Ego

I love how it's possible to get so....

Entwined , en-wrapped and finally entrapped into a blog.

Taoism teaches to let go of ego... and it's easy to use a blog to re-enforce ego.


Blogging is a great experience. I use this blog as a sounding board to work on material and think out loud.

However, attention has a down side of artificially pumping up ego. I was going to post a "I will be away for a few weeks post" and I thought.. how silly.. the larger world doesn't truly care if I am away for a few weeks... This was just my ego trying to get attention. Ego sneaking in at that moment.. working at getting some recognition.

At which point I mentally shrugged, grabbed the pesky ego, pinned it down to this post and began to ponder what to do with the little child of my ego today.

As a Taoist I threw ego on the surgery table long ago to dissect and play with. In the end, I kept it, let it play about, since it is part of our nature. Ego can be the source of some entertainment, to help keep life interesting.

But Taoism does teach to remove ego fully... Or does it?

Well it's a question of timing and perspective.

Taoism does indeed teach how to remove ego and many Taoist practices exist for just this reason.

But, that isn't quite right. Don't confuse the destination to be the path. Within the path of living, Taoism teaches one how to accept your own nature. Part of our nature is the ego. So while physically alive, ego is an aspect of the living experience.

At some point, in a Taoist practice, when one "sheds the bones" a Taoist will fully let go of ego, since ego is the glue that holds the spirit to the bones... However, until that point a Taoist keeps ego, as ego is part of our very nature. Instead at first a Taoist learns how to live their life without ego in control.

The initial lesson to learn to live "ego less" initially means learning how to not let ego control your life.

Once embracing this, it then becomes possible to go further. To leave attachment and travel in spirit.

This means many things.

In the West, some would jump to the assumption this means astral projection. It means being able to live selflessly, to share fully in life, going places the body cannot, to laugh when the thunder rumbles and to truly fly in life by embracing the light of the new day.

So the path of letting go of ego, opens up amazing practices... but it's best to leave possibility undefined... for when done openly, this process is the entrance to the larger universe.


Peace

Today's Question

I am interested in texts or scripts. Are there any sacred books, classics, or traditions (including oral traditions) that are very important or at least prevalent in Taoism?
Coming from a catholic school obviously I am used to the edible and scripts, trying to find this in other religions/world views. Is that true of Taoism as well?

A few books can be considered to be universally sacred: for instance the Tao Te Ching. Also depending on which sect of Taoism you hail from, you will have a set of books related to that sub sect. In addition, you have many lineages in Taoism, which maintain their own secret books and teachings.

However, you have to be careful on the term sacred, as Taoism doesn't maintain a western view point of what this means. The books are not sacred, nor are the words. The explanation will need me to meander a bit now to illustrate what this means to a Taoist.

Taoism as a rainbow... isn't defined by scripts or books...

Rather it's 6 billion+ personal choices on how to explore the larger reality.

Books and such are merely starter kits for those beginning to look. However, you don't need a book to find your way as a Taoist.

Additionally, Taoism has very deep roots as an oral tradition. Taoism stresses personal teachers, in part, to help to keep the practice dynamic and changing to conditions of the times.

Additionally, Taoist practice teaches one to listen to the world. From a Taoist perspective to be an oral tradition, also means to "Listen" to nature , to listen to the world around us...

Additionally, in reflection, a person needs to learn to listen internally to how their own mind, body and spirit speaks up.

Additionally, much of Taoist practice isn't spoken or found in the definition of any word as it's embraced from the joy of experience, of traveling life...

Taoism is written within the music of your heart.
Something words only pale at in tenor to capture.

Many people seem to "need" a book to tell them their heart beats now a days.

Instead, Taoist Hermits and monks will go out into the caves to sit for 30 years to merge into the "Additional" truths.

Many in "Western" culture seem to "need" to die, need proof, need certification, in order to go to heaven, or at least that is what a book tells them. Is that wrong from a Taoist perspective. No, it's just another way of looking at the world.

