The tao,
how deep and still it is.
How clear is its purity.

Metal and stone would not reverberate without it.
They have the sound within them
but unless they are struck,
they produce no sound.
Who could determine the characteristics of all things?

       ~*~

The man of sovereign virtue
proceeds unencumbered
and is distressed to be preoccupied
with the details of the state.
He stays close to the root and source of his capacity;
in his wisdom he is aligned with the spirits.
In this way his capacities are enhanced
and his mind encompasses all that it meets.

The tao gives life to the bodily form,
and the attributes of the tao
give light to life.
One who preserves the body
and lives life fully,
who sustains the attributes of the tao
and clarifies the tao
–is he not endowed with
sovereign virtue?

~*~

He/she surges forth suddenly
and all things follow his unforeseen movements.
Here is a man/woman
with virtues of the sovereign!

Zhuangzi, trans. by Hyun Hochmann and Yang Guorong, Heaven and Earth

Ecce Homo, Latin, is rendered “Behold the man”, when translated into English. The widely know phrase was uttered by Pontius Pilate after ordering the beating of his prisoner, then subsequently allowing his execution. Torturing a designated victim is always a crowd-pleasing move as Pilate, Rome’s governor knew quite well. Strangely humans sometimes feel particularly “manly” when comparing themselves to another in a wretched circumstance.

The passage lifted from the Zhuangzi describes a radically opposed type of manhood, type of womanhood.

The tao is impossible to define, and description is difficult. The reason, the way-making of the cosmos permeates everything, from the stars in galaxies, to the amoeba, invisible to the naked eye living in a drop of creek water. Tao is the framing, the substrate, the rhythm vivifying all things. There is a back-beat like the keeping time of the bass drum which anchors all things. You and I once aware of this crystalline beat, bit-by-bit become more aligned with the flow that suffuses all things. Its the vibe, a hum of conversation in the patron-seating area here at Starbucks, and behind the counter too, the baristas working together to compile the beverages, to fulfill orders. Tao is the sound within.

Life is a spectrum of many events. You and I are struck often with a soft and typical patter like a snare drum. Then life beats robustly upon us as a bass drum. Staying as close as I can to the source and root!

To care for the body is to care for the mind. The separation which we are wont to make by language as if the mind were spiritual and the body base, merely matter… That is a mistake. I’ll say it again: mistake! You and I are a singular, unitary organism. Mind-body is all the same. Want to feel, to experience sovereign freedom, be free-to-the-max? Of course you do! By increasing sensitivity to the tao in the body, a more full life will follow!

So, let’s move ahead affirming our special destiny, improvising, with right response of feeling and mind,  –saying “yes”.

Think less, to feel more…