dao interaction

interaction We make life real By the thoughts we project. The panorama of the objective world is meaningless until we interact with it. For example, if there is a rock that we pass day after day but we do not notice, then that rock has no significance for us. If we decide to make that rock a votive object and pray to it for decades, then that rock becomes quite important. To an outsider, who does not subscribe to the rock’s assigned meaning, it will continue to be just a rock. In all cases, the rock was just a rock. It was only human interaction that created its meaning. It is a mistake to assume that the meaning we give to something is as concrete and tangible as the object itself. We should not confuse the two. For example, our house may be precious to us, but our sense of preciousness has nothing to do with the building—it comes from the values and memories we associate with it. If we lose our house, we must remember that it is the feeling we have for it, not just the building itself, that determines our loss. If all perception of reality is subjective, some schools of though suggest that we should therefore see everything as unreal. By contrast, followers of Tao maintain that we must still interact with the world. If we do not take initiative and work with this phenomena of projecting meaning and receiving its echoes, we fall into a state of dormancy, and the world will not exist for us at all. As long as we remember that meanings we attribute to objects are subjective, we will avoid mistakes. interaction 365 Tao daily meditations Deng Ming-Dao (author) ISBN 0-06-250223-9 TIBET: TREASURES FROM THE ROOF OF THE WORLD King Songtsen Gambo Tibet, 13th Century Potala Palace Collection Photo Courtesy of Bowers Museum A rare surviving imperial portrait, made in the 13th century, this finely detailed sculpture honors the great Tibetan king, Songtsen Gambo, who in the 7th century, united Tibet into a large and influential Asian kingdom. Through his two marriages to Nepalese and Chinese princesses, he established Buddhism in Tibet. The small head that tops his headdress is that of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion and the patron deity of Tibet. T A O t e C H I N G n i n e t e e n If we could discard knowledge and wisdom Then people would profit a hundredfold; If we could discard duty and justice Then harmonious relationships would form; If we could discard artifice and profit Then waste and theft would disappear. Yet such remedies treat only symptoms And so they are inadequate. People need personal remedies: Reveal your naked self and embrace your original nature; Bind your self-interest and control your ambition; Forget your habits and simplify your affairs. receive a full HTML copy of the daily meditation sent directly to your inbox, please send a note with the words “subscribe tao” in the subject line to duckdaotsu

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