A new day. New energy. New sense of the good fortune of living, and learning the art of living. Yesterday was blessed with some good dialogue – as per your recommendations. Thank you.
Today, I am generating simplicity, upflow – and reducing excess potential. Today is a day for action. Let’s read….
-62- The Tao is to the ten thousand things what the shrine is in the home. It is the treasure of the virtuous and the protection of the wrongdoer. Good words are appreciated. Good deeds are accepted as gifts. Even the wrongdoers are not abandoned. Hence, on the day an Emperor is installed and appoints the three ducal ministers. remain where you are and make an offering of the Tao. It will be preferable to a gift of jade discs followed by a team of four horses. Why did the ancients value the Tao? Was it not because through it you can find what you seek, and because of it you can escape what is hounding you? Therefore, it is the most valuable thing under heaven. (The Tao Te Ching 62)
I love the concept of Tao being to the thousand things that which the shrine is to the home: the refuge, the sanctuary, the point of calm and reflection and prayer. So this chapter prompted me to revise my sense of what Taoism actually is, and I came across a video by this beautiful soul, George Thompson, explaining a bit about Taoism, while studying at a Tai Chi school in China with Master Gu:
Look at Master Gu’s definition of the Chinese symbol forTaoism:
Essentially:
- Yin yang
- Within ourselves
- In action
Beautiful. Inner balance in action.
I’ve always been interested in Eastern philosophy and religion, haven’t I? Ever since I went to India in 1994, I guess..? Tell me about this.
The children of this age are prompted to unite Eastern and Western knowing.
What does the West have to bring to the East except rapacious desire for conquering, owning and commanding…?
The West brings a certain discipline in …[?}
🙁 I can’t hear it. Maybe I won’t hear it?!
The West’s ‘authoritarianism’ can be used for good, for leadership, for progress.
Is the West yang and the East yin?
Nothing so simplistic as that. The East however offers the brightness of a mysticism which the West is frequently ‘blind’ to.
Yes! This is what I love about the Eastern thought: its sensitivity to the mystical, to the metaphysical. Its assumption that there is far more about life than the human eye can see. Also, that its interpretation of the divine is far more nuanced than that of the traditional Western religionist.
Help me incorporate this today.
What would Master Gu do?
Meditate. Balance his yin and yang within, and then take action, flowingly.
***14minSilentMeditation***
It is time to take action, keeping the mind on the ‘shrine’. Gather qi, gather qi, gather qi, and take action. Sometimes, being in the head or the heart too much leads to fogginess, or that ‘excess potential’. Chop wood; carry water – and the freshness of being returns.
That ‘generating simplicity’ message again.
But in action. Take action. Small actions accrue.
It sounds a little bit like ‘Keep busy’ or ‘Potter’.
At this time of the year it is vital (for you) to keep busy and to ‘Harry Potter’. It really is. Gather in – find inner balance – move. Chop wood; carry water. Then rest. Know when you are zoned in and when you are zoned out. Limit zoning out. Keep moving, dear soul. Keep moving. In flow. Qi flow.
Aha! Yes. I hear you. Soft, gentle, lift up, pull down, keep moving.
Exactly: this is the tone we mean with ‘take action’. Qi flow, qi glow.
Sweet.
What’s my phrase?
I am qi-flowing (taking action, flowingly)
Cool. Ty. x
Postscript:
Excitability: I noticed this trait in me. It’s linked to spiky, turbo-chargey aspects of me. Qi flow is an antidote to this.
Conflict: is stuck/frozen qi. So is depression, lethargy.
Qi-flow and conflict resolution are both about limiting/regulating:
- a) excitability (adrenaline, fight, flight, turbo charging, burning out, hustling to get stuff done, ‘straining at every sinew, zoning in) and
- b) frozenness/stuckness/lethargy/zoning out
Qi-flow is the antidote to the hard, unnatural (but v common for me) STOP / START
Amen.