I Ching therefore I Pod - new update for Yi Jing app

In June I received a nice e-mail from Brian Arnold, president of Flat Earth Studio, the developer of the Yi Jing application I use on my I Pod. He thanked me for my kind reviews of the Yi Jing app and told me the good news: the company has now teamed up with Princeton University Press to offer the famous and definitive Wilhelm/Baynes edition of the I Ching as an update to the app. Here is an excerpt from the press release:

Princeton University Press and Flat Earth Studio are pleased to announce the newest version of the popular iPhone App, Yi Jing, now available from the iTunes App store. This major update for Yi Jing App includes new features and improved book content for additional purchase, including Princeton University Press's all-time bestselling edition of The I Ching, or Book of Changes, edited by Richard Wilhelm and translated by Cary F. Baynes. The New York Times says, "Princeton's Bollingen edition [is] still regarded as the best and most authentic by I Ching aficionados."

Yi Jing is the definitive mobile version of The I Ching, or Book of Changes, done the way it was meant to be experienced. Ancient meets modern as one of the oldest books written is re re-crafted to take advantage of the unique features of your mobile device. The updated App contains all of the features you need, including a question oracle, an integrated journal, and multiple translations and interpretations. The complete Wilhelm/Baynes text is provided for the first time in interactive readings.

"We are incredibly pleased to team up with Flat Earth Studio to make the Bollingen edition of the I Ching available in this format," said Daphne Ireland, Director of Intellectual Property at Princeton University Press. "The updated app allows fans to engage with this material in a completely unprecedented way."

See the full press release here, which provides links to Flat Earth Studio’s web sites, to iTunes, and to a YouTube video Yi Jing v2 walkthrough.

So there you have it. The already best I Ching app available just became the definitive and classic I Ching must have app. And rightly so.

THE IMAGE
On the mountain, a tree:
The image of DEVELOPMENT.
Thus the superior man abides in dignity and virtue,
In order to improve the mores.

Faith and The Universal Dinner Lady

I have been listening to the night mass on disc 2 of ‘Into Great Silence’ (more to come on this great work) most nights before falling asleep. I don’t know whether it is that but it has been slowly born in on me that perhaps my problem derives from a lack of faith.

When I say my problem I mean a lack of motivation, a general indifference to attacking projects (including writing posts), a tendency to wish to escape into Patrick O’Brian novels. And when I say a lack of faith I don’t necessarily mean a religious faith but it does include the notion of lacking faith that God will provide if I have faith, or The Universal Dinner Lady will provide, if you prefer the Taoist view.

This I know already. ‘According to your faith shall it be it unto you’ and so on. ‘Anything you can believe you can achieve’, the power of the subconscious, and so on. But it just came more clearly into focus the other day. And then I read this quote from a book I recently bought, ‘1001 Pearls of Bible Wisdom’ and I had something like an epiphany and a confirmation I was onto something:

O man, believe in God with all your might, for hope rests on faith, love on hope, and victory on love.   – Mother Julian of Norwich

Of course, I said. Without faith – in God, in yourself, in others – hope is gone. Without hope you become indifferent, discouraged, even bitter: you have precious little love for yourself let alone others. And without love what can you have or accomplish? Nothing of meaning or lasting value, hence there can be no victory. I saw that faith is the foundation of a right attitude and I saw that it applied to me. I was in a vicious circle of demotivation and in order to break it I must begin to believe – in God, in myself and in The Universal Dinner Lady. It is all the same, for when you believe in yourself, you believe in the grace God has given you, you believe in God in you. And that is the definition of being inspired, innit?

Image: another shameless opportunistic posting of the lovely Aki Hoshino as the Universal Dinner Lady 

The Universal Dinner Lady revisited

In my Ship’s log for May 2010 I said that with the coming of Spring there were suddenly far too many demands on my time and energy. I made the analogy that the The Universal Dinner Lady insisted on dancing even if I didn’t feel like it. I explained about the forces of yin and yang rising and falling in their natural rhythm. My girlfriend, who is very intelligent (she will read this), seemed to misunderstand the analogy and asked me if she was being too demanding. And she is Chinese, so if she didn’t understand, maybe others didn’t.

The Universal Dinner Lady is another way of saying the Tao. In Stephen Russel’s analogy, instead of being dowdy grumpy and mean as in our school days, she is portrayed as being sexy, generous, and playful. The Tao is the source of everything in this world. We can ask for anything and she will give. But instead of demanding our dinner ticket, she demands to dance. To get what we want we have to ‘follow the Tao’. We have to put ourselves into the position to receive what it is we want. And the forces of yin and yang are a good way to understand how that can happen. I tried to explain it but I will let Stephen Russel do it better. I was actually thinking of his explanation anyway. Here it is, from his best (in my opinion) book, Barefoot Doctor’s Guide to the Tao:

The Tao gives and the Tao takes away. When it gives, you’re full; when it takes away, you’re empty again, ready to be filled with something new. Knowing this won’t change your life. The cycle of alternation between yin and yang is inexhaustible. But it may soften the blow of the ebb and flow.

Yin is empty, yang is full. Yin is soft, yang is hard, Yin comes down, yang goes up. Yin comes in, yang goes out. Yin gets cold, yang heats up. Yin gets damp, yang dries up. Yin is quiet, yang is loud. Yin retreats, yang advances. (…)

Yin and yang, like night and day, turn into their opposite number on reaching maximum potential. Thus, as the night reaches its darkest moment, the sun is already sending its first tentative rays over the horizon, and those damn birds start their tweeting… As the day reaches its brightest point, the night is already lurking, ready to cover the sky once again. When the passing police siren reaches its loudest moment, the silence is already following in its wake.

It’s the same with the energy in your body. If you go to the extremes of physical activity (yang), you exhaust yourself, and you have to rest (yin). If you stop for long enough, you grow restless and go back out again for more (yang). Obviously, if either yin or yang goes beyond that point, thereby losing its connection with the other, you die. Unchecked yin makes you congeal. Unchecked yang makes you evaporate.

Possibly the most pertinent use of this classification is in distinguishing full (yang) from empty (yin) in your relationship with the world. When your energy to go out into the world is strong, i.e. yang, and the world appears to receive you, you are considered to be full and the world empty; that is, you go and fill the world. When the world is knocking on your door and screaming at you from all directions, the world is then full and you’d better be empty!

That’s what I meant. Stephen Russel’s book is full of eye-opening insights like that which have stuck with me these last 10 years or so. I am sure I have integrated many and they have helped me probably in more ways than I realize. If this insight speaks to you, you should check him out, he is a delight to read.

Images: Aki Hoshino doing a good impersonation of the Universal Dinner Lady in full and empty mode.

The Universal Dinner Lady

While we are on the subject of spiritual nourishment (see I Ching – nourishing the superior) and how food can bring us closer to God (see Nourishing our relationship with the Divine), I must tell you about the Universal Dinner Lady.