So the Westerners tend to use "sacred book" often as a method to over rule personal truth, to re-define reality to words. For a Taoist this is both alien and misdirected. Reality is a rainbow of perceptions and truth: teachings and books are a small representation of a larger truth. To say a book is "sacred" from a western perspective, implicates the book contains larger truths than what is already around one: implicates when given a choice between personal view points and what is in the "sacred" book, the book takes precedence over the personal view points... This is a dangerous road to travel and causes more personal and interpersonal conflicts than I care to review. So Taoism generally views "Sacred" lightly and places it in perspective of the larger universe.

To a Taoist, we are in heaven here and now,

The wisdom of the teachings of life:

are within the living....

All this forms a truth far larger than any thing written by man. It's just a question of learning of how to read: beyond the words.

Taoism is far older than what western "teachings" can document...

To a Taoist, it is what it is, All the history merely perspective to add additional insights to our current journey.

Western paper documentation, is paper blowing into the winds of time. As prayer flags into the winds, sending out our wishes of what we would wish to be. Yet too often meaningless when only being used to validate ego. Papers and books will pass, yet the Tao is eternal, in that the teaching of its ways: are also eternal...

The only medium which can document such an eternal ideal... is life itself.

As life itself is also eternal.

Words are just filler to help pass the time.

The Tao Te Ching is a great book, but still a book. It will last a few thousand more years and then too pass into time... Yet Taoists and Taoism will go on.

Taoism was around long long before the Tao Te Ching and will be around long after the Tao Te Ching.

But if you are looking for classics the Tao Te Ching is a great place to start!


Peace in your journey of exploration

Morning again

:)

Good Morning

Peace

Fickle

People are fickle beings. I just have to smile watching how others respond to my antics or musings...As a Taoist Teacher I do an excellent job of being not what people expect of me...

It's enjoyable work from my view point...

Interesting thing from a business point of view: people sell expectations...

From a Taoist point of view I smash expectations...

As a result, business is a meandering and always changing affair for me.

If you want to write a best seller: you write in the mainstream expectation...in the mainstream flow. If you want to sell a self help service: again you sell something in the mainstream: like the law of attraction etc...

The mass market is interesting to watch. I only concentrate on working with individuals. It's an interesting thing to watch since in America where people pride themselves to be individuals, so many are just living in the trends, not really being an individual.

It's not something you can point out either : people take it personally: the act of expressing themselves uniquely in a trendy sort of way....

Just another contradiction of of life to embrace and smile upon.

and in mean time

earlier I was in the car watching humanity...

Busily in cars,
Stacking themselves on the freeway
as cord wood to be burnt
as their expression of life.

eventually that will become a poem, until then,

This is a reminder
It's always a choice
on how we express
the movement of our life.

peace

Play

Just playing around. I will have to redo this. I like the idea but I need to go thru an iteration or two still.

Our Nature of Possibility

In a Taoist Lifestyle

Possibility itself...

Becomes our nature.


Peace

Kindness

I have had a long discussion over a series of months with one seeker about how to find the path of the Tao.

The path is hard... becuase a person often cannot forgive or find personal peace with past actions..


A simple solution:

Even if you don't feel "kind" be kind and in time you will become kind...

In this way it will become possible to discover personal forgiveness and discover the Tao.

Many would be surprised that it can be this simple... but this does work. While I can explain in great detail why people make the path harder, that isn't the point: The true heart to many of the successful practices is this simple core action of kindness.

Discover that Taoism is all about Heart.

Peace

Meditation Part 2

For many meditation ends up being a practice to learn how to pause.


...



I was just going to leave the post blank... but instead lets work this with "thought" to "remove thought" to get to a place of pause.

Imagine your mind as a still pond... the thoughts are as ripples.

For many: Meditation is a path of learning how to calm the mind, to let go of thought.

