Daoism (Taoism) 道教

26 Adoration

Images on the altar, Or imagined within: We pray to them, But do they answer? The wise tell us how important adoration is. So we kneel before altars, give offerings, and make sacrifices. In our medita-tions, we are taught to see gods within ourselves and to make supplications to receive power and knowledge. This we do with great sincerity, until the masters say that there are no gods. Then we are confused.

The statue on the altar is mere wood and gold leaf, but our need to be reverent is real. The god within may be nothing but visualization, but our need for concentration is real. The attributes of heaven are utopian conjectures, but the essence of these parables is real. The gods, then, represent certain philosophies and extraordinary facets of the human mind. When we devote ourselves to gods, we establish communion with these deeper aspects.

The thought that we are worshiping symbolism may make us uncomfortable. We are educated to accept only the tangi-ble, the scientific, and the material. We doubt the efficacy of adoring the merely symbolic, and we are confused when such reverence brings about genuine personal transformation. But worship does affect our feelings and thoughts. When the wise say that there are no gods, they mean that the key to understanding all things is within ourselves. External worship is merely a means to point within to the true source of salvation.

5 Sound

Wind in the cave: Movement in stillness. Power in silence.

In a cave, all outer sounds are smothered by rock and earth, but this makes the sounds of one's own heartbeat and breath audible. In the same way, contemplative stillness turns us away from everyday clamor but allows us to hear the subtle in our own lives.

When listening not with the ear but with the spirit, one can perceive the subtle sound. By entering into that sound, we enter into supreme purity. That is why so many religious traditions pray, sing, or chant as a prelude to silence. They understand that the repetition and absorption of sound leads to sacredness itself.

The deepest sound is silence. This may seem paradoxical only if we regard silence as an absence of life and vibration. But for a meditator, silence is sound unified with all of its oppo-sites. It is both sound and soundlessness, and it is in this confluence that the power of meditation emerges.

4 Reflection 肉省 Moon above water. Sit in solitude.

If waters are placid, the moon will be mirrored perfectly. If we still ourselves, we can mirror the divine perfectly. But if we engage solely in the frenetic activities of our daily involvements, if we seek to impose our own schemes on the natural order, and if we allow ourselves to become absorbed in self-centered views, the surface of our waters becomes turbulent. Then we cannot be receptive to Tao.

There is no effort that we can make to still ourselves. True stillness comes naturally from moments of solitude where we allow our minds to settle. Just as water seeks its own level, the mind will gravitate toward the holy. Muddy water will become clear if allowed to stand undisturbed, and so too will the mind become clear if it is allowed to be still.

Neither the water nor the moon make any effort to achieve a reflection. In the same way, meditation will be natural and immediate.

365 Continuation Upon completion comes fulfillment. With fulfillment comes liberation. Liberation allows you to go on. Even death is not a true ending. Life is infinite continuation. 彩生

Always finish what you start. That alone is discipline and wisdom enough. If you can follow that rule, then you will be superior to most people.

When you come to the end of a cycle, a new one will begin. You might say that completion actually begins somewhere in the middle of a cycle and that new beginnings are engendered out of previous actions.

Completing a cycle means fulfillment. It means that you have achieved self-knowledge, discipline, and a new way of understanding yourself and the world around you. You cannot stop there, of course. New horizons are always there. But you can reach out for those new vistas with fresh assurance and wisdom.

With each turn of the wheel you go further. With each turn of the wheel you free yourself from the mire of ignorance. With each turn of the wheel comes continuation.

Turn the wheel of your life. Make complete revolutions. Celebrate every turning. And persevere with joy.

363 Night

In night's vast ocean, Sun, moon, and earth align, Pulling the earth out of roundness And making tides rage. Such is the power of night.

Night. You are mother of all. You existed before all. You are the background, the fabric, the whole underpinning of the universe.

In you is abstruse mystery, darker than the deepest water, blacker than the sleep of sleeps. You are an inconceivable fer-tility, a wild and uncontrollable realm from which strangeness and power and creativity and mutation and life spring. The miracle of birth comes from you. And the horror of death. That is why you both comfort and frighten us.

Stars and planets are scattered through you like luminescent pearls. You string them on your current effortlessly, and the pull of syzygy is so tremendous that the birth shape of the earth is pulled out of roundness, the seas exceed their brims, and the heads and hearts of all the creatures on this planet are made to pound and wonder in dazzled confusion.

When stars and novas burst, energy untold is unleashed— explosions of such magnitude that human intellect and instruments could never hope to measure even if made superior by a hundredfold-and yet these flames burn out, sputter, become mere dim coals in the supreme expanse that is night.

Night. You are mother without a mother. You are mystery and power and ruler of all time.

