A Taoist New Year

Happy New Year

Of all the holidays (or holidaze) New year was the one my family would celebrate with the most heart. The other holidays were just marks on the calendar, but new year, new year was the holiday to let loose soul to be one with soul.

Perhaps this is the secret of new year... the offer and idea of always a fresh start, a fresh day to be who you really want to be. In this, New Year is the closest to a Taoist Holiday we get in the western world. Since on this day we are encouraged to dream and step closer towards our nature. I also suppose that's why so many new year resolutions fail: when making a resolution desiring to be something else over yourself.

So I will make only one resolution, I know I can keep, since it's embracing the moment in action: to send everyone I know a smile

:)

Since this year so much will be changing I wanted to say hi to everyone as Julie and I move ahead to new things while continuing to teach Taoism.

Peace, Love and :),

I hope you also smiled back and had a chance to enjoy the moment with me.

May every day be new for you :)

Always
Casey

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I would like to add two things

1. In this new year, many people might feel overwhelmed from all the political, social and environment changes our world is going through.
   
   In this remember: Taoist Teachings show that we are change. These are times of change, becoming the most powerful times to be alive: since we can use the energy of the times to help make any possibility to be true. (not just the negative ones). So this is a time to flip everything around and make the world truly a new place: a place that will embrace both good and bad to be something new!

   The very fact the world is changing so much, adds more energy into the possibilities of our own lives, to make a difference!

   
   This not a time to give in to fear, but its time to live to your potential and express outward to your nature. 2008 is what we make it to be, so make it a great year, one step at a time.
   
   So in a time of new year resolutions remember to embrace the moment and to embrace what you desire to be as true... in this we can make a difference and a difference will be of a better world, if thats where you step towards.

   Each moment is a new year, a new time to move onward with the possibilities of our life.

   
   
   
2. My friend Mark sent a reply back to me which I would like to share:
   
   

   Casey,
   Being [all that we wish and more] is no further away than our grateful acceptance that we are already [t]here.

   I can think of no better way to share this gratitude than the simple act of smiling…
   

   Together, our smile is wider than our illusion of the space between us…

   Peace,

So very true Mark ;) !

So to everyone I do send out a :) for it does connect the whole world together in the act of acceptance of possibility!

peace

Peace and Consumption

Peace in these holidays.

I wish peace to all...

In peace: I would like to point out a contradiction.

In this holiday being a consumer event... the very act of consumerism is driving 80% of the wars on the planet. So in buying something, also consider this brief spreadsheet of actions represented in some common purchases:

• When buying a new pair of shoes for your child... consider the child staving in Indonesian, who can't afford to enjoy Christmas day as she sews the new Nike shoe...
  
  
• When buying new electronics... know thousands are dying in war zones, created to ensure that the rare earths used in electronic items remain cheap to the companies that produce them.
  
  
• When driving the car to the holiday event... 100,000's of Iraqi's that have died in a war started to maintain Corporate control of the oil supply.
  
  
• Food eaten in the holiday... where pesticides, destruction of forest habitat for new farm lands and poor mass management of the farm system pollute and destroy off entire ecosystems of life...
  

The truth about consumption is...

In consuming,

there is always a price to pay on the flip side of life...

I am not talking politics, morals nor about how you should live. Also this isn't preaching. this is simply pointing out some basic facts of the Western economic reality.


So a question for you now:

Did you get angry at me for writing this post, or in reading this post?

Did you begin to make excuses in the form of belittling what I have written here?

If so, keep in mind... I am not trying to say how a person should live. I have no problems with anyone buying a pair of shoes or computer. I am actually staying neutral in this. As a Taoist, it's not my place to tell anyone how to live. I live in my own balance and accept where I am in my own life.

In Taoism: It's up to each person to find their own balance.

I am pointing out the contradiction in how people think about Christmas, "wishing for peace", while in action creating a holiday that fuels more strife than any other holiday. Seems to me according to Christ's own teachings, he wouldn't be very happy at the current state of his own holiday.

All forms of consumption are a fire... You may not feel or see the fire in the item itself... however, somewhere along the line... another life does get burned/destroyed to fuel the consumption. This is the hidden truth of how our current economic system works...

More respectful cultures will give thanks to that which gives towards serving us. To do so is to respect oneself and the circle of life. The current culture merely tosses pennies and then kicks to side anything used in the process. If we are what we eat, what we use... then this attitude reflects back in our very nature of what we are.

Facts are facts, But facts will not save the world.

