OUR VALUES ARE TIED TO INNER STRENGTH

OUR VALUES ARE TIED TO INNER STRENGTH

1. FAITH AND LIFE DEPENDENT ON INNER STRENGTH

Deng Mmg-Dao, NQA, 365 TAO, 1992, p. 3

If we have devotion--total faith and commitment to our spiritual path--our determination will naturally build momentum. Fewer and Fewer obstructions will come before us. Our path becomes like a crooked one made straight. No matter what tries to keep us from our purpose, we will not be deterred. Proper devotion lies not simply in a deadlock course. It also requires fortitude. Our bodies, our hearts, and our spirits must be totally concentrated upon what we want. Only by uniting all our inner elements can we have full devotion. If we see our path clearly and our personalities are completely unified, then there is no distinction between the outer world and the inner one. Nothing is faraway anymore, nothing is not open to us. That is why it is said that the world is like a single point.

Deng Ming-Dao, NQA, 365 TAO, 1992, p. 10

Disaster strikes at its own time. It is so overwhelming that we can do nothing other than accept it. It alters the course of our days, our work, our very thinking. Although it is tempting to resent disaster, there is not much use in doing so. We cannot say that a disaster had malice toward us, though it might have been deadly, and it is hard to say that is has “wrecked” our plans: In one stroke it changes the very basis of the day. Disaster is natural. It is not the cure of the gods, it is not punishment. Disaster results from the interplay of forces: the earthquake form pressures in the earth, the hurricane form wind and rain, even the accidental fire from a spark. We rush to ask “Why?” in the wake of a great disaster, but we should not let superstition interfere with dispassionate acceptance. There is no god visiting down destruction. Disasters may well change us deeply, but they will pass. We must keep to our deeper convictions and remember our goals. Whether we remain ash or become the phoenix is up to us.
3. ORGANIC SPIRITUALITY IS NECESSARY FOR HAPPINESS

Deng Ming-Dao, NQA, 365 TAO, 1992, p. 20

Some leaders use threats to win adherents. They invoke death to force good behavior and to her people toward paradise. Others woo with grand promises. If you have no satisfaction, they offer us bliss. If you feel inadequate, they offer success. If you are lonely, they offer acceptance. But if we do not fear death and are happy, what will such leader have to offer? Spirituality is an organic part of daily life, not something dispensed by a professional. True spirituality is liberation, not just from the delusions of reality but from the delusions of religion as well. If we attain freedom form the fear of death, a sound way of health, and a path of understanding through life, there is happiness and no need for false leaders.

OUR VALUES ARE TIED TO INNER STRENGTH Part 2

1. TRUE BEAUTY COMES FROM WITHIN

Deng Ming-Dao, NQA, 365 TAO, 1992, p.124

True beauty comes form within. Take a flower as an example. In the beginning it is only a bud. It does not attract bees or butterflies, and it cannot yet become a fruit. Only when it opens is beauty revealed in its center. There is the focus of is exquisiteness, there is the source of its aroma, there is its sweet nectar. In the same way, our won unique beauty comes from within. Our glory has nothing to do with our appearance or our occupation. Our special qualities came from an inner source. We must take care to open and bloom naturally and leisurely and keep to the center. It is from there that all mystery and power comes, and its is good to let it unfold in its own time.

Deng Ming-Dao, NQA, 365 TAO, 1992, p. 113.

When the countryside is gripped in drought, it is useless to complain. Even when light rains fail to moisten the parched landscape, we should accept what happens. This is the way of Tao, and one who follows Tao accepts what comes. We may have ambitions to move in one direction, but Tao will decide otherwise. We may have plans for the future, but Tao will bend time differently. There are hose who will cry out in anger and frustration, but the follower of Tao remains silent and goes about the business of preparation. Acceptance does not mean fatalism. It does not mean capitulation to some slaughtering predestination. Those who follow Tao do no believe in being helpless. They believe in acting within the framework of circumstance. For example, in a drought, they will prepare by storing what water is available. That is sensible action. They will not plant a garden of flowers that requires a great deal of water. That is ignorance and egotism. Acceptance is a dynamic act. It should not signal ineptness, stagnation, or inactivity. One should simply ascertain what the situation requires and then implement what one thinks is best. As long as one’s deeds are in accord with he time and one leaves no sloppy traces then the action is correct.

