Camel of Love: Taoism

     These are the wise words I pondered today.  They are by Lao Tzu,  the legendary author of the Tao Te Ching.

Holding to the Constant

Break into the peace within,

Hold attention in stillness,

And in the world outside

You will ably master the ten thousand things.

All things rise and flourish

Then go back to their roots.

Seeing this return brings true rest,

Where you discover who you really are.

Knowing who you are, you will find the constant.

Those who lack harmony with the constant court danger,

But those who have it gain new vision.

They act with compassion;

within themselves, they can find room for everything.

Having room, they rule themselves and lead others wisely.

Being wise, they live in accord with the nature of things.

Emptied of self and one with nature,

They become filled with the Tao.

The Tao endures forever.

For those who have attained harmony with the Tao will never lose it,

Even if their bodies die.  

(from "God Makes the Rivers to Flow" by Eknath Easwaran)

The thought gem I want to take from these words is to make room for everything.

I call that having a spacious soul.  And I find that one of the great gifts of growing older is that there is room in my soul for more and more.  I could never fit back into the smaller soul space that was mine decades ago, or even five years ago!  That is one of the reasons I am attracted to drinking deeply at the wells of wisdom of the world's religious traditions.  The water from the river of Truth wells up in them all, and yet, no matter how many people drink from these wells, they never run dry.  

     The "Tao," or The Way, fills us as we empty ourselves of the narrow viewpoints and restricting beliefs inherited from our society, and make room for Universal Truth.

Though this Truth takes many forms, just as Beauty takes many forms in nature, as in the pictures above,  Truth and Beauty are One.  How blessed we are when we live in harmony with this "Tao."