Tao Te Ching (#3)
Streaming thoughts while contemplating Lao Tzu
This is not to be read. It is to be felt. Read with your heart. Let your mind go for the moment. Start anywhere. Stop when you wish. There are no paragraphs. Only consciousness streaming.
Reflections on Tao Te Ching, Chapters 34-49
Listen for the birds. Do not catch them singing out of tune. For then there is imbalance and disharmony. Listen with ears that hear. Do not stray from the room within. Hold fast to peace of heart. Then you are in tune with twia. Then the birds never sing out of tune. Twia flows in harmony with yin and yang. Twia is perfectly balanced at the hub of the great circle of all that is. Depend on twia. You are the I AM. The energy of existence flows through you. Do not short yourself. Your power is primal. How can what you do not understand be said? It cannot. You must listen with ears that hear to catch the tune the birds sing. Then you will know transcendence. Each tree is a moment in the forest. The woods go on and on, whole and perfect, as moments come and go. Rest in the still silence of the forest. There is none like it. Listen to the songs of unseen birds. Do not catch them singing out of tune. Hold peace of heart in all things. Do not resist the moment. Observe. Act. Release expectations. Seek balance. Do not linger on the mountain top. Do not linger in the valley. Hold to twia. In twia rests all things. There is no end to twia. Be content. Do not attack the ways of the world. They fail you. Do not deny your reality. The body is fleeting. Twia is eternal. The power of the eternal is in te. You are the consciousness-expressing that is existence. That which I am, twia, is the whole of the all. There is no other. To experience twia, to know te, see twia in all things. Hear twia in the world. You cannot do this alone. The body does not have eyes that see nor ears to hear. Be still in the world. Humble yourself. Put aside your desires and expectations. These blind you. They deafen you. Open your eyes and ears to twia. From the room within you can experience the whole of the all in all ways. When you dance with the world, hold lightly. Dance without embrace. Do not grasp. The world seduces. Do not slip too far into its arms. The world is not the one. Death does not become you. You cannot hold tightly but that you will die. When the music ends, walk away. Do not linger. It is not for you. You are not of the world. To be born of the world is to die. You are eternal. The world can be beguiling with smooth steps, with spin and flow as it glides across the dance floor. Choose your partner wisely. The world enchants. Love releases. Save the last dance for love. The whole of the all is within. Do not look to the world for answers. The world is the problem, not the solution. Transcend the world. Go beyond its confines by entering the room within. When you stand at the threshold in pain and anger caused by desires not met, it is a struggle to drop these chains formed from failed expectations. The links resist the chisel that can set you free. Sometimes there is too much hurt to squeeze through the doorway. Puffed up by ego, desire, and expectations unmet, you wallow in self-pity on the doorstep. The me of the body revels in this stuff. It is pathetic what we create for ourselves unnecessarily. Twia waits patiently until you enter. Do nothing. Find peace of heart. Sit still. Remember twia. Twia will find you. There is nothing that does not happen that is not twia. There is no other. The question is, how much do you let fear into your life? Fear is the perception of separation. Uphold twia and you live in the world without fear. Without fear, there is no false sense of lack. Without lack, there is no desire. Without desire, there is no expectation. Without expectation, there is tranquility. Tranquility is peace of heart. With peace of heart, you know the world as oneness. This knowing is your true nature. The return home started the moment you took up the thought of separation. For now, you are sleeping, dreaming in a coma so to speak. Twia whispers in your ear to awaken. You are beginning to hear the voice that calls you home. Live simply, close to the ground. Find your perfection in the imperfect. Release your true nature into the world. Lead a life that is simple and unadorned. Let forgiveness wash over lingering thoughts like a wave washes smooth a sandy beach. Cleansing the mind of thought prepares the way to the room within. No matter how many footprints are impressed upon the sand, the ocean reclaims the beach as its own. After waters recede, the long, smooth, glistening sands reappear washed fresh in the rising light of a morning sun. Do not let the past linger in your mind. The room within holds the power that is twia. This is the eternal te. Worldly power is not lasting. It fades with time. The power that is te requires that you do nothing. Twia knows. Relax into the embrace. The world does not know. It struggles to achieve little. Do not desire power. The expectation will fail you. The way of the world is foolishness. The way of the path is wisdom. Drop all that is of the