82 Attunment
"Traversing sun leads to a new season,
Vernal breath attunes the leaves."
Relentless practice unveils the deeper structures of existence. True harmony lies not in escaping fate, but in finding resonance within it.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
81 Sailing
"Infinite expanse,sleek ocean teeming with life,
Turbulent, virile, ever-moving spread,
Seamlessly laid to the brilliant sky,
I float on you in my fashioned womb,
Sustained against your green-black depths.
Those on land never understand maritime life.
Those of the sea are intimate with your moods;
They navigate but are ultimately helpless.
Destinations become useless, drifting the sole reality;
A sailor's fears dissolve into acceptance."
Willingness, acceptance, letting go, serenity, sailing on!
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
80 Opposites
"Before emptying, there must be fullness.
Before shrinking, there must be expanding.
Before falling, there must be ascent.
To destroy something, lead it to its extreme.
To preserve something, keep to the middle."
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
One Hundred!
Wow-- 100 days in a row making these videos! This has been the most intensive journaling experience I've ever been part of. I have grown and changed so much in these 100 days.
It involves so much more than what you see; I wind up having to read the day's page again and again all day long, processing it through decades of higher education of fine art and psychology, 30 years of 12 step recovery, putting the effort toward location scouting, filming, audio, editing, writing, processing, sometimes barely being able to upload in time. Several times I've konked out during a 3am upload, I'm usually asleep around 9pm!
What I'm saying about this process is that it imparts deep learning. Mnemonic strategies are good, repetition has benefits, the strategy of rereading 2 hours later helps cement an idea. To succeed in university studies you learn all these great practices but man this has been some next level stuff! One of the more subtly powerful aspects is that without knowing it I've donned the mantle of Teacher in this endeavor (for anti authoritarians this is difficult) and that affords another unanticipated level of my own education. We really do learn the most from teaching. Part of the subtlety is the social side where normally I would spout my opposition to a particular phrasing or concept but because of this role I can't be so dismissive, I have to sit with the teaching and sit and sit mulling it over until resolution. Powerful stuff!
In a kismetic way these hundred days have also been a very transformative time in my personal life. I'm engaged in a year long remodel and et cetera. Well I suppose too this is a celebration of a new partnership between Trees and I. By the way I just love that people call me Twin and their name is Trees, it's just so perfect "Here comes Trees & Twin!" Twin Trees. The profound background of this relationship is too vast for this current space just know that the entwining of this education and that education bolster and buttress each other making this 100 day journey epically epic!
To celebrate this occasion I would like to do two things; I would like everyone to really know the words for number 78 titled Fear so I will reproduce them here, secondly I would like to go for a fun ride on a motorcycle to a nearby hot spring and take some time to soak it all in. Congratulations to everyone for being part of this social/personal experiment, all parts make up the whole and I appreciate that. I love that I've fallen in love with new voices through this process, you guys send messages a variety of ways and I absolutely love it! I have to say though it is funny in a peculiar way how many people watch or listen but avoid leaving any trace they were here, I have to wonder how deeply the fear tentacles go. Anyway this isn't about that and that has nothing to do with this. Ah the ADHD manifests. Interesting finding out I have that. What was I doing?
Trust the gods within,
Accept given boons,
Illusion is reality's border:
Pierce fear to go beyond.
"In your meditations you will meet gods. These gods are nothing more than the holiest aspects of your own mind; they are not other beings. Your inner gods will grant gifts of knowledge and power. Accept what comes your way without doubt and without fear. You can trust your gods. They will never betray you, for you cannot betray yourself.
Such trust dissolves fear and regret. You will find a resolution to your inner conflicts. The gods will direct you forward to the very border of reality itself. On the other side is vast profundity, the ultimate nature of existence. But the border can be crossed only if you have resolved all fear and regret.
All fear comes from our sense of self. When we stand at the border of reality, we are afraid that we will lose our identities by plunging in. We are afraid of being destroyed. But we came from Tao in the first place. We are Tao. To return to Tao is not to be negated, but to become one with the entire universe. True, we will no longer be who we are now, but we will be one with Tao. In that state, there is no need for fear."
