The true Self...however, is neglected in such instances and compassion is therefore limited in its giving potential. 

I did not and do not want to go there.  I want my giving to be natural and whole hearted which it was in the beginning until my ignoring my body signals became problematic.  There is still something going on in my body and my body definitely wants me to do something about it.  How can we serve others if we have no transportation to them?

Pain is always a wonderful wake up call. It snapped me away from Self-sacrifice to self exposure. It made me aware that my compassion was being contaminated by my own self neglect. And as Ru Paul would say, "If you can't love yourself; how the h-e- double hockey sticks are you going to love someone else?"

I knew I had to come home and rest for everyone's sake, for the sake of the Greater Self.  My fever, ironically,  came back as soon as I gave myself permission once again to take care of this amazing, wise body. Hmmm! How amazing is that?

Anyway...we got through the hard part and a little self nurturing is now called for....not for selfish ego reasons but for the greater good. Even Kant could have agreed  with that,  wouldn't he?   It is all good.

All is well in my world.

Back to the Tao

Clay is fashioned into vessels, but it is on their empty hollowness that their use depends.
- Lao Tzu

What we see, feel, hear, smell and taste  creates what we know of the material world.  It is easy to think that is all there is.  Within form and around form, however, is the non-material world: space, emptiness, no-thing. We neglect sometimes that space and fail  to see its usefulness. its everythingness.

So much wisdom offered in the 81 verses quickly written by Lao Tzu as a means to get permission to pass through a border and into another country. I love to read those verses and to soak up the wisdom they offer.  I am presently reading James Legge's translation. He adds a bit of poetic intention with rhyme scheme etc from time to time.  I am not sure Lao Tzu had the same intention but it works.

Let's briefly go through the next eight verses.

Verse Nine

This verse basically teaches that it is not always best to have more. If we have a lot in our possession our loads are heavy to carry.  If we are proud of how sharp something is and we constantly want to feel that sharpness, our grabbing and clinging can make it dull (less desirable). The more wealth we have the more we need to defend and attack in order to keep it safe.  It can also lead to arrogance ( ego evil). These things are not important...they are not the way of heaven.  It is best to do what we are here to do without such possession or recognition...to simply remain obscure or at least return to obscurity (humble).

I think of the Dalai Lama's words:

No material object, however beautiful or valuable, can make us feel loved, because our deeper identity and true character lie in the subjective nature of the mind.

Verse Ten


Verse Ten speaks to the idea of perfecting human nature. We do so by recognizing our oneness with all life, putting away this notion of separation that keeps us distant. We also do so by relaxing into our being ness...which we can do, for example, through breath awareness. We can also get there by getting beyond all that our minds try to get us to believe.

Perfecting our human nature is not necessarily achieved through action or doing...but through being present. We can be like 'mother birds' who simply sit on their nests and allow the beings beneath them to grow  as the gates of heaven and earth open and close. True intelligence is not about conceptual knowledge...but about understanding who we really are ...being ...simply being is wisdom that extends to all . We can be like the Tao ...nourishing ...producing all things without owning them or possessing them. There is no ego involved in the way...no control... yet it leads so perfectly, offering everything. This is the mysterious quality of the Tao.

Again, we go back to the Dalai Lama:

If your life becomes only a medium of production, then many of the good human values and characteristics will be lost - then you will not, cannot, become a complete person.

Verse Eleven

This beautiful verse speaks to what the Buddhist call Shunyata or emptiness. Though the wheel has thirty spokes, what makes it move is the empty space on the axis.  Though the clay cup or pot is made of solid material (clay), it is the space within the cup that we fill and use  to drink out from...if there was no space the cup would have no use. Though a house has solid walls with windows...it is in the empty space within those walls that we can live. The point is that what is of form and can be seen, heard, felt, etc is something we can make the most of but the real usefulness is in the emptiness, or the space.

Verse Twelve

Here Lao Tzu tells us how dependency on our five senses to determine the quality of our lives  can lead to madness and an inability to experience what is real...what cannot be seen, heard, felt, tasted or touched. Attempts to satisfy the cravings inspired by these bodily senses can make men 'evil'. The wise person, will not seek to satisfy the senses but to simply feed the belly....focus only on what is needed by the body for survival. He/she realizes that these other cravings will never be satisfied.

Verse Thirteen

We should fear favour just as much as we should fear disgrace and good fortune and calamity are really the same.

What?

We normally anticipate that fear comes with disgrace which is the loss of favour...therefore we fear losing that favour. So when we are in everyone's good graces ....do we not fear that we will not be able to hold onto that status thus causing us to be afraid?  And we normally understand that having a lot of bad luck is  a negative personal condition, but if that is the case good fortune is too.  We would worry about losing good fortune and falling to the brink of despair if everything was going our way, would we not?  And really as long as we are in physical form ...we can expect to have some challenges right? If we favour the kingdom as we favour ourselves we will be fit to rule it.  If we could love the kingdom as much as we loved ourselves we would be entrusted with the care  of it.

