God
God is
God is not
God is not only
God is not only good
God is not only good but
God is not only good but impossible
God is not only good but impossible to fathom.
But holiness knows this.
Which is why there are so few saints.
Cheers to the unfathoming few
Silently among us
Watts and Taoism, delightful All Saints imbroglio of his life and mine, sun streaming into wohnkūche on the morning of ambivalent hour and the last roll of cloud paper in WC.
Sitting still, doing nothing, and falling leaf shadow passes through peripheral vision.
WU WEI – DOING NOTHING 無爲
Wu wei means – in Chinese – non-doing or ‘doing nothing’. It sounds like a pleasant invitation to relax or worse, fall into laziness or apathy. Yet this concept is key to the noblest kind of action according to the philosophy of Daoism – and is at the heart of what it means to follow Dao or The Way. According to the central text of Daoism, the Dao De Jing: ‘The Way never acts yet nothing is left undone’. This is the paradox of wu wei. It doesn’t mean not acting, it means ‘effortless action’ or ‘actionless action’. It means being at peace while engaged in the most frenetic tasks so that one can carry these out with maximum skill and efficiency. Something of the meaning of wu wei is captured when we talk of being ‘in the zone’ – at one with what we are doing, in a state of profound concentration and flow.
wu wei
Wu wei is closely connected to the Daoist reverence for the natural world, for it means striving to make our behaviour as spontaneous and inevitable as certain natural processes, and to ensure that we are swimming with rather than against currents. We are to be like the bamboo that bends in the wind or the plant that adjusts itself to the shape of a tree. Wu wei involves letting go of ideals that we may otherwise try to force too violently onto things; it invites us instead to respond to the true demands of situations, which tend only to be noticed when we put our own ego-driven plans aside. What can follow is a loss of self-consciousness, a new unity between the self and its environment, which releases an energy that is normally held back by an overly aggressive, wilful style of thinking.
https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/wu-wei-doing-nothing/
All the times I’ve run into a wall (who put that there?) this body and psyche have been bruised and cut. Time takes care of rescinding each impasse leaving a log of the body’s insults and mind’s trauma.
This morning, cat on lap, I delight that elsewhere buddhist, christian, jewish, muslim, hindu, and atheistic compañeros are practicing (or non-practicing) their take on the world and existence with an equanimous mind and beneficent spirit equal to the radiant sunlight crawling up this chair.
What do we have to do?
How live through this ephemera?
Whither prayer? Why and why not?
Reverence.
I bow to each and all, worthy or unworthy, selvedged or unselvedged.
And remain sitting in the stillness of this passing moment.
Unreservedly grateful.
