Concern yourself with the depths, not the surface

Tao Te Ching 38 says “the Master concerns himself with the depths and not the surface, with the fruit and not the flower... He dwells in reality and let’s all illusions go” So many times we can get focused on the flower. The appearance, the external…

Tao Te Ching 38 says “the Master concerns himself with the depths and not the surface, with the fruit and not the flower... He dwells in reality and let’s all illusions go” So many times we can get focused on the flower. The appearance, the external. This chapter reminds us to go deeper, to go within. The book is a continuous reminder that inside us we hold the Tao, that the Tao is luminous within us always. This chapter again tells us to sit still and find it.

Hello, old friend.

A couple of years ago, in an effort to assuage my fear of the shifts, and light coming onto the things unseen to me previously, in our nation I felt pulled to spiritual texts. To find a thread of love and connection within them rather than the hate and fear certain passages where being used to propagate morning fear and hate. In that two years I dug deep and then put it down, dug deep and then put it down longer. The putting down has been due to my distraction by life, more distress and diving deep into social media and our 24 hour news cycle instead of these texts, my community and myself. Recently I was driving and my Google maps app said “exit now, better route found” It made me reflect on the habits of these last two years and realize I needed to exit some habits now and find a better route. So twitter (& all social media, save this account) is gone. Presence, people, reflection and participation are in. I’m keeping this account for my reflections on these texts and what they are teaching me. I’m looking forward to this better route and all that will unfold. With intention and hope to see it through this time. xx 

back at it.jpg

Tao Te Ching 29-30, let it flow.

Today my focus was on just two chapters of the Tao Te Ching, Chapters 29 and 30. In my last Tao Te Ching reflection I strongly felt the message “Receive and Accept, and the Tao will be Luminous Inside You" as I continued reading in the two chapters that followed I heard a larger message. “Accept, the Tao IS Luminous Inside You”  there is no need for “will be”. It is always within. The accepting just opens us to be further illuminated in this truth. Within this message is also the wisdom that while this truth flows through us, the Tao is ever flowing and luminous within our universe and within us all. And that fighting against this flow is a fruitless attempt. It moves us to accept ourselves and others, see our light and theirs, and to open to our truth and the beauty of the world. The text also highlights an important distinction for forces in our world, sharing that for every force, there is a counter force, and that violence, no matter how well intentioned will also come back on itself. These two messages, shared in one offering, resonated with me greatly in this time we are experiencing. Rather than the anxiety I’ve been feeling about the hate speech and action delivered by many in power, I now see that the rise of these people and actions could be a reaction to the immense amount of light that has been rising within us all. A light that was always present but that has been further illuminated through our acceptance of and pull to its reality, both within ourselves and others. The reality of this love and our connectedness, our oneness, through it. Living within this truth allows us to open, to accept (while standing up in love for others) the world, to sit in quiet and open to the Tao ever present within us. To illuminate the Tao that is us, that flows through us and beyond us, to open our heart and light the world. ✨✨✨

Stillness Can Be Our Greatest Action

Stillness can be our greatest action ✨
As I reflect on the learnings discovered throughout this journey, I cannot believe how long I've been away. This has been a longer break than I intended. Like many of us, life became busier with holidays, family and work and I found myself saying to my notebook "I'll write my learnings in you again soon", then stacking my bookclub book on top of it, finally to have it at the bottom of my bedside table. While this happened, the initial reason I was pulled to this study and discovery burned greater in my heart, as did my anxiety around the level of fear and hate being propagated through our culture. At times it was overwhelming, at times it still is. Yet, I also found myself being moved by others call to action. Those who rose, and continue to rise, to bring their words and acts of love into our world. Their example, paired with my internal desire to learn from these books, cultures and traditions have led me happily back to the purpose of this discovery. To remind myself of the truth I know, the one that is often found not in our action but through our stillness. The truth that we are already the love we wish to bring to the world. The truth that every other individual is too. The remembering that when we sit quietly we are more able to connect to this source, to feel and see it in ourselves and in others. And through this remembering comes the knowing that we can be who we want to see in the world, that we can be illuminated by this love, that we can move our inherent love into action. And that in doing so this love and action can awaken the same in others and alight our true self, our presence of love, through the darkness.

