Chinese Cosmology,   Described "feelings", as "communications" from Heaven where birds were Heaven's emissaries and the weather was Heavens mood, simle perspectives provided the necessary spiritual imagery to start the journey to change the condition of heart and mind. The Way of Character - Te virtue in action, is the experience of being of Power without the need to assert it.

Modernity's ethos spirits character away. Power is tamed by the use of Te virtuous action and The - intelligence; this is the essential spirit of fellowship & why politics is insidiously present in sport for everyday injustice and difference is symbolised and enacted on the competitive field. One may seek out satisfying explanations about this drama of Modernity but the point will still remain, can character be born of competition alone in any form?

Whether through prowess in sport, business, or intellectual activity the gladiatorial approach is a poor foundation for enlightenment -the reaching of the other shore. The mockingly disparaging descriptions in Taoist texts on questions of knowledge and morality, purpose and action point to the futility of grounding ones spiritual life in the naive need of the self to understand or succeed at something before Life can be felt as tangible. Judgement of ones character should rest on more than facts of performance, particularly social based ones.

The Taoist preoccupation with the unknowable of which few who knew would speak, is indicative of their concern for senseless relativity born of knowledge as explanation and proof by performance. A mind lacking in self enlightened directions yields the penalty of senselessness contradiction and a strangely inherent absurdity of purpose. The Sage listens within and in not trying, but feels the joy of character as experience of reverence. Uncovering the power of divinity in life. This is to accept presence as good sense. Personal struggle objectively viewed demonstrates the relativity of existence. Ones personal position can only be pure-relatedness. Enlightenment is of the knower, the knowing of and what is known for it is said that,

"Books speak to the mind, friends speak to the heart, Heaven speaks to the soul, everything else speaks only to the ears". Chinese Proverb.

 

back to poetry perspecs

page1

Taoist Links Page

Taoist ruminations  A PLACE TO WANDER FROM

Reasoning out- I find no form

Is consciousness constant or inconstant?'

'And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?'  'And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: "This is mine.This is my self. This is what I am"?' 'Thus, any body whatsoever--past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle, common or sublime, far or near: every body--is to be seen as it actually is-with right discernment ,,,,,,,,

No thing

Directly points to man's mind.

He sees into his own nature

And attains Buddhahood.

Nothing much

BODHIDHARMA

"This is not mine,,

This is not my self. This is not what I am."

"Any feeling whatsoever.... Any perception whatsoever..

Any mental processes whatsoever....'Any consciousness whatsoever--past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle, common or sublime, far or near: every consciousness--is to be seen as it actually is with right discernment as:

"This is not mine. This is not my self.

This is not what I am."

The lords of life, the lords of life,  - I saw them pass, In their own guise, Like and unlike, Portly and grim, Use and Surprise, Surface and Dream, Succession swift, and spectral Wrong, Temperament without a tongue, And the inventor of the game Omnipresent without name;- Some to see, some guessed, They marched from east to west : Little man, least of all Among the legs of his guardians tall, Walked about with a puzzled look:- Him by the hand dear nature took; Dearest nature, strong and kind, Whispered, "Darling, never mind ! To-morrow they will wear a another face,The founder thou! these are thy face!"    R. W. Emerson.