When I wrote my first post, I said a lot of things about honesty, and openness. But adjectives are easy, verbs take a lot more balls and a little bit of I really don’t care. But I do care, I do care if I offend the people who read what I write–the last thing I want to be is offensive and insensitive. However, there are ways to give your opinion without slapping anyone in the face, and so, after careful thought, I’ve decided to blog about something that has bothered me for a while–about three years worth of a while.

As with the typical story, this one will start at the beginning–because nothing exists without foundation, origin or background. Unless of course you’re the Judeo Christian God–which, I promise you, I am not.

Before I get into it, however, I’m going to introduce you to a few key words;

Christianity: Is a Religion, but is not the definition of religion.
Theism: The belief in the existence of a God or more than one Gods. All religions are theistic. Not all religions however, are mono theistic [belief in one God] like Islam, Christianity and Judaism is.
A-: is a prefix meaning not; without.
Atheism: without the belief in the existence of a God or more than one Gods.

Now that we’re hopefully on the same page, I’ll progress;

I live in Jamaica, as you may, or may not know. Jamaica is a self-proclaimed Christian Society with the most churches per square mile in the world, and the third highest murder rate per capita. I’ve only ever attended Christian based schools, and at 12 years old I enrolled in a prominent Catholic High School–in fact, it is so Catholic, there is a convent on campus. By 9th Grade I became interested in atypical religions, Wiccan and the like, before realising that it wasn’t for me. Although there were several reasons why I didn’t feel any connection with religions like Wicca, the main discontent I had with them, was that there were no gatherings I could go to, and feel a part of.

By 11th Grade I set out on a semi journey of self discovery, but instead of hitting the highway, I took the gold paved road to the church. Any church. I went to a church of every Christian denomination, trying to find a place to belong. I just wanted something bigger than myself to love, and to feel the reverence and sense of completeness religious people boast. I went to the Mormon Church, I went to the Anglican Church, The Catholic church, and some other churches who’s names I don’t even remember–fact is, they all claimed to worship the same God.

With the exception of one church whose policy it was that lateness was to be apologised for, to the pastor, and all women were to dress in the same or similar clothing–All the churches were welcoming. After a week or two, and sometimes even on the first day, it becomes crystal clear what the warmth and welcome was all about; every church wanted to save or baptise me, when all I wanted was to understand what it was like to be part of a group that had a common love and goal. I wanted to belong not enlist. It didn’t matter to them whether I showed enough interest in wanting to become a real Christian, the only sign they needed was my showing up on a Sunday morning.

So, after becoming tired of feeling like the possible consumer to a number of Christian salesmen, I gave up on the church, and their doctrines that varied so widely I was sometimes unsure of whether they were all worshipping the same God or not. However, I didn’t give up on Religion or Christianity just then. I still thought that if there was something to be felt, I would feel it if I just decided to find God on my own. And so that’s what I did. I read the bible, I read other literature of Christianity–and sure enough, I found God… and boy was not pleased.

I didn’t like the being God had turned out to be, but I didn’t let it bother me–I decided to see other Gods and later fell for Buddha’s teachings after, even though we decided not to make our relationship formal.

Since all of this, I’ve grappled with what to label to assign myself, especially in a society that condemns anyone who even questions the existence of the Christian God. I at one point thought of myself as Agnostic–not knowing what to believe in. No, I was a lot more certain about my feelings than that though. I hadn’t decided not to believe, and so I wasn’t Agnostic. I thought about Atheist–did I or did I not believe in the existence of Gods, whether it be the Judeo Christian God or not? I decided this:

I believe in the possible existence of a God. However, if the Christian God does exist, I don’t want anything to do with him. I will not worship a God whom, without him, there would be no Devil worship [without Christianity, there is no Satan]. I do not feel comfortable worshipping a God who violates his own commandments. I definitely will not worship a God who permits evil even though he is all-powerful and all-knowing. I don’t want to be friends with a God whose doctrine separates and not unites; incites war rather than promotes peace.

I would rather believe in people, and the goodness that people are capable of–it is people who had the power to organise religion in the name of God based on nothing more than their convictions and the power of their love. If people are capable of this, then they are capable of anything in numbers: love, peace, kindness and all that is good. I believe in the power of people & I do not have to worship them to believe in them completely.

Religion is not bad, and I do not think that believing in a God is bad. Both provide excellent guidelines for leading a good life and being a good person. The Ten Commandments for instance, is perhaps one of the best pieces of literature to guide your life and actions by, on all accounts. Also, the Tao Te Ching, to date, is one of my favourite books.

However I want no formal part of any organised religion. While there are aspects from all religions that I find inspiring, I also find some quotes by poets and certain song lyrics just as inspiring. What do they have in common? They were all at some point, transcribed by man; they are all profound.

Now that I’ve made my place clear, you may label and condemn me as you see fit–but before you do so, I would like to ask all Christians for any explanation of the following, because I am always willing to listen, and I am always wanting to learn.

• Why are books about illusionary things considered lacking “logic” when absolutely nothing about any religious doctrine is grounded in “logic.” Vampires and zombies which I assume are considered illogical, are both undead–by definition they died, and then they rose from the dead. Jesus Christ died… and then he rose from the dead. Why is one logical while the other is not?
• Why is magic demonic and the like? Why is it completely wrong for the fictional character Harry Potter to use a wand and turn a stick into a toad, while it is completely right when Jesus Christ turns water into wine? …Is it the wand?
• Finally, as you would love your Jewish, Hindu or Buddhist friend, why is it so much harder to love someone who isn’t religious at all?

