Hello Beautiful People,

Verse 7 - Modesty
The Great Integrity, having had no birth,
expresses its immortality
without pronouncements.

The wise are heard
through their silence,
always self-full through selflessness. (Translation Ralph Alan Dale)

Such wisdom in so few words. As Shakespeare got Queen Gertrude to pronounce to Hamlet ‘the lady doth protest too much, methinks’. Silence is often so much more profound than the most flowery of speeches. A silence can encompass everything, whilst words – of necessity – limit themselves. I am sure when reading this very verse for example, what we feel we understand by it goes so much deeper than we can ever begin to express. Silence can not only convey the meaning of the person who remains quiet, but forces the other person to look back at their own thoughts. They have to question what is making them behave in such a way. How many of us – and I certainly hold my hands up here – speak for the sake of filling a silence rather than deal with the discomfort that it can bring.

As a culture we rely so much on the media to do our thinking for us. We are never quiet for long enough to formulate our own opinions independently and therefore those who crave power manipulate our thoughts through the TV and the press, knowing that we will not take the time to be silent and contemplate the issue for ourselves. In some cases you may well arrive at the same opinion, but at least it would be your opinion and not that of someone else.

This verse really concentrates on our Ego. The part of us that needs to be seen to be doing; that needs to be appreciated and thanked and above all needs to be noticed. As I have said before when discussing previous verses it is very hard to do things for others on a purely disinterested basis. At the back of our minds we always calculate how it will benefit us. That sounds harsher than it is. I am sure all of us do what we can for others because we think we are being kind and it is always worthy and a lovely thing to help others, but even when we are doing the shopping for the old lady down the road is there really no part of us that wants to be seen as ‘the kind neighbour’, who wants to be told what a nice thing we are doing. I wish I could say that I often went out and helped people who I have never met before and am never likely to again for no reason at all and told no one about it. First of all that would be paradoxical in itself and secondly I just don’t do it. That’s not to say I don’t try to live my life like the majority of us do and undertake small acts of kindness and care for people as much as I can (and I certainly receive it in abundance), I just can’t say that it is totally disinterested. I am aware very much of cause and effect, or the adage ‘what goes around comes around’ and that for me is the key driving force behind every philanthropic act I may carry out. Possibly not consciously at the time, but sub-consciously that knowledge is always there. That does not denigrate from the worth of the act from the point of view of the person on the receiving end – it will have made a huge difference to the old lady that you have done her shopping – it’s just that I know that my very soul is, in the words of Jesus, ‘doing to others as I would be done by’.

I suppose I am trying to understand how we can ever bypass the ego. Will we ever be able to switch it off, or do we need to embrace it to a certain extent? Do we acknowledge that as physical beings we cannot totally slough off Cartesian Dualism or do we constantly strive to overcome the ego?

I long to return to the oneness of all consciousness and leave the constant demands of the ego and yet I wonder if this very desire is just my ego trying to highlight its existence. If anyone can clarify that for me I would be very grateful!

I will now stop wittering and allow you to contemplate this verse in silence.

So, my amazing beings here we are embarking on verse 6 of the Tao Te Ching and I am busy trying to live my life as discussed in the previous verses. It is so easy to see where our negative behaviours are causing us, and as a consequence our associates, trouble, but not so easy to be aware every single time you revert to type. Yet, each time that I manage to pick myself up and catch myself in the act of hypocrisy I know that I am a step closer to reaching the person I want to be. We are all constantly learning and honing our souls until we finally scrape away the last layer of dirt that shows the true Buddha within, but how many lifetimes of searching that will take I have no idea.
Verse 6 – Life’s Spirit
The spirit of life
never dies.

It is the infinite gateway
to mysteries within mysteries.

It is the seed of yin,
the spark of yang.

Always elusive,
endlessly available. (Translation Ralph Alan Dale)

This is a fairly straightforward verse. All traditions incorporate an idea of the soul, or higher consciousness – whether this is our Buddhahood; our spirit; our Daemon (see ‘The Daemon’ by Anthony Peake); our higher self.

