Category: Tao Second Book Stephen Mitchell

CLARITY WITHIN PREVAILS ...‘the pearl’ that must be hidden..." "...move with the freedom of the wind." November 14, 2018

11/14/2018

AS CLARITY WITHIN PREVAILS
LIGHT OF TRUTH EMERGES*
OBILTERATING ALL LIES’
SHADOW-FORMS OF DECEIT
∞
THERE ARE NO LIES
ONLY GERMS OF GREAT DECEIT***
A PROMISE IS A COMFORT FOR A FOOL.***
∞
Do not talk directly to a fool,
because he will despise
the wisdom of your words.****
ew
4:18 AM-11/14/18
*Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. - Psalm 119:105
**ew TN Woods 1987
***Harbour Island-BTC-Natasha’s Grandmother said this to her often
****Do not talk directly to a fool,
because he will despise the wisdom of your words.
Proverbs 23:9 (GW)

#44
Second Book of Tao
Stephen Mitchell

Chaff from the winnowing fan
cancels the eye’s natural vision;
the whine of a mosquito
can keep you awake all night;
trying to be benevolent
makes the mind a tangle or confusion.

If you want the world to stay simple,
you must move with the freedom of the wind.

Why keep making the effort
to figure out right and wrong?

Why all this huffing and puffing
as though you were beating a drum
searching for a lost child?

The snow goose doesn’t need
a daily bath to stay white,
nor does the crow stay black
by dipping itself in an inkwell.

When the springs dry up
and the fish are left on the shore,
they spew one another with moisture.

But how much better
if they could forget one another and swim off
into the lake’s vast freedom!

The Second Book of The Tao
#44
Stephen Mitchell
Also Posted Here:
https://dorotheamills.weebly.com/oceanspeak-and-more/9-move-with-freedom-of-the-wind-sunriseafternoon-june-28-2015

COMMENTARY
Stephen Mitchell

The effort to be moral or benevolent
is a disruption of our natural virtue.
What child would rather pray than play?

“Throw away morality,” Lao-tzu says,
“and you’ll be doing the world a big favor.”

Trying to figure out the right action
does no one any good.
It’s better to keep moving,
till the right action arises by itself.

When it’s genuine,
benevolence is the most beautiful quality in the world.
But when it has a motive, it feels like fish spittle,
not like clear water.

We recognize the genuine.
It’s what we all want.
It’s what we all are, when we are past our own thoughts.

Let the others comfort one another with slime:
that’s the best they can do under the circumstances.

But the instant any fish finds its way back to the lake,
it will swim off without a qualm.

“Thanks for the benevolence, muchachos,
but I’m out of here.”

The Second Book of The Tao #44
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell
Also Posted Here:
https://dorotheamills.weebly.com/oceanspeak-and-more/9-move-with-freedom-of-the-wind-sunriseafternoon-june-28-2015

PHOENIX RISING

AFTERNOON

This is the ‘pearl,’
‘the pearl’ that must be hidden
so that it is not trampled upon,
but it is a ‘pearl’ that must be shared.

It can be shared, however,
only with those who can receive it sacredly
and be trusted with it,
because when it is given
to the unprepared human mind,
that mind wants to use it to conquer the world:
‘Oh, I am God, now I want a million.
Ah! I want ten million, a hundred million.
Why not? I am God!’

But to the Soul that is prepared, It whispers:
‘Oh, I am God:
I do not need anything,
I do not want anything.
I have all that I need,
I have all that I want,
and the world's baubles
are of no interest to me.’

We cannot be that I that is God
and still be interested in
name, fame, or fortune.
These will come to us,
but by that time,
we will not value them.”
~Joel S Goldsmith
THE SACRED WORD-Chapter 7
A Parenthesis in Eternity

FROM:
The Daily Lesson – November 13, 2018
www.iwso.org/thedailylesson.htm

Rather than focus on what needs changing...
Turn the Attention to what cannot change.
Wu Hsin

See Read More Below
for Stephen Mitchell
and more photos

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IMMORTAL CORE "And when I breathe in..." "...kiss of relief. Sunrise/Afternoon January 17, 2018

1/17/2018

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CORE OF ORIGINAL BEING
JUST IS<JUST BE
<
JUST BE=JUST IS
<
ELIMINATING ALL INROADS
THAT WELCOME THAT WHICH IS NOT REAL
IN THE TRUTH OF IMMORTAL CORE
ew
12:05 AM-1/17/18

This was in the end of the movie: The Shape of Water
They are assuming Rumi wrote it.
For me it speaks of G-d.

"Unable to perceive the shape of you,
I find you all around me.
Your presence fills my eyes with your love,
It humbles my heart...
For you are everywhere."

And when I breathe in....this is what I inspire...
G-d is everywhere.
Barbara Azzara
http://revbarbaraazzara.com

(CAN HIGHLY RECOMMEND CONTACTING BARBARA PERSONALLY
VIA THE E-MAIL ON HER WEBSiTE
barbaraazzara@gmail.com
AND/OR SIGN UP FOR THE AMAZING
MONTHLY "LOVE LETTERS".
SHE IS A ONE
THE TAO WOULD NAME 'SAGE' OR 'MASTER'
NEED WE SAY MORE?
ew/dmm)

The below in this color font from
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE TAO # 55
Stephen Mitchell

Life is the companion of death;
death is the beginning of life.
Who can understand
how the two are related?
But if life and death are companions,
why should you be concerned?
All things are connected at the root.
We arrive here from the unknown
and go back to where we came from.

AFTERNOON........

What people love about life
is its miraculous beauty;
what they hate about death
is the loss and decay around it.
Yet losing is not losing, and decay
turns into beauty, as beauty
turns back into decay.

We are breathed in, breathed out.
Therefore all you need
is to understand the one breath
that makes up the world.
The Master is always conscious
of the mystery at the heart of all things.

COMMENTARY by Stephen Mitchell

After the joyful raucous skepticism of the earlier chapters---
a bucketful of ice water poured onto
you while you’re still snoozing
under the comforter--
this chapter’s mode of unknowing
is a grandmotherly kindness.

Life becomes very gentle
when you understand that you’re not living it.

...to understand the one breath:
The exhalation is not opposed to the inhalation.

It is strange that people don’t want to know about
the present, whose existence nobody can doubt,
but are always eager to know about the past or the
future, both of which are unknown. What is birth
and what is death? Why go to birth and death to
understand what you experience every day in
sleeping and waking? When you sleep, this body
and the world do not exist for you, and these questions
do not worry you, and yet you exist,
the same you that exists now while waking.

If you understand waking and sleep properly,
you will understand life and death.
But waking and sleeping happen every day,
so people don’t notice the wonder of it,
but only want to know about birth and death.
Ramana Maharshi

The above in this color font from
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE TAO # 55
Stephen Mitchell

Tragedy stays alive by feeling what’s been done to us,
while peace comes alive by living with the result….
Mark Nepo

The entire Mark Nepo poem & more on this page:
The Kiss of Release That Abides With Time
https://makebelieveboutique.com/2012/12/11/4124/

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ETERNAL LIFE'S TOUCHSTONE "...the moment before a thought." "...returned to the primordial..." "..translucent curtain.." 1/13/18

1/12/2018

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PEACE THAT PASSETH EARTHLY UNDERSTANDING…
… A CONDITION BEYOND ALL MINDING MINDS
THE ALPHA OMEGA SOURCE OF ALL
∞
BREATHED BY BREATHER
<
BREATHED AS BREATHER
<
ETERNAL LIFE'S TOUCHSTONE…
THE ORIGINAL IMMORTAL AKASHA
ew
1:35 AM-1/13/18

Artist Emily Buchanan
http://www.emilybuchanan.com/
at top of Dunes Path
this morning (1/13/18) at sunrise

All wordings below in this color font are from:
THE SECOND BOOK OF TAO #15
Stephen Mitchell

The ancient Masters
slept without dreaming
and woke up without concerns.
Their food was spare and simple.
Their breath went deep.

They didn’t hold on to life,
and they faced death free of concepts,
emerging without desire,
going back without resistance.

They never forgot their beginning;
they didn’t trouble their minds
searching for what their end was.

AFTERNOON...

They received life as a gift
and handed it back gratefully.