I know that writing this post is taking a huge step, and I hope that in writing it people will see me differently, without forgetting what they already knew about me. I want people to see me as a person that does not believe in God, but I also want them to remember all the times I may have made them laugh, or I may have said something nice about them, or I may have helped or inspired them in some way–I am the same person. I just look at the world through different eyes; I am asking you to help me see it through yours.

If I wrote anything which offends you, It was not my intent to do so. I Welcome your thoughts, questions and comments.

“O Tao é um vaso vazio cujo uso nunca transborda

Abismo!

Parece o ancestral das dez-mil-coisas

Abranda o cume

Desfaz o emaranhado

Modera o brilho

Une o pó.

Profundo!

Parece existir

Eu não sei de quem é filho

Parece ser anterior ao Ancestral”

traduzido pela comunidade do wikisource

capítulo 5

todos os capítulos

Chapter 11, Tao-Te-Ching

A. A wheel is made of thirty perceptible spokes but it turns due to the imperceptible central axis of the hub.
B. Vessels are made of perceptible clay, but it is their imperceptible hollow that is useful.
C. The imperceptible holes that make the doors and windows of a house are its essentials.
D. It is the imperceptible that produces effects and results.

Lao Tzu says it is not the perceptible or the things that can be seen that make a being, but the imperceptible (hollow, void, hole) that cannot be seen that makes the being. He gives the example of the perceptible wheel which has spokes but turns due to its imperceptible central axis, he gives the example of vessels which are made up of perceptible clay but are useful due to their imperceptible hollow. What Taoism wants to put across is that its not the perceptible body of the man but it is the imperceptible soul, feelings and thoughts that make a man who he is. Thats why suffering of the imperceptible is more painful than suffering of the perceptible that is emotional and mental suffering is more painful than physical suffering.
One should realize that there is an immortal soul, your feelings and your thoughts that make you who you are. Pass down your thoughts and whatever you learn from life, for your mortal body may die but your thoughts will remain alive in this world.

Here are just a few examples of my “Portraits of Strangers,” ranging from summer of 2008 to the present.  These drawings will give you an idea of what I’m talking about, and also serve to form the basic conditions of future collaborative PoS projects.

June – August 2008 in New York City and Florida: In the beginning, I did not draw the portraits using a continuous contour line, but was more concerned with exploring live drawing.  I used a Japanese style Moleskine as my sketchbook, because its concerto style enabled me to create drawings that ran into each other.

September – December 2008, studying at Fudan University and travelling throughout China:  I used watercolor in China because I was inspired by…

“True virtue in a life is lived like water.” -Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (or, The Way and Its Power by The Father of Taoism)

“Life starts with ocean; humans, as lords of creation, grow on Earth.” – from the Shanghai World Expo 2010 “The Wings of Human Dreams”

I also decided to do an oil painting of this woman I spoke broken Mandarin to at the Summer Palace in Beijing, because oil paints were very cheap back in Shanghai, and I had never done one before.  I put numbers on the bottom that recall the phone numbers scrawled all over the walls and sidewalks of China, advertising for a variety of services.  These numbers evoke a mugshot, how we’re statistics, just a drop in the ocean.

January – May 2009, studying Film and Television on Boston University’s London Program:

Clockwise from top left: man I saw twice on the tube; woman behind me in line for Ryan Air reimbursement tickets after our flights were cancelled and spent the night in Stansted Airport; man also waiting for the bus in Positano, Italy; Brits on the tube; women in Venice, Italy, eating at the same restaurant as my friends and I.

All the players, drawn by various Coney members and myself

These photos (not taken by myself) are from the game “Guess Whose Portrait?” which I designed to be play-tested at a PlayDay in March 2008 facilitated by London-based group Coney.  At the time, I was helping out with some of their projects through my internship at Solar Associates.

If you want to play your own version of  “Guess Who”, there’s no need to go out an buy it…just assemble some family or friends and draw each other’s portraits.  Collage, or photographing are okay too.  Then paste the portraits on paper, get some cardboard and cut slits into it for the cards to stick into. Et voilà! You have created a personalized “Guess Whose Portrait?” game.

I suggest you don’t draw two portraits of everyone, though, but instead photocopy one portrait for both game boards.  We ran into a bit of a problem since the two drawings were often drawn by different people and used different colors, or someone had taken off their sweatshirt, hat, etc. so the portrait was very different.  As a result, you couldn’t win the game!

]]> http://sebastianvalle.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/tao-te-ching-capitulo-3/ Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:56:13 +0000 sebastianvalle http://sebastianvalle.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/tao-te-ching-capitulo-3/

“Se não privilegiamos os bons, o povo não compete

Se não valorizamos os bens custosos, o povo não rouba

Se não exibimos coisas desejáveis, o coração do povo não erra.

Por isso o governo do homem sábio:

Esvazia os corações e sacia as entranhas

Enfraquece as vontades e revigora os ossos

Nunca deixa o povo ter conhecimento e desejos

Para o douto não ousar agir.

Agindo no não-agir, assim não há desgoverno.”

traduzido pela comunidade do wikisource

capítulo 4

todos os capítulos

Deva: La Luna (2009)

Oftentimes, I find the best haiku possess something that Brian Eno aspires to in his ambient music: “I want to make things that put me in the position of innocence, that recreate the feeling of innocence in you.”  Both Eno and John Cage often deliberately de-contextualise (or re-contextualise) sound in order to highlight the newness and strangeness of sounds.  Haiku does this too, in its own way.

