manitou

It's interesting to see Lin Yutang's translation of this same verse. "Oftentimes, one strips oneself of passion In order to see the Secret of Life; Oftentimes, one regards life with passion, In order to see it's manifest results" Enduring innocence, as you have chosen, can be analogized to 'seeing the secret of life'. This is life without judgment, without contrived desires. I guess he's also saying that 'passion' in this context is the same as getting entrenched in the 10,000 things, to get caught up in the results. What an incredible project you are undertaking. thanks for sharing it!

(Marbles, you are so adorable...you done yerself proud with this thread) If you read the part about the body being disregarded, I think he's referring to the same mindset that the Nazarene might have been referring to when he talked about not having worry about tomorrow - that the lilies of the field are beautifully clad and therefore aren't we also? And also I think he said something about the sparrows, yada yada. I think Marbles is on the money when he indicates that moderation is key....balance. By no stretch of the imagination is the author saying to stop batheing or caring for the temple. Lin Yutang's take on this chapter emphasizes the concept of Yielding a little more than this translation: FUTILITY OF CONTENTION To yield is to be preserved whole. To be bent is to become straight. To be hollow is to be filled. To be tattered is to be renewed. To be in want is to possess. To have plenty is to be confused. Therefore the Sage embraces the One, And becomes the model of the world. He does not reveal himself, And is therefore luminous. He does not justify himself, And is therefore far-famed. He does not boast of himself, And therefore people give him credit. He does not pride himself, And is therefore the ruler among men. It is because he does not contend That no one in the world can contend against him. Is it not indeed true, as the ancients say, "To yield is to be preserved whole?" Thus he is preserved and the world does him homage.

Maybe a component of enlightenment is to make our way through the structure of any one religion and find the oneness at the end of the path, the place of I AM. At the furthest outreaches, it seems that all great religions end up in the room where all paths meet. I don't think it much matters which path we choose - as long as we get to the place of peace we all intuit in our mind's eye. I condsider myself a Taoist in theory,only because I have studied the TTC for 20 years. I have not found the need to engage in any of the separate or included practices, although I'm sure my path would have been shorter had I chosen to engage in one. I now sit in the room where all paths meet...on a good day. I AM, at the moment.

LOL. This is hysterical, Jane. 26 years ago I met a skid row bum who was sleeping on a cold concrete sidewalk outside of a liquor store. I took him home to feed him. He's still here. He does now have comprehensive medical care and a job. I guess this question has been with me longer than I have realized.

Even back when I used to read that book I never understood what that verse meant. I'm afraid I still don't. Bob, how do you relate this to finding the heart?

Dog - what a beautiful answer you provided. Thank you so much. On my best days I too ride those words. Maybe tomorrow....

Adeptly and honestly put.

Yes,the mental masturbation can get overwhelming. Big hugs back atcha, June Bug.

From The Importance of Living, 1939 - by Lin Yutang (Tao translator) "It is unfortunately true that this matter of passion, or still better, sentiment, is something born in us, and that as we cannot choose our parents, we are born with a given cold or warm nature. On the other hand, no child is born with a really cold heart, and it is only in proportion as we lose that youthful heart that we lose the inner warmth in ourselves. Somewhere in our adult life, our sentimental nature is killed, strangled, chilled or atrophied by an unkind surrounding, largely through our own fault in neglecting to keep it alive, or our failure to keep clear of such surroundings. In the process of learning "world experience," there is many a violence done to our original nature, when we learn to harden ourselves, to be artificial, and often to be cold-hearted and cruel, so that as one prides oneself upon gaining more and more worldly experience, his nerves become more and more insensitive and benumbed--especially in the world of politics and commerce. As a result, we get the great "go-getter" pushing himself forward to the top and brushing everybody aside; we get the man of iron will and strong determination, with the last embers of sentiment, which he calls foolish idealism or sentimentality, gradually dying out in his breast. It is that sort of person who is beneath my contempt. The world has too many cold-hearted people. If sterilization of the unfit should be carried out as a state policy, it should begin with sterilizing the morally insensible, the artistically stale, the heavy of heart, the ruthlessly successful, the cold-heartedly determined and all those people who have lost the sense of fun in life -- rather than the insane and the victims of tuberculosis...." "....But life is harsh, and a man with a warm, generous and sentimental nature may be easily taken in by his cleverer fellowman. The generous in nature often make mistakes by their generosity, by their too generous regard of their enemies and faith in their friends. Sometimes the generous man comes home disillusioned to write a poem of bitterness. That is the case of many a poet and scholar in China, as for instance that great tea-drinker, Chang Tai, who generously squandered his fortune, was betrayed by his own closest friends and relatives, and set down in twelve poems some of the bitterest verses I have ever read. But I have a suspicion that he kept on being generous to the end of his days, even when he was quite poor and destitute, being many times on the verge of starvation, and I have no doubt that those bitter sentiments passed away like a cloud and he was still quite happy. "Nevertheless this warm generosity of soul has to be protected against life by a philosophy, because life is harsh, warmth of soul is not enough, and passion must be joined to wisdom and courage. To me wisdom and courage are the same thing, for courage is born of an understanding of life; he who completely understands life is always brave. Anyway that type of wisdom which does not give us courage is not worth having at all. Wisdom leads to courage by exercising a veto against our foolish ambitions and emancipating us from the fashionable humbug of this world, whether humbug of thought or humbug of life."

