Month: August 2013

Daily Tao / 224 – Indifference

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dirt_throne_by_stonedinc-d3csi48

For a true master,
Sitting on a throne
Is no different than
Sitting on dirt.

A true master is indifferent to the ways of society. Ambition, knowledge, and religion are equally uninteresting. Why? Because all these things are in the realm of human definition.

The holy person transcends all identity. Therefore, wealth or poverty, good or bad, violence or peace makes no difference. Dichotomies are no longer valid to such a person.

Do you find this hard to believe? The degree that you find this difficult to accept indicates the degree to which you are shackled by dualism. True enlightenment comes from understanding the oneness of all reality. Such a realization leads to a perception that all things are truly equal. A master sees nutrition and disease as the same, life and death as the same, morality and immorality as the same. If you give the masters something to eat, they will eat. If they have nothing to eat, they forget that there ever was such an activity. There is no polarity in their lives.

We ordinary people cannot do this. We make distinctions, defend ourselves and our territories. We feel safe only inside declared boundaries. This is the way we define ourselves, but our identities are also our prisons. Only a master knows the meaning of liberation and has complete freedom.

Daily Tao / 223 – Charlatans

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2

He sits on a throne with smug confidence.
Skin in bright gold, eyes are reptilian marbles.
Lips are smeared with honey, tongue is virile red.
He exhorts his followers to purge inhibitions.
“Whatever you feel is Tao, and should be indulged.”
They scream, they sob, they dance madly.
“Yes! Yes!” he exclaims. “Whatever you do is Tao!”

There are all too many charlatans in spirituality these days. If you meet such self-proclaimed masters, you must be wary. If the way they present to you seems easy, it is probably false. Why should spirituality be any different than any other endeavor? Can you become a ballet dancer easily? Did you learn your job easily? Was it simple to graduate from school? Everything takes effort.

It does not stand to reason that spirituality will be established simply by sitting in the presence of a master. Yet people continue to fall victim to this logic. In mass gatherings, a mild hysteria and a herd mentality are cleverly exploited. A teacher will tell you that whatever you do is holy. Whatever is said, though, the teacher cannot claim to give you Tao.

Tao is only gained by the self. Masters are hard to find, and following the road takes solitary discipline. It takes daily work, so how could you get it at a rally? Indulgence is not Tao. True Tao cannot be gained without understanding and strength.

Daily Tao / 222 – Be

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BlackHole.wuji.Bridge_500

Tao is within us; Tao surrounds us.
Part of it may be sensed,
And is called manifestation.
Part of it is unseen,
And is called void.
To be with Tao is harmony.
To separate from Tao is disaster.
To act with Tao, observe and follow.
To know Tao, be still and look within.

Tao is within us; we are Tao. It is also outside of us; it is all the known universe. All that we can know of ourselves and our universe cannot account for all that is Tao. What we know is merely the outer manifestation of Tao.

The ultimate Tao is called absolute. We cannot know it directly because it has no definitions, references, or names. Our normal minds are incapable of perceiving where there is no contrast. Yet it is precisely this colorless infinity that is the underlying reality to this life.

The only way to fathom it is to remove our sense of division from it. In essence, we must plunge into the mystery itself. Only then will we know peace.

Daily Tao / 221 – Nonduality

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Void_Space

Don’t contemplate
As mere activity.
Be void contemplating void.

Once one understands that the ultimate nature of this existence is void, one understands that to be void is the only true mode of meditation. Notice that void is not the object of meditation — to pair meditator and object creates a dualistic relationship between self and environment that leads one astray.

In meditation we are searching for unity. We need something that takes us out of the normal dualistic modes that are the origins of all our difficulties. Therefore, the only true meditation is one that does not put us into a relationship of viewer and object. Any object, no matter how holy, still reinforces the illusion that there is a reality outside of ourselves. What we are trying to gain is the true interior view : There is no difference between our inner and outer realities.

The ultimate meditation is the realization that we ourselves are empty of distinctions, that our sense of identity is only the result of dualistic clinging. Along with that, we should understand that there is really nothing to contemplate, nothing to think about.

Daily Tao / 220 – Threshold

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The-empty

Why mourn for a cocoon
After the butterfly has flown?

Death is one of the few givens in life, and yet we fear it. We immaturely deny its presence or refuse to take it into account. In life, where so few things are stable enough to serve as true reference points, death is one of our few assurances.

Death is not an ending. It is a transformation. What dies is only our sense of identity, which was false to begin with. Death is the threshold of this life. Beyond it is something else, some mystery. We can only be sure that it is unlike this life.

Let us be unabashed in admitting that no one knows death definitely. The closest we may come is a supposed near-death experience, which, by definition, cannot be death itself. Alternately, we can examine other people who have died. We can look at a corpse. When we do, we see that whoever or whatever it was that animated that body is longer in force. Is that body our dead friend? No. Whatever it was that was the person we knew is gone. What use is there to mourn over a lifeless shell in a casket?

Death defines the limits of life. Within those limits, there is structure upon which to base one’s decisions. Whenever one deems that one’s life has been fulfilled, one can utilize death as the portal away from this existence.

Daily Tao / 219 – Composure

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meditating-silhouette

Although they may have to kill
Or suffer themselves to be killed,
A person of composure remains dispassionate.
Nothing is ever destroyed,
Nothing is ever created.
All is infinity.

For most people, killing is an abhorrence. If they had to kill, they would be horrified and their emotions would be uncontrollable. Likewise, if they were being threatened with death, they would be afraid and would struggle to keep alive.

Both those situations involve extreme attachment to what we know and how we wish to remain. Both situations indicate a fundamentally limited view of the world. We assume that we are truly destroying someone. But though this body may be slain, the soul cannot be slain. Every soul is but a part of an infinite, cosmic soul.

You could subtract numerous souls from the world, and the number of souls would not be diminished. Numerous souls could be born, and the number of souls would not be augmented. Nothing is truly destroyed, and nothing is truly born. Only appearances change.

Therefore, people of composure view the transformations of the world calmly. They do not become alarmed with the different permutations of phenomena. They know that these are all merely outer manifestations of an indefinable, unlimited, and infinite reality.