Solala Blog 12/9/13

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flute enchanter small

 

It’s been pretty cold for this time of year for this part of the country (Southern Willamette Valley, Oregon) . Minus 10 the other night, the coldest since 1972 (41 years!). 7 inches of snow, also very rare. Also very rare, it hasn’t gone away! Have been staying home, staying low, staying warm. Catching up on some work, reading a lot (highliting a lot), drinking lots of hot tea, looking forward to being able to go out on errands again.

 

Last night I dreamed I couldn’t find where I parked my car. At one point I was driving around looking for my car until I realized I was IN my car looking for my car! Maybe this has something to do with our quest to “attain” or “melt into” Dao….working so hard, doing so many practices, studying so many holy books….until we suddenly look up one day, one moment, one year, one lifetime, and realize we have already “attained Dao,” that we really never left it.

 

Laozi says:

 

Dao is eternal and nameless.

Though it seems subtle

no one under heaven can control it.

If princes and kings

could rule in accordance with it

all beings would naturally obey them.

Heaven and earth would be

mutually joined in harmony,

causing the sweet dew to fall upon all.

The people, without being ordered,

would come into harmony naturally.

It is when we begin naming things

and thinking we have control of them,

that we need to know when to stop.

Those who know when to stop

avoid coming to harm.

Dao in the world

is like a river flowing into the sea.

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I love this image of Dao likened to a river flowing into the sea. Or maybe we are that river, made up of many small streams and tiny gushes of water, all flowing down, coming together and merging with the great open sea, the sea of Dao.

 

In these times of cold and confusion, of devotion and despair, of unity and chaos, of honoring and judging……

 

Stay close to your center…..stay clear….stay warm.