Rising and Advancing in Spirit

From 365 Tao Meditations
Demons who enter your circle
Must be pushed out.


No matter what world you walk in -- office, school, temple, prison, or the streets -- there is an underworld populated with demons. These are people who are avaricious, aggressive, sadistic, and cynical. They not only take advantage of others without compunction, they delight in it. They find pleasure in seeing others suffer.
The why of it cannot be answered. There is only the fact, with no metaphysical meaning or other ramifications. It is not karma, it is not fate. If these people decide to attack you, it is circumstance. You must fight or be mowed down.

Compassion and humility may be among the most treasured of human virtues, but they are not useful in conflict. A beautiful gold statue of your most adored god is a treasure, but you would not use it as a weapon. Virtue is to be value in the proper context; only a sword will do in battle.

Whether an attack is physical -- assault, rape, murder -- or whether it is mental -- business intrigues, emotional abuse -- you must be prepared. It is best to prepare for conflict by learning as much self-defense as possible. You will not become a bully or a monster, but instead, you will learn that you an respond to any situation. If you are never attacked, that will be wonderful. Training will still help you work out your fears, inhibitions, and anxieties. In the case of conflict, no one, not even a veteran, is ever sure that they will come out alive from a confrontation. But they resolve to go in there and give themselves a fighting chance. This in itself is a triumph over evil.

Over the weekend I spent time with my best friend in this world. He lives about an hour from me and in our lives we have gone long periods without seeing each other or even talking. That's a shame. But as my friend reminded me, there is a bond between us that is so great that should a decade go by without speaking, the two of us can come together and pick up where we left off. Burt's spirit and my spirit have walked together for a long time and will do so long after we leave this world.

I tell you this, and remind myself of this, because I have for many years surrounded myself with false friends. There have been 'friends' in my life that are merely neglectful and there are those that have actively chosen to betray me. Recently I had to look into the face of a friend who betrayed me and then remove them from my life.

The betrayal was so painful that it still deeply impacts me. In many ways it is the reason I started exploring my feelings here and looking for calming techniques and means of finding lasting peace. At this point, there is still not a day that goes by that I don't think about the betrayal or the betrayer. There are many reasons I did not beat him within an inch of his life. The fact that it would do further damage to my spirit is only one of them.

I struggle to exorcise this demon from my life every day. It doesn't help that he is still peripherally in my life. We share friends and his wife is my wife's friend. In the end, our mutual 'friends' were told by me that what passed between myself and the betrayer was 'personal' and left it at that. I am led to understand that he did not portray the even the same way.

I am easy to paint as the villain. I can be dark and rigid and unloveable. No matter how spotless I may truly be, I will always be the bad guy. I can live with that.

The lessons learned are that spiritual cleansing is as important and the physical cleansing. To do what is right you must be willing to sacrifice, true friends are forever and, finally, to allow evil people to haunt you after you have removed them from your life gives them a power of which they are unworthy.

Peace

The lesson of the farmer

from 365 Tao

City on a hill,
Untouched land beyond.
A fallow field is
The secret of fertility.


In the city, we see millions of lives represented in the windows, doors, and many floors of each building. We see excitement and the glories of civilization. But no matter how much those who follow Tao may enjoy the city, they understand the need for retreat into nature.
In the countryside, they find the nurturing quality of freedom. They can see new possibilities and can wander without societal impositions. In the past, pioneers saw the open prairies and were filled with dreams of dominating nature with the glories of man. Now we know different : We must preserve the wilds for our very survival.

We need time to lie fallow. If you cannot leave the city, just find a little quiet time each day to withdraw into yourself. If you are able to walk in fields or in the hills, so much the better. But none of us can maintain the fertility of our beings without renewal.

Update

*migrated from tao_te_shen*

When I first created this journal it was to truly journalize what I saw and thought and to chronicle the advancement of my spirit through the learning process of finding peace and learning to be the kind of person we all should be.

As a result my other journal has been relegated to humor, movie stuff and 'updates'.

So, here's a real update. It's been a rough year, verytime I get my hands around one challenege, another appears. Sometimes it feels like a boxing match where I don't get to sit down between rounds. I just want to sit down, ya know?

This has led to irritibility and stress, which leads to me picking fights and fits of anger. My wife is a saint for putting up with me.

Today is better, much better in fact.

What do you think about when you are not focusing on your stresses and worries? Those things are the fields upon which you learn to discipline your mind and spirit.

We have to distinguish between discipline with a purpose and blind discipline. Discipline with a purpose is a means to an end and is healthy. Blind discipline does not have a purpose and becomes fanaticism. We must be disciplined, but not lose sight of our purpose.

The Purpose of our discipline is to learn to live in the now, to learn patience and to advance the spirit.

Peace.

Time, like the river, flows.

The river has three parts: the source, the body and the mouth. Time has three parts: the past, the present and the future. As time flows, we are carried along from the past to the future in the never ending present.

We cannot live in the past, just as we cannot exist only at the source of the river. If the source does not flow, it grows stagnant and therefore the waters must move towards the sea.

We cannot live in the future, just as the waters of the river cannot suddenly appear at the mouth of the river. As the river reaches the sea and becomes the mouth, it is the totality of its experience from the source. The speed and content of the river are built over time. We cannot know the future, dwelling at some future point that is a fantasy, but we can plan for it, being ever mindful of the lessons the past has taught us.

We must live in the present, just as the waters of the river flow. We must be mindful of past and learn from it, knowing that we come from the source, like the river. We must plan, wise, for the future, knowing that we must decide what we shall be as we approach the sea.

What sort of river shall we be?