So here we are in November 2006; it's not long now until the end of another year. I was having another dive into my favourite copy of the Tao Te Ching and I read part of Ch.44 which struck a chord with me:
Gain or loss: which one hurts?
In November 2005, I left a job that was causing me high levels of stress to the point that it was making me ill both physically and mentally. And yet in September 2004, I was highly delighted to gain this job; it was something that I had worked towards for a number of years, a job which I had longed to do, something that I felt was just right for me. Once I was doing the job, I began to have misgivings but put these down to nerves at doing something completely new and that everything would settle down in time. In the end, due partly to a complete lack of adequate support, I felt that I had no option but to leave the 'job of my dreams'.
I had gained something and it hurt - a lot. I lost something and that hurt too, but less so after the initial 'lightening strike' feeling. What did I lose? An illusion, a much longed-for dream had to be given up, abandoned, and that's not an easy thing, I am here to tell you. Sometimes we can work very hard for goals, believing them to be the ones that we want/need only to find that things don't work out the way we expected them to, and perhaps they never would have or perhaps, they might have if circumstances/people had been different.
I have talked before about the pursuit of happiness; perhaps happiness will come to us if we don't chase it so hard. Perhaps it's the same with dreams; perhaps we need to be aware of what we are really looking for before we go and look for it.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Don't glorify heroes
I've been doing a bit of fiction reading lately and reacquainting myself with some of my Pratchett books. I found myself coming to the end of "Night Watch" where Vimes and Vetinari discuss the possibility of a memorial to Watch Men who'd died during a skirmish in the city many years previously. The conversation ends with Vimes saying "What good would a statue be? It'd just inspire new fools to believe they're going to be heroes."
And this reminded me of the beginning of Ch.3 in the TTC:
Don't glorify heroes,
And people will not contend.
All of this set me thinking about rememberance, particularly of those who've fought battles and have died. Here in the UK, every year we have Rememberance day and at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, we have 2 minutes silence where a great many people across the country stand still and remember; on Rememberance Sunday, wreaths will be laid at the war memorials across the country, from tiny villages to London itself to remember the sacrifice of the dead. All this is done in quite a restrained sort of way but it is not done in a way which glorifies war or heroes, it doesn't dress war up and make it glamourous; rather it remembers the dead and honours their sacrifice and memory.
We have plenty of films and TV movies that tend to show war in a glorious light; the baddies always lose, the goodies always win and they all live happily ever after, riding off it the sunset sort of thing. And the longer we, in the Western nations, go with directly suffering the privations of war, the more we seem to glorify what happened and gloss over the suffering and the needless waste of life. All the war we know about today appears on our TV screens and, unless we directly know someone in the armed forces, we are unlikely to be directly affected by it. We can understand what is going on theoretically, we can sympathise with those who lose family members, but we don't really understand what it means.
And this seems to link back to what Vimes was saying "what good would a statue be?". In the end, a statue doesn't really tell us very much, with or without an 'inspiring slogan'; it may give us names and dates and a brief history of why the statue is there, but it doesn't tell us about the waste, the loss, the betrayals, the downright stupidity that may have lead to that situation. Statues can be many things: beautiful, awe inspiring, heroic. They are like the blurb on the back of a book, that tells you any number of things about it except what happens in the end. And descriptions of 'glorious' victories or last stands have a tendency to leave out severed limbs and miles of guts because, strangely enough, there doesn't seem to be anything 'heroic' about them.
One man's 'glorious victory' is another's 'devasting defeat'; this leads to revenge, to evening the score, to wiping out the shame of defeat and so it goes round and round, without ever coming to an end. So if we can avoid glorifying heroes, people might not seek so earnestly for revenge.
Just a thought.
And this reminded me of the beginning of Ch.3 in the TTC:
Don't glorify heroes,
And people will not contend.
All of this set me thinking about rememberance, particularly of those who've fought battles and have died. Here in the UK, every year we have Rememberance day and at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, we have 2 minutes silence where a great many people across the country stand still and remember; on Rememberance Sunday, wreaths will be laid at the war memorials across the country, from tiny villages to London itself to remember the sacrifice of the dead. All this is done in quite a restrained sort of way but it is not done in a way which glorifies war or heroes, it doesn't dress war up and make it glamourous; rather it remembers the dead and honours their sacrifice and memory.
We have plenty of films and TV movies that tend to show war in a glorious light; the baddies always lose, the goodies always win and they all live happily ever after, riding off it the sunset sort of thing. And the longer we, in the Western nations, go with directly suffering the privations of war, the more we seem to glorify what happened and gloss over the suffering and the needless waste of life. All the war we know about today appears on our TV screens and, unless we directly know someone in the armed forces, we are unlikely to be directly affected by it. We can understand what is going on theoretically, we can sympathise with those who lose family members, but we don't really understand what it means.
And this seems to link back to what Vimes was saying "what good would a statue be?". In the end, a statue doesn't really tell us very much, with or without an 'inspiring slogan'; it may give us names and dates and a brief history of why the statue is there, but it doesn't tell us about the waste, the loss, the betrayals, the downright stupidity that may have lead to that situation. Statues can be many things: beautiful, awe inspiring, heroic. They are like the blurb on the back of a book, that tells you any number of things about it except what happens in the end. And descriptions of 'glorious' victories or last stands have a tendency to leave out severed limbs and miles of guts because, strangely enough, there doesn't seem to be anything 'heroic' about them.
One man's 'glorious victory' is another's 'devasting defeat'; this leads to revenge, to evening the score, to wiping out the shame of defeat and so it goes round and round, without ever coming to an end. So if we can avoid glorifying heroes, people might not seek so earnestly for revenge.
Just a thought.
Monday, September 04, 2006
What goes around, comes around
In Chapter 36 of TTC, it states:
"The expanded will eventually shrink.
The strong will eventually weaken.
The high and mighty will eventually fall.
The rich will eventually be ruined.
Because this is the way things work,
softness and weakness can overcome hardness and strength."
I was thinking about this about this passage in the context of my own life experiences. I'm sure that we have all seen some individuals who seem to have everything, whose life always goes right, who always gets the good jobs, who seems to get everything handed to them on a plate. And it can be very hard to see this, especially when our own personal circumstances are anything but ideal! I remember one particular girl from school; she was very pretty, clever, a good dancer, the sort of girl who never gets spots, she was popular; she was also selfish, self-centred, arrogant and a bully. When she was 16, she left school to go to a dance academy and everybody thought that she'd do very well and that she'd become famous, because she was the big fish in our little pond. In the end, however, she wasn't quite good enough to be the lead role in anything - the high and mighty will eventually fall.
When we find ourselves envying someone we know for their apparent, neverending, success, we have to remember is what is written in Ch. 36; nothing can expand for ever, nobody will continue to always receive the clean end of the stick, sooner or later everybody takes a fall - although we may not always be around to see it happen.
Tag Taoism envy
"The expanded will eventually shrink.
The strong will eventually weaken.
The high and mighty will eventually fall.
The rich will eventually be ruined.
Because this is the way things work,
softness and weakness can overcome hardness and strength."
I was thinking about this about this passage in the context of my own life experiences. I'm sure that we have all seen some individuals who seem to have everything, whose life always goes right, who always gets the good jobs, who seems to get everything handed to them on a plate. And it can be very hard to see this, especially when our own personal circumstances are anything but ideal! I remember one particular girl from school; she was very pretty, clever, a good dancer, the sort of girl who never gets spots, she was popular; she was also selfish, self-centred, arrogant and a bully. When she was 16, she left school to go to a dance academy and everybody thought that she'd do very well and that she'd become famous, because she was the big fish in our little pond. In the end, however, she wasn't quite good enough to be the lead role in anything - the high and mighty will eventually fall.
When we find ourselves envying someone we know for their apparent, neverending, success, we have to remember is what is written in Ch. 36; nothing can expand for ever, nobody will continue to always receive the clean end of the stick, sooner or later everybody takes a fall - although we may not always be around to see it happen.
Tag Taoism envy
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Understanding the ordinary
In this modern world of ours, when we come to discuss beliefs, we often assume that people are referring to religious beliefs. There will then ensue much discussion about the relative merits, or otherwise, of different belief systems (and I include atheism here as this is a 'belief' that God doesn't exist, when there is no evidence either way).
And yet we do, in fact, have a great many beliefs that have nothing to do with religion at all and which often have a far greater impact on our daily lives than heated discussions about competing religions will ever have.
If you're a UK reader, take out any note money that you have and closely examine it. What is it made of? What is printed on its' surface? What is our belief about this 'money'? If you look carefully, near the top, you will see printed the statement by the current chief cashier of the Bank of England which says 'I promise to pay the bearer the sum of (x) pounds'. What does this mean?
When the text was originally placed on our bank notes the pound was linked to the gold standard and, strictly speaking, we should have been able to go to the Bank of England and obtain x pounds worth of gold. Does anyone think that we could do that today? No, of course not. But if that is no longer the case, what does that note really symbolise? It is after all, when its intrinsic parts are taken into consideration, actually worth very little. If you examine your bank account at the end of every month and you see that money has gone into your account from your employer, how do you know that it is really there? Can we go, like Harry Potter, to our personal bank vault and see our money sitting there in a heap? Again, no of course we can't.
