Former writings

Wisdom and Tao


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Tao

The changeless within the ever-changing.

This unity is non-duality and consciousness.

Tao and Advaita are identical.

Only the approach is different

like clouds in a spotless sky without shadows.

The amazing plenitude of each moment

Are we truly conscious of the experience we are living day after day, minute after minute, second after second ?

11 / 28 / 2011

Wisdom?

As usual,

not for sale.

It's not like spirituality.

12 / 4 / 2011

Mister "I know everything", Madam "What could you teach me?",

Let's stop believing that silence of the mind, the absence of ready wit, the recognition of our own ignorance, simplicity, humility, kindness and many other qualities are signs of weakness or stupidity.

When we will understand on the contrary that these qualities prove our sincere research of wisdom, "evolution" won't be anymore just a world.

Let's stop to be scared of being nothing.

12 / 6 / 2011

Intuition and true ignorance

They are the players.

We are the "game".

Of whom am I speaking about?

"I" doesn't know.

It even doesn't know if there is players and a game.

So why this thought crosses its mind?

"I" doesn't know.

It's even truer with Mother nature

When an object is watched carefully, we realize that it's the first time we really look at it, as if the object itself agrees at last to show its beauty.

And we can repeat the experience as many times as we wish with the same object.

Art is infinite, but eyes must be open.

Sacred art is to take all the mind as the object of observation

until it reveals the truth,

that there is nothing there and itself has never been anything.

Who am I?

The only true question worth to ask to ourselves.

First answer too metaphysical to be understood:

"I am."

Second answer too obvious to be accepted:

"A monkey" with a skin disease which made him to loose most of his hair.

Broadly speaking not much more.

And what's about my intelligence?

Oh yes, I invented the saw to cut the branch on which I'm sitting like an idiot.

And guess what, I am very pride of it.

The beauty, the perfection and the bliss of this world:

diversity and complexity.

There is not 2 identical leaves of tree.

Never ask anyone to be like you.

Did Chinese needed a true sage like Lao Tzu?

According the tradition, he left to the west and nobody tried to stop him.

Nobody cares as usual.

Wisdom is not good for business in China like anywhere else.

12 / 17 / 2011

We cannot judge something moving

unless we do not want to understand anything.

If you wish to change the world, you don't think that because you can do it, but only because you don't trust the Divine and its creation and even less your destiny.

Love is our destiny.

If we don't love anything,

we still love nothing.

But what a shame!

One of the greatest pleasure of life itself is to have the power to touch matter, just like in a dream.

We cannot judge what we don't understand.

Once we understood, what can we judge?

1 / 5 / 2012

Strange paradox

"It takes all kinds to make a world",

included those who disagree

and who will try to reduce it to only their own kind.

2 / 10 / 2012

Lotus flower, a symbol which still speaks very well by itself.

It takes root deep into the mud.

It grows in the pond.

And it flourishes above water without a drop on it.

Pop wisdom.

"Criticism is easy. Art is difficult."

2 / 23 / 2012

"When the wrong man uses the right means, the right means work in the wrong way."

Chinese saying.

The sage prefers to live instead of shilly-shally.

Because there is nothing to teach, nobody remarks the presence of this noble soul.

Nobody can teach wisdom.

2 / 27 / 2012

Flow with the river and enjoy every moment.

"The purpose of a composer is not to write the last note of a music. The aim of music is music itself."

"If you knew the outcome of a game, there won't be any point to play the game."

Alan Watts

Wisdom is not for young people.

But some are born very old.

3 / 10 / 2012

Useless to pretend.

To be wise, it's to look for wisdom and to understand very well that the one who is looking for it is not wise and will never be as long as he will look for it.

5 / 10 / 2012

How Chuang Tzu describes the man of P’o, the true sage of ancient time and today.

"They were upright and correct without knowing that to be so was righteousness. They loved one another without knowing that to do so was benevolence. They were sincere without knowing that it was loyalty. They kept their promises without knowing that to do so was to be in good faith. They helped one another without thought of giving or receiving gifts. Thus their actions left no trace and we have no records of their affairs." (Ch. XII)

If the golden age did exist, nobody needed to build temples or pyramids. It's so obvious!

7 / 11 / 2012

Indian saying probably about life

"People with good shoes always walks on thorns."