Our lives are nothing without both the spirit and the body (‘the seed of yin, the spark of yang’). We have chosen to be here to experience life, whatever that may entail, and to do that we need a vessel through which to feel – our earthly body. Our bodies are at best ephemeral, a suit of clothes to be discarded when they are worn out, but we can only learn what we came here to learn by appreciating (good and bad) the experience of our bodies.

Saying this we focus on our bodies and ignore our spirits at our peril. It is by listening to the calls of our souls rather than just the urges of our bodies that we leave animality behind us and begin on the path to awareness. Everything starts to take on more relevance, as all traditions teach – there is no such thing as coincidence. As we pay more attention to our spirit we begin to see the thread that weaves its way through our seemingly higgledy-piggledy lives, making sense out of panic.

However, becoming more aware does not mean that suddenly all the pain goes out of life because you now see ‘the bigger picture’, au contraire, what now happens is the opening of all your awareness to the nth degree. You are vibrating at a more acute level and pain becomes more intense as you see it everywhere and empathise with everything – everyone’s pain is your own. On the flip side everyone’s joy is your own. Beauty is suddenly all around you and you want to smile with the world. Oneness makes you cry more and laugh more than you ever have in your life. By oneness I mean understanding the inter-connectedness of our spirits and higher consciousnesses. Knowing that we succeed and fail together. We cannot stand aside and say ‘that person’s pain does not matter if I look the other way.’

‘The seed of yin, the spark of yang’ also highlights the passive and active sides of the spirit. Your higher self can be as active as you allow it to be. It is up to you whether you suppress it or embrace it. It is truly a formidable ally when you bring it on side – although as the verse states it is ‘elusive’ whilst ‘endlessly available’. You need to be prepared to look for it – to put the time and work in. You are the one who has hidden it away, only you know how deep you need to go. Some of you may only need to ask, whilst others may need to enter Saint Augustine’s ‘dark night of the soul’ – but it is always there it will never abandon you, whether you choose to embrace it or ignore it.

The question is do we work with it or against it, consciously or subconsciously. To bring yin and yang into equal balance we need to encompass the body and the spirit, not just choose the one we are most comfortable with. I certainly find this a very hard lesson to learn, as I would happily jettison the body if I could; unfortunately, I also know that by only focusing on one aspect we relegate ourselves at best to a half life and I want to experience it all.

As always vast amounts of love to all of you and yours.

Catherine xxxx

Bonjour my fellow truth seekers,

As I was looking over the previous verses before writing about Verse 5 I began to wonder how my thoughts and ideas will grow, expand and inevitably change as I work through the Tao Te Ching. We are all unfolding stories and I know that each day I see, experience or even just read something that adds to my thoughts. I am so glad that we, as infinite beings, have the ability to expand. If I had the same ideas and opinions that I had at 18 I would probably just give up now – but each day we receive input from the world around us and, hopefully, we take it on board and allow ourselves to learn and move forward. As much as I like to think that I am always right I can make myself squirm with discomfort as I remember what some of my views once were. So, in short, this blog is a fluid learning curve for me and I write down the ideas as they come – I hope that they will not be too discordant but I will not impose any boundaries on what wants to be expressed.

Verse 5 – Yin and Yang
Yin and Yang aren’t sentimental.
They exist without moralizing.
They act regardless of our wishes
within the ebb and flow
of every pregnant moment.

The space between yin and yang
is like a bellows -
empty – yet infinitely full.
The more it yields,
the more it fills.

