8 Dec 2002 @ 15:15, by Beto Hoisel
TAOISM TODAY
Tien Cheng Tzu
Existence is a permanent manifestation of the spirit in matter. It is the answer of the receptive matter (mater) to the creative spirit's impregnating action. Both emanate of the great Tao, which is above and beyond matter and spirit, further than to exist or not to exist, and far away from the philosophical mysteries. Tao is the invisible river of nothing that runs behind the things, the phenomena and the events. Chuang Tzu teaches that the Tao is outside the words and the things; it doesn't express for words or the silence. Tao is noticed where neither words nor the silence exist anymore.
To live is not to pursue the visible or immaterial fruits of this world, be them immediate – conquered to the force – or expected in any future, as a reward. To live is not to be subject to the wheels of a gear – mental or physic – where the wandering soul is arrested by some time. To live is to find the inexistent Tao and to let float with him, calmly, amid storms if needed.
The objective of life is not pleasure, nor power, nor wealth, nor erudition, nor the conquest of the virtue, nor spiritual evolution. The objective of the life is to discover the Tao of every moment, to smile, and no more permit you to separate of it. The objective of life is the encounter of the Self when navigating safe along the Tao River. The objective of life is to learn how to navigate in the great river Tao.
While you're still in the way along the little Tao, you seek the knowledge and the wisdom by the development of the four fundamental virtues: Jen, the love-compassion born of honesty that allows to feel the difficulties and the happiness of others as if they were yours; Yi, that is the nobleman's feeling of his duty to the other ones; born of the altruism, it allows to act devoid of personal interest; Li, that is born of the adoration for the Sky and for the Earth, manifesting in the harmonious procedure in which living turns into a permanent ritual. And, finally, Chih, that is the wisdom able to understand everything and is born of the long experience and of the knowledge of the celestial road, where no longer disobedience exists. Thus taught Kung Fu Tzu – known in the Occident as Confucius.
But in the great Tao there are not searches nor virtue, nor objectives, nor obedience, nor any rule to proceed. It is in this great Tao that live the truth and the perfection of acting that we can only accomplish in an imperfect way, darkened by our ignorance and the illusions wrought in the mind.
The subtle secret of acting is the same secret of the essence, of the existence and of life. The objective, therefore, is to find the truth of our existence and to live according to it, simply, avoiding the deviations and seductions.
Until this is gotten our life will be an imperfection, a difficulty, a fight and a problem. It is only for the feeling of the Tao that we can smile of our imperfection, of the difficulties, of the struggle and suffering that settle in our lives. It is only for the existence in the Tao that the problem will be solved, the difficulty and the struggle will be outdated and our actions can head for perfection.
However, the road of the learning is long and full of traps, and to arrive to the marvels it is necessary to pass the traps. The traps of the road are the seductions of transitory, ephemeral and perishable pleasures. Only the fixation of the mind in that which is invisible, silent and without form can assure a safe navigation.
The feeling of the Tao comes through the union of the complementary opposites, in a higher level of consciousness than thinking and the mind. In the level beyond the mind and thinking float what shows as symbols. Symbols are the rafts that bring down to the level of the mind the flashes and insights of a larger consciousness which resides further than thought and words. In the symbols are hidden secrets and mysteries of different degrees, one for each understanding. The superior man – or woman, in equality of conditions – who knows them, doesn't talk about these things: he or she recognizes what is secrecy and cares to preserve the mystery.
The march of a thousand leagues begins with a step. However, it is right that those who fasten attention and mind to the imperishable, even if only for a few minutes daily, are beyond the first step, already. Nonetheless, others hesitate on the sill of the old portal, because they still need to study. This is the long phase of the doubt; disrupted, but necessary. For these, the road still didn't come as such, soaring over the fields and lakes of the imagination. Still, it is necessary to smile and to enter on the road, even without seeing it. It is also necessary to accomplish the decision and not to wait for results; the result will come anyhow. Just as the sleep, when he or she grows drowsy, the result arrives when one doesn't think on it anymore. ButÂ… who is willing to the first and hesitant step?
It is at the lakes of the imagination that the rafts of symbols float, forming strange configurations amongst themselves. To tranquilize the agitation in the surface of the lake is a preliminary task that takes place for no-acting, for no-doing, for the no-knowledge, for silencing, for removing: never for increasing. When the surface is calm, the symbols that float are organized in a rich mandala of changing colors that can only be seen by the central eye of the soul, the window of the spirit that only has a square inch: the eye of Horus.
Happy it is the one who knows the mystery and opens the window of the spirit. Thereafter, nothing else will need to be said. Soon he or she will be received in the palace of Yu-Huang, the Emperor of Jade.
Tien Cheng Tzu is a fictional character of the book The Annals of an Imaginary Symposium, by Beto Hoisel.
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