Such trust dissolves fear and regret. You will find a resolution to your inner conflicts. The gods will direct you forward to the very border of reality itself. On the other side is vast profundity, the ultimate nature of existence. But the border can be crossed only if you have resolved all fear and regret.
All fear comes from our sense of self. When we stand at the border of reality, we are afraid that we will lose our identities by plunging in. We are afraid of being destroyed. But we came from Tao in the first place. We are Tao. To return to Tao is not to be negated, but to become one with the entire universe. True, we will no longer be who we are now, but we will be one with Tao. In that state, there is no need for fear."
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
78 Fear
"Trust the gods within,
Accept given boons,
Illusion is reality's border:
Pierce fear to go beyond."
It's a truth that all fear and resentment require self-centeredness. Who wants to be selfish? One can operate from an internal locus of control and be selfless, where joy resides.
I can be dust or I can be this; everything remains either way. The endless beauty will go on. Somewhere in the universe, delightful, magical things are always unfolding, independent of these conglomerate "me."
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
77 Fate
Dispel time
And you will
Dispel fate."
On an island in the Pacific, I met a Taoist monk who invited me to learn something at his temple up the hill. Eight months later, when I left, I realized I no longer understood the concept of 'tomorrow.' Any reference to a future time had lost its meaning. During those eight months of study, no one I interacted with used conventional, segmented time frames. Time simply became 'now,' 'when the time is right,' or 'later.' They would only speak of doing something 'tomorrow' if it was an unpleasant task, as a way of implying it would never actually be done. I'm not sure I can fully explain it, but you might find it helpful to research 'Round Time.' The idea is that everything exists in the present moment, but things appear to change because we move around them. We move around the sun, creating the illusion of change, but is time truly divided into segments? By the way, what he taught me during those eight months was how to breathe. It sounds simple, but it was far from easy.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
76 Sanctity
76 Sanctity
"Every soul is inviolable,
Any thought can be private.
The deepest goal is to
Find sanctity's source."
Cultivating the sacred within begins with seeing the sacred without. Through daily gratitude, focusing on positive aspects, releasing fear and resentment, embracing joy, and practicing reverence, we manifest a life of sanctity. For me, this requires conscious and humble acknowledgment of all that exists beyond myself. To truly see, I must move slowly.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
75 Breakthrough
75 Breakthrough
"Lake shadows color of cold,
Willow branches weep ice.
Swan rises dazzling in the sunlight."
The plateau offers a deceptive stillness. A fleeting gasp before the next ascent. It whispers, 'You've earned a break.' But plateaus are mere staging grounds. To linger is to stagnate, to rest too long, to lose momentum. True progress is the unwavering resolve to rise again, to meet the next sunrise. It is the pursuit of each new foothold that reveals the depths of our potential.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
Meet Mayfairgrin
I met the genius behind these Tao-flowing albums many years ago through mutual friends. We were all performing in the Portland underground way before Portlandia was a thing. Maybe before Underground was a thing. I kid. You'll find them in a variety of projects and monikers but consistently over these many years I've increasingly become a fan.
I hear wilderness patterns in this new album. I won't begin to classify it, as it is multi-genre, but 'wilderness' is a good description. It's an acoustic-electronic mix. Don't get too attached to thinking it's one style, though; these audio treatments morph and change like a micro/macro fractal-note, to song, to album, to discography-like it's one awesome story continually growing and shaping.
Mayfairgrin has a rather extensive back catalog available here, and provides music pay-what-you-can, which is very nice. I haven't heard what's available on Spotify, but it looks like you get way more access on the Bandcamp page (commercial-free). I'll put the Spotify player down below. Here's a sampling of the great visual artwork of the album covers. Follow on Facebook for fantastic visuals and timely updates. An absolute treasure! It's avant-garde, as all great art is, so you might not be ready for it.
74 Accumulation
74 Accumulation
"An opening in the storming sea,
Gold deposited on bones.
Once accumulation has begun,
Take care not to interfere."
