Tao Te Ching (#5)

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 66-81

Lean into the moment. It will hold you. You are not alone. The way of the path is oneness. There is no sacrifice. There is no frightful test for you to overcome in isolation. Twia is the whole of the all. All that can separate you is your own perception. Nightmares disappear in the moment. Why live in fear of illusion? To be above the fray, humble yourself.  Stop your struggle to push the river up the mountain. It does not flow that way. Let the water flow to you in its natural way. The lowest seas receive the most. Persist without struggle. Hold to twia in the toughest times. Lean into your own embrace. Hold peace of heart while the world spins wildly around you. You are the hub of existence. Hold to the still silence of the emptiness that is mother to all. You are the power that is Te. It is not for you to stand alone on the mountain top shouting to all below. They do not listen to foolery. It is for you to humble yourself in the lowest valley. Let the power of the mountain come to you. The sea absorbs the most raging of rivers without effort. Let life be without effort. Do not push. Do not yell. Walk humbly with grace and persistence. Hold to twia. Hold peace of heart in calm weather and foul. Breathe deeply from the ground. Reman rooted in goodness. Where several have gathered in peace of heart, there is love upon the land. Join in unity and relationship with the whole of the all. To hold to your worthiness is not to be alone. Do not look to others to find worthiness. It lies within. Never deny your love. Hold peace always. Let joy rise to meet each and every day with gladness. Life is for the common good. It is not for each of us to be alone. You may not learn from others that you are worthy. There is no other. You are worthy as is. These are two truths. A third truth is compassion. Compassion forms the common good. Fill your life with compassion. But do not sacrifice. Sacrifice says you are unworthy. Compassion is worthiness. The worthy are last. Those who feel unworthy strive to be first. The worthy live simply. Those who feel unworthy fill their lives with complexity. You have it all with nothing of this world. It is not for you. You are worthy now. Those who strive without compassion are dead. You are alive. Live for the common good with compassion. You are worthy of the eternal. The eternal knows peace, love, joy without end. Continue the way of the path. Let life come to you. Do what lies before you with compassion. What is true will find you when your heart is open. The spirit of the heart is transformation. Here you are born again. Here you see anew. The room within is without desire. It is fulfillment. What is there to twia that is absent? Nothing. You are whole, complete, perfect, eternal as is. The me of the body desires. It perceives lack where there is none. To live only as the me of the body is to die unfulfilled. Its cravings never cease. Turn inward to twia. There you find peace of heart in all things. Your world is a projection of thought. Change your thoughts. Change your world. Withdraw from confusion. Hold fast to twia. Live simply, close to the ground. The room within holds your true nature. Enter. Sit. Become still in the silence of the knowing. Do not deny your perfection. Do not deny your power. Accept the world as is. Stop trying to control all outcomes. Your expectations will defeat you. Do not fight. Those who win are humble. Twia knows. Follow twia. Act. Release. Accept. Move out into the world from the center of your being. This is the room within. The room within holds the power of now. Release your power from within. There is no power outside twia. You are the whole of the all. Use what you know wisely without harm. Breathe deeply from the ground. Hold to peace always. Fall into the embrace that is twia. Be still in knowing. Use no words. Keep silent. Tell no one. What can be said that is revealed? There is no form to describe. Any name is meaningless. Be the one without words. Truth is revealed in knowing, not speaking. Where lies the answer? High on the mountain top? Low in the river valley? Jesus said to not look there. Do not look here. The kingdom is within. Within where? Where indeed does the answer lie? Hafiz was in need of a great pilgrimage to find the answer. He sat still for three days. What did he find? The treasure is in the field. Sell everything to buy the field. Do not take even one step into the world to find the answer. Do nothing. The answer is within you. Step back from the world. Move forward by retreating. Do not underestimate the world. Its desires will capture you with great promises that cannot be fulfilled. Its nourishment is like spun sugar. Delicious at first but unsatisfying as food. You will die if you try to live on it. In walking the way of the world find compassion. Compassion clears