7 / 22 / 2012

Beyond "good" and "bad", there is always "interesting".

9 / 27 / 2012

Chinese wisdom

The "Taiji", this symbol with the Yin and the Yang which combine perfectly well together in a circle, will always explain much more about reality than a very long speech. But for a narrow minded who can only understand reality in terms of black and white, good and bad, etc, this symbol won’t strangely have any meaning.

10 / 8 / 2012

It’s a dream!

Three movies :

- "eXistenZ" of David Cronenberg

- "Inception" of Christopher Nolan

- "The Thirteenth Floor" of Josef Rusnak

2400 years ago, Chuang Tzu wondered if he had dreamed to be a butterfly or if he was now a butterfly dreaming to be Chuang Tzu.

A very long time ago, the Rishis of India thought that the reality is an illusion of the same nature than a dream.

And what’s about if they were right?

Why not!

But it’s not the dreamer who will pay the bills.

And you know that without philosophy.

11 / 2 / 2012

The nature of desire

It’s always better to satisfy the wisest desires because there are others which will hurt much more.

The meaning of life

Wisdom is the search for truths which give a meaning to our life,

otherwise life may have no meaning and no need for it.

1 / 29 / 2013

"No pain, no gain"

So, no gain, no pain.

It’s seems that renunciation is the only way for happiness!

Why not both!

Are you looking for a happy life or an interesting life?

This subject is about Karma, your action which will have consequences

and not so much "the right time and right place" where you are.

Hell or paradise

Liberation and slavery are identical.

Wisdom is beyond.

Tao

I’m part of the landscape.

1 / 30 / 2013

Tell what you think

Don’t confuse wisdom with cowardice.

Futility and wisdom

Life is short; better not to lose your time in futility. But what’s not futile when you perfectly understood that everything is impermanent, death is never far away and the importance you give to yourself is excessively high compared to the one you really have in reality. So how to express wisdom in your life?

As long as you are alive, you have to be healthy. So taking care of your health with a good diet and exercises is a proof of wisdom because everybody knows it, but only a few do it. To live, it’s also to have relationship with others. So it’s better that this relationships are positive and pleasant which means they are based on respect and kindness. When ignorance which determines human condition is an obvious fact, to seek and look for understanding, to invent, create and discover truths, to have a deep interest in many things in order to make your life interesting, everything which determines curiosity can also be considered as a proof of wisdom and humility. We cannot forget that we are the product of the universe too. Not to lose contact with Mother nature, to contemplate and admire it is the best way to pay tribute to it. To open one’s eyes on reality as it is unveils wisdom and enlightenment.

We can only discover wisdom in what is simple, natural and obvious for everybody. And if you find this subject interesting, speak about it with sages and see by yourself if they are really wise.

4 / 7 / 2013

A proof of wisdom and intelligence is to never forget that we are mortal even after understood that being in itself is eternal.

Beyond enlightenment

After realizing the ridicule of any pretension, what could be left if not to be human, what could we do if not showing humaneness?

The wisest is also the most ordinary.

"The man who moves mountains start with small stones."

Confucius

"We don’t do what we want, but we are responsible of what we are."

Jean-Paul Sartre

6 / 4 / 2013

"No one here will get out of it alive"

If you don't forget it, you will not lose your time and you will know right away what to do. The true teaching is already in your mind.

6 / 23 / 2013

It useless to look for paradise on earth, but the wisdom which makes possible to stand reality as it is and we cannot change anyway.

7 / 11 / 2013

The power of the mind

Are we puppets gifted with a mind which thinks that we are not puppets?

If free will is an illusion and my only real power is to watch the mind without identification, this doesn’t let me a lot of choice, but only one option: to watch the thinking process or to have the illusion that I can think by myself.

Yes, but… who decides to watch the mind with or without identification? Isn’t it one more time a mind game to trick me?

It’s impossible to answer this question because the "I" who thinks to have the power to decide anything will always be the personal identity that the mind uses to express itself. So it’s better to ignore this kind of metaphysical questions which lead nowhere and only to practice meditation and Self-inquiry.

Only by practicing spiritual disciplines we can understand through experiences something far beyond a very limited conceptual intelligence which can only think.

