Facing Evil along the Way

Brother, take not one step in the descent to hell. For having taken one, you will not recognize the rest for what they are. And they will follow,

(A Course in Miracles)

When a hurricane sweeps the country and homes get destroyed and people die in the process, is this event evil? If a lion hunts down a gazelle and eats it, is it evil? What if a cat plays with a mouse for a few minutes before it eats it; is that evil?

When the thunder roared a few thousand years ago, the Northern Europeans felt that Thor was swinging a hammer. To that day, some devoted Hindus only roll their eyes when catastrophe strikes, "Oh, Kali Maa has Her way", they would say. Natural disasters may just be the accumulated karmic debt that has to be released from time to time. So even these disasters could be viewed are nothing but a releasing thunderstorm. Viewed from that perspective, are they really evil?

The word "evil" may only make sense on a human scale. A lot of our actions are subconscious; they happen because we have been programmed by ourselves and others to do it. Does that constitute as evil? Probably we should reserve this expression only for truly conscious steps away from the light. Perhaps it even takes some spiritual maturity to reach that stage; I honestly don't know. But as you do, you will feel a dark cloud descending on you, just as the Course in Miracles stated. 

I have written often about shadow work just because I feel that it is under-appreciated in our spiritual community. If you strive for the light, your shadow naturally pops up; that's the yin and yang of spirituality. I know this distinction is subtle, but shadow work shouldn't involve taking deliberate steps away from the light. It is more the awareness that you are in the process of missing a beat along the Way with the intention to pick up the broken China on the floor the next morning. Shadow work is the state of being conscious of the battle of spiritual super ego and soul desires. If in contrast you take deliberate steps away from the light, you may need others to lift you out of the hole again.

I would conjecture that eventually we all get a bit tired of all the climbing spiritual stairs and light working. There comes a time when we even can grasp the darkness and thunderstorms without judgment and without getting involved. As we stop moving towards the light, the shadow stops in its tracks as well. We let the Tao of darkness and light do Her thing and are happy either way. By stopping to aspire to be beyond the world we operate in we in fact transcend good and evil. 

Reflections on God's Number

I remember once saying to someone - this must have been just at the beginning of my spiritual journey - that the number 4 was evil. My insight had little to do with numerology, i.e. the knowledge that the number we are all so afraid of, 13, adds in fact up to 4 in numerology. I also knew nothing of the Chinese linguistic fact that 4 rhymes with death. No, it was based on an observation that negative market and economic shocks appeared to be coming in four year intervals.

As I said, this was a while ago, today I would say instead that four is in fact God's numbers. How do I get there? Well, something is missing in the Holy Trinity. We revere the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, but we do it with the perspective of an outsider. The sonship is part of us. God is complete if we join the holy union. Four equals three plus one! Yet, we have not yet managed to join the union so we are afraid of what we don't understand.

Often we are afraid of God's "wrath" just because we don't understand the Force that operates in a higher dimension than we do. This was not always the case and other societies don't have our psychological hang-ups. The Indian's for example value Durga - our Holy Mother's benevolent face - as much as Kali - our Holy Mother's occasional fury. The Holy Mother knows best, the reverent Hindu would say. "Inshallah" - as God wills it - the reverent Muslim would add. As many of you know, I am a Taoist, so here would be my spin.

You could write the number 4 in numerology as 123 and 7. One Two Three is a clear symbol of an uptrend. We say this is easy as one two three. Seven in contrast is the symbol of completion. So the fear is that the number 4 will in fact bring the end of the good period. We Tao travelers are not afraid of change, we welcome it. The creator in us see the end of an uptrend as an invite to start an even more powerful uptrend. And even if we are about to enter a contraction phase, the Tao will make this period of decay meaningful to us.  We embrace everything life brings our Way, even the most feared transition of them all - our own death. Lao-Tzu writes in the Tao Te Ching, "and if death finally comes, the Master will be ready."

Transcendence

In me burns a fire, a contradiction that demands resolution. If it burns in me, chances are it burns in you as well. We could try to extinguish it, but that would be counter-productive.
An example: a greedy person may be so fed up with the forces within that are beyond his comprehension so that he tries to purify his character by becoming a monk. This may be life affirming step or it may be an escape. Only the monk will know; perhaps only after a few years of soul searching.

Every contradiction has a resolution. All you have to do is to add a new dimension to the problem and you will have your answer. Every war that is brewing inside of you can be stopped today. It is your choice and life - the Tao - will help you to get a resolution. But again, you cannot end a war by just ignoring an aspect you despise. The solution demands that every aspect of yourself finds expression. If the problem exist, so does the solution - that is the promise of our Creator.

A second example: C. Alexander Simpkins and Anellen Simpkins describe the story of a client in "The Dao of Neuroscience" who rejects the aggression in her. They advise her to drop labeling her character trait as "bad" and recommend to channel her aggressive tendencies into a creative outlet. That was exactly what she did and became a successful businesswoman in the process. That is what transcendence is all about.

The Hindus display the Goddess Durga with a serene face, riding majestically on a tiger, yet display Her mirror image Kali as fierce black woman as She slays the demon king. We can convert every dark force into a life-affirming one. Kali is as life-affirming as Durga is when she removes the interferences along the Way for us. We can do the same. For every demon inside of us there is the right creative expression. An example: Kim-Anne Jannes describes how she managed to transform her personal demon into a beautiful dragon who warned her of any approaching evil force - her book is in German, "Das Ich als Lehrer des Lebens".

