My fitbit #Fitstats for 11/09/2013: 1,663 steps and 0.7 miles traveled. http://www.fitbit.com/user/28KDGG
Daily Fitbit stats
My fitbit #Fitstats for 11/08/2013: 4,940 steps and 2.2 miles traveled. http://www.fitbit.com/user/28KDGG
Daily Tao / 313 – Chameleon
If I don’t want to be known, I cannot be known.
The best actor can divide role from self.
The best liar can divide truth from falsity.
People think that they know you. Soon you begin to play the role that they place on you. Why should you act a certain way to please others? You should do things from your inner awareness and from your own feelings. If they do not accord with the herd, then so much the better.
You should change when it pleases you. Your life is flexible. If you let other people shape you, then you will never know independence.
The sages say that all life is illusory, and they usually lament this. The way of Tao is to use this fact and not let it oppress you. If you want to dodge others, then step behind one of the myriad illusions in this world. If you do not volunteer anything and you neither confirm nor deny, the opinions of others can never stick to you. Then you will be left in peace.
True sages never go by appearances. When it comes to introspection, they are not deceived by the appearances their own minds spew out. They know that if they want to get at the truth, then they must pierce to the very core.
So if you would hide from others, avail yourself of the false appearances of life. If you would know yourself, distinguish between the false appearances of life. Above all, do not be put off by the illusory nature of life. Use it. Everything in this life can be an advantage to the wise.
Flashback Friday –
The Stray Cats – Rock this Town
Daily Tao / 312 – Bravery
One willing to take his own life into his hands
Will not hesitate to take the lives of others.
There were once two friends hiking in the mountains. One was a poet, the other was a statesman. They came to a deep ravine, and at the bottom were roaring rapids with a narrow plank bridge spanning the gap.
“Let’s climb down and write our names on the other side,” suggested the statesman. The poet refused. So the statesman went bravely down, crossed the bridge, and wrote their names in beautiful calligraphy. Then he climbed back up.
“Someday you will murder a man,” predicted the poet.
“Why do you say that?” exclaimed his companion.
“Those who will take their own lives into their hands will not hesitate to take the lives of others.”
Beware the brave man. He may be a hero, willing to risk his very life, but he will also be willing to endanger the lives of others. After all, he is a risk taker and therefore does not see the wisdom in conservation, compassion, and carefulness. Such a person will threaten others, force his will upon others, and even murder others not out of passion but out of something much more deadly — rationale. He will justify his actions according to ideology, patriotism, religion, and principle.
When attacked, a brave man goes forth with strength, power, and confidence. In that boisterousness, there is little awareness of the subtle. Life is not simple, and it takes a great deal of time to master. Perhaps that is why the brave are youthful while the wise are old.
Daily Fitbit stats
My fitbit #Fitstats for 11/07/2013: 5,479 steps and 2.4 miles traveled. http://www.fitbit.com/user/28KDGG
Daily Tao / 311 – Smallness
You may be capable of great things,
But life consists of small things.
Big things seldom come along. One should know the small as well as the big. We may all yearn to make lasting achievements and to be heroes, but life seldom affords us the opportunities to do so. Most of our days consist of small things — the uneventful meditations, the ordinary cooking of meals, the banal trips to work, the quiet scratching in the garden — and it is from these small things that the larger events of life are composed.
We rarely have the occasion to make grand gestures. The champion gymnast’s greatest moment is but an hour out of an entire lifetime. The works of great artists are view for very short times. The master musician’s best composition is but one work in a sea of musical tones. If we want to be successful, it is the small things that we should pay attention to.
We must not fall into the trap of waiting so long for the big things that we let numerous small chances slip right by us. People who do this are always waiting for life to be perfect. They complain that fate is against them, that the world does not recognize their greatness. If they would lower their sights, they would see all the beautiful opportunities swirling at their feet. If they would humble themselves enough to bend down, they could scoop untold treasures up into their hands.
Daily Fitbit stats
My fitbit #Fitstats for 11/06/2013: 5,011 steps and 2.2 miles traveled. http://www.fitbit.com/user/28KDGG
Daily Tao / 310 – Friendship
Those truly linked don’t need correspondence.
When they meet again after many years apart,
Their friendship is as true as ever.
In the distant past, there was once a young and wealthy statesman who was on a diplomatic mission. Pausing by a river at night, he heard the haunting sounds of a lute. A passionate musician himself, he took up his own lute and eventually found a goatherd sitting on an old ruin. In those days, an aristocrat would not associate with a commoner, but the two men struck up a friendship through their music. Their playing was as smooth and natural as flowing water.
Once a year, the ambassador and the goatherd would renew their friendship. Though they had the chance to play their music with others during the rest of the year, each man declared that he had found his true counterpart.
The ambassador tried for many years to lift the goatherd out of his poverty, but his friend steadfastly refused. He did not want to pollute their friendship with money.
Years later, when the ambassador was gray haired, he went to the appointed spot, but his friend was not there. He tried to play alone, but his melody was forlorn. Finally someone came to tell him that his friend had starved to death during a recent famine. This news made the ambassador despondent. He was caught in the irony of knowing that he had the money to save his friend, and yet he understood the man’s values as well. In sorrow, the ambassador broke his lute. “With my friend gone from the world, who will I play my music for?”
True friendship is a rare harmony.
Daily Tao / 309 – Contemporary
Why do yogis die today?
Why are there no immortals any more?
What has happened to all the sorcerers?
Why don’t angels come to earth?
A book written by a contemporary yogi stated that the author passed away on a certain date. What a contrast to the scriptures that indicate that a holy person’s death was unknown, or that the person has been seen by successive generations, or that the person was even resurrected!
Today, all holy people die. No one is recognized as a saint, and the supernatural is no longer a consideration. Why? Because people no longer believe these things to be true.
If we accept that the present age is one where the mystical no longer holds sway, can we still be spiritual? It is possible for us to be even more spiritual than ever. Freed of the thought that spirituality is something extraordinary, something possible only for spectacular yogis and immortals, we can finally consider that we ourselves can reach out and be just as spiritual. The ultimate levels of understanding are not inherently barred from any human being. If we are seekers, then we shall find. We may not live forever, we may not escape death, but we will be able to understand what holy people in the past did.
my mostly unfabulous life 