You don't get a geomancer/coffin/sea fable every day. For many of us well maybe all of us, we have to practice delaying gratification as it is not our first move. Immediate gratification is how you wind up with a tummy ache or much worse. Knowing one's strengths and weaknesses greatly improves opportunities to delay gratification. A leader does not know how to do all things but they do know how to delegate the work that needs to be done. It seems somewhat odd that doing nothing requires practicing doing nothing.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
73 Affirmation
73 Affirmation
"Stand at the precipice,
That existential darkness,
And call into the void:
It will surely answer."
While one might say the Valley Spirit is the generator of the universe, this is a simplification. Is it the compelling force that weaves me into the tapestry of my destiny? Such questions lead to speculation, which is not my path. My task is simply to close my eyes and step into the unknown with reverence.
By following the Way, aligning ourselves harmoniously with the universe's flow, we begin to perceive reflected echoes—those moments of goosebumps, or a feeling of liberation, lighter than air. The more we struggle or fight, driven by fear's grip, the further we wander from the path. Remember that our embodied self (our "spacesuit"), our mind, and what we might call our spirit can each travel in disparate directions, creating a chasm between us and the affirming echoes of the universe. Meditation serves to reunite these internal aspects, connecting us to the harmony both within and without. Then, acting on faith, we move in alignment with the universe's inherent order, and the reflections draw unmistakably near.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
72 Discovery
72 Discovery
"Seize the mountain spirits,
Make them divulge their secrets.
Only with strength is there discovery."
The landscape of the mind is a wild terrain. Good cartography here is innovative, deeply singular minded, and reflective. Most likely a good idea to take notes.
Also uploaded to follow on FB https://www.facebook.com/twinwhy/
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
What's The Daily-O?
What it is.
This started as a personal project; my special friend and I would wake up and read an entry and discuss it every morning. Knowing this was a long distance relationship the idea came to record and upload them so we could connect even 1k miles apart. Every single video or description or thumbnail contains a reciprocal "wink" to the creature I love more than anything in the universe.
These deposits should reflect several key sparks of the heart and imagination highlighting Taoist concepts like creativity and fun. Personally I like to lean into the relationship of Tao & Novelty therefore each upload might be mostly unique. Tempering both the chaos & rigidity will be the Wu Wei, otherwise we'll go completely off the rails so a looseness should quickly become evident.
Ultimately this is a long form love letter and I'm happy to share it with whoever is willing to partake in our humble offering. The bonfire of mutual admiration we've discovered is a rarity so if that can kindle some candlepower among distant shadows all the more good.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
71 Entertainment
"The mind that turns ever outward
Will have no end to craving.
Only the mind turned inward
Will find a still-point of peace."
I am so keenly aware of my relationship of being still in wilderness to serenity. I must close my eyes and listen to the clouds going by. Nothing for nothing, and peace. Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
70 Independence
70 Independence
"A solitary crane
In winter snow
Needs no jewels."
Solitude is necessary, enjoying it is a prize! I'm happy to say I haven't been bored in over 20 years. It started when I heard the saying, 'Only boring people get bored,' which made me wonder how to avoid being boring. Then, the answer struck me during a re-run of 'The Love Boat': they had an Activities Director. That's it! I have to be my boat's Activity Director. If I become bored it's my own dang fault. I haven't been bored since. Slow times are good for meditation!
Thumbnail Of Horia Boboia used Without Permission
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
69 Illumination
69 Illumination
"Fire feeding on fire."
This field intentionally left blank.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
68 Creativity
68 Creativity
"Storm breaks into pieces,
Clouds charge the horizon.
Revolving of the heavens
Generates all movement."
The thumbnail is me on my dad's back nearly 50 years ago. My father has always inspired me. I would get lost in his wood carvings. He had an incredible eye for photography. It seems now that growing up was largely about me developing enough to be able to move from one of his works to the next. He carved this richly ornate bumble bee in flight, I mean you could hear those wings. The attention to detail, the applied pigments, electric life buzzing in your brain. He's the coolest guy I know and he's exceptionally creative.
67 Returning
"Angles against lavender sky
Flung far across heaven's vault
Unfettered, swallows
Circle back to the nest."
