The Way of Tao

WHAT IS TAO? 

WHAT IS TAO?

Tao (pronounced "dow") means literally "the path" or "the way." It is a universal principle that underlies everything from the creation of galaxies to the interaction of human beings. The workings of Tao are vast and often beyond human logic. In order to understand Tao, reasoning alone will not suffice. One must also apply intuition.
In our study of Tao, our source material is Tao Te Ching (pronounced "Dow De Jing") by the ancient sage Laozi, a.k.a. Lao Tzu.

Some of Lao Tzu's most significant teachings are as follows:

NON-CONTENTION - Lao Tzu noted that violence and conflict, no matter how tightly controlled, could not help but cause negative side effects. The Tao ideal is to solve problems through peaceful means.

NON ACTION - The foolish expend a great deal of energy and time trying to do everything and end up achieving nothing. On the other end of the spectrum, the truly wise don't seem to do much at all and yet achieve whatever they want. This magic is possible, indeed unavoidable, when one is in tune with the Tao.

NON-INTENTION - So often we perform virtuous deeds hoping to receive praise or recognition. That's no virtue at all. True virtue is a state where such actions flow forth naturally, requiring no conscious effort or thought.

SIMPLICITY - The basis for our reality and our existence is elemental and uncomplicated. Human beings create a lot of trouble for themselves by making everything more complex than they need to be. If we learn to simplify our lives, we can experience a profound satisfaction that is infinitely more meaningful than the rewards of the material world.

WISDOM - Logic has its place in human affairs but isn't everything. There is a limit to what we can understand through rationality and reasoning. To transcend that limit, we need to engage our intuition fully. This is the key to insights as opposed to knowledge, and the difference between living the Tao and reading all about it.

HUMILITY - The more you learn, the more you realize there's still so much more to learn. This tends to make you humble. Arrogance and egotism come from ignorance - knowing a little bit and assuming you know a lot.

DUALITY - Lao Tzu pointed out that all qualities in the world possess meaning only by the existence of their opposites. Something can only be big if there is something else that is small by comparison. "Good" exists in the world so long as "evil" exists as well. One cannot do without the other.

Tao wisdom from the Barefootdoctor 

Barefootdoctorworld

MONDAY SPECIAL - Blessed

[2007-12-10 05:49:00]

The Tao is all around you and everywhere within you but you block your awareness of it, partly through faulty conditioning and the mistaken belief that you are something less than divine yourself and therefore prohibited from the privilege of knowing and communing with the Tao directly, so you throw up a series of smokescreens to prevent direct access and then think you have to work hard to break through them to be become enlightened, whereas in fact, all you have to do is stop and know the Tao. It's no big deal and it changes everything, though as soon as it does (alter your perspective profoundly), you realise that nothing has really changed at all - the Tao was always here with you, in you, around you, as it always has been for all of us but you were just distracted from it or obfuscating your own view of it.

It's in the air your breathe, the sound of the words you speak, the feel of the energy moving through your limbs, the dynamic between you and the next person you speak to, in the gravity that holds you on the planet, in the taste of the next mouthful of food you eat, in the liquid quality of the next drink to slide down your throat, in the smell of the perfume you're wearing, in the motile force of the next thought you think - it's in everything, informing everything, animating everything, generating everything - and everyone, you, me and every living being in the universe and it is supremely conscious, supremely aware and its nature is love, pure love, so as you breathe in and out, eschew for a moment the thoughts of your rational mind, that's trying to be so clever about everything all the time, it prevents you really knowing what's happening here and know that as you breathe in, it's because the Tao is breathing out into you and when you're breathing out, it's because the Tao is breathing in and creating a suck that's pulling the breath from you. Know that as you breathe the Tao, the Tao is breathing you and as it does, you notice you're starting to feel connected to the collective consciousness in spite of yourself, which provides an apt opportunity to spread a bit of unconditional love all about for the benefit of all, which in turn will rebound on you multiplied in the form of countless blessings heaped upon your head even this merry Monday, which should last you right through the week, at least.

May your day and night and week ahead be blessed.

Love, Doc

WU WEI 

WU WEI

EXPLANATION OF WU WEI

Wu wei is an important tenet of Taoism that involves knowing when to act and when not to act. Wu may be translated as not have; Wei may be translated as do, act, serve as, govern. 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". The practice of wu wei and the efficacy of wei wu wei are fundamental tenets in Chinese thought and have been mostly emphasized by the Taoist school. The aim of wu wei is to achieve a state of perfect equilibrium, or alignment with the Tao, and, as a result, obtain an irresistible form of "soft and invisible" power.

WEI WU WEI

A selection of quotes from the works of 'Wei Wu Wei'.

A myriad bubbles were floating on the surface of a stream.
'What are you?' I cried to them as they drifted by.
'I am a bubble, of course' nearly a myriad bubbles answered,
and there was surprise and indignation in their voices as they passed.
But, here and there, a lonely bubble answered,
'We are this stream', and there was neither surprise nor indignation in their voices,
but just a quiet certitude.

When you give a shilling to a beggar
- do you realise that you are giving it to yourself?

When you help a lame dog over a stile
- do you realise that you yourself are being helped?