Minds supple, faces serene,
in a crisis cool as autumn,
in relationships warm as spring,
they were balanced, throughout the four seasons,
and in harmony with the Tao.

There was no limit to their freedom.

Commentary by Stephen Mitchell

The ancient Masters had pared themselves down to the essential.
They woke up, they ate, they worked,
they made love,
they raised their families,
all the while unseduced by any thoughts that arose.
This gave their lives a sense of spaciousness.

They always had enough time
to do what wanted to be done.
They moved through each day as alert and unhurried
as animals in the wild.

They had returned to the primordial:
mind hovering over its own abyss,
objectless,
serene.
No wonder
their nights were dreamless
and their skies full of stars.

Gratitude makes no distinctions.
It precedes its occasion.
It is the magic well that never runs dry,
the still waters where you kneel
and see your own face,
more beautiful
than you could have imagined.

THE SECOND BOOK OF TAO #15
Stephen Mitchell

When the Creator, whoever or whatever He may be, created creation,
there were no temples, no mosques, no churches,
no synagogues, no telling of beads,
no prattle of priests, no chanting of hymns,
no offering of bribes at altars.
When rituals came into existence,
God gradually began to fade out of it

When nothing upsets you,
you are at the beginning of the path.
When you desire nothing,
you are halfway on the path;
when nothing becomes everything,
you are perfected.
Meer Baba

quoted by Jacqueline Lunger here:
https://www.psychicauthor.com/spiral-trail-blog/

I see us standing on
the no visibility side of a translucent curtain for a short time.
The curtain will dissolve soon
and when we step into the new space
it will be so magical, beautiful, joyous and loving,
that we will forget about the things that we co existed with
that didn't love and support us.
I see it will be like your favorite birthday party,
best vacation and biggest gift giving celebration ever.
All those descriptions are symbolic of course but you get the idea.
Jacqueline Lunger - 1/12/18
www.psychicauthor.com

See Read More Below for
all of Stephen Mitchell's SECOND TAO Sharing
without paragraph breaks

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STILLNESS PRECEDING ALL CREATION "..nothing to oppose." Sunrise/Afternoon January 12, 2018

1/12/2018

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THE STILLNESS PRECEDING ALL CREATION
A SILENCE THAT FUELS ALL
<
EFFORTLESS EASE
WITHOUT IDO’S ADO
SYNCHRONOUS “BIRD WINGS FLAPPING”*
REMIND
THE ETERNAL MOMENT ALWAYS IS
ZERO POINT’S DANCE OF JOY
ew
4:00 AM-1/12/18
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conference_of_the_Birds
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/218427-man-iq-u---ayr

All below in this color font from:
Second Book of TAO
Stephen Mitchell
#48

Let go of all your assumptions
and the world will make perfect sense.
In movement, be fluid as water;
at rest, be right as a mirror;
in response, be simple as an echo.

Keep your mind serene,
like the still surface of a lake.
Clear-eyed and imperturbable,
walk thru life
as though you didn’t exist.

When nothing is left to argue with
and there is nothing to oppose,
you will find yourself at peace
and in harmony with all things.

AFTERNOON....

Commentary
Our assumptions about the world become our world.
Confusion projects confusion,
and we wonder why life doesn’t make sense.
“Why do the wicked prosper?”
That’s easy because they do.

If the answer seems flippant,
you might take a closer look at
wicked and prosper.
There are assumptions in each word that
can put you in a padded cell
or inspire you to
exterminate your neighbors.

But if assumptions are questioned deeply enough,
they let go of themselves.
The world becomes intelligible, kind, and problem-free,
because the mind has become clear.
Your you is no longer a something;
it’s fluid, permeable, bright,
it winks in and out of existence like a quark.

When you find nothing to oppose,
there’s nothing that can oppose you.

All words above in this color font are from
THE SECOND BOOK OF TAO #48
Stephen Mitchell

See Category on right hand column
of this screen:
TAO Second Book Stephen Mitchell
for previously posted series from this book
OR
just click this link
https://dorotheamills.weebly.com/oceanspeak-and-more/archives/07-2015
&
Scroll Down to July 10th which is final post in a series of 20 of S. MItchell's Second Book of TAO
you can scroll further down for those.

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TAO'S POSSESSION "...useful uselessness..." "...completely lost." Sunrise/Afternoon Dec. 3, 2017

12/3/2017

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Supermoon High Tide Sunrise

THE WAY THRU TO OUT OF ALL SURREAL CAPTIVITIES
IS VIA THE DIVINE GRACE
THAT IS ALL THAT IS
A REALITY AND BEINGNESS
BEYOND ALL THAT CAN BE TOLD
<
A CONDITION OF TAO’S TOTAL POSSESSION
THAT
CAN ONLY BE LIVED
&
IS NEVER IN NEED
OF
A WAY THRU TO OUT
ew
3:05 AM-12/3/17

Everyone is a single thought away from clarity.
Drop that thought and
See what remains.
Wu Hsin

Everyone knows how useful usefulness is,
but no one seems to know
how useful uselessness is.
Chuang-tzu
(also known as Zhuangzi)

http://ramblingtaoist.blogspot.com/2010/09/tao-books-tao-te-ching-annotated-and.html

If someone has experienced the wisdom
that can only be heard from oneself,
learned from oneself, and created from oneself,
he does not merely participate in laughter:
he becomes laughter itself.
Pilo of Alexandria (c. 20BCE-C. 50CE)
from
The Second Book of TAO p. 150
Stephen Mitchell

AFTERNOON.......

From OSHO:
Either you make your energy creative,
or it will sour and become destructive.
Energy is a dangerous thing --
if you have it, you have to use it creatively,
otherwise sooner or later
you will find it has become destructive.

So find something
- whatsoever you like -
to put your energy into.
If you want, painting, or if you want, dancing or singing;
or if you want to play an instrument....
Whatsoever you want,
find a way in which you can become
completely lost.

If you can be lost playing a guitar - good!
In those moments when you are lost,
your energy will be released in a creative way.

If you cannot be lost in painting, in singing,
in dancing, in playing guitar or a flute,
then you will find lower ways of being lost:
anger, rage, aggression;
these are lower ways to be lost.
OSHO
Transformation Tarot #39

Are you one in whom
God has more and more Sway?
Old Timey Quakers
used to gently ask this.of themselves & others....

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JOY OF UNFETTERED SOUL EVERSHINES ALL "...the juice of life" Sunrise/Afternoon Dec. 2, 2017

12/2/2017

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THE JOY OF AN UNFETTERED SOUL
EVERSHINES ALL
WITHIN & WITHOUT
ew
3:03 AM-12/2/17

.....our psychological and emotional structures are such
that it is designed for us to enjoy the juice of life.
But unfortunately most people don’t drink the juice of life,
they drown in the juice of life.
Sadhguru
Read this full article to Understand how to shift QUICKLY
out of drowning "in the juice of life."
http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/video/shiva-untold-love-and-loss-of-sati/?utm_source=shiva-follower-list&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=shiva-followers-30nov2017
Also in Read More at End of Afternoon Photos

No matter what the issue is,
don’t try to justify why you don’t feel good.
And don’t try to justify why you should feel differently.
Don’t try to blame whatever it is
you think the reason is
that’s keeping you from feeling good.
All of that is wasted effort.
Just try to feel better right now.
Abraham
11/30/17 E-mail Daily
http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/index.php

Every manifestation of physical, psychic and spiritual life
gives beings specific wave-lengths and vibrations
that connect them automatically
to entities and currents in space
who have the same wave-lengths and currents.
This explains the connections we have with forces of nature.
We resonate with certain regions and entities
with the same wave-lengths through our thoughts, feelings and actions.
And through the force of attraction,
sooner or later,
we are able to come to meet them.
Initiatic Science gives every human being the means
with which to create the future they wish.
And it is the quality of their thoughts, feelings and desires
that draws them towards the darkness and chaos,
or towards the pure, light-filled regions of the divine world.
Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov
https://www.prosveta-usa.com/future-our-we-create-it-thanks-to-forces-and-entities-with-which-we-connect_2017-12-02

AFTERNOON....

How fine life becomes
When what you want
Is exactly what you have

All quotes in this color font are from:
Stephen Mitchell
The Second Book of The Tao

Only when you are truly
Unattached to words or to silence
Can you express the truth.