Countless words
count less
than the silent balance
between yin and yang. (Translation Ralph Alan Dale)

Here we see again the importance of doing by not doing. The more we allow ourselves to be in the flow of life rather than pushing for things that society tells us we want and need – even when our hearts tell us the opposite – the more we feel fulfilled and enriched. Life is never all good and never all bad – for us to appreciate one we must understand the concept of the other. Therefore yin and yang are what we are to expect from life. As the verse says they ‘aren’t sentimental’. Yin and yang have no judgement. We seem to think as a culture that bad things just can’t happen to us. The supreme arrogance of that statement! Who are we, first of all, to judge what is good and what is bad? This is totally subjective. As the famous adage says ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’. Who is in the right there and who in the wrong – it depends what side of the fence you are looking from and I would posit that there is no universal right and wrong and the only reliable authority we have is our own gut and conscience. We know when we are doing something that will hurt others, but we have got into a state where it doesn’t matter if we hurt others as long as we aren’t breaking the law of the particular country we live in. Who are the lawmakers to tell you what is right and what is wrong? It is legal in certain countries to rape and beat your wife – does that mean that it is ok to do it? It is legal to buy goods that have reached our shelves by way of exploitation and greed – does that mean it is ok to buy them, because everyone else is? We all have an infallible inbuilt system that tells us when we are behaving in a shameful way but we often choose to ignore it.

It is also a truth that so often in life that the things we love or enjoy the most proceed from those that have been the hardest. That is never an easy thing to appreciate when you are in the middle of extreme pain – whether mental or physical – and therefore it is often only realised in hindsight. There is nothing worse than being told to be positive when you are at a low point in your life! It is only ever ourselves who can reach out for the positive and the strength needed at a time like that, but support from others is always a bonus. I do feel though, that without Yin and Yang, without the extremes in life, we are only surviving and not living. That does not mean, however, that we should strive against them. We need to embrace the events of our lives and constantly be open – ‘like a bellows’ – to be filled with the inspiration to go forward. To not use 'countless’ words to bemoan our situation but to give ourselves over to the experience of living, knowing that, although we can always act for the best and create beautiful worlds for ourselves, sometimes ‘shit happens’ whether we want it to or not and we have to ride that event out by doing and not moaning.

So until next time my amazing chums. Huge love to all of you and to all those you love in turn.

Catherine xxx

Hello my lovelies.

Here are my witterings on Verse 4.

Verse 4 – The Great Integrity
The Great Integrity is an endless abyss,
yet, it is the inexhaustibly fertile
source of the universe.

It blunts all sharpness,
unties the entangled,
and merges with the dust!

Hidden but ever present –
this parent of the gods –
whose child may it be? (Translation Ralph Alan Dale)

This is an image that winds its way throughout time and religion. Almost all original spiritual thought comes from this angle and it is only when mankind craves earthly power that the Gods are personified and given earthly cravings and judgements. Meister Eckhart, the 14th Century German Mystic was condemned by the Church as his sermons preached that you could not say that God was wise, as that implied that he could be wiser and you could not say that God was good as that implied that he could be better. What he was trying to explain to his congregation was that ‘God’ or ‘The Universe’ or ‘The Great Integrity’ – please use whichever term you are most comfortable with, or use your own – is infinitely more than words can ever describe. It is everything and nothing; within us and without. It is not a person who judges us, it is not something that we have no contact with, it is in fact the very opposite. We are all part of that power and we need no one else to mediate for us. We contain everything within ourselves. There are so many ways that this has been conveyed to us down the years. Buddhism states that we have all the life states within us from Hell to Buddhahood. The Christ Consciousness of the Course of Miracles states that we are all sons and daughters of God. No one is more special or important than any other. We all have the ability to be at one with the universe and thus at one with each other. We are everything and nothing.

This verse also highlights the chicken and the egg problem. God (which is the easiest shortcut term for this immensity from my background, but please feel free to insert anything you prefer) is the parent and the child, the beginning and the end. It is not a definable entity, it is all of us, everywhere and everything. When we start to define it, we reduce it down to something that our sometimes puny minds can deal with and then we are back to exploitative religions. By understanding that we are all one - that there is nothing within me that is not also within my neighbour and within my enemy, and that all boundaries and borders have been placed there to limit us, not to protect us, it becomes impossible to even contemplate intolerance, racism or war. Even though we are different outwardly, we all contain infinite wisdom and infinite possibilities. We are all connected to a higher mass consciousness, we all dream and hope and love, we all want to return to the source – we are all one!

One of my favourite quotes is from Marianne Williamson – “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others”. This is often misattributed to Nelson Mandela – but whoever said it I think it illustrates this verse well. The Great Integrity is within all of us, we are all a part of it and therefore we are all able to shine.

