the kongdan foundation

There is a point in the movie, The Queen’s Gambit, where the main character, Beth Harmon, is described as having apophenia.  

The dictionary describes this as the ability for a person to find meaning where other people do not.

You can understand how a master chess player can see all possible variations on the board and anticipate their opponent’s next move. Knowing this you can see the master plan of how to respond ahead of time.  

In my professional life as a city planner and neighborhood specialist in Florida, I often found people torn between doing their own thing and conforming with the structure needed to combine both freedom and conformity (me included). My role was to try to define the roles of each person and to find the middle way devising a master plan that would last that served the needs of all.  

I had just completed my first book about the I Ching and Taoism, and experiencing change in what would lead to dozens of trips to China to follow.  

Not simply as a tourist, but from the eyes of history, a planner and as a teacher. Where finding the next step and a balance between old and new and to what appears as sometimes extreme. Seeing and learning first-hand what is needed when looking to complimentary opposites, growth, and change.  

As though we are here to get things right for eternity’s sake. Seeing beyond ego and the moment and that we are not yet who we are meant to become. Breaking down barriers as we go as a wake-up call to what we do not want and to what we do.  

When I was teaching college in China, some of my students were from Binzhou, the hometown of Sun Tzu, the author of The Art of War.

A major premise of the book is knowing your enemy’s tendencies, as well as your own, so well that you can anticipate how they will respond to your actions, and then you respond accordingly that leads to victory. Why the game of chess is so intriguing.              

But how does this contribute, or move us forward, in our own personal development now? Why understanding history, tendencies, and outcomes, is important. Why success is learning how to end unhealthy habits and developing skills once found or remembered that we have a natural affinity to move towards is paramount. But where do we begin?

To what great philosophers like Socrates and teachers have always said and taught us – “it is best to know thyself and to have self-knowledge.” 

Coming inward first – evolving with meditation and prayer to where it takes us. Living cycles of renewal that reveal a spiritual journey in which we become both students and teachers, as the way of spirit.

It begins with first knowing who we are with the original blessings that confirm our origins’. Knowing how to live with and in virtue before trying to teach, or have others, to do the same.

Letting go – of those things that do not contribute to our path. This is often conveyed to us by connections we make over time that serve as guard rails. What I like to refer to as guiderails, and who we follow and are our mentors showing us the way.

The breakthrough we encounter that serves to wake us up to our highest endeavor and destiny. Not sure of the destination, but wanting to go there anyway, and finally, conveying compassion and empathy. Not only for our own mindfulness and journey, but more importantly for others and the nature we are here to preserve and protect.  

Through virtue that reaches out to the cosmos asking us from where we are communicating a living tradition that preserves all things found under heaven. 

And just as important… the power of observation. What have others gained by our being present? Or even simply us wanting to go there looking to the freedom of expression and spirit, and in the process leaving our gift, the essence of ourselves behind.

To travel unbounded by dogmas or platitudes of viewpoints held by others. Looking first to our own authenticity.  

To go somewhere seemingly ethereal, celestial, or divine in nature, in which we can find ourselves shaped by what emerges as the best of us as we follow a common law everyone equally is entitled and destined to follow.

With the ultimate travel, being the travel of our spirit by virtue of meditation and mindfulness.

To become as if a monk in our own sanctuary. With enough to do – doing nothing outside of ourselves, as we focus on the algorithms of our lives.  

Acknowledging that there are times that this mindfulness helps to clear away unnecessary clutter that confines us. Like a computer operating from the platform we choose, there needs to be an updating, a refresher – taking form as the transformation and change that define us.

What at first seemed to be beyond me comes as a reminder in the ways of my guide in Lhasa, Tibet and to where he was taking us as remembrances of the past as if seeing beyond what we think we know. Reminding us of the value of a guide and teacher. Someone who has studied the terrain beforehand and knows the best route to follow.

Even to when I was teaching at Jining University with students learning English lending a hand so they could become tour guides at historic sites throughout China as the circle continues never-ending.

Their role to highlight what has remained, as though teaching others areas of interest and history covering thousands of years in the past.

This would be a phenomenon I would encounter over and over again… re-living history in China as though traveling fearlessly with others into the unknown. Comforted by eternal “guiderails” that are always present when we are true to the path we are here to follow. 

To the desire for freedom of expression universal in nature and existing in all things. With the ability to change befitting our highest endeavor as the caveat to the sojourn of spirit. Knowing that we have the tools we need, we just need the wisdom to use them… and to find and use our voice.

That our future is not yet written as we look to an opportunity to expand the consciousness of those around us and to the universal spirit found in nature and the cosmos. 

Misjudging our role initially because we are so humbled by it all as it seems to be overwhelming… until we can follow what Socrates taught us in the beginning. That we are simply to know thyself and having this self-knowledge we too can become free to continue our own journey.