world. Release its false ways of righteousness, ritual, and virtue. Hold to peace of heart in all things. True power lies in twia. It is not the power of doing. It requires nothing. This is your true nature. Do not let your practice become your truth. Have no expectations of outcomes. The river flows of its own accord. It comes to you. Sit on its banks. Do nothing. Stop channeling the river to your own course. Do not get caught up in diversions. Hold to the simple acceptance of reality. This you know as twia. Do not fight your situation. Hold peace of heart. Do not make it worse with your struggling. Bound wrists chafe at the rope in struggle. Relax. Feel the tension ease. Slip from the knot. There is no meaning until you happen upon it. The rock came to rest in its spot ages ago. It never had meaning until you passed by and gave it a glance. You gave it expression, description, and named it; from your own past, which, too, has no meaning except what you give to it. What meaning does the air of springtime have without you? Hold the stone close. It means as much as the jade. To live simply is to be clear, peaceful, active, full. These all have meaning in the one where you place them. Without you, what is clear, what is peaceful, what is active, what is full? Be humble in all things. You placed humbleness in the stone. Place it in the jade as well. Work toward your goals without desire. Do not cheat yourself of peace today by hoping for it tomorrow. What can the morrow bring that is not with you now, in the moment? You are the peace you desire. What you reap tomorrow is born in the moment. Remembering twia is the way of the path. This is the path of awakening. The way of the world is the path to death. To walk the way of the path is to be reborn into the eternal. The body is born of existence. It comes and goes. Twia is eternal. You have neither beginning nor end in truth. Remember twia. Return home from the body to your true nature. Reality has no form. Stop seeing differences. Do not distinguish between this and that. Use your eyes that see to view oneness in the world. Open your eyes to the dream. Separation is illusion. There is nothing that does not come from emptiness. Nothing that is was ever not. All form arises in the eternal field of infinite possibility. Nothing can be added or taken away. You are on the journey from existence to non-existence, which is where you have always been. You are awakening to reality which has no form, no existence. The Tree of Life from Jewish mysticism represents our journey. Taoism uses the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate. These are separate but similar views of existence and the energy flowing from source to the ground-of-being and back. The way of the path is the return to twia. This is a movement upward in awareness from our ground-of-being to the emptiness that is nowhere. The path is followed with eyes that see. The me of the body is blind to reality. Let twia be your vision. Then you find your way. Twia knows. Delight in the journey. Hold peace of heart. Breathe. Laugh. Celebrate your growing awareness. It is your true nature. Do not demand certainties. Be open to possibilities. Stretch your imagination to include all things. Accept everything. Reject nothing. The me of the body does not know. Twia knows. Open to what is before you. Act. Release. Hold peace of heart. What is it to follow twia? Do I hear within with ears that hear? What is released in the room within? There is darkness in knowing. Eyes are blind to the obvious. What appears is not always real. What is real does not always appear. How do I know? I do not know. Twia knows. Twia is obscure to the me of the body. Yet twia nourishes all things, holds all things, commands all things. You are not alone. Twia is at work in you. There is no other than the I AM. With ears that hear and eyes that see I know the way. What is hidden is revealed. Do not take it all so seriously. Walk the way of the path in joy and delight. Existence is a state of energy. Energy manifests existence. Consciousness-expressing is the energy of existence. Twia is consciousness-expressing. I AM the energy that is existence. Subatomic particles leap between existence and nonexistence. This is the energy of consciousness expressing the thought of separation as an illusion in reality. How many multitude of ways has this been said, yet we do not know. What I do know is that I do not know. Twia knows. I follow the guidance of the I AM that I am. This is a state of being. Intelligence does not comprehend the room within. Existence arises in consciousness from a single thought of separation. From this comes oneness. There is no oneness without separation. Now there is discrete awareness. This is twia. I am the energy of existence. From consciousness-expressing comes all things. This is the whole of the all. All of this is represented in the entwined symbol of yin and yang found in Taoism. Yin and yang are balanced in harmony. The way of the world is death. The way of the path is eternal. Only by turning your back to the world do you remember twia. In remembering twia, you are