Hawk doesn't think during the hunt. It does not care for theory or ethics. All that it does is natural.
Animals live simple lives close to Tao. They do not need to think or reason: They never doubt themselves. When they are hungry, they eat. When they are tired, they sleep. They respond to the cycles of the day according to their intuition. They mate at the proper season, and they nurture their young according to their own understanding. When they die, they fall under the teeth of predators or the dispassionate turning of the seasons.
By contrast, we as human beings depart from the natural norm, and worry about ethical action. Extremes of behavior have become more varied, running the gamut from the sadistic to the moralistic. Tao considers all this artificial and unnatural. Why divorce ourselves from nature?
The follower of Tao prefers to live completely in concert with Tao, avoiding the interference of theory and excessive thought. Though one must first learn skill and ethics thoroughly, one must come to embody them so completely that they become subconscious. Reacting to a situation by asking what is right and wrong is already too slow. One must intuitively do what is correct. There should be no foreshadowing of an act, nor doubt about oneself.
365 Tao
We find that everything in nature is cyclic and is balanced between the two poles, one relying on the other.
But I still often feel like someone with a fallen angel complex knowing that I am down in the hole and any degree of homeostasis is a thing of the past. In knowing that what is down must come up, I am at peace with glimpses of the workings of the Tao; which is always there. I often fail to see or strive too much to be aware of it; forgetting and getting caught in the struggle of making things happen.
In my effort to stifle my reactions at the baby's funeral, I returned to the void. I sat and breathed and let be what would be. I remembered at that moment (How could one forget!!!! But we do!!!) that my effort to stop my emotional tension only added to it. My letting go, let the tension release itself and my breathing became deep and steady. I was composed and helpful to those in grief.
As in life, I have missed most of the enjoyment being associated with being out of work due to the fears associated with being out of work. As the tension has increased, I have lost or forgotten more and more until I was a man walking across a pond on thin ice.
My intuition, which has served and blessed me well, is now where I am in want to trust it but am leary to do so. My unemployment ends in three weeks. I need a job. With so many closings in this area, jobs equal in pay are scarce. In fact, it is hard to find anything akin to my last position without traveling into Boston metro. But....for three weeks, my intuition has been speaking to me. It annoys and makes me a little fearful that it might be right.
You see, my little private joke has always been that my life path has been rather zig zag. If one in 1970 had stated what I would be doing in say, 1976, then 1986, then 1996, then 2006, I'd say they're farkin nuts.....
So....lets see where I end up now!!!!
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