The Way and Wisdom of the Tao

April 06, 2013

The Way and Wisdom of the Tao

The Wisdom and Way of Tao

The Journey Itself Is Home

Raven Evening


Crane Moon Dance by Robert W. Mac Iver Tao Inspired Art

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From the Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff:

"Because we'll begin with a Taoist explanation of he Origin of Taoism. And we might as well stay where we are, because wherever in the world e may be at the moment is where Taoism started-whether or not it was known there by that name. It began before the time of the Great Separation..."

Thousands of years ago, man lived in harmony with the rest of the natural world. through what we would today call telepathy, he communicated with animals, plants, and other forms of life-none of which he considered "beneath" himself, only different, with different jobs to perform. he worked side by side with earth angels and nature spirits, with whom he shared responsibility for taking care of the world. The earth's atmosphere was very different from what it is now, with a great deal more vegetation-supporting moisture. A tremendous variety of vegetable, fruit, seed, and grain food was available. Because of such a diet, and a lack of unnatural strain, human life span was many times longer than what it is today. The killing of animals for food or "sport" was unthinkable. Man lived at peace with himself and the various life forms, whom he considered his teachers and friends.

But gradually at first, and then with increasing intensity, man's Ego began to grow and assert itself. Finally, after it had caused many unpleasant incidents, the consensus was reached that man should go out into the world along, eto learn a necessary lesson. The connections were broken.

On his own, feeling alienated from the world he had been created from, cut off from the full extent of its abundance, many was no longer happy. He began to search for the happiness he had lost. When he found something that reminded him of it, he tried to possess it and accumulate more-thereby introducing Stress into his life. But searching fro lasting happiness and accumulating temporary substitutes for it brought him no satisfaction.

As he was no longer able to hear what the other forms of life wer saying, he could only try to understand them through their actions, which he often misinterpreted. Because he was no longer cooperating with the earth angels and nature spirits fo the good of all, but was attempting to manipulate the earth forces for his benefit alone, plants began to shrivel and die. With less vegetation to draw up and give off moisture, the planet's atmosphere became drier, and deserts appeared. A relatively small number of plant species survived which grew smaller and tougher with passing time. Eventually they lost the radiant colors and abundant fruit of their ancestors. Man's life span began to shorten accordingly, and diseases appeared and spread. Because of the decreasing variety of food available to him-and his growing insensitivity0-man began to kill and eat his friends the animals. They soon learned to flee from his approach and became increasingly shy and suspicious of human motives adn behavior. And so the separation grew. After several generations, few people had any idea of what life had once been like.

As man became more and more manipulative of and violent toward the earth, and as his social and spiritual world narrowed to that of the human race alone he became more and more manipulative of and violent toward his own kind. Men began to kill and enslave each other, crating armies and empires, forcing those who looked, talked, though, and acted differently from them to submit to what they thought was best.

Life became so miserable for the human race that, around two to three thousand years ago, perfected spirits began to be born on earth in human form, to teach the truths that had largely been forgotten. But by then humanity had grown so divided, and so insensitive to the universal laws operating in the natural world, that hose truths were only partially understood.

As time passed, the teachings of the perfected spirits were changed, for what one might call political reasons, by the all-too-human organizations that inherited them. Those who came into prominence within the organizations wanted power over others. They downplayed the importance of non-human life from and eliminated from the teaching statements claiming that those forms had souls, wisdom, and divine presence-and that the heaven they were in touch with was a state of Unity with the Divine that could be attained by anyone who put aside his ego and followed the universal laws. The power-hungry wanted their followers to believe that heaven was a place to which some people-and only people-went after death, a place that could be reached by those who had the approval of their organizations. So not even the perfected spirits were able to restore the wholeness of truth, because of interference by the human ego.

down through the centuries, accounts of the Great Separation, and of the Golden Age that existed before it, have been passed on by the sensitive and wise. Today in the industrial West, they are classified as mere legends and myths-fantasies believed in by the credulous and unsophisticated, stories based nly on imagination and emotion. Despite the fact that quite a few peole have seen and communicated with earth angels and nature spirits, and that more than one spiritual community has grown luscious fruits and vegetables by cooperating witht hem and following their instructions, descriptions of these begins are generally dismissed as "fairy tales." And, although colored and simplified accounts of the Great Separation can be found int he holy books of the world's religions, it is doubtful that many followers of those religions strongly believe in them.

However, a number of pre-Separation sikills, beliefs, and practices ahve been preserved. On the North American continent, they are passed on in some of what remains of native teachings-those of the "Indians." In Europe they have largely died out, but traces of their influence can still be seen in such comparatively recent phenomena as stone circles and the marking of "ley lines" (called "dragon veins" by the Chinese)-channels along which earth energy is concentrated. In Tibet, utnil the Communist invasion, ancient ways were preserved in Tibetan Buddhism, many of the secrets and practices which predate Buddhism by thousands of years. In Japan, they can be found in some of the rituals and beliefs of the Shinto ("spirit way") fold religion. In China, they have been passed on through Taoism. And, despite violent opposition from China's Communist government, they continue to be passed on today.

The following art is by Robert W. Mac Iver and can be found on the following website:

http://www.herondance.org/