PG13 Notice: I do use the F word below, albeit in a lighthearted way. 🙂
Taoism is not a religion, rather it’s a philosophy – a way of looking at life. In Taoism, the Tao is the source of everything and the ultimate principle underlying reality. The Chinese word Tao signifies: way, path, route, road. The Tao Te Ching is a book of teachings attributed to Lao Tzu, and I have been reading Dr. Wayne Dyer’s book, Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao.
The Tao Te Ching was written around 400 BC and has been translated many times into many languages. Dr. Wayne Dyer took the time to read many, many translations and synthesize (as best you could) these into the translations that he includes in his book. My doodles include his translations. This is Verse 1, Living the Mystery (in black marker):
Some of the terms I use, and things I doodle come from my past musings (you can read them here, in my book Am-fullness, if you’d like). I know that the way that I have come to look at life is not a unique perspective and I am not a spiritual guru by any means, but I have come to pick terms and words that make sense to me… For example fuckery of form conveys both the fun and anguish we experience life within a physical body within a physical world. Taking on form opens us up to probabilities that suck, hurt us, make us sad, grieve and question it all. This view is in sharp contrast of “everything was meant to be” or “happens for a reason.”
The phrase human being seemingly has two aspects: the human aspect (physical) and the being aspect (non-physical). Much of our lives, we typically spend embedded in the human aspect, the physical aspect, the fuckery of form. Often we are so entrenched in this physical aspect, we cover up the being (formless) aspect. The other cool piece if you get down with this philosophy is that the ultimate foundation is the formless (I say Field of Being or FOB)… The form springs from the formless. If you never contemplated this before, it’s not only fun to contemplate, but you can also rely on your direct experience. What is that which has been the foundational “what” of you throughout all the different people you have showed up as over the decades? Personhood changes with time… The 2-year old Jessika, the 20-year old Jessika, etc. Personhood can also change based on hormones, ego states, physiological states, traumas, and much, much, more. The human aspect is dynamic, ever in flux. The being aspect is constant, unscathed and unscathable, and foundationally and fundamentally perfect.
This was an engaging exercise for me, and I hope to doodle more verses in the future. I also used digital water colors to create this (Chinese word Tao):
2023 Update:
I just came across this quote and had to add it here… to expand on what the fuckery of form entails:
“Let me be crystal clear: if you’ve faced a tragedy and someone tells you in anyway, shape or form that your tragedy was meant to be, that it happened for a reason, that it will make you a better person, or that taking responsibility for it will fix it, you have every right to remove them from your life. Grief is brutally painful. Grief does not only occur when someone dies. When relationships fall apart, you grieve. When opportunities are shattered, you grieve. When dreams die, you grieve. When illnesses wreck you, you grieve. So I’m going to repeat a few words I’ve uttered countless times; words so powerful and honest they tear at the hubris of every jackass who participates in the debasing of the grieving: Some things in life cannot be fixed. They can only be carried.“-Tim Lawrence