Human nature is to get lost in thoughts and never understand anything, even not the basics.

In order to go beyond human nature, we have to develop the power of watching, that is to say to discover more wisdom in our mind, in our heart, in our body and in the world we live in.

It's by watching that we discover.

8 / 7 / 2013

Dharma: natural order of the universe

"Wisdom of life is always deeper and broader than wisdom of men."

Aristotle

8 / 8 / 2013

Do not fear your bad friends

Wisdom is the expression of a very alert state of awareness in which all perception can occur without disturbing the vastness and silence of consciousness. And outside oneself, wisdom expresses compassion and love because in this state of vast and silent awareness, everything is clear, bright, natural, obvious and understood as it is without any interpretation.

Consciousness doesn’t require any thought to be and know itself. Everything happens in its field of awareness, including the person that one embodies. The inner self and the outside world are in fact subjective. And without this subjectivity, who could have realized the Self? Who could be liberated and liberated from what? Do you understand the absurdity of any claim?

Do you understand that everything is perfect, absolutely perfect as long as you are not looking for something else than what is and precisely at the very moment it is? What is will never be otherwise. So why not to take it as it is?

What is right now is reality as it is, the pure and perfect expression of bliss, of Sat Chit Ananda and the Self. This is Maya, Kali, Shakti and the dance of Shiva.

In the experience of non-duality, there is no difference between perfection and reality as it is. How could it be? There will never be anything else than what is. Each moment is remarkable because it’s obviously unique, complete, achieved, total and perfect in the sense that reality ignores your desires and your very personal conception of what should be or should not be. Stop dreaming and deceiving yourself. Stop turning this perfection into distress and suffering. You may like it or not, you will live in this reality as it is until you die. And your death will be its supreme achievement, its glorification and amazement.

So open your eyes to what reality is instead of trying to satisfy desires that blind your mind. Your whims, your nonsense and your moods are not your friends; they undermine and destroy you. This is your distress they want because it’s their only food to breed. Your enemies love your suffering.

Choose better friends, the ones with who you spend your life.

8 / 22 / 2013

Always more books

We can find much more wisdom by watching the mind in order to know how it works than by reading many spiritual books.

Of course

The wise cannot look like a wise.

What could he or she do with an image of himself or herself?

To put it in a frame without frame?

Wisdom of course has no definition.

Success ethic

If Neo teachers don’t go beyond the archetype

"Sex, Money, Power and Fame",

how could they teach anything about spirituality ?

Does the word "ethic" still have any meaning beyond

"Success Ethic and Cult of the Ego" ?

Bliss

You already live in the world of bliss.

Open your eyes and let it flow through you

if it’s what you really desire.

But when that bliss will be your ordinary cup of tea,

you will understand that there is a lot more to unveil.

8 / 1 / 2016

"Doing nothing doesn't help !"

9 / 3 / 2016

Just admire !

A Taoist is an admirer of the Way.

How to admire the Tao ?

Don’t try.

Do it !

Watch !

Watching the breath

is a sure way to know how the Tao works.

Rising and falling..., full and empty..., and so one.

It never stops.

That's the key !

What I adore the most in the Tao,

It's that no one needs any enlightenment,

awakening or liberation from anything

to tread the Path.

Just one step is enough,

Nothing more !

Just one step in the mind and heart.

That's maybe too simple to be trendy.

Who could sell it ?

10 / 3 / 2016

The real purpose of a spiritual path,

Dharma or Tao,

is not to get lost on your way.

When Karma and Dharma are one and the same,

what could you search for ?

There is no more desires,

but only what is.

What could there be more than "that" ?

11 / 2 / 2016

The Tao and its power

The ultimate power is total renunciation..., also called surrendering.

Giving up of any form of desire and ambition is the supreme virtue.

Interesting to hear about, but how to live it ?

That’s the point and that’s only what the Tao really teaches.

Philosophical spirituality is of no use without practice, Dharma and wisdom.

It’s only good for intellectuals who, in fact, don’t care of any real spiritual teaching.

How spirituality could suddenly become in the West or anywhere else

the best means to stand out and rise above the others,

i.e. becoming nothing else than a real ego-trip ?

It seems that it always has been the exact opposite.

And it's what really hurts...

in particular our very well-known Western arrogance !