What about your actions every time you go to switch on an electric light? At the moment we depress the switch, we unconsciously believe that by doing so a light will come on. Our belief comes from that fact that every previous time we have carried out this action, the result has been light coming from our light fixtures.
We can take this further and ask ourselves about our beliefs in the fairness of how our society is structured? Why, for example, do we believe that democracy is the best system of governance? (And please note that I am not supporting the view that it is or it isn't, rather I am posing the question). I believe that a republic is better than a monarchy: why do I hold this belief? Partly, it's my upbringing - my parents are not particularly in favour of the monarchy and yet I was still read the standard fairy tales about princesses etc. in my childhood. Partly, this belief is due to the observable fact that if you vote someone in and they turn out to be a disastrous mistake, sooner or later, you can vote them out of power again. With a monarchy, you are stuck with the process of direct succession and there is no guarantee that a good monarch might not be followed by one whose brains are made of cheese.
We all have so many of these unconscious beliefs, some small, some very important. It is important that we endeavour to bring these unconscious beliefs to the surface. As it says in Ch.16 of TTC:
"Understanding the ordinary:
Enlightenment.
Not understanding the ordinary:
Blindness creates evil.
Understanding the ordinary:
Mind opens."
We cannot fully understand ourselves, our place in society or even how our societies work if we do not examine these beliefs and decide whether, given the evidence, these beliefs are valid or mistaken. Only by making these decisions can we be truly aware of what actions we might need to take when decisions about the structure of our societies have to be made. Without knowing why we hold particular beliefs, we lay ourselves open to the manipulations of the unscrupulous who may seek to change our unconscious beliefs in such subtle ways that society is damaged.
True enlightenment comes from full understanding (a lifetime's work) and as Socrates is reported to have said: "An unexamined life is not worth living".
Tag Taoism beliefs Socrates
And yet we do, in fact, have a great many beliefs that have nothing to do with religion at all and which often have a far greater impact on our daily lives than heated discussions about competing religions will ever have.
If you're a UK reader, take out any note money that you have and closely examine it. What is it made of? What is printed on its' surface? What is our belief about this 'money'? If you look carefully, near the top, you will see printed the statement by the current chief cashier of the Bank of England which says 'I promise to pay the bearer the sum of (x) pounds'. What does this mean?
When the text was originally placed on our bank notes the pound was linked to the gold standard and, strictly speaking, we should have been able to go to the Bank of England and obtain x pounds worth of gold. Does anyone think that we could do that today? No, of course not. But if that is no longer the case, what does that note really symbolise? It is after all, when its intrinsic parts are taken into consideration, actually worth very little. If you examine your bank account at the end of every month and you see that money has gone into your account from your employer, how do you know that it is really there? Can we go, like Harry Potter, to our personal bank vault and see our money sitting there in a heap? Again, no of course we can't.
What about your actions every time you go to switch on an electric light? At the moment we depress the switch, we unconsciously believe that by doing so a light will come on. Our belief comes from that fact that every previous time we have carried out this action, the result has been light coming from our light fixtures.
We can take this further and ask ourselves about our beliefs in the fairness of how our society is structured? Why, for example, do we believe that democracy is the best system of governance? (And please note that I am not supporting the view that it is or it isn't, rather I am posing the question). I believe that a republic is better than a monarchy: why do I hold this belief? Partly, it's my upbringing - my parents are not particularly in favour of the monarchy and yet I was still read the standard fairy tales about princesses etc. in my childhood. Partly, this belief is due to the observable fact that if you vote someone in and they turn out to be a disastrous mistake, sooner or later, you can vote them out of power again. With a monarchy, you are stuck with the process of direct succession and there is no guarantee that a good monarch might not be followed by one whose brains are made of cheese.
We all have so many of these unconscious beliefs, some small, some very important. It is important that we endeavour to bring these unconscious beliefs to the surface. As it says in Ch.16 of TTC:
"Understanding the ordinary:
Enlightenment.
Not understanding the ordinary:
Blindness creates evil.
Understanding the ordinary:
Mind opens."
We cannot fully understand ourselves, our place in society or even how our societies work if we do not examine these beliefs and decide whether, given the evidence, these beliefs are valid or mistaken. Only by making these decisions can we be truly aware of what actions we might need to take when decisions about the structure of our societies have to be made. Without knowing why we hold particular beliefs, we lay ourselves open to the manipulations of the unscrupulous who may seek to change our unconscious beliefs in such subtle ways that society is damaged.
True enlightenment comes from full understanding (a lifetime's work) and as Socrates is reported to have said: "An unexamined life is not worth living".
Tag Taoism beliefs Socrates
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Advice from Yang Chun
I was delving into the Taoist texts on the Sacred Texts website yesterday (Sacred Texts/Taoism) when I read the following section of text which appears in Ch. 4, The ideal life, of Yang Chun's Garden of Pleasure (translated by Anton Forke (1912):
"... enjoy life and take one's ease, for those who know how to enjoy life are not poor, and he that lives at ease requires no riches."
This text set me to thinking. We make a great deal about the pursuit of happiness (although no one seems to be able to give a uniform description of what this actually means) in our modern world; for our American friends it is actually enshrined in their Declaration of Independence as unalienable rights to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'.
But then I thought, if you chase/pursue something do you always catch it? Perhaps this pursuit of happiness is a bit like that mirage in the desert of an oasis; we can see it but we never seem to arrive. The phrase the 'pursuit of happiness' seems to imply that 'happiness' is 'out there', that it is outside of ourselves and that we require something extra in our lives before we can call ourselves happy. But happiness is fleeting - it is not something that we can have all the time; we have to have the downs so that we can recognise the ups. As the TTC says (Ch. 2):
"Recognise beauty and ugliness is born.
Recognise good and evil is born.
Is and Isn't produce each other.
Hard depends on easy,
Long is tested by short,
High is determined by low,
Sound is harmonised by voice,
After is followed by before."
So perhaps we need to recognise that our 'pursuit' of happiness should be an internal one; that we already have everything we need to be able to enjoy life, regardless of whether we are financially successful or not.
Finally, I will leave you with the poem, entitled Leisure, by William Henry Davies:
"What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare."
Perhaps we should all take the time to stand and stare - maybe we would enjoy life more and, who knows, find happiness right here.
Tag Taoism happiness Yang Chu
"... enjoy life and take one's ease, for those who know how to enjoy life are not poor, and he that lives at ease requires no riches."
This text set me to thinking. We make a great deal about the pursuit of happiness (although no one seems to be able to give a uniform description of what this actually means) in our modern world; for our American friends it is actually enshrined in their Declaration of Independence as unalienable rights to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'.
But then I thought, if you chase/pursue something do you always catch it? Perhaps this pursuit of happiness is a bit like that mirage in the desert of an oasis; we can see it but we never seem to arrive. The phrase the 'pursuit of happiness' seems to imply that 'happiness' is 'out there', that it is outside of ourselves and that we require something extra in our lives before we can call ourselves happy. But happiness is fleeting - it is not something that we can have all the time; we have to have the downs so that we can recognise the ups. As the TTC says (Ch. 2):
"Recognise beauty and ugliness is born.
Recognise good and evil is born.
Is and Isn't produce each other.
Hard depends on easy,
Long is tested by short,
High is determined by low,
Sound is harmonised by voice,
After is followed by before."
So perhaps we need to recognise that our 'pursuit' of happiness should be an internal one; that we already have everything we need to be able to enjoy life, regardless of whether we are financially successful or not.
Finally, I will leave you with the poem, entitled Leisure, by William Henry Davies:
"What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare."
Perhaps we should all take the time to stand and stare - maybe we would enjoy life more and, who knows, find happiness right here.
Tag Taoism happiness Yang Chu
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Just for today
Recently, after a long search on the internet, I finally found a quotation that I once had and had misplaced. It is entitled the 'Ideals of Emperor Meiji' and runs as follows:
"Just for today:
I will let go of anger.
I will let go of worry.
I will give thanks for my many blessings.
I will do my work honestly.
I will be kind to my neighbour and every living thing."
This sounds so simple; it's easy to remember (mostly :-)) ); it seems to state such obvious things and yet these things are perhaps some of the most difficult to accomplish.
I will let go of anger
How many times have we been irritated/frustrated/angry with someone in another car on our way to work? Or perhaps you have a difficult work colleague or an insanely irritating member of your own family, whose behaviour frequently leads you to mutter imprecations under your breath? Answer this question honestly, write it down, say it out loud (perhaps you should do this in private! (LOL))
I will let go of worry
We worry about so many things, often not fully conscious that we are worrying. Will that project be completed by the deadline; will we make it to the post office to buy a stamp; will we be in time for our important appointment? Worries can often be more metaphysical in nature - will our lives 'mean' anything? Are we a 'somebody' or a 'nobody'? Are we a success or a failure? And other similar questions. These worries often float around and sometimes form part of the foundations of who we are and how we behave, all without our being truly aware of them. Be honest; meditate on this question if you feel it will bring things out into the open.
