tao1776

I would like to bring a short film to your attention. Bill Moyers aired this on his program the day after Christmas. The title of this film is from the poet Rumi who stated it like this; Beyond our Differences there is a field. I will meet you there... This Being Human.....is also taken from a poem from Rumi... This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. During this time of the year when we resolve to be "better" I thought that this film, as well as the words of Rumi were entire...

December 8, 1980 - Returning home from the studio, John Lennon is assassinated while walking toward the entryway of his building. On Friday of this month, my son will turn twenty eight years old. On December 8, 1980, my father, who characterized a close resemblance to the famed Archie Bunker, arrived at my apartment to take my wife for a maternity checkup. He could immediately see that my wife was physically shaken and he didn't have to guess why. That was the thing with Archie. He was stubborn, harsh, and at times outright crude. But he had a big heart. His own sense of anxiety over a world going out of control often hid his vulnerability and sensitivity. My Dad confessed his inability to really understand why she and countless others felt the way that they did. But he wanted to support her in her pain. He was moved at the world's outpouring of sympathy for someone that was so different from him and his world. Yesterday my wife and I watched a film entitled, "Killing Joh...

We have all met them. You know, that remarkable person or persons that you gain strength from being with. Someone whose radiant joy and whose embracing outlook on life, masks a laugh lying just beneath a broad smile; the sort of laugh that makes you smile and has you feel alive and special. We like these kind of people. And then there are the curmudgeons. The misanthropes. Those that feel the weight of the boot upon their neck. Its hard to spend time with these oxygen sucking, spiritual vampires. "OH MY GOD!!! LOOK WHAT I HAVE BECOME!!!! " As one who has followed the lessons of the Tao, I have been able to let thoughts rise, enter, and pass on. Like I have stated here many times before; in music or when you dance, you roll with it. You don't get stuck on one musical note. You don't stand in a catatonic pose. You roll, you flow, you move. Like the oak, with its rigid and strong branches breaking when under great stress, a pine might release the weight of a heavy snow ...

A few pictures from around the neighborhood....

That day shall come when, your mother, your father, your friends... That day shall come; when those you hold dear, those that have hurt you, those that have loved you, those that desert you The day will come and go and be to come and go again All that you've known and that which you've seen, smiles and frowns green grass and blue sky... Will be no more. And that includes you. The aim of Zen is to focus the attention on reality itself, instead of on our intellectual and emotional reactions to reality - reality being the ever-changing, ever-growing, indefinable something known as "life," which will never stop for a moment for us to fit it satisfactorily into any rigid system of pigeon-holes and ideas. We seldom stop to think of the countless generations of people that have tread upon our planet earth. Religions have ebbed and flowed through the corridors of time.Civilizations have also grown into towering monoliths giving the false hope that they would last forever. Whi...

What an endless quest, this snow falling and melting, evaporating and ascending to the clouds once more; to become? Snow once more? A drink of water? A drop in the ocean or a child's tear?

Once Chuang Chou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Chuang Chou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Chuang Chou. But he didn't know if he was Chuang Chou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Chou. I have experienced long periods of time when it appeared that I did not dream at all. I'm sure that I did. Its just that I didn't awake during the night or arise in the morning remembering any dream state at all. Then there were those periods within which I would have dreams of epic proportions much like a well directed movie. I have experienced very vivid dreams with well proportioned characters and locations. Some are worthy of analysis and others are beyond what Freudian or Jung would be able to comment on. Some dreams do appear to be the result of some mental Asclepieion that I may have constructed and they be...

I have quoted from Seng Ts'an, the Third Patriarch, who died in 606 A.D. on this blog many times. Here is a closer look as explained by author Jos Slabbert....... The essay does not paraphrase or explain so much as illustrate how Faith in Mind can be applied to everyday life in the modern world. In this way, the essay follows the author's intention, which is to guide the sincere person in her quest to live in harmony with the Tao.The advice given is not designed for passive consumption. You have to live it. There is no shortcut. Only when you apply this in your life, will you gradually begin to understand. 1. Do not pick and choose The Supreme Way is not difficult If only you do not pick and choose. The first couplet of Faith in Mind is emphatic and simple. There is not a word about the intellect, or studying scriptures intensively. It does not refer to any particular dogma you must subscribe to, or an...