Faithful Doubter

Can you hold on to your ego
and still stay focused on Tao?

Can you relax your mind and body
and brace yourself for a new life?

Can you check yourself
and see past
what's in front of your eyes?

Can you be a leader
and not try to prove you're in charge?

Can you deal with what's happening
and let it happen?

Can you forget what you know
and understand what's real?

Start a job and see it through.
Have things
without holding on to them.
Do the job
without expectation of reward.
Lead people
without giving orders.
That's the way you do it.
-

Tao Te Ching, Chapter 10 (the version is the Beatrice Tao)


Daily Tao - 10

"Religion is at its best when it helps us ask questions and holds us in a state of wonder;--and arguably at its worst when it tries to answer those questions authoritatively and dogmatically." -- Karen Armstrong

I have always preferred my own definition of religion to those offered by others, whether social scientists, humanists, or religious practitioners.  Religion is the human effort to spiritualize life and society's effort to socialize spirituality.  This means that religion will always be at war with itself because humans will always want religions to free them from (or at least help them to relieve) burdens which are largely socially imposed; while society will always try to use religion as a mechanism of social control.  I always value human efforts to find a deeper meaning to our lives; but i hope i will always protest society's efforts to control us through fear or hope of an after life.

How utterly amazing is someone who flees from something he cannot escape
      to seek something that will not last!

“It is not the eyes that are blind,
      but the hearts in the breasts are blind.”

Do not travel from phenomenal being to phenomenal being.
You will be like the donkey going around at the mill.
      It travels to what it set out from.

Travel from phenomenal beings
            to the Maker of Being.

“And the final end is to your Lord.”



— from Ibn ‘Ata’ Illah the Book of Wisdom/Kwaja Abdullah Ansari Intimate Conversations, Translated by Victor Danner / Translated by Wheeler M. Thackston

Poetry Chaikhana Blog » Ibn Ata’ Illah – How utterly amazing