Unchain yourself from achievement
and enjoy an ordinary life.
Flow like the Tao unhindered,
unnoticed, unnamed,
with no goals, no expectations
Be like a child, like a fool.
Know that there is nothing to know.
This is the direct way to freedom.

The center of the universe is the place
where you don't believe your own thoughts.
From there you can go anywhere.

See Read More below
for full
Sadhguru article

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....EMANATES FROM SAME ORIGIN... "...center of the universe..." Sunrise/Afternoon September 7, 2016

9/6/2016

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REALIZED OR NOT
ALL EMANATES FROM SAME ORIGIN
<
A TAO’D SOUL HONOURS ALL
AS A MAGNIFICENT KALEIDOSCOPIC OCEAN
<
WITHOUT IDO’S ADO
ew
3:19 AM-9/7/16

Throw away holiness and wisdom,
and people will be a hundred times happier.
Throw away morality and justice,
and people will do the right thing.
Throw away industry and profit,
and there won't be any thieves.

If these aren't enough
just stay at the center of the circle
and let all things take their course.

Translation by Stephen Mitchell.
http://dailytao.org/

The center of the universe is the place
where you don't believe your own thoughts.
From there you can go anywhere.
Stephen Mitchell
The Second Book of The Tao
Commentary Chapter 34

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20. "Stop accepting......" = POOF!!! Sunrise/Afternoon July 10, 2015

7/10/2015

0 Comments

This is #20 (Tao #47) (Final One) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

∞
NO HUMAN SOUNDS
PREDAWN
SOFT OCEAN LULLS
<
REMIND OF
“OLDER THAN GOD” ORIGIN
BEFORE/DURING/AFTER FOREVER

ALL IS AS IT IS
AND CANNOT BE OTHERWISE.
ew
3:24 AM - 7/10/15
∞

Thinking is life's only variable.
Everything else was settled a long, long time ago
****
Seeing beyond the "end result,"
especially preparing for beyond the end result,
is as good as, if not better than,
simply seeing and preparing for the end result
Mike Dooley
www.tut.com

All you need is to understand is that you are the source of reality,
that you give reality instead of getting it,
that you need no support and no confirmation.

Things are as they are because you accept them as they are.
Stop accepting them and they will dissolve.

–Nisargadatta Maharaj
http://peacefullpresence.blogspot.com/2015/07/all-you-need.html

#47

You can’t talk about the ocean
with a frog who lives in a well:
he is bounded by the space he inhabits.

You can’t talk about ice
with an insect who was born in June:
he is bounded by a single season.

You can’t talk about the Tao
with a person who thinks he knows something:
he is bounded by his own belief.

The Tao is vast and fathomless.
You can understand only by stepping
beyond the limits of yourself.
The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries by
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

You can talk about the ocean with a frog who lives in a well,
but the conversation will be rather one-sided.

Eventually you realize that the only reason you’ve been talking
is that you love the sound of your own voice.

“Let me tell you about the ocean. It’s vast. It’s deep.”
“Huh?

“You can sail across it for days, for weeks and never come to the end.”
“Yea. Right.”

“It contains trillions of quadrillions of living creatures,
from the microscopic to the gargantuan.”
“I have a few lily pads here. Flies and mosquitoes.”

“The ocean is so deep that fish living far down generate their own light.”
“What do you mean by ‘fish’?”

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

You have traveled up ten thousand steps in search of the Dharma.
So many long days in the archives, copying, copying.

The gravity of the Tang and the profundity of the Sung
make heavy baggage.

Here! I have picked you a bunch of wildflowers.
Their meaning is the same
but they are much easier to carry.
–Xu Yun

It’s dark because you are trying too hard.
Lightly child, lightly.
Learn to do everything lightly.

Yes, feel lightly
even though you’re feeling deeply.
Just lightly let things happen and
lightly cope with them.

I was so preposterously serious in those days,
such a humorless little prig.
Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me.

When it comes to dying even.
Nothing ponderous, or portentous, or emphatic.
No rhetoric, no tremolos,
no self conscious persona
putting on its celebrated imitation of Christ or Little Nell.
And of course, no theology, no metaphysics.
Just the fact of dying and the fact of the clear light.

So throw away your baggage and go forward.
There are quicksands all about you,
sucking at your feet,
trying to suck you down into fear
and self-pity and despair.
That’s why you must walk so lightly.

Lightly my darling,
on tiptoes and no luggage,
not even a sponge bag,
completely unencumbered.

–Aldous Huxley

July 9, 2015 Sunrise

April 25, 2015 Afternoon

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19. Naturally Naked - "....leave no trace" "...land of great silence." Sunrise/Afternoon July 9, 2015

7/9/2015

0 Comments

This is #19 (Tao #43) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

JUST BE NATURAL…
….NATURALLY NAKED
<
“OLDER THAN GOD”
PROVIDES THE LOOSE GARMENT DESIGN
ew
5:19 AM - 7/9/2015

#43

Give up wanting to be important;
let your footsteps leave no trace.

Travel alone as the Tao
to the land of the great silence.

If a man is crossing a river
and an empty boat
collides with his own boat,
he won’t get offended or angry,
however hot-tempered he may be.

But if the boat is manned,
he may flare up, shouting and cursing,
just because there’s a rower.

Realize that all boats are empty
as you cross the river of the world,
and nothing can possibly offend you.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

When you understand how utterly alone you are,
it’s a cause for celebration.

Break out the caviar and champagne!
Le roi est mort, vivre le roi!

If everyone is your projection in the first place
--if you see not them but who you think they are--
how can you be offended?

Scene: a river.
You’re drifting along in your little boat,
happy as a minnow,
and suddenly
some jerk bangs into your boat, full force.

But when you look, it’s an empty boat.
Since there’s no offender, naturally there’s no offense.

–“You mean that the woman who broke my heart,
or my backstabbing colleague,
or the politicians who got us into this mess,
they’re all empty boats?” –

“Yes, indeed.”

This has nothing to do with taking
the right action against greed or stupidity.

But if you’re offended,
it means that you’re not paying attention.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

Thursday, July 9, 2015
Thought for the Day
Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

« The aim of spiritual life is to lead us to a higher state of consciousness
we call divine love.
For, true love, the kind that draws us closer to God,
is a state of consciousness.
It is impossible to describe it,
nor can it be explained to those who are not ready to experience it;
all we can do is try to lead them to it gradually.

Those who attain this state of consciousness
feel inwardly linked to the whole universe.
They are then like an instrument,
the cords of which vibrate in unison with all that exists.

They are inhabited by a deep sense of peace,
and above all they feel immense benevolence towards all beings.
They do not know why they feel so well-disposed towards them.
They simply sense that these feelings have entered their heart and soul,
causing them to behave with kindness and understanding,
and that they are connecting with the deep essence of creation. »
Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

http://www.prosveta-usa.com/thought-for-the-day

on link above you can find an array of ways to find daily "Thought For The Day" from this man....he is one of the first i read re: the power of sunrise......long after we Knew to be with sunrise each day on island..
.....and nearly 30 years before when living in a TN woods,
also Knew to InnerSense Full Sun Light/Grace for the day ahead ..
....even without seeing actual sunrise.
dmm

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"Unhindered Minds" - Beyond Questions/Answers Sunrise/Afternoon July 8, 2015

7/8/2015

0 Comments

This is #18 (Tao #56) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

(You can see all photos from today's amazing afternoon beach on this link:
http://dorotheamills.weebly.com/harbour-island-slideshows/unhindred-minds-afternoon-july-8-2015)

∞
PEACE THAT PRECEDES JOY
OR
JOY THAT PRECEDES PEACE?

A MENTAL DISTRACTION!

ALL
(INCLUDING MENTAL DISTRACTIONS)
IS EMERGED IN/FROM/AS
OTG
“OLDER THAN GOD”
ORIGINAL CORE
ew
4:15 AM - 7/8/15
∞

#56

The ancient Masters looked ordinary,
but their wisdom was profound.

They didn’t deviate from the truth.
The clever couldn’t persuade them,
the beautiful couldn’t seduce them,
the rich couldn’t corrupt them.

They considered life and death
to be insignificant matters.

