Wayfarer

Hi everyone, For six years or so I have wanted a regular Taoist practice but have been unable to find one. There is the British Taoist Association (BTA) who I practise with but it seems I always have other commitments on whenever they meet. So I have been left to practise with other religions namely Buddhism and Druidry but they don't float my boat the same way Taoism does. So I am in a position to start a new group to meet once a month at a village hall in Warwickshire to share and deepen our practice of Taoism. Do you feel this is something that would be of interest to people? The group will have no lineage and while I will tell the BTA about it I think in having no connection with a temple or association the group would have total freedom to practise how it wishes. I have dates ready and just need to commit to them. The village hall is opposite Three Oak Hill wood where we can walk (and bring dogs too if you wish). Here is what I propose: The group would offer the following practices based around sharing and letting the wisdom of the group be expressed: - Reading of Scriptures and discussing what they mean to us and how they can be made relevant to our daily lives - including lesser known scriptures. - Exploring the history of Taoism - Cloud Wandering; walking in the nearby woods and fields to investigate the Tao - Learning to sense the energy of the Creative entering and leaving our lives - How to Be - Simple living - I Ching - Dao Yin and Qigong practice - Meditation and Tranquil Being - Healing - Taoist Diet - Taoist (or similar) poetry - and hopefully the occasional guest speaker. Please add something to the list that I may have overlooked. Finally, would you prefer half-day or full day meetings; or a mixture of both? I will post dates here (if the forum organisers are happy for me to do so - I will ask first); so if you would like to attend or have something to add here please feel free to do so. Many thanks, Heath

Thank you Gentlewind, I will. I am from Lancashire originally so sometimes find myself back up that neck of the woods!

Hey Gentlewind thanks for the reply. If this does take off I will do a webpage with all the dates for the next 12 months, some of which will be whole day practices, so if you ever find yourself in Warwickshire you would be very welcome to join us.

By sending blood which carries oxygen.

Hi everyone, I'm afraid I cannot work out how to contact the site adminstrators to see if it is okay to announce these dates - so I apologise if this is not the correct etiquette. I mentioned a few months ago that I was planning on setting up a Taoist practice group. The details can be seen on the original link below and I have told the British Taoist Association who are okay with it but the group will not officially be part of any lineage...at least not in the early days. Dates are: 30th June 2013 22nd September 27th October 9am to 1pm. Anyone welcome. Directions and information can be seen here. There is a small room at the back which has around fifteen seats and floor room for those bringing cushions/mediation stools. There will be tea and biscuits! http://www.cookhillvillagehall.co.uk/ Ideas for the group can be found here. http://thetaobums.com/topic/26491-three-oak-hill-taoist-group-warwickshire-england/ Thanks everyone and look forward to seeing you. Best wishes, Heath

Hey Estuary, I have practised Zhan Zhuang for a few years and think its main benefits are: 1) Standing in a single posture tires the muscles - they want to move and relax but you are not allowing them to as a consequence the more tired they become the more oxygen is directed from the brain to those muscles so they have more energy to cope with the demands put on them. As pretty much all the muscles are in a state of tension the whole body gets a workout without moving. So the rush of energy comes 'after' the muscles have tired. Therefore unless you have stood long enough for the muscles to begin trembling or shaking you won't feel that energy buzz afterwards. I would say that this takes 15-20 minutes for most people. 2) Another advantage, which also occurs in Qigong if you repeat a single move for long enough is that at first the conscious thinking mind is piqued by the fact that the body is not moving, its interest then follows wherever pain is felt, or balance needs adjusting; once this has been achieved the mind begins to drift and we might find ourselves thinking of paying bills or doing something etc...at this point we should mentally scan the body for any tiny areas of unnecessary tension or imbalance and make equally tiny adjustments to our posture to address them. You cannot be aware of this if you are distracted by music or television. The exercise is a getting-to-know-you better; so if the muscles in your lower back are tight perhaps your head is leaning forward a little, if your arms are aching perhaps your balance needs to move back a little - play with what works. It is the subtle qualities of Zhan Zhuang that make it valuable. Finally, I would personally not practise this without a teacher. It so easy to hold tension in the body without realising it simply because you cannot see yourself. If your muscles are tense the energy cannot flow as well. The whole idea here, other than energy boost and relaxing of the mind is this...day-to-day your body is using muscles to balance itself and does so without conscious effort. So when we stand upright it is because our body is being held erect by the balancing stretching and closing of our muscles around the body. So, when we lift a cup to take a drink we actively tense a bicep but the rest of the arm responds in balance without conscious thinking. So we have two functions of the muscle; holding and performing. Zhan Zhuang focuses on the holding function and through this we notice where tension lies, where our imbalances are. When we begin to right them, we also correct them for day-to-day movement or at least become aware of them. Over time, if we ignore these imbalances they become greater problems as to create balance the body is holding some muscles constantly tight and they never release properly unless we alter position. So a teacher will spot if your arms are too close to your body or too far away, whether your side-side and front-to-back posture holds tension. If you aren't aware of this and no one is there to tell you, you may in fact be harming yourself because you are not correcting the imbalances. Hope this helps. Heath

