For every act of evil, there is an act of beauty. You Can't Change the World, Only Your Attitude Towards It.

WTF?!





He He He Ha Ha Ha Haaaa Ha Ha!!!

I'm so glad of the internet abbreviation WTF as it just sums it up... WTF?!

If anyone needs to justify or further attack this then, to the comments section we go...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

The Master who was still learning

The first student entered the room of the master and sat.
The master said to him; "You may clean all of the dust from your head but you will still be left with a broom."
The student thought he had understood the teaching, stood, bowed and left.

The second student entered the room of the master and sat.
The master said; "You may clean all the dust from your mirror but what about the dirty cloth?"
The student said; "There is no cloth."
The master said; "Then what of the mirror?"
The student replied; "That is your mirror not mine." He stood up and left.
At this the master became truly enlightened.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Language of Confusion

A trickling stream, a song by the Beatles, a giggle, a crescendo, whistling, a cat meow - none of these require translation or definition, they form a universal language understood the world over and by many animals, not just humans.

Words are where a sound carries a definition and must be explained culturally and learnt.

Cheers!! we say - A Thai person hears the rude term of you calling them a big lizard.

Fuk Yoo they say (offering you a desert) and you hear an invitation to leave.

There are no good sounds or bad sounds only the interpretations but some sounds are purer that that; a trickling stream, a song by the Beatles, a giggle, a crescendo, whistling, a cat meow...


---
---

EDIT:

Wow I fell into my own trap :) Sorry Rambling Taoist and all. ;)

I was intending to say that no sounds had any qualities that we do not give them.

As we hear some sounds as good and some good ones can seem bad to others who attach different meanings to them - then there is no need to have issue with any sound.

Fuk Yoo, cheers, a trickle are nothing but mere vibrations on our ears and the sound made in our mind - any further like or dislike is entirely subjective and not needed.

A so called bad sound, work or the words of another can be heard as being nice or not heard at all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

The real me(ditation)

I was meditating for no particular reason, which I think is the best way, just aimlessly enjoying the bliss of it all, and I honed in on that little sweet spot for some time.

As I was aimlessly re-emerging to normal waking conciousness I thought that; 'that right there, that spot is the only true me there is'. The rest, these thoughts now, the typing, moving air, moving world, rotating galaxies, breath even, the whole lot up and down the spectrum of infinity is changing. I got a nice perspective on the suffering in the world (I had just watched two Tibet documentaries) and I saw my whole life and being, and that of others, as simply movement. The moving of my now awake mind and body and so on were just movement and change too. The only true bit that was me, and will always be me, is that little sweet spot that is always there but sensed most intensely in meditation.

I thought, 'ok, that is it, that is the only bit I can trust as being always present, from birth and I may guess death, always the same, all else is change so I will now only associate with that little sweet bliss spot as that is the only non-changing truth.' In a way like Descartes said "I think therefore I am" (which I think is a rubbish statement) I had my own version in saying the basis now of all my thought should only be this point, it is the only reality that will not change, is ever present, non-dual, and real.

So all thoughts on the world, life, what is right or wrong are junk. It is obvious when viewed from 'there' that even the most well intended actions on the world are farts in a room of purified air. The universe acting out it's beautiful dance of creativity, includes me to the very core and it is all change. The only bit that is certain and fixed is the inner blissful core.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

The answers

1) It's all ok
i) I ignore everyone else's suffering.
ii) There is no such thing as other peoples suffering.
iii) I am compassionate to suffering but see my role is best carried out from the position of outside setting an example than involved and perpetuating.

2) Nothing is real
i) So I can legitimately not care and just hedonistically blast my way though life.
ii) So I can step back, take my little pleasures and ignore the rest.
iii) Even my pleasure or pain is unreal so I will offer myself to the benefit of others, aid their illusionary suffering, and not gain or lose anything myself.

3) All is One
i) One persons problems are the problems of us all.
ii) Problems are there only for the illusionary suffering self that has them.
iii) The One must be improved to the best we see fit as if we don't choose then others will.

These, amongst others, form a set of prickly little questions that then go on to form pages of writing for many thinkers. Then other thinkers spend lots of time thinking about, adapting or trying to adopt the answers. Some people will be certain of one answer or one other not stated here, I have some ice cream in the freezer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Wet bird

"The stiller the viewer, the more that is seen" - Is something I said once and it struck me again but in different words today and became "The less of a viewer..."

Nature is beyond words and is living Tao, if the world could just see the magic there and not keep running around trying to shape life into a misfit reflection of mini-mind, then all would be well - and all IS well for those of us who do do that.

One bird flew with a heavy load of nest material and hit the tree, crashing into the branches. The shaking rocked the other tree dwellers and then crash bird had to struggle to get a footing and place his over egged basket on the branches before it fell. The other birds shuffled in their seats and a number of us human types stopped to look on, smile and laugh.

Below the tree, which was on an island in the lake, another of the same kind of bird was standing with his wings held up and out. He was allowing the sun and wind to dry them I would guess and he just stood, occasionally shifting his footing. Did he know the sun, a large electrical anode, and the wind, the air on an electromagnetic flux, were what were drying the liquid state hydrogen/oxygen mixture off his waxed, tubular feathers?

As the other humans moved on, I stayed. I watched crash bird decide against the crash landing point as a place to stay, pick up his materials and plummet out of the tree back into the water with a splash. He re-emerged and with a shake of his wings the water was off his back and he swam, load splitting up as he pulled it along. Drying bird stood on, drying. The other birds did nest stuff and two proud black swans marched the lake's perimeter looking for troublemakers and bread litterers to honk at.

As this happened none of the water forgot to be wet, no bird fell through the tree as the wood forgot to be stiff, my heart did not once forget which way or how often to pump, my hair grew, the birds feathers remained waxed, light, the sun remained consistently warm and distant, the sky did not go green as it was changing channel for snooker. It just worked.

Nature works. We then, with increasingly more self awareness; crash into trees, laugh, pick up sticks to throw for dogs, ride cycles, run whilst checking times on the watch, sit in a car texting a friend about the park you can't see as you sit texting, drive with music on to drown out the birds, eat a picnic of plastic wrapped sandwiches of chemically preserved ingredients, pick up the kids to get home in time to watch a programme on nature, desire to be able to do this more often...

But I stood on, watching this, seeing humanity in its glory ignoring the very nature they sat within and I saw wet bird, now dry, take a hop into the air and a couple of powerful strokes, up, he was dropping onto a high branch to sit. Crash bird had dropped his load and was now on the bank near me picking up new materials. The swans had found a small boy to harass and his father, who was on his phone, shooed the big guys away. Luckily for him they had eaten already - but that did not stop them giving a passing honk to remind Mr Man and Master Small Boy who was in charge around here.

As various layers of awareness observed each other, the ground did not turn liquid, gravity did not reverse, air remained perfectly breathable and a dog ran by, happy as a dog, running by. I thought "hey dog, don't you know there is a world recession?" and I laughed to myself knowing how it was only me him and the birds who could be free enough not to care.

Nature just goes on, beautifully, and humanity on the whole blindly ignores it and worries if they are getting fat and should have a 3 meat pizza not a 6, if they will get home in time for the news, if their car is new enough or if they were right or wrong when the other driver shouted at them "open your eyes you fucking idiot!".

Nature is quietly being perfect. Not showing off, but just setting the perfect example to those who choose to look.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

New post soon

I have had my longest break from posting since I started the blog. I would like to say welcome to the new visitors and how much I am enjoying reading your blogs too. There are a lot of nice switched on people out there that only this kind of medium lets you meet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Bloody Buddha

There were Buddha's previous to Buddhism. Hinduism and probably Vedism[*] carried the term Buddha as meaning one who is outside of and not requiring religion. One who is so right in themselves that the many tools offered in the multifaceted Vedas were not required.

That aside, the Buddha we all know of set us a problem in this new adaptation where Buddhism became a religion. He by being a Buddha made us all, like it or not, Buddhists. When one person becomes such a thing then everyone else defaults to not that. He also left some challenges behind that we have to get through to become Buddha and not Buddhist (secure in our self and not seeking).

So like it or not you are either a Buddha or a Buddhist. You have to solve the issues he left us or not. Everyone is a Buddhist to some degree and as that is measured in awareness then the worst ones don't even know it. And now for a quote that struck me recently;

"When I was a Buddhist my family and friends became so tired of me. Once I was a Buddha we were perfect together."

While being a Buddhist, especially when not in a culture of Buddhism, then you are a pain to be around. You ask all the toughest questions, won't let anything go, constantly trying to get your self right and asking others around you to do the same. "Hey mum why don't you try meditation" "Hey friend just let it go, why not read this book?".

But once you are a Buddha you let it all go, you are right, life is right, you have no intention to alter another as you know why they are who they are. Once you are at peace with yourself you don't rub people up the wrong way, or ask too much of them, you act right and all benefit.

end.
---
---

*[I have an idea that the world of maybe 250,000 years ago was almost all land, the sea was far far less deep and the people of those times were very advanced (spiritually, and not in the way we may think of advanced in pointless plastic technology). I think that the seas rose so much as to bury that world and leave only remnants on very high ground, the tips of which are today's separate continents with separate yet related cultures. This is why the Tibetans are so unique on their plateau as they were always the high up spiritual meditators and India just happens to be the place that the knowledge was best preserved. It was at some kind of point where the race was split by the rising sea, but high in knowledge, than South America and Egypt got its highly advanced, similar yet separate, structures, writings and so on and the world now has tiny fractions of an incomplete puzzle sitting, separated by phobias, and spread over the land separated by seas.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

At death

The you that fears death, that thinks it will be reborn or go to heaven, is not even real. Only the ego can fear its end and believe it should go on to a new life or heaven as it fears what it knows, it came and so shall go. Only an ego is imperfect enough to believe it would get another chance to prove itself. The bit of you that is eternal can not die and was never born, the timeless, spaceless, non-thing you will go on, not the ego.

