dao entertainment

The mind that turns ever outward Will have no end to craving. Only the mind turned inward will find a still-point of peace. It seems people never tire of seeking new thrills. They crave entertainment, and they want newer, sharper experiences. Events do not even need to be actual—people are more than content with recreations, displays, and stimulating machines. Music must be amplified. An historic location must have museums, shops, and festivals. Life must have elaborate ceremonies with images, music, speaking, dining, and drinking. Followers of Tao regard all reality as being projections of our minds. All phenomena are subjective and relative. Therefore, it is folly to further entangle ourselves in confusion. True reality lies in withdrawal from the swirling variations of the outside world. It lies in looking within and then slowly peeling away the layers of subjectivity. What will remain is not a core of objectivity, but a kernel of truth that absorbs rather than reflects. If we enter into this kernel, our minds cease to continue their habits of creating stimulating realities, and we enter into a silence that feels perfect and whole. entertainment 365 Tao daily meditations Deng Ming-Dao (author) ISBN 0-06-250223-9 Where do we come from? gouache & ink, diptych on Kyro, 70 x 100 cm, 1968, unsigned Inscribed on the back: D'où venons-nous T'ang is born in 1927, in Amoy, now Xiamen, an island located in the Formosa Strait, along the Fujian coast, a province of Southern China. Amoy is one of the ports that opens to trade after the Opium wars and falls back into apathy when Hong Kong becomes the gateway to China. At the start of the 20th Century, the island is still green and peaceful, basking in the sunny climate of the tropic of Cancer. Time is running slowly, paced by the Taoist calendar and the arrival of boats. The economy is based on fishing, boat making, and the maritime trade. Every one has a cousin or a brother striving to "make a fortune" somewhere else in the world. Peking is far away and the Fujian look out to the open sea. The islanders go to the great isle of Formosa, now Taiwan, to visit relatives or sell goods. On several occasions, T'ang escorts his father there. Like all Chinese children, he learns by heart the words of the Daodejing, the book of the way by Laozi. Superstition and devotion are found in many of the rites designed to heal the sick, exorcise demons and honor ancestors or deities. Somehow, every human activity is attached to a ritual. In 1937, when the war starts in Asia, T'ang's father takes his family to Cholon, the Chinese district of Saigon, in Indochina. This crossing is T'ang's first lengthy trip. Here is what he wrote to his brother thirty years later: "I remember stories told about my childhood. It seems that I used to get lost in the crowd, and perhaps, something inside is drawing me towards the unknown. I don't need the sense of security that appeals to others". Following his arrival, he joins the Southern Chinese Communities School and befriends a young girl named Ming Qing. In 1942, Ming Qing drowns while crossing a canal. This is the first tragic event in T'ang's life. One year later, he attends the French school in Saigon, as a serious and hard-working student. By this time, he is already drawing pencil portraits on the pages of his French-Chinese dictionary. Then, he also underlines a few words in red ink: peintre (painter), peintresse (woman painter), peinturage (peinturing), peinture (paint). His grandfather, son of a member of the imperial administration, is teaching him calligraphy according to the cursive script, the academic and regular standard. (continued tomorrow) T A O t e C H I N G f o r t y Return is the movement of the Tao. Yielding is the way of the Tao. All things are born of being. Being is born of non-being. — translation by S. MITCHELL Returning is the motion of the Tao. Yielding is the way of the Tao. The ten thousand things are born of being. Being is born of not being. — translation by GIA-FU FENG Return is the motion of the Tao. Softening is its function. All things in the cosmos arise from being. Being arises from non-being. — translation by C MULLER Motion and Use The motion of the Way is to return; The use of the Way is to accept; All things come from the Way, And the Way comes from nothing. — translation by P. MEREL Reversal That which is converse is the action of a guide. That which is weak is the use of a guide. The cosmos and the ten-thousand natural kinds arise from 'existing.' 'Existing' arises from 'non-existing.' — translation by C. HANSEN The movement of the Way is a return; In weakness lies its major usefulness. From What-is all the world of things was born But What-is sprang in turn from What-is-not. — translation by R. B. BLAKEY Reversion is the action of dao. In dao the only motion is a return; and the one useful quality is named soft [or polite] gentleness, So polite or weak gentleness [or humility] is the function of dao. The creatures and things of this world come from being. And being from not-yet-being. — translation by T. BYRN a reading list of books and interpretations of the Daodejing is available at http://wwww.duckdaotsu.org/dao_books.html for a meditation sent to your email address each day, please write ’subscribe tao’ in the subject line and send to lisbeth at duckdaotsu