When goodness is lost, there is kindness.
When kindness is lost, there is justice.
When justice is lost, there is ritual.
Now ritual is the husk of faith and loyalty, the beginning of confusion."
-from the tao te ching, translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English, chapter thirty-eight
So Tao requires no judgement or extra thought . . . it just is. I suppose this goes along with the Biblical idea of God's law being written in the hearts of human beings. . . and the question is how to listen. And maybe the answer is just to shut up and enjoy the show?
ReplyDeleteno, bad teachers make that mistake all the time, saying, in effect: "just be enlightened, now. com'mon, just do it."
ReplyDeletewhich is retarded. There are energetic and cognitive blocks to functioning that way, perhaps even physiological limiting factors, and it takes a shitload of work to undo all that stuff and normalize. as some vedic text says, approximately; 'he who conquers countries is considered a hero, but the greatest hero of all is he who conquers the mind/senses.' meaning enlightenment.
That means, if you want something easy to do, go conquer a nation, before you try to live the tao. It may be your natural state, it may be who you already are, but realizing that, and living that, is a very intense journey. The hardest and longest you will ever take. All other journeys are just little branches off of this main one.
even the fact that the way to the Way is that of simplicity, naturalness, and letting go, is difficult for people to grasp and put into practice. Ultimately, the end result is inevitable, but getting there can take a while.