Quantcast
Channel: Tao Te Ching Daily » stillness
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 9

The Study of Stillness: Part 9

0
0

A fisherman at Atitlan Lake in Guatemla

 

This is part 9 of a series on Stillness. To read the other parts, please visit our Stillness Page.

This series on stillness is the second series in our Tao Te Ching Exploration Project. Throughout this project, we will be discussing some of the basic principles brought up throughout the Tao Te Ching. The principles we will cover are Awareness, Stillness, Discipline, Humility, Flexibility, Consistency, Connection, Service and Leadership. I am sure that there are many other principles that have been discussed throughout the text, but these are the nine topics that I am choosing to focus on over the next several months.

I relate to each principle by focusing our attention on each of the nine chakras, based on the Q’ero Shamans’ chakra system that is explained in depth in Dr. Alberto Villoldo’s book, Shaman, Healer, Sage. In this system, the chakras extend outside of our human form, which allow us to recognize our greater aspects of being. With nine chakras and nine disciplines, we will end up with 81 essays on living with the Tao in mind throughout every aspect of our being. (Since there are 81 chapters in the Tao Te Ching and nine is a completion number, I felt this was a fitting tribute.)

I hope that you are enjoying the series and will continue to explore with us throughout the rest of the project.

—————-

 

As I reach this final post in my series on stillness, I look out my window and see white all around. I live in Minnesota and we have had a very cold (it was -15 below zero ACTUAL temperature yesterday!) couple of weeks here so stillness is my world outside. The snow is still, the birds are still, the trees are still. It is like being on baited breath here, waiting for spring…

The ninth chakra, according to the Q’ero Shamans
is about YOU as the Universe.

It is you, but at an entirely new level.  This is not about your everyday YOU. This is about the part of you that is Tao (or God, Allah, however you choose to define it). We are not used to thinking of ourselves like that. We are used to looking at our selves as a human beings, in a body. We know inherently that we are not the body as we look on at someone who has died. We know that who they are has left the shell behind. So where did they go? We know about the spirit. We know that our body can change but we are still the same person inside. We understand this. There is a layer of who we are that stretches throughout our experiences. (This is the eighth chakra, as we discussed earlier in part 8.) For the ninth chakra, we go beyond that to ALL things, all creation.

For this series on stillness, we look at the stillness as our part of who we are in the Universe. To me, one of the coolest images the Tao Te Ching presents is this current of Tao that flows beneath our everyday lives. It is inherent in everything. When you take a body, a seemingly finite thing, and you break it down, down, down… just to the level of the atom. (There are many levels below this, I know, but bear with me…) As atoms, we are all the same. Molecules. Science.

You take it a few steps further and we are the VOID. 

We are the Void. Just imagine that. We ARE that stillness that is there out in deep space. We ARE that stillness that is in the quiet moments that we grab onto throughout our days if we are lucky enough to remember to do so.

That stillness is our essence.

It is our birthright. Don’t ever let yourself believe that you don’t have time. Stop. Breathe. Feel the breath in your body. You have time to breathe. That is all that matters. You have time to stop what you are doing, RIGHT NOW, and breathe. Even if you are in prison, on death row, even if someone is holding a gun to your head and your life is about to stop or you are starving and have had nothing to eat for 80 days, you can breathe and you can notice your breath. You are free to be yourself.

Every single moment of every single day.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 9

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images