Just an Observation

 

In my living room, I have a seven foot tall Majestic Palm. It adds beauty to the living space for my family and guests to enjoy. It's green palms flowing in every direction, reaching out like fingers. It retrieves carbon dioxide from the air, and fortifies our breathable air with pure oxygen. Such a wonderful creation.

Every week, I water this Majestic Palm. At  first I gave this plant to much water and it’s palms started to turn a sickly yellow. Sometimes I would forget to water the plant and the palms would turn brown and start to die. Now, I have adjusted the amount of water, just giving what the plant needs, and it is flourishing.

Plants and trees in nature flourish from what the Earth and nature provides, and it flourishes without interference from humanity. the same goes for the animals and all of creation. I have pets at home that my family and I are in charge of, and also have needs that they have that must be met to prevent their suffering and untimely death.

What this shows me is that when I take charge of something like my children, my pets, my plants, etc.… I must provide their needs selfishlessly, remembering not to over provide. I am in a “leadership” position.

To be a great leader, I must be selfish less,  have restraint,  see every charge as the same (no favorites), seek wisdom from a higher power, dependable, have a strong character, commitment,competence….

All the qualities of Tao.

       

 

 

.

Great and Small

When we look at things in the light of Tao,
Nothing is best, nothing is worst.
Each thing, seen in its own light,
Stands out in its own way.
It can seem to be ´better´
Than what is compared with it --
On its own terms.
But seen in terms of the whole,
No one thing stands out as ´better´.
If you measure differences,
What is greater than something else is ´great´.
Therefore, there is nothing that is not great.
What is smaller than something else is ´small´.
Therefore, there is nothing that is not small.
So the whole cosmos is as ´small´ as a grain of rice,
And the tip of a hair is as ´great´ as a mountain.
Such is the relative view.

You can break down walls with battering rams
But you cannot plug holes with them.
All things have their own usefulness.
Fine horses can travel a hundrd miles a day
But they cannot catch mice like terriers or weasels.
All creatures have gifts of their own.
The white-horned owl can catch fleas at midnight
And distinguish the tip of a hair;
But in the brightness of day it stares, helpless, and cannot even see a mountain.
All things have different capacities.

Consequently, he who wants to have ´right´ without ´wrong´,
¨Order´ without ´disorder´,
Does not understand the principles of heaven and earth.
He does not know how things hang together.
Can a man cling only to heaven and know nothing of earth?
They are correlative: to know one is to know the other.
To refuse one is to refuse both.
Can a man cling to the positive without any negative,
In contrast to which it can be seen as positive?
If he claims to do so he is a rogue – or a madman.

Thrones pass from dynasty to dynasty,
Now in this way, now in that.
He who forces his way to power, against the grain,
Is called tyrant and usurper.
He who moves with the stream of events
Is called a wise statesman.

Kui, the one-legged dragon,
Is jealous of the centipede.
The centipede is jealous of the snake.
The snake is jealous of the wind.The wind is jealous of the eye.
The eye is jealous of the mind.
Kui said to the centipede:
“I manage my one leg with difficulty.
How can you manage a hundred?”
The centipede replied:
“I do not manage them;
They land all over the place like drops of spit.”
The centipede said to the snake:
“With all my feet, I cannot move as fast as you do with no feet at all.
How does this happen?”
The snake replied:
“I have a natural glide that can´t be changed.
What do I need with feet?”

The snake spoke to the wind:
“I ripple my backbone and move along in a bodily way.
You, without bones, without muscles, without method,
Blow from the North Sea to the Southern Ocean.
How do you get there with nothing?”

The wind replied:
“True, I rise up in the North Sea
And take myself without obstacle to the Southern Ocean.
But every eye that remarks me,
Every wing that spreads upon me,
Is superior to me,
Even though I can uproot the biggest trees, or overturn tall buildings.

The true conqueror is he who is not conquered by the multitude of the small.
The mind is this conqueror –
But only the mind of the wise man”

Opening The Three Passes Meditation

1. The first step is to still the body, calm the mind, and regulate the breath. With this settled mind, sit alone in a quiet room, senses shut and eyelids lowered. Turn your attention within, and inwardly visualize a pocket of energy in the umbilical region; within it is a point of golden light, clear and bright, immaculately pure. Focus attention on the navel until you feel the 'pocket of energy' glowing in the umbilical region. The breath through your nose will naturally become light and subtle, going out and in evenly and finely, continuously and quietly, gradually becoming slighter and subtler. When the feeling is stable and the energy there is full, use your mind to guide energy down to the perineum and back up through the aperture in the coccyx.