I will give thanks for my many blessings
How often do we actually stop and consider all the plus points that our lives have? Our health, our children/spouses/friends, the current political climate in our countries that enable us to live out our lives in relative comfort and security (even if we think the current incumbents couldn't find their way out of a paperbag without instructions in words of one syllable!) Or do we prefer to moan and gripe, and think that what is happening is TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it)? Look at the TV news broadcasts - how often do they report something positive - a running total of little old ladies who've NOT been mugged, for example!
I will do my work honestly
Most people do this - but, if we are truly honest with ourselves, there have been occasions when we have not done so. This is not to suggest that we're stealing from our employers or anything like that; however, it may be that there have been times when we haven't put all our efforts into a project for someone we dislike; we've gone on a go slow, perhaps due to perceived overwork/stress etc.
I will be kind to my neighbour and to every living thing
Being kind to my neighbour can involve your next door neighbour, work colleagues, other road users, family members (the list could go on) and as these are sometimes the people that drive you crazy, this can be difficult. Being kind to every living thing can be interpreted in many ways - perhaps we should become vegetarians in order to avoid cruelty to animals; campaigning for organic farming (including livestock farming)so that meat can be sourced from humane circumstances; campaigning for action on global warming issues so that habitats that are relied upon don't disappear and speed the extinction of whole groups of animals; and there are many other ways of being kind to every living thing.
These are ideals - good ones - how close do you come to them? How close can we get to them in our modern society? How willing are we to try?
Tag Taoism Emperor Meiji
"Just for today:
I will let go of anger.
I will let go of worry.
I will give thanks for my many blessings.
I will do my work honestly.
I will be kind to my neighbour and every living thing."
This sounds so simple; it's easy to remember (mostly :-)) ); it seems to state such obvious things and yet these things are perhaps some of the most difficult to accomplish.
I will let go of anger
How many times have we been irritated/frustrated/angry with someone in another car on our way to work? Or perhaps you have a difficult work colleague or an insanely irritating member of your own family, whose behaviour frequently leads you to mutter imprecations under your breath? Answer this question honestly, write it down, say it out loud (perhaps you should do this in private! (LOL))
I will let go of worry
We worry about so many things, often not fully conscious that we are worrying. Will that project be completed by the deadline; will we make it to the post office to buy a stamp; will we be in time for our important appointment? Worries can often be more metaphysical in nature - will our lives 'mean' anything? Are we a 'somebody' or a 'nobody'? Are we a success or a failure? And other similar questions. These worries often float around and sometimes form part of the foundations of who we are and how we behave, all without our being truly aware of them. Be honest; meditate on this question if you feel it will bring things out into the open.
I will give thanks for my many blessings
How often do we actually stop and consider all the plus points that our lives have? Our health, our children/spouses/friends, the current political climate in our countries that enable us to live out our lives in relative comfort and security (even if we think the current incumbents couldn't find their way out of a paperbag without instructions in words of one syllable!) Or do we prefer to moan and gripe, and think that what is happening is TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it)? Look at the TV news broadcasts - how often do they report something positive - a running total of little old ladies who've NOT been mugged, for example!
I will do my work honestly
Most people do this - but, if we are truly honest with ourselves, there have been occasions when we have not done so. This is not to suggest that we're stealing from our employers or anything like that; however, it may be that there have been times when we haven't put all our efforts into a project for someone we dislike; we've gone on a go slow, perhaps due to perceived overwork/stress etc.
I will be kind to my neighbour and to every living thing
Being kind to my neighbour can involve your next door neighbour, work colleagues, other road users, family members (the list could go on) and as these are sometimes the people that drive you crazy, this can be difficult. Being kind to every living thing can be interpreted in many ways - perhaps we should become vegetarians in order to avoid cruelty to animals; campaigning for organic farming (including livestock farming)so that meat can be sourced from humane circumstances; campaigning for action on global warming issues so that habitats that are relied upon don't disappear and speed the extinction of whole groups of animals; and there are many other ways of being kind to every living thing.
These are ideals - good ones - how close do you come to them? How close can we get to them in our modern society? How willing are we to try?
Tag Taoism Emperor Meiji
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
In the darkness, light a candle
Over the past month, I've been rather busy - family events to organise and deal with, everyday life, job, etc.
It's at times like this that we can sometimes feel everything getting on top of us; it's all getting too much, the world seems to be closing in and everything is getting darker and we can't see our way clear. When we're busy, and the task that we're dealing with now is merely a foothill in mountain range of tasks still to be completed, it can often appear that everything is dark, that there is no light at the end of the tunnel; and even if there was a light, it's merely the headlight of an oncoming train!
And so we need to train ourselves, force ourselves to take a step back from our tasks and this reminded me of a chinese proverb: "In the darkness, light a candle".
Here in the west, we sometimes need to force ourselves to find an opportunity to light a candle in our own personal darkness.
There are many different ways we can do this: meditation in a formal way, perhaps lighting candles and incense; taking a long hot bath and listening to some calming music; or even easier, taking a walk amongst nature and tuning ourselves in to the rhythm of the natural world. There are as many different methods of relaxation as there are people, and I'm sure that you can think of other ways that you enjoy relaxing.
But as I was thinking about this topic, it struck me that we don't just need to light candles in our own personal darkness, but we also need to light 'candles' in the darkness of the world. It is at times of difficulty in the world around us, in our own small local communities where taoism and taoists, by embracing balance and losing sense of self can, without making a song and dance about it, show others how much easier it is on everyone, if we live in harmony and balance with each other.
And if we consider it this way, then the ripples of our actions/example will eventually brush against other 'objects' which will in their turn set up ripples of their own.
Lighting a candle in the darkness has the potential to spread the light a very long way. So go ahead, light those candles!
Tag Taoism candles despair
It's at times like this that we can sometimes feel everything getting on top of us; it's all getting too much, the world seems to be closing in and everything is getting darker and we can't see our way clear. When we're busy, and the task that we're dealing with now is merely a foothill in mountain range of tasks still to be completed, it can often appear that everything is dark, that there is no light at the end of the tunnel; and even if there was a light, it's merely the headlight of an oncoming train!
And so we need to train ourselves, force ourselves to take a step back from our tasks and this reminded me of a chinese proverb: "In the darkness, light a candle".
Here in the west, we sometimes need to force ourselves to find an opportunity to light a candle in our own personal darkness.
There are many different ways we can do this: meditation in a formal way, perhaps lighting candles and incense; taking a long hot bath and listening to some calming music; or even easier, taking a walk amongst nature and tuning ourselves in to the rhythm of the natural world. There are as many different methods of relaxation as there are people, and I'm sure that you can think of other ways that you enjoy relaxing.
But as I was thinking about this topic, it struck me that we don't just need to light candles in our own personal darkness, but we also need to light 'candles' in the darkness of the world. It is at times of difficulty in the world around us, in our own small local communities where taoism and taoists, by embracing balance and losing sense of self can, without making a song and dance about it, show others how much easier it is on everyone, if we live in harmony and balance with each other.
And if we consider it this way, then the ripples of our actions/example will eventually brush against other 'objects' which will in their turn set up ripples of their own.
Lighting a candle in the darkness has the potential to spread the light a very long way. So go ahead, light those candles!
Tag Taoism candles despair
Friday, May 05, 2006
All beings return to it
At work yesterday, we learned that the mother of one of our collegues' partners, had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She has a matter of weeks, possibly months, to live.
Sometimes, Death can creep up upon us all unexpected; at other times, death is expected, accepted, perhaps sometimes even longed for. With our modern, western culture, we often worship life and youth; look at how people spend time and, often, vast amounts of money, trying to stave off the inevitable - encroaching old age and the inevitability of death.
When someone we know dies young or much earlier than we have come to expect, this death becomes a tragedy. Our grief can be overwhelming; it can take over our lives; we can appear to have come to terms with it only to have it blindside us at unexpected moments. Christianity would have us believe that, if we lead good lives prior to death, we will be 'allowed' into Heaven by our Heavenly Father. Personally, I prefer Ch.34 of the TTC:
"Enduring without desire,
It may be called slight.
All beings return to it,
But it does not become their Master."
From this perspective, dying merely means that we slough off our mortal, human, bodies and reunite our spirit/soul/chi with Tao. This is not the same as the Christian belief in Heaven; there is no 'allowing' here, nor any specific requirement to live a 'good' life according to very clearly defined rules (and how do we know what good is?). Our death, from this perspective, inevitably leads us to reunification.
And yet this is not an easy perspective to hold on to, but we should remember that our grief is not for those who have left us, they are beyond pain and fear. Our grief is for ourselves, the ones left behind. Our grief expresses the fact that there is, and always will be, a certain person-shaped gap in our lives that used to contain someone we cared for.
We should resist the temptation to let grief overwhelm us at all times. Obviously, there will be times when our grief seems to become unbearable, and this is when we need to share that grief either with friends or trained counsellors, but we should always strive to bring it into perspective and remind ourselves that life progresses smoothly on and we must move with it or be left behind.
