And suddenly, here I am in Portugal! I’m sitting out on a veranda at 8am next to a blue, blue sky, with birds gabbling in the trees around me. We’re all here for a family wedding – we really are all bringing the love. #BTL
We have an entire glorious week here. I’m interested to know what insights might arise during the week. It’s the end of my ‘Quarter’ (end of Sept) and the opportunity to reflect on how the last 3 months of 2019 might look for me. I’m reading The 12 Week Year on audiobook too. I’m ready to make 2019 Q4 ‘count’. I am reaching out to the edges and depths of my internal wisdom for guidance on this.
I cannot overstate the outer turmoil in our political landscape at the moment. The division, the spitting hatred, the trickery, the illusion-spinning, the psychopathy. May my – may all our – actions count in these days. May we learn the lessons available to us, and act upon our insights.
There is a time to sit still, and there is a time to act.
And this moment is..?
This moment is a time to sit still so that you know how best to act.
Granted. I really can sit still this week (amidst the moving about!) and let the inside voice do the talking. No more wheel-spinning. No more walking about this planet with unprocessed trauma in my body.
Let’s read:
-41- The wise student on hearing the Tao diligently puts it into practice. The average student on hearing the Tao keeps it one minute and loses it the next. The mediocre student on hearing the Tao laughs at it loudly. If this student did not laugh it would not be the Tao. Therefore, the ancient proverb says: The bright path seems dull. The path that goes toward seems to lead backward. The even path seems up and down. The greatest whiteness seems soiled. High Virtue seems like a canyon. Abundant Virtue seems deficient. Vigorous Virtue seems limp. Simple Virtue seems faded. The greatest square has no corners. The greatest vessel takes long to complete. The greatest note is hard to hear. The greatest image has no shape. The Tao is hidden and nameless; yet, it is the Tao alone that supports all things and brings them to completion. (The Tao Te Ching Chap 41)
Stenudd reflects that the Tao is ‘laughable’ to the mediocre student in the way that new science breakthroughs are laughable to the sceptics at first. He also unravels some of this apparent ‘deficiency’ in the Tao:
‘Tao in its yielding humility seems dim, whereas we expect great truth to shine like gold. Its progress seems retreating, because it makes little noise and shuns the spectacular. Its course seems curved and twisted, because it accomplishes its goals indirectly and discreetly.‘ (Ref)
There’s learning here for me with regards to our undertaking actions that ‘count’. We are invited to accomplish our goals indirectly and discreetly. What’s notable to me is that the Tao / Way is not about being goalless. We can take aim and hold intention; we simply ensure that our actions are not noisy or attention-seeking.
So the focus is on the delivery not the deliverer?
Yes, I guess so. Or on the ‘delivered’ – the outcome? Imagine if my goals involved undertaking a project which did not have my name on it… I say this because so much of what I do, I append my name to, so that people can attribute due credit to me.
We know how confusing the notions of anonymity and acclaim/acknowledgement are to you. We see this in your day-to-day thinking. You dart between the two.
Think of Amelie, and the fun she had in anonymous love-bringing…
In the end she sought love in her actual real life though, no?
Yes… Ok, answer me this! How on Earth (and I use that term advisedly) does one actually do the following?: ‘The wise student on hearing the Tao diligently puts it into practice.‘
***Med***
Shine the light on others to reveal their goodness, their perfection.
No more griping, back-biting, quipping, complaining about others. Be clean of tongue.
Attest to the perfection of your loved ones, and then your care for others’ regard of you will diminish and vanish away.
Is this something I need to be proactive in, or is this a slant to apply in the moment? And how to undertake this without being fawning, annoying or subservient?
Curiosity about the way the divine is revealing itself through each individual is sufficient.
And what form might that take?
The mirror reflects the light it sees.
But not the darkness…?
0 + 0 = 0
Darkness is a non-factor then…
An important thing to remember when the ego seeks to reflect the darkness it believes it sees in another: the ego can only speak of itself.
‘The bright path seems dull.’ Darkness on the other hand can seem enticing, glamourous…
Hear the innocent church bells ringing out in the village behind you.
Pretty, sentimental, but not enticing, I guess?
‘The bright path seems dull.’
It’s true, one part of me loves to gripe and quip about others… It’s a way I make myself interesting or vital or clever (ie. non-dull) to others. It’s my favourite vaunting tool – and it must be a real dampener for those I’m with. Also, I must tire myself when I do. Resting in others’ perfection is something I need practice at.
Attest to the perfection of your loved ones.
Good practice. Very good spiritual practice. And a calming way to get out of my ego mode, so that I can better be in a blue-sky thinking state. Thank you for this.
I am attesting to the perfection of my loved ones.