Tao Te Ching 25-28

Receive and accept your luminosity. 

This is the message I felt throughout chapters 25-28 of Tao Te Ching. The words served as a reminder that the Tao is both beyond us and within us, perfect in its presence. A reminder of the unchangeable light alive within us all. A push to show us that we can embody this light, that we are this light. Inspiration to sit quietly and connect to this presence, to be illuminated from within and shine out into our world. 

“There was something formless and perfect
before the universe was born...
I call it the Tao.

It flows through all things,
inside and outside, and returns
to the origin of all things.

...the Tao will be luminous inside you.”
— Tao Te Ching

 

 

Tao Te Ching 17-24

“When the Master governs, the people
are hardly aware that he exits.
Next best is a leader who is loved.
Next, one who is feared.
The worst is one who is despised.”
— Tao Te Ching 17

This site is a reflection of my study of love as an action in religious texts and traditions. And while I seek this in these texts and look to move love into action in my own life, with today's political climate so much of this text also leads me to reflect on our current state in America. At the way in which our President Elect is leading through actions of hate and building on people's fears to "lead". This chapter and the seven that follow guide us through a perspective on this that reminds me to let go of this fear and worry. It encourages that even in times when a leader is corrupt or despised, a more worthy patriotism can be born. That in stopping, breathing, and connecting within we can find our light and share it more fully. That our role is to connect with this wholeness, love, that resides within our human form and remember that which we are... whole, complete, and love. We must let go to see the book says, we must do our job and then let go, to turn inward and be illuminated by the radiance that is the Tao, that is us.

We are bound

My pause is coming back into reflection and study. Tomorrow I open my books again. But first, one more reflection on the power of action. Tonight my family and I were fortunate to attend an amazing gathering in our city. We live in a diverse community and the strength, vibrancy and energy that comes from this is one of the things that makes our city so special. This evening as we gathered as citizens; talking, hugging, and sharing, I saw our presence together as an act of love, a statement to how we would move forward as community, and it lifted my spirit. I realized how easy it is to get in our minds. To write, to reflect, to study... and while each is important, the power in going out and pursuing our acts is where we are set free. Free from stagnancy, from reflecting in isolation, free to move rather than sit, act rather than fear. Love is the force and using our action to ensure we were present tonight, that we were there for the brave and amazing hosts who were reached out to us all in community, that we were there for us too, was powerful. Hosted by leaders of our Somali community and attended by thousands of community members of all shades, beliefs, loves, and sizes we could all feel our collective lifting. We felt togetherness, we felt light. Our bodies were nourished by delicious food, our hearts by one another.   It was powerful. And it has encouraged me to move in pursuit of as many acts of love as I can on this journey. For study and action together is the best way to comprehend and be love in our world. And that is my goal.

As we walked away, hand in hand, bathing in moonlight I reflected on this familiar call to love, on our call to be the light and change we want to see in the world, on our responsibility to one another. As we walked this calling, this song, began to play in my head. It is a favorite of mine, and highlights the path I want to be on as I move toward love. Enjoy it! Enjoy each other. May we all be the love and light we wish to see in the world. We are bound.

Shed a Little Light Lyrics by James Taylor

Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King
and recognize that there are ties between us, all men and women living on the Earth.
Ties of hope and love, sister and brotherhood, that we are bound together
in our desire to see the world become a place in which our children can grow free and strong.
We are bound together by the task that stands before us and the road that lies ahead.
We are bound and we are bound.

There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist
There is a hunger in the center of the chest
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist
And though the body sleeps the heart will never rest

Shed a little light, oh Lord, so that we can see, just a little light, oh Lord.
Wanna stand it on up, stand it on up, oh Lord,
wanna walk it on down, shed a little light, oh Lord.

Can't get no light from the dollar bill, don't give me no light from a TV screen.
When I open my eyes I wanna drink my fill from the well on the hill,
do you know what I mean?

