Sun Through Dark Clouds

The sun is my heart, the rain my tears.

[carolsturka]

how it feels to talk about anything at all

[sunthroughdarkclouds]

This is embarrassing, but yesterday at work, working as a therapist, an insight flashed in my mind without any warning. I realized I am a prostitute as I smile kindly and give strangers all the positive regard I can muster. They come to my office, one after the other, a fifty-minute-hour at a time.

[gothredy]

[sunthroughdarkclouds]

You must not ever stop being whimsical.

And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.

. . . I did not give to anyone the responsibility for my life. It is mine. I made it. And can do what I want to with it. Live it. Give it back, someday, without bitterness, to the wild and weedy dunes.

-Mary Oliver, Upstream, 2016

[misakuroi]

jonathan (1970) directed by hans w. geibendorfer

[slavslut]

“A particularly beautiful young girl laid out in the parlor, circa 1910. It was not uncommon to dress dead young girls in what looked like a wedding veil and dress to symbolize their purity as they go to ‘meet God’.”

[sunthroughdarkclouds]

Most people are busy as though attending a feast as though ascending a tower in spring; I alone am unmoving, showing no sign.

I resemble an infant who has not yet become a child; Lazy and idle, as though there is no place to return.

Everyone has more than enough; I alone appear as though abandoned.

I have the heart-mind of a fool— Chaotic and unpredictable.

Ordinary people are bright and clear; I alone appear dim and indistinct.

Ordinary people are inquiring and discerning; I alone appear hidden and obscure.

Like an ocean in its tranquility; Like a high wind in its endless movement.

Each person has his reasons; I alone am insolent as though unconcerned.

I alone am different from other people; I revere being fed by the mother.

(Daode Jing / Tao Te Ching, Chapter 20. Trans. by Louis Komjathy)

[sunthroughdarkclouds]

Classical Daoist Self Cultivation

To attain loftiness without limiting aspiration; to become cultivated without humaneness and righteousness; to be regulated without accomplishment and reputation; to find leisure without rivers and oceans; to attain longevity without relying on Daoyin; to forget everything and lose nothing, at ease in Non-differentiation (wuji ) and according with everything beneficial—this is the Way of Heaven and Earth, the inner power (de) of the sage.

So it is said, limpidity, silence, emptiness, and nonaction—these are the levelness of heaven and earth, the substance of the Dao and inner power. So it is said, the sage practices cessation. With cessation comes stable ease. With stable ease comes limpidity. With stable ease and limpidity, care and worry are unable to enter, and denoviant qi (xieqi ) is unable to afflict. Thus one’s inner power is complete and one’s spirit is unhindered. (Zhuangzi, Chapter 15; see also ibid., Chapter 3; Baopuzi, DZ 1185, Chapter 5; Despeux 1989: 246)

This text emphasizes apophatic meditation with the goal of mystical union with the Dao and “longevity without relying on Daoyin.” From this we can see that although classical Daoits recognized the value of Daoyin [movement, stretching, and breathing exercises], they considered this to be an inferior practice.

from The Daoist Tradition An Introduction, LOUIS KOMJATHY

[sunthroughdarkclouds]

[gotiskk]

𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔰𝔢𝔠𝔯𝔢𝔱 𝔤𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔢𝔫, 1993

[sunthroughdarkclouds]

To light a candle is to cast a shadow

Ursula K. Le Guin

[forgottenmomentsintime]

[sunthroughdarkclouds]

". . . Get rid of all impurities and stop your thoughts; still the heart-mind and guard the One. When all impurities are gone, the myriad affairs are done. These are the essentials of my way (dao).”

Words spoken by an apparition of the immortal Laozi as related by Xisheng jing, 5th cent. CE, trans. by Louis Komjathy

[forgottenmomentsintime]

Woman stargazing on a swing.

Photography by mentos448, posted on r/itookapicture.

[theheightofdepression]

Cherry-blossomed harbingers of spring

tingle in my fingertips,

silver-birched strings of green

sing in my veins,

and I know it’s time

to leave these streets behind,

to roam once more

in nature’s vibrant core,

until I, too, burst into colour,

no more winter, no more dolor…

[forgottenmomentsintime]

[sunthroughdarkclouds]

“Do you resent it?” asked Adept Si.

“Why no, what would I resent? . . . I received life because the time had come; I will lose it because the order of things passes on. Be content with this time and dwell in this order and then neither sorrow nor joy can touch you. In ancient times this was called ‘freeing the bound.’ There are those who cannot free themselves because they are bound by things. But nothing can ever win against the heavens—that’s the way it’s always been. What would I have to resent?” (Zhuangzi, Chapter 6; adapted from Watson 1968: 84)

Excerpted from The Daoist Tradition: An Introduction by Louis Komjathy