Contrary to what we see today, there has been a meshing together of similar paths of how we live from the virtue that already exists within us over thousands of years. Living beyond our selves seems always to get in the way. While I write a lot about Taoism and Confucius, I especially like the Buddhist concept of taking what is called the “bodhisattva vow”. Eastern philosophy has always attempted to be a coming together and our doing our part to find common ways to solve problems peacefully in a spiritual manner. Not necessarily in what from the western concept of a religion, but how our actions reflect our innate goodness. Why Confucius teachings of benevolence and virtue came to dominate popular culture over thousands of years. But what has been the hallmark of the I Chingover the centuries is our finding the “complimentary opposites”of all things found in nature and living this way. Just like in the garden where we look to plant companion plants that benefit each other. Planting marigolds to drive away common enemies.
It begins by seeing and treating others with compassion and how we would want others to treat us as well. Our diversity, just as in all things found in nature is our strength. To divide and conquer for the purpose of putting us above others and nature itself is self-defeating. I spend a lot of time writing and talking about history and our obligations to universal love and understanding. That’s why for myself “living the bodhisattva vow” is so important. It is a constant reminder that we live as though meditation and prayer is a constant in our lives. That what is good for me must also be good for you as well. Our neighbors don’t have to think, act, and live just as we do, as long as they respect our path as we learn to respect their path as well.
When I wrote the entry below it was in January 1995. Every line was like an encounter with teachers along the Way. As I was meant to internalize and become what I was writing. As the words were to pass through me, I was meant to reflect my newfound writing. What I would say clearly later was that… what I was to write was to serve as an aid to who I was to become. No ambiguity just to reflect who I am supposed to be for eternity’s sake that wouldn’t become clear until I arrived in Qufu in China years later. Why not begin here with the next chapter, the Yellow Emperor, and traveling as if I am windsurfing through time.
We have always known silence, or is it merely our inability to listen that obscures voices from our past? As we gaze upon the stars and the cosmos, innumerable signals traverse unimaginable distances, serving as messages patiently awaiting discovery. Our challenge of tuning into frequencies we have yet to understand remain real. As we refine our memories and listen, the universe’s hidden conversations may finally come into focus, revealing secrets that have been echoing across the stars all along. Secrets that were never really secrets, only eternal vibrations just waiting to be answered.
The words just flowing through me with little left to be said that might reflect who I had been before riding the winds with Lieh Tzu and my old friends. I was still in Massachusetts and wouldn’t move to Florida for another four or five months. It was in the middle of winter and very cold. I wasn’t working and sending my resume to city planning vacancies across the country. I would soon become the Interim Town Planner in West Warwick, Rhode Island. The path I was to take was not to be harmful to myself or others… it was the path to virtue. This thing called Taoism was speaking to me as though to my memories first, then to actions I would take in the future.
My travels with Lieh Tzu / Interpolations along the Way
21. Chapter Two – The Yellow Emperor
22. Introduction… Windsurfing Through Time
Always to be riding the wind. Free from obstruction.
Xiantao Feng – also known as Fairy Peach Peak on Yellow Mountain. Yellow Mountain is famous for Taoist poets who have written about its beauty for thousands of years.
Not tied to things external to your true nature. Remaining free of needing to control events and knowing not to be hindered by them. Keeping the mind, spirit, and body free from choices and thinking of alternative courses of action that must be taken.
Doing without thinking. Knowing without doing. Understand this parallel and remain free to simply fly away. Never conscience of the next action to be taken. Only aware of what needs to be done without thinking about or doing it. Action coming natural to current events as the natural extension of your inner chi.
Remaining as a mirror to each situation at hand. Unaware of making distinctions between advantage and danger. Behaving with resolute assurance with nothing standing in your way. Remaining enmeshed with harmony. Staying the same as all around you and finding an inner strength waiting to be found without interference.
Unaware of making distinctions between advantage and danger. Behaving with resolute assurance with nothing standing in your way. 
Confucius Temple Qingdao
To be able to walk on hot coals, swim through a fast current or climb the highest mountain and find comfort in doing none of them. Remain forever adaptable to the events swirling around you. Be as the air as it finds its way into everywhere and as water that passes through everything.
Be non‑existent and exist everywhere in all things. Without the need or desire to control events, they simply remain as the ever‑prevailing sage ceasing to be obstructed by them. Free from whatever consequences may come. 1/18/95
Number twenty-two of one hundred fifty-eight entries.
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