Power for the Peaceful: A Course in Tao

This verse starts off with one of the two most famous proverbs in the Tao te Ching: Those who know do not talk. Those who talk do not know. Talking-up Tao ain’t walking the Tao Path. In the silence, the word-free spaces, are where we then develop the wisdom on how to live wisely, peaceably, and in service to others. Listening more than talking actually gives one cred among people, and the other than human world.   Thanks to my quote reader Johnny Richardson, to whom I ask the question this time!

A theologian I read, Paul Tillich wrote: We must abandon the external high and mighty images in which the theistic God has historically been perceived and replace them with internal depth images of a deity who is not apart from us, but who is the very core and ground of all that is. I invite us to see the entire universe as God’s body. That is, there is nowhere, and no time, where we are not encountering the holy, the divine, that Which IS. Be careful how we interpret the world, for it will become exactly like that.

Verse 55 speaks about the qualities of a person so rooted in Tao they are spontaneously joyful, artless and not contrived, because conforming with the Changeless Tao is the only enlightened way to live. Teased out in this verse is how we exchange this birthright in Tao with a mess of something we have no business messing in. We have seven voices today, and I hope this is a feast in your ears. May your days begin rooted in spontaneous joy and Peace, so you may know and practice moment-by-moment hope, of which our world is in great need. Marc Mullinax - mmullinax@mhu.edu

Verse 54 teaches that Tao and its practice are a single events, moment by moment, but we may see them as two phases: (i) Knowing our roots in Tao, and (ii) regarding all through this eternal rootage. This has wonderful implications for the Golden Rule, which I attempt to upgrade as “always do first, as you would be done by.” May your days begin rooted in Peace, so you may know moment-by-moment how to regard hope in every situation. Marc Mullinax – mmullinax@mhu.edu

This verse 53’s episode, on “Lowered Ceilings,” is a call for the inner self not to compromise on the single, or the very few important things in life … like following the level and straight path of the Great Tao, and not becoming side-tracked by the many sideways of fruitless action and thinking over and over again those thoughts that take us nowhere but round and round in circles. Melvis Madrigal is my second voice on the podcast this week. Thank you, Melvis! May your days begin in peace, and become laboratories for radical hope. Marc Mullinax – mmullinax@mhu.edu

Verse 52 takes us on a wild but life-affirming ride that Tao is our Grand and Prolific Mother, who invites all her creations – all her children – to a family reunion that never stops. Chandler Schroeder is my accompanying voice this time. In the episode, I make a new call for listeners to contact me for two reasons: (i) to be a reader and question-asker on a future podcast, and (ii) to join me in a new edition of this podcast after we finish all 81 verses, in a podcast we’ll entitle, “My Favorite Verse of Tao te Ching.” The email to contact me for either is: mmullinax@mhu.edu. May your days begin in peace, to become labs and wombs for radical hope.

Tao is the Original Blueprints of the Universe. Te is the architect that makes these Blueprints visible. Tao is the Dream. Te coaxes the Dream to become deeds. This spontaneous mutual relationship got us here; Verse 51 explores how. Joe Bennett is our voice and questioner today. Pink Floyd provides some awesome lyrics.  May your days begin in radical, lettin’-it-be peace, to become wombs and laboratories for the change-up our world so desperately requires. Did I get Joe's Question right? Let us know: mmullinax@mhu.edu

This verse gets to the heart of what we are made of, and made for. Origins and Destiny. Often, however, we get trapped by the shiny blings of life and lower our ceilings, and have these vulnerable places I call targets for our temptations. But we are more than enslaved slabs of meat susceptible only to reactive thoughts, acquired tastes and cultivated addictions. Listen for more! Who knows? It’s perhaps my most important episode.Kenny Meade is our voice and question-raiser. Find out more about him at https://www.kennethmeade.com/. I make reference to a teaching from J.R.R. Tolkien that parallels today’s episode. You can find that teaching here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtHfY06sP1s  May your days begin in original peace, and become laboratories for radical hope!

Today’s verse 49 teaches how to live with natural grace and peace in what seem like pivotal and violent times. We dissect in this episode how the servant leader, or Taoist, holds to their original vision of peace without compromise. It’s a difficult path, but to become adjusted to society’s neuroses and fragmentation into violent factions and self-righteous means to live in knee-jerk reactivity, not in mindful response or engagement with life. Trent Moore is our valued voice and question-raiser. May your days begin in peace, to become laboratories for radical hope in this pivotal year.

We are taught to add to self to be a self, but where is the wisdom that to increase is really decreasing, and to decrease is actually a positive? It’s here in Taoism, but also in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Orthodox Christianity, to start a list. I reference a pretty crazy podcast from OnBeing by Krista Tippett: https://onbeing.org/programs/colette-pichon-battle-on-knowing-what-were-called-to/ Thanks so much to Naomi Joy Gill for lending her energy, voice, and – for me – a devastating question (in the good sense!). May your days begin in emptiness, to become wombs to birth radical hope! Marc Mullinax