Welcome to A Personal Tao

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Audio Version Chapters 1 – 3 ) Reflections, Layout and Tao

Tao

Science is fact
Religion is faith
Magic is perception

Know these boundaries to discover what lies beyond.

What is Tao?

The Tao cannot be described, yet a person will express it simply by being alive.

It is possible to list definitions from the dictionary, from various documents. Each definition: a set of words echoing reality. Living to the Tao is not a summarization found within the mathematics of word play. Poetry, philosophy, literature all offer only helpful guidance but never the actual Tao. A simple analogy would be swimming under the water. It’s possible to read about snorkeling or diving, but until diving under the water, feeling the pressure, experiencing undersea life, having lungs squeeze outside-in yet feeling inside-out from pushing down as deeply as you can dive, only to resurface to feel a sudden gasp of wet air… all of this is an idea approximated by a reader but only grasped by the experiencer. When the last line was read by a friend of mine, she said: “but when you snorkel the pressure doesn’t feel like that”. Surprised, I asked her if she ever dove to about 25 feet while snorkeling, she said no, at which moment we both realized how personal the experience becomes due to differences in the path taken. This example touches why discovering the Tao is a personal, living experience.

The key to writing and reading this comes down to the following chain of thought: Words are never about the Tao, words are always about us. Sometimes to understand ourselves, we need to write aloud a personal truth as it is human nature and hence the Tao to do so. Reflections in this document become one possible outline to help myself be… myself while giving others a chance to comment and contemplate their own personal situation. This then becomes a circular process between author, reader, and everyone involved to help define and discover their own Personal Tao.

So

Move, tumble, stumble, spin poetry, swirl, dance.

The Personal Tao is about self-discovery.

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To learn Tao-ism: is to listen to the world itself.

I had a discussion with a great master in Japan
We were talking about the various people who are working to translate the Zen books into English
He said, “That’s a waste of time. If you really understand Zen, You can use any book, you could use the Bible, you could use Alice in Wonderland, you could use the dictionary.
Because, The sound of the rain needs no translation.”  – Alan Watts

Zen isn’t Tao-ism but the two traditions walk along a similar path. The lessons for Tao-ism are all around you. Yes at times a teacher like myself will help a person when they stumble or are confused. Always remember, teachers are optional, the world is always present for us to work against. All too often people get lost within teachings simply because they allow the teachings of the “ism” to override the connection to the world itself. All too often in being literal, a person will let ancient disconnected and dusty words obscure the realities of what might be happening in the here and now. All too often seekers get disconnected from the living world in the chase of ideas and goals. Tao-ism is very clear on this trap and reminds us to keep personal awareness open to the flows of life.

Words have the power to remind us of hidden traps, but we must use our awareness to move with the actively shifting landscape of life also gracefully.

Study the lessons, but live in the world

A Taoist path is paved with awareness in how you step and then is smoothed out by working with the flow of life around us.

The sound of your footsteps is never captured by a book so do look around to see, listen and feel how your steps touch life around you.

Tao is the way and the “ism” are your steps…

Tao–ism: The way of your steps. What book ever captures your life? (except maybe only in retrospect)

When people ask me how I learned Tao-ism, I laugh and always say:

“The river was my teacher”.

And I am still dancing with her today with every movement I make.

Look into the morning dew
Finding a soul’s shape
Reflected in your footsteps
-Casey Kochmer