The black girl dog is Lili — short for Lilikoi (Passionfruit) — and the brown boy dog who always smiles and saved Lili’s life when she had kidney troubles as a pup is Koa (like the Hawaiian hardwood).
I’ve just returned from a trip to Boulder and Denver. In Boulder I did a short presentation to some of the good folks at Sounds True, my new publisher. It was great to meet some of the people I have been speaking with and emailing with in the year-long process it took to produce the book. In person, everyone was nicer even than on the phone! It is very exciting to be able to work with such a high-level company, one who really works to make things as smooth as possible during the publishing process and then goes to such lengths to promote the book!
Here is a link to the podcast I did with the Sounds True founder, Tammi Simon. https://bit.ly/1dtEwUT. The link will take you to a whole list of free podcasts that have been done with other very interesting Sounds True authors. (Look for mine under Tao of Intimacy and Ecstasy). We are currently featuring this book on our site at a 20% discount!
Then I went to Denver where my host was Debra Lin Allen, a very gifted qigong healer and mother of an amazing school. While I was there she had a celebration for her graduating class and it was truly touching hearing to hear the stories about their healing journey. (It was a three-tissue event for me.)
Everyone in my class but one were Debra’s students, some of whom have been studying with her for many years, so there was a beautiful cohesiveness in the group, unlike any other class I have taught. I even got to teach a little of Zhuangzi!
One of my friends from our last China Tour, Sarah Freese, joined us, which was a real treat. Not only that but she brought her two dogs! These were not little fluffy things but good sized dogs. I was a bit unsure at first, but I figured if it was alright with Debra it could be all right with me.
Well, the dogs proved to be a really nice addition to the group. They were amazingly well behaved and rolled around in the center of the circle, chewing on their stuffed toys. Then, when we got up to do the movement, they immediately lay down on the floor and didn’t move through our whole form! This is with folks stepping between their legs and over their tails! Doggie Gong!
I have been practicing and teaching the Primordial (Wuji) Qigong form for over 15 years now and it never gets old. The many circling movements just set up such a nice qi field that we are all caught up in the beautiful dance of wuji. I love to travel and teach so if there are any of my readers out there who would like to sponsor a workshop in your area please let me know at solala@abodetao.com.
I have also made a new tea friend, Arron Fisher (Wu De) whose book The Way of Tea is a favorite of ours. He lives in Taiwan and publishes an absolutely beautiful journal called Global Tea Hut, which comes each month with a rare tea! See their website at globateahut.org. He also runs a tea ashram called Tea Sage Hut, a school of Dao and Tea. Look for information how you can visit this Tea and Dao center at their site at teasagehut.org.
Wu De is a beautiful soul who really understands the deep teachings of Dao and Tea. I highly recommend anyone interested in the Way of Tea to look him up!
At my class in Denver I performed a tea ceremony and offered three kinds of tea, including an amazing one I got from my friend Wu Zhongxian called Golden Horse Eyebrow, truly a wonderful brew. Thank you Master Wu!
And thank you to all our readers for all the years we have been publishing. It is so much fun to do the journal in color now! I am having such a good time making it as beautiful as I can!
Daoist Nature Meditation
There was something formed in chaos,
coming before heaven and earth,
existing in the silent and tranquil void.
it stands alone and unchanging,
It pervades everywhere without becoming exhausted,
it is the mother of heaven and earth.
I do not know its name
and so call it Dao.
For want of a better word
I call it great.
Being great it is far reaching.
It is far reaching
yet it returns to its source.
Therefore I say that Dao is great,
heaven is great,
earth is great,
and humankind is great.
In the universe there are four greats
and humankind is one of them.
People follow the way of earth;
earth follows the way of heaven;
heaven follows the way of Dao;
Dao follows its own natural way.
Daode Jing Chapter 25
Wood (Liver)
We begin with the season of spring, the time of year when the new growth of trees, plants, flowers and people begin to reach out towards the life-giving sun. The color associated with spring is green. The totem animal is the Green Dragon. The element is wood, the wood of newly growing grasses, plants, trees and flowers. The direction is east, the direction of the sunrise, of new beginnings, new ventures and adventures. The organ associated with spring is the liver. The positive emotion is free-flowingness, our ability to flow freely through the challenges of our lives. It is also associated with flexibility, the flexibility of the young plant to bend with the wind and not be broken.
Laozi says:
When we are born we are supple and tender
like a young plant.
When we die we become rigid and unyielding.
The ten thousand beings,
including plants and grasses,
when young are soft and pliable.
At their death they are dry and brittle.
Therefore we say that the stiff and unyielding
are the companions of death.
The soft and yielding are the followers of life.