At death the ego thinks it will watch in horror as the body gives up and the ego is left with no place to go, on watching its host die it hopes it will have an after life. In death however, the ego is first to go, it leaves the still concious body and just stops being. Illusion over. The concious body then is free and can die in peace. The concious body can have its death experience free from ego, all will become completely correct, nothing left unanswered.

That same state, that your ego fears, which is pure bliss, can also be reached in life. You can let the ego die, it is sure to return as illusions do, but killing it for a short amount of time gives the same bliss of true self that is met in death. The ego will do all it can though to prevent you letting it go even for a short time, it will hide, manipulate, pretend to be you, and more. I have had something I don't feel fully confident in calling an NDE but close enough to give unshakeable validity to these statements. I have also found in meditation since then that it can occur in that state too.

It was one such brief glimpse that made me stand up from my mediation and write this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

sick society?

You are not sick if you see sickness in life. You can not fix sickness in others by pointing at them and talking about them. Like you can not cure someone's illness by shouting at them "be cured" you also can not shout at a politician "be right" as in both cases the sickness is in that person.

A person doing bad is acting from a sick self, their true self is like yours and would not do evil but in sickness there it is.

How do we cure the world? We cure the self, we perfect the light and the mirror so that when we project and when we reflect we have most positive effect. Applying paint to the mirror to paint your version over the image you don't like is not going to work, so why apply more paint to fix it? it will be 6 inches thick in paint soon.

Politicians and the like are busy painting the world, trying to fix the fixes ..on and on..

Just stop and the world becomes natural and right. This can be the only way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Wherever you go there you are Audio Book

In case you haven't been to Buddha Torrents yet then here is one good link

Wherever You Go There You Are - Jon Kabat-Zinn

here is the direct link to download the Audio Book

Either a book to listen to and try to learn or just some rambling to stick on in the background so that your subconscious learns (that being the better method).

----

Buddha Torrents

Torrents and shared files of Buddhism and related things like meditation, shoplifting, self improvement, relaxation, breathing and all the rest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

What's stopping your enlightenment? 2

I was going to answer in the comments section, but it became longer than many articles...

Eugene said: "But how can a person know how to live well if life is so troubling? You have to learn enlightenment too."

Tao said: There is no you to be enlightened or to learn how to be, only to unlearn the barriers that keep you from the very fact that you are infinity dancing.

Life seems to be troubling when we have a certain set of glasses on and not when we wear others.

There is absolutely certainly something quite magical going on that lets you be you and me be me and have this reality cast about us.

Life is certainly also awful when we look on the human level of manipulation, corruption, disease and war.

It seems, although I can be no authority on the subject, that the conciousness behind the magic is cured by each person realising the truth behind the illusion.

Once the person has been in touch with this then the whole is 1/7billionth closer to absolute perfection.

We do not stop bombs with bombs, we can not end an argument by taking part, you can make 100 laws but not one to stop suffering or poverty. What in fact ends the problems is non-interaction, not blind ignorance but not interacting on the same level as the problem at hand.

The world will continue to spiral into this pit of everyone watching everyone else until the insanity is epidemic. Then only the few that were able to step back will be left to make it right.

Imagine a room of 20 people arguing and 10 working out ways to end the argument. Now a room of 20 arguing and 10 enlightened folk smiling at each other laughing at the illusion of life.

Which room is going to be calmer in an hours time?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

What's stopping your enlightenment?

In the Classic book 'Transmission Of The Light' Daoxin said to his master;

"Please give me truth that will set me free of bondage."

The master asks Daoxin "What is binding you and keeping you from awakening?"

Daoxin said "Nothing is binding me."

and he realised the absolute clarity of truth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Tensions

In yoga, Tai Chi and so on we stretch, relax, breathe, ...and we feel benefits.

Watch someone who is not using these techniques;

Wake feeling tired, smoke, eat something heavy, drink strong coffee, sit hunched up on the bus, arrive at work, smoke in a hunched up posture, furrowed brow, sucking the smoke in, hurriedly disposing of the butt, into the office, tapping their foot as the kettle boils, whisking the coffee off to their desk, hunching over the desk, hand cramped over the mouse, furrowed brow, squinting eyes at the in-box, shallow breathing, tapping the fingers and toes, grinding their teeth, rubbing their chin, .... it's only 9am ... Lunch comes, outside, smoke, buy greasy food or withered salad to justify the fat belly from last nights midnight pizza, grumbling over this and that, hunched back, tapping toes....

Yuck.

As we get in tune we find tensions all over the body but we remove them one by one with breath and posture, exercises, tuning. With time the body is flexible and comfy to be in, the body is not so apparent and we are light and free.

We..

Wake up, breath in, love the view out of the window either if it is rain bathing nature or sun hitting our eyes, out to the bus, looking at the trees, listening to the birds, on the bus, comfortable posture, breathing, blissful head, learning from the world in near silence, at work the pot of green tea is made for the morning run, sitting is comfortable, no tensions so the legs drop comfortably into a wide sitting stance, knees drop, no tension in the thighs, brow, or shoulders, mouth loose, eyes fresh, then the tasks are taken one by one with each deep full breath... it's only 9am...

Come lunch time, things are under control, tea pot needs refilling, ....

Tensions held in the body are the same tensions felt in the mind. Stretching out your inner thighs for a comfortable sitting position, a strong back for sitting and standing, good deep breathing, loose jaw, brow, neck, shoulders, no tension in the body means the mind is free to operate at its best on the task at hand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

School time

I am concerned and a little perplexed when I see people follow Jesus figures, gurus and others. It may be said that I have too much of leaning to Lau Tzu or Chunag Tzu but in both cases I am let off the hook by my feeling that I am not reading their words. I am reading words of wisdom which have been passed on many times, through many people, meditated on by many and myself, they were collated into written works and that is how we have the books. To say one person is responsible for either work is a rarely held view. Also I am not tied to the words, I find great simple clarity to many of the lines but do not see them as infallible or exclusive, just nice pointers to the way.

I am my guru, my teacher is nature and life. I see my way, meditate to my way, act my way. The ego you meet when you meet me is mine, similar to the child I was, the adult I have been and am, it is not affected too much by haves or have nots. The spiritual me is like the ego me but operates best without other people. Spiritual me is here when I am alone, when I meditate, read, write, walk, stand, work, and so on. It is my way until I have to interact with others and then ego me adds life and humour to the situation as required.

Spiritual me learns from nearly every act of ego me, life, nature and others. A shadow may be my teacher, a sound, an insect. It could well be a book, a guru type figure, a wise friend or even a dumb one, anything. I take the experience and it becomes the teaching.

So while I would advise others not to have someone between them and the wow, I also would advise them very strongly not to see me as anything more than a passing reflection in their own being. We are the answer to our quest, each one of us holds the key to the very thing sought. So teacher is in the way, give him a kick, show him who is the boss - and move on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Other people are strange...

... therefore life is perfect.

I can't relate to people who are certain ways, certain view points, certain mindsets, violent, closed, self centred, materialistic, non-spiritual.... normal it seems, I don't relate to normal people. I find normality a great waste of potential.

Yet these differences, the violent ways of some, the shopping people and the sport people, the seemingly stupid, are all the colour of life, they are the dance of creativity. I am focusing on a dot on the page and calling it dull when if I stand back there is a full picture and the dot is a part.

To go on though, I can't see how people see. They seem to see only the surface, a world of things, a world they were born into and are separate to. They see a world of stuff they can have or wish to have or like or dislike.

Where a tree is not even seen, a phone can be old and not cool, a bug is something to tread on an disregard as nothing, a pest. In all cases, bar the phone, I see magic. I see a bug and stare, I see a tree and my mind opens, I see each moment as quite incredible. The most simple things are not simple, they are the universe acting out in a level of creativity and perfection far beyond any of our individual minds.

I see wonder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Silent magic

Silence is the purest doctrine, it is so perfect. Not silence in sound but silence in mind and thought.

You can lie, sit, stand, walk, wash, chop, stir, play with water, watch a tree or any such simple action and be blown away by the perfection of it - until you think. This is why science is often lifeless as it insists on taking things one by one, bit by bit, as if there were any bits even! The bits are made by the mind and the understanding is, from that point, incomplete and lifeless.

I think an empty mind is perfection, yet I also wonder how can an empty mind be perfection? Is it not too simple? It can not explain itself. -- but then I realise the problem - I'm thinking.

If I could write silence of mind down I would need a new word so here it is, there did you see it? It is all over the page, between each word, not the comma, the space. The space between the words, the space between thoughts,             ahh,             there you go, a little more than normal...




give the mind some room to see the truth,








nice isn't it?