An excellent write. Though I don't practise yoga, this is what is meant by 'yoga' - Union I guess. Ultimately, when we practise Tai Chi and when we do not we are that which is 0 - our grasping at movement, appearance is where 0 becomes 1 and then 2. We are That-Which-Is and whether we are doing the form or falling over pissed in the gutter doesn't change anything - other than perhaps our ability to overcome the ignorance that clouds our realisation of what we and everything IS.

"how can we use the big picture of Tao, creation, the universe, the elements to not only explain the existence of reality, but your interaction with the person taking your order at McDonalds? or stubbing your toe on the neighbor's kid's tricycle?" I'll give this a go...the bit you write here: "Tao (emptiness) Wuji (0) Taichi (1) Yin/Yang (2) Three treasures (3) [jing,qi,shen], five elements (5) bagua (8) and then the 10,000 things (infinity)". We have to understand this first as it is a mistake - not of yours by the way. There is only Tao. What is present everywhere is empty because it is full. The 10,000 things we see are not a 'they' but an 'it' - we have grown used to separating them and calling one thing light and the other dark but light and dark are the same thing. Light is Tao, dark is Tao. We only notice light and dark when we overlook Tao. Tai Chi, Yin/Yang, Three treasures, five elements, Bagua and the myriad things do not exist - they are all ideas that stem from ignorance. If no one was ignorant and therefore everyone was Awake Yin and Yang would never have come into being because they never have - they are only an idea of the mind, created by someone/some people who are yet to Awaken. The universe being a single thing becomes nothing as there is nothing but IT. So emptiness is a fullness that is empty of distinction. The difficulty is...unless we are no longer ignorant we see the world through a veil, when we raise that veil the world looks no different, it remains exactly as it did before we raised the veil - the key difference being that a) the self realises SELF or b ) the self cannot locate itself and realises it does not exist - either way is a beginning of understanding for neither self nor SELF is true. It is not right to say the world is empty or full - it is neither empty nor not-empty, full nor not-full - if we say there is one, we in effect create the other and this cannot be so as there is neither one nor the other. So if I order a McDonalds...the me that orders it and the person who takes the order are the Same. The me that speaks to the 'other-than-me' that hears are not distinct. The money I pay with and the food I am given is the same ME. So, when I give money to someone this implies I am suddenly lacking something I once had and in return I hope to receive something I don't have but this is to misunderstand...If I pay £5 I do not lack something or lessen in any way when I hand over that money...nor do I gain anything when I receive the food. When I leave the restaurant, it does not lack me and wherever I go to afterwards does not gain me. What I am is everywhere all at once and is everything all at once - so essentially if I walk a hundred yards I have gone nowhere. If I give everything I possess to someone I am not lessened. If I receive vast wealth I have not gained for what I am cannot increase or be decreased for it is All-that-is. If we go to a restaurant and think the person serving us is 'other-than-me' we are ignorant. That person serving you is WHAT IS, what they give you is WHAT IS and what you are is WHAT IS. When you realise this, thoughts of gaining and losing end because it is not possible to become more or less than what you Are. Hope this helps lol! Heath