76
In the morning sit, stand or lie upon the earth in an area of trees, bushes, flowers or grass. Open your eyes wide and let the good, deep, green color fill your vision. Allow the color green to fill your being with the energy of new growth. Feel your ability to flow freely throughout the challenges of your life as well as your day-to-day life. Feel the excitement of the new sunrise, the new day, the new opportunities each day brings. Allow your inner being to soften and become as flexible as a newly sprouted blade of grass.
Fire (Summer)
Stand facing the warm light of the sun, eyes closed lightly. Feel the love and gentle warmth of the sun flower inside you, filling you up with the fire of joy and expansiveness.
The color associated with summer is red. The totem animal is the Red Phoenix. The element is fire, the fire of joy and creativity. The direction is south. The organ associated with summer is the heart.
You can also swallow the yang fire of the sun down into your dan tian, though usually not more than nine times (so that you do not overload your system with the fiery yang energy of the sun). Feel the energy of the sun, the supporter of all life on our beloved planet as it shines down upon you and within you, filling you up with light and joy.
Earth (the time between each season)
Stand, sit or better yet, lie down upon the good rich earth. Feel it holding you up, supporting you, caressing you. Move your hands along her ground, your fingers caressing the earth. Feel how, when we lie upon the earth we are connected to everyone lese upon the world as they also live their lives upon it.
The color associated with this time is a rich earthy yellow. The totem animal is the Yellow Dragon. The element is earth. The direction is towards the center of the circle. The organ associated with spring is the spleen. The positive emotion is empathy, a sense of groundedness and a deep connection with all other live forms (the ten thousand beings).
Gold (Autumn)
Stand, sit or lie down, paying close attention to your breath. Breathe deeply, allowing your lungs to fill all the way up, your abdomen expanding as you inhale. Hold it for a few seconds, then breathe out again, emptying your lungs completely. Imagine your lungs as the precious substance that they are. See them as shining gold. (Usually this element is listed as metal but in the alchemical tradition it is seen as gold, a much warmer and more precious element indeed).
The color associated with autumn is white. The totem animal is the White Tiger. The direction is west, the direction of gathering in for the harvest. The organ associated with autumn is the lungs. The positive emotion is courage.
Water (Winter)
Sit, stand or lie down by a body of water – a stream, a pond, a lake, a river, the sea. Listen to the sounds that the water makes. Feel it moving through you as the water of your blood moves through you. Feel yourself dissolve into the water and then be reborn again, over and over.
The color associated with winter is a deep blue/black. The totem animal is the Black Turtle (sometimes in combination with a serpent). The element is water, the deep mysterious water from which all life is born. The direction is north and the energy is that of Returning to the Root. The organ associated with winter is the kidney/adrenals. The positive emotion is that of will and concentration.
Practice non-action (wu wei).
Accomplish without accomplishing.
Taste what has no taste.
The great comes from the small.
More begins with less.
Return bitterness with kindness.
Deal with the difficult while it is still easy.
Create the large from the small.
The sage does not try for greatness
And so she is great.
Promises made too lightly are hard to keep.
Easy tasks often become difficult.
The sage is always ready for difficulties
And for this reason never experiences them.
Laozi 63
Well it looks like once again I have been majorly remiss about adding a new blog. Life is just so darn full! We recently connected with a new printer in IL who, for the same price I have been paying for black and white printing of The Empty Vessel, does it in full color! We just did our first issue with them and it turned out great! (You can find it, the Spring 14 issue in our store.)
It is really pretty amazing that we have managed to keep this magazine afloat for so many years (21). It was the fall of 1993 that I was inspired to start a Daoist magazine once I looked around and saw there was nothing that really went into the Daoist philosophy as well as practices, at least here in the States. Actually, I was initially inspired by Tricycle, a very fine Buddhist magazine.
And of course the name for the magazine comes from Laozi, chapter 4.
Dao is an empty vessel;
it is used but never exhausted.
It is the fathomless source
of the ten thousand beings!
It blunts the sharp
and untangles the knots.
It softens the glare
and unites with the dust of the world.
It is tranquil and serene
and endures forever.
I do not know from where it comes
yet it is the ancestor of us all.
In the 21 years since I began the magazine I have tried to become that empty vessel, to bring these wonderful practices and teachings from Daoism to my readers and students. Recently, when I interviewed Dr. Bernard Shannon, medical qigong healer and instructor as well as ordained Daoist priest, for the Spring issue, he mentioned a term that is used in his school in China for anyone that identifies with Daoism but is not ordained: Daoyou, meaning “friend of the dao.”
I love this idea of being a friend of Dao. I have met so many wonderful people while publishing this magazine all these years. It has taken me to so many wonderful places and I look forward to continuing on this path for this lifetime at least!
I bow in gratitude to all the Daoyou’s out there!
When you enlarge your mind and let go of it,
When you relax your qi and expand it,
When your body is calm and unmoving,
and you can maintain ones and discard the myriad disturbances—
Then you will see profit and not be enticed by it.
