Hard truths

Have you ever stopped to wonder how many people it took just so you could be in a position to be able to read these words? Have you ever wondered about the choices other people made in their lives which have in some way influenced you and your life?

What I want to write about today is the way of the ancestors, or the way of the elders. In the East it is also known as the Dao, if you want to put a Taoist spin on it. In Buddhism they call it the Dharma. You have been born into a family, into the human species, and you are just another genetic permutation of both your ancestry and the human species. Everything about your body, your face, your physical appearance has come from others. Your eyes, your nose, your mouth, your hair, everything. It's just arranged and growing slightly differently and arranged into a new organism from the other people who came before you.

But similarly there were many opportunities for the sabre toothed tiger to fight back, a mother's breast to fail to produce milk, a midwife to get it wrong during labour. But far more importantly there were many opportunities when someone had their ducks in a row, had their eye on the ball, when someone knew exactly what to do, and also when someone was faced with a choice and understood that the choice was clear. You are who you are and you are here because of millions of choices many people have made in a long complex process which has resulted in you being exactly where you are now.

Some people believe - and I learned this off some employability course from someone trying to promote the social media platform LinkedIn some time ago - that if you were to follow a friend of a friend six times you could access through direct social interaction most people in your country. Given the fact that the choices we make impact not just us but other people, and if there is something like a chain reaction, I wonder how many different people get caught up in that chain reaction from a choice that you or I make.

The chain of mutually interdependent origin

To make this simpler for some of you to understand, I'm going to stick with the Taoist term 'Dao' (or 'Tao') to mean the way of the ancestors or the way of the elders. Dhamma works just as well but let's stick with 'Dao'. Dao is often defined as 'the way of Nature' and it is also the chain of mutually interdependent origin.

When the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching back around 500 BC he stated explicitly that the Dao he was referring to in the Tao Te Ching was not the eternal Dao. He was implying that the Dao he was writing about was an example of the Dao.

Understanding the Dao goes hand in hand with understanding the Taoist principle of 'wu wei' or the principle of not forcing anything. The best way of explaining this is that any action which is both natural and appropriate in any given set of circumstances or situation should be effortless and not require the expending of any energy. Wu wei applies to any action or choice you make without thinking about it. You just do it, naturally, effortlessly, instinctively. When you're hungry you should eat. When you're tired you should sleep. This is a way of learning to sense and feel your way through life by constantly paying attention and always taking the path of least resistance.

It's a remarkably similar philosophy to Theravada Buddhism - or the way I was trained in way back decades ago. The other less official term for Theravada is 'The School of the Elders'. You have the Four Noble Truths but central to Theravada is the Eightfold Path - right view, right intention, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right focus. 'Right' here means appropriate or natural. It does not mean anything moral or ethical. Just like Taoism there is no doctrine, no morality, no ethics because none is needed. If it's natural, appropriate and instinctive for you to do or think something, then you should not need to consider either ethics or morality.

This is also the most basic and fundamental principle of magic, or - if you're a disciple of Aleister Crowley - magick. In fact connecting with the Dao and acting in unity with both your environment and your inner self is really what magic is all about.

This does not mean that you should go off and find some elderly person and try to copy them or let them tell you what to do. You are not them. They are not you. It means you have to find your own individual way of living in unity and harmony with your environment, yourself and other people appropriate to whatever situation or circumstances you find yourself in. Nobody else is going to tell you how to live your life. You have to 'go through the experiences' and figure it out for yourself. Just like your parents did. And your grandparents. And whoever lived in your family tree before them.

Appropriate vs. inappropriate

Above I give you a song quote from Pete Seeger's song 'Turn Turn Turn' performed by 1960's band The Byrds. This song is based on the first eight verses of the third chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. This is the exact same principle as the Dao and the way of the ancestors. It's right there in black and white in Christianity.