Unhindered, their minds could soar
to the edges of the unknown,
beyond time and space, and plunge
past the beginning and the end.

They could take the most menial positions
and find contentment in their work.

Their virtue filled earth and heaven.
The more they gave to themselves,
the more they could give to others.

The more they gave to others,
the more they had for themselves.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

You never knew when you’d bump into one of them.
You might be in a public toilet and there he was,
scrubbing the floor,
humming to himself with a little smile.

Or you’d be buying a piece of salmon at the market,
and the fat old woman behind the counter
would ask an ungraspable question
that would resonate inside you for days.

Or you’d sit down next to a beggar on the street,
one of the lost apparently,
his wrinkles caked with grime,
and when he looked into your eyes,
you’d feel penetrated to the core.

The ancient Masters had no word for compassion.
They wouldn’t have understood it,
because they didn’t harbor concepts of “self” and “other.”

The more they gave to others,
the more they had for themselves.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

0 Comments

Embodied...Ensouled....Beyond Preferences Sunrise/Afternoon July 7, 2015

7/7/2015

0 Comments

This is #17 (Tao #13) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

∞

no need,
propensity or ability for words,
camera, techno, thinking, processing, labeling

the Being is All of those and More

the Relief of this
automatically returns One to Original Joy of the Highest Octane
dmm
∞

∞

BEYOND WORDS & THOUGHTS
ONLY TRANSMISSIONS OF MOST ANCIENT QUALITY
AN “ISNESS”
BE STILL
BE SILENT
<
JUST
BE
ew
4:45 AM - 7/7/15

∞

#13

Things are the way they are
because we think they’re that way.

Good or bad,
acceptable or unacceptable,
they conform to the way we see them.

Originally, in themselves,
all things are good and acceptable.

That is why all things—a blade
of grass or a hundred-foot pine,
a leper or a legendary beauty,
a national hero or a traitor---
are equal in the Tao.

None is more important
or more valued than any others.
Their difference is their completeness.

Only the person of true vision
can recognize them as equal.

He sees past his own judgments,
doesn’t think more or less,
and accepts without even trying to.

This is called “honoring the Tao.”

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”
This one liberating truth can be said in a hundred ways.
Each goes to the root of the matter.

What happens when we realize that the world appears according to our perception of it?
For one thing, we don’t take our judgments so seriously.
The judging I begins to unravel.

Eventually, we discover that everything exists in itself,
beyond comparison, beyond judgments,
as it did for God on the evening of the sixth day:
“Behold, it is very good.

When we look at creatures from this point of vision,
it’s easy to see that a blade of grass is as important as a pine tree,
a minnow as valued as a whale.
Size and complexity have nothing to do with it.
Evolution doesn’t mean progress.
Which is more conscious,
the butterfly or the flowers?

The Master sees that we’re all doing the best we can with what we’ve been given.
Realizing this, he doesn’t expect anything of anyone.
Thus as he honors himself,
he naturally honors the Tao.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

Whereas awareness is the eternal potential
Consciousness is the eternal actual.

Consciousness is the surface;
Awareness is the limitless ocean.

Consciousness is the guide for the journey
Through the known and into The unknown.

In truth, they are not two, but
Aspects of a unified whole.
–Wu Hsin
http://peacefullpresence.blogspot.com/2015/07/aspects.html

The Ocean was so spectacular this afternoon, we "had" to post ALL photos,
in order experienced,
Those slideshows are here:
http://dorotheamills.weebly.com/harbour-island-slideshows/embodied-ensouled-beyond-preferences-july-7-12015

Below are a few samples:

The Secret

Since I am
Somebody's dream,
I have a good life.

Sometimes I go away in my sailboat on a cloud
and take a quiet little trip.

I have a secret
which I have learned how to read inside myself;
if I told it to you,
it would make you laugh.

My heart is naked
and no one can put clothes on it,
and nothing can be put on
that will not immediately fall off.

My secret is ignorant,
it doesn't sing songs,
no lie,
it has nothing to tell you.

My two eyes
are maps of the planet -
I see everything
and nothing upsets me.

Just now
I was in China
and saw there a great piece of happiness
that belonged to one man.

And I have been to the center of the earth,
where there is no suffering.

If on your loneliest nights,
I visit other planets
and the most secret stars of all,

besides being no one,
know that I am you
and everybody.

But if I go away
without giving you a name to remember me with,
how will I find
the right dream to return to?

You won't have to mark down
on your calendar that I am coming back;
don't bother to write me into your notebooks.
I will be around
when you aren't thinking about me,

without hair or a neck,
without a nose and cheeks
no reputation -
there won't be anything.

I am a bird
which God made.

–Thomas Merton
http://deathdeconstructed.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-secret.html

Photo above from 5/3/15

0 Comments

16. ORIGIN'S CORE AWARENESS - "creates without doing" Sunrise/Afternoon July 5, 2015

7/5/2015

0 Comments

This is #16 (Tao #12) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

∞

Pre-SunRise:

ALLOW
ORIGIN’S CORE AWARENESS
TO GLIDE ONE THRU LIFE….
EVEN BEYOND THE CONCEPT OF A MOMENT.
<
CESSATION OF THINKING ONE’S WAY THRU LIFE SUFFICETH.
ew
3:53 AM - 7/5/15

Post-SunRise:

ORIGIN’S CORE AWARENESS
GLIDES ONE THRU LIFE….
EVEN BEYOND THE CONCEPT OF A MOMENT.
<
CESSATION OF THINKING ONE’S WAY THRU LIFE SUFFICETH.
ew
7:08 AM - 7/5/15

∞

#12
The Tao penetrates
into every last corner of the universe.

Because it is deep and wide
and extends its power everywhere,
it transcends all things.

Because it transcends all things,
it is at the heart of all things.
It shows itself without being seen,
creates without doing,
fulfills without an intention.

Solitary Sisyphus has a helper this morning.

It obeys only its own law;
thus it is like heaven and earth.

Heaven is a bright emptiness,
but in its measureless extent
it contains the sun, moon, planets,
and the uncountable stars,
and through it all things are illumined.

Earth is a heap of soil,
but in its width and depth
it hold up the great mountains,
the rivers, lakes, and seas,
trees, plants, animals, birds,
fish, and the monsters of the deep:
all life in its manifold splendor.

The Tao claims nothing for itself;
thus it contains all things.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

#12
We love the nature of things,
even when we don’t understand it.
Who doesn’t take pleasure in light,
so married to vision before any eyes existed?

Who doesn’t think that light is beautiful,
whatever it happens to shine on?

We’re instinctively attracted to
what is all-embracing and all-allowing.
We can oppose it
only if we construe it as something it’s not.

The nature of things can’t help but be our own nature as well.
What we love in the world Is what we discover in ourselves.

The infinite inclusiveness of heaven,
the unshakable support of earth:
how could we notice them
if they weren’t qualities of our noticing mind?

Whatever the self describes, describes the self.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

A man and a woman sit near each other, and they do not
long at this moment to be older, or younger, nor born in any
other nation, or time, or place.

They are content to be where they are,
talking or not talking. Their breaths together feed someone whom we do
not know.
The man sees the way his fingers move; he sees her hands
close around a book she hands to him.

They obey a third body they have in common.
They have made a promise to love that body.

Age may come, parting may come, death will come.

A man and woman sit near each other;
as they breathe they feed someone we do not know,
someone we know of,
whom we have never seen.

–Robert Bly
http://peacefullpresence.blogspot.com/2015/07/this-cloud-is-learning.html

Read More below has repeat of the Tao quotes for today #12

0 Comments

15. Speechless Words and Wordless Speech Sunrise/Afternoon July 4, 2015

7/4/2015

0 Comments

This is #15 (Tao #11) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

∞

WHILE WAITING
BE ALL THAT YOU ARE
BUT
DO NOTHING…

.....ALLOWING THE VAST CURRENT OF AUTHENTIC LIFE
TO GLIDE DESTINY’S CO-CREATION
ew
5:28 AM - 7/4/15

∞

To act without needing a reason,
to sit still without knowing how,
to ride the current of what is--
this is the primal virtue.
The Second Book of The Tao
#36
Stephen Mitchell

See Read More at end for Note re: the above

#11

The Master doesn’t aim for success,
doesn’t avoid failure,
doesn’t act with a motive,
doesn’t try to follow the Tao.