You will see harm and not be frightened by it,
Relaxed and unwound, yet acutely sensitive,
In solitude you delight in your own person.
This is called, “revolving the qi”;
Your thoughts and deeds seem heavenly.
Nei-ye (Inward Training)
(from Original Tao by Harold D. Roth)
Watching the Incense
I like to burn a lot of incense in my office, home and temple. I always enjoy watching the smoke rise in elegant shapes from the incense burner, drifting off slowly into the air. It looks like some sort of slow motion dance, much like the taiji or qigong dance that I practice. Sometimes I can see animals or trees or shapely clouds in the smoke. I like to use something simple like sandalwood or aloes wood incense, nothing too sweet or cloying.
I also have some incense that I was given by the vice abbot at the Jade Springs monastery at Hua Shan, a sacred Daoism mountain, years ago. I don’t know what it’s called. I call it “Daoist incense.” I have only seen it at that one mountain. The last time I was there I bought a huge amount of it, enough for years, from a woman who sold from a little cart at the bottom of the mountain. She was so amazed when this “big nose” kept buying her entire store of the incense. She even ran inside and found a few more bundles of it. She laughed and laughed when I bought it all.
Incense or incense like plants have been used for thousands of years by various cultures abound the world to call in the spirits and communicate with helpful guides. Sometimes I recite an invocation for burning incense, taught by my teacher, Hua Ching Ni.
It starts off:
I cultivate myself and follow the Heavenly Way
With a lucid mind and subtle energy.
with this incense I connect my whole being
with that of all Divine Immortals.
(You can see the rest of this in Master Ni’s book, Workbook for Spiritual Development.)
Shanti and I have also been having fun with some really high quality essential oils from Young Living, especially one called Joy and one called Sacred Mountain. Diffusing these into the air in our home brings about a beautiful energy and lightens our spirits.
Whether it is ‘Daoist incense,” sage, sweetgrass, essential oils or myrrh or other aromatic oils from ancient times that are used, they become gateways into the spirit world and help us communicate with “all the Divine Immortals.”
Under heaven everyone knows that the existence of beauty
depends on the existence of ugliness.
Everyone knows the capacity of kindness
depends on the existence of the unkind.
Existence and nothingness are mutually born,
difficult and easy complete each other,
long and short shape each other,
tall and short rest upon each other,
sound and music harmonize each other,
before and after follow one another.
Because of this the sage
dwells in the world of non-action,
practices teaching without speaking.
The ten thousand beings rise and fall
and she does makes no claim on them.
She creates but does possess them.
She works but does not take credit for it.
Because she does not take credit for her accomplishments
they will last forever.
Daode Jing Chapter 2
I have been reading a wonderful book called The Four Agreements. I love this book! The teachings are very simple yet very profound, always a good combination! They are as follows:
1. Be Impeccable with your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
3. Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.
I think I will be working with number 2 for the rest of my life! I think that if we really work on applying these principles to our daily life our self-cultivation will be that much more powerful. In chapter 2 of the Daode Jing Laozi says:
Under heaven everyone knows that the existence of beauty
depends on the existence of ugliness.
Everyone knows the capacity of kindness
depends on the existence of the unkind.
Existence and nothingness are mutually born,
difficult and easy complete each other;
long and short shape each other;
tall and short rest upon each other;
sound and music harmonize each other;
before and after follow one another.
Because of this the sage
dwells in the world of non-action,
practices teaching without speaking.
The ten thousand beings rise and fall
and she does makes no claim on them.
She creates but does possess them.
She works but does not take credit for it.
Because she does not take credit for her accomplishments
they will last forever.
The combination of the Four Agreements with the teachings of Laozi and Zhuangzi will make our cultivation practices even more powerful!
Chu Chai Tzu said to this teacher Chang Wu Tzu, “I have heard from Confucious that the sage does not involve herself with things of the world. She does not seek gain or try to avoid loss. She seeks nothing and does not even cling to Tao. She speaks without using words, and when using words does not say anything. Thus she travels beyond this world of dust. Confucious thinks these are just empty and fanciful words, but to me they seem like the very way of the mysterious Tao. What do you think?”
Chang Wu Tzu answered, “Even the Yellow Emperor himself would have been confused by these words; how can Confucious hope to understand them? I will speak to you a little recklessly and I want you to listen the same way. The sage floats alongside the sun and moon and embraces the universe, joining it all together into one great whole. She rejects distinctions and ignores social rank. Ordinary men struggle and toil while the sage seems stupid and blockheaded. To her ten thousand years are but one. To her the ten thousand beings are all one, forming a whole.
“How do I not know that loving life is a foolish delusion? How do I know if fearing death is like a man, who upon leaving home, cannot remember the way back and becomes afraid?”
from The Inner Chapters of Chuang Tzu by Solala Towler