Now watch for the gaps between your thoughts and see how much nicer they are than the thoughts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

The Importance of Satori

Satori is not the goal at the end, it is the begining of the path. I was on my bicycle nearly 4 years ago, riding through a forest with no other people and thinking how this was my forest, this was my earth, everyone was welcome to share in the pleasure of nature here but only I was choosing to. Most were obviously somewhere else, at home in front of the TV, doing things, perhaps working, shopping, driving, I was there with nature. My mind was opening up to the reality of life behind the curtain and I stopped under a particular set of trees that I can picture now, I looked at one very unimpressive tree, soaked with the rain from an hour before, some branches broken by snow or wind, no leaves, and I saw its perfection - I thought the very strange thought of "trees don't ask why". And then I had my most clear moment of Satori where I saw life as it really is, as one, in perfection.

After this time I took more and more interest in explaining the state, I had no idea it was Satori only that I could explain it to no one not even my self, but it was life changing, unique and very important to me. I felt noticeably different in my actions, body and mind. I had to find similar people and it was after that time that I came to find book after book of clarification of the event.

I bought a ticket to India, it would be my second visit and I was intending to take meagre funds just to meet a friend for a short trip. I bought 6 books all about New Physics, the mind, nature of reality and on arriving in India I sat in a hammock for 7 weeks reading and what turned out to be meditating. (I bought books, swapped old for new, constantly throughout the trip.) I decided I would not be rushing home and when my friend showed up we spent a little more time where I was, I realised I had spent 2 months in a pair of shorts, nothing else, not even foot ware and I had a very new perspective on life. I lent him my books and we set off with his girlfriend across India. I got very ill on a boat crossing to the Andamin Islands, it was a disgusting boat and we were on it for 3 days, I had not been wearing shoes still which was very stupid in India. We befriended an older Scottish guy who just happened to be very well read in the some of the authors that came up in my book list, my state of awareness was unlike the me of old, illness and all I was in states of minor hallucination and spending time in deep conversation and meditative states.

The Andamin Islands then were beauty beyond words, we became used to crystal clear seas, empty paradise beaches, fresh coconuts falling from trees. With little to do besides enjoy nature and snorkel the coral, we decided to fish one day. The only fish caught was on my friends hand made line, the hook was too big for the fish and on seeing the little fish struggle as I attempted to release it, I chopped of its head brutally with a coconut splitter. -- I decided to go vegetarian for 3 days to say sorry, but due to a further development in the way I see life I have not eaten meat since.

After the Andamin Islands we crossed back to India on the 3 day boat of poo with more friends and left some others behind, the friends recommended a Yoga Ashram - I disliked the idea. I disliked how people could structure a path to "god" and when I saw the Ashram had lots of money I disliked how they were profiteering from the same. But I settled in, it had a nice atmosphere, some very good teachers, good people and I was there over a month. I ignored all the god stuff, singing and praising but took a lot from the talks and the various levels of knowledge other people there had, in particular elements of the Hindu Vedanta and the path of Zen.

We ate pure vegetarian food, learned breathing techniques and did Yoga Assana's twice a day. The Ashram was in the middle of nowhere and the best place for Assana was by a large lake with a forest all around. I was in deep state of relaxation when a Lion, yes a Lion, in a far off reserve called out with a deep long roar - I had my second most incredible state of Satori, feeling the power and beauty of what I was coming into touch with, what I truly was.

After the Ashram my illness that had subsided began to return, we travelled a lot and were in place that is very very hot, a rock desert, I began to not be able to eat or even drink. I was unable to hold food or water for 2 weeks and in that time we moved out from the desert to the coast, We arrived at Om beach. We found a guy with a vat of pure LSD and he dropped a large drop on the back of each of our hands. As a token effort we licked our hands but the LSD was already soaked into our bodies, in not too long the sky drew in, the clouds illuminated in colour the sand took the texture of ..well it is too much to explain.. the sky darkened for night and the stars were all within reach, they were in a 3D pattern occupying my closed field of vision, I could touch them. Later I was in a ball, my empty stomach was reacting to the lack of food and the LSD combined with my poor state of health took me on a journey.

I was on Om beach, the very sacred place for Hindus. I met Krisna, Buddha, even Gaia, I traveled out of my body, experienced body death, ego death, death. I died. I ..can't explain.. It was magical and I wish I could sell it to you. Krisna, was an old man with his wife and he showed me some things he was carving from wood, Gaia complained about the plastic pollution in India but otherwise had little to say, and most importantly for me, Buddha and I just sat in silence, facing each other, and I knew that having nothing to say and no questions to ask was a very very clear indication of how correct this experience was. Plus I forgot to say, I also met the snakes and reptiles, they for a time made up all the solid matter around me, walls floors and items were made of writhing snakes. Magical only, not scary or negative at all. The rest of the experience was non-solid and made only of motion and distant light.

The next day I found I could eat and began a slow journey of recovery, feeding my thin body, we moved on and travelled north. On my journey I picked up a copy of the Tao Te Ching, a book I had until then only seen quoted in other books, I had found the closest written work to the truth to date and I study it still now. -- After some time in the mountains, feeling healthy and happy, 6 months in India had passed, and my visa was at an end. I still did not want to go home and I headed for Thailand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Embracing Death

Many would hate to die, but do not fully enjoy life. I love life and could could die at any time.

Not that I would take my life or encourage it to end, but I see the difference is important. Those who fear death and do not enjoy life are of the opinion that they have not done all they want to do, are not living each day fully, have friends and relatives who they would need to say things to. The key being they are not so in love with life that they could let it go.

The Taoist saying that; "A person should welcome death as a person after a hard day at work welcomes sleep" means the same thing.

Many Yogis train themselves for death, the Tibetans train themselves for the entire death and after life process of choosing a new rebirth body, I just think you can get so in touch with life that you can not see death as bad, it is as much a part of the process of life (of the whole) for our bodies to come and go. For sure we would not wish for death, encourage it or say life is invaluable, I can see that someone unused to the concept may draw those conclusions and they are not what I am saying.

Never living for the past and future, with life happening right now, then death is not in the picture and if it came then you would take it correctly. Living too much in the past and future then death could catch you unaware with lots of thoughts you had not cleared up.

Love life, die to the moment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Small vehicle

I like the idea of the Grand Vehicle of Buddhism in that there will be suffering until the last person attains enlightenment, it is a fine compassionate model, but I feel the practicality of the Small Vehicle has benefits.

With the Small Vehicle it is sufficient to cure yourself and this works on 4 levels I can identify even without trying too hard;

1) The grand vehicle is looking to humanity and will never know the state of beings in other dimensions or levels of perspective/awareness to humanity so could never fully know if the goal had been achieved.

2) Both vehicles require the self to be corrected first and so the work done there is beneficial either way, the Grand Vehicle has no standing over the Small in this case but the Small sets a realizable goal.

3) Once enlightened then the enlightened being sees all as enlightened so the job is done at that point. Once the person has come to the full realization then there are not even any other beings to enlighten as all is one. In suffering or ecstasy they are all faces on the one jewel. Certainly the enlightened being is not contributing negatively to any situation so is in no wrong. Even selfishly ignoring war and suffering is not bad in this case as the perspective is different, no harm is done, and it could be seen that the state of the individual could even be helping cure the world even by apparent non-action. Non-interference in matters in this case is a high attribute. "I know how to leave it alone". "The grass grows by itself". "The water settles not by playing with it". "Bombs don't stop bombs and shouting does not end an argument".

4) Compassion for all is a nice notion but can your perception ever be so encompassing and still accurate? It is tough to put yourself in the shoes of another and certainly impossible to do that for 7billion people. We can feel compassion for those in war-torn parts of the earth but is it for us to suffer for their suffering? I think not for two reasons and yes for one obvious one. Obviously we feel for them, this takes no explanation but the two reasons we can put it aside are that 1) If we were them we would handle it, so we must trust them to do the same. Also if we were suffering greatly we would not want others to mourn us, we would want them to enjoy life. A cancer victim would rather have happy people around them than mournful souls. 2) We can not fully know their feelings or intentions, we may offer up a solution that misses their true needs or we may misunderstand their wishes or ways of reasoning.

So the Small Vehicle is enough I believe as it makes enlightenment realizable and as a bonus it could lead to the grand realization of the Grand vehicle if all beings awaken, it does not stand in the way of that goal only facilitate. It is not restricted by suffering outside of our control and it reminds us of the fact that self realization is the key. All can not be awake if you are not first awake and we can not awaken others on their behalf. When we are awake then we are more useful to the world than when in bondage. This key to fixing the self and ultimately the world lies then with the Small Vehicle.

And the Small Vehicle does nothing against the Grand Vehicle only facilitate the goal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Compulsory things to do before you live

Many have the list of things to do before they die, but I suggest 2 things to do before you live;

1) Go to places where life is rotten, with slums and disease.

2) Trip very very heavily. (not at the same time as 1)

When we meet people in life who have very narrow perspectives of what life is we can be taken aback by their outlook and self centred views.

"I'm getting a new phone this weekend as this one is old."
"The train journey was so boring it was 3 hours."
"We have a new TV now as the old one was not widescreen/thin enough/the right colour/the remote control broke/..."
"I hate people from countryX as they are all Y and Z" (insert country and xenophobic racist comments).
"Life is so hard for me I have NO money I mean like ZERO cash for getting pissed this weekend."

etc, etc,

None of them, not one, knows what life can be like, how lucky they are or what the world behind the visible universe consists of.

