September 22nd

Innocence


Black and orange butterfly --
Flying joyously.
Wings like a nun's hands:
First fold in prayer,
Then open in offering.


The world moves toward war. Leaders increase their rhetoric. Armies mass along the border. The world, it seems, never tires of conflict. We should remember the innocent in life. The delicate, the gossamer, the beautiful. A butterfly lives for a day. It comes into the world with very little reason except to fly and mate. It does not question its destiny. It does not engage in any alchemy to extend its lifespan or to change its lot. It goes about its brief life happily.
A butterfly is always attracted to the beautiful. Whether it is the sun on a blade of grass or the edge of a deep ruby rose, the butterfly spends its brief time dwelling on loveliness.
Even the angry and insane leave the butterfly alone. Why can we not learn to honor the innocence in one another? Maybe we spend too much time dwelling on the ugly. In the name of practicality and realism, we think about strategy, defense, territory, gain, and advantage. We are too late to be like the butterfly. But at least we can honor it, and move as closely as possible to its simple existence.

Personal Interpretation

  Simplicity is the key to an enjoyable life. The more we amass, the more complicated life becomes. The more we think on things that are beyond our ability to change, the less we live in the moment. Let us strive to be more like the butterfly who is content to live its short life in peace. It is innocence embodied, attracted to beauty in all its myriad forms. Perhaps a world of peace and prosperity is only a dream, but we improve our world with each and every effort we make toward tranquility. Let the butterfly be our guide.

September 21st

Non-interference

I love this lake,
Basin of heavenly tears,
Tilted from lunar pull
Jostling its shore.
I love these mountains,
Stark rock outcroppings,
Sculpted by the oceans,
Lifted at some unknown time,
Isolated in a field of vetch,
Cleaved by silver falls.
A sentinel owl regards me unblinkingly,
And beyond, alpine forests form a cadence
To a distant moon.


The earth is overrun by investigators and engineers. The wilderness is made vulgar with the noise of tourists. We don't need their thermometers and saws. We don't need bridges and monuments. In the context of Tao, this is to violate the earth with human ambition and to crawl over the landscape like flies over fresh fruit. Instead we should simply walk through this mysterious world without being a burden to it.


Personal Interpretation

For too long we have tried to bend nature to our will. We have taken without giving anything in return. We  need not impose ourselves on the natural world. We can walk through forests without harvesting the wood of their trees, can reflect on the sea without disturbing its waters. To live in concert with Tao is to see ourselves as being on equal footing with all life. When we truly adopt this mindset we will find that we think less about our sense of self and more about the great web of life itself.

September 20th

Counterpoint

It is blazing hot today.
Valley heat is drawn to meet the coast.
The cool days of autumn dance with false summer.
White within black, black within white.


Autumn was coming on, and yet today there is a sudden shift. It is hotter than summer. Even in the midst of a cooling trend there is its opposite. In the minds of those who follow Tao, duality in life is not clearly demarcated. There is a fuzziness at the line. Day does not have a sharp border with night. So it is with the alternations of the seasons. It is not a simple, smooth continuum from summer into autumn. There is complexity and counterpoint.
If nature is full of subtlety and even false appearances, how wise must we be in order to follow life's rhythms unerringly?


Personal Interpretation

Followers of Tao see the dual forces of nature as defining one another, and the boundaries between opposites are more blurred than we sometimes acknowledge. We may observe trends only to witness unexpected reversals. This is the nature of life. It can be difficult to sense patterns and to accept their divergence, but this is precisely what we must do if we wish to live in accordance with the principles of Tao.

September 19th

Loneliness

Loneliness need not be despair.
It could be an opportunity


Why are people lonely? It is because they feel no contact with anyone or anything else. They need to feel that they are valued, that they are a part of something, and that their environment will respond to them. When that does not happen, they feel isolated. One of the major strategies for combating loneliness is to have a mate and family. That is not always perfect, and the problems of a relationship and family sometimes outweigh the terror of loneliness. It is far better to be self-sufficient. Then whether one has loved ones or not, one will not suffer from loneliness.

Some people claim that self-sufficiency is a myth. A person is a social animal, they declare; people cannot successfully live outside of some community. But that is not the correct way to understand true self-sufficiency. What we are referring to is a supreme sense of connection with oneself and the cosmos around oneself. This doesn't preclude community with others, but it does prevent the excesses and shortcomings that occur when society is one's only source of union.
Tao surrounds us. One who is with Tao is never lonely, but is an integral part of the natural cycle. In the same way that water surrounds a fish, Tao surrounds us. If we feel lonely, then it is only because we are forgetting how we are totally immersed in Tao. That is why loneliness can be an opportunity : It reminds us that we are dwelling on our own egoistic identity rather than on the support of Tao.


Personal Interpretation

Loneliness need not lead to despair. It can be an opportunity to realign ourselves with Tao. We should not rely upon others for a sense of comfort, but rather choose self-sufficiency. This does not mean that we should never commune with others. It means simply that we should also be capable of disconnecting from the world. While it may seem counterintuitive, this is the surest way to reestablish a connection with society and feel less isolated.

September 18th

Silence

Seek silence.
Gladden in silence.
Adore silence.

As one progresses on the path, one seeks silence more and more. It will be a great comfort, a tremendous source of solace and peace.Once you find deep solitude and calm, there will be a great gladness in your heart. Here finally is the place where you need neither defense nor offense -- the place where you can truly be open. There will be bliss, wonder, the awe of attaining something pure and sacred.
After that, you will feel adoration of silence. This is the peace that seems to elude so many. This is the beauty of Tao.

Personal Interpretation

Learn to adore the silence if you truly wish to be at peace. When we close ourselves to the world and turn inward, we are free to express ourselves. There is no need to defend ourselves or relentlessly pursue the aims of a materialistic and ultimately transient life. We can simply be. There is great beauty in the silence. It is here that Tao resides and once we experience it for the first time, we will find ourselves drawn to it time and time again. This is as it should be.

September 17th

Stimulation


Sex, coffee, liquor, and cigarettes
Are the totems of today.
Stimulation has replaced feeling.

In today's world, these are the unfortunate equations :Do you want intimacy? Have sex.
Do you want to be energetic? Drink coffee.
Do you want freedom from inhibitions? Drink wine.
Do you want a fashionable prop? Smoke cigarettes.
Why is it that these things have replaced what should naturally be done? Because people have lost the knowledge of how to do these things without artificial stimulation. Why not seek intimacy through sensitivity? Energy through good health? If we overcome our obstacles, we won't need inhibition. Pretension will fall away. Only then will there be a blossoming of Tao.

Personal Interpretation

Stimulation is not the same thing as feeling. We often seek what we need from external source. Ultimately, it must come from within if we are to be at peace with ourselves. We should cultivate sensitivity and good health, should work to be compassionate and aware of the importance of our own selves. All that we need is within. We are not obligated to rely upon the many crutches of artificiality that dominate our lives. The sooner we discover that, the sooner we can return to Tao's embrace.

September 16th

Bridge

Dream arch shimmers in storm clouds:
Bridge between heaven and earth.
Its entrance is hard to find.


In legends, they say that the rainbow is the bridge between heaven and earth. Think how difficult it is to walk this bridge. Not only does it appear very seldom, but we cannot easily find it. It seems to be just at the horizon, but the more we go toward it, the more it eludes us. To find its end, to even stand at its base and contemplate the dizzying heights that must hover over its high arch is even more impossible. If we were to stumble upon that sacred path, could we be light enough and pure enough to walk its raindrop surface to the embraces of gods?
My companion says that he once saw a triple rainbow. What a rare sight indeed! Truly, the land where he saw it must have been blessed, and he was lucky to have such beauty revealed to him.
But then again how high must heaven be to need three insurmountable bridges?


Personal Interpretation

Some say the rainbow is the bridge between Heaven and Earth. How ephemeral it is, seeming to vanish as we approach it. Perhaps there is a lesson in this notion. Heaven is unattainable to us while we are bound to the mortal coil. The best we can hope to do is marvel from afar. A thing is not made less beautiful because it eludes us. Some might argue that it is this characteristic about a thing that makes it more beautiful. There is true value in reaching for perfection even if we can never attain it. Sometimes it is enough to observe a thing, to be immersed in it, to be moved to wonder. We spend so much time glorifying ourselves. Why not glorify nature for once? It holds untold mysteries.

September 15th

Cleansing

Early autumn rain cleanses away smeared heat.
A grateful traveler takes in crystal skies and crisp air.
Distant mountains seem more vast and blue,
And the sound of the waterfall grows more loud.


Autumn is coming. The air becomes fresh and crisp. The fruits of summer are being harvested; the heat of labor is beginning to cool. There is a more relaxed feeling in the air : The fiery activity of summer is replaced by the celebrations of autumn. In spring, we all had to struggle to make the ascendancy of the year. In summer, we reveled in the glory of fire and vigor. Now, we can begin to let things relax. Just as the pumpkins are beginning to fill out, the squash is hanging heavy and golden on the vines, and the leaves are starting to hint of warm colors, so too can we look forward to mellowness and quietness.
This is the time for harvest. But every planting and growing season also leaves behind excess and inevitable waste. The dust of summer still lingers. The stubble in the fields will have to be burned. We must harvest fully and then clean up fully. Harvest is also the time of cleansing and taking stock.