Who or what is a dinner lady? She is part of the culture of the British, but I’m not sure if she exists elsewhere or even if she still exists in Britain. When I was at school once upon a time, she was the lady in charge of order in the cafeteria. She was usually old, portly, grey-haired, and frowning. She made sure we unruly, snotty-nosed, rebellious little school kids stayed in our place in the line and she collected our ‘dinner tickets’. But most importantly, she had the life-giving power of decreeing which table could go for ‘seconds’ (second helpings).

So when I read the following passage from modern-day Taoist master Stephen Russel’s book ‘Manifesto’, it brought a smile to my lips.

Dancing with the Universal Dinner Lady
(or Universal Dinner Man, if you really want to be anal about it)

Manifesting the life you want is a dance you do with the Tao.That’s the point of it. It is, to be crude about it, a spiritual experience. You see it’s not the things, situations and events you manifest that bring you spiritual satisfaction, it’s watching the Tao in action as those things, situations and events spring into existence before your very eyes – that’s the blessing, that’s the point (if there is one).

But what is the Tao you dance with? (…) Traditionally, the Taoists of ancient times called it the mother of both existence and non-existence – note mother, not father. This alludes to its nurturing nature. But obviously the Tao is not really a woman, nor is it a man for that matter. This indicates that ancient Taoists were just as inclined to play silly games as post-modern ones, in which case come with me all the way into silliness here and picture this.

You’re standing in line in the school canteen, Oliver Twist-style, your empty plate in your hands, shuffling along as kids do, looking down at the floor or at the dodgy haircut of the person in front of you. All of a sudden you find yourself at the front of the queue, and looking up you’re startled and gratified to see that the dinner lady, far from the dowdy archetype, is actually a voluptuous, sensuous, full-lipped, sex-goddess of a woman wearing silk underwear, suspenders, stockings and heels beneath her apron (…) who smiles at you bountifully and says, ‘Yes? And what would you like, young woman (or man)?’ Her body language, facial expression and vocal tone suggest you can ask for anything – anything in the whole world – and she’ll heap it on your plate.

‘I want everything, ‘ you hear yourself say, ‘not just purity or peace of mind, Dinner Lady, but absolutely everything.’

And rather than calling you a greedy little git, she smiles even more munificently than before and says ‘You got it kid, but dance with me first!’ because she loves it when you ask for everything – it’s her nature to give, to generate – it’s what she’s here for. And she loves a good dance. And that’s why we love the Universal Dinner Lady so much.

Photo from norh 1997 at Flickr

I Ching for I Pod

After my trip to England last September I decided to buy an IPod mainly so I could carry my huge collection of photos around with me to show people. Only recently did I get around to browsing the App Store and discover the wealth of applications that are out there in Internet cyber space.
One of the first things I searched for was an I Ching app. There are many out there but unfortunately none, as far as I saw, based directly on the Wilhelm-Baynes book. However I found one that comes pretty darn close: the Yi Jing – Book of Changes, by Flat Earth Studio. You can see the Itunes Preview page here. Among the many book translations of the I Ching available in this app is A Guide to the I Ching, for the Wilhelm/Baynes translation by Carol K. Anthony. After the very first reading it becomes apparent that the author knows and understands the Wilhelm/Baynes I Ching very well and the readings are gratefully in harmony with that classic.
The app has many excellent features but rather than go into them here I will simply point you to the preview page which also includes an excellent overview by one of the commentators. However I will say that Flat Earth Studios have not only done a great job with the choice of content and the features but most of all the aesthetics of the app are tastefully done, not gaudy and clunky like many of the apps I looked at. The app cost 3.99$ but is well worth it if you are an I Ching user or would like to be.

I will leave you with an excerpt. I first consulted the I Ching (or Yi Jing, as the app is called) for advice about the best way to proceed on the financial front. Yes, I know what you are thinking: how shallow for a philosophy blogger. But from the Yiddish proverb, Love tastes sweet, but only with bread, we might create another: Philosophy tastes sweet, but only with bread.
Anyhow, to this question I received hexagram 52 ‘Keeping still, Mountain’ changing into 33 ‘Retreat’. In the ‘Changes’ section was this insightful commentary, which made a paricular impression on me:

The presence of desire causes unrest. Desire is a form of fear that we may not achieve our goal. This is ‘to anticipate the harvest while planting.’ We hardly ever desire what we are sure of having, and often desire what we think we cannot have. Thus, desire implies both doubt and envy. In letting go of desire, we bring the heart to rest and attain a higher level of tranquillity.

'Sir Nigel'

In The White Company I told you how much I liked Conan Doyle’s wonderful little tale of chivalry set during the wars between England and France in the fourteenth century. I am now reading Sir Nigel which is set slightly earlier and tells us the story of the knight of that name who we met in 'The White Company'.
Conan Doyle, like that great historical writer Patrick O’Brian, is thoroughly steeped in his period and brings vividly to life the notions and morals of those distant times. I thought I would share one such insight with you because it has to do with the notion of the gentleman, which is a popular theme on this blog.
The young Nigel, not yet a knight - a mere squire – yet of noble birth and brought up in the old ways, is travelling to the wars with Aylward, a longbowman and Nigel’s own squire.

That night they slept in a sordid inn, overrun with rats and with fleas, one mile south of the hamlet of Mayfield. Aylward scratched vigorously and cursed with fervour. Nigel lay without movement or sound. To the man who had learned the old rule of chivalry there were no small ills in life. It was beneath the dignity of his soul to stoop to observe them. Cold and heat, hunger and thirst, such things did not exist for the gentleman. The armour of his soul was so complete that it was proof not only against the great ills of life but even against the small ones; so the flea-bitten Nigel lay grimly still while Aylward writhed upon his couch.

Conan Doyle does not expand upon the subject more than that. It is for those who are receptive to take note. How the insight rings true. How petty are most of our discomforts and complaints, and how we undermine the nobility of our spirits by dwelling on them.
Is this not a characteristic of the gentleman that he accepts hardships without complaint, that he accepts what he finds and adapts himself readily to it? His mind is focused on what is required of him as a gentleman, that is, what he must do for honour and for right and for those weaker than himself. And for these reasons he is a natural born leader and is considered of a finer essence by those who can only complain or dwell on petty things.

It is to be regretted if a party of people are together for a whole day without their conversation touching on what is right and wrong and if they take pleasure merely in shallow talk. Confucius

There is no such thing as being a gentleman at important moments; it is at unimportant moments that a man is a gentleman. At important moments he ought to be something better. G.K. Chesterton

Love and the Tao

Ask yourself this: do you want to be loved for who you are or because of all the efforts you made to win your love? Sooner or later, your love will find out who you really are, and then what?
If you have to try hard all the time to fascinate and beguile, you are playing a losing hand. You can’t fascinate and beguile forever. When you run out of ideas, then what?
A woman who is not in love will not be happy with a bed of silk sheets and rose petals. A woman who is in love will happily sleep on a board to be with her man.

