Tuesdays with Tao: Five - Impartial Nature

:: Every Tuesday, I've been publishing one more chapter of my personal re-interpretation of Lao-tzu's awesomely inspiring and quietly wise Tao Te Ching. Despite being written down some 25 centuries ago, it is a marvel of contemporary insight. The opening chapter, The Essence of Tao, is here.

Lao-tzu sometimes uses the word "nature" as a synonym for Tao. Taoism recognizes, profoundly, in a way overlooked by most religions, that we are one with the world, a part of the physical reality we call the earth, and our power comes form being a part of it, not beyond it, or temporarily hampered by it. Alan Watts makes a delicious observation that we don't "come into the world" but "come out of it", like a leaf on a tree ... we are not a separate piece of matter in the world but rather an extension of the "one piece of matter" which is Tao.

Five - Impartial Nature Nature is not sentimental;
it faces the world impartially.
The Sage is neither kind nor hateful;
he treats all he meets with parity.

Like a bellows, Nature is empty;
yet in moving, inexhaustible as a giver of breath.
And so the Sage, in witnessing Nature,
finds his own wisdom constantly replenished.

Just as Nature's power lies internally,
your own good is found within.

Posted by Sensualpoet at 10/14/2003 01:21:00 pm | Static Link |

On The Road Again: A Weekend In Chicago

:: What's a boy to do? DJ, my roommate, loves to travel; and I hate to disappoint him. So when he says, "Let's drive to Chicago for Thanksgiving Weekend [Columbus Day for my US friends] to visit my grandson Joshua", how can I have the heart to disappoint him? Hence I am now blogging in the burbs (North Shore Holiday Inn, Room 205, in Skokie, Illinois, to be exact) on a very pleasant sunny, but chilly, Sunday afternoon. DJ is off at church and brunch (Joshua is eight months old); I've just got back from the mall (!) and am settling in to some coffee and surfing on his laptop. Holiday Inn has low cost WiFi here -- US$5 a day. They said it wouldn't work from our room but the signal is good enough.

(I'll be posting without pics, and in smaller chunks, just in case the signal gets flakey. But I was listening to CBC Radio One this morning with good success ....)

So it's still a very nice day and I've surfed around and had some chips and coffee. :-)

Best of all ... I ordered tickets to "Naked Boys Singing" at the Bailiwick Theatre for tonight at 8 pm. Wooohoooo! Eight naked guys sing their hearts out for $10 a tic! For some reason, this very popular show has not made it to Toronto. DJ will be very pleased. :-)

Last night we had a FABulous greek salad (wih anchovies! yahhh!) and then strolled up and down Halsted St (Chicago's main Boystown, also known as Northalsted), checking out the sex stores and novelty stores (Hallowe'en is almost here) and three bars.

Roscoe's was too busy to get into when I was last in Chicago -- Market Days, August 2002 -- but this time we got in. What a lovely collection of sexy young men, many watching the baseball game (the Cubs won). Later we hit SideTracks -- an amazing space with many different cruising areas, heading over to Gentry (a piano bar) where we had a nice chat, and shared a cigarette with, Angelo, who was one very cute man. Yummy!!

The night before we had spent in Lansing, Michigan and had a late night pint at Frank's Press Box -- 100 str8 guys and babes watching about 20 TVs -- again the pre-World Series match, and again the Chicago Cubs won. I was struck by how str8 men do NOT bother to take care of themselves. The gay boys at SideTracks wouldn't be caught dead looking like those slobs at the str8 bar. Don't women care if their guys are hot? Gawd, I am glad I'm gay!!

Posted by Sensualpoet at 10/12/2003 02:12:00 pm | Static Link |