How do you do this?

You just let go. It's the letting go that takes seekers years to learn how to release...

So behind the letting go you have to examine why a person grasps on to thinking so hard...

Typically, the root reason for thinking too much is: something bothers you in life.

When being bothered by something, your mind constantly thinks about how to resolve the "issues"... To a Taoist all issues, are merely illusions of "red dust", of meaningless transient material aspects of life and attachments...

A Taoist instead learns acceptance... once acceptance is embraced, the reasons for spinning constantly in thought, just peel away, leaving one in the still pond. This is the Taoist path. Once embracing this, it's possible to drop into a meditative state without thought or hassle instantly and maintain it indefinitely. In this practice Meditation isn't a separate aspect of your life, you just naturally flow into a meditative state of mind. Once in this state, you can then direct yourself how you wish... However, on average, a Taoist , just maintains a state of awareness to surf and enjoy the wonder as it comes up and forth out of the froth in the surf of living.

So one form of Meditation could be said to be "letting go"... That's the yang path.

This means taking the path of yin: of "embracing acceptance" will yield the same results in your meditation practice.

So if you have problems letting go, flip it around, to try playing around with acceptance instead.

Peace

Meditation

I get the question:

How do you meditate?

To me that question is confusing. Since meditation is a tool, a practice used towards awareness, towards centering, towards acceptance, towards...

Ah there is the key word: towards... movement ... assistance within our path. Keep in mind for a Taoist it's never about the destination but rather: it's all about the journey. As such this means to a Taoist, meditation isn't a separate practice, it's part of the way I live and think all the time.

Back to the original question.

So the question is like asking:

How do you use a tool?

So I have to turn around and ask back:

What would you like to achieve with meditation?

I can't even count how many different variations to meditation exist. Each variation helps a person focus towards certain goals.

So when asking a person to learn meditation. First ask yourself... for what goal are you learning meditation.

More tomorrow...

Peace

Snowing Again

Snowing

Snow coming down,
feeling no time
becoming a child
here and now.

Being outside, amid trees
as snow blew in sideways
against the grey snow blanketed sky.

Cool swirling air
meeting me
forming something more real.
As if
an invisible icy warm scarf
were against the back of my neck.

The cold scent of fresh
Snow
melting around my bare feet.

I thought:
How I wish
this needs to come down
to be measured in feet.
Bringing back so many memories
of being a younger child,
before school:
wishing so hard
for enough snow
to cancel classes
to sled upon
outside... time.

Growing up
is to embrace
the child.

I am happy
being my own child
in each and every moment.
... Walking barefooted in the snow.

---

Personal Journal entry
Prescott, Az March 2008


peace

Enlightement Part 4: Perspective

For perspective:

Do I think I am saying anything new or revolutionary?

Nope.

How could I be when:

Thousands of religions exist
Tens of thousand spiritual teachers are alive and helping
Countless writings and previous poets pondered life.

So the question becomes:

Why do we try?
Why scribble and scratch about as chickens amidst the feed?

All these posts are:
Scribbles of thoughts as I meander each day.
Personal road markers for perspective.

The answer weaves out as:

A Taoist takes anything they write or say lightly.

As I keep pointing out.

It's never about the answers.

What Taoist's take seriously is embracing the moment in wonder.

Thats exactly what each of these posts represents

A moment of wonder in pondering.

After the posting, these blog entries are just as cherry petals in the breeze...

Blowing onwards and away upon the ground,
as the grass continues to grow up and out
from a pink blanket of spring


Very very few will take the petals in as compost for growth.
Possibly a few will look at the various posts and smile.

For myself

I enjoy the wonder in the moment each post represents...

Then to continue to tumble in the breeze.

peace

Part III Hermits, Light and Kindness

What is it most people truly want?

• Food - Shelter
  
  
• Comfort and acknowledgment
  
  
• A sense of self empowerment...
  
  
• Etc, etc...
  

