When the Tao is on the move, you know it. It's exciting.When it isn't, life can be dull, boring, normal. You find yourself wondering if you're doing something wrong.
In reality, you should be enjoying that time for its boredom. It is the boredom of the soldier between campaigns.
When the Tao is on the move, it means a likelihood of combat at some point. But why should you care where the battle takes you? Of course, you would like to win the war, you're a patriot, after all. But what you really care about is getting home to your loved ones in one piece.
You're not afraid to do battle, but if it's all the same you'll take the boredom and wait out the war.
Photo credit: Center
You might also like: Bizarre Hamas Psychological Warfare Cartoon Spurs Discussion of Non-Violent Protest
Hi Todd,
ReplyDeleteI agree when the Tao is on the move it's exciting. Where I get lost is how the Tao means doing combat? Maybe it's like a flood that washes away fear and delusion and ego, and that is how it does combat...? Please elaborate if you feel like it.
Boredom is a universal human experience, and I wonder about it. Boredom feels like the hunger of the mind to be fed with some new stimulation. Eckhart talks about sitting with boredom instead of letting it drive us into an endless pursuit of distractions. I find it uncomfortable to sit with boredom, and sometimes it goads me like a cattle prod to the refrigerator or book or other escape. But occasionally when opening to boredom instead of running from it, there's a sense of slipping past some kind of mental barrier into deeper contact with the moment. Thanks for your post Todd.
Thanks for the great comments, Colleen. When the Tao is on the move, it's like combat because we would really rather be meditating. It means getting out there and mixing with "the enemy," getting the hands dirty, perhaps getting roughed up. We are really hoping to just go home to the One. We don't really care if the Tao moves. If it does it does, if it doesn't it doesn't. I invite you to check out the source of the pictures. Lot's of good ones there.
ReplyDeleteAhhh...That makes sense, and I can sure relate to that. I'd rather be meditating but often the Tao is on the move and has other plans! You just never know. Recently my son Jack began screaming hysterically and I went running to him. He had found his pet ferret Eddie dead in the cage from unknown reasons. This not too many months after Jack's closest friend died at age 9 after a long battle with leukemia. I held Jack while he wept buckets...the Tao is on the move and you never know what will happen in any moment. I see what you mean. The combat is just to show up for life as it arises and live with heart and soul as best we can.
ReplyDeletePoor Jack! I'm so sorry!
ReplyDeleteI was actually thinking in terms of positive movements. Like now, I find myself in Naples, not much really going on, wondering how long I should stay and what will motivate me to do something else. Wondering if I'm doing something wrong and that's why there is slack in the sails, that's why I've hit the doldrums.
But I haven't done anything wrong. And there's nothing wrong with this kind of slack time. I should enjoy the heck out of it because something is about to come along, like a relationship, a job opportunity, an idea, or some other kind of opportunity--something always comes along. And I'll be saying, "Man, I wish I had enjoyed that quiet, peaceful time when I had it."
Because even the best opportunities take you into contact with unconsciousness, when we are obliged to exercise our powers of non-reaction, of embracing moments that appear to be unpleasant. Relationships, for example, are great but they are designed to make us more conscious, and we know what that entails.
I think of Eckhart. Some time ago he wrote these wonderful books. Before he put them out, his life was probably relatively uneventful. Now he is obliged to go places, do things that are nice, interesting, important, but require lots of presence on his part to get through.
The idea of detachment means that we can take or leave both aspects of life, the doldrums and the hurricane (to complete the metaphor, remaining in the eye of the storm, the center of the wheel, as the Tao puts it), and everything in between.