The Problem With Words - Ivan Granger

There's a real dilemma at the heart of religion and spiritual
endeavor.  The Eternal, the Whole cannot be adequately held
by such small containers as words.  Yet we humans are
instinctively communicators and word-makers.  What are the
sages and saints to do with their perceptions?  How do they
render the Eternal comprehensible to others and inspire new
seekers?  Describe the profound love and bliss and unity,
and we naturally name it Mother.  Convey the immensity and
power, we name it Father.  Or we say Beloved.  Or Friend.

All of these are valid ways to begin to form a notion of the
Eternal.  Through these words we as individuals can form a
relationship to this vast Reality.  And through this relationship
 we can be drawn into deeper awareness, into deeper opening,
and into our own direct encounter... at which point we realize
how inadequate all words are.

The problem arises when the mystics are no longer heard or
are relegated to history, when too few people have their own
direct wordless encounter.  Then we end up with entire
religions stuck at the level of words.  No matter how sacred
and truth-filled those words may be, words are always
incomplete.  Words alone are soon taken literally, and then
true knowledge is lost.  Not knowing what is real, religion
becomes embalmed, self-protective, sectarian, and sometimes
violent...

The wounds of religion are healed....through direct perception,
instead of forcing meaning....

Ivan Granger - Commentary
Poetry Chaikhana

~

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao;
the name that can be named is not the 
eternal Tao.

Lao Tzu

~

3D Art - Mystic Meandering

 

Opposites - Chuang Tzu

When we look at things in the light of Tao,
Nothing is best, nothing is worst.
Each thing, seen in it own light,
Stands out in its own way.
It can seem to be "better"
Than what is compared with it
On its own terms
But seen in terms of the whole,
No one thing stands out as "better."

[.....]

He who wants to have right without wrong,
Order without disorder,
Does not understand the principles
Of heaven and earth.
He does not know how
Things hang together.
Can a man cling only to heaven
And know nothing of earth?
They are correlative: to know one
is to know the other.
To refuse one
Is to refuse both.
Can a man cling to the positive
Without any negative
In contrast to which it is seen
To be positive?
If he claims to do so
He is a rogue or a madman...

[.....]

Chuang Tzu
translation by Thomas Merton

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Tao of Water - Rod MacIver

The highest motive in life is to be like water.
it fights nothing or no one.
It flows from and back to its source
and in the flowing smooths and wears
away all resistance.

Taoist Proverb

~

In paddling wild rivers, I learned that the power of the river
is immense, and our power insignificant.

The Tao tells us that the energies of the universe, driven by
the forces of yin and yang, are greater than we are.  And
much like the positive and negative energies of electricity,
without both, without the light and the dark, female and male,
neither could exist.  To survive long term as a species, we
must accommodate ourselves to those energy flows rather
than fight them.

In paddling a rapid, we seek to move with its flow, rather than
against it, to execute our strokes at points of maximum impact,
and to not use a hard stroke when a light stroke will do.  And
sometimes, when the water moves faster than we can think, to
execute our strokes with intuition.

Chang-tzu, a fourth century sage, wrote of an old man who
somehow survived a swim in a huge rapid.  Upon asking the
man how he survived, the man responded:

Plunging into the whirl, I come out of the swirl.  I accommodate
myself to the water, not the water to me.  And so I am able to
deal with it after this fashion....

I was born upon the land...and accommodated myself to dry land. 
That was my original condition.  Growing up with water, I
accommodate myself to the water.

Rod MacIver
Artist and Writer

Heron Dance

~

The settling of the mind, letting go of the turmoil,
is akin to the settling of muddy water.

Kuan-Tzo
645 BC

~

Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?

Tao Te Ching
Stephen Mitchell Translation

~

When confronted with rocks,
water seeks a way around.

Water gives way to obstacles
with deceptive humility,
for no power can prevent it
flowing its destined course
to the sea.

Tao Cheng of Nan Yeo
11th century Taoist Scholar

~

with thanks to Heron Dance

~

Photo Art - Mystic Meandering
 -Vortex Art

 

Life is a Stream - a meandering...

While lying in bed late one night, many years ago,
talking to my husband about "life events", groping
for perspective, recognizing how I continue to live
from habituated patterns, reacting to life events,
swimming up stream, trying to keep my head above
water, feeling drowned by the stream of life (which
I still do, especially all this past year), he made this
statement: "Life is a stream of events.  Events will
always happen.  Events come and go."  The context
of his statement was to say - if we see that life is
always a stream of events, or experiences, always
in flux, then we won't feel so overwhelmed by
them, they won't trip us up as much because we can
adapt and adjust and manage them.  Sounds a little
like the Tao to me - to see that no matter what
happens Life is Flow, and we are in that Flow as well.
It was helpful to begin to see a way to navigate my
way of going down stream...