We too easily fall into human routines where the most beautiful and magical moments in this mysterious universe are ignored or taken for granted.  And it may not always be the obvious awe-inspiring sunset filling the sky, but the tiny, ordinary things close to us that we simply fail to notice: a dandelion, a mosquito, a dewdrop.  Haiku is about noticing the ordinary world of nature around you.  The reader, by extension, realises him or herself also as part of nature too:

a peasant child

stops hulling rice

gazes at the moon

In Bashō’s lovely poem, the normal routine of work is interrupted.  The child doesn’t even need to know exactly what it is that is happening in this moment.  It is simply a quiet moment of communion with the universe.   In this moment, the world and all the things in it cease to be a means to an end (see also this poem by Buson).  The world is seen in its is-ness.

Haiku simply puts a spotlight on scenes of ordinariness and reawaken the innocence of seeing the world anew.  Abstraction isn’t capable of doing this, and in fact leads one even further from the immediacy of the moment.  In haiku, there is no need for transcendence of the world itself—only our limited and limiting conceptual view of the world.  The world is not “fallen” as in the idea of “original sin” but rather it is seen in its pure state of what I like to call original innocence, or what the Dao De Jing calls “the uncarved block”:

The ten thousand things stir about;
I only watch for their going back.

Things grow and grow,
But each goes back to its root.
Going back to the root is stillness.
This means returning to what is.
Returning to what is
Means going back to the ordinary.

If we can talk about “meaning” at all, it ultimately has its source in what is unsayable.  And even though haiku use words, those words are used in such a way that the words are passed beyond, placing the reader squarely in the “haiku moment.”  Only the moment remains.  This is why the devices we normally associate with poetry are usually avoided within haiku, such as metaphor, simile, personification—this is just more abstraction.  In a certain sense, haiku is “artless.”

What I have noticed over the time I have spent studying haiku is that I tend to notice those “haiku moments” around me more easily.  This hardly means I am satisfied with every haiku I write, and sometimes I am content to not write a haiku at all, but instead I simply enjoy the moment (seeing every moment as nothing but an opportunity to write a haiku would be missing the point I think!).

More and more, I am understanding haiku not merely as a poetic form.  Haiku are always happening around us, wherever one looks.  I am finding that reading haiku helps me to “exercise” that more contemplative side of myself.  And writing haiku is something like a thanksgiving, giving back to the universe what I was given.  At least, this is what it seems to mean to me.

So here is a question to ask yourself: When was the last time you gazed at the moon?

~ ~ ~

Matsuo Bashō, Jane Reichhold (translator), Bashō: The Complete Haiku, Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2008, pg. 97.

Lao Tzu, Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo (translators), Tao Te Ching, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1993, chapter 16.

]]> http://sebastianvalle.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/tao-te-ching-capitulo-2/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:15:40 +0000 sebastianvalle http://sebastianvalle.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/tao-te-ching-capitulo-2/

“Quando reconhecemos o que faz o belo ser belo
Surge o feio!

Quando reconhecemos o que faz o bom ser bom
Surge o mal!

Por isto:
O ser e o não-ser surgem mutuamente
O fácil e o difícil complementam-se
O longo e o curto condizem
O alto e o baixo convivem entre si
O som e a voz casam-se
O antes e o depois seguem-se.

Por isto:
O homem sábio cumpre suas ações sem agir
Pratica o ensino sem falar
E as dez-mil-coisas agem sem serem impedidas.
Ele cria e nada possui
Atua e não guarda coisa alguma
Realizada a obra ele não se apega

E justamente por não se apegar, ela não se esvai.”

traduzido pela comunidade do wikisource

capítulo 3

todos os capítulos

“O Tao que pode-se discorrer não é o eterno Tao.

O nome que pode ser dito não é o eterno Nome.

O não-ser nomeia a origem do céu e da terra.

O ser nomeia a mãe das dez-mil-coisas.

Por isto:
No não-ser contempla-se o deslumbramento.

No ser contempla-se sua delimitação.

Ambos o mesmo, com nomes diversos
O mesmo diz-se mistério.

Mistério dos mistérios
Portal de todo deslumbramento.”

traduzido pela comunidade do wikisource

capítulo 2

todos os capítulos

O Tao Te Ching, ou Dao de Jing, comumente traduzido pelo nome de “O Livro do Caminho e da sua Virtude”, é um dos antigos escritos chineses mais conhecidos e importantes. A tradição diz que o livro foi escrito em cerca de 600 a.C. por um sábio que viveu na Dinastia Zhou chamado Lao Tzi (“Velho Mestre”), como um livro de provérbios relacionados com o Tao, e que acabou servindo como obra inspiradora para diversas religiões e filosofias, em especial o Taoísmo e o Budismo Chan (e sua versão japonesa, o Zen).