I suggest compulsory tripping for all and compulsory travel to places very very different to your own. Get an understanding for the universe behind the mask and see life as it can be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Buddha goes to work

Work is essential, even if it were the basic tasks of cleaning your living area, digging some vegetables and fetching water, then work is part of life. In the modern world few of us get near the earth and more often than not our work is for someone else for payment of credit into the chip in our arm - not really, for now it goes into a bank account. We are then free to spend it on whatever we like. (As long as we pay tax, rent and bills, by which time there is none left, but in theory you could spend it on what you liked.)

So this modern process of working to make the non-working rich even richer so that you can serve the basic needs of society or be locked up - can be seen as a rather negative process. So how can it be enjoyed?

There is the choice of joining some kind of commune where you avoid work and being poor by instead volunteering to work and be poor in a community of like minded people, all together working for mutual benefit. (Plus the owner who says; "this is a community, that I'm in charge of. We make all our decisions as a comity, but I get final say".) A community is almost certain to fall into the same traps as any council, state or country because of this inability for humans to truly say "we are all one" - there is always the "we are all one, but he gets final say" model.

So, on leaving the problem of government to those who wish to spend their time on it, I will instead focus on enjoying your whole life, including time at work.

My final note on government is from Chuang Tzu who said "when people are truly free then good government comes of itself".

Work

The four letter word enjoyed by the few who get to work in a role that rewards them and despised by the many who get by but would very much rather not have to.

Some say "find a job you enjoy and you will never work again" and they have quite obviously never scoured the job pages through advert after advert of "want to make money stuffing envelopes?" and "make money as a cleaner, must have 4 years experience and perfect references". For the many the job market is like reading a list of the worlds worst jobs when in truth it is a list of all the jobs you'll get to see. On applying you'll likely be up against 100 other people just by sending in your CV, probably not get the job, and if you do, dislike it with more angst than a teenager who was just grounded.

It had crossed my mind while at work "what would Buddha do in my position?" I considered two outcomes; He would be swept up by disciples who would offer to do his job and keep him in a life of lazy bliss or he would get by with a positive perspective. Now the Buddha was a work shy character, some may call him a lazy bastard, who said "Hey if you sit under a tree, do nothing and beg for food, life is easy!" but lets take it that he was now properly enlightened and not so off balance. A truly enlightened Buddha would get by in any role as the Monks are told to, they must do menial tasks, all tasks, with focus on the whole being.

Like the Zen tale: "what shall I do?" "have you finished your rice?" "yes" "well go and wash your bowl" - and thus he was enlightened. Or the Hindu Karma Yoga, that is joining to the whole (yoga), by action (karma). This is how they make rich people clean toilets in ashrams, cunning justification.

The Taoists do not say that life is illusion as if there were an alternative, they embrace this life as heaven, real, all we have, the ultimate reality (as it has to be to be non-dual).

My day job is to cut paper with a large hand operated guillotine in a print company. I start with several hundred large sheets of paper or card, each have 8 - 20 individual items printed per sheet, and the whole slab of paper is to be manhandled into various positions. The blade is pulled down, with great effort, through the many sheets and after numerous cuts the individual items now liberated from the large sheets. At this time the small items are to be packed into boxes or wrapped in brown paper.

This can be seen as a very dull, physical and repetitive job. It is, and that is why I have so much time for philosophising and meditation. The ways I make it into a part of my practice to attaining perpetual bliss now follow:

1) I watch with great amusement and interest at how other members of staff take life seriously.
2) I draw myself to the moment always doing the very action at hand and not looking back at mistakes or forward to the huge stack of work waiting for me.
3) I meditate every thought that occurs to a point where I am looking from the whole not the actor.
4) I stand in fascination of how the universe came from infinite perfection to these odd roles of money orientated boss; heavy drinking, overweight, print operator; angry, self centred pre-press guy; and me the Tao monk operating the guillotine.
5) I watch how a bunch of monkeys act as the mask on their faces, taking life as real and not knowing that they are infinity acting out an infinite dance of creativity.
6) I watch my breath and imagine all from the non-solidity of matter to the vastness of the universe acting in unison.
7) I watch how heat and hard work can affect my thoughts and reaction to others, I laugh at myself when the actor me says something to another from the perspective of individual and I take it as an important learning process that I must get the most from.
8) I marvel at how the boss is driven to work hard to attain freedom as if banging a drum to make it quiet.
9) I enjoy the freedom of my mind to explore reality in the knowledge that this is only a mere reflection.
10) I feel bliss in being where others may just suffer, want to quit, or be day dreaming of beer or lottery wins.

I'm not perfect, but I get a lot from work that I would not get from sitting under a tree. I do however love sitting under trees watching nature, but work is for learning lessons about the self and others that nature alone can not teach.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Monk questions it all

Monk: "Who am I?"

Master: "There’s only one of us here!

The one you are is that which is.

As is the Reader."

Monk: "Where am I?"

Master: "I will refer to the I you still think you are and not that I whom I just told you you were; as if you had grasped my last answer you would not have asked this.

Tell me, are your lungs part of you?"

Monk: "Of course."

Master: "Then may I ask you what you would rather I took away from you; your lungs or all the air?"

Monk: "I cannot separate them, now I realise master!"

Master: "No, not yet, listen, you are right in that at least, yet further still; The whole universe; remove or change any element and you will cease to be able to ask me questions. While your lungs seem in fact to reach the extremes of our atmosphere, your true ‘I body’ is the entire universe and is ‘that which is’. That which is outside of all your reason, before space and time and breath and lungs and where and who am I questions."

Monk: "Then what is the truth?"

Master: "As that becomes clear you will laugh at how you could ever utter such a question. When it is known, then question and answer will be nothing but lines in a whimsical tale of the monk who realised not. As the truth becomes clear the question and answer are both clearly irrelevant, uninteresting asides to spontaneous living, and... I’m going for sandwich."


Time.

Monk: “There is only now, the past and present can only be thought about in the now and don’t exist by themselves.”

Master: “You see this how?”

Monk: “I see that past and present only have a relative, mentally constructed, reality built from the ‘Now’ and that is all there is…”

Master: “Quiet you fool. Your 'Now' only has a ‘relative, mentally constructed, reality’ to your definition of 'past and present'; so exists not for I. I know no past or present because I know no now, I am. Remember who 'You' are? You referred to yourself as “I” but I see you were not speaking from the true ‘I perspective’, but from yours as a dumb ‘I the separate independent entity’; seeing not that there is, and can be, no separate entities; or that there is no such 'independent thing' anywhere, anyhow; equally like your ideas of 'past, future and now' do not exist! How can you waste your “time” to seek to ask who that unreal, 'mentally constructed I', is? Don’t forget that the I that you seek is unknown to you yet, don’t waste time on that you think that you know. That poor dumb I you are seeking to force into your own concepts of, what must be, a false idea of enlightenment also, is the wrong way down the wrong path, useful to you only as I will now tell you this... To see the real I you will have no interest in your ‘mental constructs’. All you have to do is; stop asking questions, ever again!, There is nothing but that which is, and it can be no other way and that is final.

Never mention your stupid ideas of 'past and future, or Now', again.

Bring me tea at 5. Leave me Now.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Thoughts around the time of my death

We are in a sea of consciousness like a fish is in the sea.

I can't die as I have lived for ever, I am it, and i always will be so can never die. I simply reincarnate as environment for, and experiencing organism of, over and over, just for the pleasure of it.

and my truth had 3 letters

and they are WOW

Rules

You are essential. You exist in your role, because you are part of the whole;

And so exist forever.

Reality exists for precisely as long as you are human; as time is only made by you then;

So you were un-born for no time and will be dead for no time.

Knowing you are witness to that entire process, and the reason for it, is mind-blowing.

But then as you are it, and it is you, so there is no mind to blow.

You are here to entertain yourself. Just remember who that is! Yourself is I, that which is, so when you are being nice to yourself don’t forget that that self is also me, this grass and that bird.

The middle of anything is you;

So things only exist by your knowing an opposite.

Feelings too;

Knowing concepts such as life and death bring on some of these feelings.

Knowing that complete process, which can have life and death as a part of its majesty, will discount those feelings as relative only to your ego and real only if you so want them. And you don’t.

Don’t take anything the wrong way. If it seems bad, you got it wrong. Arguments only exist by your seeing an opposite;

But then error in overusing that fact leads to so called fact.

Then arguments would exist only by your not seeing the opposite.

You witness all you set your mind to and process a slither of reality where you are the only one who can’t see you.

Until you realise that which is seen is you.

Nothing exists of itself but only in relation to everything other than itself.

Yet they are One. Impossible, to correctly conceive, alone.

There is no mind body split but only the resultant middle of that argument.

That middle is an ecology of all manifestations, yet cares not for the labels.

No time passes.

Time is 100% occupied by you from birth to death and has no further relativity to exist by outside of that lifespan.

Any old arguments in your head making the universe seem old are invalid.

It is old relative only to your perception of time; and that is only valid for your lifespan. If you are 31, then the universe has existed for 31+ laps of our sun. When you die, no matter what your age then you have lived for the exact age of the universe.

It takes you to see that that which is other than you exists. It takes that which is other than you to allow for that.

The one you are is that which is.

Inseparable, the same.

The eyes do not look, they absorb. The mind is responsible for looking; its failure here is the splitting of one of the sensory inputs into values, good and bad. These only exist due to the mind itself – here is the illusion.

The stiller the viewer, the more that is seen.

Why seek happiness?
When the quest only defines sadness!
Breathe deep, or sit,
for; ‘this is It!’