What adds up, is how we each live life.

This sounds like preaching since at this point it appears I am telling you how to live. Not the case, Instead this is a post about a Taoist Perspective of the modern Christmas and how it reflects upon us from the actions.

To a Taoist power is in the now,

not afterwards when the facts get sorted out.

From a Taoist perspective

Peace and fulfillment can never be found in consumption,

... Peace is found in the balance of the actions of how you live life

and the following acceptance of our actions as a reflection of who we are.

The actions of Christmas speak very loudly.

If the citizens of the United States truly want peace, then it will not start out by speaking out, it will not start in "wishing peace for all", It most simply starts in the home and how people spend their day to day life.

Peace

Hope is in the moment.

A friend wrote to me saying:

I'm hoping 2008 will be easier and I can spend a little time on myself and our relationship. :-)

The problem is hope on its own changes nothing. The true secret of hope is based upon the moment. This is the power of living in the Now that Taoism teaches.

Just hoping changes nothing, since to reach a destination it takes a start of just the smallest of actions, the smallest of pauses to make a difference. (a difference is what we seek, so you must plant a seed for a difference to occur.)

So stop and when feeling hectic...

Take a moment and simply smile for yourself...

Take a deep breath occasionally and enjoy the breath

Surprisingly, in simply doing just do that... This becomes enough of a action to form a seed of a new and more complete life for yourself.

We make life and solutions to be complicated: since as a person, we have the ability to see into the future.. we see everything that should be happening and so... all the future sight... becomes just paralysis. Because it's impossible to apply all that action we can see happening over years of desires to be within a single moment...

• Don't look ahead,
• Don't add up all the work...
  
  Instead take it a breath and smile at a time...
  
  then that ends up adding up and up and up...
  
  to become the future you actually desire to live now.

Does that make sense?

If not, then don't worry about the details and instead just take a moment to smile :) and examine the possibilities.. not in the future you see.. but rather within a moment of pause to be yourself....

It's within that pause...

that each step becomes visible for your larger life to improve and follow upon.

Smile, when needing to pick a possible next step. Since to smile is to open possibilities.

Breathe when needing a break. Since to breathe is to be at one with yourself.

Alternate the two and your path will become free and clear for an entire life time of wonder to explore.

:) swirl and live

peace

Part IV: More on News

Part 4 of a free style thought.

So this is just my thinking out loud and following where the previous post takes me.

---

Looking back over the past 600 years of western history, it's possible to see the evolution of a society based upon change. From a Taoist perspective those changes are fueled by a population the main stream culture itself pushes into change. The process of change being a direct result of a society that refuses to accept people for themselves.

A simple example : Henry the VIII forming the Church of England when The Catholic Church refused to accept divorce in its doctrine.

Over time the population itself rejects the parent culture to constantly create something new.

We are currently living in a massively large and crazy feedback loop that supports rapid change.

Society as a whole is used to this happening, having evolved in this manner to constantly force the population into change. This is a basic part of the fabric of Western culture now. So much so, that we are blind to this engine of our change.

People might think change is a result of technology driving the way we live. Technology only effects the rate of change, it doesn't impact the reason behind the change. In reality... social change arises out from the differences between mainstream culture and its population.

If we are to look at history, it suggests that modern western society will not directly reform itself to prevent the current consumption problem. Instead we are now watching society push people into creating a new culture, a new solution to humanities problems.

When Modern Society evolves hopefully the power structure will shift into something renewable and sustainable.

The majority of the humanity might think the major problem we face is of renewable energy. And this is half the problem. The other half of the problem is any new solution that arises also needs to be sustainable. If it's not sustainable then western change based culture will just seek another quick fix solution that continues to worsen the problems humanity currently faces.

For example: western society has changed from burning wood to coal to oil... Western society might change its fuel, but the basic problems inside our culture remain the same, causing us to just delay or worsen basic social problems.

We might capture the wind and sun for energy, but that in itself won't be the change which fixes many other problems western culture faces.

What does the overall solution look like?

< insert magic here >

I can wave my hands here, but I am not sure what this would look like in practice

</ insert magic here >

Taoism teaches us... Don't concentrate upon the solution , the destination... Instead be flexible enough to change a little each day, until something evolves that does work.

What can we do?

We can also change the game...

Think about this... Right now.. Seemingly the choice is either change society or have society destroy our very planet...

The current setup and social schema is actually pushing the whole situation to conflict. That within conflict everyone loses (except an elite power structure pushing conflict for personal gain...).