Personal Interpretation

Autumn is upon us. It is a time for harvest and relaxation, a time for reaping what we have sown and for reflecting on what is to come. We can quiet ourselves and take in the warm glow of a world asplash with color as we get our bearings. Excess has a way of accumulating, and this is the season for disposing of it, the time when we can at last conserve our energy. Let us adapt our way of being to the cycle of the seasons and rejoice in our proximity to nature and the wisdom it provides.

September 14th

Breakthrough

In late summer, heaven's breath is damply hot.
It smothers the earth with dullness.
Suddenly, thick clouds gather :
A wave of polar air passes like a frigid rake.
Acorns fall like bullets,
And a new wind breaks through.

When the air is hot and humid, there is a feeling of dullness and stagnation. Everyone is oppressed by lassitude. As the seasons begin changing, fresh air comes from the arctic. Clouds that have been building up begin to dispense rain, and damp air is exchanged for fresh, cool breezes. At night, the heavens are changing so quickly that lightning flashes from colliding clouds, and thunder heralds the revolving of the skies. The same is true of human life. If the heavens cannot endure stagnation for long, how can stagnation last with us? If we find ourselves blocked and frustrated in life, we must look for the inevitable outlet. Nothing is permanent, so how can our obstacles last? We need to look for the first opportunity to set things moving again.
On the other hand, sometimes stagnation comes from our own laziness or incompetence. In this case, then it is we who must show initiative and stimulate a breakthrough in dull circumstances. As soon as we see a chance, we must act. Unless we engage ourselves and events fully, we cannot expect to act sufficiently.

---

Personal Interpretation 

The only constant is change. Stagnation can never last. We should take our cue from nature. The patterns of the seasons mirror what we will know in our own lives. If we can do something about our own life situations, we should. If we are powerless to change our circumstances, we must simply exercise patience and remain vigilant. An opportunity for change will present itself eventually. It is inevitable. To live in concert with Tao is to know when to act and when to wait for the right opportunity to act. Timing is everything.

September 13th

Arbitrary

Meaning in life is arbitrary.
Why ruin the universe with rigidity?


Why do we make the choices we do? After all, we do not have unlimited freedom to do things. We find ourselves constrained by our gender, our race, our economic circumstances, our personalities that were shaped both by genetics and the random processes of life. Furthermore, we find that other people have their own ideas of what we should be doing, and they constrain us still further. A person born into one culture will have entirely different options that one born into another. They may both lead valuable lives, but they will most certainly differ in many respects. The meaning that they find will come from different palettes. We cannot say that one person's life is more valuable than another's.
Of all the people who have lived, have any of them been truly "better" than another? We see in their lives only the exercise of preferences, not differences of inherent meaning.
All meaning in life is arbitrary. It is not tied to god, family, or self unless we define it as such. Nothing in life gives us meaning in and of itself. It is we who assign meaning to objects and relationships. We all try to make the structure of our meaning pretty, but in the end, there is no escape from the feeling that it is all arbitrary.
It might be better not to ruin the universe with our own patterns.


Personal Interpretation

What is the meaning of life? We strive to find a satisfying answer to this question by turning to philosophy, religion, philanthropy, any any number of other things. There is nothing inherently wrong with giving of ourselves or affiliating ourselves with a particular religious denomination, or seeing the world through a particular philosophical framework, unless doing so prevents us from exploring, asking, probing into the unknown. Truly, we are the ones who give meaning to the things that come to mean something for us. Two people born into two different cultures will have different life experiences, and yet neither has had a more meaningful existence, for there is  no objective way of determining what has value and what lacks it. We connect meaning to abstract concepts like god, religion, happiness. What are these things? When queried, many of us cannot answer. And yet, we a are a part of the fabric of existence. We affect our environments and our environments affect us. We will always attach meaning to particular things and people. The trick is to recognize that we are doing it. 

September 12th

Indefinite

Spring was a time of swaggering declarations.
Reaching autumn, one finds few absolutes.
Life is mystery and ambiguity,
Toward winter, that now seems agreeable and comfortable.


When young, one makes heroic attempts. The world will surely bend to our will, we think, and we will surely make grand contributions. Social injustice will be righted. The big questions will be answered. I once went to see a master writer. Long retired, white-haired and fragile, she nevertheless evinced a sharp and discerning mind. I was a novice writer. She had edited hundreds of great authors. I peppered her with all my anxieties and asked her all the questions that my teachers never answered. To most of my questions she would only answer, "Yes." She knew all the answers, and she knew all the exceptions, and she knew the best thing that an older person could tell a younger person was "Yes." Yes, the affirmative. Yes, as in keep exploring. Yes, as in there are no ultimate answers.
I used to push for an immediate resolution to daily problems. Now, I am not so anxious. Is science right about things, or is religion? Is there good and evil on a metaphysical level? Is there one god, or are there many gods, or no gods? A hundred answers exist for these questions. They are all known, but no one agrees. Today, I think it all very fine. Let there be a hundred answers with none of them entirely correct. The asking of the question is already enough.


Personal Interpretation

Exploration is an essential part of human nature, and the best thing we can do for someone with an inquisitive mind is to encourage the asking of questions. It is enough to ask. We need not know the answers. Some might argue that real knowledge is impossible. We must understand the truth of this assessment and yet proceed as if we could know everything. Behaving in this way paves the way for the richest possible experience of life.

September 11th

Conundrum

Which came first,
Experience or meaning?


When we were children, a favorite riddle used to be, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" This conundrum was so sticky that it stayed with us even into adulthood and became a cliché indicating any difficult situation of logic. Maybe meaning in life is somewhat arbitrary. People go to work, and their work becomes part of the meaning to their lives. People marry and have a family and declare that these are the most important things to them. If they had taken different jobs, or if they had married a different person, or if they had renounced the world and had become nuns and monks, wouldn't their lives have had different meanings?
And then we have the people for whom life dictated so many of their meanings : A person with physical deformities will have a much different life than one born healthy. Someone born into a wealthy, aristocratic family will obviously have a much different outlook than a beggar's child. Someone born in Asia will look at life differently than someone born in Europe.
So which comes first, those who say that meaning comes from our definitions, or those who declare that our circumstances determine our meaning?

Personal Interpretation

 To some extent, experience determines meaning and meaning determines experience. The two are interwoven in this tapestry we call life. We may accomplish certain goals and declare that they give our lives meaning because we have accomplished them, or we may seek a certain kind of meaning and find it in these things, allowing that quest to dictate the things that matter for us. Most of us engage in both behaviors at some time or other.

I would argue that meaning is something which we construct for ourselves. We simply are. What we do with our existence is up to us. We must be invested in life; it must come to mean something for us. Sometimes we can intuit what will motivate us to live the best possible lives before we experience much of the world, but that meaning morphs as we encounter the people, places, and ideas which will come to constitute our frames of reference. For many of us, it is difficult to know where to start constructing meaning. Sometimes we must simply start somewhere. The more experiences we have, the more we will come to understand who we are, what our place in the world is, and what matters most to us.

Septermber 10th

Patience

This apple is like a jewel,
With every shade of red and green
And a perfect shape.
What a miraculous fruit.

The owner of an orchard came to visit me one day. He kindly remembers me every year with the best of his crop. As we shared a lunch, the talk turned to fishing. He told me that he had once had a great love of fishing, but that he now had little time for it. "I am an impatient man," he told me. I replied that I thought him very patient. After all, not everyone can plant trees and tend them until they bear good fruit. He insisted that there was something to do every moment and that his orchards needed constant attention. "This year's apples are a bit smaller," he apologized. "I could have made them bigger by thinning the trees. It takes a man an entire day to prune a tree properly, and with over 500 trees, you can imagine the difficulty and expense of the task. So I let the trees grow as they wanted, and was still able to send my crop to market." The apples were sweet, of course, and not nearly as small as he said they were.
Those who follow Tao say that all things happen in their own time. What is lazy and what is hard work? Those who follow Tao say to follow nature. That requires patience. By knowing when to let the trees grow as they wanted, the orchard owner still had a good crop.


Personal Interpretation

We should live in accordance with the rules of nature. It will give and it will take away. Sometimes it will provide us with a bountiful crop and sometimes we will struggle. This is the nature of things. We must work, but when we work with nature instead of against it, we will find that we accomplish what we need to accomplish. We should be happy with what we have, not always desiring more. Gratitude is the greatest harvest of all.

September 9th

Deserving

Prostrate before the altar.
Are you worthy of your deity?
Can you eliminate profanity,
And strive for constant adoration?


It is not easy to worship. Simply going to a temple once a week to have a priest intercede on your behalf is not enough. True worship is a daily act of humbling yourself before your deity and offering a pure heart and holy words. A great holy leader came to my city once. He initiated 5,000 people into a simple practice of chanting. Since that time, it has been a struggle to keep up 108 chants a night. There is no prospect of stopping, no chance of "finishing."
In the same way, all scriptures must be recited. That means daily devotion. Once you begin, you cannot stop for the rest of your life. There is no room for laziness. Your body and mouth must be clean, you must be in a good frame of mind, and you cannot have uttered or done profane things. We must be worthy of our deities.
It doesn't matter if we are "getting anything out of it." Whether there is a response is secondary. The mere act of devotion is its own reward. It brings transformation.

