My teachings are easy to understand
and easy to put into practice.
Yet your intellect will never grasp them,
and if you try to practice them, you'll fail.
Translation of the Tao Te Ching by Stephen Mitchel
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Twelve years ago I wrote in the margin of Chapter 70, "This is where the conservation begins, the center of my heart." I remember being afraid of looking into my heart for fear I would find nothing and be left without a friend. Tao means "the way" which means to me finding the missing piece to the part(s) of me that are empty. "If you want to know me, look inside your heart." When I didn't know I was looking I found the way. The Me inside my heart is my best friend, my companion, my completion--my never being alone.
ReplyDeleteThe kingdom of God is within—this is the last place I look. Feelings seem the essential gems and then intellect takes over, I live in my head. The answer to all I've been looking for is in my heart—the center of love, the center of God in all things. This is where the Conversation begins. Let us talk of love.
ReplyDeleteRalph Allen Dale, Tao 70: "It is not understood because people's heads are filled with 10,000 trivia and rationalizations, leaving no space for anything else."
Where do I get mental space--trading in pressure for room to breathe? I start by breathing—consciously. Inhale, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7. Exhale, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7. When I am anxious I can only count 1-2. True. My brain feels too full to allow breath ("filled with 10,000 trivia and rationalizations, leaving no space for anything else"—I forget that it is the lungs that draw air in and push air out, like the bellows of my life. Mind and body are one in the goal of getting to comfort. And to coordinate this I visualize opening my chest with both of my hands, like the Sacred Heart of Jesus. That old picture is representative to me of how I free myself of the anxiety of being closed, held hostage by my own judgment, criticism, interference, control.
Mitchell, Tao 70: "If you want to know me, look inside your heart."