Non-Reaction and Non-Violent Are Not the Same Thing

Jesus famously said that if someone slaps you on one check, you should offer him the other cheek as well. "Turn the other cheek" has long since become a catch phrase for what Eckhart Tolle and others (like the Buddha even before the Christ) call non-reaction. It's really the only sane response to violence. Anything else will only perpetuate a cycle of violence that will never end until one of the parties is either annihilated or until one of them decides, finally, to employ non-reaction.

The first key to non-reaction is internal. It means that your response isn't a knee-jerk, unconscious response to what's happened or what's about to come your way. It means that your ego doesn't take you over, causing you to act without really realizing what you're doing.

Tao Urges Non-reaction to North Korean Provocation

This article was originally published by Technorati on 25 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Tensions are mounting along the DMZ between North and South Korea now that the latter has determined that a North Korean submarine took out one of its warships with a torpedo.

This is an act of war, without question. But no act could be more ripe for non-reaction than this one.

Bloomenthal's Vietnam Pretense Contrary to Tao

This article was originally published by Technorati on 24 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Out-going Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) offered some bland words of support today for his would-be Democratic successor, Richard Bloomenthal.

"I can't think of a better legacy I can have in the Senate than to have Dick Blumenthal follow me in that job," Dodd said, speaking to reporters in Hartford.

Dodd's statement comes in conjunction with Bloomenthal's cursory apology for pretending to have fought in Vietnam.

Rand Paul's Views on Civil Rights Act Not in Keeping with the Tao

This article was originally published by Technorati on 21 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

In a previous post, we detailed 8 Rules for Governing a Country from the Tao te Ching. There are at least 19 in all, along with other good advice of a general nature.

With election season in full-swing, it might be helpful to voters to have a guide for candidates based on their adherence to the Tao. And who better to start with than a candidate from my home state of Kentucky, Rand Paul, the much heralded would-be Senator backed by the Tea Party.

Paul is certainly welcome to his views, but his Libertarianism seems to have gotten the better of him just one day past his unexpected primary victory. He holds a stringent view of private property rights which stands at odds with the almost universally revered Civil Rights Act of 1964.

While purporting to agree with nine of the ten titles under the Civil Rights Act, he stands by past statements in which he has said that the title applicable to discrimination by private business entities tramples property rights and should have been modified.

This video is 10 minutes long. Maddow can't seem to believe that a person she clearly likes personally could be this inept as a politician, and she gives him extra time to hang himself. Which he does.

Is Rand Paul a racist? Absolutely not. Almost as bad for a politician, he's an ideologue.

Tao te Ching Says Stop Sniping at Political Leaders

This article was originally published by Technorati on 20 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

President Obama's approval rating is hovering at or below 50%, which means, I suppose, that half the country or more disapproves of the job he's doing. Right-wing pundits are punditting that Tuesday's primary races signal his demise in 2012. Others are taking potshots at him for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, calling it his Katrina.

Left-wingers did this to Bush for eight years. Right-winger did it to Clinton for eight years before that. Perhaps there's a better way.

8 Rules for Governing a Country from the Tao te Ching

This article was originally published by Technorati on 20 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

According to Lao-tzu, author of the Tao te Ching, rather than sniping at new political leaders, we're supposed to teach them about the Tao. (See Part 1 of this post)

The Tao Te Ching offers specific advice for those who would govern a country. Selecting a few of these would be as good a place to start as any in educating our President.

1. "When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists." Lao-tzu's advice: don't be over exposed in the media. Don't buy into the idea that you have to be in every news cycle. Do your work, do it well and voters will remember you in 2012.

For Self-Mastery Forget About Free Will

From Tao Te Ching, Number 48:

True mastery can be gained

by letting things go their own way.

It can't be gained by interfering.

What is Lao Tzu talking about here?

As if it were riding in a carriage or wagon, our consciousness rides on our body's innate intelligence, which is hardwired to Universal Intelligence. Learning to observe all that happens in us, through us and around us is true mastery. Attempting to intervene in what's happening--what our bodies, our carriages, are doing beneath us--is not mastery, it's interference.

Tebow Cries, Manning Flies Demonstrating Lack of Emotional Strength

This article was published by Technorati on 8 February 2010. The dream continues . . .

First, Tim Tebow crys after Florida's loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship back in December. Now Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning is too ticked about loosing the Super Bowl to shake hands with his MVP counterpart, QB Drew Brees of the victorious New Orleans Saints.

Is this a demonstration of emotional strength or weakness?

Yahoo! Sports blogger Chris Chase would vote in favor of the former. Chase writes of Manning, "If I care so much, why shouldn't the players?"

First, caring that much as a fan may be misguided (see Over-Identifying with Your Team).

Second, isn't it karma that the Colts should lose, after handing the New York Jets (7-7) and the Buffalo Bills (5-10) unopposed wins in the final two games of the season, opting to rest their starters? The Colts had already secured home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Two additional wins would buy them nothing for their efforts . . .

Nothing except glory!

Chase writes,"The desire to win is what sustains greatness," and then he checks off several well-known names--Jordan, DiMaggio, Bird, Williams, Jabbar-- who supposedly cared too much about winning to shake hands after a game.

When the Tao is on the Move

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

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The Anatomy of Success

Something really great was about to happen. Success at last!

It doesn't matter what it was. It could have been a new job, or a publisher agreed to print something I'd written, or I was about to move to the next level with someone special, or I was about to receive a patent on a new invention, or I was about to surpass the 1,000,000-visitor-barrier on my blog. Fill in the blank with anything you please.

At that moment, on the verge, on the eve, something inside told me I wasn't ready for this; I wasn't prepared. I had been well along the path of enlightenment for nearly three years, enjoying the awakening process, eyes opening. But the process wasn't complete. Thus, outward success felt premature.

And that's the important point, how it felt. It always comes down to how we feel these things in the physical body.It felt unstable. I felt myself leaning forward, into the future, into the following day when this indicium of success was scheduled to take place.

There's a name for this feeling. We call it hope. Its opposite is fear. We think of hope as positive and fear as negative, but they're actually flip sides of the same coin.

Make No Progress Today

"Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it," is a pretty famous line from the Bible, the book of Psalms to be exact. It was written by a famous wise man, King Solomon, of "split the baby" fame.

The Bible is chockfull of wisdom, without doubt. But I'm much more comfortable these days quoting a line from the Tao Te Ching: A New English Version (Perennial Classics) than I am quoting from the Bible (though I know it very well) because so much of what is said about the Bible is sectarian; that is, religion in service to the ego, as Eckhart Tolle puts it in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club, Selection 61).