I seem to have a social conscience that constantly reminds me that there are people starving in the world. It is not a boon to happiness. It's a constant whisper.

There's a part of me that craves living like a monk in a little room with a dirt floor and only a cup and plate to my name. I know I must have been one previously. I would drink in spirit all day. Why don't I do this? Maybe I will one day after some other situations have resolved.

The Nag Hammadi gospels are actually kind of interesting. They were discovered hidden in a farmer's field in Egypt in maybe 1948 and have been translated by an association of people in different languages, so there is a type of integrity that the concurrent translators reached with their work. If you're not familiar with the Nag Hammadi gospels, they're the ones that were hidden away when Constantine was destroying all canons that he didn't want in the Bible. These are particularly fun because the words of the Nazarene seem to point to how to become Enlightened as an individual as opposed to placing any credence in the organized religion of the day. Needless to say, Constantine wouldn't have wanted this to be common knowledge - too hard to control. Some of the gospels are pretty awesome (some of them seem pretty ridiculous too).

Is it just me, or does it appear that we're headed for one world economy?

How poignant this is for one who has grown up in the West, who has grown up with the puritan work ethic (perhaps at the best extreme) or on the other end of the pole just merely the desire to get ahead. How much time and energy I've used up in the past 60 odd years trying to maintain an American middle-class identity. And the horrible thing is that I feel Guilty if I'm not still doing that. I don't do that any longer, I am retired...I am an artist...but I can still get anal about that too. Sometimes I beat myself up because I'm not producing the right quantity or type of art - I can easily get away from the PURPOSE of art (soul expression) and revert instead to turning the selling of my art into a money-making scheme. The balancing act extends to everything, I guess. My dad was a large and loud man who, when he saw us just sitting in a chair, could be depended on to say "Why are you just sitting there? Do something! Improve your mind! Create something!" On one hand, I'm glad I was brought up with this because it lent itself to creativity. On the other hand, it was apparently a recipe for constant un-ease unless one was actually "doing something" at any given moment. To read the Tao, which emphasizes exactly the opposite, is absolute balm for my soul. I read it, my soul responds to it, and it seems to be saying that Doing Nothing is just fine, and in fact better than fine. But there is still a niggling voice inside me, when I'm too comfortable, that can say "Get up! Do something! Be productive!" As much as I believe I do understand because I've been trying to live the Tao philosophy for so very long, getting this to actually take up residence in our bodies is a different thing, at least in my case. I haven't found that the mental understanding translates right away into body knowledge. I am still a ball of neuroses! I don't want to be a ball of neuroses, but here I am. I have a problem with TMJ because I still grind my teeth; going to the dentist is a problem because it drives me nuts to hold my mouth open. This is nothing but stress; stress from not feeling that I can control the future, apparently. Fear of what tomorrow brings, at the very end of the cord. A hovering stress that isn't even realistic - I'm okay on every front, even financially - but the stress monster will find something to obsess about. As the Tao comment above indicates, disentanglement means calm and repose. I have moments of this during the day. When I am mindful I can slip into repose at the drop of a hat. I can see that it's all One, that it's manifesting just the way it wants to manifest, and that I'm merely the Observer. But how easy it is to slip back into the illusion and get all caught up. Sometimes I feel like I'm on the horns of an enema.

