I have had a fantastic day so far! I slept for 12 hours after a long but very fruitful week.

I spent many hours online researching Yoga, Qigong, ethnomusicology, arab music research (through ethnomusicology) and am now looking at Summerhill, a very progressive school in the UK. Carol Hess pointed that school out for me, and it is very interesting due to my interests in pedagogy. (http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/)

For today, I’ll limit myself to yoga and qigong. I have long been interested in starting yoga, but never decided to do so. Last May, I took an interest in Taoism, an ancient Chinese philosophy. I had read the Art of War years ago, at the recommendation of a father of a good friend of mine, and I decided to go into Taoism by rereading that book. I went through the whole thing during the long lay over in Chicago on my way to Europe for my long summer (a story for some other time, for sure, but I can say it was one of my most interesting summers).

Chinese water painting

I also had a copy of the I Ching, said to be the basis of most Chinese Philosophy. It is supposed to be a book of divination, but what I find interesting is its look on human nature and the idea of change as the only constant in the world. There is no dogma there. The text can be obscure at times, but I have since found another copy that puts the different sections – each consisting of hexagrams, a human archetype, a summary of the archetype, an explanation of the visual hexagram, and a commentary by Confucius – in a clear context. Each different hexagram and its components can apply to a situation according to the perception of the observer. The only constant is change, action-reaction. There is no prescribed method to face situations – that has to be deduced by the individual’s thought and experiences. The I Ching was used by John Cage as the basis of some of his compositional thought. The following link is an illustration of the first hexagram, The Creative. Keep in mind that this online version is very watered down!

http://flytrapinteractive.com/~complimentary/iching/index3.html

Ever since, I have read the Tao Te Ching, at a rate of one page a day (I also took that as an opportunity to methodically practice reading slower). I’d start the day and end it by reading that page. I have also found two books by a modern Chinese scholar, Deng Ming Dao, that are structured as daily meditations on different aspects of Taoism. The books I have are “Everyday Tao” and “365 Tao.” Dao’s goal is to translate the ancient language of Taoist manuscripts into practical ideas and meditations for today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deng_Ming-Dao

I have recently started “The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu,” one of the most highly regarded Taoist philosophers. He wrote parables and stories that are often humorous and are definitely the product of a highly original and creative mind.

Another book I found at a local used book shop (“Curious Books” on Grand River, right by Cosi) is “Taoist Tales,” an anthology of popular fiction, parables, poems and koans.

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Just a note: I am not a religeous person. Although I was born in a Christian family, I don’t consider myself a Christian anymore. I hate labels because they limit who I am, but for clarity’s sake, I would be considered either an agnostic or an atheist today. Richard Dawkins describes his brand of atheism in the following way: “I cannot know for sure if there is a God or not, but I act as if he did not exist.” Some consider this agnosticism because atheism rejects God completely, but, in any case, that is a view I agree with at this point in life. 

God has become such a loaded term nowadays. Einstein used it in a different way than that used by the monotheistic religeons. The same applies to other deists or theists. Suffice to say that I do not believe in a personal God neither in a heaven or a hell. I don’t know what there is after this life, so all I can knowingly practice is in this one. And if it is true that, as Gandhi says, each person has his/her own religeon, than the matter of God is either irrelevant or too difficult to discuss. In my case, I have found it enough to strive to be a good person looking for truths in situations. Good is not a synonym of nice. 

My interest in Tao lies in the fact that, at its base, it was not a religeon based on dogma. Rather, it is a philosophy of life, change, humanity, creativity, and the aim of staying aware of the present at all times. It was behind the development of many martial arts, such as judo (the use of the opponent’s force to create your own is a Taoist ideas). It focuses greatly on the individual, which is a reason I have become interested in pedagogy and community as ways of relating to other people without becoming individualistic. I am willing to discuss my insight more thoroughly with all of you, I don’t know yet how knowledgeable you are of Taoism.