SKYE stephenson

Happy 2023 to you! What an exciting time to be alive – don’t you think?

What will this year unfolding bring to us: individually and collectively, to the Monadnock region, the United States, and the whole world?

What opportunities await us to continue to refine our character through meeting life’s challenges with a clear heart and open mind? 

How might we continue to emulate the path of good living and kind heart?

Of late, I have been reading deep the Tao te Ching – the foundational text of Taoism. Believe to have been written or spoken by Laozi around the year 400 BC, the Tao te Ching is made up of eighty-one brief chapters. Each chapter contains a core thought or idea expressed in simple poetry format of a few stanzas.

The Tao te Ching is notoriously difficult to translate from its original language of Classical Chinese, to contemporary English for two reasons. The first is the ancient nature of the various written versions of this text written so long ago. And the second is due to the nature of classical Chinese, which lacks punctuation marks, tense, gender and other linguistic attributes we are accustomed to. This means that the Chinese characters of this book can be variously interpreted and understood.

The version of the Tao te Ching I have recently read is an interesting translation by Rosemarie Anderson. She believes that the whole concept of the Tao can best be understood as a generative feminine energy – the womb of all life, and writes accordingly.

Whatever the translations, Taoism posits s a philosophical and spiritual approach to life and living that focuses upon softness and lack of resistance to what takes place around us. The four pillars of Taoism are:

1. Simplicity, patience and compassion;
2. Going with the flow;
3. Letting go; and
4. Harmony.

These principles can be applied to each of our lives, as well as to the beginning of each New year. For it is always a good idea to go with the flow, whenever possible, and not try to swim against the currents of events.

So too is it a good idea to let go of problem, issues, and feelings that may be holding us back in our life path. 

The New Year period can be an ideal time to release what no longer serves us, and to forgive anyone or anything that is bothering us or feels unresolved.

A person who emulates the four qualities of Taoism is a person on the path to becoming a sage.

What is a Sage, exactly? It is someone we can strive to become, as well as a guide or helper who may come to us to share their wisdom and knowledge with us. This guide may be of this world, or beyond.

Thinking along these lines, here are some reflections about the quality of being a Sage I wrote:

The sage cultivates inner goodness and truth
Watering it daily in simple acts of goodwill to all.
The sage cultivates discernment
Between high and low, right and wrong,
Narrow-minded willfulness and open-ended living.

The sage cultivates deep truth
In word and action,
In self-love and devotion to the great mystery of life unfolding.

The sage cultivates goodness
In heart and mind. soul and place.

The sage cultivates beauty with a refined elegance
born of dignity and simplicity.

The sage acts not. asks not;
Expects not, wills not –

And thus all doors of the jade gate are opened,
And all paths to enlightenment are revealed.
And thus all kindness befalls their inner sanctuary,
And thus peace descends and dwells.

The sage knows wisdom and speaks it not.
The sage knows serenity and harbors this in their heart.
The sage knows nothing, yet knows all.

As a river flows to the sea
As the mountain washes to the land,
As the bird nests in the tree –
The sage rests in the palm of the divine

So ask not,
Want not.
Calm restless mind and heart.
Yield to the moment,
Trust in the second,
Believe in life,
Believe in the void –
Ever pregnant, ever empty

Empty your mind and heart
Of all but divine love and devotion.
Forgo the passing worries
Allow the sage to guide you
to new lands and dreams

In the spirit of now,
In the whisper of nothing,
In the breath of the all.

May the Sage visit you in 2023, and may you, and all of us, including our leaders, become more sage-like in the year to come.

Published in The Monadnock Shopper News, January 4-10, 2023.