Hi Horus, A good question. I don't think this will go down well but the pearl you are mentioning is a metaphor and is not something that exists neither the dantien, the lower cauldron. There are no pearls or cauldrons - nothing that gets mixed with anything to produce a something. This stems from an explanation of how something feels that occurs naturally... When we become still and eventually the mind calms there is a sinking feeling. This feeling becomes noticed in the solar plexus, stomach and intestine area, it starts off small like perhaps a pearl and then spreads throughout the body. In fact, nothing spreads anywhere it is just an awareness of something already present but overlooked. Inside you is what is outside you; a settled-presence of that which is undisturbed; we call it the Tao. When this feeling arises in one who has become so still and absent-minded that they notice this feeling they then try to convey it to those who have not felt it - so it eventually is given extravagent names to represent the importance of what is - so we have pearls, jade, elixirs and so on. Whatever name you give it, it is the namelessness of what you are and what everything else you think is not you, is. So, you can choose to sit there and try and make something into something else, try and mix this with that but this just rubbish. You are already that which IS. What separates you from one who has awakened is ignorance. The central way (in Taoism) to end ignorance is to become tranquil - silence and stillness. The reason silence and stillness is important is That-Which-Is, the Tao is expressed as an endless pool of settledness. To notice it, one must first be like it. Then eventually you realise. Any form of doing, attempting, trying, takes you away. How much closer can you get to what you already are? How much 'doing' helps you draw nearer to what you are? So my advice for what it is worth, is forget sitting cross-legged as it makes no difference...sit in a way that relaxes you - the idea of a little discomfort such as the lotus/half-lotus etc is so you don't fall asleep as you need to be aware (so you notice when you suddenly sense Presence - which you can't do while asleep). As long as you have a wakeful restfulness the body, mind and energy settle - when this occurs the 'pearl' becomes noticed. Everything is 'pearl', you, not-you. When the psalms said "Be still and know that I am God" it was telling the truth - check out Verse16 of the Tao Te Ching. Best of luck, Heath

Regarding the skandhas...the Heart Sutra for example says the skandhas are IT, not something other than IT and to me this was written or noted by someone who had Realised - that is the important factor; not someone trying to work out a point when they haven't Realised. There is lots of confusion in Buddhist texts as there are with all religions. Strange thing is, we already know the answers for we are IT. If we listen from our centre and not our head then we hear the Wisdom of all things. Some might say that is rubbish - why don't people try for themselves? It is there, there is nowhere else it can be.

Hungry ghost maybe - and what it ends up eating is itself lol

Yes, because there is nothing beyond it that can name it. By being the only thing to exist it is nothing for there is nothing other than itself to notice. When we Awaken it is simply because the self realises Self and here one can become as trapped in thoughts of Self/God as much as one was caught in thoughts of self. To realise both self and Self are not as it is must first come from awakening to there being no-self. When we see cause and effect it is because we are unaware of what IS. For there to be One, what causes and what is affected? A cause and effect can only arise when there is more than one thing. So an Awakened person might view a tree and see Sameness and should that tree be hit by lightning and burn to a cinder, he or she would only see Sameness - nothing having changed. In such a state we see the world with equanimity for our eyes do not fall on something other than what IS. Nothing is impermanent/permanent and nothing is not-impermanent/not-permanent. These are just ideas and not the Experience.