2. Steadily visualize this true energy as being like a small snake gradually passing through the nine apertures of the coccyx. When you feel the energy has gone through this pass, visualize this true energy rising up to where the ribs meet the spine, then going through this pass and right on up to the Jade Pillow, the back of the brain.

3. Then imagine your true spirit in the Nirvana Chamber in the center of the brain, taking in the energy. When this true energy goes through the Jade Pillow, press the tongue against the palate. The head should move forward and tilt slightly upwards to help it. When you feel this true energy penetrating the Nirvana Chamber, this may feel hot or swollen. This means the pass has been cleared and the energy has reached the Nirvana Center.

4. Next, focus attention on the Celestial Eye between the eyebrows and draw energy forwards from the midbrain and out through the point between the brows. This may cause a tingling or throbbing sensation there. Then the center of the brows will throb - this means the Celestial Eye is about to open. Then move the spirit into the center of the brows and draw the true energy through the Celestial Eye. If you see the eighteen thousand pores and three hundred and sixty joints of the whole body explode open all at once, each joint parting three-tenths of an inch, this is evidence of the opening of the Celestial Eye. This is what is meant when it is said that when one pass opens all the passes open, and when one opening is cleared all the openings are cleared.

5. You may wish to stay and work with this point for a few minutes, before letting energy sink down through the palate and tongue into the throat to the heart. This may feel as though there is cool water going down the Multistoried Tower of the windpipe. Do not swallow; let it go down by itself, bathing the bronchial tubes. Then the vital energy will bathe the internal organs and then return to the genitals. This is what is called return to the root.

6. From the heart, draw it down through the Middle Elixir Field in the solar plexus, past the navel, and down into the Ocean of Energy reservoir in the Lower Elixir Field, where energy gathers, mixes, and is reserved for internal circulation. Then begin another cycle up through the coccyx to the mid-spine behind the heart and up past the Jade Pillow into the brain.

7. Breathe naturally with your abdomen, and don't worry whether energy moves up or down on inhalation or exhalation; coordinate the flow of breath and energy in whatever manner suits you best. However, if you reach the stage where you can complete a full Microcosmic Orbit in a single breath, it's best to raise energy up from coccyx to head on exhalation and draw it down from Upper to Lower Elixir Field on inhalation.
If you practice this way for a long time, eventually you can complete a whole cycle of ascent and descent in one visualization. If you can quietly practice this inner work continuously, whether walking, standing still, sitting, or lying down, then the vital energy will circulate within, and there will naturally be no problem of leakage. Chronic physical ailments, Taoists believe, will naturally disappear.
Also, once the inner energy is circulating, the breath will naturally become fine, and the true positive energy of heaven and earth will be inhaled by way of the breath and go down to join your own generative energy. The two energies will mix together, both to be circulated by you together, descending and ascending over and over, circulating up and down to replenish the depleted true energy in your body.
This true energy harmonizes and reforms, so that the vital fluids produced by the energy of daily life again produce true vitality. When true vitality is fully developed, it naturally produces true energy, and when true energy is fully developed it naturally produces our true spirit.
If you have any physical problems or discomforts in a particular section of your body, focus your energy at the pass closest to the discomfort and let it throb there for a while. This will help heal and rejuvenate the injured tissues. For example, if you have pelvic problems, focus energy on the coccyx pass; for lower-back pain focus on the lowest lumbar vertebra just above the sacrum; for upper-back and shoulder pain focus on the fifth thoracic vertebra, and so forth. This Meditation may also cause the head to rock or the body to tremble, which, Taoists believe, are signs of progress.

Source:www.holistic-online.com.

Striving For Harmony

  I woke up yesterday morning with my heart and mind filled with anxiety and uncertainty about my  life and the well being of my family.  Currently I am unemployed, countless unpaid medical bills from previous heart attacks (one in 2010 and the most recent one in 2012), a –$26 in my checking account, a daughter who is flunking out of the seventh grade… It sounds horrible, doesn't it?

  Wait just a minute… I am better than that!  2013 is the year where my life will do a 180°.  It’s not like I’ll be out of work forever. I am a millwright, for crying out loud. It is just this moment in time that my life seems to be upside down, with no one in the drivers seat. You ever feel that way?

  It just happens to be that I am a very spiritual person. I know what I should do to fix these minor setbacks that are plaguing my life. Too bad my spiritual life didn’t  come equipped with GPS navigation because apparently, I’m lost. Not to fret though… I just need to untangle this mess I’ve made and re-find the harmony and joy in my life. This is where this blog comes in. With any luck my rants will help me sort things out in my mind. In the end it’s all spiritual anyway. With that in mind,I will rediscover the path. Here’s to a new beginnings in 2013.