Tag Taoism grief death
Sometimes, Death can creep up upon us all unexpected; at other times, death is expected, accepted, perhaps sometimes even longed for. With our modern, western culture, we often worship life and youth; look at how people spend time and, often, vast amounts of money, trying to stave off the inevitable - encroaching old age and the inevitability of death.
When someone we know dies young or much earlier than we have come to expect, this death becomes a tragedy. Our grief can be overwhelming; it can take over our lives; we can appear to have come to terms with it only to have it blindside us at unexpected moments. Christianity would have us believe that, if we lead good lives prior to death, we will be 'allowed' into Heaven by our Heavenly Father. Personally, I prefer Ch.34 of the TTC:
"Enduring without desire,
It may be called slight.
All beings return to it,
But it does not become their Master."
From this perspective, dying merely means that we slough off our mortal, human, bodies and reunite our spirit/soul/chi with Tao. This is not the same as the Christian belief in Heaven; there is no 'allowing' here, nor any specific requirement to live a 'good' life according to very clearly defined rules (and how do we know what good is?). Our death, from this perspective, inevitably leads us to reunification.
And yet this is not an easy perspective to hold on to, but we should remember that our grief is not for those who have left us, they are beyond pain and fear. Our grief is for ourselves, the ones left behind. Our grief expresses the fact that there is, and always will be, a certain person-shaped gap in our lives that used to contain someone we cared for.
We should resist the temptation to let grief overwhelm us at all times. Obviously, there will be times when our grief seems to become unbearable, and this is when we need to share that grief either with friends or trained counsellors, but we should always strive to bring it into perspective and remind ourselves that life progresses smoothly on and we must move with it or be left behind.
Tag Taoism grief death
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Nothing gets left undone
I was reading a Garfield cartoon the other day. In the first two frames Jon says "I thought it was Tuesday, but as it turns out, it's Wednesday." In the final frame, Garfield sarcastically adds "But in spite of that startling revelation, ladies and gentlemen, the man is still able to function."
Chapter 37 of the Tao Te Ching starts "Tao endures without a name, yet nothing is left undone". Our concepts of the passage of time are very much linked in with names, words, descriptions of some kind. We work "9 to 5", "Monday to Friday" or if we work on a shift pattern, the times/days when we start/finish are quite clearly defined. And so often we find that as we travel along in this way, our time, our days, our lives seem to flash past in an instant. Yet we all remember those summer holidays of our childhoods where the days seemed to last forever, nothing was left undone and six weeks seemed like a glorious lifetime with endless possibilities.
As we grow older we become habitual clock and calendar watchers - we have meetings arranged days/weeks in advance; our lives become more constrained by time. But when we go on our annual leave, particularly if we make the effort not to read the newspapers, we very quickly start to lose track of what day it is and, all of a sudden, just as it did when we were young, the world opens up with endless possibilities - at least it should do.
How many people do you know that stay in email/mobile phone contact with their offices whilst they're on leave? How many people do you know who will only take a week's leave at a time? In our society's constant drive for efficiency, we have started to cram every minute full of activity, until we are in danger of finding our ignition switches stuck in the 'on' position with our engines operating at maximum revs. This sort of usage or behaviour is not sustainable; "extraneous activity inspire disgust" (ch. 24).
Tao has no name, it cannot be described, and yet when we are truly in tune with it, nothing is left undone. As in the Garfield cartoon, Jon has lost track of time, he is free; Garfield's sarcasm is like most peoples' understanding about time - how can you not know what day of the week it is, with the subtle subtext, that somebody of Jon's type can forget what day of the week it is because they don't have important meetings to attend, telephone calls to make/receive, etc., etc. But if we are truly in tune with Tao, we don't need to know which day of the week it is, without knowing, nothing is left undone.
Tag Taoism Garfield Time
Chapter 37 of the Tao Te Ching starts "Tao endures without a name, yet nothing is left undone". Our concepts of the passage of time are very much linked in with names, words, descriptions of some kind. We work "9 to 5", "Monday to Friday" or if we work on a shift pattern, the times/days when we start/finish are quite clearly defined. And so often we find that as we travel along in this way, our time, our days, our lives seem to flash past in an instant. Yet we all remember those summer holidays of our childhoods where the days seemed to last forever, nothing was left undone and six weeks seemed like a glorious lifetime with endless possibilities.
As we grow older we become habitual clock and calendar watchers - we have meetings arranged days/weeks in advance; our lives become more constrained by time. But when we go on our annual leave, particularly if we make the effort not to read the newspapers, we very quickly start to lose track of what day it is and, all of a sudden, just as it did when we were young, the world opens up with endless possibilities - at least it should do.
How many people do you know that stay in email/mobile phone contact with their offices whilst they're on leave? How many people do you know who will only take a week's leave at a time? In our society's constant drive for efficiency, we have started to cram every minute full of activity, until we are in danger of finding our ignition switches stuck in the 'on' position with our engines operating at maximum revs. This sort of usage or behaviour is not sustainable; "extraneous activity inspire disgust" (ch. 24).
Tao has no name, it cannot be described, and yet when we are truly in tune with it, nothing is left undone. As in the Garfield cartoon, Jon has lost track of time, he is free; Garfield's sarcasm is like most peoples' understanding about time - how can you not know what day of the week it is, with the subtle subtext, that somebody of Jon's type can forget what day of the week it is because they don't have important meetings to attend, telephone calls to make/receive, etc., etc. But if we are truly in tune with Tao, we don't need to know which day of the week it is, without knowing, nothing is left undone.
Tag Taoism Garfield Time
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
A letter to myself
I was visiting the Official Calvin & Hobbes website earlier and read the cartoon shown for today.
Hobbes is helping Calvin get the mail from the mail box and Calvin says "Ah! I got the letter I wrote to myself!" Hobbes replies: "What did you write?" Calvin (reading aloud) says "Dear Calvin, Hi! I'm writing this on Monday. What day is it now? How are things going? Your Pal, Calvin." Calvin then goes on to say: "My past self is corresponding with my future self." And Hobbes replies: "Too bad you can't write back."
How many times in the past have we wished that we could go back and tell ourselves what will happen in the future so that we can avoid the heartache/disasters etc. that are lying in wait for us. Hobbes says it's too bad that we can't write back; no matter how hard we try, we can't post a letter to the past. But how often do we actually try to live there? How often have we caught ourselves rehashing old situations and trying to rationalise them or have ourselves say the things that we thought of later that would have been 'clever'.
Rather than trying to change the past in our own heads, we should view these situations, or the people from these situations, as resources - as it says in Ch. 27, "the bad person is the good person's resource." In the scroll of the 3 vinegar tasters, the world for the followers of Tao, is a teacher of valuable lessons, but this doesn't mean that we should be living in the past rather than in the present. As in the story about the Tibetan Monk and his annoying secretary, we need to learn from our resources (the annoying people/situations we encounter today or have encountered in the past); if they are still annoying us then it means that we still have unresolved issues and we need to develop more compassion, patience and understanding.
Ultimately, what we seek in following the Way is a true understanding of ourselves and our place in, and relationship to, the World. Chapter 33 expresses this best:
"Knowing others is intelligent
Knowing yourself is enlightened."
So unlike Hobbes, we realise that it's not a shame that we can't write back; our past, and our present, is our 'teacher of valuable lessons', rather than something with which we wish to be in correspondence.
Tag Taoism Calvin and Hobbes 3 Vinegar Tasters
Hobbes is helping Calvin get the mail from the mail box and Calvin says "Ah! I got the letter I wrote to myself!" Hobbes replies: "What did you write?" Calvin (reading aloud) says "Dear Calvin, Hi! I'm writing this on Monday. What day is it now? How are things going? Your Pal, Calvin." Calvin then goes on to say: "My past self is corresponding with my future self." And Hobbes replies: "Too bad you can't write back."
How many times in the past have we wished that we could go back and tell ourselves what will happen in the future so that we can avoid the heartache/disasters etc. that are lying in wait for us. Hobbes says it's too bad that we can't write back; no matter how hard we try, we can't post a letter to the past. But how often do we actually try to live there? How often have we caught ourselves rehashing old situations and trying to rationalise them or have ourselves say the things that we thought of later that would have been 'clever'.
Rather than trying to change the past in our own heads, we should view these situations, or the people from these situations, as resources - as it says in Ch. 27, "the bad person is the good person's resource." In the scroll of the 3 vinegar tasters, the world for the followers of Tao, is a teacher of valuable lessons, but this doesn't mean that we should be living in the past rather than in the present. As in the story about the Tibetan Monk and his annoying secretary, we need to learn from our resources (the annoying people/situations we encounter today or have encountered in the past); if they are still annoying us then it means that we still have unresolved issues and we need to develop more compassion, patience and understanding.
Ultimately, what we seek in following the Way is a true understanding of ourselves and our place in, and relationship to, the World. Chapter 33 expresses this best:
"Knowing others is intelligent
Knowing yourself is enlightened."