She speaks when she is silent,
says nothing when she speaks,
and remains pure
amid the world’s dust and grime.

The Master soars past the sun and moon,
tucks the universe under her arm,
and is one with the ten thousand things.

She lets the confused stay confused
if that is what they want
and is always available
to those with a passion for the truth.

In the welter of opinions,
she is content with not-knowing.
She makes distinctions
but doesn’t take them seriously.

She sees the world constantly breaking
apart, and stays centered in the whole.

She sees the world endlessly changing
and never wants it to be
different from what is is.
#11
The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

There’s nothing special about the Master.
She doesn’t know any secrets,
and she doesn’t live in some state of exalted consciousness.

She’s just like you,
except that she no longer believes her own thoughts.

“When I attained unexcelled perfect enlightenment,” the Buddha said,
“there was nothing that I attained.”

The mind at peace with itself needs only what it has,
wants only what it is.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

The Great Way has no gate;
there are a thousand paths to it.

If you pass through the barrier,
you walk the universe alone.
–Wu-Men
The Enlightened Heart
Stephen Mitchell
http://peacefullpresence.blogspot.com/2015/07/no-gate.html

Speechless Words and Wordless Speech Suffice
ew
GODSEED
2003

0 Comments

14. Radical Ignorance - Original Remembrance Sunrise/Afternoon July 3, 2015

7/3/2015

0 Comments

This is #14 (Tao #21) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

Setting Moon this morning....she was Full July 1, 2015

∞

REPLACE CACOPHONY'S POSSESSION OF EXPECTATION
EDICTS & LABELS
WITH A CALM CORE THAT ONLY
IS
SPONTANEOUS JOY AND PEACE

THE ORIGINAL REMEMBRANCE

ew
4:50 AM - 7/3/15

∞

#21
The Master treads lightly on the earth.
Life is not serious for him,
and death is not serious.

Even if the whole world
collapsed, it would not disturb him.

He realizes what is essential.
He has returned to the source.
The Second Book of The Tao
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

The more we move beyond our ideas about life and death,
the more open we are to life.

This radical ignorance is not a path to wisdom:
it is wisdom itself.

There a current that is deeper than we are.
It will carry us off whether we want it to or not.
When we resist it, we suffer.
Only when we let it take us can we begin to sense its intelligence.

The Master knows how to die,
because he knows how to deal with the everyday losses
that form the texture of our life.

He deals with them by understanding that loss is just a concept.
He looks into the abyss as into the eyes of the beloved.

He knows nothing about death:
he knows everything he needs to know about dying.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

See Read More Below for additional photos, and quotes...

0 Comments

13. Primal Virtue - ("to ride the current of what is") Sunrise/Afternoon July 2, 2015

7/2/2015

0 Comments

This is #13 (Tao #36) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

FullMoonSet in the West

#36

Whatever happens or doesn’t happen,
can you center yourself in the Tao?

Can you stop looking to others
and focus on your innermost self?

Can you return to the beginning of the world
and be like a newborn baby?

It can scream its head off all day,
yet it never becomes hoarse.

It can clench its fist for hours,
yet its fingers never get cramped.

It can stare all day without blinking,
yet its yes never grow tired.

Free from concerns and worries,
unaware of itself,

it moves without thinking,
doesn’t know why things happen,
doesn’t need to know.

To act without needing a reason,
to sit still without knowing how,

to ride the current of what is--
this is the primal virtue.

The Second Book of The Tao
#36
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

People think that entering the kingdom of heaven
has something to do with good and evil.
But as Jesus implied,
every mother’s child wakes up in the kingdom of heaven.

Heaven is intimacy: the world before separation.
It looks exactly like earth,
but without the thoughts that branch out in a thousand directions
too heavy for us to bear.

Our first parents were not the good children in a morality tale.
They were enchanted with each other and with themselves,
Adam staring into the mirror of phenomena,
Eve singing as she plaited a wreath.

The tree they ate from was not called the Tree of Evil:
it was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
They become mere grown-ups the moment they bit into that bitter fruit.
They opened their eyes and thought that they knew something.

They heard the voice of guilt and punishment
walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

They imagined that they were naked,
when all the while they were clad in all earthly abundance,
and crowned with the moon and stars.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

The Life-Energy and
Awareness arrive.
In due course,
The instrument’s purpose is fulfilled
The Life-Energy and
Awareness depart.
The cycle is completed.
Understand this thoroughly and
There is nothing else to do.

–Wu Hsin

0 Comments

12. "Selfishness as an Act of Pure Love" - "Perfect Sustenance" Sunrise/Afternoon July 1, 2015

7/1/2015

0 Comments

This is #12 (Tao #24) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

All Sunrise Photos today from 11/26/14

∞

THE SOLITUDE OF ORIGIN'S REMEMBRANCE
IS “OLDER THAN GOD” COMFORT
AND
PERFECT SUSTENANCE

ew
5:49 AM - 7/1/15
∞

#24

To find the Tao,
there is nowhere you need to search.
If it is not inside you,
it is not the Tao.

The Book of Songs says,
When you make the handle of an ax
by cutting wood with an ax,
the model is near at hand.

Thus, in dealing with people,
you already have the perfect
model of behavior inside you.

Just act with integrity,
according to your true nature.

"I am only a Loose Garment of the Great Breather" ew 11/26/14 Afternoon

Don’t do to others
what you wouldn’t want done to you.

The Second Book of The Tao
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

We talk of inside and outside,
but it’s as impossible to locate the Tao in the mind as in the world.
Anything here or there isn’t it.
Can your eyes see themselves?
When the answer searches for the answer,
what can it ever find?

That’s why even the most gold rules of behavior don’t work,
if they’re only rules.
What is genuine has no models or rules.
It’s spontaneous, self-generating, free.
Nothng can stand against it.
It doesn’t depend on motivation and isn’t concerned with effect.
It just wants to be itself,
to express itself,
to give itself utterly away.
Its nature is kindness,
but there’s nothing moral about it.

In dealing with people, you’re always dealing with yourself.
The apparent other is you in disguise,
the mirrored impulse,
the reflection of your own mind,
brilliant or confused.

Unkindness to the other is literally unkindness to you.
When you realize this, you naturally stop hurting yourself.

And in the end,
you come full circle, where 0° equals 360°
and
selfishness is an act of pure love.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

Be with those who help your being.
Don't sit with indifferent people, whose breath
comes cold out of their mouths.

Not these visible forms, your work is deeper.
A chunk of dirt thrown in the air breaks to pieces.
If you don't try to fly,
and so break yourself apart,
you will be broken open by death,
when it's too late for all you could become.

Leaves get yellow. The tree puts out fresh roots
and makes them green.
Why are you so content with a love that turns you yellow?

–Rumi
Ode 2865
Coleman Barks translation
http://peacefullpresence.blogspot.com/2015/06/your-work-is-deeper.html

You are a sinner,
You are a saint.
You are a murderer and
You are a monk.

The entire world
You experience is
Inside yourself.

To fix the problems of
The world,
You need only
Fix yourself.

–Wu Hsin

the mad world
of earthbound creatures
must first diagnose
before it can kill
ew
GODSEED
2003

0 Comments

11. Integrity's Dance of Co-Creation Sunrise/Afternoon June 30, 2015

6/30/2015

0 Comments

This is #11 (Tao #64) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

∞

PRIMAL REPOSE
<
ORIGINAL BEING SILENCE
<
DIRECTLY TRANSMITS TO ALL
<
DANCE OF CO-CREATION
ew
5:16 AM - 6/30/15

∞

Softly Pause/Gaze for shapes/forms/Transmissions from these clouds.....

#64

Integrity is our true nature;
arriving at integrity
is the work of a lifetime.

The person who has integrity
does the right thing without trying to,
understands the truth without thinking,
and naturally embodies the Tao.

Integrity is not only the fulfillment of our own being;
it is also the quality
through which all beings are fulfilled.

When we fulfill our own being,
we become truly human;
when we fulfill all being,
we arrive at true understanding.

Humanness and understanding
are inherent in our nature,
and by means of them
we unite the inner and the outer.

Thus, when we act with integrity
everything we do is right.