It takes time to understand this topic from the Taoist perspective. Westerners are taught to fear death like it's a shamefully avoidable annoyance or an aspect of greater judgement. It's okay to return where we came from, like a plant receding back to it's root. If you put in the effort perhaps you'll have a good death which is the best thing we can all strive for. No mess, nothing undone, easily forgotten, not a single ripple.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
66 Cycles
"Dawn is a shimmering on the horizon.
Dusk is a settling of the sky."
Everything in the universe is rooted in the Golden Ratio of 85321, the spiral which happens to be my zipcode. Cycles are everything and continual. It's nice to know where things are going.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
65 Ascent
"Chill morning, stone steps.
The path to the temple is steep.
We may stumble at times,
But we must always get up again."
It is truly fantastic how daily practice can shape behavior and perception over time. When I first started meditating in 1994, I could barely penetrate my 'monkey mind.' Now, after 30 years of practice, the awareness is profound. There is always room to improve; we are human animals, after all. Hold to humility, neither getting too high nor going too low.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
64 Unbound
64 Unbound
"Bird song flys unfettered
Over blue sky and green fields.
Once you feel Tao run,
Give way, give way."
Everything is perfect, always is.Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
63 Articulation
63 Articulation
"Rain dripping from eaves
Sounds nature's poetry.
We speak and write to
Explain to ourselves."
I've come to understand that all spiritual experience rests on a foundation of paradox. Taoism is in accord with the natural laws, the physical laws of the universe. That ideal place in the Tao is where you are neither coming or going, and you are both coming and going.
The reason poetry is closer to the spirit of Tao is the same reason spoken language is closer than written language. One way to comprehend this is by looking at the ancient wisdom of sharing: putting things in boxes, labels, numerical sequence, dogma, et cetera is to restrict it's flow. Western concepts of time, language, property all distort and restrain the natural spirit of them and everything around them. Taking Taoism too far, into the realm of the religious, does the same.
Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
62 Interpretation
62 Interpretation
"All that we experience is subjective.
There is no sensation without interpretation.
We create the world and ourselves;
Only when we stop do we see the truth."
I think of it as veils we are looking through. Whatever we think we are seeing, hearing, sensing is actually a series of alchemical process we are creating. What and how we are processing is constantly being updated based on experience of perceived rewards and punishments. Meditation is a way of cleaning out the hopper, the filtration system.
We need to clear out this muck because it is representations of representations soon enough entirely illusory. When we see a thing it is replaced by the nearest known representation in our memory. We are not constantly taking in all this information, that would fry our processing unit, instead our minds reflect the nearest proximation and fills in patterns of all kinds. Our memory is akin to the Telephone game, each representation becomes increasingly simplified. Think of times you run on "autopilot" like driving home or some task you've done a heap of times; in such cases you can become aware that you really aren't seeing what you are looking at just a stripped down base root of it. This phenomena exists with conversations, reactions, interpretation, kind of a zombified sleepwalking.Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
61 Sorrow
61 Sorrow
"Rain scatters plum petals;
Weeping stains the earth.
One can only take shelter
And wait for clearing."
We experience grief whenever we experience significant loss, significance can be little or great, even a small thing can elicit grief. We cannot pick and choose grief it begins physiologically, it's a biological response to stressors.
Mindfulness is an all around powerful process but in times of grief really useful. Plainly grief causes confusion so even if it is telling you to isolate this is an ideal time to lean on community. Being psychologically impacted by this biological process is a kind of injury and mindfully recognizing that should make it easier to call on friends for assistance, that is just what you do when you're injured. This too shall pass.Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
60 Celibacy
60 Celibacy
"In winter, animals do not mate. Preserve your Tao By preserving your essence."
I don't agree with telling anyone what they should do, that isn't in the Tao Te Ching, but it is true that the implications involved run very deep and one would do well to consider that thoroughly. No, advocating for a straight pepper diet is not the Way, we aren't here to present religious views. It is a fact that sexuality and attachment are highly interrelated. That attachment is at the core of your humanity so yes for sure sexual attunement is a tremendous consideration. Brief commentary/review on the book 365 TAO Daily Meditations by Deng Ming Dao.
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