Helping Hands

With a solid print version of Personal Tao nearing completion (now in last edit check, the preliminary version is on the site now). I can begin to concentrate on other parts of the Personal Tao project.

So first lets rock the vote and kick the Personal Tao to the top :)

Vote for A Personal Tao at the Best Stuff in the World!



What's next?

Help get the word out.

Well I have started to track traffic to the site a few months ago. A Personal Tao gets roughly 5,000 visitors with 500 copies of the book read online or downloaded in a given month.

Not bad for a new Taoist site. Yet I have set up the site to serve quite a bit more so I could use help getting word out about the book. Please let your friends know about the site and the goal to pass on a smile. Writing A Personal Tao was my first step towards making a larger difference. Now it's time to begin taking some more direct action: by simply sharing :).

Looking for a good publisher.

While I will always offer a free online version of A Personal Tao and also the hand crafted art versions. I would like to find a publisher to print a more assessable print copy. If anyone has had a good experience with decent publisher they can recommend then please let me know at PersonalTao@gmail.com. I am beginning to explore various possibilities for a general market print version over the next few months.

Thanks for the helping hand :)

Peace

The Pope

Todays headline:

Pope Reaches Out to Islam: Controversy Over His Remarks Continues

Being a bit sleepy I read it as :

Pope Reaches Out to Islam: Converts Over to Islam

Needless to say I did a double take and then realized I needed some more tea to help me wake up. Now there is an Article I would love to read: I could see it: Pope confesses his sins and converts to Islam...


Anyways there is a religous saying:

To the pure all is pure


I suppose a Taoist version of this is:

All religion is true to those who hold it as true.

As Taoist I view religions as being true for those who hold to their faith. In this all religions roll up into a larger truth, a view of humanity and how we reach to the unknown. The point being: Perhaps the Pope is already Muslim... he just doesn't know it.

Peace

Alone but never on my own

I miss you

I feel a tear: a memory of you coming back.

Holding a mug of tea
hot hot warm tea
against my cheek
A single tear
washes the bitter tea to sweet.
Becoming a shower of those I love
coming up and forth
revisiting me.

I miss you,
each one of you

I know these word fall unheard: being too late in the saying.
But they were said,
and now too are of the past.
... Perhaps to travel back to you ...

I miss you

The day moves on.
I am never alone
as my life is the rain.

---

I am never alone, all those I love, will love, do love, roll into who I am.
I might miss you, but I am never alone.


Peace

Poetry of the Now

To lose everything I was
To become everything I can be

To just live now.

---

Been pondering this poem I wrote the other day.

Life is change, our fire flickers about. I have changed so much, yet my nature stays the same: changing to always be myself :)

I wouldn't "change" a thing of my life: even as it shifts to something ever new. For all aspects: the bad, for all the wonder, for the sadness, for the smiles, for the pain, for the bliss, for the mistakes, for the peace...

At least I am myself thru it all.

It's a matter of perspective and that's why I am a magician: I embrace the changes of living itself to be my magic.


:)

Peace

Understanding the Empty Space

I have just finished up rough draft versions of several new sections for the Personal Tao book: here is the empty space section (still in process of revising to flow better) An updated book will be published to the site in a week or so after the edit process goes thru its circles of change.

---

We are the light of our own empty space.

What is the Empty Space?

Take some clay. Feel it in your hands. Now spin it upon a potter’s wheel. What is shaped? A bowl comes out. However, the bowl is defined by an empty space, a space enclosed by the bowl’s very form. The empty space holds the water, filling the purpose of the bowl. The actual physical form of the bowl is reflected by the empty space it projects. The final use and form of the bowl being determined in the moment of free will and artistry used to spin out the shape.

In this example the bowl is made from clay. The clay forming the body, but the actual complete bowl projects out as much more than a clay shell; it must include this “empty space” for its definition. In fact to be a bowl is more about the “empty space” over the materials comprising the bowl.

In living, we each have a physical form which is mirrored by an empty space. The process of shaping this space is the very definition of a person’s free will.

Continue to the full article.

Peace

What’s in it for me?

Seemingly to be oneself should be easy. It isn’t.

In a word life is: Change.

Life is a fire, fueled by personal experience. To focus on a static life shifts this combustion to burn against one’s very nature. A Taoist instead moves with a lifestyle that allows change, permitting one’s life to be calm, cool and with peace. A Taoist embraces change, discovering a meaning of life defined by the complete flow of life’s actions. Each day is a wonder; each day consists of ever new possibilities to experience.

How can we change the world?

If a Taoist were to teach a single concept its:

Be yourself

Culture is the representation of every social interaction. In other words: Society is a reflection of our actions. To be yourself includes the practice of advocating your nature in society. Taoism takes this concept further to state that the best political system is one that allows people to be themselves without hindrance.

Speak and act to your nature. Action dictates a society.

An interesting harmonic forms as society echoes back to force change on its members. Being a reflection of the people itself, society also exerts a pressure for its members to conform to its representation of the larger membership. This reverse reaction often causes people to act outside their nature. In a culture of mass communication, society exerts an unusually large influence to change people. Modern culture has sculpted a large portion of the population to the point where many individuals cannot separate the difference between their life and a lifestyle imposed upon them through law and societal pressure.

The feeling of being lost is often due to a person not really living their life. This is the influence of acting outside one's nature, by living the American Dream over one’s own personal dream.

A Personal Tao is about personal strength. It’s a way to stand up against any form of dictatorship. Voting by one’s actions to how the world should be. If you are curious about what’s in it for you:

It’s the freedom to be yourself.

Continue to the full article.

Peace

Free Will

Why must living be described either as choice in free will or a life being predestined?

Seems odd to me that this is always stated in such a black and white manner.

How about this as an alternative:

A person is always free to choose
But the times of choosing are few

Choose now, simply act
Life always follows.

My personal experience is life consists of both aspects.

Taoism and Politics

Taoism and politics have a long history. Taoism is a peaceful practice, but that doesn't preclude standing up to government practices that disrupt life. To be yourself: includes the practice of advocating your own rights in society.

The best political practice according to Taoism is:
The practice that lets the people be themselves without hindrance.

Society is about the merging of actions of personal statements. Only by speaking out, with action, will society grow to reflect the population that composes it. The point is to speak and act to your nature; it's the only way society can represent you.

:)

Peace

Roads and Broken Stars

I was walking on the west side of Oly near the bowling alley. All the broken glass along the road was spellbinding to watch glittering in the afternoon sun. Anyways this is the poem that jumped out of the refractions of light.


Broken Stars

---

Walking a summer road, following humanities trail.
Revealing light of constellations amid
scattered stars of broken glass.
Glinting remains of Pepsi, 7-up and beer bottles.
Wondering if a lesson is to be found...
Nothing else comes
As man made stars destine me
to silently and hypnotically move along.

Archaeologists document:
The history of any culture is told in garbage.
By this account modern civilization
has already thrown away its tale.
Leaving me to understand:
The time of lessons
just passed on by.

---

:)

Peace