So on this New Years Eve 2009 I wish each and everyone one of you to shine in 2010, because I know you are all capable of anything you wish to achieve.

Happy New Year and vast amounts of love to all of you.

Catherine x

Good day to you my delightful friends.

Before I begin I just wanted to clarify something. What I am discussing is not exclusive to any religion. There are many that my thoughts are drawn from, but please do not think that my thoughts are endorsed by any official body – as I do not want to mislead people into thinking that they run along any particular lines, or to offend any religion who may think that I have got part of their dogma wrong. The only dogma is that of Catherine and I take full responsibility for it, whilst acknowledging the vast body of esoteric knowledge that I have drawn from.

So – here is verse 3 – as always the translation is by Ralph Alan Dale.

Verse 3 – Tempering
Overpraising the gifted
leads to contentiousness.
Overvaluing the precious
invites stealing.
Craving the desirable
loses contentment.

The natural person
desires without craving
and acts without excess.

By not doing,
everything is done.

Here we are then following on seamlessly from verse 2 – that Lao Tzu knew what he was doing!

When we begin to brag of our possessions, or boast of our abilities, it is because we are not sure of them. Lack of inner security breeds despots and lack of material security breeds misers. I know that I am certainly guilty of this. When I am trying to get something straight in my own mind I need to talk about it and discuss it, but when a belief becomes a knowing, I no longer have to try and justify it – because by then whether someone else believes it or not is irrelevant. We often find that recent converts to causes become their strongest advocates (for example, people who have given up smoking are often amongst the most strident anti-smokers). This tends to be because they have to prove that they have fully committed to the cause, whereas those who have lived and worked amidst a cause for many years don’t have to try so hard anymore, because in their own minds and souls they are confident in their beliefs.

It is when we start to announce to the world how wonderful our possessions are that we invite theft. The person who puts up a vast network of security systems is merely saying to the outside world – ‘look at me, what I have is worth so much more than anything of which you could even dream’. What a red rag to a bull! The person who lives amongst their possessions – making a home rather than a museum of them - is not advertising their ‘superiority’. The Australian Aborigines say that it is only the things you fear that you bring into your life. By fearing that what we have will be lost, we are encouraging that very thing. Indeed, it seems to me that so many of us spend the 90% of our lives that are good, or at the very least ok, worrying about the 10% of the time that will be bad. What is the point of wasting the fun days by saying ah yes, but I might get ill, I might be burgled, I might have a car crash – yes, you might, but then again you might not. In the meantime you have ruined a perfectly lovely day by allowing fear to creep up and bite you on the bum!

We also spend a lot of our existence craving that which we do not have. But how often do we get what we crave still to find ourselves unsatisfied? Either the item that we wanted so badly is not as wonderful as we have dreamt it to be; or it is the actual chase that we find we wanted rather than the object of desire. I suppose that gambling is a case in point here. It is the adrenaline of the uncertainty that comes with the gamble that is the true goal, rather than the win at the end, which is why so many gamblers feed their winnings straight back in. It is very difficult in our western civilization, which has taught us to always seek for more, to actually look at what we have. It is always important to better ourselves, it does no one any good to be stuck, but we need to better ourselves for the sake of our own improvement rather than become bogged down by ambition because we want more stuff than the next person, or because we want revenge, or because our partners tell us they want more holidays, or because the children want a TV in every room! We need to have ambition to be nicer, wiser people and appreciate all that we have – being content in the world we have created now, whilst creating a better world for tomorrow.

‘By not doing everything is done’ are wise words indeed. I know that I have to concentrate everyday on achieving this (which is a paradox in itself!). It is simply by living our lives responsibly every day; by behaving towards ourselves and others in a loving and conscientious manner and by noticing what is wrong in our worlds and making it right that we attain all of life’s goals without pushing or striving. The universe will begin to flow naturally around us and give us what we need, for the precise reason that we no longer need it to be happy.