2 / 1 / 2017

Dynamism

The Tao and its virtue.

The Taiji and its logic.

And life !

5 / 5 / 2017

Peace of Mind

There is no Yang without Yin and Yin without Yang,

This is why the Devil and God are never happy.

but when they realize that they are inseparable,

I would say we can finally live in peace.

Whatever happens in our life, we are neither one nor the other,

but always in between.

And I think the Tao lies just between the two

with nevertheless a good margin on each side because

in any case, it is impossible to please everybody.

Peace of mind doesn't mean that we can make everybody happy.

As a matter of fact, it may disturb many people.

Isn't it strange to see that happiness in our world could upset some people

since everybody is supposed to search for it ?

Non-duality is not the negation of duality but its origin,

the perfect latent state of all manifestation

we can experience without even realizing the Self.

Man and animal

Lao Tzu traveling sitted on a buffalo, nothing more than an animal with all his instincts,

but an animal a lot bigger and more powerful than himself,

is a good representation of wisdom.

Are we not always sitting or traveling around in the mind ?

But in the West, there are not many buffalos.

Wisdom or...

"Be still and silent" is one of the keys and the foundation of all spiritual practices

such as meditation.

It is good to know it, but how is it possible to be still and silent

when the mind will always do everything in its power to never remain tranquil ?

It's obviously up to you to answer that question.

It is very nice to speak of spiritual awakening and awakening of consciousness

as is currently done in all so-called Satsang, "association with the truth",

but if it's only to speak of nonsense teachers prefer to call paradoxes,

it is obviously not going to lead to a spiritual awakening.

Spirituality must have a meaning and help us to live better in a reality,

which has absolutely nothing to do with an illusion.

If it becomes the way to create more confusion in the mind of people,

it is worth nothing and it is better to look for another one.

There is no so-called "Crazy Wisdom",

wisdom is wise and absolutely not stupid

or there is no wisdom at all.

10 / 3 / 2017

Searching in order to not find

If you're searching for the Tao,

you're obviously searching

where you will never find it.

But Confucius said :

"Better to search where there is nothing

than finding nothing where there was something."

4 / 11 / 2017

Nothing to wait

Wu Wei, non-doing, is a source of inspiration in order to do,

and quite often an artistic source of inspiration.

The Tao, the way and its virtue, is a source of instant happiness,

and it doesn't need any specific experience or so-called awakening

to be known and enjoyed to the brink of eternity.

In the Tao, enlightenment, liberation, Self-realization,

any non-ordinary or ecstatic experiences are taken out of context.

There is nothing to wait for, perfection and truth are always present,

it's up to you to take them in the extreme simplicity of being.

7 / 3 / 2018

To much pretension

To free ourselves from the idea of suffering and slavery,

then to free ourselves from the idea of spiritual liberation.

And then we will see what’s left, if there is ever something left,

"Nothing too much" as the ancient Greeks said.

Speaking of which, some authors of that time say that on the temple of Apollo,

it was written the famous, as everybody or almost knows, "Know Thyself",

but also that this maxin was followed by the less known

"And nothing too much", that is to say "Nothing in excess",

which means more or less "Don’t get crazy and think to be God or kind of Guru",

and strangely enough, just what we tend to forget in our spirituality nowadays –

maybe that kind of problem is not very new but a very ordinary human characteristic since this advise "Know Thyself and nothing too much" is at the very least 5 000 years old.

In this lovely city full of other temples, Delphi,

there were also many other proverbs written on the walls,

which seems to concern today absolutely nobody anymore,

except this "Know Thyself" or more simply put "know yourself"

a little bit narcissistic I’ve to say,

and that’s probably why we still remember it very well,

such as for instance :

"Think as a mortal and nothing more"

"Control yourself"

"Be yourself"

"Cling to discipline"

"Pursue honor"

"Long for wisdom and integrity"

"Praise the good"

"Practice what is just"

"Exercise nobility of character"

"Shun evil"

"Be impartial"

"Cultivate habits of moderation"

"Listen to everyone"

"Foresee the future"

"Fear deceit"

"Choose what is divine"

"Act when you know"

"Pray for things possible"

"Use your skills"

"Be on your guard"

"Speak plainly"

"Be happy with what you have"