Personal Interpretation

  Daily devotion brings transformation. Without it we stagnate. It is not enough to have someone intercede on our behalf or focus on what we stand to gain from our prayers. The act itself is what is important. It is not always a simple matter to find the time for prayer, the energy for meditation, the drive for repentance. We must constantly work to purify ourselves, must seek to be the best versions of ourselves that we can be. We must look beyond our own selves as we engage in these practices. We are part of a great network of energy. Our own interests are secondary to the betterment of the world into which we had the good fortune to be born.

September 8th

Vitality

Snail, tiny spiral in calcified membrane;
Inchworm, a hairpin dragon;
Bumblebee, blob of velvet black and yellow;
White butterfly, syncopated burst of gladness;
Naked bulbs, white pubic tentacles in crumbling soil;
Pears, children of earth and sun.


If you ever doubt life, you need only spend a little time tending a garden. You will see great diversity. Everywhere that you look there will be some dynamic event in progress. Perhaps it's the way a lotus sprouts up from the rot and mud, or the way that an earthworm dances a writhing passage through the dirt. The smell of moist earth is strangely stirring, the sight of growing trees wonderfully appealing. No matter how well tended a garden is, there is constant entropy and disorder. That is fine. That is the way it is supposed to be. Our schemes and our aesthetics are imperfect. Our minds cannot comprehend the diversity of nature. Let nature take its variegated course. Variety is vitality.

Personal Interpretation

Gardens are full of vitality. There is perhaps no greater microcosm of the processes of nature. We till the soil, plant seeds that will become the food that will nourish us, pick weeds that encroach. Our efforts are endless. This is ok. Things in nature die and are replaced by new things. Decay leads to rebirth. A number of cycles are at work in the garden. The variety that meets our eyes is vitality. It is life. We should work to see the beauty in it, and in ourselves, for we too are vital despite the fact that we often see more to loathe than to love.

September 7th

Reverence

An ocean of ink in a single drop,
Trembling at the tip of my brush,
Poised above stark white paper,
A universe waits for existence.

Everything we do should be imbued with reverence, and so one would think that we should begin with this concept. But no. Reverence only comes with experience and care. Only when we tire of our excesses can there be esteem. Those of us who contemplate our world soon come to have a great sense of wonder. The perfection of the stars, the beauty of mountains and streams, the invigorating quality of clean ocean air fill us with feelings of celebration. In our own small way, we must create and bring order to our lives each day. We must be responsible, and at the same time express the wonder of all that we know as human.
A painter poises above blank paper. It is not the painting to come that is as important as that single moment when all things still lie in a state of potential. Will something ugly or beautiful be created? The stately determination to make something worthy of the materials and the moment is reverence.

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Personal Interpretation 

Reverence should proceed all action. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Reverence often follows profound experiences in our lives. Only when we are able to distance ourselves from the buzz of everyday life can we witness the wonder underlying all of creation. Contemplation brings appreciation.

Think of the artist, brush poised over a blank canvas. What will he create? Will it be worthy? To be reverent is to be on the edge of the unknown, to stand in awe of the potential that is inherent in all things, ourselves included.

September 6th

Outlook

Spawned from a mountain cataract,
The long river surges to the sea.
Its torrents savage its igneous bed,
Yet one blade of rock twists it tightly.
Angry waves plow stone furrows into a maze,
And boats find it difficult to maneuver.
From this point, one man held off an entire army,
And poets found inspiration among the nests of eagles.


Along the Yangtze River is a high cliff. The space for the river narrows dramatically at this point, and the water must back up into a large bay before plunging through the difficult passage. Rocks underneath are treacherous, and even today boats find it difficult to negotiate this stretch. At the crown of the cliff is the Temple to the White King, in honor of a man from ancient times. Numerous historical events took place here. In medieval times, a famous strategist was able to defeat an entire army with a much smaller force. Later, famous poets found inspiration from the high view of the river and mountains. In more recent times, the high cliff served as the headquarters of a warlord.
There are places in nature that can give people great power, but the character of the individuals determines whether the power is used for war or peace. It is not enough to struggle for vantage points. Position must be used with wisdom.


Personal Interpretation

There are natural features that can be quite advantageous to our purposes. The Wise know how to use these to gain important victories. It is the character of the person who determines whether they use their advantage to accomplish peace or war. Both come at a cost. Some might argue that war is profitable and difficult to give up. Others see it as a necessary evil, something that cannot be done away with without doing away with humanity. Others look forward to its eradication. Cycles dominate all things. The only constant is change. Those who are in tune with Tao know when to act and when to wait. Vantage points are important, but they must be used wisely if they are to bring about the kind of change we'd like to see in the world. 

September 5th

Receptivity

I want to make myself an empty room:
Quiet whitewashed walls with slant sunshine
And a fresh breeze through open windows.


Some days are extremely fluid, and all possible courses of action are equally attractive. Rather than do something arbitrary, it is far better to empty oneself completely. Then the more subtle currents of life may be felt. One should avoid the mistake of random action. Arbitrary action will most likely be out of accord with the times. It is artificial, a structure that we impose from our own thought. Such movements are invariably stilted and wooden; they do not have the fresh perfection of the natural.
We do not have enough peace. Yet peace will never be attained by perpetual action. Stirred water never has the chance to settle clear. A tree buffeted by winds can never grow straight. Give up all unnecessary activity. Give up all arbitrary actions. Make yourself receptive. The peace that you seek shall be quickly at hand.


Personal Interpretation

Every action that we take should be purposeful. When there seems to be nothing to do, we should seek the refuge of meditation. By quieting our minds, we open ourselves to Spirit and allow our souls to realign with Tao. Like the tree that is constantly buffeted by strong winds, we cannot grow straight if we do not cultivate peace. And peace is not coincidental-it is something that we have the ability to create for ourselves. But we must resist the urge to act when action will not accomplish anything meaningful.

September 4th

Dove

A dove got caught in the rafters last night.
I had quite a time trying to get her out.
She hit her head several times in panic.
Only when she was stunned was I able to care for her.

In the paper there was this quote from a sage:
"Human nature was originally one and we were a whole,
And the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love."


It was late at night. Her flapping caught my attention. I looked up to see her perched in the rafters. The dove tried to fly out, but she was either hurt or disoriented. She skittered across the ceiling. Landing at the blue windows, she looked out, unable to pass through the invisible barrier. I climbed up and tried to get her to fly out. She let me come very close but was unable to understand my language or actions. She flew from me but quickly lost altitude and landed on the floor. I climbed down and urged her on. There was just a short distance to go, but she panicked and flew into a wall. She fell to my worktable, stunned, breathing hard, a feather lying loose at her side. Only then was I able to put her in a box and care for her.
She couldn't understand my intentions and so was hurt. I was unable to help her without being frightening. Were all living beings once connected? Perhaps so, but in this world, the pursuit of love and compassion is not without pain and confusion.


Personal Interpretation

Like the disoriented dove that fails to see the intentions behind the actions of the soul who would release her from her confinement, we too are ignorant in our willful enslavement to the world. We want the freedom that Tao offers, but we fail to see that those things which seem only to hurt and confuse are their own kind of lessons, meant to enrich our understanding and promote our growth. We must seek a sense of calm within ourselves and stop trying to swim against the tide. 

September 3rd

Tree

Did you measure to attain your height?
Did you use geometry to radiate your limbs?
Did you lament storm-torn branches?
Did you inventory your leaves for the sun?
You did none of these things, yet man in his cleverness
Cannot match your perfection.


When will we give up the artificiality of our tiresome lives and cleave instead to what is natural? All the achievements of man are only monuments to overwhelming pride. There has not been a single man-made item that has been a necessary improvement to the earth. Did we need the Great Wall of China? Did we need the pyramids of Egypt? Did we need the Colossus of Rhodes? Did we need mechanization, steam power, electricity, nuclear power, or computer technology? All our achievements have been for the sake of our exclusive comfort and gratification. We have only advanced the mad tangle of supply and demand that we call civilization. We don't need all this "sophistication" in order to live with Tao. Our involvement in society blinds us to this fact. We ignore the natural order of our own bodies and minds and close ourselves to the point so that only sex and drugs are stimulating enough. We lament that we are lost and alienated. Ironically, the answers are right nearby. If you just go to the nearest tree and contemplate, you will easily see the secret to natural living.


Personal Interpretation

 The monuments we build do not help us achieve the state of being wherein we can experience Tao. We must reconnect with nature and rediscover simplicity to accomplish that. Why not find a tree and meditate beneath its branches? It is truly a work of art, a wonder of the world greater than any on the list of seven that we have devised. It takes what is offered, extends its branches deep into the earth, reaches upward while remaining bound to the the land of its birth. It lives and dies and is reborn again. It does not fight against the natural order but embraces it. If we truly want to know peace, we should do the same.