I agree....Accepting the crap passively isn't an option. But loving your way through the crap works real well. By 'loving' I mean always taking the high path at every decision. didn't mean to throw the L-word at you Marbles, sorry....Breathe into a paper bag, you should be okay..... And yes, Lin did devolve a bit when he refers to sterilization of the unfit - but if this passage is like the rest of his book the statement was probably tongue in cheek. Also, this was written in 1939 when such things were perhaps being done?

Amen.

This is probably way too simple, but try laying face down on the grass for a while. Needless to say while you're there,try and eliminate all thought except for the sensation of the pent-up energy running down into the earth. Stay there for 5 or 10 minutes. This really works for me

I think I'm a Wu-wei hog. I didn't see that one on there.

What I meant is that choosing to hate or act negatively limits our options. If we choose to respond to someone in an equally hateful way (assuming they did something negative or hateful to us) we are limited in our responses and can't experience true freedom. By choosing to love instead (which in this case would be merely to not respond to the hate in kind) all our options are still open. The question of What If his behavior restricts me from doing something is answered One Day at a Time by the impeccability of your own actions and how you respond to the actions of the other person. The loving mindset (the mindset that doesn't buy into the negativity) will win out ultimately. As I think back on the Christian days of my youth, this may be the internal dynamic that the Nazarene was going for when he said to turn the other cheek.

I just dont' see how choosing the Someone Always Gets Screwed attitude has any benefit at all to the bottom line in any area of our lives. By choosing to label things by referring to them as 'screwed' does nothing but eliminate our options. If someone hates me, I can choose to hate back in kind, or I can choose to love. If I choose to love I am totally free as I can exercise all my options. The hateful person can only exercise 50% of his options, he is restricted by the effect of the hate on his ego and subsequent behavior.

Jenn, you are attracting this stuff to yourself because of a dynamic you're putting out there. Your emotional make-up seems to require that you play the role of constant victim. Please consider going into therapy for a while to find what it is that started rolling this snowball downhill. There is a powerful dynamic inside you that gets its 'power' from being a victim - you are receiving some sort of emotional payoff from continually being crunched by the people in your life. If you are lucky, perhaps you have some sort of an addictive problem that you would qualify going to AA, Alanon, etc. to work the steps and get way inside of yourself. That is a powerful and fast way to go back to the source and get that dynamic changed as soon as possible. It will take some hard work, but once you've started you'll find that the path to truly understanding self is a joyful one, although tears are required. If you don't have the luxury of an addiction, then please find a therapist to try and get this stuff identified and placed behind you. I am so glad you're here. Another approach would be to use the concept of Love in your life in a way that you aren't doing now. First of all, find the little kid inside you and make a commitment to love her and keep her safe. I would recommend putting one of your baby pictures on your nightstand and talking to it each morning, and promise to keep her from harm. This is a simple and powerful way to take care of yourself first, even though it may be 'hurting someone else's feelings'. You need to find a firm way to get yourself out of a situation that's not good for you. Then, and maybe the most important part, is to get out of yourself - stop focusing on self and the problems. Instead, start Giving. Just start slowly seeing what it is around you that needs a little attention, whether that be a person or a situation. For just an hour a day as a starter, step outside of yourself and do something for someone else (perhaps not a person with whom you currently share a sick dynamic, as this will no doubt entangle the intent of the exercise). You are not going to cogitate your way out of your current style of thinking, which is self-obsessed; it must take physical action. I don't think merely reading the Tao or any other tome will be enough; you must bring it into the physical and out of the mental. what will happen is that if you do this for a while, you'll find that you will start to change from the inside and become stronger and less victimized, although maybe you won't feel that you're dealing with the problem in a direct fashion. That's true, but it's an oblique approach that you may need here - your mind seems to be very strong and capable of wearing and identifying your victimhood, but that's a self-defeating mindset that will do you no good in the long run,other than giving you a constant forum for self-pity. Very best wishes to you.

I look at karma as being akin to 'for every action there is an equal and opposing reaction'. I don't think it's necessary to view it through eyes of good or evil. There is no good or evil person - we are all one. We all have Mother Theresa and Charles Manson inside us. Being judgmental and labeling the behavior just cuts off our options. And I guess it also depends on what it means to 'succeed'. Is success measured in getting promoted or becoming wealthy? These things are just devices used by spirit (Tao within us) to distract us so we can ultimately find what's real and true. The things you're calling success may not be real and true at all.