The Second Book of The Tao
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

Integrity is the bridge to the kingdom,
the kiss that wakes the dead princess,
the fingers that spin straw into gold.

When a person has integrity, she’s genuine;
you can always trust that her
yes is a yes and her no a no.

There’s no motive behind it,
no sweet sticky lure for approval.

We love integrity.
It feels like home.

It’s solid,
there’s no acting-out in it,
no backtracking,
no second-guessing.

When you act with integrity,
everything you do is right,
because there’s no separation
between doer and done.

Besides,
you realize that you’re not doing it in the first place.
You have let go into the nameless,
and it’s not even you who have let go.
It’s not even you who have been let go of.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

May your soul be happy, journey joyfully.

You have escaped from the city full of fear and trembling;
If the body’s image has gone, await the image-maker; if the
body is utterly ruined, become all soul.

If your face has become saffron pale through death, become a
dweller among tulip beds and Judas trees.

If the doors of repose have been barred to you, come, depart
by way of the roof and the ladder.

If you have been secluded from water and bread, like bread
become the food of the souls, and so become!

–Rumi
http://deathdeconstructed.blogspot.com/2015/06/blessing.html

0 Comments

10. "Unattached to Words or to Silence" - "The Golden Eternity" Sunrise/Afternoon June 29, 2015

6/29/2015

0 Comments

This is #10 (Tao #41) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

12/25/14

Close your eyes,
let your hands and nerve-ends drop,
stop breathing for three seconds,
listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world,
and you will remember the lesson you forgot,
which was taught
in immense milky way soft cloud innumerable worlds long ago
and not even at all.
—Jack Kerouac
(see full Kerouac quote at end)

#41

In the beginning, there was nothing.
From nothing arose the One.
All things return to it.

Because it is without form,
there is no way to name it.

It doesn’t exist and doesn’t
not-exist. When we call it “the Tao,”
we define nothing as a something.

The Tao is beyond words.
The more you talk about it,
the farther away from it you get.

Only when you are truly unattached
to words or to silence
can you express the truth.

The Second Book of The Tao
Stephen Mitchell

O That which Exhales me into form,
Inhales me gently Home!
ew
Godseed
2003
(slight edit from original below)
O One that Exhaled me into form
Inhales me gently Home!

COMMENTARY

Ah, the Tao, the Tao.
When we talk about it, the vast isn’t vast enough,
and the subtle seems ludicrously crude.
The only way to approach it is through paradox:
to step out of the way until language bites its own tail.
And a little chutzpah doesn’t hurt.

Chutzpah is usually defined as “effrontery,” but it’s more than that.
It’s effrontery with a feather in its cap,
it’s the sound of three hands clapping,
it’s a garlic bagel crashing a party of champagne flutes.
It’s not a good thing or a bad thing,
but we tend to smile or gasp when we encounter it.
Though there’s no Chinese ideogram for chutzpah,
this chapter is a perfect case study.

So: if the more we talk about the Tao, the farther away from it we get,
why would we talk about it at all?
But okay, let’s talk.

We begin with the beginning, which equals zero,
a nice round number that is the absence of numbers.
From this absence, the One arises.
Are you reeling yet?

But there’s more.
If zero transmutes into one, zero equals one.
(So much for the foundations of mathematics.)

Then, from the One, after a fraction of a nano-instant,
with a bang, the infinitely many arise.
Ultimately infinity return to the One, which equals zero.

But the One doesn’t not-exist.
It doesn’t exist either; you can’t limit it to either category of mind.
So when we say, “All things are one,”
we’re lying through our teeth.
Since reality is beyond conception,
how can we dare to talk about it?

But we do.
And there’s something endearing about the daring of that.
If nothing else, it makes us think.

Even better, it makes us not-think,
which could be the point of it all.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

It’s all like a dream.
Everything is ecstasy, inside.
We just don’t know it because of our thinking-minds.
But in our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright
forever and forever and forever.

Close your eyes,
let your hands and nerve-ends drop,
stop breathing for three seconds,
listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world,
and you will remember the lesson you forgot,
which was taught
in immense milky way soft cloud innumerable worlds long ago
and not even at all.

It is all one vast awakened thing.
I call it the golden eternity.

It is perfect.
We were never really born, we will never really die.
It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea of a personal self,
other selves, many selves everywhere:
Self is only an idea, a mortal idea.

That which passes into everything is one thing.
It’s a dream already ended.
There’s nothing to be afraid of and nothing to be glad about.

—Jack Kerouac
http://peacefullpresence.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-golden-eternity.html

All photos below are early evening 6/29/15

See Read More below for additional photos and all of Tao #41

0 Comments

9. "Move with Freedom of the Wind" Sunrise/Afternoon June 28, 2015

6/28/2015

0 Comments

This is #9 (Tao #44) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

∞
IT
MATTERS NOT WHAT IT IS CALLED
IT IS ALL THAT IS

IT
NEVERBORN-NEVERDIE-COMMUNICATES
ANIMATES
SOURCES
IN ”ABSOLUTE REPOSE”
PERFECTION
ew
5:09 AM - 6/28/15

∞

∞

GLIDE WITH WINGS STILL AND SPREAD….
BE
RAREFIRED/RAREFIED OCTANE/ALTITUDE
WHERE ALL IS EFFORTLESS EASE.
ew
8:10 AM-6/28/15

∞

Photo from 5/3/15

#44

Chaff from the winnowing fan
cancels the eye’s natural vision;
the whine of a mosquito
can keep you awake all night;
trying to be benevolent
makes the mind a tangle or confusion.

If you want the world to stay simple,
you must move with the freedom of the wind.

Why keep making the effort
to figure out right and wrong?

Why all this huffing and puffing
as though you were beating a drum
searching for a lost child?

The snow goose doesn’t need
a daily bath to stay white,
nor does the crow stay black
by dipping itself in an inkwell.

When the springs dry up
and the fish are left on the shore,
they spew one another with moisture.

But how much better
if they could forget one another and swim off
into the lake’s vast freedom!

The Second Book of The Tao
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

The effort to be moral or benevolent is a disruption of our natural virtue.
What child would rather pray than play?

“Throw away morality,” Lao-tzu says,
“and you’ll be doing the world a big favor.”
Trying to figure out the right action does no one any good.
It’s better to keep moving, till the right action arises by itself.

When it’s genuine,
benevolence is the most beautiful quality in the world.
But when it has a motive, it feels like fish spittle,
not like clear water.

We recognize the genuine.
It’s what we all want.
It’s what we all are, when we are past our own thoughts.

Let the others comfort one another with slime:
that’s the best they can do under the circumstances.

But the instant any fish finds its way back to the lake,
it will swim off without a qualm.

“Thanks for the benevolence, muchachos,
but I’m out of here.”

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted
from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

The search for Reality is the most dangerous of all undertakings,
for it destroys the world in which you live.
–Nisargadatta Maharaj

Above photo and Nisargadatta quote from:
http://peacefullpresence.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-most-dangerous-of-all-undertakings.html

0 Comments

8. "Always Enough" The Ultimate Antidote Sunrise/Afternoon June 27, 2015

6/27/2015

0 Comments

This is #8 (Tao #28) in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

1) TOTAL ABSTINENCE FROM BEING BOTHERED BY ANYTHING/ANYONE
RESULTS IN
2) POSSESSION IN/OF/AS THE GREAT ORIGINAL CORE CALM.

THE SOURCE WHICH MOVES CREATION THRU ALL FORMS
THE ULTIMATE ANTIDOTE

(or does this happen the other way around?
doesn't matter! as long as it's Happening)
ew
4:12 AM - 6/27/15

#28
The Second Book of The Tao

Don’t chase after people’s approval.
Don’t depend on your plans.
Don’t make decisions;
let decisions make themselves.

Free yourself of concepts;
don’t believe what you think.
Embody the inexhaustible.
Wander beyond all paths.

Receive what you have been given
and know that
it is always enough.

The Master’s mind is like a mirror;
it responds but doesn’t store,
contains nothing, excludes nothing,
and reflects things exactly as they are.

Thus she has what she wants
and wants only what she has.

#28
The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

This is a chapter of good advice.
You could do a lot worse than follow it.
But all advice is dispensable.
Here’s what I mean.