A Taoist knows a third choice always exists. In this case the third choice is to reclaim control of one's life. Yes change will happen... But not in a knee jerk re-action of conflict within the crisis... The Taoist answer to the larger social problems we are now experiencing is to change the overall game...

Be aware, be alive, be yourself: since Taoism in terms of acceptance ends up being the revolution and solution of the next generation. It may not be called Taoism... but acceptance of our life and how we balance it towards the larger world is occurring.

So the real modern issue from a Taoist perspective...

Are you going to be yourself or are you going to just join one of the sides in this current push pull social tug of war being televised as being the only options available?

A Taoist will laugh, step to the side, to be: oneself and in the now live a sustainable renewable lifestyle. In doing so making a larger difference for the better... while also preventing society from controlling personal life in an unreasonable manner. It's not a question of sides, it's about application of personal lifestyle.

300 years ago, the option existed to go to a new world, start a new colony, start a new way far far away. In a sense western culture became a series of disposable societies, where people moved from one culture and onward to the next... It's the way many people want to approach the problems we have now. Whole sale revolution, wholesale start a new community, wholesale ....

The truth becomes.... to re-start a new world: happens in our hearts, in our life, in the way we live.... simply in the now... It doesn't take running across the planet, to a new home to re-start a life... It just takes living to your true ideals in the here and now to restart and kick start everything anew.

A Taoist solution isn't a single new society, it will be within dozens of cultures working together to live in a renewal style of process. It will be based within acceptance of many solutions to tie together a larger world lifestyle. It will take on aspects of all cultures including parts of the current society we may not wish to keep.

This is why it's important to change the game, not to focus on a single new social solution, as the larger solution will become a process of working together... of living together across many communities that actually will make the difference.

Or we can play the game... and continue the cycle of disposable diaper style culture... It's our choice in the end through our actions what we accept and live within...

peace

Part Three: More on news

Lets continue the chain of thought from the last few posts.

Now you may ask

When living as yourself , why not try to focus upon:

Trying to change the world or to stop the global madness?

I fully understand this question. In fact, this was where I started in the process. I have children and I would rather work towards making a beautiful world rather than following the current course of creating a husk of a burnt out polluted shell.

So I spent many many years trying to understand this problem , watching and examining very closely all the options I could find on this subject. I went through every historical example I could find and I looked deeply into my Taoist teachings...

The issue simplifies down to reflection:

Action and re-action.

This has two major consequences:

1) If a person works actively at changing the world... the world re-acts back to changing you.

• If you look back to many of the most famous people who did change the world. It came at a very high cost. Almost always coming at the cost of their very own life and everything they love most.
  
  So if you take the tact of directly changing the world for the better, the process will and does change you and often in ways you will not desire. Often in ways that actually prevent you from changing the world toward a better place. I have watched people lose families, happiness, and well being because of this. I have watched people turn into radicals who's anti-government actions actually end up supporting the government. Now thats twisted!
  
  IN fact watch. We have been seeing and are seeing the American government step up the process of exposing and hunting down "home grown" terrorists who really are loyal Americans trying to support the constitution. Yet their actions will get labeled as destructive and extreme which promote the terror the current government uses to control people... It all loops around in a twisted way. And before you know it, our children are shouting "Don't Taze me bro!" for just asking honest questions.
  

2) What ever tool you use to re-shape the world, forces the world and society to take on characteristics of that very same tool.

• If you start a revolution upon violence, then your new culture will have violence as a very basic part of it's nature.

These were not outcomes I desired.

However, being a Taoist I noticed something. In the way I lived, by being myself, I did make a difference. I could help people and impact my surrounding in my actions. I came to the conclusion that just being being myself, also invoked those very same principles of
Action and Re-Action. In being myself, the world became more like the characteristics I live within. More importantly, by being myself... I didn't get attacked or hurt by the system. IN fact the opposite happened. The more I was myself, the more the world supported me to be myself and continue onwards in making a difference.

This isn't something that is intuitive. In fact we are taught the opposite in American Culture. We are taught action, to fight for what is right.. to go out and make a difference...

Interestingly both sides of the situation are correct: We do have to take action, and we do need to make a difference.. but it's centered upon being ourselves. This is a mixture of Eastern and Western ideals. It works. Maybe not quickly... but it does work.

Then I look around at what others have been teaching, looking at other historical figures who made a difference with peace... This teaching has been around all along ... It's just modern society does it best to try to change the subject since Western Society is currently not based upon peace.