Enlightenment is typically pretty low on the list of things to do for many people.

Matters not.

If you are on the path of enlightenment....

Don't mistake your "inner light" to be a beacon for helping others.

It isn't..

It's your own internal lighthouse in the seas of your life.

When diving into this form of self exploration, our personal inner light becomes a very bright guiding force to help internally in a wondrous journey. However, your inner light isn't something that is directly visible to others.

What is visible to others will be the peace and serenity gained from the process of self improvement.

Peace and serenity are shared in the process of kindness.

Now it's time to connect this post back to an earlier post about kindness.

Don't ever worry about helping others find enlightenment... Kindness itself is the aspect of enlightenment that is sharable to helping others solve the more immediate problems of life.

If you ever desire to be a spiritual teacher for yourself or to others. Remember kindness as a core part of the practice towards enlightenment.

Be kind to yourself..

We are always our own teachers in the life we wander within.

peace

Path of Enlightenment: Part II Hermits and Light

To continue yesterday's post.

Why do people make (or think ) the path to enlightenment (is) difficult.

It's simply a reflection of a person's life.

When making a personal life to be complicated... in reflection typically a person will then make the path to enlightenment to be similarly difficult.

It seems that people make an unconscious choice that the path to enlightenment should follow the path of one's life... this is a pretty simple and direct relationship.

However, if we already are connected , having the "light" within us, then actually no path is required at all to embrace it, all a person has to do is relax and accept it as it is... Since it's there for everyone already...

So here is the trick of the situation: the path of enlightenment... is

(a) the path to become the light...

or

(b) the process of coming to acceptance that one is the light.

the core answer is (b) but 99.99 percent of humanity choses answer (a) to get to answer (b)

A fine difference in grammar. This is the "trap" most people fall into. While option (a) is a perfectly valid choice to explore... it's the path that takes 20 to 30 years of purification and simplification, practice, reduction, personal rebirth and finally acceptance to reach.

The true "trap" here is not everyone accepts that the light is already within themselves, or they don't accept that the light is readily reachable. This is trick of ego, ego has to let go of control in order for the light to shine.

Taking path (b) goes straight to acceptance. However, path (b) will not work, if you hang on to ego... Ego is a very sticky beast indeed. It's sticky for a reason, if it were easy to rejoin to the light... then most of us wouldn't stick around to experience all the hard parts of life either... (I hear a few people going "ah" and getting the connection now)

Seems too simple? That's the point, it is too simple for many people, so instead many people take the harder path for the journey itself. Thats why path (a) is perfectly fine and nothing is wrong for taking it. In fact by taking it, a person does get to experience a whole lot of neat practices along the way to help make the journey more interesting.

This is a core reason why many enlightenment practices teach a person to simplify and reduce down their life to be as simple as possible.

Is this required?

Not absolutely... However, the majority of people who have issues with attachment, typically do require to follow such practices, over quite a few years, to get to the point where they can focus on their inner nature and light.

As I said yesterday. The path to enlightenment is not a matter of dogma, it's a personal choice of direction.

Dogma merely provides guidelines and practices to follow to help a person along the way. For this reason Taoism teaches many dogma's and paths to enlightenment.

I myself prefer option b, which lets me laze under a tree as I watch life bounce about. I have poked about many of the practices within path (a) to help sand down aspects of my nature. Which brings up a point... you can mix and match (a) and (b) also. Live, explore and enjoy life.

Don't worry about the answers, it only comes together once you let it all go... And there is no rush to do that since we have our entire life to play around within to "get it".


I'll be under the tree if you have questions.

Imagine sitting down, beside an old maple tree.
Close the eyes.
Feel dappled sunlight dancing on skin,
Leaves eclipse stray beams
as shadows tango to the light across the body.

Listen to leaves whisper
...joy...
as the wind tussles them
into the air.

Smile as branches complain
in creaking strains
as younger leaves bounce in play. 