To keep full what will overflow, better not to try. A blade too sharp cannot keep its edge. A room full of gold and precious stones cannot be guarded. Tao Te King (9)

He who walks on tiptoe cannot stay upright very long. Tao Te King (24)

He who knows how to guard well closes without a lock, and no one can open; he who knows how to tie up well uses no ties, and no one can untie. Tao Te King (27)

Be your authentic self. Sincere, natural, and real. Then if love comes along, it really is meant for you.

Love, no risk free trial

If you have been following my posts on love, you will know that love and non-desire are not contradictions in terms. Love, as opposed to attachment, is a free, independent choice or it is nothing. Don’t take my word for it. You will find this theme in all philosophies and all religions.

In Taoism for example:

There is no greater mistake than wishing to satisfy one’s desires;
there is no greater unhappiness than not being self-sufficient.
There is no greater calamity than the desire to possess.
Tao Te Ching 46 (my translation from Tao Te King)

In Zen:

One major obstacle in living a life of love is the tendency to hold on. We grasp and cling to each other, preventing the freedom of love from rising on its own. Zen asks us to let go.
When someone comes into your life, let him come. Welcome the person, whoever he is. Enjoy what it is he brings, even if it's only for a short time.
When it is time for a person to go away, let him go. Do not turn the person's leaving into an experience of rejection, loss or abandonment. Realize that his leaving has nothing to do with you. It is simply time for him to go.
Do this with yourself as well. Let yourself come and go freely in life, and don't get caught in unnecessary chains. The more you free yourself and others, the more easily you fall in love.
From an article by Brenda Shoshana, author of Zen and the Art of Falling in Love

In the Bhagavad Gita:

The liberated man receives what the Divine Will brings him, he does not long for anything, is jealous of no one: what comes to him, he accepts without repulsion nor attachment; what goes away, he lets go, to rejoin the whirlpool of existence, without regret, nor affliction, nor feeling of loss.
Sri Aurobindo, The Bhagavad Gita and its message (my translation from Tao Te King)

In the Christian tradition:

Nothing renders man more like God than this implacable detachment. For what makes God God is his implacable detachment: from this springs forth his purity, his simplicity and his immutability… This resemblance must be achieved by the grace that elevates man above the temporal and purifies him of everything that is impermanent.
Master Eckhart (my translation from Tao Te King)

Love from a position of detachment allows us to enjoy and appreciate what comes into our life and saves us from the pain and feeling of loss for what goes out of our life. Not only that, but good things and people are more likely to come into our life if they are free to come and go as they please. And, once here, they will likely stick around longer.

Love at the edge of doom

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Shake-speare (De Vere) - Sonnet 116

If you are suffering from the loss of a love, you may have found little solace in my last post Love (lost). Your reasoning mind may have found it mildly interesting but your heart will have dismissed it in an instant with a 'But you don't understand'. I quote this powerful verse from Shake-speare (De Vere) by way of saying that I do understand.
When we are in love, and lose that love, there can be no solace for the heart in the short term. This has been my experience anyway. Perhaps it is a psycho-physiological trick of nature to keep couples together to ensure the survival of the species. In my case, only time (many years) has faded the memory without erasing it completely.
But there is nothing bad but thinking makes it so, the bard also said. And if you are a regular reader you are familiar with the Taoist philosophy of facing up sincerely to the times and learning its lessons. There is also the Taoist philosophy that everything we are living now we created ourselves by our past actions. We are responsible for manifesting everything around us. There is the philosophy that everything we are living now is exactly appropriate for us at this moment and is exactly what we need to experience now in order to grow. There is also the philosophy that we already have everything we need here and now (gratitude) and wishing for things to be exactly the way they are now allows us to appreciate them. These are important ideas for they can help us in changing our viewpoint from that of a victim of other people’s actions to active engineers of our own experience.
To activate that change of viewpoint, one of the best ways is to use affirmations. Yes, I know your heart is groaning ‘Is that all you’ve got?’ But there is untold power in the word as it becomes true for the subconscious. For the subconscious creates for us what we believe to be true and cannot tell the difference between what we experience in reality and what we concentrate on in our mind. Concentrate on sorrow or concentrate on transformation, and your subconscious will create it. Here are some powerful affirmations from ‘Manifesto’ by my favourite modern-day Taoist master, Stephen Russel.

All internal psycho-emotional discomfort evaporates now and I find myself at peace.

I acknowledge myself for having the courage and endurance to carry on.

I am cheerful no matter what.

I determine what kind of life I have – no one and nothing else.

I create my own reality according to which set of beliefs I subscribe to now. I now alter the very foundations of my reality and thus build myself a different and more useful belief structure that even now is producing magnificent results.

I take full responsibility for myself and my moment-by-moment experience of life from this moment on.

I am alive.

The soul's kisses

I was sitting in my car at a red light on the way home from work. I felt darn tired and miserable. A red 4x4 was crossing the intersection to take the road I had come. As he passed the driver smiled at me. I recognised him at once. It was that guy at work who always smiles at me and everyone else. You hardly know him, but he smiles at you as though you and he won a million dollars in a lottery together. A twinkling, open, sun-like smile. I am tempted to say conspiratorial, but there is no guile whatsoever in his smile.
I sat there realising that I must have looked like a miserable sod to him when he spotted me, but he still smiled as though I were his best friend. I sat there realising that this guy always smiles at me, even though we have hardly exchanged three phrases in all the years I have known him. I sat there (by now the light had changed and I was half-way home) wondering if he even knows that he is smiling at people. Is it possible for someone to feel so well and positive and happy all the time that they spontaneously smile at everyone they meet out of a sheer gladness and benevolence of heart? When I see his smile, I think it is.

The man of superior virtue is not conscious of his virtue,
And in this way he really possesses virtue.
The man of inferior virtue never loses sight of his virtue,
And in this way he loses his virtue....
Therefore, only when Tao is lost does the doctrine of virtue arise.
When virtue is lost, only then does the doctrine of humanity arise.
When humanity is lost, only then does the doctrine of righteousness arise.
When righteousness is lost, only then arise rules of propriety.
Now, propriety is a superficial expression of loyalty and faithfulness, and the beginning of disorder.

Tao Te Ching 38

My scheming cynical rational mind offers other explanations: he is naïve, he has never experienced suffering, he has passed through life so far unscathed by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Yes, that’s it. Isn’t it?
The next time I meet him, I’m going to have a word with him.

