True words aren't beautiful
beautiful words aren't true
the good aren't eloquent
the eloquent aren't good
the wise aren't learned
the learned aren't wise
the sage accumulates nothing
but the more he does for others
the greater his existence
the more he gives to others
the greater his abundance
the Way of Heaven
is to help without harming
the Way of the sage
is to act without struggling
daodejing #81
translated by Red Pine



 chinese characters for ablution


basset hound climbing snowed-in steps




Washing at dawn:
Rinse away dreams.
Protect the gods within.
And clarify the inner spirit.


Purification starts all practice. First comes cleansing of the body--not to deny the body, but so that it is refined. Once cleansed, it can help us sense the divine.

Rinsing away dreams is a way of saying that we must not only dispel the illusion and anxieties of our  sleeping moments but those of our waking ones as well. All life is a dream, not because it isn't there, but because we all project different meanings upon it. We must cleanse away this habit.

While cleansing, we naturally look within. It is believed that there are 36,000 gods and goddesses in the body. If we continually eat bad foods, intoxicate ourselves, allow filth to accumulate anywhere outside or inside of ourselves, then these gods abandon us in disgust.

Yet our concerns must ultimately go beyond these deities in the temples of our bodies to the universal One. After we clean away the obscuring layers of dirt, bodily problems, and delusions, we must be prepared even to clear away the gods themselves so that we can reach the inner One.


ablution
Deng Ming-Dao
365 Tao
Daily Meditations
ISBN: 0.06.250223.9
as many of you know, this is the last
verse of the daodejing... we will begin
tomorrow with another sacred text of daoism
"Colorado Snow Shovelucy"
©2007 lisbethwest

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