Monday, November 8, 2010

Tao: the Path of flowing water

©2009 Hougaard Malan

The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to.
It is content with the low places that people disdain.
Thus it is like the Tao.

The word Tao means "the path". You can not say anything about the goal: it remains elusive, indescribable, ineffable. But you can say something on the way. The Buddha said: "The Buddha can only show you the way. If you follow the path, you get to the truth. " The truth must be your own experience. No one can define the truth, but you can define the path, you can clear the path. The teacher can not give you the truth, but it can give you away. And when you know the way there, all you have to do is follow it.

The word Tao means simply "the way". We are in the Tao, where else could we be? To live is to be on the road. To live is to live in the divine. Breathing is breathing in the divine. How else could we be? But just as the fish lives in the ocean and is totally unaware of the ocean, we live in and are totally unaware of the Tao Tao. In fact it is so obvious, that's why we are totally unaware. We are on the way, we are in God, we live in and through the Tao Tao, but we are not aware. The Tao exists, because without the Tao trees do not grow, the stars do not move, the blood does not circulate and we could not breathe. Life would disappear.

Life can exist only if it is supported by a fundamental law. Life can exist only if it is supported by something. Notice the order in this vast existence. It is not chaos, it is a cosmos. What makes a cosmos? Why is there such harmony? There must be a law that maintains this harmony, which makes it flow, which keeps everything in tune. But we do not know anything. We know nothing even of our own being and through our being are united with Tao. It is the ocean of life around us. It is outside and inside of us, the pure essence. It is the existence, spirit is primary. No name can contain it. All names may be his and no form belongs to him, because all forms are forms. The Tao exists in millions of forms. The tree is green and the flower is red. Man is man, fish and seafood. It is the same law.

Tao believes that you have to put up with the existence, allowing things to happen spontaneously, without in any way to force your way, without pushing in any way the river flowing. The Tao says, "You do not have to hurry because you have available to eternity. Sowing the seeds at the right time and wait, come spring, as well as get along. When spring arrives, the flowers will bloom. But wait, do not rush! Do not start to pull the tree up, to grow more rapidly. Do not enter into the mentality which claims that everything happens as instant coffee. Learn to wait, because nature is moving very very slowly. Nature has its own grace to this his move slowly. " Nature is very feminine moves like a woman. Not running, not in a hurry, you do not jumping to conclusions. It moves very slowly, it is a silent music. In nature there is very patient and believe in the Tao way of being in nature. The Tao never in a hurry: you have to understand it. The fundamental teaching of the Tao is: learn to be patient. If you can wait forever, it could also happen instantly. But do not expect that to happen to you at once: if you claim, it could never happen. Your own claim would become an obstacle, your own desire to create a distance between you and nature. Stay in tune with nature, let nature take its course. At any moment you arrive, it is good, at any moment you arrive, you soon: At any moment you arrive, even if used for centuries to come, would never late, never too late. Always comes at the time the right time. In Taoism, the water is the supreme course of things, is the Tao itself. Lao Tzu called it his way, "the way of flowing water", for many reasons. First, the water is soft, humble, look for the lowest places. Water seeks the lowest place, the lowest levels for. It rains on Everest, but the rain does not stop there; starts flowing in the valleys and even in the valleys, reach the deeper layers. Water remains the last, is the lack of ambition. It has no ambition to be the first place. Be like water means to feel totally happy to be a nobody. Secondly, the water is movement: it is in perpetual motion. Every time he is not moving, it becomes dirty, rotten, even venomous: dies. His life is in the movement, the dynamism in the flux. All of life is a stream, has no static.

The Tao is a natural bloom. Follow nature. Nobody wants to be unhappy and all they are, do not follow nature. Everyone wants to be blessed and no one is. Listen to your aspiration, your deepest desire will tell you the right way. Your desire tends towards the bliss and beauty to something that can overwhelm you, something that can take you to the other side, to something so wonderful and incredible, able to remove yourself from the past and the future, to let in quieora. This is the Tao: the immediate, that is alive and pulsating in the present moment. The Tao does not know the past, does not know the future. The Tao knows only once: the present, known only quieora. Let your mind and you will not disappear in the past or the future. The past and future are creations of the mind: in reality there is only the present. And when you no longer the past or the future, how can you call it "present"? This makes sense only when referring to past or future. This is an interval between the past and the future: if you have taken away the past and the future, this will also disappear. When time is gone, what will be the time of the Tao. When you're totally in the immediate, in quieora, if not more of the vague ghosts of the past, nor between the images of the unborn future, what will be the moment of illumination: for the time you will no longer exist here and you will be totally , nowhere else. When time is no more, the mind does not exist anymore, mind and time are synonymous. The more your mind is present and the more you are conscious of the time.

The Tao is not a doctrine: it is a special path to become aware. It is the path of awakening, enlightenment, the way to go home. "Tao" means simply "the way". Remember that is not the meaning of the word. Every time I hear the expression "the way", you think of a destination somewhere far away, where the road takes you. Not at all, "Tao" means simply "the way", without reference to a goal! So what does this mean? It means: the way in which things are what they are. Indicates just the way things are ... I have already, are just as they are. You should not get anything, everything is already pouring into you. Just be hereandnow and celebrate!











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