Once again, I will have to go off and now sort out my own life, but that is the reason for my looking at the Tao Te Ching as a focus point – to make me think and understand what I now need to go forward and do. I am sure so many of you are already much further along the path than I am, but thank you for bearing with my ramblings while I find my way.

Vast amounts of love to all of you.

Catherine xxx

Hello my Luscious Luminaries,

Here are my thoughts as promised on Verse 2 of the Tao Te Ching. Once again, the verse is translated by Ralph Alan Dale.

Verse 2– Relativity
We know beauty because there is ugly.
We know good because there is evil.
Being and not being,
having and not having,
create each other.

Difficult and easy,
long and short,
high and low
define each other,
just as before and after follow each other.

The dialectic of sound
gives voice to music,
always transforming ‘is’ from ’was’
as the ancestors of ‘to be’.

The wise teach without telling,
allow without commanding,
have without possessing,
care without claiming.

I n this way we harvest eternal importance
because we never announce it.

This reminds me very much of the Buddhist teaching of ‘funi’ – two and not two, not two but two. It also is the core of the teaching of Oneness – that we are all individual blossoms on the world tree – separate and yet all part of the same whole.

Without one, it is impossible to envisage the other. You cannot understand yourself as being ill, without first understanding the concept of yourself as a healthy person. To achieve a balanced life we have to allow both, without craving either. One state is not necessarily ‘good’ whilst the other is ‘bad’ – in fact it is impossible to see good without also seeing bad. As the first verse illustrated it is always only our perceptions that impose these judgements on to situations.

The depressives amongst you will appreciate the fact that when you have been through a period in the darkness, the light that comes afterwards is all the more brilliant for being seen in relief. The contrasts in life are what give it its interest and excitement. We could all, and indeed some do, pootle along in life without allowing any spikes of feeling, but then are you really feeling anything except indifference? That said this verse carries on neatly from the first by suggesting that if we cease to label things as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ then maybe we will stop experiencing them as such and just start experiencing. We only think we are in want, when we make the comparison with what others have – the ‘keeping up with the Jones’ syndrome. If we actually only looked at our own lives and how abundant they are in and of themselves we would stop thinking of ourselves as poor or rich. Are we poor because we can’t afford 2 cars, or 3 holidays? Absolutely not, but we may feel poor in this instance if all our neighbours seem to have these things. We need to start asking ourselves ‘what have I got?’, rather than ‘what am I lacking?’ We also need to live our lives on their own merits rather than in constant comparison.

This verse also explores the ‘Power of Now’ – ‘is’ becomes ‘was’ in less than a nanosecond and although we never actually experience the ‘to be’, it is what we are creating in every second of our isness. We can only ensure the harmony of our ‘to be’ and the peace of mind of our ‘was’ by living our ‘is’ as we feel to be right and following our truths. This is cause and effect at work. What we cause or create in every second is the effect we will see in our ‘to be’. By living every moment as the witness of our lives and always noting the effect our actions will have not only on ourselves but on the world around us, we can ensure that our ‘to be’ will be everything we desire.

Teaching by example is what is so important in this instance. We can all prate on about doing good – but no one will listen, and why should they? It is only when people can see how your lives are turned around because of your actions that they can start to learn. Words can only implant ideas in the mind, and this can be very valuable, but until people start to actually ‘teach without telling’ then nothing will be learnt.

I love the phrase that follows on from this: ‘have without possessing’. It has long been my thought that there is no crime in surrounding yourself with that which you love and find beautiful – as William Morris so sagely said ‘Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.’ It is when we allow our surroundings and our ‘stuff’ to become our raison d’être or our honzon that it starts to poison our lives. If it is your desire to have 37 swimming pools, have them and enjoy them all, just don’t moan that you haven’t got 38!

‘Care without claiming’ is also an amazing concept. We must all have noticed this within our own lives – that when we care for someone, we are so often only caring because of the effect that person will have on our existence, rather than caring just because you love them. This may be a subconscious selfish action – at the time we are convinced we are acting out of the goodness of our own hearts, but just how often can we aver that this is really true? Are we ever really acting with no ulterior motive? I am sure we have all cared for the people in our lives, but how many of us can actually say that we care for any of the people that we happen across in our lives, never expecting to have any benefit in return? I know that personally I would struggle to find many examples.