Flowers are God’s way of smiling. Proverb

A smile is the universal welcome. Max Eastman

A warm smile is the universal language of kindness. William Arthur Ward

Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing. Mother Theresa

Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love. Mother Theresa

Peace begins with a smile. Mother Theresa

The robb’d that smiles, steals something from the thief. Shake-speare (De Vere)

He who smiles rather than rages is always the stronger. Japanese proverb

Smiles are the soul’s kisses. Minna Thomas Antrim

Beauty is power; a smile is its sword. Charles Reade

Because of your smile you make life more beautiful. Thich Nhat Hanh

Don’t open a shop unless you know how to smile. Jewish proverb

People worry and God smiles. Jewish proverb

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. Thich Nhat Hanh

Smile, it is the key that fits the lock of everybody’s heart. Anthony J. D’Angelo

Beauty is truth’s smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror. Rabindranath Tagore

On being attuned to the spiritual

‘There are two ways to live your life, ‘ said Albert Einstein. ‘One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.’ Which is another way of saying you can live as though there is no spiritual basis to life or you can live as though there is.

You can live as though you and your desires are all that matter. Or not.
You can live in selfish ignorance of a moral code. Or not.
You can live in a void of gratitude and reverence. Or not.
You can live…

Well, you get the drift.
There are two worlds existing around us at the same time. The material and the immaterial. The visible and the hidden. The mundane and the spiritual. Most of the time the spiritual is not obvious unless you train yourself to look for it. Unless you are awake to it. Unless you are attuned to it.
Look at an airplane. If you are not attuned, you simply see a big piece of technological hardware, so many hundred tons of metal and a nice paint job. But an airplane is the embodiment of man’s infinite creative genius. A great deal of imagination, dedication, hard work and sacrifice over time from a great number of men and women like you and me was necessary to perfect that flying machine.
Look at the banking system. It was designed and perfected much in the same way as an airplane – it is also the embodiment of man’s infinite creative genius. Normally you would not think much about it, when it works properly. But unlike an airplane, the banking system is built on relationships between people. And these relationships are subject to moral law. And recently, the consequences of neglecting moral law became visible in a spectacular fashion. To everyone. Looking for it or not. Awake or not. Attuned or not.

The power of spiritual forces in the Universe – how active it is everywhere! Invisible to the eyes, and impalpable to the senses, it is inherent in all things, and nothing can escape its operation. Confucius

At World Scripture I came across this quote from the Bhagavad Gita in the section on Ignorance. Here you have in a nutshell the two ways to live your life: as though you are but a higher form of animal living in a sensual world or as though you are a human being attuned to the spiritual in the material. Think of the credit crisis as you read it.

The demonic do things they should avoid and avoid the things they should do. They have no sense of uprightness, purity, or truth.
"There is no God," they say, "no truth, no spiritual law, no moral order. The basis of life is sex; what else can it be?" Holding such distorted views, possessing scant discrimination, they become enemies of the world, causing suffering and destruction.
Hypocritical, proud, and arrogant, living in delusion and clinging to deluded ideas, insatiable in their desires, they pursue their unclean ends. Although burdened with fears that end only with death, they still maintain with complete assurance, "Gratification of lust is the highest that life can offer."
Bound on all sides by scheming and anxiety, driven by anger and greed, they amass by any means they can a hoard of money for the satisfaction of their cravings.
"I got this today," they say; "tomorrow I shall get that. This wealth is mine, and that will be mine too. I have destroyed my enemies. I shall destroy others too! Am I not like God? I enjoy what I want. I am successful. I am powerful. I am happy. I am rich and well-born. Who is equal to me? I will perform sacrifices and give gifts, and rejoice in my own generosity." This is how they go on, deluded by ignorance. Bound by their greed and entangled in a web of delusion, whirled about by a fragmented mind, they fall into a dark hell.

Bhagavad Gita 16.7-16

This was written centuries ago. Human nature is the same today. We cannot expect human nature to change overnight. We can only try to change ourselves. One person at a time, starting here, with me and you.

Back to Beginnings

The first promising days of Spring are here. Our hardened, light-starved souls perk up naturally with the arrival of the sun and the departure of the cold biting wind. So, we made it through another winter, we made it through to another beautiful Spring. Let us be thankful and remember to enjoy it.
There exists a very special book which I have had it in the back of my mind to tell you about for some time. And thinking about Spring brought it to mind because the seasons are a central theme of its wisdom. The book is called ‘Back to Beginnings – Reflections on the Tao’ by Huanchu Daoren, translated by Thomas Cleary. You probably never heard of him, and I only know him by the sheer luck of falling on his book in a second-hand bookstore. But I am here to tell you that there is more concentrated wisdom in this little book than in any other I know.

As soon as the plants and trees have withered, they show sprouts at the roots. Even though the order of the seasons brings freezing cold, eventually it brings back sunny energy. In the midst of purging and killing, the sense of continually renewing life is always in control. Thereby one can see the heart of heaven and earth.

The book was written around 1600 by a retired Chinese scholar and civil servant named Hong Yingming who took the Taoist name of Huanchu Daoren, which means ‘A Wayfarer Back to Beginnings’. The book is in the form of a collection of meditations on the seasons of life, on serenity, on discerning truth in a complex society and on practical ways to live in harmony with the Tao.

Wealth, status, honour, and praise that come from enlightened qualities are like flowers in the mountains, growing and blossoming naturally. Those that come from achievements in one’s career are like flowers in pots, being moved about, removed, replanted. Those that are gained by temporal power are like flowers in vases, without roots, soon to wilt.

The teachings are a synthesis of several Chinese schools of thought. In his introduction to the book, Thomas Cleary says:

In it can be seen a form of lay Taoism dating many centuries further back into history, in which the historical and sociological insights of pristine Confucianism were combined with the advanced educational and psychological knowledges and methodologies of Buddhism and Taoism.

Here is a passage supporting that assertion, and we should not be surprised to see the importance attached to sincerity, should we?

There is a true Buddha in family life; there is a real Tao in everyday activities. If people can be sincere and harmonious, promoting communication with a cheerful demeanour and friendly words, that is much better than formal meditation practice.

Perhaps the hand of the translator has something to do with it, but there is a direct, simple, easy to grasp message in each of the meditations. There is nothing obtuse or requiring extensive footnotes here. The language is plain and pertinent as if the author were living today.

The learned should be vigorous and diligent, but they should also be free-spirited. If they are too rigorous and austere, they have the death-dealing quality of autumn but lack the life-giving quality of spring. How can they develop people then?

There was a period when I carried this book around with me. Just reading one or two of the quotes in a spare minute several times a day is a sure way to keep your day in perspective. It is like taking a step back to observe events through the eyes of the ‘observer within’. Through the eyes of this great wisdom, you can see things for what they really are.

In adversity, everything that surrounds you is a kind of medicine that helps you refine your conduct, yet you are unaware of it. In pleasant situations, you are faced with weapons that will tear you apart, yet you do not realize it.

Reading these quotes again is like meeting an old friend. A wise and knowledgeable friend whose ‘adoption is tried’ and who I should ‘grapple to my soul with hoops of steel’. Now I have introduced him to you and I encourage you to do the same.

Be deferential in dealing with the world; deference is the starting line of progress. Be generous in your treatment of others; helping others is really the basis on which you help yourself.

Open a cool eye in the midst of intense activity, and you save yourself that much bitter thought. Keep an enthusiastic attitude in hard times, and you gain that much true enjoyment.

