Did they leave feeling better than they did when they came?

Did I say things to enlighten their spirits?

Did I acknowledge their pain and frustration?

Did I impart a sense of well-being, compassion, and true concern?

Ancient wise men calling out to the universe / Chengdu Wuhan Temple

Living the Tao leads one to safe refuge in knowing the way and helping others to find theirs.

Four of my friends came by today. 1/28/94

(From Preface of the book” An American journey through the I Ching and Beyond” published in China in 2004).   

Four of my friends came by today… as I joined them in singing and writing songs to the ethos, our virtue, and the universe. Lao and Chuang Tzu, Tolstoy, and Emerson – East meeting West universal in nature with others coming at our beck and call. To simply listen and tell stories that convey wisdom and thought-provoking discussion all freely share. For us we are blessed with individuals whose genius causes an indelibly, lasting mark to be left as life as we know it. These four and many others have done so.  

Telling us that we are to be guided by the best ambitions and attributes of our ancestors to move forward despite any personal difficulties. As though karma is simply to be dealt with and forever cast aside. As we embrace those, we are meant to love who will never leave us. Life ends but the tale of life never ends. Telling us that the story of our lives is never ending and that we are here to convey and believe it. Even to build on the perfection they aspired to and inspired, connecting the mundane to the divine.

Creating the intermediary or go-between in this world and the next through or as their writing. 

Lao Tzu would tell or remind us in the Tao Te Ching that if you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself, if you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you must give is that of your own self-transformation. 

Four of my friends came by today… each with a story to tell adding to the universal language of love and virtue even with Confucius and my friend Thomas Cleary, who translated scores of Buddhists, Taoist, ancient Chinese, and other texts into English, broadening access to these works in the West on the sidelines watching with knowing glances. All conveying similarities found in both East and West, the foundation of what to make of the underpinning seen here on the Kongdan Foundation – as I am referred to by them as Kongdan. Real or imagined, spending time with my peers being time well spent simply following in the footsteps of greatness.  

Becoming enmeshed in the thread that knows no end like pearls on a strand residing as stillness and universal in the nature that becomes us. Listening with the mirror held to the past giving way to the present as Chuang Tzu says that the Perfect Man employs his mind like a mirror; it grasps nothing; it refuses nothing; it receives but does not keep. 

 Four of my friends came by today… with a certain sameness with each speaking as though as one voice conveying the eternal with contributions beyond worldly, or human understanding unless we are willing to go there. What is it we are to emulate while we are here, but lessons learned both past and present from shared experiences of ourselves and others. While following the stars that take us there. 

 I think of Leo Tolstoy born into an aristocratic family in Russia in the mid 1800s. Most think of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, epic books that made him famous. But he lived as a connecting rod for others in the realm of promoting universal understanding. Gandhi who was in South Africa at the time went as far as to create the Tolstoy Farm in appreciation. He was a great linguist in his time and conveyed universal thoughts that were appreciated by many. From him then Gandhi, who Emerson read the circle was to continue. As MLK would learn that it is not just having a dream today but living the dream for tomorrow’s sake. 

For us, it becomes the teachings and wisdom we have followed, the essence of our going forward, contributing to what we have always known. It is the absolute simplicity that you love about it. Your mind clear of confusion as you focus on the light coming from within you reflecting the cosmos and stars above.

Your thoughts becoming focused and sharper, sounds around you richer, as you become filled with a deep and powerful presence. 

Four of my friends came by today… with vibrations converging from the stars above that we attune to for all of us. My role is simply as the storyteller, the connective tissue we all speak to at one time or another. With the evolving question being – what is the role we are here to play for eternity’s sake?

Our efforts becoming the environment and portal created as simply a reminder that we are not only here. Entering the flow of the universe and eternity our home becomes everywhere.  

Finally, Emerson conveys to us the essence of self-reliance and the nature of our role and how we are the mediate differences between the two. Taken together as we become attuned to how we are to respond to the universal algorithms spoken of previously. How is it we capture not only the meaning of what they said, but convey this today?

Together we take people to places they might not otherwise have gone. Today our role should be simply an extension of their genius that speaks to all of us.

Four of my friends came by today…