The Tao

I am a Christian or, what some call, a Messianic Jew. That is to say, when I read the Bible the truth of it resonates in me and I can’t deny it. I believe it is the revealed Word of God. It contains instructions for the way for human beings are to relate to each other in harmony. And it contains instructions for the way we are to relate to God. I believe it's the instruction manual for mankind and I am bound to live by its principles. Those revelations are the things that we human beings couldn’t find out on our own. That does not mean that the Bible contains all the truth there is to be had.

To be sure, every culture in every age and in every corner of the earth has discovered some truth that is relevant to our existence here on earth. While I draw on the Bible to understand God and His will for us, I have learned to draw on the truths of all cultures in coming to understand what it is to be human. One body of wisdom I have come to respect and draw on is Taoism.

Taoism teaches that everything is part of one ultimate reality. That reality comes to express itself in a duality. In searching for words to express the duality of the universe the early Chinese chose the terms Yin and Yang. They were words that originally referred to the light and shaded sides of a mountain. Yin and yang are equal but opposite. In yin there is some yang and in yang there is some yin. The duality of yin and yang is expressed everywhere in nature. Male and female, light and dark, expanding and contracting...many other pairs of opposites express the duality that is all around us. Everything is a part of the Tao. Yin and yang are a part of everything. They interplay continually. If that interplay is balanced there is harmony between them. The most well known symbol displaying the interplay of the yin and yang is the black and white circle called the Tai Chi. Translated into English it means 'the Supreme Ultimate'. The Tai Chi represents the essence of what cannot be defined or quantified; it represents the Tao... The Way.

While I do not believe in Taoism as a religion, I do believe it contains a fundamental truth of our reality. I don't believe it extends to include good and evil as equal but opposite pairs, so I don't believe the truths of it include all truth. The ultimate reality that Taoism points to is impersonal and is the sum of all creation. Some may call "it" god but it is not. God is not a part of creation, He exists outside of it. So when ‘the one’ is spoken of it does not mean we are ‘one’ with God in this life, but we are one with His creation. That's the level of truth that the Tao speaks to for me.

While I see the Tao played out everywhere in nature I see it's duality played out most clearly in the interaction of men and women. I believe that men without women, or women without men, are out of harmony with The Way. I have often sensed that when men and women congregate only with their own sex something is out of balance. The views that they develop are out of balance and dis-harmonious because they're lacking the perspective of their opposites. We live in a culture where this is becoming increasingly true and I believe it to be dangerous. In the health of the body when energy is out of balance it's called dis-ease. In the health of a society where energies are out of balance there is also a kind of dis-ease.

Men and women need each other to be whole, to be balanced. We need the perspective of our opposites to have a clearer picture of our world. That perspective is quickly being lost in our ‘war between the sexes’. The result can only be chaos and confusion. We are in need of a wake up call. We need to come back into harmony in our homes if we are to have harmony in our world. We need to learn to see the Word of God written into creation as well as that revealed to us in scripture. We are a people out of harmony with ourselves. We are out of harmony with the natural world and with each other. We are out of harmony with God. We have lost our way and are on a path that leads only to our own destruction…

We need the Hand of God to intercede and keep us from destroying ourselves...to put us back into harmony. The Good News is: ...that day is coming...

Giving Thanks...

That we can look out over the sea or into the stars and feel thanks for this life is evidence enough that there is someone to thank. In this, our national time of Thanksgiving we should reflect not only on what we have to feel thankful for…but on whom we should be thanking. We accepted the guidance of The Most High God in building this, the greatest nation on earth. Now that we are enjoying the fruits the labor of our forefathers we need to remember our Heavenly Father. Without His guidance and blessing we would be nothing. Without Him central in our lives we will come to nothing. We need to give thanks every day because every day is a gift from God. I could not demean the Most High by referring to Him as my ‘higher power’ or lower Him by equating Him with something He created. God is above and beyond anything we can conceive. The most amazing thing about Him is that He cares about us… We owe Him every breath we draw because each one is His gift to us. For those that feel they have nothing to be thankful for…look around. The hand of God is everywhere. The blessings of God are everywhere. Because we have become so accustomed to seeing Gods miracles every day…we have forgotten that they are miracles. Stop and take notice. If you do…you’ll find a "Thank You" coming out of you almost without thought. It is as natural as the air we breathe.

Amen...