the way to return to your true nature within. Therein lies the answer. The room within holds the pearl of great price. This is wisdom. Release the world that you might gain this pearl. To enter the room within is to touch on the emptiness that is nowhere. Herein lies eternal consciousness. No words can hold it. Do not grasp. Do nothing. It will be revealed. Twia knows. Peer into the eternal field of infinite possibility. This is your being. Call to it from heart. It will answer in kind. Twia knows the way home to reality. You are not lost. You are not alone. Twia is the way. Hold peace of heart always. Shadows of light flicker on Quan Yin’s face. She holds in silence her cup of compassion. Tears of sorrow fall from closed eyes. She cannot bear to watch the misery of humankind. The Buddha sits beside her in quiet contemplation. He holds the heart of humankind in loving peace. Perched to the other side, the wise owl portrays serenity. It knows the truth. Sorrow, peace, wisdom. These are the journey of humankind. From tears of misery learn to hold peace of heart always. Then truth is revealed in the wisdom of the I AM. Twia knows the way. Do not be afraid. Twia knows not fear but love. It is easy to follow the path. It is hard to find it through the thickets. The thorns prick your body. You stay on the path of the world that you know. You lick your wounds. You pretend it is all okay. It is not. It is hard to deny the body when it bleeds. The ancient masters clear the thickets with their teachings. When you are ready, the thickets will part to reveal the way of the path. You will know when. Krishna, Lao Tzu, The Buddha, and Jesus represent the sages whose teachings help clear the way to knowing. Hear their words with ears that hear. They, and others, have many, many followers. Few know the way. With eyes that see follow the light as it is reveal. Those who master the way step easily from the thickets onto the path. They enter the still silence of the room within. The words point the way. Light shines on the path. Peace of heart brings you home. You live in time. You grow to know in twia. Twia is whole, complete, perfect, eternal. The me of the body develops awareness as the body ages. The me that I am not awakens in time from the dream. It is best to not think so much about it. Awareness comes from revelation. In silence it is revealed. Know that you do not know. Then you will know. Twia is wisdom. Twia is light. Twia guides you in darkness. Twia knows the way. Do not fear. Know yourself. Keep council with twia. Hold to the room within. Accept love untainted by fear. Fear grows in ignorance. Left to itself it becomes evil. Fear without love destroys. It has no compassion. To spurn ignorance is wisdom in itself. Grow in compassion. Stop nitpicking your neighbor. As Jesus said, take the plank from your own eye. To judge is to live in the past. This will not do. It is ignorance. You are wise. Wisdom is your true nature. The room within is the heart center. Your place of being. There are many distractions in the body. Some may call them spirits. Jesus drove out demons. Center in the heart. Bring distractions with you. Observe. Release. Guidance lies in twia. All else is distraction. Spirits are separation. Separation is illusion. These distractions. remove you from twia. Twia is oneness. There is no other. There are distractions calling to follow the way of the world. There are distractions saying to stay on the way of the path. These are the ways of separation. Hold peace of heart. Enter the room within. Twia knows the way. Twia is whole, complete, perfect, eternal. Sit in the still silence with eyes that see and ears to hear. The way is revealed. There is no source. I AM. No beginning. No ending. No creator. No creation. Only the I AM that is consciousness. All else is illusion. Enter the room within. Seek its revelation. Here you are safe, protected, undisturbed. I AM is the whole of the all. There is nothing else. The way will find you. You cannot escape. Where is there to hide but in the mind. There you may hide. Still, you are known. There is no elsewhere than here. Stop. Sit. Be silent. Your noise is deafening. How can you hear to follow? Come down from the mountain. Abide in the valley. Be humble. Live simply. Be open. Receive the waters that flow your way. Choose wisely. Listen to your own voice. Twia knows. To do nothing is to remember the eternal. To follow your own way is to know only death. The me of the body fears oblivion. Do not let desire torture you. Choose wisely. Do nothing. The way of the path is eternal. Even though you die you are eternal. Do not allow death to reign. Follow the way of the path. Remember twia. Stop reading these words. Words are not the way. The moon is not the light. The candle is consumed by the flame. The body burns out. The light remains. What goes dark returns in light. Release the past. Change