 27 Mar 2010 @ 00:08
RETROSPECTIVE
You could labor ten years under a master
Trying to discern whether the teachings are true.
But all you might learn is this:
One must live one's own life.
When one starts out learning a spiritual system, there are many
absolute assertions that the masters make. These must be accepted with a
provisional faith: Each must be tested and proved to yourself before you
can believe in them. You will be exposed to all types of esoteric
knowledge, but you need only be concerned with whether or not you can
make them work for yourself.
There will come an intermediate, joyous point where you find that
certain techniques work even better than the scriptures claim. In the
wake of these discoveries, you will also find that life continues to be
just as thorny and problematic as ever. Does this mean that the stud of
Tao is useless? No. It only means that you have been laboring to equip
yourself with skill. You must still go out and live your life to the
end.
When you look back and realize that you have absorbed the teachings
so thoroughly that they have become routine, it is not the time to
reject the system you have learned. It is the time to utilize what you
have learned. It is the time to utilize what you have learned. You must
express yourself, take action in the world, create new circumstances for
yourself and others. Only then does the long acquisition of skill become
worthwhile.
365 Tao: Daily Meditations
Deng Ming-Dao
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