So unlike Hobbes, we realise that it's not a shame that we can't write back; our past, and our present, is our 'teacher of valuable lessons', rather than something with which we wish to be in correspondence.
Tag Taoism Calvin and Hobbes 3 Vinegar Tasters
Thursday, April 13, 2006
The importance of compassion
Compassion is one of the 3 great treasures of Taoism. Compassion, in the western understanding, is almost always linked to concepts of kindness and caring. It can be related to concepts from Christianity which talk of 'turning the other cheek', 'forgiving your brother seventy times seven'. It often has connotations of soft blindness, like a warm cushion with no strength or backbone to it. When referring to a compassionate nature here in the West, the implication is often one of softness and that softness is wrong, weak, just a little contemptible.
"Nowadays, people reject compassion
but want to be brave,"
But there is a great deal more to compassion than softness. In order to be truly compassionate, we might sometimes find ourselves in the position where we 'have to be cruel to be kind'. So often in our modern society, we are asked to protect people from the consequences of their actions, to shield them from the realities of the situations in which they find themselves. However, if we read Chapter 67 in TTC correctly, this is not what compassion always requires us to do. If we are truly seeking to protect someone's best interests, is it not more appropriate that, in the right circumstances, we tell them the unvarnished truth? Perhaps, by doing this, by bringing people into full-on contact with reality, we are being truly compassionate, because ultimately only when they fully understand all the implications will they be able to develop their full potential.
"Compassion:
Attack with it and win.
Defend with it and stand firm."
As we can see, from the quote above, compassion is not a wishy-washy, cuddly thing in the Taoist perspective. It is dynamic; you can both attack and defend with it. Taoist compassion does not stand by and say that 'it's all for the best, in the best of all possible worlds' and do nothing. Being compassionate does not mean that we stand there feeling sorry for people, although empathy and sympathy do have roles to play. After all:
"Heaven aids and protects through compassion."
So, act with dynamic compassion, attack with it and win; defend with it and stand firm. Don't equate compassion with spinelessness; become one with Tao and view reality with clarity and use that clarity to nuture the first of Taoism's 3 treasures - compassion.
Tag Taoism Compassion
"Nowadays, people reject compassion
but want to be brave,"
But there is a great deal more to compassion than softness. In order to be truly compassionate, we might sometimes find ourselves in the position where we 'have to be cruel to be kind'. So often in our modern society, we are asked to protect people from the consequences of their actions, to shield them from the realities of the situations in which they find themselves. However, if we read Chapter 67 in TTC correctly, this is not what compassion always requires us to do. If we are truly seeking to protect someone's best interests, is it not more appropriate that, in the right circumstances, we tell them the unvarnished truth? Perhaps, by doing this, by bringing people into full-on contact with reality, we are being truly compassionate, because ultimately only when they fully understand all the implications will they be able to develop their full potential.
"Compassion:
Attack with it and win.
Defend with it and stand firm."
As we can see, from the quote above, compassion is not a wishy-washy, cuddly thing in the Taoist perspective. It is dynamic; you can both attack and defend with it. Taoist compassion does not stand by and say that 'it's all for the best, in the best of all possible worlds' and do nothing. Being compassionate does not mean that we stand there feeling sorry for people, although empathy and sympathy do have roles to play. After all:
"Heaven aids and protects through compassion."
So, act with dynamic compassion, attack with it and win; defend with it and stand firm. Don't equate compassion with spinelessness; become one with Tao and view reality with clarity and use that clarity to nuture the first of Taoism's 3 treasures - compassion.
Tag Taoism Compassion
Sunday, April 09, 2006
All chilled out
It's been a busy week and a busy weekend. Arranging events at work brings a lot of things together - when I do this sort of thing, I try to plan with military precision (I know, it's a contradiction in terms, a bit like "military intelligence") but people rely on me to get things done - and they get done, come hell or high water!;-))))
My weekend was busy for other reasons - I'm a member of the Taoist Tai Chi Society and I was involved in a Tai Chi workshop here in Stamford (UK).
It's amazing what a difference small changes to your practice can make. Just a small change in how I do my toryu's and my poor old knee went most of the day without complaining (much). In the past, I used to fence (swords, not wooden panels) and I've dislocated my kneecap twice. This meant that I could only do so many toryu's before the knee started to complain.
All that happened was that I was shown/told 2 small pieces of information. This was the "softest thing in the world" that "rides roughshod over the strongest". My determination to 'tough' things out sometimes got in the way of my practice. Small changes meant that I spent most of the day doing toryu's and I'm still OK. Very, very tired - but OK and my knee has behaved itself.
Not forcing, going with the flow - a lesson to remember.
My weekend was busy for other reasons - I'm a member of the Taoist Tai Chi Society and I was involved in a Tai Chi workshop here in Stamford (UK).
It's amazing what a difference small changes to your practice can make. Just a small change in how I do my toryu's and my poor old knee went most of the day without complaining (much). In the past, I used to fence (swords, not wooden panels) and I've dislocated my kneecap twice. This meant that I could only do so many toryu's before the knee started to complain.
All that happened was that I was shown/told 2 small pieces of information. This was the "softest thing in the world" that "rides roughshod over the strongest". My determination to 'tough' things out sometimes got in the way of my practice. Small changes meant that I spent most of the day doing toryu's and I'm still OK. Very, very tired - but OK and my knee has behaved itself.
Not forcing, going with the flow - a lesson to remember.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Trying to control the world?
Today I was reading a new (to me) translation of the TTC by Addiss and Lombardo. Opening the text at random, I discovered Ch. 29:
"Trying to control the world?
I see you won't succeed."
......
"Those who control, fail.
Those who grasp, lose."
We live today in what is called the "Information Age". The fact that I am writing this blog is down to the development of technology that has led to the World Wide Web. The Web is a nebulous entity that contains a great deal of information; some of that information is good, some of it is bad and some, merely mediocre.
The original idea behind the web was for a boundless world, where information could be shared and it might be possible to bypass censorship, allowing individuals to access information that they might not have been able to get elsewhere.
Constant technological progress is always viewed as a good thing and, generally, I would agree with this point - usually because developments in information technology often benefit the general public before governments or other large organisations. Take the blogosphere - a lot of blogs have been set up for the exchange of information in an unedited, rapid fashion, that gets ahead of the 'official' line.
However, it has been reported that governments and companies are now attempting to use the blogosphere to sway public opinion on policies or on products. Generally, these attempts have been rather clumsy and easily spotted. Others have been more sophisticated, but often something about them has drawn the attention of the online community and they have been after those inconsistencies like a ferret down a trouser leg.
Governments and big business will always try to control, or manage, the information that is available to the general public - it is in their interests to make that attempt. I believe that we (the general public) are now in the fortunate position of being able to fight back. It seems, so far, that we are roughly even, in this modern technological world. But even in the past the attempts at control have ultimately failed. You only need to look at what happened during, and at the end of, the McCarthy era, to see how attempts at control ultimately are doomed to failure.
Perhaps if the Tao Te Ching were required reading at all levels of government, politicians might learn to be more tuned in to what is really necessary. As it says in Ch. 30:
"The most fruitful outcome
Does not depend on force,
But succeeds without arrogance
Without hostility
Without pride
Without resistance
Without violence."
Tag Taoism control
"Trying to control the world?
I see you won't succeed."
......
"Those who control, fail.
Those who grasp, lose."
We live today in what is called the "Information Age". The fact that I am writing this blog is down to the development of technology that has led to the World Wide Web. The Web is a nebulous entity that contains a great deal of information; some of that information is good, some of it is bad and some, merely mediocre.
The original idea behind the web was for a boundless world, where information could be shared and it might be possible to bypass censorship, allowing individuals to access information that they might not have been able to get elsewhere.
Constant technological progress is always viewed as a good thing and, generally, I would agree with this point - usually because developments in information technology often benefit the general public before governments or other large organisations. Take the blogosphere - a lot of blogs have been set up for the exchange of information in an unedited, rapid fashion, that gets ahead of the 'official' line.
However, it has been reported that governments and companies are now attempting to use the blogosphere to sway public opinion on policies or on products. Generally, these attempts have been rather clumsy and easily spotted. Others have been more sophisticated, but often something about them has drawn the attention of the online community and they have been after those inconsistencies like a ferret down a trouser leg.
Governments and big business will always try to control, or manage, the information that is available to the general public - it is in their interests to make that attempt. I believe that we (the general public) are now in the fortunate position of being able to fight back. It seems, so far, that we are roughly even, in this modern technological world. But even in the past the attempts at control have ultimately failed. You only need to look at what happened during, and at the end of, the McCarthy era, to see how attempts at control ultimately are doomed to failure.
Perhaps if the Tao Te Ching were required reading at all levels of government, politicians might learn to be more tuned in to what is really necessary. As it says in Ch. 30:
"The most fruitful outcome
Does not depend on force,
But succeeds without arrogance
Without hostility
Without pride
Without resistance
Without violence."
