So the Tao goes along of itself. And since there is always a basic element of life that cannot be defined - in the same way the Tao cannot be defined - it cannot be controlled. In other words, you can't get outside yourself to define yourself or to control yourself. Lao-tzu would go on to say that since we're an integral part of the natural universe, we cannot hope to control it as if it were an object quite separate from us. You can't get outside of nature to be the master of nature.
*Alan Watts. What Is Tao?. Inclusive language adaptation by this writer. Italicized sentence for emphasis.
* * *
When renting a cabin at a canoe outpost, the owner allowed me to kayak upstream and back downstream on the Santa Fe River in North Florida, for free. If I went downstream, in the opposite direction, they would have to travel to pick me and the kayak up. By going upstream first, I would return to the outpost and the cabin.
I recall how exhausting the first half of the trip was, for going against the flow. I remember how a relief to turn around and flow with the flow.
The spiritual life is a learning to release into the flow. Life is present to carry us. If we are exhausted by the struggle, that is a sign we may have gotten out of sync with Spirit.
Life is not always easy, but it is not meant to be a struggle. The natural Way is of ease, for we are not moving against, we are moving with.
So, anytime we can say, "I'm struggling," look and see. A shift in how we are responding, from against to with, makes a world of difference - it makes all the difference. Why wear yourself out carrying yourself, when you are made to be carried?
* * *
The Zen Teacher Guishan was sitting in the teaching (dharma) hall. The temple cook - Tenzo - hit the wooden fish, as was the custom to announce mealtime.
The monk who attended the fire - Kaju - heard the sound and threw into the fire the piece of wood in his hands. Then, he clapped his hands and burst out laughing.
Guishan said, "Someone in the assembly should get him here and ask him what's going on."
The Kaju said, "I didn't have the morning meal, so I was hungry. That's why I was so happy to hear the sound of the wooden fish."
Guishan nodded.
* * *
The Kaju's response to the sound was appropriate; it fit the situation. Spontaneous wisdom arose, this time, this place - the Word becomes flesh.
The Kaju did not deliberate about what to do. He was not choosing what to do in contrast to what not to do. There was no right or wrong action - just action, and the Kaju was action, too.
The action was meaning-less, purpose-less, goal-less. No one could find a hairbreadth anywhere among the Kaju and the throwing of wood into the fire, the clapping of hands, and laughter.
The three were one, and three.
Guishan does not speak a word. He sees the true nature of the action. Spontaneous wisdom, a silent nod of the head - his action in accord with the Kaju's action.
Spirit dancing is one that one cannot fit inside "ordinary" and "extra-ordinary," or "secular" and "spiritual," or "illusory" and "enlightened," ...
If the Kaju tries to do this action, making it enlightened action, it cannot be enlightened action.
Spirit dances for Spirit dances - Wind and Breath is Air dancing - Music is Sound dancing - Poetry is Words dancing - no explanation has been found for this universal vibration appearing here and here and here in infinite disguise.
* * *
There is nothing special about enlightened action, that is why it is enlightened action - if such were enlightened, it would not be enlightened action.
In the action, manifesting spontaneous wisdom - we simply cover the ground we are standing on - we meet the situation, and it meets us.
In such a time and place, who knows what will happen? No one has ever given a right or wrong answer to that question.
Yet, still, there is always more ready to show itself than we will ever know - and it does, whether we see it or not.
* * *
A couple of friends invited a woman I had never met and me to a dance bar with them. After a time of us four talking, the couple stepped onto the floor to dance together. The band was performing a B.B. King tune - as I recall, it was "The Thrill is Gone."
Earlier, I saw a man celebrating his birthday. He had stepped onto the floor by himself. He was dancing, swinging around and around, hips flowing every which way, and obviously enjoying himself, not needing anyone to join. I admired his freedom to do that. I was not like that man, however. I had always been shy. The last thing I wanted this night was to be out dancing on that floor or anywhere in front of others.
Soon, the woman, the one my friends had introduced me to, said she was going to dance. She invited me to join. I declined. Then, I felt really bad for having declined to join, and there she was, dancing alone.
So, for her, I got out on the floor. I had not danced in decades. All I knew was to start moving hips and hands and feet, as I recalled from those decades before.
Well, to my surprise, I soon began enjoying the experience. I was no longer trying to dance. Like the birthday guy I had watched, I had given myself to the dance. I had become the dance.
I said my goodbyes later that night and went home. When I got home, I was, one could say, still the dance. I was so into dancing, and it into me, I danced alone for a while in my home.
What happened? One way of saying what happened is I experienced the Wu Wei of dancing, or Wu Wei as dancing. Wu Wei is doing something, but doing it so that one yields to the flow.
We hear, "Just go with the flow." Wise advice. But that does not mean to become passive only. It means to act in sync with something more than yourself, call that what you will. So, sometimes, we have to stop and realign ourselves with something more, trusting that our trying to manage life is not working.
* * *
Life is not here for us to manage it. Life is here to carry us where we cannot carry ourselves.
Life does not just flow; Life is the flow, and we are never apart from Life: though we may feel otherwise sometimes. Not feeling in tune with Life can be attuned with Life - thankfully, for we all, at times, do not feel in tune with Life, even when we are.
* * *
Zen Buddhists have a saying: "Don't push the river." Does it need your help? The river is the flow, the flow the river.
In Taoism, the famous phrase is Wu Wei, which many render "No action." Yet, it does not mean no action; it means, no forced action.
Like in a relationship - two cannot control it, they yield to the relationship: and relationship is not static - without re-lating, there is no relatoinship.
In all matters, we must do something, we act - even to give ourselves to the flow is doing something, while not doing something is doing something - and doing and not-doing are part of the flow.
* * *
Many years ago, I started trying to live mindfully, then I came to realize mindful living does not mean trying to live mindfully.
In the morning, do you try to wake up? You wake up.
In the night, what happens, if you try to put yourself to sleep? No, rather, sleep is a falling to sleep, not a climbing to sleep.
Hence, enlightened action is like, rather than rowing, sailing or floating down the river.
Yet, if one does not try to live Wu Wei, they never live Wu Wei - not-trying arises from trying.
Blessed are those who try! Blessed are those who do not try! Blessed is the River! Blessed are you!
* * *
Some may wonder how I have written so much over the last decades - for many years over three-hundred-and-fifty postings. Well, I have not planned the writings. I have an idea, and I begin to write. I do not know the shape the writing will take, and it takes shape during the act of writing. During the writing, other ideas and materials come to mind, from varied sources or life experience. I trust I am not in control. I am a participant. I am a co-creator, not creator. The finished work does not appear, if I do not work. Yet, the process is larger than I am. In writing, not only does the writing take shape out of nothing, I take shape, too, with the writing. The writing co-creates me. And, when finished, it is not my written work. I cannot logically say, "That is mine." And, most truly, "I cannot say, 'I did that.'" Yet, I did, for whatever is its source, is the same intimacy in which I share. Enlightened action is beyond "I did" and "I didn't do." Creativity is Love-in-action. Love does, for I am Love - and so are you. So, my writing has been, and is, a means to give a shape for Love to love. I trust it has been, and will until my last writing, be a blessing that blesses hearts, which is our heart. And, when the last writing is finished, the work will go on, for the work lives on, knowing no edges, and one can say, looking back and looking onward, "Well done. Well done." When you have nothing, you have nothing to give up... you just flow on.