The greatness of forming time and space from a sequence of 2D images we extract from the eternal moment is that it is and can only be the gateway to bewilderment, rapture and laughter - at It/you.

Due to It being, in its purest sense, One and All – and what can see or experience that? It reincarnates as both environment-suitable-for and Experiencing-organism-of.

You/It die with every death, are born with every birth, consume yourself, and depend entirely on each other for the experience of experiencing.

Should you go with the ego trap, (an ego forced into existence from polarities; this and that, good and bad, mind and matter) then you will suffer a polarised existence; you will experience due to fallacies of division – probably not tested by you but taught to the ego.

Should you come from beneath the ego, from the outside/inside of the ecology of your life then you should feel at one only with that which is you/It, or truly, It – so then see subsequently, the complete picture; that you cause It, including that tiny spot where the ego used to sit claiming it had you covered(!) over that big divide(!) of you vs the world(!).

At the time of a natural thought there is often a good answer or a spontaneous action with no interference. The mind, however, can monitor the nervous system and memories of previous monitoring. This feedback loop gets you; thinking, in trouble, analysing; pulling the past and future fallacies into, and thus vastly cluttering, the otherwise pleasantly fun, but not seen that way at the time, eternal-timeless-moment.

That is: The greatness of forming time and space from a sequence of 2D images we extract from the eternal moment is that it is and can only be the gateway to bewilderment, rapture and laughter - at It/you.

Death is like one of those timeless sleeps where you feel great afterwards but it could have been a microsecond between falling to sleep and waking. No time would be seen to pass.

It’s actually a wolf in sheep’s clothing that death would be a drawn out affair until the end of time itself. The wolf in that fallacy derives from the life side of the equation having that wolf dressed as a cute sheep, as the vivid illusion time; so leading to you perceiving false concepts of death as relative to that time illusion, which at its worst, can seem to drag.

But time doesn’t drag (it sits where it belongs in the world of concept) when you are you at the time of natural thought.

Seemingly no thought at the time, yet all gets done; only seen as thought when the feedback loop reports pleasure at re-experiencing something it liked before.

Don’t go running off with that false pleasure the feedback loop (ego) is offering though. Instead, work towards stillness of mind where the moment is uncluttered, even by time passing, and those no thought times will reign.

Was the best thing, at the best time, the most excellent fun time, just the greatest part of the most wonderful great thing that ever happened to you… planned?

No!
Shut-up then!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Just be Ego?

Is the statement "Just Be" an admission that you should just do as you will, no matter what? I can see that it could be. If someone with no real inner work was told to "just be" then they would undoubtedly carry on as they were and feel justified in any action.

To tear the film apart here and separate these two notions it is necessary to ask who is being and for what? If ego is being for benefit of ego and taking its justification from the statement "just be" then it is still dual. It is acting as if it were able to be and truly just accepting the illusion. It will suffer very soon.

The only one who can "just be" is the only one there is, "The One". You may say that the one is acting as ego and in doing so ego is right, this is not true. You can live like this but you will suffer it too. The one you are to be is the non-dual one with no other. Be. Be by not being a doer, not an actor, not an I-as-separate. You have to be with awareness of the whole.

You can not achieve this. You have to first do all the inner work, grasp the truth that there is no doer who can possibly be. Then and only then is the statement "Just Be" useful.

Only when ego is recognised as play actor can the self act without acting a fake.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

I worship thee oh collection of photons

Taking you as a light bulb and your reality as the light and shadows around you that you alone cast, then you can see that there is nothing to worship.

You know that you, ego you, is transient. Ego you is sure to love the idea that it creates reality but be clear on the fact that it does not. Ego too is a shadow of the true self. The true self is not even the life source you feel in your solar plexus, or the love in your heart, or the bliss in your head, or at the crown, or the MEness that you feel, or the whole or the infinity that you imagine, it is unknowable except by its manifestations.

Calling anything It or God is simply applying a label to the point your imagination ceases to go on. Claiming a limit of your perception to be a thing of value.

The manifestations are a tiny fraction of that which is, we see a slither of the self and we see it through limited senses. The 5 senses are low in ability and limited in scope, the gaps between the fingers, the gaps between the senses, the low scope of the eyes, ears and so on. The bliss in your head, the love in your heart, the life force in your gut, these 3 sources are higher than the 5 senses yet still huge gaps exist. Enhancements of the senses such as telescopes, microscopes and computer models also have limits, with modern tools or ancient self investigation techniques you will only ever see a tiny slither of reality.

You are in the realm of the hologram, each new layer looks quite like the one before and is no closer to truth. As part of a hologram you are bound for mystery and never to grasp the whole.

Admit you don't know, and can't know. Wonder in the majesty- but don't worship a thing, a concept or a notion. Don't worship the whole, that too is just a level up the hologram no where near truth and you will be claiming a limit to your perception to be a thing of value. Don't look down as when you move down through the core of atoms you will too look to infinity, never closer to truth. In and out, up and down, is infinity. Where you sit is infinity, there is no size or structure in the world you see, only notions you apply to a hallucination you cast about you from information. Only the information has reality, it has no appearance, no size or form that you do not cast. There is no out there, out there is your representation of information that comes from a source of no form, size or time.

To worship a thing, to form truths based on things is to miss the viewer. To claim viewer as source then you forget the viewed, to claim the action of viewing as the source is to forget the information behind viewer and viewed, to claim the information and act of viewing combined to one as the source you omit to say how this too can be known, there will always be a duality until grand admission of impossibility of knowing. To wonder in the knowledge of unknowledge is still to attempt to know or be known by applying a cunning new label.

Only by not even looking can you see by not seeing, know by not knowing, have by not having.

And this comes from not trying. Just be. The magic is there for you to see. It arrives by not trying, wu wei, and you should see by not seeing wu see, and know by not knowing wu know.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Wei Wu Wei - the concept

The concept of Wei Wu Wei begins with Wei, which is action, and Wu which is negation, or without. So wei wu wei is action without action, doing without doing.

This is the supreme action of Tao, nature and man, yet man is the one who does not follow his nature but his desire. When man flows to the natural way, he follows nature, which follows Tao, he will never be wrong or out of place.

Move when it is time and the movement is easy, try ahead of time to shape the world to your desires and it will be work. Do things when they are easy to do. A little comes to a lot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

The Vinegar tasters

In the picture "The Vinegar Tasters", Confucius, Buddha and Lau Tzu stand around a pot and taste vinegar.

Confucius tastes sourness as he sees the world is out of order, it used to have great structure of respect, the emperor stood between man and heaven and ruled, people followed ritual handed down through generations, and now the world is sour.

The Buddha tasted bitterness, as he saw only people with too much desire, desire they could never quash and so they drove themselves to a bitter life.

Lau Tzu says the vinegar is perfect, this is how it tastes, heaven is on earth, too many rules spoil it, you can't change the taste of vinegar with a rule, this is its nature, we should not force the way, nature has her way and she follows Tao, if you understand the flow, you understand the world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

going to go

To have a goal,
spoils the journey;
Enjoy the journey,
and the end is of no importance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

To be a handsome eagle

A man was sent to steal a birds egg from a prized eagle. When he reached the nest he saw two eggs, took them both and delivered them for the bounty. Later the eggs hatched and one was the finest specimen the owner had ever seen, he was overjoyed, the other though was quite the most scrawny, ugly and unimpressive bird. The owner threw the weak bird out into the fields behind his home with no care for its well-being and placed all of his attention on the finer looking strong eagle.

In the years to come the scrawny bird found its way in the forest, the lower mountains and valleys. During this time the finer bird was taught how to fly to his masters hand, eat fine steak, raise its wings to rousing music, do impressive swoops for crowds of onlookers. It slept on a fine perch made from oak and decorated in jewels, silks were used to cover his area and some used to decorate the rings on his legs, he drank water from a cup guilded in gold, and was even put forward for breeding where he mated with females in high number.

Back out on the land the ugly bird got involved in fights with others, always losing and never getting a mate, he ate small prey and slept in a crevice on a wind swept, rain soaked, rock face.

More time passed and the very handsome strong bird was muscular and impressive from his fine diet, he was used to performing for crowds and had become the prime interest of the owners growing son. He was like a member of the household and was respected by other eagle owners and people interested in his performance and beauty. The weaker bird lived on out in the wilderness.

A time came when the family took a long holiday and the prize eagle was left behind with a housekeeper. Due to mishandling and the lack of authority of the keeper the eagle flew free. He flew and flew, out of the bounds of the estate, towards the wilderness where his brother lived.

There is a fat corpse in the forest being eaten by ants. Up on the cliff top an ugly bird breathes fresh air and looks out over the great valley.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

The dog who said moo

A monk asked "Does a dog have Buddha Mind?"

the master said "Mu!"

Mu means both: "the void, the great emptiness of the Buddha mind" but also means: "negative" (as in no).

Cleaver huh? It could be taken as the master did not know the answer, it could be taken as one meaning or the other, it could be and is, that the answer is open.

I have seen a number of dogs lately and am often struck by there brilliant Tao. The master (of the dog, not the monastery) could be rich or poor, the dog is happy. The world can be in financial melt down, trees need sniffing. Clouds may be over head, chasing balls is fun. It may be going home time, chin needs scratching. - As we personify dogs we can't truly say, in their terms, if they do have a great outlook on life or not. Are they being Tao masters in hairy suits or just so simple as to be suck in the present? Mu indeed, they are both.

What is a master but a person who has simplified? Stupid to those who watch him, poor to those who judge his possessions, illogical to those who debate with him. Perfect.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

When is bliss?