Tag Taoism control
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Watching the clouds
Earlier today, whilst waiting for my son to finish his karate class, I had the opportunity to just sit and stare at the clouds drifting by above me. I admired the way they drifted effortlessly; they were fascinating. This fascination is not a new one, it started early on in life with me. I'm sure that we can all remember days as children when we lay on our backs in the fields, or our gardens, seeing pictures in the clouds, creating patterns where there were none.
Thinking about this cloud watching episode, I was reminded of the story in Lieh-Tzu entitled "Riding on the wind, floating with the clouds". In this story, we learn something about Lieh-Tzu himself; apparently he was able to ride on the wind and float with the clouds. His student, Yin-Sheng, wanted to be taught how to do this (and how many of us have not wondered what it would be like to be able to fly like the birds?), but he was impatient - he wanted to be taught NOW, he was not prepared to wait. He appears to have been sure that there was just a trick to it and that all he needed was the lessons.
What Lieh-Tzu told his student, after he returned, was that there was a lot of self-cultivation involved in this process - it was not a quick fix or easy set of lessons. He worked hard to discipline his mind and body; becoming more aware of his body and his mind, allowed him to, eventually, realise that there is no difference between the outside and the inside, and it was at this point that he became able to float through the sky.
Taoism discusses, in many different texts and stories, the interdependence of all things; there is no difference between my body and the world around me, except in the external form that I perceive. Modern physicists would agree with that perspective - there really is no such thing as a solid object.
So why aren't we all floating around the sky? Perhaps, after many years of self-cultivation and discipline, we will. But we need to be able to realise fully, that there is no difference between the outside and the inside. We must not just recognise this intellectually, we must know it with every fibre of our body, instinctively. Then, and only then, will we be able to join those clouds we have been watching.
Tag Taoism Clouds Lieh-Tzu
Thinking about this cloud watching episode, I was reminded of the story in Lieh-Tzu entitled "Riding on the wind, floating with the clouds". In this story, we learn something about Lieh-Tzu himself; apparently he was able to ride on the wind and float with the clouds. His student, Yin-Sheng, wanted to be taught how to do this (and how many of us have not wondered what it would be like to be able to fly like the birds?), but he was impatient - he wanted to be taught NOW, he was not prepared to wait. He appears to have been sure that there was just a trick to it and that all he needed was the lessons.
What Lieh-Tzu told his student, after he returned, was that there was a lot of self-cultivation involved in this process - it was not a quick fix or easy set of lessons. He worked hard to discipline his mind and body; becoming more aware of his body and his mind, allowed him to, eventually, realise that there is no difference between the outside and the inside, and it was at this point that he became able to float through the sky.
Taoism discusses, in many different texts and stories, the interdependence of all things; there is no difference between my body and the world around me, except in the external form that I perceive. Modern physicists would agree with that perspective - there really is no such thing as a solid object.
So why aren't we all floating around the sky? Perhaps, after many years of self-cultivation and discipline, we will. But we need to be able to realise fully, that there is no difference between the outside and the inside. We must not just recognise this intellectually, we must know it with every fibre of our body, instinctively. Then, and only then, will we be able to join those clouds we have been watching.
Tag Taoism Clouds Lieh-Tzu
Thursday, March 30, 2006
The Sword of the Commoner
I was reading the Guardian Online earlier today when I came across an article entitled "Pupils import torture tools to highlight UK arms loopholes", the link to this article is here Guardian Story.
This story tells the tale of how easy it is to subvert/exploit loopholes in our laws against the export/import of implements that may be used to torture other human beings.
This article reminded me of the story in Chuang Tzu entitled "The Lover of Swords" about a king who loves swords and swordsmen and concentrates on them so much, pitting them against each other, that he doesn't pay attention to what is happening in his state. When Chuang Tzu goes to see the King, he talks about 3 swords: the first is the Sword of the son of heaven, which Chuang Tzu describes as part of the landscape; the second is the Sword of the noble prince, is made up of the people of the land; the third is the sword of the commoner, the one that cuts through actual bodies.
As Chuang Tzu puts it "The people who use the sword of the commoner are no better than fighting cocks who at any time can have their lives curtailed."
Most of the time, when a state chooses to use implements of torture it is because those who run the country are afraid of their people and they have to use the "sword of the commoner" to keep them in check. But this method only works for a while - it is not effective forever.
However, in our modern day society, as in the past, we are all interdependent - these tools of torture do not manufacture themselves, they have to be created, sold and exported. So although the torture is not carried out by the manufacturers themselves they are just as guilty of using the "sword of the commoner" as those that they sell their products to. But like Pilate, because they have not 'intended' their products to be used for this purpose, their hands are clean.
No society is perfect, and in our current western society, where we are worried about terrorism and the state starts to chisel away at our rights and liberties - how far do we go before these tools of torture are being used here? In order to avoid being in the situation where 'he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword', we need to make ourselves aware of what the products of some of our companies can be used for. And once we are aware of it we need to do something about it.
The kids mentioned in the Guardian article have done us all a favour; they have showed us how easy it is to get hold of this type of equipment, these 'swords of the commoner'. We need to remember that we too can have our lives curtailed at any point - and by lives I don't just mean the difference between life and death, but also the difference between liberty and tyranny. The gap between these things is a lot smaller than you think.
Tag Taoism Torture Sword
This story tells the tale of how easy it is to subvert/exploit loopholes in our laws against the export/import of implements that may be used to torture other human beings.
This article reminded me of the story in Chuang Tzu entitled "The Lover of Swords" about a king who loves swords and swordsmen and concentrates on them so much, pitting them against each other, that he doesn't pay attention to what is happening in his state. When Chuang Tzu goes to see the King, he talks about 3 swords: the first is the Sword of the son of heaven, which Chuang Tzu describes as part of the landscape; the second is the Sword of the noble prince, is made up of the people of the land; the third is the sword of the commoner, the one that cuts through actual bodies.
As Chuang Tzu puts it "The people who use the sword of the commoner are no better than fighting cocks who at any time can have their lives curtailed."
Most of the time, when a state chooses to use implements of torture it is because those who run the country are afraid of their people and they have to use the "sword of the commoner" to keep them in check. But this method only works for a while - it is not effective forever.
However, in our modern day society, as in the past, we are all interdependent - these tools of torture do not manufacture themselves, they have to be created, sold and exported. So although the torture is not carried out by the manufacturers themselves they are just as guilty of using the "sword of the commoner" as those that they sell their products to. But like Pilate, because they have not 'intended' their products to be used for this purpose, their hands are clean.
No society is perfect, and in our current western society, where we are worried about terrorism and the state starts to chisel away at our rights and liberties - how far do we go before these tools of torture are being used here? In order to avoid being in the situation where 'he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword', we need to make ourselves aware of what the products of some of our companies can be used for. And once we are aware of it we need to do something about it.
The kids mentioned in the Guardian article have done us all a favour; they have showed us how easy it is to get hold of this type of equipment, these 'swords of the commoner'. We need to remember that we too can have our lives curtailed at any point - and by lives I don't just mean the difference between life and death, but also the difference between liberty and tyranny. The gap between these things is a lot smaller than you think.
Tag Taoism Torture Sword
Just for laughs
I finally got around to doing the "How Jedi are you?" quiz. And my result? See below;-))))
how jedi are you? :: by lawrie malen
This reminded me of the results of the 2001 census here in the UK where, I believe, 10000 people put their religious affiliation as Jedi in the hope of getting it recognised as a official religion!:-))))
However, there is a serious point to be made here (whilst trying to control my snickering), why is it that people like to 'create' new religions? They reject the old structures for a number of different reasons - perhaps they have serious reservations about the fundamental teachings of their original beliefs, or the interpretation of the original dogma, or the way that their particular clergy behave, or they see an opportunity to make money out of insecure and credulous people. Or perhaps it's a combination of all these things - I don't know.
The one similarity that this has is that people turn from one set of rules and one structure to another, different, set of rules or structures - no matter what they believe they are clinging to structure/rules.
This is the main reason that I find Taoism so satisfying - there are no rules, there is no official structure that I have to conform to. Before I came to Taoism, I looked at a number of different paths including modern paganism, but everywhere I looked, I found rules that inhibited, ideas that clung to the visible structure of the world.
So here I am - Taoist and happy/relaxed. More at peace with myself than I have ever been. And definitely up for some growing old disgracefully fun!
Tag Taoism Jedi
how jedi are you? :: by lawrie malen
This reminded me of the results of the 2001 census here in the UK where, I believe, 10000 people put their religious affiliation as Jedi in the hope of getting it recognised as a official religion!:-))))
However, there is a serious point to be made here (whilst trying to control my snickering), why is it that people like to 'create' new religions? They reject the old structures for a number of different reasons - perhaps they have serious reservations about the fundamental teachings of their original beliefs, or the interpretation of the original dogma, or the way that their particular clergy behave, or they see an opportunity to make money out of insecure and credulous people. Or perhaps it's a combination of all these things - I don't know.
The one similarity that this has is that people turn from one set of rules and one structure to another, different, set of rules or structures - no matter what they believe they are clinging to structure/rules.