the world. What you bring with you is what you experience. Your fate is what you drag with you into the present moment. Such baggage is to be left on the threshold of the room within. It cannot fit through the doorway of the eternal moment. Release. Let go. The world is what you make of it. Change your ways, change your fate. Follow the way of the path. Live in oneness with twia. Enter the room within. Death is the worst fate of all. The me of the body fears oblivion. If there is no fear of dying, then what? Is there no punishment for wrongdoing? Do not give death its power. It has none without you to feed it remorse and guilt. Do not be your own executor. You will injure yourself. Learn to let go of the body. It is not you. Do not hang on to what you do not understand. The body comes and goes. Twia is forever. It has no time. Time is your fate in body. The links of the past are forged into heavy chains. Twia does not see the past. Leave your chains at the door. They are not required. The room within holds the eternal. You are free when you know twia. The way of the path holds no punishment. You are your own god. Follow your path. This is the way. Twia is keeper of the way. Do not let fear cloud the path. Fear is a wisp of illusion. You give it strength in separation. Trust in twia. Separation will pass into oneness. Fear will dissolve in compassion. There is no other. You are the one. The nature of your being is wisdom. It gives you eyes that see. This is vision. With vision you find the room within through the mists of fear. Release the past. It is a burden unworthy of your true nature. Cross the threshold without fear. There is nothing to lose but suffering and everything to gain that is love. You are the I AM. Remember twia. Walk the way of the path. When you tax yourself too much with the ways of the world, you suffer. Stop giving so much energy to the me of the body. It will die. Twia is eternal. Separation has no reality. It comes and goes. You are forever. Do nothing. This is the way of the path. Twia will bring life to you. Observe. Listen. Act. Release. Hold peace of heart. The way of the path is joy. Be in harmony with twia. There are no names in nature. Tree does not know flower. They simply are what is, if they are at all. What they are may be in the eye of the beholder. What you see, what you hear, the experiences of sight and sound come and go. You are forever. Twia is eternal. Nature is nothing but what you experience it as. Otherwise, it has no meaning. Without you, there is nothing that is tree. There is nothing that is flower. Humble yourself before twia. Humility follows the way of the path. Yield to twia. Do not be rigid in your ways. It only leads to death. Be open the eternal way. You do not know. Twia knows. To follow twia is to know the eternal. The body comes and goes. Twia is forever. I AM. I AM that which I am. There is no other. Follow the line of least resistance. Flow with the water. Why resist when there is a better path? The beauty of the line is in its path, not in its force. The harmony of accord with the moment is to follow the way. Find the still emptiness of the room within. Keep to the middle. Here there is neither oneness nor separation. They are the same. Do not live at the extremes. You will pass by the door to the room within. To know yin there is yang. Yin and yang are opposites that are a harmonizing whole. To live only in one without the other is to not know the whole. The way of the path is the middle way. It leads to the room within. The way of the path is to balance giving and receiving. Like yin and yang, they harmonize the whole. They are a single tone of the gong. The way of the world feeds the greedy. The fear of lack brings about excess. There is no lack. Neither is there excess. These are thoughts of separation. Give to your neighbor as you would give to yourself. Receive from your neighbor your abundance. The natural way is to live simply, without excess or lack. Then there is abundance. Abundance is whole without end. Live in true abundance. Abundance is your true nature. Slow down. Observe. Pay attention to the moment. Act harmoniously. Accept the way before you. Twia knows the way. It is your own life’s journey. Do not deny your abundance by falling into extremes. I float in emptiness. The room within holds all. I do not know. The emptiness holds me to its course. The way is unseen by me. I am adrift. This is the way of the path. Death comes no more to the door. I am free. To be free is to accept that which I am. Accept death no longer. It is not for you. You are the I AM. Remain soft and yielding. Then you will overcome the world. Yield before its ways. Do not take them in. They are not yours. Be flexible. Bend with the times so that you do not break. The dust of the world may settle upon you. Shake free of it. The power that is Te lies in the room within. To enter