The mind is multi-threaded; able to day dream, hum a song, negotiate a car journey, chew a nail, and more all at once. As the mind has this tendency to swirl around on it's aimless multi-threaded path then work on the multiple chakras is a one way to calm it. If you are in touch with chakras (which like a separate self don't truly exist, but like a separate self, persist in seeming too), then you can sense a certain lovely feeling in the very top of your head, lower outer brain section, throat, heart area, gut, groin, even lower and even higher, you can if you wish feel a chakra as if it were above your head, they all emanate from one source but you can notice them as separate.

We do not need to work on chakras any lower than the solar plexus, really the top of head, head and heart are the keys and the solar plexus is a nice grounding point, when bliss can be felt in any at will, then calling the throat, groin or base or any other into line is simple. As the mind can hum a song, think and fidget all at once, then we can instead occupy the mind with recognition of the 3 or 4 most powerful chakras; then extend that to the throat, gut, groin, ground, and from those points sense a line joining them all. This thread can then extend upwards even out of the body. Maintaining the sense of bliss throughout this activity is highly beneficial, the mind is unable to wander as it is transfixed on the bliss here now.

So the mind would like the future of X, Y or Z to occur, or to mull over past A, B or C's, but on drawing it to now we remind our wandering mind that "here it is, this is what you are trying to get to". Reminding your inner self often of the truth that bliss is "right here" then we can ask our nature to look in, not out, for answers.

The next time you catch your mind wandering off, don't try to solve issues, or think how to achieve goals, just grab a hold on the most prominent chakra and spread your awareness to the rest. Breathing will become noticeably slower and deeper, bliss will flow and: When 'now' is right, so then is the next now, and the next. The future isn't going to arrive, now is the future, perfecting now means there is no future to plan for, no past to regret. Get now right and life is right.

Perfecting the self can be seen as the highest step in fixing the world, looking out to fix the self or the world, .... you'll never get there ........................

---

A note on solving problems is just just ask the question internally then completely forget about it. The answer will come when it is ready, interaction will spoil the clarity of the reply.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Karma Police

Already by stepping out and thinking about this kind of thing you are good and going to be much better, quite likely even passed needing such pointers and you picked up the wrong book - in which case just set fire to it and go and hug a loved one and walk through a field.

The ones who are looking to cure the soul, to better themselves and the world are, no matter the apparent achievement, all on the side we call good. We can all recognise the bad, the selfish, the soulless, yet we can't draw good and bad for two reasons; 1) they depend on each other, 2) there is no judge. For the sake of this discussion I have to blur the boundaries and this is how:

Bad depends on good but bad does not have to be so bad. It would be beneficial to all if bad was slipping temporarily into an minor introspection and not the mass murder of millions. -- There is no judge as separate to you but the whole, of which you are, of which you feel a part, judges. Here I stand in contradiction but the whole does judge, it does it by the feedback mechanisms in life. We may take the obvious example of GWBush, that infamous puppet who lead the world into battle, as had his father, grandfather and relatives all the way back through history. They can be seen on the worm diagram of time as one of the threads of evil.

The way GWBush can be portrayed is that of 'a "leader" who brought about immense suffering as he sat back in great wealth, allowing wiser friends and puppeteers to profit financially, far more than he'. Did he stand in a great position? No. We all know his wealth was covered in blood and suffering, so how did he seem to not suffer, and if there is no judge, why not also be a bastard?

The above is a very tiny view, the above assumes that financial gain on mass suffering has a possible positive, it does not. Only on the very superficial, ego level can it be seen so and in reality the whole suffers - the position of a leader therein can only be low as it sits on top of a unfulfilled whole. As with a man selling ladies for sex, he benefits financially, egotistically he has ladies, money and power, on the grand scale he is a little germ in the system making the soul imperfect.

The solution is not out of reach here, it can come about as soon as each person awakens to it. What I aim to point out is that each person can receive positive feeding back to them from the ground of being if they connect themselves to that part of the circuit and align themselves with the natural flow of life. When this is happening more, the whole benefits and the living for all is lifted. We benefit and see that good is not to be done in fear of a judge or ego kick, but for the higher gain of all of us, all life, conciousness.

No one is there to judge, you are in a dangerous position assuming the role over anyone else too. There is no grand judge outside of you, watching over you, waiting "at the end" to rate you, this is a fantasy that does not exist on the grand plane of truth. The judge, the way you benefit or lose is by feeding into and back from the true flow of life that you can recognise but not pin down. Get right, be right, feel right, continue right is the way.

As we progress the whole comes to benefit, bad and good exist still as perspectives of our mind, but bad is pulled up into line so it is less bad than the extremes of this world, then with less extremes in mind, we all benefit. With more people joining together and amplifying correct seeing, then the notions of good an bad can both become redundant as people are so naturally in-tune that there is no longer need to delimit.

When you meditate to connect to the source, you connect with the flow of life, this benefits you and it also benefits the whole - you feed in the positive and help the whole being resonate to its optimum.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Straightening it out

Front cover of book:

"WARNING, THIS BOOK CONTAINS WORDS"

There are big holes in any of my points, should I polish them out I would be left with little to nothing.

When man builds a park in a city, or places a tree in a street he is admitting his straight line solid designs are an unnatural blight on the earth. A statue in a park is a vain attempt at claiming nature, a tree in a street is admission and a nod to nature that "yes, you got it". Just one tree provides more aesthetic value to the road than any building.

The road through the local park, with it's one way system for cars is the most unnatural way man here chooses to blend with nature. People drive one hand on the wheel, one holding a mobile phone, missing the trees, plants, lakes and birds, in and out in 20 minutes. Nature blends by wiggling it's roots under the road, dropping its leaves on the paths and reshaping man made lakes to its own designs.

In the main lake of the park designers built large pillars with a sculpture of a different bird on each one, real birds sit on top and poo, the poo looks great. In a neighbouring smaller, insignificant brown lake, lilies have taken over, they have produced a cool area of the park with nice flowers and sprawling leaves, people love it, no one looks at the man made bird pillars, they look at natures reclaim of the small lake.

An ugly toilet building was erected in the park with that awful 1970's square/flat/crap style just for the benefit of small bladdered old ladies and young flirting couples with nowhere to rub. It is a blight on the park but for the ivy that has chosen to take it back. The doors have been sealed up, the ivy has re-claimed most of the building and it is a great example of nature's graffiti, the way nature wiggles over man's straight lines and perfects them.

You can take any point I make and place a straight line through any argument, you can one by one break down the points until the idea is altogether gone. Nature wiggles back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Where are we tring to get to?

When viewed from overhead there is the swarm of life here on the surface of earth, waves of motion, light and human traffic. If a bird is like a fish in the ocean of air then we are the crabs on the ocean bed, tied to the bottom, skittering about. We lay great claim to the thin layer we call ours and we attempt to spread to the skies and the seas in our little inventions, that do work, but you never see a flock of birds plummet to the floor because another bird with political agenda planted baking soda in the lead birds belly.

Our inventiveness, in fact the inventiveness of very few, gradually improved on by a few more, gets the rest of us around each day. Show any car to someone 200 years ago and it would be magic, a space vehicle, made of exotic materials they could neither find nor fashion - to the modern driver now it is nothing, no good, not fast enough, cool enough, ...

The animal is nature enjoying itself, breeding comes, offspring come, some die, some thrive. When we have babies we force nature with chemical additives to not allow babies to die or in other cases we force the baby to die with different chemicals. We live in mini palaces higher than Kings of old could dream of, even the TV in the modern home is a jewel that you could swap for a castle way back when.

We don't hunt for food or know what plant has; "a stalk that when chewed tastes of potato and fills the belly, the leaf can be rubbed on wounds and the root a medicinal tea." We harvest the exact same crops for the exact same purposes over and over on "market driven needs". We eat food packaged in such a way that it may have 10 ingredients, 5 of which are to make it the same as if you opened another package a year later, another 3 to make sure the flavour matches intent and then the actual food, pulverized so we could never recognise it. We could not say what over 90% of ingredients look like in nature (assuming they are natural) and as for natural foods we eat, who can draw a realistic cashew plant in flower?

So what is our intent from this life?

"To go on! To have a family, to carry the gift of life on to future generations, to improve life for them!"

I am sure I would hear that response from many people and I am taken aback by it, especially after me painting the picture of what we call life as the chemical rat race, that they could still give the answer. TRUE: A child to a loving couple is a gift, it is a wonder, they made this, they love it, it is the outcome and completion or ongoing motion of their love story. Yet -- A child to many, the majority of births, come from no such intent of love: The child may be born of accident, will to give meaning to life or relationship, what they thought they should do, a way to provide for themselves in old age, a school crush, the first meaningless sexual encounter of a young flitting couple of lustful boy and love struck girl, the outcome of a test tube coupling of sperm and egg to give the gift of life to the couple who could not have alone, the woman trying to find meaning and keep the man.... All magical, maybe, many may form good lives, but is this the intent of our being?

If a baby was a gift then blessings are handed out in large number to people who would no doubt prefer to be blessed with a new car, iPod or winning lottery ticket as the intent was to bolster ego not improve the world. It is true that babies bring great pleasure to many couples, it is essential for the human race to breed and some people make for great parents, but is it our goal in life to breed?