September 2nd

Garden

Blinding heat divides day from night,
Brands short shadows into fecund soil.
Green tendrils, heavy with beans,
Coil around rustic bamboo racks.
Violet flowers gape erotically among velvet leaves :
A single gourd contains the entire world's dream.

There is a great comfort in growing your own food. You are close to the soil. You use the basic elements -- water, sunlight, earth, air, and plants -- for your work, your sustenance, and your pleasure. You nurture your garden from seedlings to mature plants, tending, pruning, weeding. Year after year, you see cycles come and go, from sprouting to harvest to withering, to seeding again. You eat your plants to live. You don't mind and they don't mind. Some day, you will fall back to this earth, back into the sun-baked dirt, and you will become food for the plants. It's the way of all life, and it's all very agreeable. Those who follow Tao say that all reality is like a series of nesting circles : microcosms within macrocosms. What is close at hand is a microcosm of what is far away. Why search all over for Tao? It is all contained in the seeds of the gourd growing in your garden.

---

Personal Interpretation

 Gardening is yet another way to be close to Tao. When we grow our own food we must put forth different kinds of effort at different points during the year. We must work in accordance with the elements of our environments. In the end the product of our efforts becomes our food, our means of sustaining ourselves. We will return to the earth when we die, and in time our decaying forms will help new life to spring up. We are part of the great cycle of life, and gardening is one of the acts that makes this apparent. Is there any simpler way to give our thanks than to put ourselves wholly into the cultivation of life?

September 1st

Farmers

Plain country folk with rounded bodies,
Skin turning to bronze in the valley heat.
Why talk to them about Tao?
They eat when they are hungry,
They sleep when they are sleepy.
Even a sage with infinite permutations
Could not match their simplicity.


Do you want to know about simplicity? Go live with farmers. Their daily activities are coordinated with the seasons, they are close to the earth, and they do not spend their time figuring out how to attain status. They are honest and plain. They make no distinction between who they are as individuals and who they are as farmers. Those of us who live in cities would be hard pressed to equal the farmer in simplicity. Simplicity, after all, is what Tao most celebrates. Who needs to know all the digits of pi? Who needs to engineer a new monetary policy? Who needs to strive for political office? None of these things is necessary to be a human being.
Give up unnecessary things.

Personal Interpretation

 
 Tao is about cultivating simplicity. To truly know it, we should look at those who live closest to the Earth. Farmers fit the bill. They make no distinction between their work and their identities, for to them they are one and the same. They respond to hunger, exhaustion, and other elements of the human condition. They have no need for spiritual reasoning. They simply are. And that is what each of us should attempt to do. We should be content with simply being. Much of our unhappiness comes from self-imposed limitations and requirements.

August 31st

Dialogue

I still talk in my sleep.
I still dream.
How can there be perfect stillness
When my brain's so noisy?


We carry on a constant dialogue within ourselves. This is the origin of our problems. The very word 'dialogue' means talking between two sides. We could not have an inner dialogue unless there was a split in our minds. We all have two sides; as long as they are not united, we cannot attain the wholeness that spirituality requires.
Even with years of self-cultivation, it is not easy to tame the wild mind. One might appear to have attained perfect control in all waking situations, only to find endless turbulence during meditation and sleep. This is a sign of incomplete attainment. Perfection must be total.
The process of perfection is long and must be methodical. Although our efforts must be to the utmost, we must never risk repressing ourselves. Indeed, rather than shutting away the unpleasant or unruly aspects of ourselves, we must take them all out and examine them. Daily introspection brings harmony to all our facets. Those aspects that are bad can be dissolved. Those that are of advantage can be cultivated. This effort will take many years, but in this gradual way, we resolve ourselves with our subconscious mind and free ourselves from the struggle and conflict.


Personal Interpretation

The inner dialogue that we have with ourselves is an indication that our mind is not whole. A divided mind is unenlightened. We must work to quiet ourselves before we can truly be complete and free of conflict. The process takes years and even those who seem to exercise self-control in every conceivable situation may experience inner turmoil when meditating. Let us reflect on ourselves each and every day. It is within our power to discard that which does no service to us and cultivate that which has the potential to ease the spiritual journey we must all undertake.

August 30th

Heart

Imagine your heart as an opening lotus.
From its center comes a crimson child,
Pure, virginal, and innocent.

One meditation gives this instruction :Imagine your heart opening into a red lotus.
From its center comes a crimson child.
Bring this child out of your body and imagine him or her floating above your head. You, as a child, are holding a sun in each hand while each foot stands on a moon.
Hold this image as long as you can.
It is hard to bring out this child. When you try, you realize how many defenses you have built around yourself. You also realize how the experiences of adolescence and adulthood have stained you. Sometimes, you may even doubt that you have a pure and innocent self to bring out anymore. But each of us does. Each of us must find that crimson child within us and bring him or her out. For this child represents the time when our energies were whole and our hearts were untroubled by the duplicity of the world and ourselves.

Personal Interpretation

There is pure innocence within each of us. We just have to recover it. It is our greatest defense against a duplicitous world. Imagining the child emerging from our hearts is one meditative attempt to rediscover the innocence we possessed in youth. If we can visualize it, we can embrace it, and embracing it will enable us to look upon ourselves and the world with a new set of eyes.

August 29th

Utopia

Chant one million times for world peace, they told me.
Pray three times a day to end all wars.
Practice austerities to liberate all living beings.
But the world's miseries have never diminished.

Periodically, some religious group proclaims that if everyone would just do something like chant, some fundamental social problem would be solved. Claims have been made that spiritual devotion could affect wars, famine, disease, the economy, and overpopulation.Only personal endeavors can be spiritual. What you do with your daily devotions is purely for your own sake. Once you put ideals on a grand scale, they are compromised by the contradictions of life.
There is no utopia. There never will be. There is only the valiant attempt of each person to live spiritually in a world where spirituality is almost impossible.

Personal Interpretation

We are imperfect beings living in an imperfect world. We can never accomplish utopia. We can only seek to live spiritual lives for our own sakes. We cannot purport to offer any absolute solution to social distress. We can only try to be the best people we can be, strive to make what difference we can make, seek truth in a world of illusion. We can make a difference without solving all of the world's problems, and this must be enough for us. And what works for one will not work for all. We must strive to remember this.  

August 28th

Goal

What is an archer
Without a target?

It is not enough to have the philosophy of Tao. One must act. Actions, not words, are important. But mere movement is meaningless. One should have purpose. Short-term goals help us determine each stage of our lives and experience it completely. Long-term goals give us perspective and continuity. Short-term goals help us understand the temporality of life and yet provide us with a way to benefit by that temporality. Long-term goals give focus to the experiences that we accumulate.
Our goals should be entirely personal. No one knows us better than we know ourselves. There is only one universal goal : a gracious death with no regrets.


Personal Interpretation 

 We must all live our lives with purpose. We must all formulate goals that will allow us to achieve what we really desire. We need short-term goals and long-term goals. Each serves a different function in our lives. Short-term goals should feed naturally into more long-term ones. Living a life in accordance with Tao is meaningless if we do not act and act in a way that is true to who we are. Goals help us to achieve this directive.

August 27th

Youth

You've left home too soon:
Dunks frighten you, profligates paw you.
What good is a hermit's jewel?


Young people need compassion and guidance, not obscure mysticism. Here are some guidelines for young people :

Remember that you are always your own person. Do not surrender your mind, heart, or body to any person. Never compromise your dignity for any reason.
Maintain your health with sound diet, hygiene, exercise, and clean living. Don't engage in drugs or drinking.
Money is never more important than your body and mind, but you must work and support yourself. Never depend on others for your livelihood.
Choose your friends and living situation carefully, for they will influence you. Find a mentor you can trust, one who can answer your every question, but never give up responsibility for your own life. No one lives your life for you.
A good education is always an asset.
Emotions are transitory and are not a good way to make decisions.
Every day, you must make decisions. Everything you do will have irrevocable effects upon your life. Before you go down any path, consider carefully. Rivers very rarely reverse course.
Know evil, but do not do evil yourself. Remember, there is a way out of the delusions of life. When you weary of the world, find someone who will show you Tao.


Personal Interpretation

Obscure mysticism is not helpful to youth, who require more direction in life. Guidance is essential in the early years of our lives. We must find someone who will teach us to value ourselves and our resources but to simultaneously look beyond them. We must find someone who can help us to recognize that our emotions and indeed, our life situations are transitory (as are all things). We should contemplate a path before we begin to walk it, and we should seek education and enlightenment at every turn. We must work to maintain our dignity, and that will sometimes be incredibly difficult. We must seek to know ourselves. A good mentor has walked the world, has traversed youth, can give insightful advice and also step back and let their charges make their own decisions.

August 26th

Matrix

This fragile body
Is matrix
For mind and soul.

We cannot afford to neglect our bodies, even if we recognize that we must not identify with them exclusively. Actually, in our search for our true selves, our physical existence is the best place to start. We can alter our lives by how we eat and exercise, and we can expedite our search by keeping ourselves healthy. If we are free of physical blockages and pain, we can identify our inner selves much better. In the search for the mind and soul, it is wise to understand that the body is not the true self, but it is also wise to maintain the body. There should be neither denial nor mortification of the flesh, but it takes a wise person to both maintain the body and look beyond it.

Personal Interpretation 


While we are more than our bodies, maintaining them is essential if we are to be well in mind and spirit. We must eat healthful foods, exercise on a regular basis, rest when that is what we need. Our bodies house our selves on this earth and to neglect them is to damage the rest of us. It takes a truly wise person to care for the body, acknowledge the necessity of preserving it, and also look beyond it.

August 25th

Body

I am not this fragile body.
We are not our bodies. This may seem an odd assertion. After all, there is no other object on this earth that we know more intimately. Why should we not identify with it? What is there about our bodies that is tangible? Of course it has substance, but how do we account for volition? A corpse is just as tangible as a living being, and yet no one would mistake the two. Something mysterious accounts for the differences between a live and a dead body. Something animates us.
It is the mind that directs the energy. But what of the mind can we call definite? It is like a flickering flame : At no point can we determine its exact contours. The more closely we examine ourselves, the more subtle distinctions become. Everything becomes quite indistinct. We cling stubbornly but futilely to the impression that we could find something in the reduction of things.
It's all quite confusing. But one thing is certain : I am not this fragile body.



Personal Interpretation 

 We are more than our physical selves. Our bodies are a kind of shell, a husk. What animates us? What distinguishes a live body from a dead one? When we look upon the corpse of a loved one we have lost, we see a kind of doll lying in the place that was once inhabited by the person we knew. There is an energy that gives us breath, and when we die it seems to leave. It only continues its journey elsewhere. Life is more than substance. It is the state of being possessed by the intangible energy of something greater than ourselves. We can never define it in a way that is satisfactory. It exists all the same. And it is beautiful.

August 24th

Imprisonment


Our subjectivity
Is a mirrored,
Spiked casket.

We surround ourselves with the reflections of our own identities. We think only of ourselves, not of Tao. All we care about is survival and gratification. When will we see that all we have done is to surround ourselves with our own illusions? We do not see the world as it truly is. We ignore the dilemma of our existence. We are like preening idiots inside a mirrored casket. As we build upon our illusions, the box gets smaller. Soon it develops spikes -- the spears of our own egotism -- only we are so self-absorbed that we do not notice the points. We are too in love with ourselves. We prance around, we fluff our hair. And still the casket gets smaller and smaller.
Some succeed in getting out of this trap, but they are so attached that they drag their casket behind them for a long time. Those who drag their illusions with them are only a step better than those who are trapped in them. Only when we realize our true nature does the casket disappear.

---

Personal Interpretation

Most of us live selfishly. We do not pause to reflect on nature or on the needs of others. We live to gratify ourselves. We seek glory in all that we do. With time we become mired in our identities. In a way it is like being inside a spiked coffin that grows smaller all the time. We must awaken to our true natures if we are to escape the fate of vanity. The road to self-realization is not an easy one to walk, but it is the only way to save ourselves from ourselves. Our day to day selves cannot see beyond our own subjectivity. And so we must trust in that deeply buried aspect of ourselves which can.

August 23rd

Stress

Job pressures are overwhelming.
Responsibilities are heavy.
When I close my eyes,
The demands of others are all I see.

Sometimes responsibilities can become so great that you cannot keep your mental equilibrium. Your attention is scattered. Feelings of frustration lead to tremendous unhappiness. Your insides ache. You don't get enough sleep, you eat poorly, and you quarrel with others.The sages may breezily pronounce all of this to be the folly of humanity. They are undoubtedly right, but the words of the sages are too lofty when we are scrounging in the dust for our survival. Many of us must face these pressures, at least for the moment. Even if we would like a way out of this madness, we will not be able to forsake society all at once.
When one is under stress, awareness of Tao is impossible. If you are fighting on the battlefield, or fighting in the office, or fighting in your home, or fighting in your mind, there is no such thing as being with Tao. If you are involved in this type of life, then you must content yourself to face your problems bravely -- until you can do nothing other than renounce it.
Every moment that you are with your problems, you are not with Tao. The best you can do is to remember that our stress is not absolute reality.

Personal Interpretation

Stress is unavoidable. There will be times in our lives when we feel overwhelmed by our responsibilities and by the problems that rear their ugly heads. When we are with our troubles, we are not with Tao. We must work through the pressures of our day to day lives, making time at the conclusion of each day to be with Tao, to bask in its glow, to reenergize. Meditation can give us the strength to get through each new day, while simultaneously reaffirming what is true-and it is not the frustration of day to day existence.  

August 22nd

Spider


Mind in the center
Radiates to eight legs,
Creating a supreme web
To sift Tao.

A spider is a perfect creature of Tao. Its body is an elegant expression of its mind : It spins beautiful threads, and its legs are exactly suited to create and walk its web. From its center, a spider radiates its world out with a spare economy.A spider's posture in regard to Tao is to set up a pattern. Its mind determines this pattern. It realizes the flow of Tao and does nothing to interfere with it. It simply creates its pattern and waits for Tao to bring it sustenance. That which comes to it, it accepts. That which does not come to it is not its concern.
Once its web is established, a spider does not think of expanding unnaturally. It does not make war upon its neighbors, it does not go for adventures in other countries, it does not try to fly to the moon, it does not build factories, it does not try to enslave others, it does not try to be intellectual. It is simply who it is and is content with that.

Personal Interpretation


The spider embodies Tao perfectly. It creates a web, using just what it needs, and it is content with the food that comes its way. It does not have grand ambition, does not attempt to usurp the resources of its neighbors, does not pine for a different existence. It simply is, and it is content on account of this. Perhaps we should all try to be more like the spider.

August 21st

Prophet

The prophets have their secrets
And their certain magic.
I am not a prophet.
I know only the ordinary.
That is my Tao.


Prophets of Tao are a special category. These men and women are acknowledged experts in meditation, philosophy, medicine, geomancy, sorcery, martial arts, science, mathematics, literature, painting, poetry, scripture, history, music, and liturgy. They can do extraordinary things; they can answer any question. The vast number of secrets each of them embodies is staggering. The degree of extraordinary skill they command is formidable. They are great, but that is all.
Those who follow Tao strive for perfection, but they are wary about being called prophets. That is a limited role. Being a prophet represents a great trap baited with the temptation of self-importance. The ultimate aim of following Tao is to transcend identity. Those who call themselves prophets or even masters maximize their identities.
It is far better not to be a prophet, and to eschew the responsibilities, limitations, and temptations. It is far better to be obscure and to be thought stupid. Having someone call you by a title is an interference that you don't need. When you are seeing the greatest wonder of your life, the last thing you want is to have someone blocking the light.


Personal Interpretation


 Prophets are capable of amazing feats, but they are also known for being extraordinary, and this keeps them from having as intimate a relationship with Tao as they might otherwise enjoy. The prophet is known the world over. He or she is defined by identity, but the old teachings tell us that individual identity keeps us from being one with the universe. In order to find peace, we must first learn how to let go. This is no easy task. It is why we should enjoy normalcy. It is why the meek shall truly inherit the earth, and the heavens too. 

August 20th

Labels

Don't call me a follower of Tao.
Following Tao is an intensely personal endeavor in which you spend each minute of your life with the universal pulse. You follow the fluid and infinitely shifting Tao and experience its myriad wonders. You will want nothing more than to be empty before it -- a perfect mirror, open to every nuance. If you put labels on who you are, there is separation from Tao. As soon as you accept the designations of race, gender, name, or fellowship, you define yourself in contrast to Tao.
That is why those who follow Tao never identify themselves with the name Tao. They do not care for labels, for status, or for rank. We all have an equal chance to be with Tao.
Reject labels.
Reject identities.
Reject conformity.
Reject convention.
Reject definitions.
Reject names.


Personal Interpretation

We should be like a perfect mirror, ready to absorb Tao in all its glory. We can only succeed if we get rid of labels. This is why those who follow Tao do not define themselves as followers of Tao. The moment they define themselves, they lessen themselves. Tao is nameless and without form. We  must be likewise, clearing our minds and forgetting our identities. Only then can our souls rest with the divine.

August 19th

Order

Build your life brick upon brick.
Live a life of truth,
And you will look back on a life of truth.
Live a life of fantasy,
And you will look back on delusion.


The good of today is based upon the good of yesterday. That is why we should constantly be attentive to our actions. Take frugal people as an example. They recycle the scraps from their cooking into compost piles. They eat at home rather than in restaurants. They do not waste water. They shop carefully. They do not spend their money on frivolities. This is exactly the type of care that we need for spirituality.
We should not fritter our efforts away on amusements; rather, we should concentrate on endeavors most important to us. We should not randomly gather information; rather, we should try to order it into a comprehensive whole, thereby compounding our abilities to our own advantage. We should not carelessly tell lies, because we will then be divorced from the truth that we seek.
Whether our lives are magnificent or wretched depends upon our ordering of daily details. We must organize the details into a composition that pleases us. Only then will we have meaning in our lives.


Personal Interpretation

 
 We must order our lives in such a way that we can derive the most benefit from every bit of knowledge we gain, step we take, lesson we learn. Waste not, want not should be the slogan we live by. We must build up our lives brick by brick and work to insure that it is the life we wish for ourselves. We should work and live in the name of truth. We reap what we sow. We create order by instilling each act with meaning and discarding everything that does not fit into our overall purpose.