Those who turn things around by themselves do not rejoice at gain or grieve over loss; the whole world is the range they roam. Those who are themselves used by things hate it when events go against them and love it when they go their way; the slightest thing can create binding entanglements.

Whatever meets the eye is the realm of immortals for the contented, the realm of mortals for the discontented. All the bases of activity in society have life-giving potential if used well and death-dealing potential if not used well.

Do it your Wei

The idea of non-action that we have been looking at in my last posts is a central doctrine of Taoist philosophy and has a particular name: Wu Wei. You can read an excellent overview at Wikipedia here.

"Wu Wei" means natural action - as planets revolve around the sun, they "do" this revolving, but without "doing" it; or as trees grow, they "do", but without "doing"…
Wu may be translated as not have or without; Wei may be translated as do, act, serve as, govern or effort. The literal meaning of Wu Wei is "without action" and is often included in the paradox wei wu wei: "action without action" or "effortless doing".

In Non-action and the Great Harmony we saw how the more an action is selfish and self-seeking the less power it has and that an action that is spontaneous, unselfish and is done for its own sake without anticipating an interested result, such an action is more in accord with the Tao, the Universe, God and cooperates directly in the Great Harmony. In the Wikipedia overview this idea is expressed in this way:

Taoist philosophy recognizes that the Universe already works harmoniously according to its own ways; as a person exerts their will against or upon the world they disrupt the harmony that already exists. This is not to say that a person should not exert agency and will. Rather, it is how one acts in relation to the natural processes already extant. The how, the Tao of intention and motivation, that is key.

That is key indeed. It is easier said than done. But we can only try. Just trying is a big step in the right direction. And the very fact that you and I have now read about Wu Wei and are now consciously aware of it has set in motion forces that we do not understand and which will have ‘distant consequences’.
As I was scratching my head for an anecdote or story to illustrate the power of Wu Wei, I think I hit on a perfect one (spontaneously, you might say). It comes from ‘The Overlook Martial Arts Reader – Classic writings on philosophy and technique’ edited by Randy F. Nelson. The particular story is called … well I will tell you after, not to spoil the punch.

The author of the story, Terry Dobson, was on a train rattling through the suburbs of Tokyo. In the car were a few houswives with children, old folks going shopping. Suddenly the quiet was shattered by a big, drunken, dirty laborer getting on the train. The man was angry and violent and swung at a woman and her child who scrambled for safety. Dobson was young, fit and highly trained in Aikido. He relates how his teacher, Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido had told him many times: “Aikido is the art of reconciliation. Whoever has the mind to fight has broken his connection to the universe. If you try to dominate people, you are already defeated.” Dobson tried hard to follow the precepts. But here was a golden, legitimate opportunity to save the innocent by destroying the guilty. He stood up.

Seeing me stand up, the drunk recognized a chance to focus his rage. “Aha!” he roared. “A foreigner! You need a lesson in Japanese manners!”
I held on lightly to the commuter strap overhead and gave him a slow look of disgust and dismissal. I planned to take this turkey apart, but he had to make the first move. I wanted him mad, so I pursed my lips and blew him an insolent kiss.
“All right!” he hollered. “You’re gonna get a lesson.” He gathered himself for a rush at me.
A split second before he could move, sombody shouted “Hey!” It was earsplitting. I remember the strangely joyous, lilting quality of it – as though you and a friend had been searching diligently for something and he had suddenly stumbled upon it. “Hey!”
I wheeled to my left; the drunk spun to his right. We both stared down at a little Japanese. He must have been well into his seventies, this tiny gentleman, sitting there immaculate in his kimono. He took no notice of me, but beamed delightedly at the laborer, as though he had a most important, most welcome secret to share.
“C’mere,” the old man said in an easy vernacular, beckoning to the drunk. “C’mere and talk with me.” He waved his hand lightly.
The big man followed, as if on a string. He planted his feet belligerently in front of the old gentleman, and roared above the clacking wheels. “Why the hell should I talk to you?” The drunk now had his back to me. If his elbow moved so much as a millimeter, I’d drop him in his socks.
The old man continued to beam at the laborer. “Wat’cha been drinkin’?” he asked, his eyes sparkling with interest. “I’ve been drinking sake,” the laborer bellowed back, “and it’s none of your business!” Flecks of spittle spattered the old man.
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” the old man said, “absolutely wonderful! You see, I love sake too. Every night me and my wife (she’s 76, you know), we warm up a little bottle of sake and take it out into the garden, and we sit on an old wooden bench. We watch the sun go down, and we look to see how our persimmon tree is doing. My great-grandfather planted that tree, and we worry about whether it will recover from those ice storms we had last winter. Our tree has done better than I expected, though, especially when you consider the poor quality of the soil. It is gratifying to watch when we take our sake and go out to enjoy the evening – even when it rains!” He looked up at the laborer, eyes twinkling.
As he struggled to follow the old man’s conversation, the drunk’s face began to soften. His fists slowly unclenched. “Yeah,” he said. “I love persimmons too….” His voice trailed off.
“Yes, “ said the old man, smiling, “and I’m sure you have a wonderful wife.”
“No,” replied the laborer. “My wife died.” Very gently, swaying with the motion of the train, the big man began to sob. “I don’t got no wife, I don’t got no home, I don’t got no job. I’m so ashamed of myself.” Tears rolled down his cheeks; a spasm of despair rippled through his body.
Now it was my turn. Standing there in my well-scrubbed youthful innocence, my make-this-world-safe-for-democracy righteousness, I suddenly felt dirtier than he was.
Then the train arrived at my stop. As the doors opened, I heard the old man cluck sympathetically. “My, my,” he said, “that is a difficult predicament, indeed. Sit down here and tell me about it.”
I turned my head for one last look. The laborer was sprawled on the seat, his head in the old man’s lap. The old man was softly stroking the filthy, matted hair.
As the train pulled away, I sat down on a bench. What I had wanted to do with muscle had been accomplished with kind words. I had just seen aikido tried in combat and the essence of it was love. I would have to practice the art with an entirely different spirit. It would be a long time before I could speak about the resolution of conflict.

Now, isn’t that quite a story? What makes it particularly appropriate, is that we see the motivation of the protagonists. The young man, Dobson, is acting with an interested motive in mind (the legitimate use of his aikido skill) even though he invokes the safety of the other passengers. The old man is not: he may have the goal of defusing the situation in mind, but his action is a spontaneous one, coming directly from the heart, without guile, generous and in perfect accord with the Great Harmony. And as such it succeeds to perfection. Effortlessly. This is Wu Wei.
What I also like about this story is that the old man’s action succeeds to perfection not only with the drunk. It transforms the young man also, and will have far-reaching good effects through him and his teaching. So far-reaching, it is even reaching to me and you at this moment, decades later. Such is the power of Wu Wei.
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(The story is called The Soft Answer)

How to become a Work of Art - Step One

In my last post The Art of Becoming Art, we discovered a great truth: that the practitioner of a ‘way’, or ‘Do’ in Japanese, transforms it into an art form, and then, the art form transforms the practitioner into a work of art.

