Good Wednesday to You!
Today is a great day to pause, feel the TAO, and clarify your dream.
I had a very busy day yesterday coaching an amazing client who is a musician, along with the many other tasks to be completed each day.
I didn’t get to the gym until late in the day. I was tired so I did a baby deadlift, high cable row, reptilian crawl session. After I was done, I felt great.
I went home to continue my research into herbal remedies, have some dinner, and work on a piece of art.
The moon was almost full last night and the energy was amazing in my rock garden.
I left one of my herbal concoctions out among the stones in the moonlight; I thought maybe the coyotes would enjoy a taste but I didn’t see any signs of their presence.
They are usually out singing in full force on the full moon so tonight, when I hear them singing, I’ll probably get out of bed and go visit them. There are often several of them that come sing right in my front yard and it’s an incredible experience. They are very cool, sly dogs indeed!
I know my tai-chi was progressing nicely when I became able to sneak up on them and surprise them ☺.
THE MASTERS ON GOD, TAO AND UNIVERSAL MIND
Today I thought I’d share some more of the teachings of Jesus, Krishna, Buddha and Lao Tzu from the same book I quoted yesterday. My soul guided me to the chapter on God, Tao and Universal Mind, page 50-51:
JESUS
God is Spirit,
and those who worship him
must worship in spirit and truth.
– The Gospel of John
KRISHNA
The power that pervades all action of nature and man
is the power of God. To realize this is to become immortal.
– Kena Uponishad
BUDDHA
Transcendental Intelligence is not subject to birth or death!
it transcends all dualistic concepts.
– The Lankavatara Sutra
LAO TZU
Tao is beyond all words.
It can only be apprehended in silence.
– Chuang Tzu
COMMENTARY:
In Shankara’s Crest-Jewel of Discrimination, Shankara, the Hindu Philosopher-Sage said, “Man cannot understand scripture until he is enlightened. When man is enlightened, he has no need to read scripture.”
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The world is a history book full of wars and battles of every kind imaginable that have resulted from rigid beliefs in religious systems and their unique scriptures. It is largely a problem of dogmatic adherence to “words”; words are open to a wide variety of interpretations, and lawyers are proof of just how far any word or group of words can be stretched in their meaning.
The problems of religious difference and conflicts could be said to stem from “talking about God”. Therein lies the problem. The word “about” means “around”, not to, nor through, or into.
All words create edge and aspect. When we talk about God, we create “things” to represent our own interpretations of God. But talking “about” God is not an authentic representation of God.
To exemplify my point here, imagine if you had the ability to look into the world from the afterlife and see people reading about you and making judgments of you from what they have read; particularly since most of the masters didn’t write anything down themselves!
How many misinterpretations of you would be made by reading about you when the readings were written by others? How would you feel when others were battling and killing each other over the “words” that have been attributed to your voice, your pen?
Osho makes a very good point when he says, “There is no religion before Lao Tzu, and there is no religion after Lao Tzu!”
Why?
This is why:
Tao is beyond all words.
It can only be apprehended in silence.
“TAO” is an ALL INCLUSIVE word; it includes the Absolute and the relative, while representing the middle way; the path of greatest efficiency in life.
Religions at their base are essentially a collection of “words” that are used to induce beliefs and practices that reflect such beliefs. When the practiced beliefs lead to more violence and division, they are not expressing the most efficient way to live and love.
This is exactly why most of the great masters didn’t write things down, nor what their disciples doing so either; they knew the danger of words!
Osho’s comment on Lao Tzu isn’t a put-down. It’s an observation made by a man that devoted his life to an authentic experience of healing himself and taking others on the journey that wanted to go with him.
Osho himself became so challenged by all the gossip and misinterpretations of his teachings that he went into silence for a year and any student had to learn by being present, not by talking!
Because the ego-mind operates on the principle of exclusion, words themselves can never adequately describe God (and certainly not GOD – THE ABSOLUTE), for God means wholeness, or Totality.
Lao Tzu encourages us all to go into silence. When most people enter into silence, they are asleep, and therefore, unconscious.
To experience God, we must be willing to practice being conscious, fully conscious, in Silence.
When one truly experiences God, you can always tell because they can’t find words to express their experience. They all innately know that any attempt at wordy descriptions of The Profound only taint the truth of the experience and mislead others.
The safest path to God awareness isn’t reading, talking, or debating. It is simply to be still and be fully conscious.
As the ego mind falls away, it is as though the sunroof opens and the vault of the heavens and hells dissolves into No-Thing, yet, the peace, love, clarity and connection are indescribable.
Fear of death drops away, for when one has their own inner-experience of God, death is but a return to the Self that you truly are; but why wait until death to celebrate what you can celebrate now, in life.
When we choose to dip into the Divine Well and drink from it, the scent of peace and joyfulness begins to exude from us. All we need do then is live and love.
All who are ready to express what lives inherently within them become the silent lovers and teachers of the world.
Who could ask for more than that?
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
PS: The art above is my drawing of The Last Four Doctors You’ll Ever Need (Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, Dr. Movement and Dr. Happiness). The words written in Chinese mean, “Use your heart to feel what you know.”
You can learn more about how to create your own (healthy!) living philosophy by studying my simple, but effective multimedia e-book, The Last Four Doctors You’ll Ever Need – How To Get Healthy Now!
This and the L4D audio companions are available at www.ppssuccess.com