Como a maior parte das figuras mitológicas dos fundadores de religiões, a vida do escritor do Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu é envolta em lendas. Segundo a tradição, Lao Tzi nasceu no sul da China cerca de 604 a.C sendo superintendente judicial dos arquivos imperiais em Loyang, capital do estado de Ch’u. Desgostoso pelas intrigas da vida na corte, Lao Tzi decidiu afastar-se da sociedade seguindo para as Terras do Oeste. Montado em uma carroça guiada por um boi , seguiu viagem, mas ao atravessar a fronteira, um dos seus amigos, o policial Yin-hsi, o reconheceu e lhe pediu que escrevesse seus ensinamentos antes de partir. Lao Tzi então escreveu o pequeno livro conhecido posteriormente como o Tao Te Ching , e partiu em seguida. Segundo a história, morreu em 517 a.C. Lao Tzi foi canonizado pelo imperador Han entre os anos 650 a.C. e 684 a.C

Os mais recentes estudos apontam para que o Tao Te Ching tenha sido escrito por Lao Tzi entre 460 a.C. e 380 a.C. Algumas lendas dizem que o Tao Te Ching estava gravado numa série de réguas de bambu. O texto ia passando de uma régua para outra e, como entretanto elas foram embaralhadas, ninguém sabe hoje a sua ordem exata.

Este livro não originou o Taoísmo nem o conceito de Tao: tais já eram de uso corrente antes da escrita do livro. Mas ele serviu como obra de apoio para as religiões que aderiam à idéia do Tao (Caminho) como a base da existência de todas as coisas.

As diversas correntes do pensamento religioso e filosófico através dos tempos atribuiram milhares de interpretações diferentes ao sentido do Tao Te Ching. Porém, o tema principal do livro é localizado em seu primeiro provérbio: “O Tao que pode ser dito não é o Tao Verdadeiro”. O Tao Te Ching situa a origem de todas as coisas no Tao (Caminho, Senda), que longe do conceito de Deus nas religiões deístas, é um príncipio inimaginável, inenarrável, eterno e absoluto, que não pode ser compreendido, já que qualquer tentativa de classificá-lo cria uma dicotomia que não pode existir em algo Eterno e Absoluto. Já que o Tao não pode ser compreendido, o Tao Te Ching enfatiza que não existem meios de manipulá-lo. Logo os seres devem viver uma vida simples, sem grandes questionamentos morais ou filosóficos, onde se enfatize o “não-agir” (a “não-ação”, wu wei), isto é, deixar-se guiar pelo curso natural e lógico dos eventos do universo. O homem que seguir este príncipio acaba liberto das vicissitudes da vida, e se torna o “Homem Santo” celebrado no Taoísmo.

Uma filosofia deste tipo, logicamente quebra todos os conceitos e tentativas do homem controlar seu destino e demonstra que toda tentativa de se criar uma religião, uma sociedade política ou moral acaba sempre sendo infrutífera.

fonte: wikipedia

capítulo 1

capítulo 2

capítulo 3

capítulo 4

Herewith, to mark the ten thousandth view of Sesquiotica, I present an epistolary correspondence between Ion Orzabal and Muriel Wan.

IO:
Muriel, I wan to woo you.

MW:
There are wan ways to do that. Wan, my name, one of the old hundred Chinese surnames, means “ten thousand.” So it is one hundred times the hundred. Square me away with some poetry.

IO:
You, Wan, are Han (Chinese); I am Basque. May I bask in your glory? Muriel, for you I will make merry with a myriad of means – myriad being “ten thousand” but rooting in the Greek murios, “countless.” Any Tennyson? Let’s try this:

Sweet is every sound,
Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet;
Myriads of rivulets hurrying through the lawn,
The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
and murmuring of innumerable bees.

MW:
You have connected! You speak of innumerable bees and moaning birds, surely the source of the countless many things – in Chinese, wan wu: the “ten thousand things.” Everything. As often mentioned in the Tao Te Ching – let me quote the translation by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English:

The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the mother of the ten thousand things.

and

The highest good is like water.
Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.

I do like the water images. After all, Muriel comes from Scots Gaelic Muireall, “bright sea.”

IO:
If water is music to your ears, I can Handel it. But then let me Aeschylate matters. Who stole the fire from the gods and put them in your eyes? Why, Prometheus, of course, and he is bound to be relevant. He is quoted speaking of the “Myriad laughter of the ocean waves.” A cheat, though, I declare: the original Greek is pontion te kumaton anérithmon gelasma, no murios in sight until lines later (where it is murieté)… Here is David Grene’s translation of the lines:

Bright lights, swift-winged winds, springs of the rivers, numberless
laughter of the sea’s waves, earth, mother of all, and the all-seeing
circle of the sun: I call upon you to see what I, a God, suffer
at the hands of Gods –
see with what kind of torture
worn down I shall wrestle ten thousand
years of time –

And indeed, Muriel, I wrestle a myriad of yearning tortures for you. Let me, IO, quote Io from Prometheus Bound, stung by the gadfly, goaded by Argos, the ten-thousand-eyed (muriópon) herdsman. In Greek, “Io, io, popoi! Poi de m’agousi téleplagtoi planai.” In English, “O, O, O, Where are you bringing me, my far-wandering wanderings?” Do my wanderings take me back? Do I strive pointlessly?

MW:
Ah, earth, the mother of all, again. You have named it! But there it is: you begin from the myth and you take it to the myriad in the moment, an instance of hierophany – Mircea Eliade’s “eternal return.” We create the sacred space when we connect with the myth, and the time now becomes the time of the myth for the moment. In every countless moment we may return. But again I am jonesing for the tao:

Returning is the motion of the Tao.
Yielding is the way of the Tao.
The ten thousand things are born of being.
Being is born of not being.

IO:
Ah, all is wan and wan is one. I know another eternal return: the idea that, given an infinite amount of time, all arrangements of matter in the universe will recur. But I eternally return to you, Ion after eons. Will you yield?

