 25 May 2010 @ 12:55
VIEWS
Red sea through pine lattice.
Islands kneel like vassals before headlands.
Rain clouds snag on coastal ridges.
Yarrow stands spectral in the lighthouse beam.
It is difficult to take in the details of a landscape all at once.
Our eyes can only focus on one point at a time. We look near, then we
look far. We look left, then we look right. Our view of any one subject,
if it is large, is never whole but is a composite image in our minds.
The same is true in regard to our approach to Tao.
Tao is continuous, flowing, and changing, but there is no knowing it
in a single view. We rely on composite images that we form in ourselves.
For a beginner, glimpses of Tao will be random and fleeting. You will
stumble on it from time to time, or you will see it in the brief spaces
between events. For the mature practitioner, your composite view comes
from training, technique, research, and the experience of
self-cultivation. But even after years, it is impossible to take in the
totality.
There is a way to know Tao directly and completely. It requires the
awakening of one's spiritual force. When this happens, spirituality
manifests as a brilliant light. Your mind expands into a glowing
presence. Like a lighthouse, this beacon of energy becomes illumination
and eye at the same time. Significantly, however, what it shows, it also
knows directly. It is the light that sees.
365 Tao: Daily Meditations
Deng Ming-Dao
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