"Make right judgement"

"Tell when you know"

"Live without sorrow"

"Give a timely response"

"Repent of your faults"

"Be grateful"

"Pursue harmony and inner peace"

"Do not boast in might"

"Enjoy silence"

"Do not be discontented by life"

"Despise evil"

"Do not tire of learning"

"Admire oracles"

"Respect the elders"

"Love your life"

"Do not trust wealth"

"Be noble and virtuous"

"On reaching the end of life, be without sorrow"

And there were many others I won’t mention in order to not shock spiritually too much some sensitive readers who may already know so well everything about spirituality that they don’t need any sort of wisdom, Dharma, ethics and morality.

As a matter of facts, in a spirituality completely degenerated by a nonduality leading only to kind of supreme Oneness without second, distinction, difference and opposition, such precepts are obviously unacceptable and even nonsensical, unbearable should I say.

Moreover and especially in the spiritual paradigm taught today by our so-called Neo gurus, in which freedom and absolute spiritual liberation are already a very obvious fact and our true nature, how could we accept directives or frankly speaking formal commands of obedience that would explain us as if we still were stupid children what we should be and do and what we must not be nor do ? Such an art of living and dying can only be utterly insane in our great Western culture more advanced than any others from the past and present.

So it could therefore be concluded that there is nothing really amazing that our pseudo Western spirituality today doesn’t want to hear anything about the wisdom of ancient Greece, which is nevertheless at the origin of our civilization, what we think and believe, and even the words we use in our language and thoughts to ponder and so understand somehow our own ideas.

And it goes without saying that when we speak of wisdom, that suggests very clearly the idea of constant quest, adaptation and permanent readjustment.

Contrary to what we may think about enlightenment and spiritual liberation, it would be quite difficult to conceive a wisdom that could be defined and definitive, somehow done and on which there would be no need to come back at least to question what’s going on in our real life and in the world. If wisdom was not purely practical, that is to say rooted in daily living, which despite what we may think is never the same, what would be the point of it ? And to think that wisdom has no practical use in daily living would be even more absurd.

At present, let us stop dreaming just for a little while, that won't hurt those who can still open their eyes. There cannot be any true enlightenment and spiritual liberation without wisdom, and even any spiritual path, and I’m obviously not speaking of a crazy wisdom in Tibetan style that we should simply be called orgy, not Buddhist but purely Lamaist, and hopefully not appreciated by every Lama.

And of course, we can only discover wisdom by searching for it on an ongoing basis. It’s not something we could get during a spiritual experience, set inside a frame such as a beautiful dead leaf not yet completely decomposed, and then nail to a wall in order to admire when we want to remember how it looks like.

This is life itself which teaches us wisdom, our very ordinary and daily living, and it’s still us who learn what’s it’s all about while living in the reality of it as it is, a reality which until proven otherwise is unique for everyone and in perpetual evolution, which simply means that wisdom is never something acquired once and for all, and so that challenges all our understanding of spirituality, and also what is meant by enlightenment, liberation and Self-realization, the so-called spiritual awakening taught today in Satsang.

It's quite easy to understand that spirituality and wisdom are inseparable. But it doesn't mean that spiritual awakening leads systematically to wisdom, and the awakened or awakening one is always a sage who would have something important to teach. And that is so true that anyone who has really lived a spiritual experience knows perfectly well that it doesn't make better, smarter or wiser. As a matter of fact, this experience is so powerful that it can very easily disorient and upset afterwards the mental life of the person who has lived it, and not always in a better way as we can very often witness behind the scene of our Neo spirituality.

The problem, if we may say so, is that we consider now the reality of our daily living as something actually unbearable and only good to flee by all means. Any entertainments, drugs legal or illegal, but so easily available at the corner of the street that we may wonder why they are still illegal, and mindless spiritual states and experiences are in fact always welcome in order to escape, if we still can, depression, anxiety, fear, boredom, loneliness, routine, habits..., existential emptiness and the apparent degradation to be only human beings lost in a vast universe, and moreover for a very short time. And consequently the creation of a Neo meta-pataphysical spirituality, which states that we would be in truth a universal, cosmic and divine consciousness with the amazing power to be aware of the human experience of everyone in the world, and for the only purpose of entertaining itself.