MW:
And the universe, too, returns, from big bang to big crunch, every breath a myriad of eons. But is this yield you desire the yield of a cookie recipe? I hope it is not a mere yield of a myriad. Myriad matches miscellaneously: ways, problems, forms, details, issues. Do you make merry or do you make as to marry? I do not marry ad hoc; Muriel does not marry all who ask. Wan will have but one.

IO:
Well, when all is Wan, Wan is all. I will be a rock and will not roll. If you wish a stairway to heaven, let us physically manifest the sacred. But let me speak of what I believe; I will shout and let it all out, my tears and fears. You speak of Mircea Eliade, and I hope my words are not Greek to you; I seek no Iliad, and I wish theodicy, not the Odyssey. Have mercy. Let my hierophany be Coleridge’s “Hymn to the Earth”:

Say, mysterious Earth! O say, great mother and goddess,
Was it not well with thee then, when first thy lap was ungirdled,
Thy lap to the genial Heaven, the day that he woo’d thee and won thee!
Fair was thy blush, the fairest and first of the blushes of morning!
Deep was the shudder, O Earth! the throe of thy self-retention:
Inly thou strovest to flee, and didst seek thyself at thy centre!
Mightier far was the joy of thy sudden resilience; and forthwith
Myriad myriads of lives teem’d forth from the mighty embracement.
Thousand-fold tribes of dwellers, impell’d by thousand-fold instincts,
Fill’d, as a dream, the wide waters; the rivers sang on their channels;
Laugh’d on their shores the hoarse seas; the yearning ocean swell’d upward;
Young life low’d through the meadows, the woods, and the echoing mountains,
Wander’d bleating in valleys, and warbled on blossoming branches.

The myriad myriads – noun and adjective, the universe in verse – will teem forth from our embracement. Let me be the genial Heaven that woo’d and won Wan! The rivers will sing in their channels, and the hoarse seas will laugh – countlessly; the yearning ocean will swell upward.

Oh, let me Marvell at your beauty! To be exact, Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress”:

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime
…
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
…
But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
…
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

MW:
Ah, thirty thousand – san man. Mister San Man, you bring me a dream. The wingèd chariot may be your father’s, for you are Ion, son of Apollo, who drives the sun. I hope you will not run. You are myriad-minded, to borrow a word Coleridge applied to Shakespeare: Greek murionous. I am in mind of Bronson Alcott, from “Ion: A Monody”:

Early through field and wood each Spring we sped,
Young Ion leading o’er the reedy pass;
…
For endless Being’s myriad-minded race
Had in his thought their registry and place

But for your harbinger, let me end with a line from Edmund Charles Blunden’s Harbingers:

And wed me with the myriad-minded man.

IO:
Then let us be happily myriad!

As a Red Sox fan, my heart is filled with rage and disgust when I contemplate the Yankees’ 27th title. However, as a fan of baseball, I give NY(A) credit for going out and doing their job. Today marks a day of reckoning in my life, as my college career hangs in the balance of one math test. I have done all I can to ensure success, and I feel prepped and ready. Come on math, hit me with your best shot!

Thought of the Day:

The difficult develops naturally from the easy,
And the great from the small;
So the sage, by dealing with the small,
Achieves the great.
 - Tao Te Ching

Experience is a riverbed,
Its source hidden, forever flowing:
Its entrance, the root of the world,
The Way moves within it:
Draw upon it; it will not run dry.

-Tao Te Ching, chapter 6

Pattabhi Jois is quoted by Michael Stone in “The Inner Tradition of Yoga”, as saying that savasana is the one pose you should do, if you can’t do any others.  This might surprise some yogis who have heard that sirsasana (headstand) is the king of all poses. The ONE to do, not only if short on time, but also as a palliative. October seemed a fitting month to explore the pose and the concept of death in its yogic context.

Besides respecting the words of Pattabhi Jois, why else should we study death?  First, consider that no matter what lineage, what style, what teacher, what location, what day time or other variable, every yoga class will include savasana.  We study intently, over long periods of time, our alignment in trikonasana (triangle pose), the depth of our exhale, our meditative seat, the correct prop to modify a pose, along with multiple other aspects of the practice.  In the same way, savasana, and therefore death, deserve the same treatment.

Second, it is not only what we are inevitably born to do, but it is what we currently are.  In the Buddhist tradition, impermanence is one of the three basic characteristics of existence.  To study death is not only a study of the future, but of the present moment.

Third, it cultivates a respect for the present moment from which blooms gratefulness. Also from that cultivation arises a reminder to savor and live each moment fully.

How, then, do we work with becoming intimate with impermanence, with death?

1)      Become intimate with the breath. The breath is a precious and vital yogic tool which aids the yogi in multiple ways. With the repetitive birth-death cycle (inhales & exhales) of the breath as guide, certain insights may arise about the nature of birth and death on a larger scale.

2)      Become intimate with all the “tiny deaths” that surround our daily life, such as the cycle of a day, the life cycle of clothing, the cycles found in the food you eat, the balance of your bank account, the ink levels in your printer, the pens you use to write, the technology that surrounds you, the blink of your eye, teachers and teachings.  All of these express impermanence.  It is a yogi’s challenge to refute Yuddisthira’s observation* in the Bhagavad Gita, by remaining aware of these little deaths, and, just as with working with the breath, begin to allow the seeds of insight to dig in your awareness.