August 18th

Perfection


The hero comes down from the mountain,
Radiant with the power.
Yet one tussle with a dusty old man
Quickly tumbles him into the dirt.

In olden times, young men and women who wanted to be extraordinary trained in the mountains with a famous master. Away from all the distractions of society, isolated in the cleanliness, they remained on a high peak and did not come down until they had attained great ability. Such people were heroes, the pinnacle of cultivation. However, in their subsequent wanderings in the world, such heroes would often come upon some oldster who could quickly best them. Whether in philosophical debate or physical skill, there was always some obscure wanderer who could outshine even the greatest of heroes. Why? Because the hero only had perfection, the strength of youth, and courage. The oldsters had the advantage of experience and wisdom.
There will always be people in the world better than yourself. Learn to recognize those elders who are wiser than you, and respect them. Know that you yourself will not be great until you have lived a long time.
To perfect oneself is difficult but not rare. To have perfect wisdom is rare indeed.


Personal Interpretation

 The pursuit of perfection is a worthy aim, even if it can never be attained in this lifetime, but the achievement and application of wisdom is even more important. Wisdom comes with experience, age, and resilience. We must cultivate patience in order to cultivate wisdom. The journey ahead is long, but worthwhile. Let us begin it today.In the meantime, we owe it to ourselves to respect those who are wiser than we. They can light the way for us.
 

August 17th

Redemption

I meditate daily before the altar,
Yet I am still covered with sin.

In spite of daily efforts to improve ourselves, we still have many faults. We eliminate one, only to find new shortcomings. We free ourselves from some unwanted involvement, only to find new entanglements. Why is it so hard to find liberation? Because our own minds are the source of our difficulties. Each one of us who has intelligence and ambition has profound desire. We want things. We devise strategies to get them. Whether it is the nearly instinctive drive for food or whether it is desire clothed in societal approval, our minds never rest in their hunger for satisfaction. Once we have desire, we grasp for the object of our desire. If the grasping is unsuccessful, we become angry, frustrated, and disappointed. If we get what we want, we only want more.
This grasping never ends. Though we meditate, we cannot eliminate this habit all at once. Therefore, though we may sit with all sincerity before the altar, we must also accept that we will not be quickly redeemed. The follower of Tao knows how to eliminate desire, accept personal shortcomings, and work toward a patient elimination of the mind's own hunger for outward satisfaction.


Personal Interpretation



We are all plagued by desire. We fool ourselves into believing that getting what we want will satisfy us. In reality, we are insatiable, becoming hungrier with each morsel we consume. As we meditate, we should be aware of our shortcomings and seek to eliminate them, but we should also be patient with ourselves. Nothing worthwhile is accomplished in a day. It behooves us to cultivate an attitude of patience. We will never be satisfied by outward things. We must look within and achieve self-realization in order to feel truly at peace. Happiness is not attached to any thing or person, but to a mental state that can only be cultivated by repeated meditation. We must be kind and patient with ourselves while working toward the end goal.

August 16th

Depth

Morning light illuminates the meditating wrestler.
In his mind, even a wooden temple is washed away.
Who could challenge an ocean's depth?

There once was a wrestler who, in spite of his great physical stature, lost most of his matches. He consulted coach after coach, but no one could show him how to win. Although he lacked neither might nor skill, he did lack concentration and confidence. Finally, he went to consult a meditation master who agreed to help. "Your name means 'Vast Ocean,'" observed the master. "Therefore, I will give you this meditation to practice."
That night, the wrestler sat alone in the shrine and first visualized himself as waves. Gradually, the waves increased in size. Soon, he became a flood. Then the flood became a deluge, and finally a tidal wave. In his mind, everything was swept before him : Even the gods on the altar and the timbers of the temple were consumed in his surge.
Near dawn, the water settled into a vast and endless sea. That morning, the master came to check on the wrestler's progress and was delighted. He knew that the wrestler would not lose again.
For each of us, it is only depth of character that determines the profundity with which we face life. We can either add to our character each day, or we can fritter away our energies in distractions. Those who learn how to accumulate character each day achieve a depth that cannot be successfully opposed.


Personal Interpretation

Depth of character is essential if we are to successfully counter the forces which oppose us. Physical might is meaningless if we cannot also master our minds. Concentration is of the utmost importance. It is one of those things which comes with time and practice. If we do not devote ourselves to the cultivation of it, our lives will lack the success that we seek through our various endeavors.

August 15th

Consistency


Without too much trouble,
One can keep to the main road.
But people love to be distracted,
And perspective is difficult.

People constantly declare that they want to walk the road of Tao. They say that all they want is to reach realization. But this is not true. If it were, they would simply walk their road and attain enlightenment right away.Instant realization doesn't happen very often because people become distracted. It is not given to every person to pursue Tao with the utmost consistency. Not every one even wants immediate realization. When enlightenment comes, the world becomes completely insignificant. Some of us still want to explore, be involved, amuse ourselves. That is all right, as long as you know that you are making up games and intrigues. In the final analysis, it is all right to be sidetracked a little bit, but one must always be cautious and come back to the main road without losing too much time or ground.
That is why a strong perspective is at the root of wisdom. One who follows Tao may appear to be going away from the goal, but such a person knows exactly when to pull back.

Personal Interpretation


This life is full of distractions. Many who claim to desire to keep to the main road of Tao are fooling themselves. If they wanted to do so, they would. But we are human, and many of us want to amuse ourselves, explore the more intriguing elements of our environment, smell the roses as it were. This is ok so long as we recognize what we are doing. Delaying the inevitable. The more we learn about the way things really are, the more this world will fall away. It is a frightening prospect. We cling to the known, daring not to delve too deeply into uncharted territory. Perspective means everything on the journey we must undertake. We must live in the world for awhile, but seek to see things from an enlightened point of view. We  may appear inconsistent to those judging our progress. Why remain worldly if the ultimate goal is to leave the world behind? Only we can know ourselves. Have we decided to exist in the world a little longer before letting it go or do we continue to reject the idea of enlightenment? So long as we feel that we are on the path which is right for us and so long as our behavior reflects a more enlightened state of mind, we are right where we ought to be.

August 14th

Repetition


My prayer beads are strung on my life span.
I am not allowed to skip a single bead :
Sometimes the bead is a seed. Or a bone.
Or jade. Or dry blood. Or semen. Or crystal.
Or rotted wood. Or a sage's relic. Or gold.
Or glass. Or a prism. Or iron. Or clay.
Or an eye. Or an egg. Or dung. Or a ball.
Or a stone. Or a peach. Or a bullet.
Or a bubble. Or lead. Or pure light.
No matter what the next bead is, I must count it,
Perform my daily austerities.
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Until repetition becomes endurance.

People seldom understand the power of repetition. What is repeated over and over again can become enduring; what is done in a moment is seldom lasting. If farmers do not tend to their fields every day, they cannot expect a harvest. The same is true of spiritual practice. It is not the grand declaration or the colorful initiation that means anything. It is the ongoing, daily living of a spiritual life that has meaning. Our progress may range from dull to spectacular, but we must accept both. Each and every day should be linked together, strung into a long line of prayer beads. In life, you don't know how many beads you've counted already, and you don't know how many are yet to come. All that matters is fingering the one that comes to you now and taking the spiritual significance of that moment to heart.


Personal Interpretation

Each and every moment of our lives is a bead in the string that constitutes our lives. We don't know how many we have left to count and we must often take what we are given. Anything can be a prayer bead. Sometimes the materials that form the moments of our lives are luminous and sometimes they are duller. Sometimes they have their source in others. Sometimes it is our own actions that give rise to them. We must count and be glad for each and every bead. It is precious. We should count our beads over and over again, for repetition breeds endurance. A farmer must see to his crops on a daily basis if he is to reap a harvest. Likewise, we must practice our spiritual devotions each and every day of our lives if we are to grow in Tao. The very act of daily devotion gives us the strength to endure in the face of hardship. When we doubt ourselves we have only to look upon the beads we have already accumulated and marvel at how far we have come.

August 13th

Prejudice

No mother thinks her child ugly.
No one is indifferent to themselves.

We are all familiar with prejudice. It comes in many forms : nationalism, chauvinism, provincialism, racism. Many of us undoubtedly cry out against these injustices. As long as there is prejudice, we declare, we are never able to fairly know one another. And yet, it is exactly a type of prejudice that also keeps us from knowing ourselves. If we think about it, we ourselves are the ones we most favor. We cater to all our bodily needs, our sensual indulgences, our intellectual curiosities, and our lustful ambitions. When we are sick or disadvantaged, no one feels our pain more or wails more loudly. When we are satisfied, no one rejoices with greater satisfaction. When we are on the verge of death, no one clings with such vehemence.
As long as we are slaves to our appetites, then we cannot have the attention for spirituality. As long as we value comfort over effort, then we shall never have the fortitude for a spiritual quest. As long as we adhere to intellectual ideas over experience, then we can never have a genuine perception of Tao. As long as we insist that we are separate, individual entities apart from the rest of the universe, then we shall never realize oneness.
No mother thinks her child ugly, because that child is her own creation. In the same way, we are inevitably partial to ourselves : We create ourselves. If we are to reach any sort of spiritual realization, we must confront and resolve this prejudice.