It’s morning again. You open your eyes.
There’s a you, there’s a world.
There’s even a woman lying in bed beside you,
the radiant one, whom you fell in love with the very first moments.
The gratitude you feel is one drop in the vast ocean of gratitude that surrounds you.
It’s unnecessary to feel more than that single drop.

There’s a musician at the foot of the bed.
His hands look like oak leaves.
He is leaning back with his arms raised in a gesture of what might seem
(if you didn’t know any better)
like despair.

A skull sits on your nightstand,
giving you its long-in-the-tooth, memento-mori grin.
Flowers drift through the air in Brownian motion.
Inevitably, there’s a guitar in your hands.
You don’t know how to play, but you’re a fast learner.
It must be time for “La tristesse du roi” or “Amor, la vida es sueno.”
Your fingers touch the strings.
Already you’re moved to tears.

Now the sun taps at your window,
your bladder needs emptying,
the children have dissolved into peals of laughter,
and as your feet touch the floor,
yet again the spirit of life and death has not a word to say.

Do you see things exactly as they are?
How would you know?
Yet things are so good that they couldn’t get much better.

All that you ever wanted is here, right in front of you;
all that you ever wanted is instantly, irrecoverably, gone.

#28
The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

0 Comments

7. "It's better just to leave things alone." Sunrise/Afternoon June 26, 2015

6/26/2015

0 Comments

This is #7 in a Series of Posts that share Synchronistically-Timely chapters from
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

∞

NO SEPARATE VOICE, BEING OR DIMENSION
TO LEAN UPON, LISTEN TO, OR TALK ABOUT
JUST
IS
THE ‘OLDER THAN GOD’ CONDITION
ew
4:25 AM - 6/26/15

∞

A person blended into God does not disappear.
He or she is just completely soaked in God's qualities

Rumi

Second Book of The TAO #7

Nothing in the world is bigger
than the tip of an autumn hair,
and Mount Everest is tiny.

No one in the world has lived longer
than a stillborn child,
and Methuselah died young.

The universe came into being
the moment that I was born,
and all things are one with me.

Since all things are one,
how can I put that into words?
But since I just said they are one,
how can my words mean nothing?

Sisyphus - Faint Hue on Ocean

Sisyphus, Ocean Golden Hue, 3 Gulls Gliding

The one plus my words make two,
and the two plus the one make three.
If we continue in this way,
even the greatest mathematician
couldn’t calculate where it will end.

Above: Photos are with camera settings either "vivid" or "auto"

It's better just to leave things alone.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

There are paradoxes born of wit and paradoxes born of insight.
No thought is true,
but some thoughts are so much truer than the ones we’re used to
that they seem absurd at first glance.
It’s all a question of perspective.

Down at the level of the micro, there is no macro.
If you get small enough, you see that the world isn’t solid
and that uncertainty is the only thing that’s certain, perhaps.
Thus, everything the electron meets is electronal.
Ditto a galaxy: its consciousness, if it has one, is as little aware of a planet
as you are of a corpuscle.

We can’t stand outside the system and point to what’s real,
because what’s real is defined by the system.
This is relativity writ large.
The fastest thing in the universe isn’t light:
it’s mind.

All things may be one with me, but am I one with them?
That’s the issue.
And once I am one, what then?

Even the one is excessive for anyone who wants to be meticulous.
Look where it leads, after all—to two, to three, to infinity,
to an infinity of infinities and beyond:
always the unattainable, unassuageable beyond.

Of course, the nothing is out of the question as well,
since there’s already a word for it.
Not one?
Not nothing?

This leaves you in an ideal position: speechless, delighted,
and ready to say the most nonsensical things,
if only they make sense.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that,
and I intend to end up there.
Rumi

I didn’t come here of my own accord, and I can’t leave that way.
Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home.

This poetry. I never know what I’m going to say.
I don’t plan it.
When I’m outside the saying of it,
I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.
–Rumi
Coleman Barks version
full writing here:
http://peacefullpresence.blogspot.com/2015/06/question_25.html

At end of the afternoon beach stroll, while Resting on chair, this bird hovered and circled over me and landed only a few feet from my chair....stayed for the longest....then moved towards ocean as i went towards her with camera....what Confirmation/Reminder of so much that Happened today.

Words create words, reality is silent.

–Nisargadatta

0 Comments

6. - Pivot of the Tao - Cessation of Affirmation and Denial Sunrise/Afternoon June 25, 2015

6/25/2015

0 Comments

This is #6 in a Series of Posts that will eventually include all the main aspects
of
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

∞

REALIZE THERE IS NOTHING TO AVOID

WHEN IN TRUE BEING EVERSHINING
ALL THAT USED TO BE AVOIDED
IS IN THE REALM OF
‘LET THE DEAD BURY THE DEAD’
&
BEYOND
ew
4:10 AM - 6/25/15

∞

∞

WALK QUIETLY
CONTAINED ONLY IN THE
INVISIBLE WORLD OF DIVINE VOID
WHICH IS BEYOND
THOUGHTS AND AWARENESS
ew
Transcending Possession
1992

∞

TAO #6

Everything can be seen as a this;
everything can be seen as a that.
The that depends on the this;
the this mirrors the that.

One follows from the other;
each is inseparable from both.
You can’t have right without wrong,
life without death,
the true without the false.
The Master is not trapped in opposites.
His this is also a that.

He sees that life becomes death
and death becomes life, that right
has a kernel of wrong within it
and wrong a kernel of right,
that the true turns into the false
and the false into the true.

He understands that nothing is absolute,
that since every point of view
depends on the viewer,
affirmation and denial
are equally beside the point.

The place where the this and the that
are not opposed to each other
is called “the pivot of the Tao.”

When we find this pivot, we find ourselves
at the center of the circle,
and here we sit, serene,
while Yes and No keep chasing each other
around the circumference, endlessly.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY
by Stephen Mitchell

Mind can only create the qualities of good and bad by comparing.
Remove the comparison, and there go the qualities.
What remains is the pure unknown:
ungraspable object, ungraspable subject,
and the clear light of awareness streaming through.

The pivot of the Tao is the mind free of its thoughts.
It doesn’t believe that this is a this
or that that is a that.

Let Yes and No sprint around
the circumference toward a finish line that doesn’t exist.

How can they stop trying to win the argument of life until YOU stop?
When you do, you realize that you were the only one running.

Yes was you.
No was you,
the whole circumference, with its colored banners, its pom-pom girls
and frenzied crowds--
that was you as well.

At the center,
the eyes open and again it’s the sweet morning of the world.
There’s nothing here to limit you,
no one here to draw a circumference.

In fact, there’s no one here--
--not even you.

The Second Book of The Tao
Compiled and adapted from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

See Read More below for additional photos and wordings.....

0 Comments

5. "Nothing to Understand" "Nothing left but Gratitude and Laughter" Sunrise/Afternoon June 24. 2015

6/24/2015

0 Comments

This is #5 in a Series of Posts that will eventually include all the main aspects
of
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE TAO

∞

IN THE NAMING OF
WHATEVER SEEMING DESTRUCTION IS OCCURING
IS THE POOFING!
<
WHEN YOU ARE WHO YOU REALLY ARE
NAMING IS INSTANT FREEDOM FROM BONDAGE.

WHEN YOU ARE NOT WHO YOU REALLY ARE
NAMING/OBSESSING/RESISTANCE IS AS CRAZY GLUE WITH HORRORS.

ew
5:31 AM - 6/24/15

∞

#5

The ancient Masters saw deeply.
How deep was their insight?

They realized that nothing exists.
This is perfect understanding.

Those at the next stage
thought that things existed
but saw no boundaries between them.

Next came those who saw boundaries
but didn’t judge things as good or bad.

When judgments arose, understanding was damaged;
when understanding was damaged,
preferences became ingrained.

But is there really such a thing
as damage or wholeness?

See Read More at end for "how" this photo Happened.

The Master understands
that there is nothing to understand.

S. Mitchell
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE TAO
#5

COMMENTARY
by
Stephen Mitchell

The ancient Masters saw deeply indeed.
They realized that since nothing lasts longer than the untraceable instant,
nothing ultimately exists.
They also realized that “nothing” is something,
and that the opposite of a profound truth
is another profound truth.

