Search the Community

Today I found myself contemplating Tao, neutrality and perspective. It seems our conditioned minds are constantly looking to establish a position to hold on too. For example - "I accept this, I reject this. I surrender myself to you, I close myself to you. I embrace life, I despise life. Things should be this way, things should be that way. This person is a Master, this person isn't..." In this thread, I just wanted to venture the thought that to embrace Tao, we don't need to establish anything. By not establishing anything, we are free to simply respond as natural beings. In other words, to embrace Tao, we simply learn to be neutral. By being neutral, we respond outside of conditioning, naturally and gracefully. We learn to move without the constant pressures and demands of our minds When we operate from a conditioned perspective, we inevitably draw conclusions. These conclusions greatly simplify things for us, but at the same time they take away from our curiosity. Neutrality usually gets a bad rap. It seems to be the weakest option out there. It can't satisfy the hunger of the mind in its quest for exactness. It is also the lowest number 0. It is also like admitting "I don't know". But I was thinking today, that neutral doesn't mean indifferent or inactive. Neutral doesn't mean passive or weak. Neutral simply means reacting naturally with intelligence. That's why I used the word "respond" instead of "react". To me, Tao is returning to the all-embracing innocent mind of a child. The original mind of a child is "0". Such a mind is curious, elastic and flexible. It doesn't try to elevate itself, it is content with being 0. It doesn't draw conclusions. A tree is not a noun to a child, it is a living thing, it can even change. Sometimes we even forget that people can change.