Personal Interpretation

Most of us value ourselves over the rest of creation and don't even realize it. We see things from our own perspective and insist that we are separate from the rest of the universe when in fact this is not the case. We must seek to become one with all that is if we are to achieve peace in this life. We must come to feel as fondly about nature as we feel about ourselves. We must feel pride when we engage in some act that benefits someone else. We must come to see how each and every thing we do impacts the universe. We must be conscientious. Behaving thus will reduce depression, confusion, anxiety. Most of the issues we face arise from crises of identity. So long as we fight against the notion that we are a part of a greater network of energy, unhappiness and irresolution will plague us. We have the power to change this dynamic if we so choose.

August 12th

Indifference

For a true master,
Sitting on a throne
Is no different than
Sitting on dirt.

A true master is indifferent to the ways of society. Ambition, knowledge, and religion are equally uninteresting. Why? Because all these things are in the realm of human definition. The holy person transcends all identity. Therefore, wealth or poverty, good or bad, violence or peace makes no difference. Dichotomies are no longer valid to such a person.
Do you find this hard to believe? The degree that you find this difficult to accept indicates the degree to which you are shackled by dualism. True enlightenment comes from understanding the oneness of all reality. Such a realization leads to a perception that all things are truly equal. A master sees nutrition and disease as the same, life and death as the same, morality and immorality as the same. If you give the masters something to eat, they will eat. If they have nothing to eat, they forget that there ever was such an activity. There is no polarity in their lives.
We ordinary people cannot do this. We make distinctions, defend ourselves and our territories. We feel safe only inside declared boundaries. This is the way we define ourselves, but our identities are also our prisons. Only a master knows the meaning of liberation and has complete freedom.



Personal Interpretation

The true master is not imprisoned by duality. There is no distinction between wealth and poverty, health and disease, life and death. Dichotomy is not a word that exists in the vocabulary of the master. The degree to which we find ourselves disagreeing with these statements is an indication of the extent of our ignorance. Identity is a key determinant for many of us. If we don't have ourselves, what do we have? How do we comprehend the rest of the universe if it cannot be understood in relation to who we are? The truth of the matter is that we are one with all things and must strive to accept this reality. We will never find peace so long as we fight against this notion.

August 11th

Charlatans

He sits on a throne with smug confidence.
Skin in bright gold, eyes are reptilian marbles.
Lips are smeared with honey, tongue is virile red.
He exhorts his followers to purge inhibitions.
"Whatever you feel is Tao, and should be indulged."
They scream, they sob, they dance madly.
"Yes! Yes!" he exclaims. "Whatever you do is Tao!"

There are all too many charlatans in spirituality these days. If you meet such self-proclaimed masters, you must be wary. If the way they present to you seems easy, it is probably false. Why should spirituality be any different than any other endeavor? Can you become a ballet dancer easily? Did you learn your job easily? Was it simple to graduate from school? Everything takes effort. It does not stand to reason that spirituality will be established simply by sitting in the presence of a master. Yet people continue to fall victim to this logic. In mass gatherings, a mild hysteria and a herd mentality are cleverly exploited. A teacher will tell you that whatever you do is holy. Whatever is said, though, the teacher cannot claim to give you Tao.
Tao is only gained by the self. Masters are hard to find, and following the road takes solitary discipline. It takes daily work, so how could you get it at a rally? Indulgence is not Tao. True Tao cannot be gained without understanding and strength.


Personal Interpretation

 
 Understanding and strength are required to truly understand and live in accordance with Taoist principles. No one can help you to see the light. We must all work daily to cultivate a new way of being that incorporates those values which help us to live the life we want to live. Compassion should be foremost in our minds and obvious in the way in which we conduct ourselves. A true master of Tao will encourage the exploration of the self, not preach indulgence. We must all be wary of false prophets, so to speak.

August 10th

Be

Tao is within us; Tao surrounds us.
Part of it may be sensed,
And is called manifestation.
Part of it is unseen,
And is called void.
To be with Tao is harmony.
To separate from Tao is disaster.
To act with Tao, observe and follow.
To know Tao, be still and look within.

Tao is within us; we are Tao. It is also outside of us; it is all the known universe. All that we can know of ourselves and our universe cannot account for all that is Tao. What we know is merely the outer manifestation of Tao. The ultimate Tao is called absolute. We cannot know it directly because it has no definitions, references, or names. Our normal minds are incapable of perceiving where there is no contrast. Yet it is precisely this colorless infinity that is the underlying reality to this life.
The only way to fathom it is to remove our sense of division from it. In essence, we must plunge into the mystery itself. Only then will we know peace.


Personal Interpretation

We have no hope of knowing the entirety of Tao. We don't have the faculties to perceive it all in its glory. We can only know its manifestations in this world, in our lives. Tao is both within us and beyond the bounds of our minds and hearts. It is everything and it is nothing. The only way to know it is to allow ourselves to plunge deeply into the abyss. As long as we separate ourselves from the rest of creation, peace will elude us. When we see that we are one with everything, there is no division and harmony can reign supreme.

August 9th

Nonduality


Don't contemplate
As mere activity.
Be void contemplating void.

Once one understands that the ultimate nature of this existence is void, one understands that to be void is the only true mode of meditation. Notice that void is not the object of meditation -- to pair meditator and object creates a dualistic relationship between self and environment that leads one astray. In meditation we are searching for unity. We need something that takes us out of the normal dualistic modes that are the origins of all our difficulties. Therefore, the only true meditation is one that does not put us into a relationship of viewer and object. Any object, no matter how holy, still reinforces the illusion that there is a reality outside of ourselves. What we are trying to gain is the true interior view : There is no difference between our inner and outer realities.
The ultimate meditation is the realization that we ourselves are empty of distinctions, that our sense of identity is only the result of dualistic clinging. Along with that, we should understand that there is really nothing to contemplate, nothing to think about.

Personal Interpretation

We often divide our perception into inner and outer reality. After all, mustn't there be a distinction between ourselves and the world that resides beyond our minds? Taoists don't believe so. We are all part of the same network of energy. Identity is a human construct that holds no real weight. When we die, our life energy is recycled. The sense of self that is tied to this existence is subject to death, but the energy underlying each and every one of us is eternal. Letting go is difficult, but learning to do so will bring us a great sense of peace. The construct of the self is the source of much anguish.

August 8th

Threshold

Why mourn for a cocoon
After the butterfly has flown?

Death is one of the few givens in life, and yet we fear it. We immaturely deny its presence or refuse to take it into account. In life, where so few things are stable enough to serve as true reference points, death is one of our few assurances. Death is not an ending. It is a transformation. What dies is only our sense of identity, which was false to begin with. Death is the threshold of this life. Beyond it is something else, some mystery. We can only be sure that it is unlike this life.
Let us be unabashed in admitting that no one knows death definitely. The closest we may come is a supposed near-death experience, which, by definition, cannot be death itself. Alternately, we can examine other people who have died. We can look at a corpse. When we do, we see that whoever or whatever it was that animated that body is no longer in force. Is that body our dead friend? No. Whatever it was that was the person we knew is gone. What use is there to mourn over a lifeless shell in a casket?
Death defines the limits of life. Within those limits, there is structure upon which to base one's decisions. Whenever one deems that one's life has been fulfilled, one can utilize death as the portal away from this existence.


Personal Interpretation

 Death is the one absolute we have in this life, and while it has a very final feel about it, we should not fear it. It is merely the end of one leg of a journey. It is a transformation. Anyone who has looked upon a corpse can see that whatever animated the person that was is no longer present. Let us make the most of our lives while we still have breath. And when Death comes, let us stretch our arms out to it in greeting. For when Death arrives, we will know that it is time to move on.
 

August 7th

Composure

Although they may have to kill
Or suffer themselves to be killed,
A person of composure remains dispassionate.
Nothing is ever destroyed,
Nothing is ever created.
All is infinity.

For most people, killing is an abhorrence. If they had to kill, they would be horrified and their emotions would be uncontrollable. Likewise, if they were being threatened with death, they would be afraid and would struggle to keep alive. Both those situations involve extreme attachment to what we know and how we wish to remain. Both situations indicate a fundamentally limited view of the world. We assume that we are truly destroying someone. But though this body may be slain, the soul cannot be slain. Every soul is but a part of an infinite, cosmic soul.
You could subtract numerous souls from the world, and the number of souls would not be diminished. Numerous souls could be born, and the number of souls would not be augmented. Nothing is truly destroyed, and nothing is truly born. Only appearances change.
Therefore, people of composure view the transformations of the world calmly. They do not become alarmed with the different permutations of phenomena. They know that these are all merely outer manifestations of an indefinable, unlimited, and infinite reality.