is to yield to its way. To hold to the world is to suffer. To hold peace of heart always is to overcome suffering. Find solace in living simply. Let the waters flow to you. Accept their gentle ways. They overcome all. Yield to twia. This is the way of the path. There is always time to accept your truth. Stop trying to find your own way home. You are lost. Step on to the yellow brick road. It is the way of the path. It will bring you what you need in the way of heart, wisdom, and courage to find out what you truly are. You will learn that you never left home. You have always had the power to remember that which you are. You are dumped in this world by birth, but it is not your home, no matter how pretty the colors. Do not die. Remember your power to be twia. The guides who come to give you direction are but your own voice. There is only one. The I AM. There is no other. Movement in consciousness never ceases. There is no end to that which is reality. Movement is that which I am. I am consciousness-expressing. Existence is consciousness expressing separation. Separation is a thought that cannot be real. It is a dream, an illusion. I am manifesting separation. I am aware of the thought of separation. I manifest its existence. I AM that which I am. I AM twia. Twia knows. Twia knows the way. Turn to twia in all things. Do not hold resentment. It blocks the way. Hold to your own council. Remove yourself from your neighbors. What matters to you your neighbor’s heart? You are owed nothing. You do not lack. Hold peace of heart always. The world will come to you. Who is right in a world of wrong? Those who hold peace of heart always. This is the way of the path. Come to know yourself as neither right nor wrong. You are twia: whole, complete, perfect, eternal. You are neither more than or less than. Dwell humbly in the room within holding peace of heart. This comes from a simple life lived close to the ground. You are planted firmly in the ground of goodness. The river will come to you with nourishment. The river flows from the high to the low. Stay in the valley where you can receive all. Grow in wisdom. Grow in knowledge. You are the whole of the all. Never hold back those you love. That is not love. Love has no loss. Love is complete. Neither do you gain in companionship. What is there to gain when you are whole and perfect. Love is to see in you that which I am. Hold to twia in all. There is no loss or gain in love. Companions come and go. Love is eternal. Hold to love without fear. You are not alone or abandoned. Be alone in your thoughts. Hold them close. Do not use your words as weapons. There is no need for pilgrimage. Keep to yourself. Hold your own council. You are wise where you are. Live simply. Hold peace of heart. Your companion knows the way. Do not interfere. You have noting that you cling ton. Walk the way of the path. Here you are free of entanglements. Live simply. Be happy. Know. You are the I AM. There is but one consciousness. You are the discrete awareness manifesting its thought of separation. But there is no separation. Only its existence as illusion. Stop living the illusion. It serves suffering. Live in oneness with all. This serves love. Serve love by holding peace of heart always. Find simplicity in all things. Follow the way that is twia. Observe. Listen. Act. Release. Know that I see in you that which I am. There is no other. Only the one. You are the I AM. Live a simple life knowing your truth. Be a traveler of the inner journey like Hafiz, who when he felt the need of pilgrimage sat still for three days. Settle in the room within. It is the way. Release desire. Your ambitions block the way of the path. Stop trying to push the river back into the mountains. Let it flow to you. Accept its offerings. Take no actions of your own. Do nothing. Hold to twia. Observe. Listen. Act. Release with peace of heart. Approach life from love first. All else will follow. The intellect solves nothing outside existence. Follow your heart to know twia. To know twia is to touch the eternal. Go beyond your own intelligence. The eternal is wordless. Wisdom arises in the room within. The heart knows what the mind cannot reveal. Knowledge revealed is eternal. Do not take up treasures on Earth. They are not yours. What is your treasure must be given away. Then you gain the eternal. Learn from your existence. Remain in harmony with all. Find peace in the moment. Do not strive. Do not compete. Do not war with your neighbor. The beauty of the world is in its ugliness. Its ugliness lies in beauty. This is existence. Enter the room within. Herein lies the center of being. You are the I AM. Discrete and whole. That is the paradox of existence in consciousness. This is the dream of knowing what cannot be. Hold to the way of the path. It is your guide home to the eternal. Remember the way that you never forgot. This is twia. I am the I AM.