This is the main reason that I find Taoism so satisfying - there are no rules, there is no official structure that I have to conform to. Before I came to Taoism, I looked at a number of different paths including modern paganism, but everywhere I looked, I found rules that inhibited, ideas that clung to the visible structure of the world.
So here I am - Taoist and happy/relaxed. More at peace with myself than I have ever been. And definitely up for some growing old disgracefully fun!
Tag Taoism Jedi
Monday, March 27, 2006
Moving mountains
I was reading a story from Lieh-Tzu again earlier on this evening. The story was entitled 'The man who tried to move the mountains'. This story deals with a man, referred to as 'Old Fool' who decided that he didn't like having to walk around the mountains near his home and that, therefore, he would set out to move them. He recruited a small number of helpers and they started digging. A sage came to remonstrate with him, reminding him that he was barely strong enough to pull weeds from his garden and that, moreover, he was well on in years and would never complete the task. Old Fool told the sage that if he didn't finish the job his son and grandson would continue the task and so on down the generations until the task was completed. The spirits of the mountain became concerned and called in the lords of heaven who, although amused, when they saw Old Fool's determination and patience, decided to help him and moved the mountains away.
This story is all about patience and determination - the willingness to look to the long-term, to work hard, being patient, keeping on track. Too much in our modern western society is about instant gratification; wanting to be famous now, wanting our school qualifications now - looking for the easy road, the direct route that must be there to take us immediately to what we want.
In schools, colleges and even universities these days, students will, and do, say "never mind all that, what do I need to do to pass?" Not for them the true interest in the subject, the reading around the topic in hand to gain a wider understanding; "give me the answers now" they cry, so I can achieve my qualification and move on to a well-paid job, fame, fortune etc. etc.
The idea that patience and determination are good things to have seem to have been forgotten. As a society we seem to have become bound up with visions of our goals that we forget that the most important part of reaching the goals we set for ourselves is the journey we take on the way to achieving them.
Of course, the other thing we should remember as Taoists, is that as the journey progresses we may find that the original goals we started towards have changed. And this is what we miss when we look for the shortcuts, the quick routes to the end. We miss change, growth, development, chances to become one with Tao; this is why we so often find that when we have taken the short cut to our goals, after a very short period these goals no longer satisfy us and the process starts all over again.
Patience and determination - excellent virtues to have!
Tag Taoism
This story is all about patience and determination - the willingness to look to the long-term, to work hard, being patient, keeping on track. Too much in our modern western society is about instant gratification; wanting to be famous now, wanting our school qualifications now - looking for the easy road, the direct route that must be there to take us immediately to what we want.
In schools, colleges and even universities these days, students will, and do, say "never mind all that, what do I need to do to pass?" Not for them the true interest in the subject, the reading around the topic in hand to gain a wider understanding; "give me the answers now" they cry, so I can achieve my qualification and move on to a well-paid job, fame, fortune etc. etc.
The idea that patience and determination are good things to have seem to have been forgotten. As a society we seem to have become bound up with visions of our goals that we forget that the most important part of reaching the goals we set for ourselves is the journey we take on the way to achieving them.
Of course, the other thing we should remember as Taoists, is that as the journey progresses we may find that the original goals we started towards have changed. And this is what we miss when we look for the shortcuts, the quick routes to the end. We miss change, growth, development, chances to become one with Tao; this is why we so often find that when we have taken the short cut to our goals, after a very short period these goals no longer satisfy us and the process starts all over again.
Patience and determination - excellent virtues to have!
Tag Taoism
Friday, March 24, 2006
Books worth a mention
Just thought I'd add another few books that I consider worth a mention. These books have all been useful (and still are useful) in my study of the Tao. They have all at one time or another given me much food for thought.
Lieh-Tzu: A Taoist Guide to Practical Living by Eva Wong
Wen-Tzu: Understanding the Mysteries translated by Thomas Cleary
Sun Tzu: The Art of War by the Denma Translation Group
The Book of Chuang Tzu translated by Martin Palmer with Elizabeth Breuilly
365 Tao: Daily Meditations by Deng Ming-Dao.
I was thinking about one of these texts in particular yesterday, (365 Tao) in meditation when it was discussing how, in order to follow Tao, we need to bring ourselves into harmony with Tao - only then can we be open to what Tao truly has to show us.
Although I've mentioned quite a number of books today and some previously and, I'm sure, will mention some in the future, I don't mean to emphasise the book side of things. One of the problems in the West is that the study of the Tao has often been left too heavily in the hands of scholars or, as Benjamin Hoff describes them in The Tao of Pooh the Confusionist, Dessicated Scholars and this has meant that the practical side of Taoist living has been forgotten.
People could do far worse than to read Benjamin Hoff's book - it was the first book I read about Taoism. And I read it because I love Winnie the Pooh - not because I was interested in the Tao. Once I read the book, however, I found that it rang many bells for me, harmonising with a number of ideas and thoughts that had been circulating in the back of my mind. It was from here that I started my investigation into the classic taoist texts - but I still read Hoff's book on a regular basis just to remind myself that life is supposed to be fun and to avoid turning into a Confusionist, Dessicated Scholar.:-)))
Tag Taoism
Lieh-Tzu: A Taoist Guide to Practical Living by Eva Wong
Wen-Tzu: Understanding the Mysteries translated by Thomas Cleary
Sun Tzu: The Art of War by the Denma Translation Group
The Book of Chuang Tzu translated by Martin Palmer with Elizabeth Breuilly
365 Tao: Daily Meditations by Deng Ming-Dao.
I was thinking about one of these texts in particular yesterday, (365 Tao) in meditation when it was discussing how, in order to follow Tao, we need to bring ourselves into harmony with Tao - only then can we be open to what Tao truly has to show us.
Although I've mentioned quite a number of books today and some previously and, I'm sure, will mention some in the future, I don't mean to emphasise the book side of things. One of the problems in the West is that the study of the Tao has often been left too heavily in the hands of scholars or, as Benjamin Hoff describes them in The Tao of Pooh the Confusionist, Dessicated Scholars and this has meant that the practical side of Taoist living has been forgotten.
People could do far worse than to read Benjamin Hoff's book - it was the first book I read about Taoism. And I read it because I love Winnie the Pooh - not because I was interested in the Tao. Once I read the book, however, I found that it rang many bells for me, harmonising with a number of ideas and thoughts that had been circulating in the back of my mind. It was from here that I started my investigation into the classic taoist texts - but I still read Hoff's book on a regular basis just to remind myself that life is supposed to be fun and to avoid turning into a Confusionist, Dessicated Scholar.:-)))
Tag Taoism
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Accumulating riches
"They don't accumulate riches, so no one steals from them." TTC, Timothy Freke
I was reminded of this verse from TTC whilst listening to a piece of classical music today. The piece was entitled "My mind to me a kingdom is", written by William Byrd (c.1540-1623), who was the court composer to Queen Elizabeth I. The verse that sent me back to my copies of the TTC was this:
"I see that plenty surfeits oft,
And hasty climbers soonest fall;
I see that such as are aloft
Mishap doth threaten most of all;
These get with toil, and keep with fear,
Such cares my mind can never bear."
This song, published around 1588, also links in with another verse from TTC:
Amass too much wealth and you will never protect it. Too much success breeds arrogance, and arrogance brings downfall."
Although Byrd would never have heard of the philosophical ideas expressed within the TTC, it is possible to see that he has arrived at these ideas through his experience of life in the Royal Court which would have been full of intrigue/politics.
So it is not just from the East that these ideas have emerged, although they are expressed, perhaps, more coherently in this tradition.
Too many people view the accumulation of riches/wealth/material objects to be the be-all and end-all of their existence; whilst most people have to earn a living and seek to secure a comfortable existence, many go beyond this and work so hard for the money to purchase these 'labour-saving' devices that they rarely have time to enjoy them properly.
I will leave the final words to William Byrd - his first verse of the above mentioned song runs:
My mind to me a kingdom is;
Such perfect joy therein I find
That it excels all other bliss
Which God or Nature hath assign'd;
Though much I want that most men have,
Yet still my mind forbids to crave."
Tag Taoism William Byrd
I was reminded of this verse from TTC whilst listening to a piece of classical music today. The piece was entitled "My mind to me a kingdom is", written by William Byrd (c.1540-1623), who was the court composer to Queen Elizabeth I. The verse that sent me back to my copies of the TTC was this:
"I see that plenty surfeits oft,
And hasty climbers soonest fall;
I see that such as are aloft
Mishap doth threaten most of all;
These get with toil, and keep with fear,
Such cares my mind can never bear."
This song, published around 1588, also links in with another verse from TTC:
Amass too much wealth and you will never protect it. Too much success breeds arrogance, and arrogance brings downfall."
Although Byrd would never have heard of the philosophical ideas expressed within the TTC, it is possible to see that he has arrived at these ideas through his experience of life in the Royal Court which would have been full of intrigue/politics.
So it is not just from the East that these ideas have emerged, although they are expressed, perhaps, more coherently in this tradition.