born into the eternal. Still your mind. Sit in silence. Enter the room within. Detach from the world. Look upon the illusion with eyes that see. The oneness of reality will appear before you. In that moment you awaken from the dream. I cannot tell you these things. They must be revealed. They are yours to know. The words fall short of their message. They fall short of the path. When those who followed Jesus came to know, he told them to go and tell no one. Why? Because it cannot be told. It must be found. It is revealed, not learned. What is it to waste time? It is expectations. Yield to the moment. It has no form. It does not exist in time. Do nothing. There is no time to waste. You are fulfilled now. Twia reveals the way. Use your eyes that see. Listen with ears that hear. Follow the natural way. This is the path before you. Release effort. Release desire. Release expectation. Observe. Act. Accept the outcome. Pay attention. Yield to twia. Enter the room within. Do not try to force your way in the world. Be aware. Hold the space around you in peace and abundance. Do not rage. You will lose your way with blindness. Open your eyes to the light. Listen to the still, small voice that is twia. It does not yell. It does not scream. Smile in wonder of it all. Laugh. Feel the joy that you are. Celebrate the moment. Do not fret over the morrow. Forgive yourself always. See the oneness of it all. I see in you that which I am. I am the rock, the mouse, the tree, the moon, the sun, the stars. I am the whole of the all. Let love be your passion. None of this is for you to understand. Do not give it thought. Know it in your heart. It is your true nature. Be aware. Do not miss the opportunity. In all things, hold peace of heart. This is the way of the path. The world does not last. It is transitory. It forever changes. It came from nothing and is returning to nothing. It exists but is not real. It exists as illusion. Reality is eternal. What do you care of the treasures stored in the world? They are but dust upon the wind. Do not give credence to what you do. Find solace in the moment. Herein lies your true nature. What do fame and wealth add to your truth? Nothing. What you gain you lose. What is lost is your gain. Drop your attachments to all things worldly and you will gain the eternal. Excess troubles you. Do not roil the waters. Excess is beyond necessary. Live simply. Know what is enough. Cultivate peace. It is lasting joy. It brings love to the world. The light of love guides you in all ways. I am whole, complete, perfect, eternal. I lack nothing. What I see as lack is illusion. I cleanse my eyes that I might see abundance in all. The center of being is the room within. It is here that I dwell. It has no end. Do not linger in the time of darkness. It brings only grief. Grief is not the way. It has no reality. Your reality is in joy. Joy overcomes grief always. This is your true nature. In twia you find the wisdom and peace that you are. Fear is our bugaboo. It keeps us from entering the room within. Fear is the guardian of separation. It haunts the world. It robs us on the path. To accept fear is to suffer. Even love in the world is tainted by fear. Love is the antidote to fear in oneness. Fear comes with the illusion that is separation. Fear itself is illusion. The room within touches the eternal. Twia does not know fear. What seems true in separation is not. Truth lies in consciousness. Twia knows truth. The me of the body is the lie that is separation. It senses isolation and fears death. It retches in the face of oblivion. It does not know the eternal. Existence is deceiving to the senses of the body. It does not have eyes that see nor ears that hear. We do not see the world for what it is until we observe it through twia. Then we no longer fear death. We realize our fulfillment. There is no end to giving and receiving. The way is made straight. We see beyond the awkwardness of the me of the body to the serenity of being that is our truth. The whole of the all is made real before our eyes. In twia, the world comes into balance with truth. This is awakening. Become still. Laugh. Let joy prevail. Let go of the past and its turmoil. Return to tranquility. Hold peace of heart always. You are the seed of awakening in the world. Grow in awareness. Reveal love always. You are the dance of life. Flow with grace across the stage that is the world. What is for you will come to you. Accept it all. Act. Release. Flow with the dream that you know is not real. Do not ride the unicorn. Release it to the fantasy. It is not yours to ride. It is illusion. What I know about death is that I do not know. It is a mystery hidden in darkness behind a wall of misunderstanding. Many have made their best guess about an afterlife. In death, the last twitches of life flow through the body. I watch but cannot catch them or hold them back. Where did you go? Are you beyond the grave or gone to oblivion? Is there a world of souls to comfort you? I release you to your fate. What benefit to either of us to hang on to what is over. The body is particles. The old saw has us coming from dust and returning