Now if you think about all the problems we face in the world today, in society, with regard to the environment, and all the cruelty, inhumanity, abuse, crime, racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, transphobia, corruption, religious intolerance and bigotry, and so on. These all come down to just one thing - being inappropriate. Doesn't matter whether it's inappropriate thinking, inappropriate speech, inappropriate attitude, inappropriate beliefs, or whatever it all comes down to being inappropriate. You do not even have to think about ethics or morality, right and wrong, good and evil, you can see it for what it is in reality.

This is the simplest, most basic principle of karma and Natural Law. It doesn't even matter how you define karma, because whatever is appropriate flows naturally with the Dao, whatever isn't appropriate doesn't. Tell me, what is there for you to think about here?

The central issue here is that we are, first and foremost, inappropriate to ourselves. We conflate our Ego with reality and as a result we get sucked into narcissism.

This is something that my mentor and guide, Babu taught me during training when I was a teenager. If you have a reason, then you have a thought and a feeling. But understand that whatever makes you happy will eventually make you unhappy. Similarly whatever makes you unhappy, will also eventually make you happy. Everything flows. Nothing is fixed. Nothing is permanent. Nothing lasts. This is another hard truth that I like you to embrace - nothing is permanent, nothing lasts, for it is all flowing, changing, transforming. You must go through the experience and learn to let go of the experience and move on when it's appropriate. You have to learn how to flow just like water.

Man in the image of God

Monotheism and monotheistic religion presents us with an interesting subject from a philosophical perspective. There is only one god. It's certainly economical. But the problem here is god is a concept or an image which we empower ourselves to emulate.

If our God is omnipotent, omniscient, never wrong, always right, harsh, unforgiving, what we're actually describing is a plutocrat, dictator, an arsehole. Who needs this? We don't need this. This is where we get to the whole issue when it comes to organized religion. Our concept of deity is pathological. Notice how our image of deity is pretty much the same as the untamed, unfettered (male) dominant Ego. Until Mankind does something about this we do not have a snowball's chance in hell of figuring anything out or achieving any sort of peace.

But it's important not to get distracted from your way and get drawn into inappropriate thought or action which has any sort of focus off your path. If you look at the bigger picture, the environment, society, you will always see decline, decay, conflict, inappropriateness, and you will also get a sense of time running out. If you look at the human story through the lens of history, then it will always come across as a tragedy. If you get caught up being fascinated by the sinking ship, then your life will also be a tragedy. This will be because you didn't pay attention or make the effort to find the lifeboats and get yourself clear. There are always lifeboats there on the deck of a sinking ship. It's up to you to find one.

What I'm saying here is that it's entirely on you to figure out your flow karma, learn about the Dao, figure out your way just have others have figured out their way in the past. Keep in mind human redemption never comes in the form of a mass movement or through violent, bloody revolution. I have covered this in my previous post 'Navigating a fragmented life'. Time and time again it is always one person who has found their way and shines their way for others to learn. This is how humans evolve and society progresses. The Dao. The way of the ancestors. Flow karma. Think about this. Have all those humans who have gone before and gone through the experiences just so you can blow it and throw it all away?

Hard truths

There is one way and only one way to get through life. This is to seek to establish your way, a level of authenticity and hard truth within yourself so that you become a walking social catalyst and others see you for who you are. This is how you connect to the Dao, and when your life flows simply and effortlessly.

I am, I would like to stress, referring to plain and simple hard truth, without ideology, without beliefs, just you and a story. This is the major difference between truth and belief. Belief requires participation, it requires thought, it requires effort, and often requires that what is inappropriate. Truth doesn't. Truth exists all by itself.

This is when you have the Dao within you. This is not about being a 'good' person. Define good. Define evil. What makes your definitions any better or any worse than mine or anyone else's? Being good falls short, and falling short is what defines sin. Nobody can tell you what your hard truth is or how to find it. Nor can I. I am not you. I do not live your life. I do not experience your reality. All I am doing here is sharing my Dao, my hard truth, and pointing a way forward for you hopefully just as clearly as if I were to point a finger to the Moon. This is what I do in life.

This is what you need to do to seek out, explore, experiment, learn and discover your way, your path and your hard truth.