Too many people view the accumulation of riches/wealth/material objects to be the be-all and end-all of their existence; whilst most people have to earn a living and seek to secure a comfortable existence, many go beyond this and work so hard for the money to purchase these 'labour-saving' devices that they rarely have time to enjoy them properly.
I will leave the final words to William Byrd - his first verse of the above mentioned song runs:
My mind to me a kingdom is;
Such perfect joy therein I find
That it excels all other bliss
Which God or Nature hath assign'd;
Though much I want that most men have,
Yet still my mind forbids to crave."
Tag Taoism William Byrd
Saturday, March 18, 2006
A Right to Death?
A few days ago, I published my last post entitled "The right to life". Now I would like to examine the opposing side of the coin - death. Or perhaps I should put it in capitals to reinforce its' bogeyman status here in the Western world - DEATH.
One modern way to deal with death is to deal with it through the use of comedy. One of the modern writers who deals with Death to great comic effect is Terry Pratchett - here the portrayal is of a seven foot tall skeleton with the traditional black robe and scythe so beloved of illustrators in the Western hemisphere for many years. As Death himself states "there is no justice, there is just us" - death happens, it is neither fair nor unfair.
This portrayal of Death has been very popular - perhaps because Death scares us, we find we can deal with it when we laugh at it. Other portrayals of Death and difficult circumstances appeared in the long-running TV series "MASH" where doctors and nurses had to make difficult choices in very difficult circumstances and yet the humour was used to make those difficult decisions a little easier on occasions.
The main reason that I wanted to deal with the subject of Death is down to the case of Baby MB over here in the UK. This child has the most severe from of spinal muscular atrophy (if you want a detailed medical description, you can Google it) which affects his ability to move, eat, breathe, swallow, although it does not affect cognitive function. In the most severe form, according to the information I've read, the diagnosed individual rarely lives beyond 18 months of age - the age that baby MB is now. In this case the doctors wanted to withdraw life support which meant he would die immediately as he can't breathe on his own. The judge ruled that life support should not be withdrawn as he had to proceed on the basis that the child 'had the cognition of a normal 18-month-old and that he continued to have a relationship with his family'. However the judge also ruled that the child shouldn't be subjected to procedures 'requiring positive infliction of pain' (e.g. intravenous antibiotics or blood sampling). For Baby MB to require these treatments would mean that his condition was deteriorating and that he was 'moving naturally towards death'. At this point it would be regarded as in his best interests to withhold these procedures even though he'd almost certainly die.
This is a very difficult case - the child himself is in constant discomfort, has some periods of distress and reasonably short periods of pain and the doctors felt that it was unfair to prolong his existence any further. His parents, naturally, feel that he is benefitting from his relationship with them, although they know that his condition is terminal, and believe that he should be able to enjoy that relationship for as long as is possible.
As a parent myself, this is a very difficult case for me, as I am sure it is for many others whether they have children or not. Putting myself in the shoes of these parents, I know that they know their child is terminally ill, he will not live very much longer and they want to have as many precious moments as they can. From the doctors' perspective, I can see that it is distressing to maintain a life that involves constant discomfort, frequent distress and periods of pain, particularly when they are doing so in the full knowledge that they are only delaying the inevitable.
Most of us hope never to be faced with this type of decision, but as we in the Western world face an increasing aging population, more and more of us may have to make similar decisions for our parents; as medical technology advances, more of us may have to face these decisions for our children; or perhaps we will have to face these decisions for ourselves. Just as every person has a right to life, perhaps we also have a right to death - to be able to choose when we can say 'no' to measures that will only put off the inevitable (and let me just be clear that I am not talking about assisted suicide/euthanasia here). We should all be able to say as Chuang Tzu said "When the Master came, it was because he was due to be born. When he died, it was entirely natural."
If it is our 'time' and there is nothing more that can be done other than to put off the inevitable we should be able to accept that it is 'our' time, that we have come to the other end of the natural order, that there is nothing to be afraid of. Unfortunately, here in the West, we have become so distanced from death - more often than not people die in hospital rather than at home, in an antiseptic, clinical environment. As modern society has developed, and healthcare and diet have improved, so we have seen life expectancy rise; people no longer die from easily preventable or even very serious diseases as a matter of course; the death of women during labour is relatively rare. All this means that we encounter death less frequently than those in previous generations, we have become disassociated with the natural order of things.
Perhaps it is fear of what might happen next - Christianity of course talks about Heaven and Hell, rewards and punishments and judgements - that makes us want to hide from Death. As Taoists, we should strive to remember these words from Chuang Tzu:
"We can point to the wood that has been burned, but when the fire has passed on, we cannot know where it has gone."
We don't know what happens next, as Taoists we accept that we return to the whole, to nature, to the divine Universe (depending on how you want to phrase it) - there is nothing to be afraid of here. It is worse for those we leave behind, because they miss us, they grieve. Death is part of the natural order of things, 'our lives cannot be controlled by our own efforts, and coming and going are not our own doing." (Lieh Tzu, Ch.1)
Tag Taoism Death
One modern way to deal with death is to deal with it through the use of comedy. One of the modern writers who deals with Death to great comic effect is Terry Pratchett - here the portrayal is of a seven foot tall skeleton with the traditional black robe and scythe so beloved of illustrators in the Western hemisphere for many years. As Death himself states "there is no justice, there is just us" - death happens, it is neither fair nor unfair.
This portrayal of Death has been very popular - perhaps because Death scares us, we find we can deal with it when we laugh at it. Other portrayals of Death and difficult circumstances appeared in the long-running TV series "MASH" where doctors and nurses had to make difficult choices in very difficult circumstances and yet the humour was used to make those difficult decisions a little easier on occasions.
The main reason that I wanted to deal with the subject of Death is down to the case of Baby MB over here in the UK. This child has the most severe from of spinal muscular atrophy (if you want a detailed medical description, you can Google it) which affects his ability to move, eat, breathe, swallow, although it does not affect cognitive function. In the most severe form, according to the information I've read, the diagnosed individual rarely lives beyond 18 months of age - the age that baby MB is now. In this case the doctors wanted to withdraw life support which meant he would die immediately as he can't breathe on his own. The judge ruled that life support should not be withdrawn as he had to proceed on the basis that the child 'had the cognition of a normal 18-month-old and that he continued to have a relationship with his family'. However the judge also ruled that the child shouldn't be subjected to procedures 'requiring positive infliction of pain' (e.g. intravenous antibiotics or blood sampling). For Baby MB to require these treatments would mean that his condition was deteriorating and that he was 'moving naturally towards death'. At this point it would be regarded as in his best interests to withhold these procedures even though he'd almost certainly die.
This is a very difficult case - the child himself is in constant discomfort, has some periods of distress and reasonably short periods of pain and the doctors felt that it was unfair to prolong his existence any further. His parents, naturally, feel that he is benefitting from his relationship with them, although they know that his condition is terminal, and believe that he should be able to enjoy that relationship for as long as is possible.
As a parent myself, this is a very difficult case for me, as I am sure it is for many others whether they have children or not. Putting myself in the shoes of these parents, I know that they know their child is terminally ill, he will not live very much longer and they want to have as many precious moments as they can. From the doctors' perspective, I can see that it is distressing to maintain a life that involves constant discomfort, frequent distress and periods of pain, particularly when they are doing so in the full knowledge that they are only delaying the inevitable.
Most of us hope never to be faced with this type of decision, but as we in the Western world face an increasing aging population, more and more of us may have to make similar decisions for our parents; as medical technology advances, more of us may have to face these decisions for our children; or perhaps we will have to face these decisions for ourselves. Just as every person has a right to life, perhaps we also have a right to death - to be able to choose when we can say 'no' to measures that will only put off the inevitable (and let me just be clear that I am not talking about assisted suicide/euthanasia here). We should all be able to say as Chuang Tzu said "When the Master came, it was because he was due to be born. When he died, it was entirely natural."
If it is our 'time' and there is nothing more that can be done other than to put off the inevitable we should be able to accept that it is 'our' time, that we have come to the other end of the natural order, that there is nothing to be afraid of. Unfortunately, here in the West, we have become so distanced from death - more often than not people die in hospital rather than at home, in an antiseptic, clinical environment. As modern society has developed, and healthcare and diet have improved, so we have seen life expectancy rise; people no longer die from easily preventable or even very serious diseases as a matter of course; the death of women during labour is relatively rare. All this means that we encounter death less frequently than those in previous generations, we have become disassociated with the natural order of things.
Perhaps it is fear of what might happen next - Christianity of course talks about Heaven and Hell, rewards and punishments and judgements - that makes us want to hide from Death. As Taoists, we should strive to remember these words from Chuang Tzu:
"We can point to the wood that has been burned, but when the fire has passed on, we cannot know where it has gone."
We don't know what happens next, as Taoists we accept that we return to the whole, to nature, to the divine Universe (depending on how you want to phrase it) - there is nothing to be afraid of here. It is worse for those we leave behind, because they miss us, they grieve. Death is part of the natural order of things, 'our lives cannot be controlled by our own efforts, and coming and going are not our own doing." (Lieh Tzu, Ch.1)
Tag Taoism Death
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