Personal Interpretation

We are all energy. Energy cannot be created, nor can it be destroyed. Thus, the essence of what we are is immortal in a sense. Death frightens us because it feels so absolute. This is only because we can't see beyond the veil of mortality while we occupy our human flesh. Does a room cease to exist because our gaze cannot penetrate the wall the separates it from where we sit? Death represents a kind of wall. It separates us from the next chapter in our spiritual journey. That is all. Composure is an invaluable skill to hone, as it enables us to respond appropriately to every situation we encounter. And how easily it comes when we understand that we are a part of all things and that the existence of our souls will have no end.

August 6th

Ownership


A small boy drives
A hundred ducks to the lake
With a tasseled stick :
A mass of excited white.

A small boy can command an entire flock of ducks with a slender stick. The ducks go contentedly down to the lake to play in the mud. In the end, of course, they end up as someone's dinner.They obey the stick because they respond to their conditioning. In truth, they don't need to obey it. They don't need to be someone's meal. As for the boy, he is doing his job, but he does not own the ducks in an ultimate sense. He exercises his power over them, and they respond, yet neither realizes that their bond is provisional.
Ownership of property is only an artificial construct as well. If we can remember that ownership is something that exists only by definition, then we can give up possessiveness, defensiveness, and greed. What does it matter how much money or land you say you have? You cannot actually own it.
You don't even own your body. Ultimate ownership would mean total control. You would never age. You could make it as beautiful as you wanted. You would never suffer from accidents. But the fact is that we are all imprisoned in flesh that ages, decays, becomes diseased, and can be destroyed by some rather minor accidents. You don't own your body. You live in a borrowed shell. Why not seek the truth that goes beyond the body?

Personal Interpretation

Ownership is an artificial construct. No one truly owns anything. We don't even own our bodies. They are merely borrowed shells for use in this life. It is for this reason that we should seek the truth that we can truly own. There is strength in relinquishing control. Why entertain the illusion of it anyway? Life may disappoint us from time to time, but when we learn that we are not truly in control, it is more difficult to explain our hardship away as the result of some failure on our part. We do not create all of our circumstances. Sometimes the only thing we can do is decide how to respond. We can relinquish ownership of our troubles too, choosing to focus on the positive things in our lives. We are responsible for our actions, and our actions often influence what happens to us, but this is not always the case. Let us make every effort to respond appropriately, gain what control we can over our own selves, and accept all that comes with this life while seeking the truth that lies beyond the veil of mortality.

August 5th

Runaway


They call her useless
And yet push for achievement.
"I want a baby."
They bicker between themselves,
And reproach her for being distant.
"My friends have so much fun."
They dwell on money,
And indenture her to loyalty.
"I can't stand this every day."
She is innocent.
They have ambitions.

There was a girl who was both a good student and a good athlete. Her family did not find that to be enough. They pushed her to spend all her time studying or practicing for her next sport competition. Finally, she could stand it no further. She ran away.Her family was firmly convinced that it was a kidnapping.
In so many families, a girl is told how useless she is. Is it any wonder that she gets pregnant? A boy is told how lazy he is. Is it any wonder that he rebels as an act of individuality?
When parents demand without understanding, they thwart development. Forcing children to fulfill parental ambitions destroys individuality. Before parents blame their children, they should first look to how their daughters and sons were raised.

Personal Interpretation


We should never thwart the individuality of others. This mandate is no less true for parents. Holding children to impossible standards, asking them to fulfill the goals we create for them, does nothing but push them away. The formative years are so called because they shape who we are as people. It may take years to unlearn the harmful lessons imparted by poor parenting. Before we blame others, let us first look to our role in their behavior.

August 4th

Poetry

Anything is subject for a poem :
A catalog of boxing equipment, a collage of other poems,
Serpentine trail of incense, raised deer fur, old shoes pointed pigeon-toed,
Glass and steel cityscape, almond eyes of a saint, weeping tiny flowers,
Sunlight on whitewashed walls, blue shadows of stooped women,
A spring mousetrap, a trickle of blood in the gutter,
The homing swoop of a gull, chill whitecapped bay, scent of eucalyptus.
Green lawn of broken blades, clods of fat earth.
Anything is subject for a poem.Even in sleep, write a poem.
When waking, write a poem.
While loving, write a poem.
Even voting, write a poem.
When angry, write a poem.
While dreaming, write a poem.
The sages say quite seriously that those who wish to know better should cultivate the poet in themselves.

Personal Interpretation


There is poetry in all dimensions of the human experience. We must awaken the Poet within ourselves and strive to see the beauty in all of creation. A cityscape is as fitting a subject for a poem as is a bucolic vista. We craft poetry with the lives that we choose to live, the things that we choose to notice about our world, the perspective we choose to adopt. We have a tendency to want to create order in the chaos of our lives. And that is a beautiful thing indeed.

August 3rd

Decline


Fog chills heaven to gray,
Nights come earlier.
Everyone knows decline,
But few discern its border.

Although it is summer and there are many warm months to come, it is possible to sense that the heavens are already turning downward. Nearly imperceptibly, the fruit is ripening on the trees and the nights are lengthening once again. It is too early to talk of autumn, and yet the next season is on its way.Why do we never prepare for decline? We all realize that it is a valid phenomenon -- we know about the fall of empires, the aging of heroes, the lessening of our own skill -- but we are not always aware of its approach. We often realize too late that we are in a period of decline, and so we are unprepared. It takes a wise person to perceive the moment when things begin to change.
Summer does not fade away in a day. Our actions must accord with the times. Just as the decline of summer is gradual, so too should our actions be commensurate with the pace of change. Even though decline may be approaching, we must gauge how quickly or how slowly events are moving. If we are too hasty -- like someone who notices the first cool breeze and immediately dons winter clothing -- we will be overreacting. It is important to think of decline as something natural and inevitable. Therefore there should be no emotional values attached to it. It simply happens, and that is all.

Personal Interpretation

We should recognize when we have entered a period of decline so that we can prepare for it. It does not happen all at once after all. We should tailor our actions to the situation. We need not overreact to change, but it is foolish to fail to address it. We should not allow ourselves to be defeated by decline. It is a natural process, a part of the cycle of all things. It simply is.

August 2nd

Abundance

Sun in heaven.
Abundance in great measure.
Supreme success
In the midst of impermanence.

The midday sun in summer is the hottest and brightest of all. It symbolizes a zenith, a fulfillment, a period of great brightness. In the affairs of people, it stands for the combining of strength and clarity, which yields brilliance. When the times are in accord, abundance cannot be opposed.The period of abundance is a time for vigorous action. Bright light shines not only on the good but on the bad as well. Therefore, when evil is revealed, all good people must oppose it. Pluck it out by the roots and energetically promote the good.
Abundance is a cause for celebration, but followers of Tao also remember to be cautious. No zenith can be preserved forever. In fact, the time of abundance just precedes an inevitable path of decline. Nothing in life is permanent. Therefore, the wise person enjoys and is gladdened by abundance. But while they take advantage of the time, they also prepare for what will follow.

Personal Interpretation

Those who follow Tao live their lives in sync with nature. The sun is currently at its zenith, and so too is abundance. We are entitled to rejoice, but are also obligated to identify evil and extricate it. We are entitled to bask in the sun, but must also prepare for what lies ahead. Transience defines our world and a zenith precedes a decline. It is best to save when we have more than we need, to consider what may lie in wait for us and to gather together the resources that can enable us to meet the challenges of starker times.

August 1st

Immigrant

Magic doesn't work in this new place.
Native poetry has lost rhythm and rhyme,
Familiar food is labeled a curiosity,
And hostile stares replace familial love.
To be an immigrant
Is to be solitary in the midst of millions.

Immigrants travel from their native lands for many reasons, but in general, they all involve expectations for a better life. For this, they will risk uncertainty, exploitation, discrimination, hostility, poverty, and sometimes even separation from family. Those who survive develop an inner fortitude and determination that sees them through their suffering.The preservation of spirituality is as much a concern as anything else. Spirituality, except in its highest stages, has a definite cultural context. (There is spirituality that takes its power from the land, culture, and time -- that is why most types of magic will not work outside their native lands; there is spirituality that one carries within oneself, and there is a rare spirituality which transcends all time and place.) Immigrants try either to maintain their native beliefs or to adopt the beliefs of their host country. The first option is difficult : They are in a culture incompatible with their native beliefs and will sustain their spirituality only if it was already strongly established. In the second case, where immigrants adopt the host country's spirituality, they must learn an entirely new system. In either case, immigrants must cope with the problems of conflict between two cultures, until they reach a spiritual stage where cultural references become meaningless.

Personal Interpretation


Immigrants either find themselves clinging to the ways of their homeland or attempting to adopt local beliefs. Sometimes they do both simultaneously. It can be difficult for one culture to thrive in a place that favors practices that are at odds with it. Likewise, it can take a long time before someone truly feels that they've made a strange new belief system their own.  With time and practice though, one can cultivate a spiritual awareness that transcends distinctions of culture. This is no easy task, but the immigrant is perhaps in a better position to reach this state of being. He or she is free to look at the world with a fresh pair of eyes. Perspective must necessarily shift as the immediacy of relocation requires great fortitude on the part of the recently immigrated. This strength of characters can be empowering. In a sense, we should all do what we can to go outside of our own comfort zones, for it is only when we leave the familiar that we can begin to understand who we are and how we fit into the grand scheme of things.