355 Winter A homeless man dies in the gutter. A tree cracks in the cold: A shocking sound.

At the winter solstice, the day is shortest of all and night is longest. It can also be the time of bitter cold. The wind blows with a frigid ferocity, cutting all before it. Snow and ice become deadly. Those who are homeless die of exposure. Even the mightiest of trees can split from the drop in temperature. The sound of a tree snapping is a sudden slap.

The horrors, the tragedies that this nadir brings! Winter tortures the world with icy whips, and those who are weak are ground beneath its glacial heels. Sometimes, we dare not even lament those who die in the onslaught of winter, in fear that the tears will freeze upon our faces. But we see, and hear. Huddling closer to the fire, we vow to survive.

No matter how affected we are by misfortune, we must remember that this is the lowest turn of the wheel. Things cannot forever go downward. There are limits to everything— even the cold, and the darkness, and the wind, and the dying.

They call this the first day of winter, but actually it is the beginning of winter's death. From this day on, we can look forward to warming and brightening.

348 Spine Tao is the road up your spine. Tao is the road of your life. Tao is the road of the cosmos. People are often confused about Tao because there are references to it on so many different levels. After all, it permeates all existence. Indeed it might be said that Tao is existence itself. It might seem odd that we can talk about Tao on a level so mundane as physical exercise and on a level as exalted as holiness itself. Those who follow Tao do not think of divinity as something "up there." They think of it as everywhere.

Tao can be tangible when it wants and intangible when it wants too. One tangible aspect of Tao is the road in the very center of our spines. That is the path of Tao in us. It is the spirit road connecting the various power centers of our bodies.

On a philosophical level, Tao is the road through life. It is the change from one stage to another, the dealing with cir-cumstances, the expression of your inner character against the background of nature and society. On a metaphysical level, it is the evolution and movement of the cosmos itself.

Now take these three levels the movement of energy up the spine, the philosophical understanding of one's own path in fe, and the very progression of the universe and meld them all into one co prones concept. Then you will have a glimpse of the genius of Tao.

336 Wisdom 智慧 A white-haired couple sits on the park bench, Reading the paper, discussing the day's news. He repeats a poem, learned in his youth; She finishes the stanza as he nods in pleasure. At twilight, the air seems clearer than noon. In past times, educators emphasized memorization. You can still meet older people who can recite certain poems, passages from classics and religious texts, or mathematical formulae. In fact, some people assert that those who remember more are wiser. Young people often have a mania for more and more information. But mere accumulation is not enough. The more you take in, the more that data needs to be managed. Without that, you have encyclopedic knowledge and minuscule wisdom. True wisdom is a qualitative value built on a quantitative foundation. The vital elderly did not become venerable through good memory alone. They also learned to manipulate those facts. They mixed their knowledge with a healthy dose of experience, experimentation, and contemplation. It takes time to intuit special connections between facts. One might say that wisdom is not simply a mental process but the sum total of a human being.

335 Prowess The wrestler was once more solid than a bull. He loved to flex enormous, oiled forearms Before he delightedly vanquished foes. But now, brittle skin is taut over bone, And his wheeze is a ghost of his manly bellow. 勇氣 At any point in life, it is prudent to contemplate the nature of prowess. If you have it, glory in it, and use it wisely and com-passionately. But you should not think that it is you yourself who are doing these things. You are borrowing this strength. It isn't yours. It is a gift, something here for you for as long as you are lucky to have it. Once it passes, you will not have the vic-tories, and you will be stuck with the same body and mind. When you have been humbled, what is gone? You are still here, here to feel the pain of not being able to do what you were once able to do—unless you learn how to exercise your prowess without identifying with it. Those who fail to learn this become bitter old people. They curse life. They lose faith. That is because they placed all their self-worth in their abilities and not in who they were. That is why it is good to meditate, and to accumulate not victories but the experience of those victories. Savor them. No one can ever take that away from you. It is the experiences that come out of prowess, not prowess itself, that are valuable.

One time I read a quote by a philosopher. I'm not sure if he was strictly Daoist, but at the very least Daoism-adjacent. IIRC correctly he wasn't one of those academic types, and more an ascetic sage type.

Anyway, I don't remember the exact quote, but the crux of it was that the Dao has no intention. It said something like "if the Dao had intention, it would only be like a shepherd". This shepherd analogy is the only specificity of this quote that I can remember. If you know who it was, please let me know.

326 Mysticism 神秘

All mystical traditions are one. They are the seed of all religions.

Tao. Zen. Tantra. Yoga. Kabbalah. Sufi. Mystic Christianity. Shamanism. And so many more secretly treasured by their ad-herents. These all share the same mystical sense of communion with the divine. Meditation is not something peculiar to one culture.

