[ Post a Response | Tao Speaks ]
Posted by Steve on 6/18/2009, 3:48 pm, in reply to "An Unforced Response Has Occurred."
68.33.168.X
: Everyone is cultivating in some way or
: another. Some people cultivate themselves
: better by jumping right into the experience
: and watching where the chips fall. Others
: close themselves off by sitting alone and
: emptying their minds.
:
: Maybe the use of the word
: "cultivation" is causing problems?
: Is meditation the only means of
: cultivation? Does anyone not-cultivate?
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Indeed we all have individual understandings of what 'cultivation' means and entails, Nina--and therein lies much of the 'friction' experienced on these dao-focused boards, imo.
Of course I have a practice. Only dead people don't have practices.
My practice, however, doesn't involve 'cultivating the dao,' as 'cultivating the dao' is--for me--a non sequitur. In the same sense that it would be a non sequitur to say that my nose cultivates my face.
I understand cultivation as the proactive attempt--the effort--to further the natural processes that define and shape me--intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.
As I read Laozi, I'm reminded that I'm best off when I allow nature to take its course. Best off when I stop trying to improve the universe--'universe' understood as being both internal and external to me.
Steve
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"The Tao is basically utterly open. Utter openeness has no substance. It ends in endlessness, begins in beginninglessnes".
-Li Daoqun
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