The last couplet really reiterates this, by showing that it is those that give without bragging about it that are the truly important people in this world, rather than those who make a big noise in a Smashy and Nicey ‘I do a lot of work for chariddy mate’ type way. Maybe one day I can aspire to any of this, but as I find so often we only teach what we need to learn and so I will go away and ponder further the thoughts that this verse has inspired in me.

Take care and remember that we are all individual circuits of the same motherboard – two and not two! I hope that you will come and join me for my thoughts on verse 3.

Great love to all of you.

Catherine xxx

The Tao Te Ching - Verse 1 'Transcending'

Hello Lovely People,

I have been reading a beautiful translation of the Tao Te Ching by Ralph Alan Dale, and have been writing down my musings on each verse. I have now elected to share these ponderings with you – you lucky, lucky souls!

For those of you who are not familiar with the Tao Te Ching I will transcribe the verse before I start my discussions, although I must reiterate that the verses are originally the work of Lao Tzu and this fabulous modern translation is by Ralph Alan Dale and absolutely nothing to do with me.

I think that we can only truly understand something by examining it and taking it apart for ourselves and this was my aim in writing down my thoughts as I read each verse. This is slightly ironic, however, as the purpose of the Tao Te Ching is to transcend words and the confusion that words can place on everything. The verses also only serve as a framework for reining in my overly wandering mind, so please do not expect a literal discussion of the Tao Te Ching itself. Also, the views and opinions stated within this blog are very much my own – nobody else should be held accountable for them. Anyway here goes!

Verse 1 – Transcending

The Tao that can be told

is not the universal Tao.

The name that can be named

is not the universal name.

In the infancy of the universe,

there were no names.

Naming fragments the mysteries of life

into ten thousand things

and their manifestations.

Yet mysteries and manifestations

spring from the same source:

the Great Integrity

which is the mystery within manifestation,

the manifestation within mystery,

the naming of the unnamed,

the un-naming of the named.

When these interpenetrations

are in full attendance,

we will pass the gates of naming notions

in our journey toward transcendence.

This verse reiterates what I said in the introduction – roughly that the true essence of something gets lost in our tendency to overanalyse and name things. We have trouble in accepting things for what they are – we have to name them and in so doing we categorise them, which in turn means that the original is now something less than it was. As soon as we put someone or something in a box we are preventing them from reaching their full potential. We limit everything by our perceptions, for we can only see something within the boundaries of what we, as individuals are comfortable with, or open to. We can never know the whole story behind any action and we can certainly never know what has happened in someone else’s life and experiences. Indeed, even if we have been through a situation with another person, we would still have had two very different experiences. By labelling, or naming that person we are belittling them, or as Buddhists say ‘slandering’ them. It is vital, although not at all easy, that we accept and allow everything and everyone, for only by doing this can we tap into the infinite possibilities that this universe contains.

I do not mean by this that if we see a hurt being done to another – whether it is person, animal or object, that we should just walk past and allow it to happen. We are the only ones who have to live with our own consciences, and if you are able to do that, then who am I to judge. However, that is precisely what I mean, who are we to judge? We can still take action without judging another, because we do not know their story. If we carry on and walk past then we are allowing the hurt to be perpetrated and are no better than the initiator of the hurt. This can be something as seemingly minor as buying something that you know causes pain and suffering to people in other countries – because you can’t see the suffering you are causing you can dismiss it from your mind. Yet, I put it to you, that we have total and utter responsibility for every action in our lives. This is a very liberating notion when you take time to think about it. No one else has the power to make us do or feel anything, we are the ones who choose how to react. Only by refusing to name other people as good or bad, right or wrong, and by experiencing our own lives and living them as feels to be correct to our own souls can we live a truly empowered and beautiful life.

I hope that you will come and join me for my thoughts on verse 2.

All my love to every person who happens across this blog.

Catherine xxx