All cultures know a mystical core that emphasizes continuing refinement, meditation, and unification with the greater cosmos. I call that greater order Tao. They call it by different names. What does it matter what people call it? When they discovered what was holy, they uttered different sounds according to their history and culture, but they all discovered the same thing. There is only one divine source in life.

For generations, mystics of all traditions have plunged into Tao. When they meet on the unutterable levels, they know without words that they have reached the same core of spiritu-ality. No matter where in the world you are, there are traditions with the purity to lead you to Tao.

325 Mate Passion is but a prelude to Years of gradual unfolding. 夥 Some people mate for life. Perhaps their love affair starts with infatuation, passion, and eroticism. Eventually it gives way to a more stable companionship. Not all couples pass this transition period intact, but those who do find a new mode of relating to one another. Devoted lovers find that minor faults can be ac-cepted. At the same time, they find acceptance in spite of their own inherent shortcomings and insecurities.

Mature love is patient, selfless, generous, and kind. The lover becomes more important than the self. In love, we find transcendence and a unity that is unattainable alone.

Many sages speak out against romantic love. Can it be that they have never felt it or that they have been bitterly disappointed themselves? Individuals should know themselves well. If they are meant for love, they will know.

Ultimately, the other is divine and divinity dwells in the other. Through love, one can come to know the beauty of unity and wholeness. Without the female, the male element is static and sterile. Without the male element, the female is boundless potential without a catalyst. Through unification, we find selflessness, purity, and divinity.

319 Sustaining 支撑 Orange and gold carp, Living beneath ice. Uncaring of the world above, Sustained by the water below.

In the rapidly chilling autumn, ponds begin to ice over. The waters become deep, dark, and mysterious, but in those depths the fish can survive the coming winter. Tao may be known as directly as water is knowable to a fish. My Tao will not be the same as your Tao. We are both in-dividuals, with different background and thoughts. As soon as Tao enters into us, it takes on the colors of our inner personali-ties. When it passes out of us, it returns again to its universal na-ture. This is an ongoing and constant process, like water fowing through a fish's gills. Just as the water nurtures the fish, so too does Tao nurture and sustain us. As long as we continue our immersion in Tao, we will be as safe as a carp in water. When we separate from Tao, we are as helpless as a fish out of Water.

313 Chameleon If I don't want to be known, I cannot be known. The best actor can divide role from self. The best liar can divide truth from falsity. People think that they know you. Soon you begin to play the role that they place on you. Why should you act a certain way to please others? You should do things from your inner awareness and from your own feelings. If they do not accord with the herd, then so much the better. You should change when it pleases you. Your life is flexi-ble. If you let other people shape you, then you will never know independence. The sages say that all life is illusory, and they usually lament this. The way of Tao is to use this fact and not let it oppress you. If you want to dodge others, then step behind one of the myriad illusions in this world. If you do not volunteer anything and you neither confirm or deny, the opinions of others can never stick to you. Then you will be left in peace. True sages never go by appearances. When it comes to in-trospection, they are not deceived by the appearances their own minds spew out. They know that if they want to get at the truth, then they must pierce to the very core. So if you would hide from others, avail yourself of the false appearances of life, If you would know yourself, distinguish between the false appearances of life. Above all, do not be put off by the illusory nature of life. Use it. Everything in this life can be an advantage to the wise.

305 Being Meditation is a total state of being. 坐存 Many people do not understand meditation, and so they reject it. Even those who accept it sometimes understand it in only a fragmentary way. Some think of it as a relaxation exercise; others think of it as a mere spiritual cultism. Even the fact that meditation is an uncommon word in everyday language is un-fortunate, for it reinforces the view that it is something strange. Meditation is a state of being. It is a mode of existence. What is difficult to communicate is that meditation is an act that occurs simultaneously on all levels of a person's life. For example, let's take the proverbial "contemplating your navel." If this is done correctly, here are some of the things that can happen: increased digestion, better elimination of the bowels, increased sexual vigor along with enhanced control, greater vi-tality, improved circulation, increased appetite, stabilized emo-tions, calmer mind, understanding of deep spiritual truths, and total absorption in a blissful state of being. It is difficult for people to accept that a single activity could span a continuum from better bowel movements to spiritual bliss. But unless meditation was so extraordinary, how else could it be expected to occupy such an honored place in people's lives?

A dialogue between a man and god, in which the former learns about his misconceptions and logical fallacies in thinking about a god.

Written by logician and Taoist Raymond Smullyan.

Why do so many of us feel disconnected from each other and ourselves? Perhaps it has to do with our relationship with the food that we consume?