3)      Death meditation. There are various ways to practice a death meditation.  Locations can range from your living room to a cemetery to a loved one’s hospital bedside.  Methods can include visualizations, reading literature on the stages of death (scientific, or in such philosophical texts as “The Tibet Book of Living and Dying”), contemplating the world you have created around you without you in it, or any of several other techniques.  The basic work in this kind of meditation to fully confront your (specifically and uncomfortably) death.

4)      Let Go meditation.  Set aside a time that will allow you to wander through each room of your living area completely.  As you move, contemplate each belonging. Stay with that belonging, keep it in your gaze, until you become comfortable with it no longer being in your life.  Do this with everything from the new computer you bought, to the hand-me-down couch that needs to be donated, to the ring your grandmother passed to you, to your collection of music, to your photos, to whatever you have on you at that time.

5)      Contemplate during asana, meditation, or quiet reflection the Yoga Sutras, Tao Te Ching, or other texts’ passages on death. For example: Tao 50 “…He holds nothing back from life; therefore he is ready for death, as a man is ready for sleep after a good day’s work.” This passage speaks to how practicing savasana after asana is a practice for dying after life, bring this to your next practice, both the asana and savasana portions.

6)      Pull from your own experience. As with all yoga practices, make it relevant to you and your life.

Allow these practices to be uncomfortable, disconcerting, frustrating, upsetting, uplifting, freeing, joyous, exhilarating, or boring.  Recall the “This too shall pass” popular yoga story:

A student was struggling in his meditation practice. His body constantly called him away through pain or other distractions. His mind wandered. He saw himself as foolish for wasting time sitting around. Frustration and anger resulted from every session. He considered quitting. He went to his teacher and told him this.

His teacher considered and replied, “It will pass.”

The student returned to his practice. Time went by.  His body began to settle and fall away from his mind’s eye when he sat. His awareness was steady. Soon he began to feel subtle shifts in his perception. Elated, he returned to his teacher to share the good news.

His teacher considered and replied, “This too shall pass.”

Inspirations for this post include:

Michael Stone (especially his chant “Life and death are of supreme importance…”)

Tao Te Ching

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras

Jack Gilbert “Tear it Down”

Tias Little’s dharma talk at the Shala, NYC, 10/11/2009

*When asked, “Of all things in life, what is most astounding?” Yuddisthira replied, “That a person, seeing others die all around him, never thinks that he will die.”

So , I picked up my copy of the Toa Te Ching for the first time last night . I read it by the light of my cellphone and the moon as I soaked in the bathtub with the lights off . I find baths better in the dark . I always have .

I’m having a difficult time interpreting the contents of this book . I think it’s because I’m trying to understand . Inaction . If I don’t pursue a deeper understanding of this acient chinese text , I will gain a deeper understanding of it . I accomplish by not trying to accomplish .

Therefore,
      Contentment that derives from knowing
                         when to be content
         is eternal contentment.

I’m so unbelievabely distraught about whether or not I am going to accomplish anything great during the course of my life time . Will I be successful ? Will I be educated ? Will I be well known ? Will I make lots of money ? Will I influence many in a positive way ? Will I have the perfect family and perfect marriage and be remembered ?

 What I’m wondering now is – when did whoever decide that it was no longer okay to just be ?

I want to be okay with whatever I happen to make of myself . I want nothing more than to want nothing more . Yet , I know I never will be . I feel I have so much to prove , even though I have no one to prove it to . No one cares if I end up successful or just another nobody , barely getting by , settling for mediocre . I don’t want mediocracy . I want more . I’ll never get there .

The sad part ? We all know I have the potential .

The ebb and flow of writings since ancient times on the unity of Spirit and Creation show remarkable patterns. The most interesting is the spiral that takes us from the beginning in 600 BCE, through ups and downs, fertile flowerings and bleak deserts, to the 20th and 21st Centuries, when the writings flourish again and are more like the earliest ones than any that came between.

Some say we are in the new “Axial Age” of spiritual discoveries, but this time with everyday people making those discoveries and tying them to everything from popular music to the new physics to the interconnectedness of the Internet.

We will spend time in future posts filling in the details of the ups and downs and the spiral that is still going strong, but first it’s helpful to pull some examples from each of the the five most fruitful periods of time. This is how I broke them up in writing In the Same Breath, with illustrations by Christine Tobias. If you have other historical categories or favorite writings, I’d love to hear about them.

- Christine Tobias

There are are 52 writings in Same Breath, one for each week; here are some from each of the five time periods.

Beginningless Beginnings – 600 to 300 BCE

There was something formless and perfect
before the universe was born.
It is serene. Empty.
Solitary. Unchanging.
It is the mother of the universe.
For lack of a better name,
I call it the Tao.

Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu, trans. Stephen Mitchell, about 500 BCE

Bread, Wine and a Billion Arms – 200 BCE to 200 CE

In the beginning was the Word,
And the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning,
Through him all things came to be,
Not one thing had its being but through him.

John 1:1–5, The Jerusalem Bible, about 100 CE

Mystical Aha! Moments – 850 to 1600

I gazed upon [al-Lah] with the eye of truth and said to Him: “Who is this?”
He said, “This is neither I nor other than I. There is no God but I.”
Then he changed me out of my identity into His Selfhood…
Then I communed with Him with the tongue of His Face, saying:
“How fared it with me with Thee?” He said, “I am through Thee, there is no god but Thou.”

Abu Yazid Bistami, Sufi mystic, 804- 874

A Spiral Back to Flying Sparks – 1900 to 1999

When we enter the unknown
of our houses,
go inside the given up dark
and sheltering walls alone
and turn out the lamps
we fall bone to bone in bed.

