Looking back now, over the thirty years since I wrote this, I can only reflect on what I have always known. With almost fifty trips to China and Qufu, living and teaching in Qufu and seeing places I have always known, physically walking in the same footsteps as Confucius and so many others, I have lived the paradox. Living by “today’s standards” in so many ways seem remote and distant. As though I am clamoring for a distant mountaintop I have travelled so many lifetimes, and times before.
The Paradox
Some people go through their entire lives not knowing who they are, where they have been, or where they are going. You are fortunate. You have a chance to see to know to understand where you are from, why you are here, and where you are going. To know who you are, who you have been, and you will be along the way.
You are fortunate. You have a chance to see to know to understand where you are from, why you are here, and where you are going.
To know who you are, who you have been, and you will be along the way. However, you must know that to know is not to know, and to have is not to have. To see is not to be, and who you will be is not to see. For whatever is useful by the world’s standards cannot be useful in finding the Tao.
It is the eternal nature of the Tao and Te (the way of virtue) that is to be found. Reality becomes, is and will be the chance endeavor to find the Tao. 1/15/94
It became as though I was following footsteps of those I would come to know as mentors. Lao, Lieh, and Chuang Tzu releasing and revisiting memories of who I have always been and only needed to explore the depth of what I have forgotten. My writing would be the key as experiences were to act as an aid in seeing through the clutter of the current, to what lies at the depth of spirit and nature. Not only my own looking inward, but outward to nature and discover my role that would propel me to come home renewed and to venture out again and again.
One Step to Find the Way
It is said that a journey of one thousand miles begins with one step.
To find the way, you must first find yourself. If you do not find your center and know yourself, how can you expect to know the way.
It will be in finding your way to your center that you will come to know yourself and dragons and begin to find the way. 1/17/94
Up to this point, I had only been studying Taoism about six weeks and had not begun the I Ching yet. This was all very intense as my writing took center stage that would lead me to leave Fall River and eventually make my way to Florida. Three years later, after beginning a new job we would make our first trip to China in May 1997 when we adopted our first daughter who as from Maoming south of Guangzhou. Not only finding our daughter in China but finding myself there as well.
Forgetting Oneself in the Tao
Sincerity is the first step of knowledge toward the way It is by silence that the knowledge is maintained, and it is with gentleness that the Tao is employed.
By attaining this you may forget your personality. You may forget that you are forgetting. (An interpretation of the writings of Yu Shu Ching, 1/21/94).