VALUES CANNOT BE VIEWED AS OBJECTIVE TRUTHS

1. NO OBJECTIVE TRUTH EXISTS

Deng Ming-Dao, NQA, 365 TAO, 1992, p. 22

We cannot communicate directly from mind to mind, and so misinterpretation is a perennial problem.

Motions, signs, talking, and the written word are all encumbered by miscommunication. A dozen eyewitnesses to the same event cannot agree on a single account. We may each see something different in cards set up by a circus magician. Therefore, we are forever imprisoned by our subjectivity. Followers of Tao assert that we know not absolute truth in the world, only varying degrees of ambiguity. Some call this poetry; some call this art. The fact remains that all communication is relative. Those who follow Tao are practical.
2. TAOISM DENIES SUPREME AUTHORITY

Deng Ming-Dao, NQA, 365 TAO, 1992, p. 140

No one is a supreme authority. People seek leaders, priests, gums, and hermits thinking that someone has

precise formula for living correctly. No one does. No one can know you as well as you can know yourself. All that you can gain from a wise person is the assurance of some initial guidance. You many even spend decades studying under such an extraordinary person, but you should never surrender you dignity, independence, and personality. There is not single way to do things in life.

Deng Ming-Dao, NQA, 365 TAO, 1992, p.62.

The world exists, but we cannot truly be one with it in our normal modes o consciousness. Our mind know the world by constructing conclusions form the data of our senses. All that we know is filtered and interpreted. Therefore, there is no such thing as objectivity or direct knowledge of the world. Everything is relative because we are each condemned to our particular vantage points. As long as we all have different perspectives, as long as perception relies on our senses, then there cannot be an absolute truth. All knowledge from experience, valuable as it may be, is imperfect and merely provisional.
4. RANDOM EVENTS MAKE OBJECTIVE REALITY IMPOSSIBLE

Deng Ming-Dao, NQA, 365 TAO, 1992, p. 46.

Each day, they match interim patterns against their master goals and so navigate life with sureness and

grace. It is precisely this ability to discern and manipulate patterns unknown to the ordinary person that makes the follower of Tao so formidable. When unpredictable things happen, those who follow Tao are also skilled at improvisations. If circumstances deny them, they change immediately. To avoid confusion, they still discern the patterns of situation and create new ones, much like a chess player at the board.

Benjamin Hoff, NQA, THE TAO OF POOH, 1982, p. 77-78.

But down through the centuries, man has developed a mind that separates him from the world of reality, the world of natural laws. This mind tries too hard, wars itself out, and ends up weak and sloppy. Such a mind, even if of high intelligence, is inefficient. It goes here and there, backwards and forwards and fails to concentrate on what it’s doing at the moment It drives down the street in a fast-moving car and thinks its at the store, going over a grocery list. Then it wonders why accidents occur.
6. STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY CAUSES A REJECTION OF OBJECTIVISM

Benjamin Hoff, NQA, THE TE OF PIGLET, 1992, p. 92.

Unfortunately, it is quite easy to be an impatient, inconsiderate, scatterbrained Tigger in a society that admires, encourages, and rewards impulsive behavior. Advertisements tell us to buy whatever-it-is and Spoil ourselves. An appropriate word, spoil. We deserve it, they say. (Maybe we do, but we’d like to think we’re better than that.) Store layouts are carefully designed to encourage impulse buying. Movies, television shows, and magazines promote impulsive behavior of the most questionable kind in the flash-it-­in-their-faces manner.