My fitbit #Fitstats for 1/27/2014: 5,620 steps and 2.5 miles traveled. http://www.fitbit.com/user/28KDGG
sigh – back to work … – at United Airlines Station Operations Center
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at Concourse B
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at Airside Turnstiles : DIA
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at Starbucks
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Daily Tao / 27 – Feasting
Feasting is the flame in mid-winter
That kindles the fire of friendship
And strengthens the community.
In the past, feasting was a way to bind the community closer together. The same is true today. Whether they are cultural gatherings, times of group worship, or even special dinners with friends, we all need moments where we come together and reaffirm the importance of our group.
The cheer that we feel is essential both to the collective and the individuals involved. The affirmation of the group should not be a sublimation of the individual but rather a framework for involvement. A good gathering requires participation — the efforts of organization, work, and attendance — and in turn gives back sustenance for body and soul, a sense of belonging, and the accomplishment of something that could not be done by the individuals alone.
Like any other human endeavor, the feast is vulnerable to manipulation and politics, the selfish maneuvering of cynical individuals. This is difficult to avoid completely, for it is impossible for any group to truly be united. The only way to mitigate this is for the collective to keep its intentions strictly on its purpose, to select its leaders wisely, and for those leaders to be as enlightened as possible..
Daily Fitbit stats
My fitbit #Fitstats for 1/26/2014: 7,392 steps and 3.2 miles traveled. http://www.fitbit.com/user/28KDGG
at Whole Foods Market
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Daily Fitbit stats
My fitbit #Fitstats for 1/25/2014: 4,764 steps and 2.1 miles traveled. http://www.fitbit.com/user/28KDGG
Daily Tao / 26 – Adoration
Images on the altar,
Or imagined within :
We pray to them,
But do they answer?
The wise tell us how important adoration is. So we kneel before altars, give offerings, and make sacrifices. In our meditations, we are taught to see gods within ourselves and to make supplications to receive power and knowledge. This we do with great sincerity, until the masters say that there are no gods. Then we are confused.
The statue on the altar is mere wood and gold leaf, but our need to be reverent is real. The god within may be nothing but visualization, but our need for concentration is real. The attributes of heaven are utopian conjectures, but the essence of these parables is real. The gods, then, represent certain philosophies and extraordinary facets of the human mind. When we devote ourselves to gods, we establish communion with these deeper aspects.
The thought that we are worshipping symbolism may make us uncomfortable. We are educated to accept only the tangible, the scientific, and the material. We doubt the efficacy of adoring the merely symbolic, and we are confused when such reverence brings about genuine personal transformation. But worship does affect our feelings and thoughts. When the wise say that there are no gods, they mean that the key to understanding all things is within ourselves. External worship is merely a means to point within to the true source of salvation.