We folks in the spiritual community spend years cementing over our dark forces in the name of God but eventually have to face our dark side anyway because life just doesn't want to cooperate with us unless we stare right into the fire. Get your shadow work done with, the sooner the better. You will find a way that uses the power of your demon and merges it with the life-affirming creative outlet of your spiritual path. Your problem is a present from the Tao - open it, it is beautiful but there is some assembly required. Yes, you can have it all. Enjoy first the creative period of transcendence and then enjoy your masterpiece.  

The Path of the Middle

If one could see the splendor of God - in both its light and dark aspects - this experience (of love) would not have to end in disillusionment and bitterness.
Robert A. Johnson, Owning Your Own Shadow

The Hindus have Durga, the Goddess of creation and love, as well as Kali, the Goddess of destruction and love. In fact, Durga and Kali are one, they are only different forms and faces of the same divine energy. China, the old middle Kingdom, had Lao- Tzu who discovered Taoism, the Path of the Middle. When you read the Tao Te Ching you see clearly that he had the eyes of an artist. He didn't invent a new religion, he just described what was plain to see to him but apparently no one else.

The Path of the Middle is not an average, not the shade of grey somewhere in-between black and white. No, the Tao takes the form of Heaven and the energy of hell, as Robert A. Johnson puts it so eloquently. It is the best of all worlds wrapped up in a cocoon that protects you from everything. The Tao is out there for you to embrace. It is everywhere really, at work, at home, or wherever else you are. All you have to do is to look for the Path of the Middle yourself.

On Sexual Healing

When male and female combine,
all things achieve harmony.
(Tao Te Ching)

Sex is a confusing subject within the spiritual community. There are some folks who are adamant that sex is a hindrance in the final steps towards becoming free and then there are others who argue that sex is just like all the other daily dances of the Tao - the yin and yang, the dance of male and female energy - and that it is a creative part of life. More, you can make this activity holy very much like the tantra sex folks aspire to do. My own experience on the subject would be, just do what feels right. The Tao knows where to find you when an upcoming behavioral change is in store for you. Sexual energy is very powerful as we know - you certainly don't want to repress this force ahead of schedule or expect to experience some very powerful Freudian slips.

The sexual dance of yin and yang energies are highly psychological like everything else you experience.You can learn so much about your hidden drives by sexually expressing whatever it is that feels right to you. But you have to make it real for yourself and others.
I remember Deepak Chopra once telling the story of a client who for years had some abnormal sexual desire (he never explained what exactly that desire was about) and when his patient finally got a group of willing participants together, he got afraid in the last moment, grabbed his clothes and ran away, only to find himself fantasizing about his dark desire again afterwards. While Dr. Chopra didn't really have an advice for his client one way or another, the reader of his book was left concluding, 'For heaven's sake, just get done whatever it is you feel you have to do'. That is what life and our spiritual journey is all about, distinguishing the real you from the perceived you. If others want to help you in this soul searching process, then please do your part. Sex is exactly like every other aspects of life, it is your interaction with your environment that allows you to find the real you. The Tao - life - heals, so if you still carry sexual demons around with you, get them out of your mind and let your friends help you in this soul-searching process.

In ancient Greek - the language of the new testament - gnosis means enlightenment as well as sexual union. There might be an enlightened state that is beyond sex, but until you reach that stage, life will probably encourage you to focus on the sexual enlightenment process instead. There is no more powerful way of becoming whole than participating in the dance of 'yin and yang' in my opinion. Christianity takes a very different stance. The number four is equated as the Holy Trinity plus the devil. So in the Christian tautology, you squeeze out everything that is human - and associate it with the devil -and separate it from what you perceive to be the holy part. You certainly can do this - hence the term tautology - but whether this methodology is helpful for you as a spiritual seeker is a very different question. The Asians have a much more holistic approach. The Indians worship Durga (the devine creative force ) as well as Kali (the devine destructive force) while the Taoists consider yin and yang as a symbol of wholeness. I am with the Asians on this one; move with the force of nature and not against it.

While you should express yourself freely and creatively, please also don't get lost in the sexual force since the mission statement of the Tao traveler is to become ultimately free. As my co-author Su Zhen and I argued once in a different note, the actual sexual act doesn't have to lead you astray from your spiritual path, but "mind sex"  does:
http://zeitgeistinma.blogspot.com/2013/03/dont-confuse-mind-sex-with-mind-blowing.html

So if you engage in mind sex, you will have to get the demons first out in the open. The practice of sexual healing can do that, sexual repression can only intensify the dark forces in you.

Time for a Group Prayer?

Whenever I see this gushing pipe in the Gulf my heart is bleeding. I understand that we are in a cosmic period in which some of the exising mental tension is released in order to prepare humanity for a higher plane of consciousness. As the Gita says, whenever societies go under I (Lord Krishna) will be born again. Damage needs to be done, and our devine mother Kali is clearly at work here, but enough is enough. If we are all so enlightened in this community we should be able to mentally close this pipe.