Strange is the path
When you offer your love.
Your body is crushed at the first step.
If you want to offer love
Be prepared to cut off your head
And sit on it.
Be like the moth,
Which circles the lamp and offers its body.
Be like the deer, which, on hearing the horn,
Offers its head to the hunter.
Be like the partridge,
Which swallows burning coals
In love of the moon.
Be like the fish
Which yields up its life
When separated from the sea.
Be like the bee,
Entrapped in the closing petals of the lotus.
(Songs of Mirabai)
Cherry blossom
Cherry blossoms bloom and fall within a short space of time.
Samurai used this example as a template for how they lived.
Death may come for you at any time, so it is foolish to be shackled by fear and
propriety.
Whilst you worry about what other people may think, the
hours of your life pass by.
Live the present moment.
Live it for what it is worth.
When it has passed, allow it to fade.
Sex as meditation
Taoism is all about living in the here and now.
Thoughts of potential tomorrows and memories of the past are considered
unimportant.
The past has gone and cannot be changed and the future will stem from
the present.
What we do now matters.
Sex is an excellent way to achieve
a state of meditation; you are absolutely rooted in the immediate.
In the zen tradition, many questions are simply answered by a brisk slap to the
face.
This is not brutality.
The slap shocks the questioner out of their thoughts and into their body.
Then they are meditating.
Sex can do the same providing you become lost in the moment.
Self-consciousness
"If you're happy and you know it - clap your hands..."
This children's rhyme is very misleading and inaccurate.
It should read:
"If you're happy and you know it - then you're not..."
A happy person is too immersed in their happiness to 'step back' and watch the
situation.
Who is stepping back?
The very concept of the subject being objective is a contradiction in terms.
Self-consciousness ruins everything.
As soon as you start thinking, analysing, planning, remembering... you slide out
of the moment and back into your thoughts.
Immersion
Taoists approach sex as they would food.
Every texture, smell, taste and sensation is experienced to the fullest.
They delight in the enjoyment of another.
There is no rushing.
You slowly savour the other person, your mind is lost in the ocean of
physicality.
Fun
In addition to treating sex as a game, you can also play games with
sex.
Games help you to lose your inhibitions and shed those cumbersome rules you
spent a lifetime accumulating.
Page created 27 January 2004