With such Neo cutting-edge teachings and divine truth, we may also wonder if God, that is to say universal consciousness, would not be in fact getting utterly bored in his stupid paradise if he really needs 7 billions of more or less pathetic human performances every day and for millions of years if not a lot more, the eternity for instance. To such a level of decadence, we may think that he should watch TV like everybody, and only one program at a time, because with 7 billions all at once, he could get very quickly sick of it if not completely insane.

And we should also wonder why we cannot be aware of the human experience of our neighbors and what they think if we truly are this universal consciousness able to know the experience of everybody. But please, don’t ask such a question to Neo gurus who have realized that they embody this universal consciousness, this poor consciousness may suddenly start talking gibberish and going into metaphysics even worse than usual.

Anyway, to that kind of divine truth expressed in many different ways in the greatest Satsang of all time, some people sometimes a little bit hypocritical when not completely phoney, and who cannot or simply don’t want to see further that the tip of their nose because they might unfortunately realize that they are not better that anyone else, would ask the gorgeous question : "But why has God created so much evil and suffering in our world ?", a lovely question that could almost make us believe that we are real angels condemned to a life we absolutely don’t deserve.

And to that very obvious fact as if God could be the only culprit of all the horror we can see in the world, the answer will always be : "Start taking your personal responsibility and at last choosing what’s good for you and the others." Of course, such an answer might upset a little bit the one who has asked the question until he finds another even more genius, universal and especially stupid.

For those who didn’t notice yet, only mankind in the whole world and known universe can really demonstrate and enjoy an indescribable cruelty, and as a very well-known character would say, let the person who has never been wicked, at least in words or thoughts, cast the first stone.

And if we really don’t know what’s good in our spirituality of senseless nonduality, which doesn’t want to become corrupted by outdated and meaningless concepts such as good and evil, a Neo paradigm very easily understandable in a world and culture where we all want to just do as we please and never be disturbed by anyone or anything, let us at least search for what could be really good for us and the others instead of thinking to be the Divine and already liberated.

It’s obviously not our Neo gurus always in a constant process of enlightenment, realization and liberation who could tell us what’s good, they already have enough problems to integrate their spiritual awakening and control their libido, without mentioning their greedy and insatiable bank account they cannot tame by any means.

As long as nonduality and its pathetic outcomes such as the "politically correct", positive thinking, the neurotic mindfulness when one washes the dishes or walk the dog, the complete absence of opinion, critics and judgment, the impossibility to communicate decently beyond "I’m right, you’re wrong, and that’s it !", and so on, complete mental anesthesia to sum up the whole topic, will be a pretext to not live in and with the reality of our human condition as it is, it will be the worst concept we could introduce in our mind and life - there is no point to say in our philosophy of life since we don't have any and apparently also absolutely don't need.

But, or unfortunately should I say maybe, as long as we will still be involuntarily able to distinguish good and bad when we simply put something in our mouth, the stupid idea that there is no difference between good and evil in the world will only be a big and very bad joke leading to always more suffering, and as we can easily see today, to more and more psychosis and depression leading sometimes to suicide.

Isn’t it amazing that it’s always people who take no interest in anything or only stupid things such as "reality shows" we can watch on TV or in every pathetic Satsang, since now Western Neo gurus can only speak of themselves and their personal and absolutely amazing experiences, who think that life is incredibly boring and not worth to live ? Those ones surely don’t want to see the reality of their human and not cosmic life as it is. It’s a pity because they would be in fact a lot more happy and really passionate about their ordinary life with an infinite number of daily problems waiting to be solved, and problems they will have to solve in one way or another they like it or not, than denying what they are in order to be what they will never be anyway, kind of divine nonduality and eternal bliss always ready to blow up their petty human condition, but unfortunately never able to end it till their very last breathe.

To just briefly come back to our dear ancient Greeks from the antiquity, of course they knew very well they were living with the Gods. Sincerely speaking, what would be more natural and simple ! But they never thought to be one of them.

And instead of searching for non-ordinary experiences in order to realize kind of cosmic consciousness that could, nobody knows why, solve all their daily problems, they have at least understood that the wisdom to respect some values and codes of behavior could allow them to simply have a better life, just what everybody truly wishes for with or without spirituality, nothing more !




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