An Evolution

In the Lotus Sutra, it is said

Everything is emptiness – this

World is empty,

Hell is empty,

Heaven is empty,

God is empty,

Everything is emptiness.

Emptiness is the nature of all things,

Nothingness,

So be attuned to nothingness

And you will achieve. – Rajneesh

Introduction

In thinking about Flowing from Emptiness – particularly the source of the flow, emptiness – two statements by fellow T’ai Chi Chih teachers come to mind. I remember Alma Zerboni, from New Jersey, telling me that between her classes she stops in a park to clear her mind from all that occurred in the previous class. She did not say she was clearing the negative and bringing in the positive, as we often hear. She instead was just clearing, bringing a state of emptiness. A quotation by Lama Zopa Rinoche reflects what Alma was saying:

You may be able to recite by heart

And brilliantly explain teachings on emptiness.

But in daily life, if someone says something

A little negative or a little positive,

Offers a little criticism or a little praise,

Immediately the mind becomes emotional.

There is no stability, immediately there is like and dislike.

If this is what happens to our mind in daily life, there is not even

A particle of practice of right view. – Lama Zopa Rinoche, Door to Satisfaction

I also remember Lucia Veteran, recently deceased and from Pennsylvania, telling me about a student: “You know what the problem is about TCC [for the student]? There is nothing to hold onto.” Apparently, the student was searching for something more tangible to grasp. Just when we think we may have any of the TCC principles, we don’t. We are brought to glimpses of emptiness even if it is not our overt intention.

…

The Tao Te Ching teaches us that we must realign with the implicit unfolded order in the evolution of the universe from which we try to abide. We do this in our TCC practice, in our everyday lives, living organically. Justin Stone invites us to “Enter the Cosmic Rhythm.” As Lao Tzu says, “Those who flow as life flows know they need no other force.” And as Barbara Maxx Hubbard says in the forward to the Tao Te Ching: as in a time 2000 years before Lao Tzu, when we lived in relative harmony with nature caring for each other by necessity. Thus the purpose of TCC is to circulate and balance this intrinsic, inborn energy of the body known as Chi. As we know, the Chi must flow; stagnant Chi leads illness and disease. Too much or too little yin or yang, a lack of balance, also leads to disease and illness in each of us and in the world.

Editor’s Note: Janet’s entire paper appears on www.taichichih.org under “Conference 2018.” Janet says the continuation “brings a closer look of how this evolutionary story and the teachings of Justin Stone inform our TCC practice and our teaching. Included is how the definition of TCC, ‘Knowledge of the Supreme Ultimate,’ yields permanence and transformation. Also included is the fundamental reason why, according to the Taoists, ‘cultivating a life free of limitations is practiced.’”