In essence, he told me, what it is about is meeting life
as it comes by plugging in to the Cosmic Flow of the
Universe, of Life - meeting the "events"/experiences of
life through seeing the Cosmic Flow of all things,
and through all things; flowing with life as it happens,
not getting focused on the obstacles/events, or seeing the
events as obstacles. He said by seeing that everything is this
Cosmic Flow, we can be assured that it is flowing the way
it is supposed to - no matter what happens...  When you
don't fight it, you can begin to experience the harmony
of Flow.

B knows nothing of Taoism, but he intuitively "tapped in"
to "The Tao" - The Flow....

~

Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind rest at peace.
The ten thousand things rise and fall
while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish
and then return to the Source.
Returning to the Source is stillness,
which is the way of nature.

If you are willing to be lived by it,
you will see [the Tao] everywhere,
even in the most ordinary things.

Lao Tzu

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Before the Universe - Lao Tzu

Something mysteriously formed,
formless and perfect
in the silence and the void,
before the universe was born.
It is serene. Empty.

Solitary. Unchanging.
Infinite.  Eternally present.
It is the mother of the universe.

For lack of a better name, 
I call it the Tao.

It flows through all things,
inside and outside, and returns
to the origin of all things.

Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

Definition of the Tao:  "The Tao is the absolute principle underlying the universe, signifying the way that is in harmony with the natural order of the Universe - living in harmony with the Universe and the energy in it, or Chi, that is guiding everything in the Universe."

 

Merge Into Truth - Brian Brown Walker

 

[.....]

If you wish to embody the Tao,
stop chattering...

Relax your body and quiet your senses

Return your mind to its original clarity.

Forget about being separated from others
and from the Divine Source.

As you return to Oneness,
do not think of it,
or be in awe of it.

This is just another way of separating from it.

Simply merge into truth,
and allow it to surround you.

Brian Brown Walker

from - Hus Hu Ching:
The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Existence Beyond Words - Bynner

Existence is beyond the power of words
 to define: Terms may be used
But are none of them absolute.
In the beginning of heaven and earth
there were no words.

Words came out of the womb of matter;
And whether a man dispassionately
Sees to the core of life
Or Passionately
Sees the surface,
The core and the surface
Are essentially the same,
Words making them seem different
Only to express appearance.

If name be needed, wonder names them both;
From wonder to wonder
Existence opens.

From - The Way of Life
According to Lao Tzu

(translation of the Tao Te Ching)
by Witter Bynner

~

Solstice day is the peak of time,
a high pause in the year, when
we taste and see the majesty of
light solidified [in Nature].

The Formless sparkles in form...

For at the core of our soul is an
inward eye that cane see [the light]
hidden behind the ordinary...

Fred LaMotte

~

Photo taken by my brother :)

Life is a Stream of Events...

While lying in bed late one night recently, talking to my
husband about "life events", groping for perspective,
recognizing how I continue to live from habituated
patterns, reacting to life events, swimming up stream,
trying to keep my head above water, feeling drowned
by the stream of life - he made this statement:

"Life is a stream of events.  Events will always happen.
Events come and go."  The context of his statement was
to say - if we see that life is always a stream of events,
then we won't feel so overwhelmed by them, they won't
trip us up as much because we can adapt and adjust and
manage them.  Sounds a little like the Tao to me - to see
that no matter what happens Life is a Flow, and we are in
that Flow as well.  It was helpful to begin to see a way to
re-orient my way of going down stream...

In essence, he told me, what this is about is meeting life
as it comes by plugging in to the Cosmic Flow of the
Universe - meeting the "events" of life through seeing
the Cosmic Flow of all things, and through all things;
flowing with life as it happens, not getting focused on
the obstacles/events, or seeing the events as obstacles.
  He said by seeing that everything is the Cosmic Flow,
we can be assured that it is flowing the way it is supposed
 to - no matter what happens... When you don't fight it, you
 can begin to experience the harmony of Flow.

B knows nothing of Taoism, but he intuitively "tapped in"
to "the Tao" - The Flow...

Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind rest at peace.
The ten thousand things rise and fall
while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish
and then return to the Source.
Returning to the Source is stillness,
which is the way of nature.

If you are willing to be lived by it,
you will see [the Tao] everywhere,
even in the most ordinary things.

Lao Tzu

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering