As man expired His last Once agin Mother Nature breathed in A parent excrement Concrete and steel Leaving not Even a scratch In geologic time Merely having caught a cold Cold virus Feverish bout Something to sneeze about Un-till returning To natural appetites Where awe is better than knew In the tree of knowledge With wisdom of what can and cannot be forest Upon Mother Nature
Ultimately, this poem is a testament to the sustaining and healing power of Mother Nature. So many times I am struck by the unsustainable practices of so-called civilization. While I am not confident that humankind (unkind?) will be able to avert a monumental collapse of civilization as we know it today, I suspect that humans will survive in some form. Similarly, I strongly suspect than nature will survive. I suspect that humans are not smart enough, nor stupid enough, to end life on this planet. I suspect that humans are not strong enough, nor weak enough, to end life on this planet. While our blind greed is frighteningly persistent, this poem is one vision of Mother Nature, quite naturally, recovering from a virus and fever, and returning to health. Mother Nature is awesome and powerful. In this envisioned scenario, humans don’t make it, at least not in any form resembling our current civilization. In the first line of the poem, I reference the word “man” as expiring, that is, lowercase man, not humankind. I snuck this in as an opening to survive, if in fact, in the yin and yang of life, the patriarchal male force is brought into balance with the nurturing/healing female force. I don’t think that it is any accident that nature, Mother Nature, is typically viewed as female across many human cultures. If we don’t respect females, then we are doomed to an existence far short of our awesome potential, or, perhaps, simply doomed to extinction. May we as a species, one among many, find a balance befitting the awesome benevolence of Mother Nature.
POEM: Innocence — An Owed In A Sense Her innocence Was immune to their dis ease As be wilder And a tempt However tempered Only to be Dis missed As just A guile His innocence Deified awe bravery In the face Of accusations summoned As subdude As never a cur to them Posing the quest in Guise will Be guise Her bosom leaped […]...
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POEM: Breath of Fresh Heir Each mourning Brings that which is light Though wanting to rest As the whirled spins under my feet I am Still Razed Too my feat Standing on Perhaps a singular word Mysteriously helled Together In God-ordained gravity Until that thirst Breath of fresh heir As awe is knew This poem is about coming out of […]...
Having Evolved Too keep Every last won Of this sophisticated specious Under opposable thumbs Like a perch In a stream of consciousness Executing my porpoise The best I can do A thwart on the phase of humanity This avowing That it is Just us And by what means Can we make a diffidence Of that a ledge Too due Joining the crowded Signing off On that Collective bargain As wee All a greed As far as we reckon Bunching up In a scanty throng Of self-proclaimed wizzes In the brook of life Where awe is swill In our out standing potable potty In the heat of august Quenched Buy the patently falls That is Not so Crappy Requited in terminally wading Who gets The last ward From what sores then Only then Where naught else fallows To find oneself In silence A loan Yet not feeling solo In fact Feeling unrivalled Caching in Empyreal cents Fore that which is Unfallible Without rank Revolting Caste a side Even without Empty congregation For going As it is written Upon stationery In place of life Wear awe is won In a corporeal merger Of all that is ardor With all that is light Enrolled into one That mystical union Joining arts And boundless trades Uniting awe In a baptism of matchless flare Emerging from water Besting the supposed fin By no less than two feet Upright On wholly ground Accompanying sound sole In the rarefied guardin’ Of one constitutional Heartwarmingly vein to sum Countless succeeding With heir to breathe freely Living in The hear and now Beyond what can be herd No longer weighting Only to expire That which is fleeting Trafficking in exclusion Flailing to sea The catch all Recognizing each To be won Of a kind
Here is a poem that plays with themes of the oneness of consciousness, the oneness of humanity, and the merging of the spiritual and physical realms. Of course, it begins with recognizing the sea of vanity that passes for much of so-called civilized life. Seeing past this pollution is a necessary precondition to more fully experience life’s ever-present gifts and freely give our unique selves to the world. This requires mastering letting go more-so than grasping. Letting go prepares us to receive the perpetual, dare I say eternal, stream of gifts available to us at any given moment. This process of freely receiving this veritable tsunami of presents is only possible when harmoniously matched with freely giving, letting go, which continues, reflects, and magnifies the true abundance in which we are awash. The difference between this process and the close-minded, close-hearted clinging and collecting of much of daily life is the difference between heaven and hell — perhaps even heaven and hell!
Giving and receiving is one of the central yin and yang of our lives. Much of the pain in life can be traced back to the felt need to keep account of all of the giving and receiving that is going on, and then expending precious energy (sometimes called ‘work’) attempting to make sure that the receiving side of our ledger is adequate. Then, when we have ‘enough,’ we can be gracious on the giving side. I suspect that how we answer the question with our lives, “how much is enough?” lies at the heart of how well we contribute to our shared humanity and shared reality. The harmonious yin and yang of giving and taking is often befuddled and turned upside down by a predominant (and ultimately dominating) focus on receiving, aka taking. This conundrum rests on how we answer the proverbial question of “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” — in this case, giving or taking. As any practiced Taoist would realize, these yin and yang questions are ultimately incomprehensible without a deep appreciation for balance, or, as the Taoist would say, complementariness. I think this is also why Buddhists are not big on origin or creation stories (‘egg’ stories); what we have at any given moment is much more important than accounting for where it came from. The Christian contribution to this dialogue is a focus on grace, that any giving on our part is only made possible by something outside our selves gracing us with anything to give. In the human experience, grace, and the gratitude that evolves from living in it, quite universally leads to more harmonious (happy) living. Our natural propensity toward accounting cannot escape the balance shit completely!
As a devotee of social justice, the problem of the balance sheet often consumes — or at least dominates — any conception of justice. I prefer to frame justice as harmony and injustice as disharmony. Both the way and the goal, the means and the ends, is peace (harmony). As one of my favorite pacifists, and fellow Hope College alumnus, A.J. Muste proclaimed, “There is no way to peace, peace is the way.” I see the chicken and egg argument about which comes first, peace or justice, as the divide between self and other; that is, injustice is typically described as conditions of disharmony outside one’s self, amongst the human community and our shared reality. The role we contribute to bringing justice into the world is one of bringing harmony. And as most any human would agree: you can’t give what you don’t have!
If you are still convinced that justice is fundamentally a balance sheet then ponder this: how can you possibly experience injustice if you came into the world on no account of your own, experience a measure of life, and return to nothing (or at least certainly not something less than something) — how can you ever be in debt? The only “debt” that we have is the positive reality that we have been given anything and everything we have. This is well captured by Alice Walker who declared, “Activism is my rent for living on this planet.” I see this debt as the foundation for any ethical system, a shared debt owed with each and every human, setting up solidarity as a fundamental shared human reality. This was eminently stated by Albert Schweitzer: “The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.” Injustice can be viewed as some having more than others (earned/unearned more than others?) but any conception of this is still rooted (and must give just due) in the harmonious relationship between giving and receiving. Taking away, WAY different than receiving, is dishonoring the mystical ying-yang of giving and receiving, in whatever brand of accounting one might ascribe too. Any thought that re-framing your account of justice as “giving” justice to others might be well served by meditating on your dependable feeling when others want to give you their justice. While there are immature forms of resisting others actions “for our own good,” I suspect that resisting others taking our account is rightly and justly rooted (a gift of human nature) in the shared and absolute nature of each and every human being’s life as a sheer gift beyond merit. Fights about whose debt is bigger are probably best resolved by demonstrating the recognition of our own immeasurable debt. Albert Schweitzer also infamously said, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing.” This is a close cousin to my favorite Gandhi quote, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Hopefully, amidst such ponderings you will find this awe difficult to take!
May you join this mystical union, and whatever dues you may pay, may they be well worth it…
When Tao is lost There is virtue When virtue is lost There is morality When morality is lost There is propriety Yet oddly Even when Awe is lost Tao remains The eternal rest Giving rise to awe
The Tao Te Ching is the ancient Chinese sacred text of Taoism. The authorship is attributed to Lao-Tse, which may have been an individual or a group. There are many English translations of the Tao Te Ching, which seem to differ greatly. The above poem is my take on chapter 38, which seems to have stuck in my mind. I was struck by the truth of the progression, or deterioration, from the ineffable unity of Tao to virtue, then morality, then propriety, which is the beginning of chaos, with propriety being the shallowest foundation for life. While the Tao Te Ching is necessarily perplexing, “the Tao that can be described is not the Tao,” this foundation which escapes our grasp is the very foundation which secures our hope. No machinations, cruelty, nor any power on earth can overturn it or control it. This irreducible hope persists as an untouchable in a world bent on holding and controlling way more than called for. This irreducible hope gives rise to awe!
The Tao Te Ching is more of a comprehensive series of hints than a textbook. I view it as an essential companion for any mystic. Of course, I see mysticism as the heart of any true religion. The Tao Te Ching is very short read, especially when compared to the Christian Bible, the Muslim Qur’an, or especially the Hindu Vedas! Plus, unlike perhaps most other religions and their sacred texts, a devoted Taoist would probably suggest burning your sacred text at some point! This speaks of a truer reverence than the all-too-familiar Bibliolatry of Western civilization. As a child of Western civilization, I would heartily recommend the Tao Te Ching as an antidote for many of the imbalances acutely present in modern society. Western civilization’s addiction to scientific reductionism makes us hellbent on focusing on one thing in isolation, pressuring us to ever narrower contexts and ever greater specialization. Central in the practice of Taoists is complimentariness, Yin and Yang, that the myriad of things that comprise our world, though arising from the unity of Tao, can only be comprehended by their opposites. Perhaps the greatest formulation of this in Christianity is Jesus’ command to love our enemies. Only by reconciliation with our enemies can we become whole. Any demonization of the other necessarily degrades our own humanity. We are defined by our enemies. If our enemies don’t define us, then we are free, and in accord with Tao. May it be so…because it is so…
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You just have to love the yin yang symbol! The concept of yin and yang is one of the central concepts in Eastern philosophy, a symbol of the Tao. The idea of complementariness and interdependence of opposites is essential to understanding life and achieving balance. Western civilization tends to look toward absolutes and focuses on one or the other side of opposites, that which is considered good. This is perhaps the foundation of Western imperialism, which presumes an absolute good and then enforces it on the rest of the world. Imperialism also feeds off demonizing the opposite. What I find fascinating about complementariness and the interdependence of opposites that seems to naturally give rise to a transcendence of apparent opposites. Western philosophy includes the idea of some kind of synthesis arising from dialectical conditions, though I think that Westerners tend to reduce this simply to some third absolute rather than what I think is more appropriate mystical other. I am eternally fascinated with the proposition of loving one’s enemies, and I find is perhaps the most challenging practical manifestation of the Tao. My favorite simple story to illustrate this is about a farmer and his skepticism about being able to determine whether something is good or bad. The farmer has a valuable horse which runs away, to which his neighbor comments, “that is bad.” The farmer declares that he is not sure whether it’s good or bad. The horse returned to the farm with a herd of wild horses. The farmer’s neighbor comments, “this is good.” The farmer declares that he is not sure whether it’s good or bad. The farmer’s son, while trying to train one of the wild horses, is thrown from the horse and breaks his leg. The farmer’s neighbor comments, “this is bad.” The farmer declares that is not sure whether it’s good or bad. The farmer’s nation declares war against the neighboring nation and as the gathering army passes through his province, they conscript many young men along the way; the farmer’s son is not conscripted since his leg is broken. The farmer’s neighbor comments, “this is good.” The farmer declares that he is not sure whether it’s good or bad. Of course, this sequence of events can transpire forever. I don’t think that such a story an argument against whether good or bad exist, rather it reinforces a deeper wisdom that require some skepticism about affixing unmovable labels of good or bad on any given situation. What strikes me as the deeper truth is that bad situations can be redeemed and bring about good, and that there is a shadow to good situations that can degrade into bad. Appreciating and aligning oneself with this flow seems to be the purpose of the Tao. Of course the first line of the Tao Te Ching, is that the way that can be described is not the way. Then, ironically, the Tao Te Ching does it’s best to try to describe the way. Such is the paradox inherent in reality. This is probably a good reason why a more abstract symbol is appropriate for reflecting the Tao than words. Sometimes silence is the best. Or, like I like to say, sometimes buttoning up says it best!
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Yin Yang
PEACE SYMBOL: Yin Yang Symbol 2–BUTTON
PEACE SYMBOL: Yin Yang Symbol 2–BUTTON
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You just have to love the yin yang symbol! The concept of yin and yang is one of the central concepts in Eastern philosophy, a symbol of the Tao. The idea of complementariness and interdependence of opposites is essential to understanding life and achieving balance. Western civilization tends to look toward absolutes and focuses on one or the other side of opposites, that which is considered good. This is perhaps the foundation of Western imperialism, which presumes an absolute good and then enforces it on the rest of the world. Imperialism also feeds off demonizing the opposite. What I find fascinating about complementariness and the interdependence of opposites that seems to naturally give rise to a transcendence of apparent opposites. Western philosophy includes the idea of some kind of synthesis arising from dialectical conditions, though I think that Westerners tend to reduce this simply to some third absolute rather than what I think is more appropriate mystical other. I am eternally fascinated with the proposition of loving one’s enemies, and I find is perhaps the most challenging practical manifestation of the Tao. My favorite simple story to illustrate this is about a farmer and his skepticism about being able to determine whether something is good or bad. The farmer has a valuable horse which runs away, to which his neighbor comments, “that is bad.” The farmer declares that he is not sure whether it’s good or bad. The horse returned to the farm with a herd of wild horses. The farmer’s neighbor comments, “this is good.” The farmer declares that he is not sure whether it’s good or bad. The farmer’s son, while trying to train one of the wild horses, is thrown from the horse and breaks his leg. The farmer’s neighbor comments, “this is bad.” The farmer declares that is not sure whether it’s good or bad. The farmer’s nation declares war against the neighboring nation and as the gathering army passes through his province, they conscript many young men along the way; the farmer’s son is not conscripted since his leg is broken. The farmer’s neighbor comments, “this is good.” The farmer declares that he is not sure whether it’s good or bad. Of course, this sequence of events can transpire forever. I don’t think that such a story an argument against whether good or bad exist, rather it reinforces a deeper wisdom that require some skepticism about affixing unmovable labels of good or bad on any given situation. What strikes me as the deeper truth is that bad situations can be redeemed and bring about good, and that there is a shadow to good situations that can degrade into bad. Appreciating and aligning oneself with this flow seems to be the purpose of the Tao. Of course the first line of the Tao Te Ching, is that the way that can be described is not the way. Then, ironically, the Tao Te Ching does it’s best to try to describe the way. Such is the paradox inherent in reality. This is probably a good reason why a more abstract symbol is appropriate for reflecting the Tao than words. Sometimes silence is the best. Or, like I like to say, sometimes buttoning up says it best!
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