Yes, yes, you say, that is all very well and good, a capital idea, very noble, but what the heck does it mean? How can I, who do not practice Judo or Karate-do, put this powerful insight into practice in my daily life, right now?

Well, it is funny you should ask that because I am about to tell you what I think it means and how I plan to put it into use right now.

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I intend to stop worrying about the future and the tasks at hand - the outcome. I intend to concentrate on ‘travelling well’ rather than ‘arriving’. ‘Travelling well’ to me means putting the most important things first: health and personal fulfillment, something that I am guilty of neglecting. (As I have told you elsewhere, the reason I know something about philosophy is because I need it!) Health and personal fulfillment will be my watchwords, and the rest will have to take a number.

Step One

We do not have to practice Judo etc. to have a ‘way’. Any task worth doing can be undertaken in a spirit of practicing a way, that is, we can do it by ‘concentrating on the flawless execution of the task’ rather than ‘watching or wishing for the desired outcome'. But we can also apply that attitude as a global philosophy: whenever we worry about the future, about what needs to be done, about what is lacking, we are concentrating on outcomes instead of concentrating on doing what lies to hand. If we spend a lot of time reliving the past, we are not concentrating on the task that lies to hand.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. Buddha

If you are like me, you sometimes feel overwhelmed, oppressed even, by ‘things that need to be done’. My basement is half-painted. The snow has melted and the major garden projects are calling. The pergola is half-finished. My big re-filing project remains unbegun. A dozen tasks, big and small, vie for my free time. And guess what? I have decided to stop worrying about them. To quote John-Roger and Peter McWilliams, authors of the ‘Life 101’ books:

Whenever he thought about it, he felt terrible. And so, at last, he came to a fateful decision. He decided not to think about it.

Meanwhile, the important things like health and personal fulfillment get put on the back-burner ‘until such and such a project gets finished’. The philosophy of living in the present, of travelling well, can be summed up by this quote from Goethe:

Things which matter most should never be at the mercy of things which matter least.

When we look back at our lives one day in old age (not that long from now) it is unlikely that we will wish we had spent more time working. It is unlikely that we will wish we had spent more time worrying about money, the kitchen renovations, the pergola. What we will wish we had spent more time doing is something that each person must answer for himself. Indeed it is a very important question. But no one can go far wrong if he puts health and personal fulfillment at the top of his list.
Yes, I will still do ‘the things that need to be done’. After I have been to the gym. When I get back from the Chinese painting course. Yes, finances and financial goals are important. But not as important as health and a good conscience.

This is the way I intend to apply the idea of the Japanese way to my everyday life. But if and when I become ‘transformed into a work of art’, how I will apply it then? Then, it probably won't even occur to me to think about it.

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Photo: Tao (Way) by Samantha Leo

Non-action and the Great Harmony

We have seen in The Power of Non-action that non-action refers to an action that is not motivated by selfish desires but is inspired by universal truths and values. We also saw that the more an action is ego-less, the more power it has and the more support it receives from the powers that be. In No action is lost we lifted the cover on the significance and the power of all our thoughts, all our words and all our actions however secret because we are all interconnected as beings of consciousness. Our thoughts, words, and actions have an impact in the world and for the future in ways and degrees beyond our power to comprehend. The anonymous commentator of Tao Te King – Livre du Tao et de sa Vertu (Éditions Dervy) sums up these themes in this unforgettable and revealing passage (my translation from the French):

Without a doubt none of our actions is lost. It would be vain to regret our long and apparently useless labours, our false manoeuvres, the dead ends into which we have stumbled. All these efforts, all these attempts are integrated into the universal life where they have their usefulness and distant consequences – but the arc that they describe to bring us back to the Center is all the wider the more our intention was self-seeking. Inversely, the work that is realised in the serenity of detachment shortens, for he that accomplishes it as for all that it touches, the path of return to the Tao, and cooperates in a direct and immediate way in the Great Harmony.

Selfish thoughts, words and actions insomuch as they are harmful to others (or ourselves) go against the Tao and receive no help or support from it. They have little power, little scope, temporary consequences. Inversely, disinterested thoughts words and actions that nurture, help and bring peace to others and to ourselves accord with the Tao and participate in its power.
Of course we can’t always be saints and we are never always selfish villains. We are always a mixture. An interplay of contradictions. Always the opposites are struggling within us for expression. That’s what makes us human. Shake-speare (De Vere) put it this way:

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together; our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not, and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our virtues.

Which will predominate in us? The faults of our lower selves or the virtues of our higher selves? As human beings, we have the power to reason and to choose and we make our choices every day, thousands of times, moment by moment. And that is the eternal game of life.
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Photo by Lucia Pizarro Coma

No action is for nothing

Following up my post The Power of Non-action, where we saw that the less an action is selfish, the more power it has, here is another quote from the commentary of Tao Te King – Livre du Tao et de sa Vertu (Éditions Dervy). This quote, which I find delivers its message with a great poetic power, underscores the far-reaching effects of all our actions, even selfish ones. All the more reason to beware. (Translated from the French by me.) As you read it, remember the importance of sincerity.

What I do in secret, me, a tiny being lost in the world, I imagine does not affect anyone else; that what I do stays between me and me; that I can bury it, if I wish, in the silence of an abolished past. Not at all. The past is not inert. The past is a life that continues into the present. The past is a blade whose tip is the present, and the tip of the blade, thrust forward by the momentum of what has been, penetrates into the future to determine what shall be.
Every being, at every moment, acts in a way that saves him or loses him. Thus, every being, at every moment, acts in a way that saves or loses his circle, his family, his profession, his city, the civilisation around him, to a degree that none can know precisely and which is all the more worrisome to a good conscience.
If one thing is certain today, it is the universal solidarity of things and beings in all domains and in all ways. R. P. Sertillanges, Voix françaises, 24 January 1941

We find the same ideas expressed in this quote, from the same book, except the author goes further than mere actions and includes words and even thoughts as having an impact on the outside world:

Nothing is limited in nature; all worlds penetrate each other and all beings are interconnected: each of our words goes much further than the walls of the room where we pronounce them but which seems however to stop them; each of our thoughts, even secret, can be the cause of many things which will forever remain unknown to us. Dr. Marc Haven, Chiromancie dans ‘La Paix Universelle’, No. du 15 juillet 1906

As I was thinking about and writing this post, I stumbled upon (my, my isn’t that a coincidence?) this interesting video Consciousness drives the universe. The video makes the case for a holographic universe, which would explain the interconnectedness of everything.
I remember reading about the split personality of light, how when scientists looked for particles they found particles and when they looked for waves they found waves. What they saw depended on what they were looking for. Do we create reality? This video draws some far-reaching conclusions from there, but I throw it out for your own judgment. One thing I feel: what the scientists are discovering, the sages already knew a long time ago.