Nothing exists.
Something exists.
“All Cretans are liars,” said the Cretan.
It’s better to keep your mouth shut.

Still, these old fellows were on to something.
If nothing exists as we know it,
if time and space are intellectual categories,
there’s nothing we can actually grasp,
to arrange or disarrange.
This leaves us free.

It leaves us at play in the cosmic theater of the mind.
All the world’s a stage, and we are the non-actors.
Can life be as simple as that?

It went downhill from there,
to the next stage,
then the next.
Boundaries! Preferences! Attachments!!!
And before we knew it,
our days filled up with screaming babies,
mortgage payments,
nasty messages in the mailbox.

Damage and wholeness are in the eyes of the beholder, of course.
If you’re a child,
there’s nothing more fun that going downhill.

A tragedy is comedy misunderstood.
Once you realize what you are,
there’s nothing left but gratitude and laughter.

THE SECOND BOOK OF THE TAO
Compiled and adapted from the
Chuang-tze and the Chung Yung,
with commentaries
by
Stephen Mitchell

The soul has been given its own ears
to hear things the mind does not understand.

—Jalalud’din Rumi

See Read More below:

0 Comments

4. "Neither Coming or Going" "Walking Two Paths at Once" Sunrise/Afternoon June 23, 2015

6/23/2015

1 Comment

This is #4 in a Series of Posts that will eventually include all the main aspects
of
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

∞

FROM THE VAST VOID…
THE INFINITE ”OLDER THAN GOD” CALM WITHIN….
SURFACES ALL TRUTH!

BE STILL AND NO-MINDING MIND KNOW
<
REMAIN STILL

ew
3:29 AM - 6/23/15

∞

#4

When we exhaust our minds
by clinging to a particular side of reality
without realizing the underlying oneness,
it’s called “three in the morning.”
What does that mean?

A monkey trainer, handing out acorns, said:
Each of you, will get three in the morning and four in the afternoon.”
The monkeys were outraged.
So he said,
“All right, then: you’ll get four in the morning and three in the afternoon.”
The monkeys were delighted.

Nothing essential had changed,
yet one statement produced anger, and the other, joy.
The trainer simply knew how to adapt to reality and he lost nothing by it.

Thus the Master uses his skill to harmonize with both sides,
and rests in the Tao,
which makes all things equal.
This is called “walking on two paths at once.”
#4
Second Book of The Tao
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY

The whole human condition is present in this tricky little tale,
which would be sad if it weren’t so ridiculous.
Although from the standpoint of the monkeys
it’s about the power of righteous indignation,
from the standpoint of the monkey trainer,
behind the scenes,
it’s about skillful management.
You have to admire his one-two punch;
he’s both bad cop and good cop.
But what is the trainer training the monkeys in, anyway?
Discernment?
If so, he’s being made a monkey of.

Whenever we cling to a particular side of reality,
it’s we who are the monkeys,
losing ourselves in outrage or partial delight.
If we look more carefully, though,
we can see that reality has only one side,
like a Mobius strip.
Stars or raindrops,
acorns or ashes,
apparent blessings,
apparent disasters--
--when the mind is clear, each is an occasion for rejoicing.
That’s what discernment is about.

Once our mind-monkeys are fully trained, it’s all good.
In the mathematics of mental peace, three equals four, one equals zero.
Adapting to reality means recognizing that nothing underlies or overlays it.
The Master can travel on two paths at once,
like a photon,
because his mind is free.
He’s subatomic and supererogatory.
He knows that all ways are the Way and that ultimately
he is neither coming nor going.

Stephen Mitchell

Photos in Slideshow below taken during evening sun on beach
6 p.m. 6/23/15
Again.....beyond words!!!

Click Read More Below for "More"

1 Comment

3. "Inexhaustible Treasury" "Every ism is a wasm" Sunrise/Afternoon June 22, 2015

6/22/2015

1 Comment

This is #3 in a Series of Posts that will eventually include all the main aspects
of
Stephen Mitchell's Auspicious book
The Second Book of The Tao

See Read More at end for further information.

The great Tao cannot be named,
great discernment cannot be seen,
great benevolence is not gentle,
great modesty is not meek,
great courage is not aggressive.

When you truly understand
the Tao that cannot be named,
you become rooted in not-knowing.

This is called “inner-radiance".

Add to it, it is never full;
take from it, it is never depleted.
Who can tell where it comes from?

It is the inexhaustible treasury.
#3
The Second Book of The Tao
Stephen Mitchell

COMMENTARY
Who named it “the Tao” in the first place?

I would like to talk to that fellow.
I’d like to give him a piece of my mind.

The Tao.
The Way.
Imagine naming the unnamable!
This may have seemed like a clever idea at the time,
but it led to endless complications.

Before long, people were watching everywhere for the way.
Intellectuals began to wear themselves out
debating whether it existed or not,
or whether perhaps it both existed and didn’t exist,
or whether indeed it neither existed nor didn’t exist.

Scholars wrote tomes,
with characters brushed in the blackest of ink,
to prove that the Way goes this way or that.

Moralists determined what is on the Way
and what is off,
discerning, down to the minutest particulars,
exactly what we must do never to stray from the Way.

Thus Taoism was born.

But every ism is a wasm.
It’s already old news:
an exoskeleton
from which the living truth has moved on.
S Mitchell

Religions arise to address
The sense of being separate and apart.

Once this sense is seen to be erroneous,
Where is the need for religion?

–The Lost Writings of Wu Hsin
http://peacefullpresence.blogspot.com/2015/06/question_22.html

See Read More Below

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<<Previous

CLARITY WITHIN PREVAILS ...‘the pearl’ that must be hidden..." "...move with the freedom of the wind." November 14, 2018

IMMORTAL CORE "And when I breathe in..." "...kiss of relief. Sunrise/Afternoon January 17, 2018

ETERNAL LIFE'S TOUCHSTONE "...the moment before a thought." "...returned to the primordial..." "..translucent curtain.." 1/13/18

STILLNESS PRECEDING ALL CREATION "..nothing to oppose." Sunrise/Afternoon January 12, 2018

TAO'S POSSESSION "...useful uselessness..." "...completely lost." Sunrise/Afternoon Dec. 3, 2017

JOY OF UNFETTERED SOUL EVERSHINES ALL "...the juice of life" Sunrise/Afternoon Dec. 2, 2017

....EMANATES FROM SAME ORIGIN... "...center of the universe..." Sunrise/Afternoon September 7, 2016

20. "Stop accepting......" = POOF!!! Sunrise/Afternoon July 10, 2015

19. Naturally Naked - "....leave no trace" "...land of great silence." Sunrise/Afternoon July 9, 2015

"Unhindered Minds" - Beyond Questions/Answers Sunrise/Afternoon July 8, 2015

Embodied...Ensouled....Beyond Preferences Sunrise/Afternoon July 7, 2015

16. ORIGIN'S CORE AWARENESS - "creates without doing" Sunrise/Afternoon July 5, 2015

15. Speechless Words and Wordless Speech Sunrise/Afternoon July 4, 2015

14. Radical Ignorance - Original Remembrance Sunrise/Afternoon July 3, 2015

13. Primal Virtue - ("to ride the current of what is") Sunrise/Afternoon July 2, 2015

12. "Selfishness as an Act of Pure Love" - "Perfect Sustenance" Sunrise/Afternoon July 1, 2015

11. Integrity's Dance of Co-Creation Sunrise/Afternoon June 30, 2015

10. "Unattached to Words or to Silence" - "The Golden Eternity" Sunrise/Afternoon June 29, 2015

9. "Move with Freedom of the Wind" Sunrise/Afternoon June 28, 2015

8. "Always Enough" The Ultimate Antidote Sunrise/Afternoon June 27, 2015

7. "It's better just to leave things alone." Sunrise/Afternoon June 26, 2015

6. - Pivot of the Tao - Cessation of Affirmation and Denial Sunrise/Afternoon June 25, 2015

5. "Nothing to Understand" "Nothing left but Gratitude and Laughter" Sunrise/Afternoon June 24. 2015

4. "Neither Coming or Going" "Walking Two Paths at Once" Sunrise/Afternoon June 23, 2015

3. "Inexhaustible Treasury" "Every ism is a wasm" Sunrise/Afternoon June 22, 2015

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