Power for the Peaceful: A Course in Tao

Once our ego-stroked schemes calm and quieten, there is Something Else. That Something Else is Tao, Tao at the Root of all. Always been there, always "is" everywhere, always will be there. When we rest in our roots, the world not only makes better sense, we are also physically, mentally, and psychically healthy. Verse 37 is a quietly radical teaching verse, a reminder that beneath all noise, commotion, chaos, and other crap, there is another place ... the place we are rooted. Our reader today is Michelle Miller, whom you can find out more about here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/259687/michelle-miller/. May your days begin in peace, and become THE ROOTING OF your radical hope. -Marc - mmullinax (AT) mhu.edu

This verse teaches an expansive view of how to become an integrated, peaceful being. Instead of hardening one's categories with dualistic absolutes, it is more wholesome to integrate 'apparent opposites' into a unified view, that one is a mixture of what a dualist culture would label good/bad, ugly/beautiful, and so on. It's ONLY when we allow each energy of yin and each energy of yang to co-exist one with the other, we achieve union, unity, and wholeness. Otherwise, we are at war with ourselves. Tebbe Davis (https://faso.com/artists/tebbedavis.html) lent his wonderful voice to this episode. Thank you. May your days begin in peace, and become wombs for radical hope! Marc Mullinax - mmullinax [at] mhu.edu

Nothing -- not time, not distance, not circumstance, not geography -- NOTHING weakens or diminishes Tao's power for peace. If we experience any weakening, diminishing, or forgetfulness of Tao, that's on us, and ways we have constructed our lives through thinking, culture, and habit. This episode is dedicated to re-understanding and re-discovery (or remembering) Tao in the normal, the everyday, and in the moment. No reader today; it's a vacation week for many.

Critical teaching here. Tao is already within, working, subtly and invisibly the air all around us, but which we forget we breathe and move in. Joe Bennett supplies energy and his voice to this episode's effort.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: As described at the top of this Bonus Episode, the podcast will slow down for the rest of this (2023) year, releasing every SECOND Thursday. In this Bonus Episode, I look at the poverty of thinking, and the enriching ways we can train the brain not to think, analyze, categorize, and take us places we don't need to go ... ever.

Simple, but profound verse. Don't let its simplicity lure you into a false sense of security. For it speaks about how to become wise. 1. Take on wisdom, and leave off ego-managed actions. 2. Understanding self as more important than understanding others (while both are good; one of these is better). 3. Being content with sufficiency - knowing when "enough" IS enough. 4. Regular meditation on death. I was alone today on the episode. Back next week with a guest! May your days begin in peace, to become laboratories of radical hope! mmullinax@mhu.edu

Today's verse 32 is great for review. It contains many through-lines of themes we have seen so far in our long march through these 81 verses in Tao Te Ching: -Inscrutability -Nothing is alien; all is one -Forgetfulness -Three practices of Silence, Darkness, and Emptiness -The Feminine, and -Water ... ... Several of which themes re-emerge today. So while there may not be that much "new," the way Lao Tzu frames and phrases this verse will provide necessary reminders about what Tao is, and what Tao is all about. Darian Smathers joins us today as our quote-reader and question discusser. May your days begin in peace, and become laboratories for the wisdom needed for these days. -mmullinax@mhu.edu

I am joined at the mic today by Dr. Charles Pannell, a professor in Chinese Medicine practice at the Daoist School of Chinese Medicine in Asheville, NC. (https://daoisttraditions.edu/). Dr. Pannell's bio is here: https://daoisttraditions.edu/our-college/our-faculty-2/. We talk about the shared worldview of Tao, Taoism, and Classical Chinese Medicine. My great thanks to him!!

Verse 31 is a strong declaration against a Taoist "making peace" with war or aggression. This is a tough verse, and is easily misunderstood, partly because we tend to normalize our violent ways both within ourselves and in our culture. To be a peace-wager in a society so normalized toward war may mean you are misunderstood, fired from a job, or denounced. Gabrielle Guiliano - a Taoist practitioner, is our guest voice today. And during the Question time, I ask HER the questions!

Verses 30 this week, and 31 next week, are of a unit, and make the central argument for Taoist anti-war, anti-violence positions. While I am no gatekeeper of Taoist orthodoxy, it is clear that Tao's worldview never promotes or abides by violence or war-like ways, whether these ways are by the state, or in one's own life. I'll continue this theme in next week's Verse 31 treatment. Kimberly Gilliam is our voice today. May you begin your days waging peace, days which become wombs for more peace-waging. Marc Mullinax, mmullinax@mhu.edu