Shed a little light, oh Lord, so that we can see, just a little light, oh Lord.
Wanna stand it on up, stand it on up, oh Lord,
wanna walk it on down, shed a little light, oh Lord.

There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist, there is a hunger in the center of the chest.
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist
and though the body sleeps the heart will never rest.

Oh, Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King
and recognize that there are ties between us.
All men and women living on the Earth, ties of hope and love, sister and brotherhood.

 

Alight with the Purpose of Love

I have been set aflame, ignited in love

May my purpose burn brightly

May it bring light

This actum amare journey started less than a week ago. Buoyed in response to the dialogue surrounding our presidential campaign, I wanted to fill my days inside spiritual texts. To read how love is moved into action in spiritual stories and traditions. To share my reflections and be moved by the words of spiritual history. And then a campaign with a platform of hate speech won... and I took a long pause. I have been coming into an uncomfortable awareness of the presence, pervasiveness and pain of racism (and other isms and phobias) in our country. While I do not think most of those who voted for the President-Elect support his rhetoric, his rhetoric is impacting others. Both by emboldening those who would act on it and hurting those who are victims of it. I have witnessed the pain and shame of a child being told, "Donald Trump hates black people like you" and worse. It is heartbreaking. I have seen how, as a white individual, I have been free of this pain. How, just for the color of my skin, I have had an ease in my steps. Centuries of privilege at my feet, I am saddened at how blind I've been to this blessing. 

This is a journey about love as an action in spiritual texts and traditions, and it will remain that. But what I have also realized is that in addition to my study of love as an action, actual acts of love are also required.  We have neighbors feeling unwelcome and unsafe based on their heritage, race, family or beliefs and it is not okay. It necessitates all of us to stand up together and speak out against hate. To come together with love as our voice.

aflame with the purpose of love

And so I begin. I begin with my gained awareness, with continued study, with reflection, and I move forward with my own love turned to action. Action of reaching out to my neighbors and community. Action of starting a conversation and then keeping it going. Action to understand how it feels to walk through our world with thoughts, beliefs, family, heritage, different from my own. It starts with saying, I love you. With meaning it. With looking my community in the eyes. With saying you are welcome always at my table. To keep reaching out in understanding and love. It is the action of letting this fire of awareness burn within me, burn with the shame of not seeing it sooner, burn with the purpose of being the change I want to see in the world. I have been set afire. Afire with the belief that together our love can move our world. I will work for it every day! May we all shine our light!

Tao Te Ching 14-16

These passages have me connecting to the power and light within us all. Not too long ago I was led through a past-life regression with a past life therapist in my town (more on that at another time!). Reading 14-16 of Tao Te Ching made me reflect on the parts of those lives where I was leaving the body. 

“Look and it can’t be seen
Listen and it can’t be heard
Reach and it can’t be grasped...
You can’t know it, but you can be it
Just realize where you come from”
— Tao Te Ching

When I was led through those experiences this is how I felt. There is more. I am light. I cannot see it, or hear it, or touch it... but I can know it. I can look up, quiet my mind, and open my heart to the light that I am. The light, forever illuminated in me, can guide me. Guide me to a path of love, of knowing and of faith. The knowledge there is more than this, that I am more than what my ego connects to. That in letting go I can receive and open, the gifts of my light, and of others, and that we together can illuminate each other in compassion, acceptance and love. 

remembering

Study One - Tao Te Ching - 1-13

While this is a study of love as an action in our world as highlighted by spiritual texts, my first engagement with my study text has not specifically cited love moved as an action directly. Rather it has imbibed this love into every line and the space of reflection between each teaching. Self love, love of nature, love of our world and presence in this love and acceptance is the message I have heard in this first 13 passages. Releasing our desires and comparative minds to embrace others as ourselves, opening our heart and seeking towards the sky to remember that from which we come. To remember our unity, our oneness. In this way there is not hope or fear, there is only love and the knowledge that the great that lies within us is the greater that lies within all. No one more or less than the other. Love the world as ourselves the first 13 passages share, love ourselves in the world. Look up to the starts and remember. We are here to be love.