Ghandi said it best when saying: "Be the change you want to be. "

That's why its important not to lose focus. The battle isn't to change the world..

The real path and challenge is living the life

within your life

which makes a difference in the world.

I know this post just repeats past posts. However, it was important to finish the chain of thought in the previous two posts, and I am not sure how many readers will be familiar with the older posts. So here we are full circle.


Peace

More News and the waves of the way....

About that last post. I need to clarify something pretty important.

If you turn off the news, turn off the social fantasy and projections:

It isn't done to change the world, to stop the global madness.

It's done, because, quite simply you desire to live your own life fully.

The rest takes care of itself upon the actions of being yourself.

You see all this is NOT about social changes or improvements of saving the world. It's about living your life well and with grace.

People have asked me: "Do I realistically think that if everyone just turned off the news, it would collapse the entire system?"

Yes actually it would.

The current system would become a ghost town of the past, It's no different than any other human system. It's no different than any of the old ghost towns where I live in Arizona.

When the people leave a town in enough numbers, the town eventually becomes a ghost town... Life moves on to new places...This is true for any social setup we live within. It takes active participants to support, otherwise it dries up and goes away.

Do I expect that to happen? No not right away. But you see all current human systems have a flaw... they consume more than they replenish. Eventually this system will push its limit and create its own change, its own seeds of destruction.

We don't need to worry about that, it will happen and is happening.

Instead live well and with grace now, think ahead to the future.. Not in fear of what is falling apart. No, live in hope and grace towards building what you would like to live in tomorrow in the now.

You see, all systems like ours also contain seeds of hope, of life, and of renewal also... simply from those living in the now.

If you want to be a futurist, if you want to better world for your children... then simply live now in that fashion. It doesn't need to all happen at once, just start and in small steps work your way towards the future.

I live that way now, and it's easy. The mass media would like to make you think otherwise, since it's not their system... Big deal, Fuck them by just being yourself.

It's so simple, that if you live as yourself,

... no one can stop you from making a difference.

This is the Taoist path, and it is the way and wave of the future... But it will have a thousand other names, a thousand other faces... since it is a wave, which is us.

We are living in times of change :) so embrace them as it is, as we make it happen in the now.

Peace

PS

After writing this post I came across this video

We are the wave. :)

Personal Tao News and Updates

I have been updating the Personal Tao site lately.

The changes include a simple Taoism Library where I can begin to post up Taoist works. I made a simple Tao Te Ching comparison link. I had fun posting the materials. So well worth the time.

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In other news... why do we needs news?

Taoism has a pretty dim view about the so called "news" . In a system and life of change, every day is news, but then again not worth sharing, since by time it happens, it's time to move on again isn't it?

I remember as a child being fascinated by the news... it was and ever more so... a large expanding human fantasy of what we think life is... where the problem being... it's totally controlled by an elite power structure shaping the actions of society itself.

Interestingly I watch some of my Taoist friends get absorbed by the news and fall for this trap. Even when they rally against it, and scream about the untruth of the news... That still becomes part of the process in supporting the whole business.

So if you want to solve the problems you see in the news.. The answer is simply turn it off, and live actively and in presence honoring your life locally. This would ripple out to make national news as we all dump the system as the junk that it is... Except if successful, then our little Taoist revelations and revolution won't even be in the news as once enough people turn off the bullshit, it ripples out to shut down the whole crazy corporate televised reality.

Seriously just try it, and if enough people just turned it off... I bet you would see the whole corrupt system start to fall apart.

Will this actually happen? I don't care, since I have turned it all off, and my life has improved 10,000 percent. It's really that simple...

So in truth no news here, Just living , sharing locally with friends our lives and then smiling as I start something anew...each day. The rest will always take care of itself.

Best wishes to everyone. And more power to turning off televised realities. Here's to expanding living life in your life rather than predefined boxes that others sell and tell to you.

Peace

Acceptance

Acceptance

I write about this quite a bit.

But it's a word. nothing more. It's what we place behind the word that matters.

Yes the word captures the essence of what I teach. However, many others have used so many other words to do exactly the same thing. Other Teachers and Masters will use words such as: Love, Peace, Fullfillment, Enlightenment, Grace, God ... all to say the same thing I teach when I say: "embrace acceptance".

I walked thru the library last night. Looking at thousands of books... All saying, all trying to say the same thing.

You see the truth we seek, the secret, the fulfillment, the acceptance , the grace, the love... isn't the word itself...

