Tao Te Ching

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When people see things as beautiful, 
ugliness is created. 
When people see things as good, 
evil is created. 
Being and non-being produce each other. 
Difficult and easy complement each other. 
Long and short define each other. 
High and low oppose each other. 
Fore and aft follow each other.
(Tao Te Ching; second chapter)



 Recently I found myself in a conversation around the topic of "hope". And curiously I found  myself defending the concept. I think this was more a product of habitual thinking. After all, how could anyone possibly have anything negative to say about hope?

As I reflected more on the conversation, the Buddhist exhortation "Abandon all hope!" came to mind. Then I came across this teaching from the Tao Te Ching. This helped clarify my own thinking around the concept.

The fact of the matter is "hope" is a flimsy reason on which to base one's actions because in some ways it sets up a conditional relationship between the act and the result. I will do this because I know something will result, presumably something that is positive and fits one's particular idea of "good". On the surface this seems to be reasonable enough. But as a Buddhist, the rub is the conditional relationship between act and result. Indeed, the very idea of "result" removes one from the present moment and catapults us into the illusory future.

So on what do we base our actions, if not the "hope" that it will bear positive fruit? It seems to me our actions must be grounded in unconditional love, which is to say compassion. We act to reduce the suffering that is in front of us at the moment, both internally and externally. It is a moment to moment, constantly renewing practice. No matter how much we practice, there will constantly be opportunities to reduce suffering. Things will never come to a point where suffering ends because of all our positive action. We, nevertheless, act because it is enough to be the compassionate, loving, non-judgmental presence no matter how seemingly fruitless or insignificant it might seem. This is more an act of trusting than of hoping. Trust is centered in the moment whereas hope is centered in the future. The act exists outside of expectation. It is unconditional. It is pure and untainted by "result".

The Big Thing

We can actualize the Big Thing only through loving small things; loving small things, conversely, is the way of realizing the Big Thing.

Henry Shukman (from the Tricycle article How To Be In The World)

An Experience of Surpassing Preciousness

                                                                                   I came across this passage recently taken from Eugene O'Neill's novel Long Day's Journey Into Night that I find perfectly describes the experience of losing oneself on the journey of self discovery. The imagery is sublime. Enjoy.

 I was on the Squarehead square rigger, bound for Buenos Aires. Full moon in the Trades. The old hooker driving 14 knots. I lay on the bowsprit, facing astern, with the water foaming into spume under me, the masts with every sail white in the moonlight towering high above me. I became drunk with the beauty and singing rhythm of it, and for a moment I lost myself—actually lost my life. I was set free! I dissolved into the sea, became white sails and flying spray, became beauty and rhythm, became moonlight and the ship and the high dim-starred sky! I belonged, without past or future, within peace and unity and a wild joy, within something greater than my own life, or the life of Man, to Life itself! To God, if you want to put it that way. 

Another seminal experience that Shukman had which ultimately became the opening chapter of The Lost City is described below.

It was on the last afternoon of a boat tour in the islands that I found myself alone on a beach. The sun was low enough to shed a broad, scintillating path of light on the ocean. I stared at it, fascinated. I had recently finished writing what would become my first book and was inordinately happy. I had not only found my metier but had begun to put it into effect. I was also happy to be alone. It felt like I had put down a great weight I didn’t realize I’d been carrying. I hadn’t known until then to what extent I normally trammeled my mind, steering it in channels that enabled communication with others. Suddenly a great liberation opened, blissful. I forgot all plans for the future; all hope, all fear vanished. The joy somehow carried a promise of eternity, as if I were nose-up against the beginning and end of time.

I was staring at the shifting, dazzling scales of light on the surface of the sea. Water was transparent, as was air, and come to think of it, so was light. The three substances were in effect invisible. The surface of the sea was nothing but the sheet, infinitesimally thin, where they met. How come I could see anything at all?

As I stared in amazement, it felt as if I—the center of my consciousness—were not where I thought I dwelt, in my body, but had been swallowed by the world. An extraordinary feeling of belonging arose. I belonged utterly, right where I was, and everywhere, and always had.

Then I looked at my hand. It too was no different from everything else. It was one and the same as the sand, the sea, the rocks. It felt like everything, hand included, was engaged in one single declaration of love. The whole world was the single hand. There was nothing else. And somehow, I could hear not only it, but everything. It was the only sound in the universe.

Walking on Earth

photo credit Martin Gommel (license flikr)

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”
—Thich Nhat Hanh, from The Miracle of Mindfulness

Vipassana Teacher S.N. Goenka passes at 90

                                                                               
Goenka was responsible for promulgating insight meditation (vipassana) throughout the West. He believed that learning how to live a good life was also learning how to die a good death. Here is a quote I found regarding that. Find out more on this pioneer here

“Everyone has to observe one's death: 

coming, coming, coming, 

going, going, going, gone! 

Be happy!”

Death Regrets

A palliative care nurse, Bonnie,  in Australia was in the habit of asking her patients if there was anything they would do differently in their lives, or if they had any regrets. "The thing about deathbed regrets is that it is too late to do anything about them. We have to change things now," she said.  The five most common themes that surfaced time and again were as follows:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.  

All Paths

All paths lead nowhere.

Choose one with heart. 

A quotation heard on NPR today which I enjoyed. Much truth simply stated. 

Fear

Fearlessness is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to walk into it. When I walk into my fear, practice there, sit upright in the middle of it, completely open to the experience, with no expectation of the outcome, anything is possible. When our circumstances look impossible or terrifying, there is a way.

Nice Quotation

Making a life change 

is a scary thing. 

But whats even more scary 

is living a life of regret.

Sometimes...