Tao Te Ching – Chapter 68

This chapter is about power and the use of power. It starts out with four lines, each beginning with the character for “good.”

A good warrior is not violent
A good fighter is not enraged
A good conqueror does not engage the enemy
A good leader humbles himself

The ancient treatise The Art of War counsels that the highest victory is won without engaging in battle. This reminds me of lessons in tai chi. Tai chi “sparring” usually begins with two people facing each other and lightly touching one or both forearms. A master I studied with said that the instant he came in contact with an opponent, he “knew” everything about the other person and basically took all his energy away from him.

This would sound crazy if I hadn’t witnessed this tiny 80 year old man easily deflecting attacks by younger, bigger, stronger, skilled martial artists. He never moved very much, never broke a sweat, and had a twinkle in his eye.

I know I do best in martial arts when I remain relaxed, neutral, neither afraid nor aggressive. And, as I’ve said before, what I love about martial arts is that what I learn there applies so well to life in general.

One of Aesop’s Fables tells the story of the wind and the sun, competing to see who is stronger by seeing who can remove a man’s coat. The wind blows strong and cold, but the man just pulls the coat around him more tightly. Finally the wind is exhausted. The sun takes his turn and simply shines warmly. The man is soon too hot and removes his coat.

This fable is one of my favorites because it teaches us not only that force is not as effective as gentleness, but also that force exhausts the one expending it. Consider this next time you are trying to get a two year old to do anything.

The chapter ends by relating this nonviolent approach to De (the “de” or “te” of the Tao Te Ching). De does not strive, and this is the source of its power, which effortlessly manifests in  perfect harmony with heaven.

This chapter invites us to contemplate our relationship to power. When do we feel powerful? Powerless? How do we try to gain power? How do we use it? With what results? We are invited to watch ourselves and learn how power operates in our lives. Let’s see what we discover!

The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.  ~Gandhi

Eye of the Beholder (II)

I guess beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder. While walking across the street this morning, I saw what I thought was a beautiful round white stone shining in the sun. I walked towards it, wanting to pick it up and hold it, maybe even keep it. I had a feeling of peace, gratitude, joy at finding such a lovely object on a sunny spring morning.

As I got closer, I felt confusion as my brain scrambled to recalculate what my eyes were looking at. It was not a beautiful round white stone. It was a round white plastic cap.

Oh. Now it did not seem beautiful. It was ugly. It was not a treasure I wanted. It was trash to be disposed of. I did not feel peace and gratitude and joy. I felt irritated at the person who littered the street with this plastic cap. I felt dismay at all the plastic congesting our beleaguered planet.

That poor little cap was just sitting there in the street minding its own business and I managed in the span of ten seconds to go from loving and wanting it, to disliking and rejecting it. I had two completely different reactions to this single little item that remained unchanged by what was happening in my mind. Wow.

What a simple and revealing example of how we engage with the world around us. There is a stimulus of some kind. I label it, correctly or incorrectly. Based on the label, I have an emotional reaction to it, positive or negative. I might tell myself a story about it. Now I am engaged with my story. I am living in my story. The original stimulus is long forgotten.

Something to think about....

Note: I wrote a similar post a while back about thinking that a rat was a squirrel. Apparently this is a lesson that needs repeating.

New Beginnings

New beginnings
Redundant
Yet still I like the term
A double dose of freshness
Hints of endless possibility
And hope
Anticipation
Willingness
And courage
This moment unchained
Liberated from the past
Uncontainable by one word alone

Tao Te Ching – Chapter 67

I have three treasures
Which I hold closely and cherish
First is compassion
Second is simplicity
Third is humility
Compassion generates courage
Simplicity allows generosity
Humility creates enduring potential

This chapter reminds me of Matthew 6:21. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Compassion, simplicity, humility, all bring us into harmony and alignment with our true nature, with others, with our environment.

What are your treasures? What values to you hold closely and cherish? In what way do these values manifest in your life?

When I asked my eight year old grandson before his basketball game what was most important, I wasn’t sure how he would answer. I was delighted when he said, “Have fun. Do your best. Be nice.”

This chapter cautions us that the qualities that manifest, like generosity for example, come from the treasure. The quality, to be genuine, is naturally expressed, not forced. Indeed, the chapter goes on to caution us:

When compassion is rejected, yet courage is contrived
When simplicity is missing, yet generosity is pretended
When one abandons humility, and insists on being first
Death follows

This doesn’t mean a literal, physical death. It means that being false in any way drains our life force and empties our soul of its intrinsic strength. Conversely, when we are aligned with our true nature, the power of the universe flows through us and out into the world. Effortlessly. Beautifully. Perfectly.

The chapter ends with the observation that of the three treasures, compassion is the most essential. Like the Bible says about faith, hope, and love, “the greatest of these is love.”

My religion is kindness. ~The Dalai Lama

I Walk in Beauty

I walk in beauty
Butterflies dance before me
Rainbows shimmer in my wake
My footprints fill with crystal water and flashing fish
As flowers blossom under fingertips
Beauty breathes me
     guides me
          creates me
I shine like the sun

Weaponized Enlightenment

I’ve always loved this story:

As Buddha was walking down the road, someone approached from the other direction. This person was awed by the radiance shining from Buddha. 

Excuse me, but are you a god?

No.

Are you a king?

No. 

Are you a wizard?

No.

Well, then what are you?

I am awake.

That story has always inspired me. When I think about what I want most in the world, what I value and practice and aspire to, it is this state of being awake – fully present and aware, deeply experiencing and directly engaged with life in this moment.

I thought of this story recently when someone used the term “woke” in its current popular usage related to politics and social issues.

I was curious to hear this term used in a way. It seemed to me that it was being used to distinguish groups of people who take specific positions on political or social issues. The line is drawn between those who are woke and those who are not, with woke being the more desirable or the more derided, depending on who is using it.

Let me be clear that I am not commenting on the politics or cultural origins of this term. What I am commenting on is its use as a judgment or assessment of division, a means of attack, similar to the way we have weaponized other terms, like American or immigrant. And of course, the old standbys of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and more.

Awakening does not divide; it unifies. It does not judge; it accepts. It does not demand; it radiates. It does not fear; it embraces. May we all, like Buddha, be woke.

But all the time our warmth and brilliance are right here. This is who we really are. We are one blink of an eye away from being fully awake. ~Pema Chodron

Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world. ~Ramana Maharshi

My Poem Is Silence

A poem a day
I don't know how
Words crafted by design
I cannot
No words come today
And so today
My poem is silence