If it were our sole intent to breed then wouldn't we be made a little differently? Humans live way beyond practical breeding age, way way beyond in many cases. If we were here to breed and make the next generation, then what is the purpose of that next generation? The purpose seems a little futile if the sole intent is to keep it going. So is it then to move on but provide a better world for the next generation? Could be.. it could be, but if so I have to say that the ship has gone off course and why in that case are people pinning hopes on a future not relishing now?

I will not stand in the ridiculous position as to say that babies are no good for life, that we should on mass not breed! That would be crazy! And as I started out by saying, it is life, and we all do it, birds, badgers and buffaloes do it. But I will say it is not the purpose of life, it must be dropped down to its position of nature flowing, not magic, not a gift, just nature moving on, replacing the old with the new, the flow of life.

So then, it is not with purpose that we breed as that is to say that the purpose is the purpose and a 16 year old girl with 3 children is perfection indeed. Babies are part of the ongoing flow of life, as is death, eating, breathing, loving and enjoying.

So what do I see as the purpose? What are we here to do?

I see this as the emergent finding of our times, I see people getting this truth more and more all the time: We are here as representatives of the whole being of life itself, we are here to recognise our true nature, to recognise perfection in our seeing and what we see, to fully recognise the magic of what we are - This is what we are here to do. That has great meaning to future generations and to us right now. If the goal was baby, baby grows and has baby... NO. If the goal was baby, baby grows invents TV, has baby, grows to invent DVD, has baby... NO. The goal is we get fully in tune with our true nature, our true self and that magic is amplified the more who recognise it and we have a future worth bringing future generations into. And more importantly we have a now, a blissful perfected now that has people not striving on, but relishing life, holding on to nature, loving, enjoying, living! Having and enjoying the wonder of life here now and not striving to some goal, always just out of reach.

We are not a mechanism, who makes new parts, we are the reflection of the whole mind, we are not people who, as separate to the world, magically produce new people who do the same, we are a reflection of the magic that people take for granted. People see baby as magic but breathing as normal. Breathing is magic, seeing is magic, being is magic, life, living, tasting, touching, projecting reality, are all magic. This being that we put into the rat race, the work for the new car, the "ongoing fight until death" is like a horse stepping our of the meadow, applying blinkers to its own eyes, attaching a plough to its own back and pulling it until he dies.

Run through the fields!!!

The only thing required to fulfil this is for each person, one by one, to stop looking forward and just open their eyes to right now. I am not pinning my hopes on this change occuring, it has already occured here - I just ask those who are seeing the potential to too stop the searching, sit back and wow. There is no where to go, it's here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Mr magic

Someone enters the room and talks of wishing to achieve enlightenment.

I say how and when? this can not be done any time in the when! It can't happen when only NOW!! and I waved my hands in front of their face, waving wiggling fingers in patterns, look, see? it is and can only be now; lift your hands, move them, clap and hear the noise, knock on the wall, hear it resonate, see how you do not penetrate, look out around you. You are causing this. You make the sound, you you generate the reality, this is it, wiggle, wiggle, wave, wave...

They said "But anyone can do that."

Yes, I said, smiling, grinning; but they don't do they? They insist on doing something to achieve in the future and not just see the obvious.

----

NO, we are not all enlightened, nor do I claim to be (to do so would be to state my own insanity. Baaah!). I do claim to have been in states of stillness and satori that have proved to me the validity of the enlightened perspective, I do claim to have been there and not maintained the state. It is probably my nature and last hurdle to get over that I am a thinker, I feel the need to put the state into words and in doing so always eventually extinguish the flame by playing with it.

I do know that by casting aside all attempts to reason the situation that a deep bliss exists in the true knowledge of the self.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Burn the book

My book I have said will have page 2 as blank, said to contain the pure truth, all other pages will be pointing only.

Your empty mind,
is your full life;
The impenetrable solid reality,
is the ungraspable mind.


The front inside and back inside covers will have the lower corner tinted into another shade with "light here" written along side. If the reader has not set fire to the book on opening the front cover then the final page will be imploring them to take the opportunity on the back cover.

It is there when you are lost within it,
missing when you are looking for it;
So do not let others tell you how it is,
if they knew they would know it was not possible to say.

Don't get lost in thought or explanation,
When life is right there.


(more)

I wish people to live, live truly on the level you would if you were born a bird on a planet with only natural beauty beyond measure. Fly, live the potential you would imagine was available to a person born in a land of infinite natural fruits.

Do not live "freely" within the constraints of society, live as if freedom was not even a notion as neither was bondage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

yogaing balance

A little meditation (pure stillness),
silent contemplation (allowing interaction with mind),
idle time,
hobbies,
work,
exercise,
nature,
people,
love,
reading,

at least and more.

plus never losing awareness,
always breathing right,
seeing right,
meditating every action and reaction into a better view,
being nice.

Reacting to bad generally by emptying your boat or knowing "nothing lasts - even this shall pass" (also used for good things, as they do not last), but allowing nature to also have anger. No suppression of nature but act with short, direct intensity, then drop it.

Practice that until your practice becomes your nature. Then continue to maintain, as if you let it slip, you'll slide.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Alone

You are never alone and never without a great teacher. There is no need for a companion and no need for a guru. Being around others is very healthy, having wise people to learn from is a gift, but being without is not negative.

In fact alone time, at least one hour silence a day, is wonderful. Truth can be explored and enjoyed and any accumulated residue from life can be cleansed. The true self is beyond alone, it has no other, yet brings forth a googol forms reflected and twinkling from the one hologram. These many perspectives of the one are always present and always changing. These displays offer lesson after lesson, truth after truth, gift after gift.

Alone is great, you are never alone.

Your greatest teacher is always with you, your greatest distraction to its wisdom is your chattering ego. Shut up the ego, it may be the external face to the world, but not the voice we wish to hear. - I listen to the Tao.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Kymatica



Loads of good stuff here and I do see this as a good movie from the stance that it requires you to have already been out there looking and learning to get the full benefit from the film. This is not a video for all where you get a kindergarten level introduction to one tiny concept (e.g. The Secret), this is instead a movie talking to the seeker about concepts they will have encountered and helping to form a more unified perspective, one that will, when fully realized, fix the self and thereby the whole.

Kymatica means that pertaining to waves, in this case waves of energy that form life as we see it and often, much deeper, as we don't. I feel this a very good modern anthology of fine thought, not claiming to be an answer but a tug on the ropes; "hey, this way, and while you are waking up to possibility and realization, can you please take responsibility for yourself?".

The world is waking up to the fact that for 1000's of years we have been duped by our own ego, manipulated by groups who saw to expand the position of ego, had the ego massaged so it felt it could "get there" and now, with great apparence, the great fake illusion is falling apart.

The ego is a fake, you will never make it happy, society is ego based so it will never come to anything. The illusion is perpetuated by those who understand it, whipping the horse so it keeps driving the machine. You are acting the donkey here, it is time to wake up and re-connect to the source.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Rebirth

There is no you, no I, only the one with no two, the infinity, the EveryNothing of which you are. It is this whole that reincarnates with every new moment, each new moment is creation and each new moment is the rebirth of the previous moment. All is change, that is all.

In the masterpiece "Transmission of the Light", when Kumarata attained enlightenment, it was said that "his knowledge of former lives was awakened". Very importantly, he saw all as himself, not that he had been a fisherman by a lake or a king on a thrown, he realized the truth that he was all things, he was the liver of all lives.

There is no separation of selves on the plane of truth, only in the holographic, hallucination of 5 senses. In truth we are living all lives simultaneously, but feeling only separated atom selves. We are all the fish in the sea, birds in the sky, we are each other, we are the sea and air, we are the people arguing and the people loving, the man punching the other, the man with a broken nose, the nurse helping the wounded. We are every role, we are that.

Error seen in another is them reflecting part of you back at you for you to learn from. Good seen in another is recognition of good in you and recognition of how you should be. The bad man is the good man's teacher just as the good man is to the bad.

It is the whole evolving, this is the process of infinite conciousness learning how to best use its potential. All is conciousness and all bad is a disease in conciousness, bad seeing is a bad mind is an incomplete person. Infinite conciousness does not know how to best be a human without being a human, so it learns from us as us. See bad in others as that is what needs correcting in you, when your outlook is correct so are you. You feedback to the whole and you feel perfection flowing back to you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Love is the drug

People looking out for love are surly attempting to find someone else to "complete them" and this is not healthy. If a broken person finds solace in another then they will apply pressure to the relationship and may not be loving the person but the love of the person, loving the love not the lover.

Should the relationship have difficult times and the love seem to weaken then the person is back to the incomplete them, minus the support of their lover, they will surly handle the situation badly and lay blame around rather than be pulled through by genuine love.

Having not been fully able to love themselves, they did not truly love their lover, love is not strong enough as it is not real enough and blame occurs.

When love is real then the other person is loved as the self and change in them is accepted as change in you. You know that your desires and goals can shift as your life goes on, and so too you can accept this in another. Should things go bad, love is still true, bad times are ridden out and even a possible ending to the companionship is taken with an understanding of the way of life. We can not say to our lover that we will be with them forever and nothing will change, we can hope for this, we can do our best, but that is all.

In loving yourself you are fit for the world, in loving yourself your natural path is towards others who are equally ready. A path of lust brings lustful transience, a path of love brings true love. The corrected beings come together, love and respect as they would understand themselves, apply no demands on the other and in doing so unite for as long as is natures way.

