"You are demons.
You are darkness.
Your soul is at stake. Your soul is light.
Dissipation is the threat.
Don't surrender the key. Just dissolve."
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
359 Sanity
358 Collectivity
"Ancient societies were tribal;
The group did the thinking.
Current society is splintered;
The individual must be complex."
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
357 Rusticity
"The laughter of country folk is uncomplicated.
The laughter of city folk is full of dark nuance.
The ambition of country folk is to grow their crops well.
The ambition of city folk is to overcome others.
The joy of country folk is to participate in the seasons.
The joy of city folk is to achieve sophistication."
Being on earth is medicine. Things come between us and the medicine if we allow them.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
355 Winter
"A homeless man dies in the gutter.
A tree cracks in the cold:
A shocking sound."
We are in the darkest time of the year but the sun is making it's return.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
354 Manure
"Manure makes excellent fertilizer.
Life has ordure."
Commentary at end of video.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
353 Promises
"Visions better than drugs haven't come.
Intelligence exceeding genius hasn't come.
Titanic strength hasn't come.
Beauty to attract lovers hasn't come.
Visitation from gods haven't come.
Freedom from weariness hasn't come.
An end to vexing annoyances hasn't come.
Great wealth hasn't come.
Fame hasn't come.
Unlimited understanding of others hasn't come.
The skill to spontaneously heal hasn't come.
None of these things have come,
Yet I would not forsake this spiritual path."
I'll be sure not to allow the wind disruption going forward. I'm having fun making them, I hope you get some nuggets of delight watching.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
352 Template
"Must you see nature as a machine?
Is your only learning chemistry, physics, and ontology?
What if poetry was your template for life?
Can't you know Tao by the feeling of mud in your sandals?
Thus are the sages called silly:
They have given up their prejudices."
A quick glance around our surrounding culture reveals countless prejudices if we can be honest. We do so many things because it's just the way it's always been done. When I take rides across the country on my dualsport motorcycle I like to take the dirt roads because I get to see and experience so much more. It takes longer on twisty mountainous paths but I'm traveling anyway, I'm going to wind up at my destination, might as well have a rich multicolor tapestry rather than a dull monochromatic freeway trip.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
351 Breath
"You breathe,
Frosting mountains white,
Exciting trees to verdant flame,
Dancing sparrows on your wing,
Swirling waves into long sighs,
You breathe,
And all things live."
We cannot escape the physical laws of the universe. All the ten thousand things are rooted firmly in the zip code where I live 85321 which is the Fibonacci Sequence, aka The Golden Ratio, spirals. Without the physical quality of time instead of spirals it would all be circles, beginning and ending, top to bottom. The Tao is not flat, not motionless, all is made of these cycles moving through space and time. Fire is burning, water is quenching, over there things are growing in complexity, over here simplifying. How many different parts make up this skin suit we walk in? How many times a day do we forget to breathe? Holding motionless and what is motionless but death? What is the message of motionlessness to the many interconnected unseen parts?
B R E A T H E
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
350 Hourglass
"Life is like an hourglass.
Consciousness is the sand."
We are witness to this living, the sand falling. We might be part of the sand but it's falling is not our doing. The Valley Spirit is the falling, where each grain finally rests is not entirely up to us. Where the grain goes is dependent on its surrounding context. Decisions layered in ten thousand other decisions how far removed from consciousness?
I started regularly reading about the Tao over 30 years ago & I find it is best not to grapple with it. Let the meaning come to you as a feather gently comes to rest floating to the ground. Tao is a reflection of you, not revealed by words alone.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
349 Water
"Drops.
Water cleanses,
Gathers in the earth.
Tender. Invasive. Subtle.
Emerges a shining river.
When small, it is weak.
When great, it tumbles mountains,
Rendering great cliffs
Sand"
I could posit water is the most powerful force known. World shaping force; this softly opaque fog, these pounding falls, asteroid shattering ice! Yet without the Valley Spirit it gently rests there benign. We are also water. We are also Valley Spirit. Tao.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
348 Spine
"Tao is the road up your spine.
Tao is the road of your life.
Tao is the road of the cosmos."
"...take these three levels--the movement of energy up the spine [our connectedness to the ten thousand things], the philosophical understanding of one's own path in life [mind/spirit-inventory], and the very progression of the universe [humility]--and meld them all into one combined concept. Then you will have a glimpse of the genius of Tao."
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
347 Clarifying
347 Clarifying
"Express yourself:
That is meaning."
Today's word is Clarifying and the message likens our mind to a well: it is good to pull from it good and bad to let fresh water replenish the well. Contemporary culture says do not express your darker content but not letting these elements be expressed a kind of pressure builds and ultimately they release themselves with a pressured force. In Tao we learn all force regardless of intention results in unintended consequences of unforeseeable magnitude. Things are only broken by the application of force, so it is much better to release the "...lust, hatred, cruelty, & resentment..." as it comes, with intention this can be managed without harm and in fact to good effect as with sublimation. An example is to cultivate and release these darker components we all experience during our exercise, or while expending our creativity, while venting with a trusted friend who knows how not to internalize such venting process.
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