Verse 14

In this verse we are told that the Tao is the One and it consists of three qualities: It is equable (unseen even though we are looking at it), inaudible( unheard even though we are listening to it) and it is ungraspable ( can not be held even though it is is right in front of us). It can not then be named or described with words but if we blend these three qualities together we call it the One. It is neither bright nor obscure. Because it never stops doing and it always returns to that state of stillness, silence, emptiness or nothingness ...it is no -thing. It is formless, invisible, temporary and unpredictable. Because of this we meet it without seeing its front and we follow it without seeing its backside. Unwinding the clue of the Tao involves understanding its indescribable characteristics  and allowing it to direct our lives regardless of the fact we can not see , hear, hold or name it.

Verse 15

Here we hear of the old Tao masters of the past who were able to fully understand the nature of its truth. Those who truly followed the way we're like the Tao, beyond being understood . They were shrinking, irresolute, cautious, evanescent, unpretentious, vacant and dull??

They allowed it to just be! We make muddy water clear and movement still, not by resisting or struggling against but, by just allowing them to be.  The water will become clear if we just let it be.  Movement will eventually end if we just let it be. Those who attempt to preserve the motion of the Tao (let it be) can afford to appear tired and less than perfect...there is no ego.

Verse 16

Spaciousness is something to be brought to its full potential and stillness is something to be fiercely protected. All things will return to their natural state after they have  completed their own processes. Vegetation will return to its roots which can be called the state of stillness.

We do the same. Once we reach this state we know that we have completed what we are here to do. The unchanging rule is taught to us through report of that fulfillment.

Intelligence is knowing that rule....without knowledge of it we are prone to reckless, evil behaviour. Knowledge of this rule leads to a great capacity to handle what life offers and to be at one with all beings ( community) . We then can develop the characters of kings and from there we become heaven-like. When we are heaven-like we have  the Tao/are living the Tao. Having the Tao protects us from decay as long as we are in our bodies.

Wow! Such great wisdom ...it inspires me to read more

All is well.

Who can make the muddy water clear? Let it become still, and it will eventually become clear.
-LaoTzu(verse 15 as translated by James Legge)

I feel like I have abandoned my best friend by not coming here every morning.  Wow! It truly is an important part of my life experience.  Still away dealing with the crisis and it is just too hard to write and think clearly.  This iPad makes the process more challenging lol.  Things are really looking up though so I will be back.

All is well.

It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than  it is to attempt to carry it when it is full
Lao Tzu

Four O'Clock in the morning and it looks like it is going to be another sleepless night....that song comes to mind whenever I lay awake around this time. I don't mind sleeplessness too much as long as I have the opportunity to give into my need to write. Aren't most writers insomniacs?

Sigh... I have  a lot on my mind...besides how frustrating it is to try to write on an IPad.

We have a loved one going for major surgery tomorrow and his life is literally dependent on the success of this surgery.  Then there is one major recovery after another to follow. We can't look that far ahead though. Just one day at a time.  And on this day I am awake at four in the morning thinking about him, his father and a loved one at home who is still struggling and I am sad.  I am sad but I am accepting.  Acceptance is an amazing thing.  It simply is what it is..are words that heal.

The last few days I got to know him all over again...I mean really know him beneath all that junk that gets in the way. How beautiful and amazing people are when they are stripped down to their most precious vulnerable states. Then I watched amazing medical and nursing staff do what they do...reaching in beyond all the outer stuff and seeing and treating him 'wholly'and my heart just got so much bigger ( not in the bad way...no we don't need another case of cardiomegaly to deal with). I have faith in humanity again. :)

I read verse nine of the Tao... So beautiful. Lighten the load by not clinging or attempting to have everything. That is reassuring advice being that my vessel is pretty darned empty. What is important is breath and life.  I pray that it continues for that lovely young man tomorrow and that he is able to transcend the challenges ahead...to heal in all the ways he needs to heal...so that he can someday help lighten the load of someone else.

All is well because it simply is what it is.

Suffering Exists

I really really get the first noble truth of Buddhism after today...suffering exists!

And I am not just talking about my petty little suffering.... But the suffering of all humans...today I witnessed the epitome of self induced suffering and it broke my heart and left me shaking to the core. How far we can fall, how hard we can land and how broken we can all become.  I realized how badly one lost human needed an intervention just to ensure he still breathed...and thought the whole world needs an intervention.

We can point fingers, judge and condemn a certain few for their choices, we can shut these people out of our hearts and minds so we do not see ourselves in that suffering, we can segregate and isolate and do all the harm reduction that is possible....but this will not change the fact that suffering exists in everyone.  What we need is compassion  and healing and kindness for all those that suffer. Definitely, not more judgment.  Suffering exists!!

All is well!