Neighbors, the old woman who knows you
turns over in me
and I wake up
in another country. There’s no more
north and south.
Asleep, we pass through one another
like blowing snow,
all of us,
all.

“Our Houses,” from Seeing Through the Sun, 1985, by Linda Hogan,
Native American poet and author

There is no such thing as seeking God, for there is nothing in which He could not be found.

Martin Buber, Jewish philosopher, 1878 – 1965

Seeking Eden in the Chaos – 1999 – today

I believe that the Messiah is not a person, outside of us, but is a noble state of mind possible in each and every one of us, a state of mind which must be attained, too often through pain.

Storm of Terror, by June Leavitt, 2002

What was going on during all this time?

Here’s the capsule version – many more details to come in future posts.

First there was a flurry of juicy, prolific writing in all parts of the inhabited world, stretching almost nonstop for more than a millennium starting in 600 BCE.

Then wars and invasions in Europe made sheer survival take precedence over spiritual growth, at least in the West, for 600 years until the emergence of Christian, Jewish and Sufi mystics in the 9th Century. The thread was more subdued this time, especially among Christian mystics. Eden had been lost. Those in exile were now unable to completely embrace the unity that was once so natural. Even so, a few were determined to try to reach the God who had once walked by humanity’s side, but had now been exiled by the theologians to the heavens.

After a mere 600 years, however, the mysticism that flowered in Christianity was stopped in its tracks by the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic counter-Reformation, neither of which had any tolerance for mystical experiences or talk of other than a transcendent, separate God. The Enlightenment, for all its wonderful exploration of science and

- Christine Tobias

rational behavior, was also inhospitable soil for mysticism.  Kabbalah, however, kept the mystical thread going in Judaism, as did Sufism in Islam.

Meanwhile, the Eastern religions of Taoism and Hinduism were well into their 26th century of seeing Spirit and Creation as One; Buddhism had held up a mirror to the illusion of reality and Eastern Orthodox Christianity had found a way to continue to accept and even nourish mysticism.

It wasn’t until the mid-19th to the 20th Century, however, that writing of this unity began to appear again broadly in the West, often influenced by Eastern thought, but also at times quite home-grown.

We’ll explore how this came to be and take a look at Thomas Merton’s 20th century rendition of the 300 BCE writings of Chuang Tzu, for whom this blog is named, when next we meet.

gswimg at earthlink dot net

Now, some of you have called me ‘preachy’…well, many do, but I speak what I understand is Truth, and if you disagree then by all means share your thoughts.  Please, no cussing wars, this is a family room!  Today’s events in  Topeka are quite alarming.  A woman was gunned down at a community center across the street from a middle school.  My heart goes out to the family of 34-year old Marini McKnight, and I light a candle for this tragedy.  The murderer is 20 years old, and this area of town is definitely the ghetto.  Please do not misunderstand, Dear Reader, as a hippy I got nothin’ but love for mankind.  My idea of ‘ghetto’ is inspired by Elvis.  “An angry young man with a gun in his hand.”  This is one of the worst kinds of violence (ghetto wars) and I am confused as to why people are reduced to living with violence?  My stepson (who thinks I’m the Devil) went to Jr. High here, and I can’t help but think: What IF this event had happened at that time?  He could have been at the center… I also have an almost 20 yer old daughter, and while I did not raise her I also have to wonder: what did these children learn that our gunman did not?  Yes, he’s 20, an adult legally, but still so young as to be some mother’s son.  I won’t get too deep into behavioral psychology, but think about this, Dear Reader: What did this young man grow up with to feel justified in murder?  What threat did this woman pose to his way of life that he felt it necessary to shoot her dead?

Who is brave and bold will perish;
Who is brave and subtle will benefit.
The subtle profit where the bold perish
For Fate does not honour daring.
And even the sage dares not tempt fate.

Fate does not attack, yet all things are conquered by it;
It does not ask, yet all things answer to it;
It does not call, yet all things meet it;
It does not plan, yet all things are determined by it.

Fate’s net is vast and its mesh is coarse,
Yet none escape it.

Tao Te Ching 73

I will admit recently I have been too preachy.  But when I hold my tongue stuff like this happens.  I understand this event has nothing to do with me directly; it’s some bad thing that happened in my school community.  But I also believe there are no coincidences.  What could community members do for this child, this individual, that he would not have considered murdering another human?  Let alone someone’s mother?

I believe school community gardens are a solution to the issue of reducing neighborhood violence.  Throughout history every large city has had its share of violence, and this Truth is brought home today.  Murder is a moral issue of Good and Bad, Right and Wrong.  And yet, ghetto violence, the Mob, Gang wars, and the like are a result of a community’s social order.  We as a people can act immediately to get violence out of school neighborhoods.  However, our society honors a schedule that is not beneficial to families and children.  School gardens are benefical in several ways, too many to list here.  Check out Ten Benefits if you haven’t yet Dear Reader.   