The Power of Non-action

Non-action? Non-action! What new-age rubbish is this? you say. We have to act! We have to take action! Well, yes and no. By non-action, I don’t mean sitting around on your butt all day. Non-action refers to the intent, the origin and the attachment to the action.
Henrik over at the awesome Positivity Blog has a great little post One timeless tip that can make your life a whole lot easier which begins with a quote from the Bhagavad Gita:

To action alone hast thou a right and never at all to its fruits; let not the fruits of action be thy motive; neither let there be in thee any attachment to inaction.

Henrik goes on to expose the benefits (less stress, less effort, better effort and more enjoyment) of letting go of trying to control the results of your actions and just focusing on enjoying the process. This is very true and reminds me of a story (yes, I have a story for everything):

A man went to see a famous martial arts master and asked him how long it would take to become a black belt.
“Ten years” said the master.
“What if I train very hard seven days a week, night and day, month after month, how long then?”
“Twenty years” came the reply.
“Twenty years! Why ten years more? Why so long?”
“With one eye on the destination, you have only one eye left for the path.”

How true. Most of the time, as Henrik points out, we have one eye on the destination and this makes the process more difficult than it need be. But there is more, much more, to the power of non-action.
I came across Henrik's quote from the Bhagavad Gita myself many years ago in the Dervy Edition (French) of the Tao Te Ching, Tao Te King - Livre du Tao et de sa Vertu. In the extensive commentary there is a section on the theme of non-action as found in the Tao Te Ching.

To master action, we must keep our independence with regard to it. Now, we are only free with regard to a thing when we have contracted no debt toward it and we expect nothing from it. The Sage “produces without appropriating to himself, works without expecting anything, accomplishes works of merit without becoming attached to them, and precisely because he doesn’t become attached to them, they endure… because he does not pursue selfish goals, he realises to perfection everything he undertakes.”

The power of non-action is in subordinating our constant selfish desires which produce only grasping, fearful, temporary actions to actions that come from, shall we say, our higher selves.

For as long as man claims the I and Mine, his works will be as nothing. When all love for the I and Mine is dead, then the works of the Lord will be accomplished. Kabir, Poems VI

The effort to possess, forces man to identify himself with the objects of his possession. What he possesses is a part of him, to such a degree that if something is taken away from him or if he loses it, he feels as if a part of himself has been taken away. This is truly slavery; man may imagine that he possesses things, in reality they possess him. Van der Leeuw

The point is that the more an action is selfish, the less power it has. The more an action is good for everyone, good for the community, universally good, the more it will have the support of the universe, the Tao, God. The more, in other words, it will be non-action, the spontaneous work of the Spirit. (So I must be resigned to not getting what I want? Not at all. As Confucius said: He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own). And if you think this is an idea only to be found in Chinese philosophy, look more closely, you will find parallels in all philosophies and religions.

That thou mayest have pleasure in everything, seek pleasure in nothing.
That thou mayest know everything, seek to know nothing.
That thou mayest possess all things, seek to possess nothing.
That thou mayest be everything, seek to be nothing. Saint John of the Cross

Thy lot or portion of life is seeking after thee; therefore be at rest from seeking after it. Caliph Ali

So lift up your thoughts, lift up your motives, enlighten yourself with the knowledge to be found in this very blog, and you will harness the power of non-action. (Or not, if you know what I mean).

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Photo from Wikimedia: Krishna displays his Vishvarupa (Universal Form) to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra

A Vision for America

As we stand at this crossroads of history, the eyes of all people in all nations are once again upon us, watching to see what we do with this moment, waiting for us to lead.

Among the eyes of all people of all nations watching President Obama’s first address to Congress were my eyes. And they saw an inspiring, charismatic leader, leading. Of course, he is a product of the times. He not only has ‘the Mandate of Heaven’, he has the mandate of an angry American people who want action and a more enlightened and effective government.

Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more… Now, if we're honest with ourselves, we'll admit that for too long we have not always met these responsibilities, as a government or as a people. I say this not to lay blame or to look backwards, but because it is only by understanding how we arrived at this moment that we'll be able to lift ourselves out of this predicament… The fact is, our economy did not fall into decline overnight. Nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank.

My italics. Straight talk, honest words, sincerity! Compare Obama’s words with this from the I Ching 41st hexagram: ‘What matters here is to understand the time and not to try to cover up poverty with empty pretence’. Only when you recognize and accept the truth of a situation can you hope to correct it.

Now, I understand that when the last administration asked this Congress to provide assistance for struggling banks, Democrats and Republicans alike were infuriated by the mismanagement and the results that followed. So were the American taxpayers; so was I.
So I know how unpopular it is to be seen as helping banks right now, especially when everyone is suffering in part from their bad decisions. I promise you: I get it.
But I also know that, in a time of crisis, we cannot afford to govern out of anger or yield to the politics of the moment.

Ah yes, anger; we know about the evils of anger on this blog, but what about the politics of the moment? I am put in mind of a quote by Joseph Campbell: ‘Economics and politics are the governing powers of life today, and that’s why everything is screwy’. The governing powers of life should be universal truths, spiritual values. Of course there is need of economic discipline. But is the present method of 4-year terms of office propitious to a wise, consistent, impartial, enlightened approach to public finance? Someone said that a nation is too important to be run by politicians (maybe it was me). I don’t know the answer, but a kind of politically independent ‘Supreme Court’ of Economic Planning might be worth considering.

It is time to put in place tough, new commonsense rules of the road so that our financial market rewards drive and innovation and punishes shortcuts and abuse…

Yes, the way of the swamp plant will not be tolerated any more. A pity that we had to look over the brink into the abyss of financial meltdown to admit the problem and to gather the political resolve to do something about it. Still, we are there now. Every crisis brings its opportunity. Perhaps this recognition of the swamp plants in the system will be the positive development out of this financial crisis, the tipping point that allows us to weed out the problem. Whenever I have a personal Waterloo, I always try to look at what the lesson is and I even tell myself ‘This was a cheap lesson’. In other words, the lesson, though expensive, will allow me to avoid even costlier mistakes in the future.

The only way this century will be another American century is if we confront at last the price of our dependence on oil and the high cost of health care, the schools that aren't preparing our children and the mountain of debt they stand to inherit. That is our responsibility… I see this document differently. I see it as a vision for America, as a blueprint for our future.

Could it be that Big Oil and Big Pharma lobbyists stood in the way of energy and health care reform? Could it be that a nation as technologically advanced as the United States could not have developed advanced biofuels 10 years ago? Could not have developed electric cars 10 or 20 years ago? Could not have been the leader in solar and clean energy use decades ago? Could not have implemented universal health care reform and efficiency? ‘Economics and politics are the governing powers of life today…’

History reminds us that, at every moment of economic upheaval and transformation, this nation has responded with bold action and big ideas… Now, none of this will come without cost, nor will it be easy. But this is America. We don't do what's easy. We do what's necessary to move this country forward.