In looking back at my own kundalini awakening, it seems to be the point in time where my theoretical knowledge crossed over and started affecting my physical self. Many years of studying the TTC had preceded my K-awakening (actually, it was an auto accident that activated it). Once the awakening started (it's an ongoing process), it started translating into different manifestations happening to my body, but with a full awareness or 'knowing' that it was somehow connected to the spiritual progress that had preceded it. This is when the third eye started to develop in me, and a constant sensation of electricity being either static or dynamic in the body. I started to get a sense that the energy would sit and work on various areas within my body, generally within the chakra areas; I have come to interpret this as a necessary component of my own spiritual development and ultimate freedom. When the bright hot energy would be sitting in the heart chakra, for example, I would find that I needed to be particularly attentive to what I had attracted into my life manifesting around me during that period; inevitably there would be something involving the heart chakra that I would have to work through involving my husband, mother, brother, etc. Same was often true of the chakra at the throat - which would translate into how I presented to the world, and whether I was truly able to communicate what needed to be said, or whether to keep it stuffed inside me. One seems to corroborate the other; the circumstances with the chakra. Sometimes the chakra would feel like something was trying to push through it, particularly the heart chakra. Sometimes I would get a sense that some little worm-like thing was actually wiggling its way through the heart and breaking free through the blockage. This kundalini thing is so very odd. I don't think there are definitive answers for anyone. Every single person is different as to how it manifests, or at least in the sensations it produces. The Gopi Krishna book is a total horror story and if you read it, please know that this is the very extreme circumstance. I read it and was needlessly terrified for a week or two. I now equate the kundalini experience (still ongoing after 8 years) with spiritual forces (however you want to define them) forging and tempering the body in some way. Enlightenment, at the end of the road, becomes a very physical thing, more than most folks would ever imagine. The kundalini energy seems to be morphing both the metaphysical and the physical into one full working unit. The ability to "see" (I call it triangulate) will often manifest with kundalini activity. The third eye may become activated, if one takes the time to do the internal housekeeping required to clear out the channel. In order to see, one must transcend the ego so that your perceptions aren't viewed through the lens of your own biases and fears. This comes as a result of weeding out your own biases and fears, and this is not an easy or pleasant process. When this has been done, one becomes privy to a mentally visual place where circumstances can be viewed from a point of view that is far removed from the problem. The K-active person is capable of backing up in his perspective to see things in a different and more comprehensive totality, and to see how it fits in with the larger and more accurate view. Spiritual maturity seems to be key in having a comfortable kundalini experience. I spent some time on a kundalini website for a while, and I was particularly saddened by younger people (not spiritually mature) who for some reason found themselves kundalini active and yet weren't capable of wearing it in a balanced fashion. Ego would get in the way, resulting in one young girl I can think of running around her town in a Captain America cape and wearing her kundalini activity in this questionable mindset. Ego had run rampant, and yet no life experience to temper her new-found kundalini symptoms. Hopefully by now she has found a more balanced approach to all this and she has gotten the ego stuff behind her. It is only then that we can see clearly. Jenn, if you need to periodically bounce your symptoms off someone, please don't hesitate to shoot me a note. I'd be happy to talk with you about all this if you find it becomes a little unmanageable. But don't let it frighten you. It's a good thing. I think spirit (?) is evolving into what it wants to manifest here and now, and I suspect it has something to do with kundalini morphing humans into what we are really supposed to be.

Lin Yutang's translation: XV. THE WISE ONES OF OLD The wise ones of old had subtle wisdom and depth of understanding, So profound that they could not be understood. And because they could not be understood, Perforce must they be so described: Cautious, like crossing a wintry stream, Irresolute, like one fearing danger all around, Grave, like one acting as guest, Self-effacing, like ice beginning to melt, Genuine, like a piece of undressed wood, Open-minded, like a valley, And mixing freely, like murky water. Who can find repose in a muddy world? By lying still, it becomes clear. Who can maintain his calm for long? By activity, it comes back to life. He who embraces this Tao Guards against being over-full. Because he guards against being over-full He is beyond wearing out and renewal.

A cup of tea is a beautiful transport. Thanks for sharing your lovely poem.