Power for the Peaceful: A Course in Tao

This verse 63 will pair up with 64’s themes. (i) Act with simplicity; avoid meddling, so you can align yourself with the natural flow of life. (ii) Pay attention to beginnings. The small will become large, so address your first steps or beginnings with care and foresight. And (iii) live with true-true integrity, and focus on matching your actions with situations, and abandon the temporary ways of the ego. The voices of David and Danai Chaisson feature big on today’s episode. Thank you!

What if there is an inner refuge or sanctuary, one ultimately untouchable by any force you may know? There is! This refuge is where we have our true identities, our true calling as humans, and our true destiny. This Tao-logic and teaching about our inner light that never goes out ... it neutralizes the cheap, over-loud voices that would tell us anything – ANYthing otherwise. Who tells you who you are? Getting tired of that voice … that tears you down and declares you hopeless? It is to you I dedicate this episode. -Marc Mullinax

Nature teaches true power, the power of being open, helpful, and that this power is deeper than our egotistical searches for other kinds of power. As Nina Sabatino, my partner for this verse, said herein, the not-pursing of power can be the beginning of a revolution. The only power of Tao that is real and lasting is the NOT-pursuing power. Be like water, descending low, lower, and then ever lower, like oceans, to receive all, and in your quiet, you help quieten a noisy world. This is Tao’s Way of diplomacy, a diplomacy of sharing. -Marc Mullinax

Wu-Wei makes another appearance in Verse 60. Herein we discover how Wu-Wei is not a total “non-doing,” but knowing when to retire from doing just enough. Wu-Wei is not hands off. It’s knowing when to retire your hands-on. We speak of application to educators, governors, parents, and in this verse, even cooks and chefs! Chandler Schroeder returns for another round at the mic with his wise and kindling voice.

When did Noah build the Ark, goes the popular wisdom? Before the rain. Preparation for the days of too much or too less seem to be a good practice. To live as we ought is joy. This Verse 59 talks about how to live so that we, and that which we love, endures. It’s simple: Find your joy, and spread it around. Thanks to Lauren Lausen for your voice, time, and what you do. May all of us find our days beginning in peace, so that we may deal out from our hands the radical hope our world needs. -Marc Mullinax

The Taoist Sage is calm, even in the toughest – or the best – situations life offers. That sage models resilient peace in every situation, not resorting to thought- and conversation-killing cliches or ego maneuvers. That’s why they can join ANYone, ANYwhere, and bring peace, needed help? Why? Their egos are parked! Thank you Kimberly Mason for your calm presence and help on today’s podcast. I think you will love her wisdom and questions about our verse. Marc.

The personal becomes public in this Verse 57. You who attempt to practice Wu-Wei in your life, or family … what if the government and rulers practiced Wu-Wei as well as you practice? What might happen and not happen in a Wu-Wei-informed government? Whoa! Stuart Lamkin joins me to discuss this verse. His insights are wise and timely, and the reason why this episode is longer. May your days begin rooted in spontaneous Peace, so you may know and practice a politics of hope, of which our world is in great need.

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