Hi everyone, The whole of Buddhism is trying to point you to God; this was what Buddha was Awake to and what we in general are ignorant of and therefore suffer because of. The God that Jesus spoke of is not different than the Suchness/Buddha-Nature Buddha spoke of. All of his teachings are about this - to try and help us Realise. Every teaching is the same teaching. If you do not understand no-self then you misunderstand the Four Noble Truths, if you think you know Impermanence but can't quite grasp Emptiness then I'm afraid you don't know Impermanence...to understand one, is to know them all. What Buddha Awakened to while glancing up at Venus was the Presence of What Is, the Established, the Uncreated. This triggered the realisation that both himself and the world outside of him were in fact a single Presence, a Sameness. Jesus noticed the same Presence while being baptised and called it God. All these names, Tao, Yahhew, Allah, God, Buddha-Nature, Christ - they are a single thing and it is everywhere. It is nameless because what names it is the same thing - it is itself regarding itself - there is only it and because of that it does not exist. When you look at a tree and then a cloud you see the difference but an Awakened person views their Sameness. This is what is meant by Right View - to see what is in front of your face that you are missing. Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Christianity, the Israelites, Hinduism, Islam all tell you the same thing - that this is noticed through Stillness and Silence for that is our true-presence - Be Still and Know God. We are already IT, we cannot not be IT, only we haven't realised that. The person that is typing this response is the same as the you that reads it. There is no inter-connectedness, there is nothing running intrinsically through us all - we are not a 'we'. To trigger awakening we can either notice the stillness (ie the presence around us, even in things that move) to find the same thing inside of us (why we meditate) is actually outside of us too (why Zen masters would say "know the inanimate to know the Self"), we can try to think in non-dualistic terms or we can question and investigate where our 'self' actually is...until we cannot find it - all these are triggers and not Awakening - they are the punchline of a joke which you either get or you don't. This is how there is no object/subject split - how can there be if what we considered to be other is SELF? Many blessings, Heath

I once had a similar desire to go to China and do the same. I practised with the British Taoist Association and you can see on their website the temple and lineage they are associated with but even so the BTA could not arrange for me to go there and I think it is difficult. I have heard of bandits posing as monks to mug travelling westerners. I wanted to become a Taoist priest because I had a spiritual epiphany while sat in my garden and then another while glancing at a cloud. I thought that Taoism best reflected what I knew and wanted to get a legitimate training so I could help others. I even went on to Facebook and communicated with around ninety Taoism priests and also spoke with people who had been to China to do what you are considering. Firstly, on Facebook most of the priests and temples are of the ritual, exorcism, divination Zhengyi school and located mid-terrace on city/town high streets. They seemed to spend most of their days uploading pictures of Chinese girls in bikinis etc. Of the Westerners (and also South American/Brazilian people) I spoke with who had gone out there for three months, most found the large temples to be as already described; tourist attractions and seeing tourists as money earners or the more remote temples as housing people who had become homeless, alcoholics or down on their luck and having no alternative, gone to temples to seek refuge rather than practising the Tao. I liken this to a Chinese person wanting to follow Christianity and in being attracted to the hermit practice of some Catholics find themselves in British/American cathedrals and monastries wondering what is going on. Personally, I think temple/church life has killed much of religion. In being a temple, you have to be organised, have set times for certain practices to maintain order and discipline so consequently the freedom of the Tao is already tainted. Much of it lost its way after Wang Zhe but there are serious cultivators out there as the BTA had photos of cave living hermits in China (who did not like the intrusion of Westerners trying to look in their caves). Ultimately, as you know the Tao is everywhere and not the property of Asia. The Tao was taught by Jesus (read the Gospel of St Thomas for instance), it is central to all religions no matter which you choose. All rivers run into the same ocean. With that in mind I eventually settled on two practices: Buddhism - The Community of Interbeing following the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh for meditating with people and Druidry as it is the closest thing to Taoism (in fact I think much of Taoism comes from Druidry) and it is based in Britain. So I see it as follows: there are hundreds of temples and finding somewhere that practices what we would recognise as Taoism won't be easy, then being accepted in will be difficult too, then to find a teacher who actually knows his or her stuff will be hard and even more so to find one who is enlightened. If you are serious about awakening there are people on this website who have experienced it and perhaps one would be willing to help you. Otherwise, as St Bernard of Clairvaux said "Trees and stones will teach you that which you cannot learn from masters" - wherever you are, the Tao is speaking to you. Best of luck, Heath