Truth, is within the shape and movement of your life : Your actions, intentions, laughter, tears, embracing of the surrounding world and touching of your own feelings...

All that is baseline to the true definition of the words we use to guide our path.

The word might be a guide, a shimmering of an idea...You can read thousands upon thousands of books, You can write thousands of thousands of books... But the information is already all about us to use and move forward with.

What hasn't been said yet, is your version of the tale.

Thats performed within your very life.

So enjoy life as it happens, instead of trying to fulfill it from all those thousands upon thousands of books, and masters and teachers. Yes as a guide teachers, masters, books and such can be useful to shorten the harder parts of the path a bit.

But as I just said earlier:

It's what we place behind the word that matters.

which are the actions of our life.

Peace

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Heh, I don't think I need to blog anything else anymore. I am thinking I should stop here.

Best wishes in your path.

Time to move on again. Time to swirl about again. And that is enough of an answer for me.

Laterz

me

Help

I would like to ask for some help at getting a Personal Tao book (http://www.personaltao.com/) connected a little more across the Internet. For example adding a link to del.icio.us or to Yahoo Search and add the tags of : Taoism , Tao with a little info blurb...

Or even helping spread the site and info to similar online resources you may be a part of.

I have quietly been working on this for a few years now and it's time to begin to be a bit more pro-active. :) and ask for some help in making connections.

I know I don't need to ask for help, since on its own, it has been reaching others and so this all moves at the pace it moves at. However, I also know, at times we all should ask for help. Since we are not alone.

We are all interconnected by the asking :)

So its time to ask to for help,

since to remain connected also means to ask for help at times.

A lesson for other parts of life, simply in the asking of help.

Thanks :)

Peace in your journeys

Puzzles

Life is a tapestry of interconnections... weaved by change.

A person changes each day and each day we fit in anew to be ourselves.

This is the puzzle of living. Taoism gives a simple answer in how to piece it all together:

Don't worry about the larger puzzle, just be your own shape.

This is one definition of acceptance. When embracing our shape in the puzzle called life. The answer doesn't matter, since it's already assembled completely in the now. It's a human mis-perception to believe we actually assemble the bigger picture. Instead the point becomes experiencing the shapes you move through while living.

This is easier to do when alone, but harder when mixed in with so many others. When society places pressures upon you to change so other people can be a certain shape. In this situation it's very easy to forget to be yourself when spending so much time fitting into someone else's conceptions:

* In order to get to the next place,
* In order to make it at work,
* In order to keep others happy,
* In order to get ahead
* or make it to the next day just to survive...

In this rush of fitting in, we overlook and forget we are already there: as ourself, as the puzzle piece already fitting into the larger picture.

A Taoist embraces themselves fully, so that the firmness of self acceptance is enough to make society accept them as is.

:)

Within this post is the baseline of understanding the core of every mystical belief. Even when wrapped around layers and layers of other practices and ideas. If you know the core truth of acceptance, then you can understand and be part of any faith, any truth, that others put forth as the secret to life. (just don't tell them that, as people like to make things more complicated. After all others are very busy being their own ego inflated shape.)

For instance to take a quote from the Buddha:

“You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself”.

We are all on the same path. The difference is how we decide to experience life.

Peace

Getting married for all the right reasons

I know people who get married for “all the right reasons”

• · Because its expected of them
• · Because they want children
• · Because they don’t want to be alone
• · Because their family desires it
• · Because the other person is so beautiful
• · Because, because …because… so many “becauses” to pile up the pressure
• · Society paints that’s the happy path

To get married for all the right reasons isn’t enough reason in the world to make a marriage work.

For marriage to work it needs to be a union supporting each person to be themselves and in that union let both partners grow into whatever they might be.

This is why so many marriages fail in the end. People change… and yet the marriage itself refuses to change for each person… In the end something breaks…

Marriage is a like a third person in the relationship… and it’s so often the most unreasonable partner in the relationship. Since marriage is based upon expectations of the many… Anything based upon expectations of the many is a difficult relationship indeed to support!

If you want a marriage to last then let it be a beautiful evolving union. Don’t based marriage upon expectation, instead let it flow with you and your partners dreams…

A marriage might last 1 day it might last a lifetime, just make sure it supports you who are,otherwise whats the point in supporting a false expectation of life???

A Taoist Marriage is one based upon a smile and change. Let life change, let your relationship change with time in order to enjoy your partnership fully.

Peace