We regard CenterTao as a kind of Taoist ‘watering hole’. Take a sip to taste what you think.
Ways: Various philosophical and practical ways to approach this.
Forum: The easiest place to post your thoughts.
Welcome to the Center for Taoist Thought and Fellowship
Blogging the Way
- Chapter of the Week: An ongoing translation of the Tao Te Ching with commentary.
- Observations: How the world looks as seen through the eyes of this taoist.
- Times of Yore: Autobiography along with taoist observations.
- Bits and Pieces: Everything else.
Treading Water
On the surface, people tend to think the benefit of yoga is increased flexibility and balance. As I see it, this is just icing on the cake. Yoga more that anything else I do helps me get to know myself. This, in turn, helps me ‘to my own self be true’ (”To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man” - William Shakespeare).
Although, it is not actually the doing of yoga that helps me know myself. I only find this when I seek this (”Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” - Jesus). In other words, action is action and nothing more. The value we find lies in how we approach action - any action.… Continue reading ‘Cease Treading Water and Just Sink’
Do Without Doing
This is a balancing act if ever there was one. The tricky part is how our biology always lures us to ‘do what we enjoy’ (pleasure attracts, attractive pleases), and to resist doing what we don’t enjoy. This is what makes work feel like work. Contentment lies in making work feel like ‘fun’, to the point where work and rest become mysteriously the same. That can be a tall order.
I find that knowing what is going on ‘behind the scenes’ very helpful, at least when I’m aware of it. This knowing is not something one can get and stash away in memory somewhere. The knowing must be alive to each moment or it’s nonexistent. Perhaps this parallels the teaching that uses no words. Words are dead and after the fact. The knowing (or ‘teaching’) must be the living fact of each moment. Once one is generally aware of and understands this dynamic, how does one put it into practice? Ah yes, that’s the another tricky part to this.… Continue reading ‘Enjoy What You Do - or - Do What You Enjoy?’
Flames of Desire
The bright glare of emotion, the flames of desire, obscures our view. All we can see are the objects of our passion. As those flames die down and the glare subsides we are gradually able to see what is ‘out there’. Peering through the darkness what do we see ‘out there’? Strain as we might, all we see is our ‘in here’. And what is ‘in here’? Nothing, nothing at all. In the end, what else can one do but hold fast to the void?