Just a quick point regarding eating meat without wanting to change direction of the thread. We are not naturally meant to eat meat. To be able to do so we have to cook it so we can eat it or we would be ill. Our intestines are much longer than a carnivore's (3 or 4 times longer) and consequently the meat takes longer to pass through our system. Carnivores have a shorter intestinal system so that meat which is in a state of rotting can pass through quickly without causing disease. The acid in a carnivore's stomach is far stronger than that of ours so it can break down the nutrients in meat quickly before it passes through the intestines. Being weaker our acid struggles to breakdown meat and therefore deposits are left to rot in our gut and cause sickness. Our system is such that over time it breaks down the nutrients from plantlife affectively. No wild animal will eat cooked meat as they hunger for raw meat only, whereas generally people find eating raw meat repulsive. If we were naturally meant to eat meat we would salivate when seeing an animal ripped apart, or seeing roadkill. Wild cats for instance, rip out the stomach area so they can benefit from eating the nutritious part of an animal but we would be physically sick to do that. And as for canine teeth, we don't have any. What we call canine are just pointed teeth like those found in gorillas and are often used for biting into tougher fruit or nuts. Hope this helps

It is because the Taoist sage is Awakened that there is no need for doing. How can there be a direct way to where you already are? There is neither direct nor indirect. Goals are of the ego, the 'self'. When a person is enlightened the self is seen through as delusion and subsequently the idea of achieving something or doing something to get somewhere, be someone, get more of something goes. You cannot add to that which cannot be added to. You cannot take away from that which cannot be reduced. So what reason is there to 'do'? Doing takes us away from Being. When our Nature is known we suddenly understand how to move through stillness, how to speak through silence, how to move and act without doing. While there are thoughts of doing and achieving our state of peace is placed on external matters and away from the present moment. For instance, "I want to be better at meditating" takes your mind to a future moment where you see yourself as being better - you are no longer experiencing the present because instead you are judging and comparing. The sage does not do this. If you want clarity investigate this...you say "I don't think giving up on plans and letting nature guide you is a good thing." - what is it that thinks this? What "I" is giving up on anything? What is guiding what? What is a good thing? All these points arise from dualistic thinking - I, you, me, it, good, bad, giving up, not giving up. Try and say the same sentence without dualistic thoughts and you draw closer to the truth.

Hi Phi92, I hope this answer comes out okay as typing on my phone with an over eager predictive text. Here is my experience of Wu Wei... Firstly a Taoist sage would not need to plan. A good result is the Tao, a bad result is the Tao and therefore all responses are met with a settled indifference. This is quite important as the ego that normally guides our actions is no longer at the forefront of what we do and think. When this is so, we find empowerment through surrender...to what is arising naturally. Phi92, things will be happening in and around your life right now and will be coming into being of their own accord...a little like the Creative of the I Ching and if we interfere with that perhaps out of frustration of things not happening as we want, or quickly enough we 'do' something and risk severing what is taking time to arise naturally. Our thinking mind cannot be aware of what is arising beyond it, although through the sensitivity found in silence and stillness the 'arc' of the beginning and end of what is arising can be sensed. So when we act out of impatience or through plans we do so by overlooking what is naturally arising. Plans are made when we are dissatisfied with what we have. In not interfering or planning for something other, we find ourselves at rest and what is coming naturally to fruition is left to blossom as it should. This is how things arise without effort. Hope this helps. Heath