The sleeping bear has gotten a wake up call. Whether Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big whatever-you-care-to-name like it or not, there will be changes around here, oh dearie me yes. That swamp-plant special-interest mentality has bankrupted America. Energy, health care and education reform will go forward now. How sweet it is.

Finally, because we're also suffering from a deficit of trust, I am committed to restoring a sense of honesty and accountability to our budget. That is why this budget looks ahead 10 years and accounts for spending that was left out under the old rules and, for the first time, that includes the full cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A deficit of trust. What a telling phrase. Such a deficit is worse than a budget deficit because it undermines the moral fabric of the nation. Sincerity is the treasure of a land.

To overcome extremism, we must also be vigilant in upholding the values our troops defend, because there is no force in the world more powerful than the example of America…Those of us gathered here tonight have been called to govern in extraordinary times. It is a tremendous burden, but also a great privilege, one that has been entrusted to few generations of Americans, for in our hands lies the ability to shape our world, for good or for ill.

For all its faults, I still feel that the United States is the closest thing to a utopia that we have on earth (perhaps with the exception of Canada!) The people are generous, hard working, tolerant and courageous. It only needs a leader and a government to harness those values, that strength and channel it in an enlightened way.

These words and these stories tell us something about the spirit of the people who sent us here. They tell us that, even in the most trying times, amid the most difficult circumstances, there is a generosity, a resilience, a decency, and a determination that perseveres, a willingness to take responsibility for our future and for posterity.

Here are echoes of the I Ching again: ‘If a time of scanty resources brings out an inner truth, one must not feel ashamed of simplicity. For simplicity is then the very thing needed to provide inner strength for further undertakings’. Churchill said the same thing: ‘We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.’

Obama closes his address in a charismatic appeal to a simple, basic truth and common interest: love of country.

There are surely times in the future where we will part ways. But I also know that every American who is sitting here tonight loves this country and wants it to succeed…That must be the starting point for every debate we have in the coming months and where we return after those debates are done. That is the foundation on which the American people expect us to build common ground. And if we do, if we come together and lift this nation from the depths of this crisis, if we put our people back to work and restart the engine of our prosperity, if we confront without fear the challenges of our time and summon that enduring spirit of an America that does not quit, then some day, years from now, our children can tell their children that this was the time when we performed, in the words that are carved into this very chamber, "something worthy to be remembered."

Something worthy indeed. The stakes are high. Failure is not an option. Time to roll up the sleeves and work, sincerely, for a new vision.

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Photo from Wikimedia

The Seal of Power

The Chinese way of writing in pictures has always held a beautiful mystery and a fascination for me but remains one of my unfulfilled desires for exploration and study. And as a part of the Chinese way of writing, the use of seals is perhaps the most beautiful and the most mysterious aspect.
The Chinese have been using seals for three thousand years and their use continues to this day in business and in private life. The earliest examples of seals date from the Shang Dynasty (16-11 BC) but they were in use long before. According to a Han dynasty tradition, the first seal was given to the Yellow Emperor by a yellow dragon. The significance of the seal was to confer the Mandate of Heaven on the rightful ruler of the empire. (You can read an interesting overview here).
Looking further into the background of Chinese seals, I discovered the story of the Heirloom Seal, or the Imperial Seal of China, which has all the trappings of an epic Hollywood movie. You can read about it here at Wikipedia. In short, the seal was created in 221BC and passed down through the ages as dynasties rose and fell. Wars were fought for ownership of the seal as it was believed to confer legitimacy on the regime that possessed it, and history has proven them generally right. The seal was eventually lost in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907=960).
Now what has all this got to do with philosophy? Well, to me, anything that confers the Mandate of Heaven is well worth looking into! Seriously, there is a power in these things that we can appropriate for ourselves. And if you think I am full of it, I will just ask you to consider the following:
1 - He is able who thinks he is able, said Buddha. That stone, that relic, that object is sacred and holy because we say it is sacred and holy and act accordingly. That thing or that person is powerful, fearsome, hated or beloved who we believe to be so. Things and people have the power and the qualities that we ascribe to them. (See my post The power of the subconscious mind). So it is with seals.
2 - Modern-day corporations spend millions of dollars designing, publicizing and protecting their logos, a modern form of seals or heraldry. Why?
3 - Hitler knew exactly what he was doing when he appropriated the sacred swastika as his emblem for the Nazi party. In the same vein, Churchill ordered that German submarines be referred to always as ‘U-Boats’, thus ‘branding’ them as something distinct from and far more sinister than ‘our submarines’.
So how can we appropriate the power of symbols or seals in our life today?
First you need a seal. If you have ever studied Chinese painting you may already have your seal. (I am here to tell you that affixing your seal on a painting that you have just created is a thrilling yet solemn occasion). You can have a seal made online or, depending where you live, at your local Chinatown. For online virtual use, I discovered a fun little site at Chinese Tools. Here you can translate your name into Chinese characters and then copy the characters into a tool that creates your Chinese name seal. That is where I got the seal you see in my profile, meaning ‘Alex’. You can also translate a phrase, which is what I did to get the seal at the bottom of the right-hand column, which means ‘Healing philosophy’.
Once you have a seal, you can then use it as a symbol of personal power, a talisman, and an invocation. When setting goals, don’t just write them down. Sign them with your ‘seal of power’. But make sure you follow through. Treat your seal seriously. If you are not absolutely serious about completing the goal, don’t use the seal. Any failure to follow through will weaken the power of the seal. The seal will only have that power that you confer upon it through repeated successful use. But once that power is conferred, it will be embodied in the seal and seem to take on a power of its own. Increase your seal’s power by using it on everything good and beautiful that you create, on every successful project. Use it on your best letters. Sign your checks with it (OK maybe not).
Of course, all this will only resonate with you if you are into Eastern culture. If not, perhaps a heraldic symbol would work better for you, or a Christian symbol. Choose the symbol that appeals to you, one that will feel at home in your subconscious. For it is the power of the subconscious that we are invoking here, which is our link to the power of the universal. The same power that conferred the Mandate of Heaven on the Yellow Emperor.
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Image from Wikimedia: Seal of the Mongol ruler Ilkhan Ghazan, over the last two lines of his 1302 letter to Pope Boniface VIII. The seal reads "Seal certifying the authority of his Royal Highness to establish a country and govern its people"

Sincerity - according to the Ancients

The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home. Confucius

Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles. Confucius

To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness. Confucius

Sincerity is the way of heaven; to think how to be sincere is the way of man. Mencius

There is no greater delight than to be conscious of sincerity on self-examination. Mencius

The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on Him sincerely. Psalm 145:18

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 1 Corinthians 5:8

Of Zebulun, such as went forth to battle, expert in war, with all instruments of war, fifty thousand, which could keep rank: they were not of double heart. 1 Chronicles 12:33

Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. Psalms 32:2