We are continuing the commentary from my first book that was published in China in 2004 that appears here on my website. When I first started writing in January 1994, it was to get an introduction to what was to become a lifelong pursuit of self-knowledge, get re-acquainted with eternal memories and update knowledge and wisdom for both me and others. This was initially to write one hundred entries over a hundred-day period that was to begin with the I Ching and finish with Chuang, Lieh, and Lao Tzu conveying my purpose and role as the sage. At the time, I had no awareness or knowledge where my writing would take me, but the words just came, and I was simply to write them down and follow directions…. which I have done.
The following eighteen entries that we will cover will conclude the one hundred entries as an introduction to the path I was to begin to follow up to the present and beyond. There are many additional books, manuscripts, and stories, to convey and to add to, here that may take a number of years to complete. I hope I am up it to it all and I am excited to tell my story. Hopefully, you will want to be in the audience as well.
Finally, I am not trying to convince anyone to become a Taoist, Confucian, a Buddhist, or anything else. We each are here to create our own universe that is as big or small as we are meant to be and do… with a little help from our friends of course. It is all about the growth of our eternal spirit. When I created The Kongdan Foundation back in 2006-07, it was to do the China Daily Word as I have previously described and provide a home for my books and writing. Ultimately, I am a storyteller whose memories are seemingly ageless… and as undefinable as the great Tao.
I plan to talk a lot about both Eastern and Western philosophies, including the values of listening to and learning from Indigenous peoples and their stories. Hopefully you will not only follow but let me know your own ideas as we go. Over the next month or so I will be focusing of introducing us to the three great sages of Taoist history, commonly referred to as dragons, Chuang, Lieh, and Lao Tzu, and what is the Tao?
Voices of the Dragon Part 2
The River of No Return
What is the Tao, but a blade of grass or a daffodil blooming after a Spring rain? Simply the essence of nature’s way and our own connectedness to it and to all things.
What is the Tao, but the pebbles in a stream bed and the water flowing overhead as the trout breathes through its gills finding oxygen only in the water itself?
What is the Tao, but that that seems irrational to all those unknowing of the ultimate way of virtue? Of the inner desire to find peace and to know a certain contentment known only in the journey itself and knowing where the road leads to and where it does not.
What is the Tao, but the beginnings and endings of all things that were comprised of yesterday, occurs today and will happen tomorrow? Everything and nothing together as one in an instant and forever.
What is the Tao, but dragons bringing both good and bad as there must be in all things? Strive to do the right thing by all knowing that the clouds and elements both lead and get in the way of what may fleetingly be considered progress.
What is the Tao, but the abandonment of all things seen as necessary to succeed in the world as we live it with others present? What is the Tao, but the ultimate quest for perfection and immortality and finding mirror images of the sage in ourselves and our everyday actions now and forever yet to come?
What is the Tao, but to flow as a droplet of water down the river of no return? Knowing all the while that in the end you will simply arrive and that in itself will be forever simply enough. 4/10/94
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