Thanks my friend! Fingers crossed

This is an excellent thread. I have wrestled with this idea for a few years. I once ran a Buddhist sangha and after a year of opening it had some experiences that totally changed my view of what Buddha was trying to convey and the simplicity of his teachings. So there were times where people would open up to the group with what could be terrible things occuring in their life and consequently they would feel that their faith was not working for them as they had hoped. At first I would offer things like "you may want to consider this element of that teaching", which would either help or utterly confuse them. I then worked on toning things down so it became a sharing but still a decision had to be made sometimes as to "do I help nudge people in direction X or sit quietly and let things go?" - it is very hard and we need to be careful that what is drawing us to speak is not ego but our Heart. I no longer listen to the thoughts in my head, I just wait for that deep space within me to see if it wishes to express itself in some way. Once I let go of the thought of helping people be right from wrong I realised that what was there was coming from me somehow - the Tao, our true-nature being utterly settled is undisturbed by ignorance or knowing. Whether people understand or not changes nothing. May be the world would be more peaceful though. Some of you may have seen my post regarding the plan to set up a Taoist group on this forum. If so, you will notice the emphasis on sharing and letting the group wisdom be expressed. We all have that wisdom in us, whether awakened or not. It has a way of finding itself. A flower does not go chasing after the bee, it does not worry what it attracts, it knows all it must do is be a flower and the Way will take care of the rest. Best wishes my friends and I look forward to reading more of your excellent posts. Heath

Well animals are Buddha-Nature, although essentially Buddha-Nature does not exist - do they realise that though, no I don't think so but this does not make them any less. Animals follow their nature without a concept of enlightened or unenlightened which is the same as a person who is Awake - look around you, they are all Being in the same way because what is at the heart of being is only something we are distanced from (at least cognitively) and therefore act out of our nature as a result. Life 'does' without doing. It has nothing to achieve or be - so it IS as it is. Their nature is our nature, it is the nature of Buddha, Tao, God - it is humanity that is in the worse position if you wish to conceptualise. The key difference is this: Animals are ignorant of their lack of ignorance People are ignorant of their ignorance. Heath

Thanks Gatito! I look forward to meeting you.

Hi folks, Just stumbled across this thread and I've read around 9 pages of it so I apologise if some of this has been said. I wanted to give my perspective as a Druid and a Daoist practitioner regarding Shamanism and TTC. There are European mummies found in the Tarim basin dated to 4000 years ago; they look like how we expect healers, Druids, and pagans to appear - tartan, pointed hats, buried with herb and potion containers. When I first began Tai Chi in 1992 much was written about how much of the healing and geomancy understandings came from "The sons of reflected light" - which could in theory represent the Chinese view when first seeing Westerners. The romans wrote that Druidry had ventured as far as the Middle East and in both practices you see many similarities. Does this in my view make the TTC shamanistic or philosophical? No, it is neither. Shamanism looks at the nature of animals, plants and trees, at their spirit, the spirits of ancestors, gods of rivers, valleys, hillocks, woods, it uses sweat houses, potions and drugs to give altered states, it uses herbs for healing, animal guides and so on...such practices can be found everywhere in the world if you look back far enough. Even so, I don't see the TTC as having anything at all to do with Shamanism - the Spirit/Tao that is referred to may have similarities with the spirit(s) and way(s) of Shamanic practices but nonetheless does not mean it is a work of Shamanism which as it happens were passed on through word of mouth and were seen as harmful to write down their secret ways for anyone to have access to. You can of course read whatever you want into these things for instance: One of the first tales you learn in Druidry is that of Ceridwen and Taliesin...Ceridwen had a cauldron where she was brewing the elixir of life, of immortality - her son Morfan who was said to be extremely ugly was told to keep well away from this brew but he was splash by three of its drops and in licking his thumb became immortal. Is this any different than the cauldron Taoists talk of in our stomach area where the three drops of spirit, energy and life-force come together to form the jade elixir and make one immortal? The tale continues where Ceridwen chases after her son who in trying to escape changes shape into various animals to flee his mother who also changes shape to catch him - in the end he turns into a seed and she as a hen swallows him, to give birth later to Taliesin an enlightened Bard of the British Isles. Could this refer to the same as Taoism - our ignorance of truth is ugliness and our awakening is beauty and no matter what shape IT takes, it remains IT? To me, the Tao Te Ching is not philosophical, shamanic or religious, it simply points to a Truth - the Way the universe is and that there is only Tao which you notice or you don't. As there is only Tao, there is a single way of 'being' and if you are unaware you 'do' in a manner that often goes against this single way. It also speaks of energy or flow as does the I-Ching; supposedly earlier than the TTC. It is just a way of being, written by someone we don't know but someone who Knew. Did the same person write both books, did he write Wen-Tzu also? Who cares? Read the books, or read the world outside you - both say the same thing for it is the nature of the Uncreated, the Nameless. Nothing is beyond that, nothing within it. The myriad creatures are not present, they are IT - what appears different or to change is changeless. What use is there then to talk of difference? Hope this helps a little, Heath