Peace

---

PS: more tomorrow.

Hermits, Light and Answers

"The great hermit lives in town"

I am feeling the urge to become a hermit again. This just means I am tired today. But this is the thought that started my day.

In retrospect, I have spent more time in life as a hermit than living as an active member of society. Hermit caves are easily found in abundance: hidden as office cubicles, slums or any place where people ignore each other in the rush of the day.

Taoism is a very personal path. A Taoist keeps their true path in the heart. To someone walking by, there would be no outwards signs of a Taoist master meditating or transforming within the light.

I spent yesterday answering dozens of questions. I see hundreds of different questions... and in fact it's actually always the same question with the same answer. Seekers are hungry for answers, details , books, masters, hope, faith, to embrace angels in dancing... Approaching the problem as if it's about consumption to fulfill oneself to completion...

People generally approach enlightenment, almost as if it were a race, grabbing and stuffing as much light into their core... so they don't have to be afraid of the dark anymore. Unwilling to accept they are the light itself.

The answers are actually quite simple... Its just being human, needing challenges, people make the path for embracing the answers to be the challenge.

It does all come down to being a personal choice. I know this: as I embrace my own personal path quietly within being myself internally as the light and also being externally myself as "Casey" helping others in teaching acceptance.

To a Taoist teacher, patience and acceptance are core, It's important to recognize the inner nature of each person.

Taoism isn't a one size fits all solution, rather all people fit and are within the Tao as part of the answer, the path , the way.

A Taoist Teacher helps a student unfold within their own personal Tao. It's not about teaching the student your path, it's about giving some outside perspective to help the student along their own path in a more graceful manner.

This is the mistake most people make, trying to make some master's path their own.

The path for some will be years in the traveling, for a rare few a moment... Yet it's all in the same time frame, of the lifetime, it occurs within.

Being one with the light isn't hard, when it's in our very nature to be the light: what is hard is being something that you are not. This is where most people spend their time and why it can take 60 years to come to terms with the Tao.

Again it's all a personal choice in the end, within the path we each choose: to play out as our life.

Peace

---

PS: more tomorrow.

Taoist Job Advice In Economic Downturns.

I just got an email from a friend whose company started layoffs and will continue layoffs due to the credit bubble coming apart.

Back long ago when I was paid to make paper airplanes and play checkers (strange story - for another time), I used to work at Boeing. Boeing is a company that lives in boom / bust cycles and layoffs were the fact of life.

An interesting fact I learned is: it's not a bad deal to be in the first lay off wave, since it's easier to find new work (the markets haven't been flooded yet by other people). Also you tend to get better incentives to go at the start of any problem... Ironically, I found it to be a problem that I was considered "valuable" and not laid off. The company used fear on its workers, telling us to be happy since we had a job and then treated workers without respect. So I did some calculations and determined it was best to leave in the first wave and not the other waves, unless of course you really love your job... then you should stay. So when I stopped liking the job and it stopped being fun, I left immediately since bullshit is bullshit and is not pay in the least.

So a lesson to anyone being laid off:

Don't take it personally. It's not a reflection of you... it's a reflection of poor management practices and chaos.

It's only a reflection of you, if you were doing a poor job. If this was the case... This means you are probably not in the right job to fit who you are. This leads me to the second lesson:

Being laid off can be good for some individuals. If you were not happy in the job or were doing poorly... getting laid off can be the event or burst of energy required to help a person redefine their life... not towards work , but towards what you want to be! I know many people who are doing what they love now... because of the energy given to them from being laid off.

The lesson being: be open to possibilities when something seemingly bad happens, it's always possible, always, to make it a positive event! It isn't easy... but it's a good way to approach the problem.

The third and most important point: coming to terms with the current economic problems of the United States. Economically for many reasons, I feel we are at the most major economic turning point within our lifetimes that we will see in the United States.

