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paradox

ToV 25 – perfectly imperfect

There was something formless and perfect
before the universe was born.

…since then it’s all kinda gone to shit.

I’ve had a hard time addressing this chapter, in part because it’s been a couple of stupid-busy and disrupting weeks for me, but probably moreso because I have been feeling less than perfect in myself and my life as of late.

I tend to run a cycle from competency in one area of my life into boredom, which prompts me to hurl myself into some new area, overwhelmed and insecure I flounder my way back into competency …then boredom …then down into humility and round we go again. Somehow as of late I have managed to sync up all the different parts of who I am into a down swing in every facet of my life. Painfully aware of nothing but my flaws. So yeah, not really jiving on the “perfection” of this chapter.

I think the lesson though, is it’s in the flaws where the magic happens. Imagine a world where everything WAS perfect:Read More »ToV 25 – perfectly imperfect

ToV 22 – Paradoxical Dating

This chapter opens with a series of lines under what I’d call the category of: f*ing let it go.

If you want to become straight,
let yourself be crooked.
If you want to become full,
let yourself be empty.

And a goodly handful of phrases like that, every one of them a mantra of: stop arguing with reality stop arguing with reality. I love the second part of these lines: let yourself…. If you want something, and here’s the paradoxical part, you have to let go and let yourself be the thing you fear first. It isn’t the pursuit of the thing that gets you what you need, it’s in the letting go of whatever you’re fighting against.

The very last line of this chapter hit me hard, and was what I took with me into my mediation this morning.Read More »ToV 22 – Paradoxical Dating

ToV 3 – embrace bewilderment

The Master leads
by emptying people’s minds,
and filling their cores,
…
He helps people lose everything
they know, everything they desire,
and creates confusion
in those who think that they know.

This whole chapter is really juicy and lays out emptiness, not-doing, and being in accord with the Tao really well. I’ve just pulled a couple of the lines that most captivate me.

The idea of creating confusion in those who think that they know immediately calls to mind the closing line of advice from a Rumi poem (sorry, no direct quote as I’m far from my beloved book collection right now) the line ends in: “give up your cleverness and embrace bewilderment.”

That’s really what it’s all about. Taking power away from your thinking mind – Read More »ToV 3 – embrace bewilderment