Hello Apech, A great question. There is a clue to the answer in the Sutra of Complete Enlightenment where there is a discourse between Buddha and twelve Bodhisattvas who have awakened. Obviously we cannot know if these are the words of Buddha or if they were all Awakened but I think we can tell from some of the writing that there is a large amount of truth in it. Here is my view for what it is worth. A person who has Awakened realises the simplicity of the truth and instantly feels for those of us who are struggling along making it far more complicated than we need. Now such a person can really go one of two ways...firstly they are not bothered for they know that whether people Realise or not changes nothing and as a person thoughts of success, failure, suffering and not suffering have ended. However, we also discover in our hearts the seed of compassion which arises without and perhaps despite our thinking so we have a second way forward (the way of the Bodhissattva) that this person cannot rest without helping people to see the Truth. This inability to rest affects that person's calm and consequently they cannot remain mindful of Grace because the plight of others disturbs that quality. So end up with a person who is awakened, deeply settled and at peace but who finds that stillness disturbed by thoughts of wanting to help others. It is where that 'want' arises from that can mean there is still a thought of 'self' unless of course it comes from their true-heart (as a Taoist would say). Hope this helps. Heath

Hi everyone, Happy New Year! Not exactly sure where the right place is for this. Here is a poem I wrote in March; hope you like it. Best wishes, Heath Song of No Inside, No Outside The Tao is not hidden from view. In wooded glades and mountain paths, city streets or busy roads, it resides. Nowhere being better or worse its face appears. What is settled is present everywhere. Observe what does not move, it may be noticed. Regard what is inanimate, it is revealed. Turn towards the still for what is common appears. A cloud is not a cloud, a tree not a tree, yet look to trees and clouds to read what is common. What makes them indistinct is Tao. Look beyond stillness and see how moving things are settled. Here it is revealed. This is what is ordinary. A tumbling river is not a tumbling river, a flying bird, not a flying bird but gaze at birds and rivers to notice what is ordinary. In the ordinary the sacred is unveiled. What makes them indifferent is Tao. A river is Tao appearing as a river, a bird is Tao arising as a bird. One who knows, knows only One. That which is outside is One. That which is inside is One. To notice what is common is to know inside and outside are the same. In moments of calm your body remembers. Observe what does not move in you, it may be noticed. Regard what settles within its face is revealed. Its face, your face. In your ordinariness lies the sacred, here is what is common. You are Tao appearing as you. What makes you indistinct is Tao. One who knows, knows only One. That which is inside expresses the way. That which is outside expresses the way. The body that is you is the body that is not you. Its message is clear, it never stops. The language of Tao is stillness. Words that are not spoken come from its lips. The song it writes is sung by birds, clouds, trees and rivers. To hear its call is to share the One Voice. To perceive its name is to listen within. Rested and tranquil nothing is known. Here great wisdom is revealed. The language of Tao is silence. Words that are whispered come from its heart. The wisdom it shares is of ancient stars and babes. To be guided by it is to act from what is holy. To perceive its presence in the here and now is to be Awake. Clouds, trees, rivers and birds know no other. Rested and tranquil they do without realizing. Simple and quiet they realize without doing. Moving, flying, drifting, flowing are a single action. Through the original movement no movement occurs. That which appears still is Tao. That which appears moving is Tao. What seems to change remains unchanging. What was before and after has not altered. One who knows, knows only One. One who is still notices no difference. One who is silent hears the sacred whisper. One who is observant notices the subtle. Its message is clear. It never stops. Silent and still one begins to notice. The Tao is not hidden from view.

Thanks for the responses folks much appreciated. Been unable to access this website for a while because I keep being sent to U4Lshort.info - which is a pain. Anyone else getting this hassle?