I understand how difficult it is for any community to come together, when We have become very diversified within neighborhoods.  ’Community’ is no longer exclusive to ‘Home’ because the working class (near poverty) isn’t at home.  The poor have been neglected, and have lost Hope, as evidenced in today’s woeful misfortune in my hometown.  I believe it takes Good people to create a Good community, and the one place we can come together is in our schools.  I urge residents of Central Topeka to come together and build Robinson a garden.  A FOOD garden.  I hope our city leaders can make this happen, cause lip service just don’t fly no more.  Schools don’t have money because parent’s don’t have money because mom’s have a full-time job and pay someone else to co-mom, and education is undervalued in the current social order.  Before entering the workplace, Mothers played a crucial role in society.  This role is just not realisticly achieved in modern society, and it is time for Us to Help One Another.  When an individual’s basic needs are not met, he cannot concern himself with morality.  He’s in survival mode.  How many of us honestly know about survival mode in an urban ghetto?  I’ve been there, and I am thankful for learning to Love. (right now I’m working on esteem and cofidence, thanks Maslow)  Help a child learn to Love by volunteering in your neighborhood school.  Whether or not you have children, whether or not you live in a large community.  Employers: support your workers in their community, and offer volunteer incentives.  Citizens: see about a tax credit for volunteer hours. 

Let’s Work Together

上善若水。
La suprema bondad es como el agua.

水善利萬物而不爭，
El agua es bondadosa y beneficia a los diez mil seres sin reñir contra ninguno,

處眾人之所惡，
fluye en lugares que la muchedumbre desprecia,

故幾於道。
por eso está cerca del Tao.

居善地，
Habita bondadosamente en el suelo,

心善淵與善仁，
su corazón es bondadosamente profundo y bondadosamente compasivo,

言善信，
sus palabras son bondadosamente correctas,

正善治，
su gobierno es bondadosamente justo,

事善能，
su trabajo es bondadosamente eficaz,

動善時。
su actuar es bondadosamente oportuno.

夫唯不爭，故無尤。
El hombre que no riñe contra nadie, no comete falta.

天長地久。
El Cielo es extenso, y la Tierra duradera.

天地所以能長且久者，
以其不自生，故能長生。
El Cielo puede ser extenso y la Tierra puede ser duradera, porque no producen para sí mismos. Por eso son tan extensos.

是以聖人後其身而身先，
外其身而身存。
Asimismo, el sabio quedándose atrás, se antepone a los demás. Olvidándose de sí mismo, se conserva a sí mismo.

非以其無私邪！故能成其私。
¡Por ser tan desprendido consigue éxito en su vida!

谷神不死 是謂玄牝。
La inmortal energía del valle es llamada ‘Hembra Misteriosa’.

玄牝之門 是謂天地根。
La puerta de la Hembra Misteriosa es llamada ‘Raíz del Cielo-y-Tierra’.

綿綿若存，用之不勤。
Parece existir ininterrumpidamente(*),  y su utilización no implica esfuerzo.

____________________________

* La palabra mián = 綿, repetida dos veces seguidas se suele traducir como ‘continuo’, pero como palabra individual tiene varias acepciones (algodón, lana, hilo / suave, débil, delicado / eterno, interminable… ) otras posibles traducciones a esta expresión podrían ser: “Parece ser un interminable hilo” o “hilo delicado”, etc.

A little blogging while I’m running around and setting up the transition to the group blog…

Chad Hansen’s translation of the Daodejing is available now. I happened to see it at the Yale Book Store, did a double-take, and snatched it up. It has a kind of boutique feel to it, literally — the hardcover has an elegant silky-cloth finish with an embossed 道 on the front; the paper quality seems expensive; there are myriad glossy photos and art reproductions throughout. This attention to reader aesthetic experience suggests that the volume is not primarily meant for scholarly reference, most scholars being more utilitarian about the print quality of their reading material. On the other hand, what translation of the Daodejing after Legge’s really targets an academic audience? Nonetheless, I’m always a sucker for translations of the DDJ by scholars that I like.

The translation differs from what I remember of the one he had on line for a while (that page is no longer available from Hansen’s website — why?!). It’s more elegant, I think, but of course remains faithful to Hansen’s guidance-dao/performance-dao, non-mystical interpretation. Since chapter 1 is usually how people tend to judge translations of the DDJ, here is Hansen’s version, including his titular heading for it:

DAOS, NAMES, AND PUZZLES

Ways can be guided; they are not fixed ways.
Names can be named; they are not fixed names.
“Absence” names the cosmic horizon,
“Presence” names the mother of 10,000 natural kinds.
Fixing on “absence” is to want to view enigmas.
Fixing on “presence” is to want to view phenomena.
These two, emerging together, we name differently.
Conceiving of them as being one: call that “fathomless”.
Calling it “fathomless” is still not to fathom it.
…the door to a cluster of puzzles.

The volume is not without notation. There is a brief, readable Hansen-commentary for each chapter, in the section following the full translation of the text. Here is the beginning of his commentary on chapter 1:

You ask, “Where is the way” I say: “Over there.” I have dao-ed you to a dao. The way I recommend consists of other signposts, markers, or structures that you can follow correctly — or not, just as you can follow my “over there” correctly or not. If a 道 dao can guide or recommend something (also written 道 but used as a verb), then it’s not a constant dao.

What is a fixed or constant dao — one you can’t get wrong; one to which you do not need to be guided? The movements of the stars and celestial objects trace a constant or fixed dao. You do not ask, and I can’t tell you, how to digest an apple. The process of digestion is fixed. The normal biological processes of life are naturally fixed.

The key difference between recommendable ways and fixed ones is words (名 ming, “names”) and their counterparts — signs, markers, demonstratives and gestures…

I think that’s about as clear an explanation of Hansen’s approach to the DDJ as I’ve read by him.

Comments, requests for how Hansen translated line x of chapter y, etc are welcome.