to dust. Your body is now dust. Where are you? In the room within? My answer to death is that I AM that which I am: whole, complete, perfect, eternal. Twia knows the room within as the eternal. This answer comes from the ages where we are told to seek within. Therein is our true nature. I am not the body. I am twia. The me of the body is fearful. Twia is loving kindness. Bring loving kindness to the world for the common good. Without twia the me of the body expresses fear in all its ugly and horrible ways. There is no lack. There is enough for all. Do not desire and hold on to expectations. These will fail you. Live in the moment. Accept what comes your way. This is the way of the path. To walk the way of the path is to hold peace of heart always. To die to this world is to be reborn in twia. The room within is your womb. Therein lies fulfillment. Therein is your truth. The world offers spun sugar. It offers little, if any, nourishment. Feast at the table set in the moment. It satisfies. It holds the eternal. The world decays. Do not cling to it. Walk in freedom without desire. Bring loving kindness to the world. This is twia. This is the way of the path. Reality is beyond comprehension. The body cannot fathom the eternal emptiness that is nowhere. The me of the body is about separation. It exists in a world of illusion brought on by a thought in consciousness that there is not oneness. This thought of separation manifests as existence. It cannot be made real any more than a unicorn can be made real. Nothing in existence has meaning except that which you give it. You are the dreamer interacting with thought to produce a dream of separation. Your perceptions become your world. You project meaning upon a world of your own imagination. What do you know of reality living in a transitory existence? Nothing. Nothing as the me of the body. To touch the eternal, enter the room within. Here you know that you do not know. Here you remember twia. Twia knows. Do not leave the room within. The world will come to you. See twia in others. There is no other. Twia knows that which is true, real, eternal. The me of the body does not. Lao Tzu said the sage knows without traveling. Hafiz said he felt a need for a great pilgrimage, so he sat still for three days. The way of the path is not traveled. It is to remember twia. To remember is to enter the room within. The journey within reveals our true nature, which is love, not the fear held by the me of the body. The world is constructed from delusions and desires. We have expectations that it can never fulfill. Drop desires. Release expectations. You are fulfilled now in twia. What you come to know within, you will give to the world. Project beauty upon all things. Do not bring ugliness into your world. See twia in all. Hold peace of heart always. In all ways let love remain without fear. Your pursuit of knowledge runneth over. Empty your cup. Do nothing. Let go. Know the emptiness of the cup. That is enough. The rest is clutter keeping you out of the room within. Before you can enter, you must leave your baggage at the door. Rest in still silence. Know without words. Do nothing to fill your cup and it will be sated with truth. It is not that you find yourself. It is more that you allow yourself to be you. To be twia. Twia is always present. The question is, when do you choose to listen? It is hard to turn within to follow the way. The way of the world dangles baubles in front of you to entice you to walk its path. Twia is less conspicuous. Twia knows the truth and is patient. Twia is there when you are ready. The prodigal son came home to the ready arms of the father who loved him. To the father he had never left. Twia knows you never left its embrace. The room within is cluttered with baubles and you cannot find yourself. Approach all people the same. I see in you that which I am. Rejoice in the oneness of the all. Extend your heart to others. Then you know the way of the path in the world. Let your true nature be revealed by twia. Hold trust in all that you do. What you extend to others you receive. Do not judge what comes to you. Receive and bless. It is yours to sow compassion. Open the door. All who arrive are guests to be received warmly with joy. This is awakening to your truth within. Listen to twia. Twia is your guide on the way of the path. Do not limit your ways to those of the world. What you find in yourself is revealed in others. The world is your reflection. You are what you see as the me of the body. Do you want what you see? Trust in twia. You will find your way. Your power is in your virtue. This is te, your spiritual power. Te is not what you have. Te is what you are. You are te. You are the I AM. This is te. This is twia. It is all one. Detach from the world. Watch it without attachment. You are not your emotions, feelings, or desires. These are separations that come and go. Return to twia. This is oneness. You are the whole of the all. Suffering is an option. Choose wisely. Twia is peace, joy, love. This is what comes up in you to share in the world you create for yourself. Make it a world of rather than fear.