When you kick a man when he is down
- do you realise that you are kicking yourself?

Give him another kick - if you deserve it!

YIN YANG GIFT STORE 

GIFTS FOR ALL THE FAMILY

Theis store stocks everything with the Yin Yang symbol on for you to give as a gift for someone special.
Categories include:

Clothing
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WISE WORDS FROM THE BAREFOOTDOCTOR 

WU WEI AND TAO

WEEKEND SPECIAL - So Far So Good

[2007-07-19 05:03:00]

Here's something to put in your pipe and smoke, local and regional smoking bans and restrictions notwithstanding.

Whatever it is you want in the world, whatever it is you fancy manifesting for yourself by a combination of magic (visualisation) and varying degrees of hard work, you want it because of the feelings you imagine having it will afford you. At the root of all your wanting is a keen desire to feel fully at peace, at home, excited to be alive, safe, loved, loveable, nurtured and provided for in all respects. This applies to all areas of your life, so whether it's more love, more money, more freedom, more possessions, more respect or simply more attention, the same holds true: you want it in the form you think you want it in because you want the inner state you imagine having it like that will bring you.

So far so good.

However according to the Taoist way of doing things from the inside out, rather than running hither and thither fighting windmills and chasing rainbows, if you were instead able to generate the desired state within, regardless of what was occurring or wasn't occurring externally around you, you would instigate a profound shift in the vibratory rate of your energy field corresponding to the rate of vibration of all external conditions that would facilitate such a state from without and would therefore, if having managed to keep up with this rather convoluted sentence till now, automatically attract to your person those very conditions in real time and thus manifest an actual shift in external reality without much more than lifting a finger or two.

In other words, engender the desired feeling state within and you start automatically magnetising the appropriate external conditions.

So say you wanted a beautiful, fulfilling, exciting loving relationship with someone in particular. Rather than focusing on that person, who may or may not be part of your destiny - you can never tell till it happens, or doesn't - focus on the feeling-state you imagine being with that person would bring you: say, beautiful, fulfilled and excited.

Then you visualise yourself a few moments into the future, looking beautiful, fulfilled and excited - you see your (immanent) body language and posture, the way you're breathing, the way your body is relaxed and at peace with itself and the world, the way your heart is zinging with joy and expectation and the way your face is glowing with the beauteous light of heightened awareness. Then you visualise yourself entering the body of that immanent you and allow yourself to actually feel those sensations. Allow yourself to feel beautiful, fulfilled and excited in that specific way. (It's only a choice you make, after all).

Then gently guide the future you with you inside, back into the present you so they become one and continue allowing yourself the feelings of beauty, fulfilment and excitement.

Then, if so disposed, addressing Big You, the Tao of You with total sincerity, say, 'draw to me all those and all that to facilitate me feeling this way or even better now.'

Then say (and feel), 'thank you, ' as if it's already come to pass. Let it go and carry on as you were.

Within days, unexpected things will start happening and before you know it, you'll find yourself with that person you were fixated on, someone even better, or in an entirely different set of circumstances altogether but one which facilitates the desired state to your full satisfaction all the same.

The Taoists passed down an evolved set of internal mechanics relating to the crucial factor of how you actually visualise what you want, which when observed and practiced exponentially refines the effects of what they called wu wei (the effortless manifesting process), an exercise for which appears in this WEEKEND SPECIAL BAREFOOT JOURNAL.

Meantime, may today, tonight and the weekend ahead be a time of great magic for you, in which you are surprised and delighted at least three times by unexpected turns of event that radically transform your entire life for the better.

Love, Doc

Find yourself today at BarefootDoctorWorld.

WHAT IS ZEN? 

WHAT IS ZEN?

"Zen" is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese character "chan," which is in turn the Chinese translation from the Indian Sanskrit term "dhyana," meaning "meditation."

Zen, like Tao, cannot be totally explained in words. Much of your grasp of Zen must necessarily depend on your own intuition. Bodhidharma (528 A.D.) had this to say about it:

Not dependent on the written word,
Transmission apart from the scriptures;
Directly pointing at one's heart,
Seeing one's nature, becoming Buddha.

Given that's the case, the closest we can come to describing Zen in words may be as follows:

Zen is more of an attitude than a belief.
Zen is the peace that comes from being one with an entity other than yourself.
Zen means being aware of your oneness with the world and everything in it.
Zen means living in the present and experience this reality fully.
Zen means being free of the distractions and illusory conflicts of the material world.
Zen means being in the flow of the universe.
Zen means experiencing fully the present, and delighting in the basic miracle of life itself.
Paradox is a part of Zen and the teaching of Zen. A paradox nudges your mind into a direction other than the routine. It helps you disengage the rational mind and free up the intuition. It also points to a truth that cannot be rationally derived through the use of logic. Therefore:

Zen is nothing and yet everything.
Zen is empty but full.
Zen encompasses all and is encompassed by all.
Zen is the beginning and the end.

Link to the Tao 

Tao - Wikipedia

There is a flow in the universe, and it is called Tao (pronounced Dao). Tao flows slowly; however, it is never stagnant and is incredibly powerful and keeps things in the universe balanced and in order. It manifests itself.....

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