We can not fill a broken heart with with a broken heart. We can not complete a person with an incomplete person. These methods may form support, relationships may form, love may form, but there will always be the same underlying issues and from these cracks in the foundation even the most smoothly polished exterior can tumble apart.

Rumi Said that "it is not for us to find love, but to remove, one by one, the barriers we built inside that keep us from it."*

When that has been done then true love is present and will build bridges from one heart to the next.


________________________________
(*Possibly mis-attributed to Rumi)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Go easy on Mr Ego


Ego me, as depicted by the berk who decided, mid head shave, to leave a Mohawk on his bonce, is, unfortunately here to stay and is, luckily an OK guy.

There is no dropping the ego. The monk in a robe is a monk in a robe, he's a guy in a dress who thinks that wearing the rag makes him simple and not attached to the material world. You can not make a virtue of simplicity. The true middle path of our times is surly to wear the prison uniform of modern "fashion".

Look at people on the streets, they wear a t-shirt advertising a corporate sponsor and a pair of prison issue, unoriginal jeans or shorts. It is as if the world was a prison and the rules were to wear just that, but as a nice prison they let you pick the corporation you wished to have on the front of the shirt.

To blend in and show simplicity the monk should be in a FCUK t-shirt and a pair of shorts with lots of pockets.

Show me the person wearing a shirt they made out of cardboard they had sprayed with silver paint and glued on Christmas decorations and I will show you a person embracing their ego and unique nature. When I walk through the streets I see people hiding, blending into the crowd in prison issue attire that they paid far too much money for. Looking the same as everyone else at their own great expense.

Ego is the enemy of the spiritual seeker, that which must be slain, but individuality is the realm of the ego, and individuality is the colour of life. You have to love it as all the best spiritual truths are a paradox on top and a unified truth underneath. Be unique, be you, and don't take you seriously. Don't make a virtue of simplicity or allow your drive to be egocentricity - just be you.

---

Do we know if the tramp in the park, the guru on his pedestal, the monk in a temple, or the grandmother of 10 children is right? They all are if they got there by nature alone. If the guru is a fake and the grandma the result of an unhappy arranged marriage, then they are probably not happy. If the tramp made a decision to step out of society, he may be more real than the monk who, reading scriptures all day, still watches women from his bedroom window.

A monk forced to be so could waste his whole life unhappily, never attaining truth, when the love of a woman and the purpose of a job and raising a family may have competed him. Likewise a person chasing money, working hard for his whole life to obtain the perfect wealthy retirement on a yacht - then dying of a heart attack on his first day of retirement, would have benefited from a little Dharma.

---

So the line is you, the middle is you. Be egocentric and suffer the ceaseless path of always being one step from happiness. Be too tied up in spirituality and then struggle with the physical world. Pride in your spirituality is as much an ego trap as materialism and does not change the fact that shit happens. Be as spiritual as you like but when a rape victim comes for comfort then "nothing lasts" or "empty your boat" won't cut it.

The middle is balance and no ones balance is the same, even your own balance point will move and have to readjust to change.

Ultimately, be you, LOVE yourself, the one person you need to love and go easy on is you. Failing in that leaves you dangerous to all around you.

......but don't love the self, don't worship the self, remember your root is in the great mind of nature and she in the Tao. Ha! hard to be normal isn't it? ...no, just stop trying.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

Wow is beyond that god dude.

A follow up from the great Who Whistled? post.

Now to add a little about this God dude too. God to those who claim him to exist is always something separate to them, someone who can look over them, make decisions, have will, guide, bless. This is not infinity. If they say it is infinite then then must drop the qualities, they wont so can't.

This is like a + worshipping a - and missing the electricity of it all. Nothing exists to be worshipped, on worshipping anything a split is made, infinity is lost and the realm of fallible human mind is entered.

To delimit infinity to a named entity with qualities fails. It is simply giving name to the limit of your imagination. Nothing, not anything, not you, not the whole, is worship-able. The act sets up a duality, a split of mind and rubs dirt in the eye of perfection.

No god, get over it people, the truth is beyond such separateness. The truth is more than can be named and so I call it not name, but reaction, wow!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

> Here's looking at me kid <

This is a Tow Wow Important post

If I look at you and you at me, then I exist in your mind only and you in mine only. Who started it? There is only one mind of which we share, our MEness is from one source (of no source) and our separation is hallucination. Our our, our being an our, a me, an I, a Bob, Janet, a dog, a fish, a hive of bees, is hallucination. Don't think for any one moment it is a bad hallucination that should be stopped or cured - it is wonder beyond belief.

There was no begining to all of this, time is a fabrication of MEness, there is no solidity to any notion built from a hallucinatory foundation. All your ideas are formed to explain the dream we share and if a vegetarian can explain the taste fish pate to an amoeba then fine carry on trying to explain the grand mind to a human. The level of awareness is simply so far removed, the senses so restricted as to blind, the entity attempting explanation too a hallucinatory conceived fallacy, contained in the very thing they aim to explain, that it is surely a dog trying to feed from an image on TV.

No line can be drawn, no definition made, the human can not know the totality. The totality can not know the human except in terms of the humans reason. The totality is acting as human and is as fallible in this role as the human as - that is what a human is, totality dressed as a human. Once it takes the role of human it is restricted by the role.

Truth is realized not in language or accomplishment, it serves no direct medal to the ego except to dissolve the ego and reduce it's claim to being. In this way truth is desirable as it removes falsehood and provides a sharper image of that which is, but the ego desiring it is what is lost with each motion towards the goal that it so selfishly desires. Like a fly called to the light it will surly perish from its desire - and this provides a shockingly blissful realisation of truth that, oddly, no one remains to see. At the time of realization, the realizer has disappeared.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao

> who whistled? <

This is a Tow Wow Important post

I was sitting today, nothing on my mind, nothing to do, completely content, not one speck or a notion, calm, - and I whistled. My lips pursed and I blew and a sound resonated and I heard it bounce around the room.

The odd thing was that I caught the whistler. I caught the great mind acting through me, pretending to be a human sitting, relaxed and it was playing, having fun, and I saw it happen. I was aware of the whistle but had no idea who decided to whistle, why or how. I saw the universe sit back and whistle. It was striking and shocking.

Later in the day I was cycling up a steep road from the beach back towards the park with all the lakes. My legs were pushing, most of my action was automated. Legs pushed, cycle balanced, heart pumping, cells doing cell stuff, bacteria turning food to energy... I was able, with all the automation to watch some birds playing as I made my way slowly past them up the hill, they fluttered about and I caught the legs and eyes of a particular one in my view, the legs took a little side shuffle, the eyes got a glimpse of me and then away again. I was struck with great intensity that this was the action of not many life forms and things but the many actions of one great mind.

Where could I draw a single line? Where did I come into this? It was savagely apparent that I did not come into it at all! The I that caught the whistle, the I watching the me cycle and the birds flutter, the I that thought it knew the bits of the body working was frying-pan-in-the-face-apparent-ly a pure hallucination.

Even later in the day I had a brief conversation with a Christian friend who was challenging me on whether I would have a baby in my life (a whole chapter in itself). His points were, amongst others that "it was a gift from god". (So drunken teenagers are blessed indeed).

Finally the evening came and I was talking to my Dad. We were talking, by his choice not mine, about ants, bees, birds and other animals that operate not as a single unit but as cells in an organism. Kill a Queen ant and the rest will not even return to the nest, they will simply die where they are no matter how far away. We see individual ants when in reality it is an organism who's cells, thoughts, and information flow through what we call ground and air.

All in all quite a synchronised day, all things pointing the same way, so where, if any, is the conclusion? And what about the Christian God?

---

Come the end of the conversation with my dad, I was going on quite a bit about how we really have very little say, if any at all, about what we think we "do" and what is happening, and that any notion of self is a gesture like blowing to help the wind along.

I went on to say this is truly all one ... and was cut off mid sentence with my dad saying "you'll be talking about god soon". Which really spoiled my flow and made for the second time in the day that god had ruined an otherwise perfect day of exploration.

Back at the start of my day I had nothing to do. Later I was car-battery-to-the-testicles-aware that I did not exist, and by the end of the day god had entered my life twice; through 1) the incomplete mind of a Christian and 2) the tainted language and reason of English.

Nothing to do is always the case, especially when you see with ineluctable !!!ness that you have not one spec of autonomy that does not come about of itself. I don't exist, nothing does. God is simply not part of this equation. God is a cop-out answer. There is not and can not be a god. There is also, and can not be, just one big accident going on. (first there was nothing, and then all of a sudden it exploded - AKA science and atheism).

Neither God, science or accident explain this. They are all faith based and all require a knower and I know there is no such entity as a knower.

or a know,

or an anything,

nothing with a name,

So why Tao??

I dislike the word Tao as it has been written to be God - it fucking isn't. The whole point of Tao is that it is beyond name and dualism. I like Tao for the reason it is a name for that which can not be named (have to admit that is at least funny). I dislike that people then try to define it. It is undefinable, it is the name for, in a way, infinity, that which is everything and without other.

So Tao, I will not use here as; 1) it is contaminated by attempts to define it 2) about to be made worse by me doing the same 3) something you will find alone and not learn from books.

Then to wrap up?

God can fuck off. When I see the action of "that which is", in perfection, absolute cream-my-eyes-and-bathe-me-in-boob-milk blissful completeness, magic beyond the realm of flaw or notion, crystal clarity, one acting as it is: then that is it! No lines, no definition, just WOW!! with a capital FUCK.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao