My community recently suffered\u00a0 the most devastating wildfire in California history, with more than 6,000 homes burned.\u00a0 As the community recovers, I am reminded of a phoenix rising from the ashes.<\/p>\n
In Greek mythology, the phoenix is a bird that regenerates itself by dying in flames and emerging anew from the ashes.\u00a0 It thus serves as a symbol of hope, recovery, and rebirth after disaster.\u00a0 Let\u2019s consider this image\u00a0from the perspective of wuweidao.<\/p>\n
People typically celebrate birth & growth and want to avoid decline & death.\u00a0 In Laozi’s practice, we see these phases all as part of one continuum happening within an unchanging context.\u00a0 Birth & growth inevitably lead to decline & death; decline & death inevitably lead to birth & growth.<\/p>\n
In Laozi’s practice, we recognize all aspects of natural process as the unfolding expression of Dao.\u00a0 We yield to whatever arises.\u00a0 Struggling to maintain growth or to avoid decline brings about exhaustion, stiffness, & internal blockage \u2013 ironically increasing the power of decline & death.<\/p>\n
Disaster happens; rebirth & recovery happens \u2013 like a pendulum.\u00a0 Wuweidao means staying with things as they are \u2013 relaxing aspirations for what we want and resistance to what we don\u2019t want. \u00a0Hoping to obtain, maintain, or avoid particular conditions is not really part of the basis of Laozi\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n
Wuweidao is about continuity \u2013 the continuously renewing stream of reality has no beginning, no end, and no interruptions.\u00a0 To stay with reality, we have no choice but to experience birth, growth, maturation, decline, & death as they come.\u00a0 Sometimes we need to go through destruction in order to continue.<\/p>\n
Although one may expect such a laissez-faire view to lead to some kind of complacent stupor, if we engage this view\u00a0in meditation & qi-cultivation, we find that something quite different emerges.<\/p>\n
Yin darkness gives birth to yang radiance.\u00a0 Zhuangzi thus described Laozi\u2019s practice as \u201ccold, dead ashes\u201d.\u00a0 While some Daoist arts look impressive and exciting, Laozi\u2019s practice looks anything but.\u00a0 We are relaxing yang-expression, letting the fire calm down to nurture the radiant embryo inside.<\/p>\n
Laozi says: \u201cDao is wide-open, but people like narrow paths.\u201d\u00a0 The character for wide-open (\u5937) suggests barbarian tribes leveling a village to the ground.\u00a0 This image is similar to wu (see What is Wu-Wei?<\/a>\u00a0post).\u00a0 Laozi is reminding us that although we may prefer particular conditions, the field we are actually abiding in is wide-open and unconditioned \u2013 the unborn and undying field of reality.<\/p>\n Not only do death & disaster happen from time-to-time, but things are in a sense continuously dying and being born.\u00a0 The stream of reality is like a standing wave \u2013 stable yet continuously flowing \u2013 out with the old, in with the new. \u00a0When we let this current flow, letting ourselves die moment-by-moment, we likewise find each moment fresh and new \u2013 continuously-arising inspiration.\u00a0 The ten-thousand things are continuously being destroyed; the phoenix is continuously emerging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My community recently suffered\u00a0 the most devastating wildfire in California history, with more than 6,000 homes burned.\u00a0 As the community recovers, I am reminded of a phoenix rising from the ashes. In Greek mythology, the phoenix is a bird that regenerates itself by dying in flames and emerging anew from the ashes.\u00a0 It thus serves … Continue reading “Emerging Phoenix”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}