Those who have recently visited my website have seen a change in the layout and order as to how things appear. I was fortunate to attend the WordPress program in Fayetteville, Arkansas, last weekend and got assistance with how to best use this venue. Hopefully, this new “divine order” will assist in expressing what is found here. Secondly, I want to give a “shout out” to Reverend Nancy Norman, the minister at Unity of Delray Beach, Florida, who is retiring this month after more than twenty years. Nancy and Unity of Delray Beach were instrumental in assisting with the printing of the Unity Daily Word by The Kongdan Foundation back in 2006-07 in Western Shandong Province. Issues of that publication have now been seen by more than two and a half million people in China. For many, especially in the countryside they are a keepsake, like the family Bible. Some villages keep all the issues in a central location so they can be viewed by all. They won’t allow them to be checked out like a library. People can come and make copies, but cannot leave with original. Thank you, Reverend Nancy Norman, and have a joyous retirement.

Keeping to our innate and ever-present Virtue

One of my favorite themes of Sun Tzu’s Art of War is that we should fight our enemy where they are not. This does not simply mean in a physical sense, or that we should leave where we are, but to consciously go where others choose not to and fill in the vacuum. To fill our and their environment with what we do want to experience. Others will soon see the difference and have a choice to make. Perhaps our role is in assisting them in making that choice with clear intention and action that leads the way forward for all. Final destinations or outcomes only occurring when all arrive with their virtue intact.

A truism I have been thinking about recently is the idea – that if we (you) abandon your origins, is it possible to erase the claim they have on our body and soul? What can this possibly mean? And can it matter. As I have pondered this thought over the years along with the concept of transformation, I have often been left with this idea asking are we an island unto ourselves, or do we embrace the laws of attraction and embrace our highest selves as we relate with others, and what is that.  This has always been the paradox of the sage. Do I only focus on my own enlightenment, or must I bring all those I encounter along with me? As Confucius, Lao Tzu and many others have said, ‘we are not here to create – but to relate”.  It is about our relationships, and bringing others to their own highest endeavors and destiny that we are here to convey. I have sat on mountaintops in China peering into the other side, where only those who have come before us reside and asked what is our role and how can we best achieve this. Seeing beyond the clouds one can begin to see the answer lies only within ourselves.

More than fifty years ago, Alan Watts of the “beat generation”, told us we must first “return to our source”. Soon afterwards Ram Dass stated “the person I am from nine to five, is not the person I am from five to nine”. We have come a long way in promoting positive human connections since then. And more recently Ram Dass stressed that “we all are simply walking each other home”. This serves as a preface for how we live today. Mainly in understanding our own personal vibrations and role – that what we put out, returns to us.

One of the endearing themes of Chinese culture is the notion of the “Great Unity” that appeared in the Book of Rites, one of the Confucian Chinese classics. This was finalized first in about 1000 B.C. by Ji Dan, the Duke of Zhou from Qufu (where I go and consider my home when in China).  According to it, the society in Great Unity was ruled by the public, where the people chose men of virtue and ability, and valued trust, virtue, and harmony. People did not only love their own parents and children, but also secured the living of the elderly until their ends, let the adults be of use to the society, and helped the young grow. Those who were widowed, orphaned, childless, handicapped and diseased were all taken care of. Men took their responsibilities and women had their homes. People disliked seeing resources being wasted but did not seek to possess them; they wanted to exert their strength but did not do it for their own benefit. Therefore, selfish thoughts were dismissed, people refrained from stealing and robbery, and the outer doors remained open. It is this guiding principle that allowed religious practice (Buddhism, Taoism, and yes even Christianity), to come alongside and not dominate, but find it’s correct place in society. This thought guided Confucius 500 years later as he wrote about benevolence and virtue and has been a guiding tenet of Chinese culture for over three thousand years… and helps to define the pragmatism found in China today.

This website, thekongdanfoundation.com, purpose is to promote these positive human connections by relaying that what we see happening today, is the same human interaction the world has experienced from the beginning of time. It is the interaction of people that determines the outcome of how things co-exist with universal laws found in nature, the universe and beyond. It is our own commentary on how we express these “vibrations” and manifest them in ourselves and daily lives that matters. Because this is how we choose to live and build on relationships with others. This self-expression, as such, is what defines us. Acknowledging this we can develop the potential for the awakened mind that resides in all of us. This seed is the basis of Buddhist practice—and really if truth be told, when we all can begin to look over the horizon with our innate wisdom and compassion toward all sentient beings, to all religious practice. That we should stop being a glass with our thoughts and become a lake. We do not exist as singular beings, but depend to others and the laws of nature to show us the way. Thereby, freeing ourselves of thoughts of unworthiness. That when we return to our innate selves, we acknowledge that each and every person has value and at their core is simple virtue looking to find a way home. Just as Alan Watts and Ram Dass said. As we fill the vacuum, we fill ourselves and those around us with the environment of what we do want to experience. In this way transformation, our own re-alignment, and the change needed in our world can begin to occur.