This cycle of economic change will not happen over a day or two... It's going to unfold over five years in fits and bursts of extreme activity. The market is still in jitters now, but eventually a series of credit bubbles the United States is living upon will "truly" burst and quite a bit will tumble into chaos as a result. The larger problem is we are not upon a single bubble, we are over several very large credit bubbles. The housing market bubble is only one of the smaller credit bubbles. The housing market credit problem is merely a forewarning and sample of what we are facing.

As a Taoist: I don't see this as bad or good. I see it as change. Life is change... So embrace the wild energy of these times to make your life what you want it to be.

My opinion is that the US economy is starting to tank, so we are merely seeing the receding water of the future wave of problems... It's a series of tidal waves... a person can find high ground or can surf it for a wild (so make it fun) ride... However, staying in place typically means being in the middle of the crash.

Following the tidal wave example, one piece of advice: if you can feel or easily see the economic water receding in your life now, then you are for sure not on high enough ground for later.

As a Taoist I always take the surfing option... it's more fun and I get to see the sights as the wave carries me merrily along and I don't mind tumbling about when I misjudge. For most people high ground is the better choice.

Please don't make the mistake many people will: thinking where they are at now, to be the high ground.

You are only on high ground when basing living upon your life , rather than upon burrowed expectations. Since this way you personally can make your life be the high ground...

Please notice how money doesn't directly enter this statement. If you base the answer upon money, chances are very good of being tumbled about by the economic changes coming, as it means playing by old rules and the rules are shifting. The key here is to re-think totally how to answer the problem. I am not saying money won't solve this issue, but it's only a full answer for a select few. So I am looking towards answers which can help more people rather than the already privileged in this larger rigged economic game.

Or

If you are flexible, able to change with the times.

Be aware that with the current series of credit problems: it's going to ripple through the entire economy and not just the financial institutions.


My advice:

• Avoid traps of past expectations. Chaotic times mean new rules of society will emerge. The new rules will not be the same as what it was in orderly times. Anyone who holds on too tightly to the past will often break since the weight of society is often stronger than personal ideals.
  
  Be flexible, so you can retain what matters most to you, as everything else shifts around.
  
  
• Don't be beholden to others in times of crisis. Being beholden to others is a terrible place to be in chaotic times: as they will pass their misfortune onto you. (for example, bad loans).
  
  
• Too many people when preparing for the worse... stop enjoying life.... That is so not living!
  
  We don't live to work. we work to support our life! So even if you decide to prepare for the "worse" ... Take time to fully enjoy your life.. This isn't something that costs money to do, it's an investment in your life with joy, awareness and presence of being...
  
  
• Remember this isn't a change that is happening overnight... We are experiencing a series of major changes occurring over the next 5 years. Be patient with life as it unfolds.
  
  

It's being fully present in your life
that will make the difference.

As a Taoist, if I am wrong: I lose nothing in my lifestyle!

In being flexible, also means always living life fully and as myself. As a result if nothing happens, I have lost nothing. However, if it unfolds as I feel it might, then I simply shift towards a new way of life, each moment, as the moments occur.

Personally these aren't bad times... Rather it's simply a time of change instead of being a time of order... and to a Taoist: every day represents change.

So to live as a Taoist now means nothing at all has changed from our perspective.


peace

Radio

I have been on several Online Radio Shows of late

One with Phil

One with Jena

It's fun, lots to learn. I am used to speaking live in Slam poetry (heh still getting that one down after 6 years.. nothing like poetry to teach a person to chill) and more especially at conferences or live gigs. I love speaking at live presentations , for me thats just mana of the moment, where Taoist attitudes come out to fully play.

Radio interviews are interesting, A bit different, I like doing it, but still a little for me to learn on timing and not say that dreaded humm. Unlike a live presentation where everyone is together and you can adjust to meet the audiences needs directly and very precisely... Radio doesn't have that live feedback loop to help one adjust. It's still fun however.

peace