This conversation takes place between Confucius and Yan Hui, a court official. Can you imagine a more precarious professional role, than a job in the administration of an autocrat? The topic revolves around how a “fasting-of-the-mind” is advantageous to someone such as Hui. Confucius describes a concentration, a quieting of the will, as one…
The lyric penned by Chrissie Hynde is more true now than ever. Resist temptation, irrational faith in “the system,” that’s going to take care of us. The system is an abstraction, a collection of imagined, dream-like benefits, (democracy protects everyone’s rights, captalism-gets-us-all-ahead, etc.) quite divorced from the way things actually work, the sharp-edged reality….
Monday, a mild day with 45 degrees F at 6:30AM. The poet James Dickey suggests in his poem To Rise To Walk Again that non-human mammals live in a perpetual paradise. That is, they live in a state of perpetual renewal. A consciousness that is filled with each successive moment would be one that…
Saturday morning brings a needed rain. Rain, even as my mind turns to the national No Kings rally scheduled for later in the morning. I plan to participate rain or no rain. What will this multi-city demonstration involving millions of citizens amount to? Nothing at all in the immediate manifestations of human injustice. I…
63 Act without doing; work without effort. Think of the small as large and the few as many. Confront the difficult while it is still easy; accomplish the great task by a series of small acts. The Master never reaches for the great; thus she achieves greatness. When she runs into a difficulty, she…
49 The Master has no mind of her own. She works with the mind of the people. She is good to people who are good. She is also good to people who aren’t good. This is true goodness. She trusts people who are trustworthy. She also trusts people who aren’t trustworthy. This is true…
One of the great rock bands. A Zen-like anthem to solitude, to satisfaction with the “thusness” of things. Love means nothing less than allowing “the world,” especially another human being the space and the time to discover their location, whatever that comes to be. Today is Saturday. Laura and I are off to the…
To take a break from writing about the Tao Te Ching, a song shared with me by a friend merits a good look. The truth telling of the lyricist (Jesse Welles) is extraordinary. As Americans the countries which we care least about, are the countries and peoples that we involve in our machismo parodies….
43 The gentlest thing in the worldovercomes the hardest thing in the world.That which has no substanceenters where there is no space.This shows the value of non-action. Teaching without words,performing without actions:that is the Master’s way. Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu, trans. by Stephen Mitchell Labor Day weekend. “Labor” is what life requires…
33 Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich. If you stay in the center and embrace death with your whole heart, you will endure forever. Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu, trans….
