There is a cycle to all things. A time for rest a time for action. I have spent the last few months in retreat. I have questioned many things in life, looked at personal direction, goals, habits and beliefs.  Now I am struggling, how do I turn the reflection into action. How do I transition from rest to action?
So as I turn to action, what should I undertake? How do I distinguish  what is a worthy pursuit, from what is mindless actions?

Confucius choose action over words and provides a guide in moving forward in The Analects Book VIII. He writes:

1. Without good form attentions grow into fussiness, heed becomes fearfulness,  daring becomes unruliness, frankness becomes rudeness. 
2. Three branches of the Way are dear to a Gentleman: To banish from his being violence and disdain; to sort his face to the truth, and to banish from his speech what is low or unseemly.
3. A man of simple faith, who loves learning, who guards and betters his way unto death, will not enter a tottering kingdom, not stay in a lawless land. When all below heaven follows the Way, he is seen, when it loses the Way he is unseen. 
   

1. Without good form attentions grow into fussiness, heed becomes fearfulness,  daring becomes unruliness, frankness becomes rudeness. 
   

In moving to action it is easy to jump in and overcompensate. To run with an extreme. I will be 10 times more active, just to make up for time spent in recovery. I have heard life referred to as a marathon, not a spirit. I think Confucius warns us that any good virtue has an extreme that is harmful; attention and fussiness, heed and fear, daring and unruly, frank and rude.
So as I turn to action and transition from rest I must ask myself these questions. What is the good form? Are the virtues I move forward sustainable, to the middle, and not representative of an extreme? Did my rest provide the recovery need to sustain an enduring balance as I take action


2. Three branches of the Way are dear to a Gentleman: To banish from his being violence and disdain; to sort his face to the truth, and to banish from his speech what is low or unseemly.


To find the Way is to find the water that carves through rock and leads us down the valley of our existence. Water does not fight the rock and violently attack the rock, it merely is and the rock gives way and the canyon is formed. Violence is easy to define and I understand why Confucius would banish it. However, how much have you thought of disdain? To follow the Way is not to consider anything unworthy of consideration. Can a blind man teach of Vision? Can the poor enlighten on riches?
The hardest thing in moving to action is to face the truth. This is not the truth of others, but the truth that retreat brought to you, the truth of your self. What self truths are each of us not facing? Was it retreat and recovery, or avoidance? Are you true to yourself?
There are a thousand speeches with words so grand, but is this action? Is it unseemly to speak without the Way guiding your feet? Does it move to action if you stop to speak of low things instead of the greatness of the Way?

3. A man of simple faith, who loves learning, who guards and betters his way unto death, will not enter a tottering kingdom, not stay in a lawless land. When all below heaven follows the Way, he is seen, when it loses the Way he is unseen. 

Where will your actions go? To what will you put your energies. Rotten fruit will not become sweet by your action of eating it. It would be easy to enter into action for the need to address corruption, however the Way will be unseen. To take action for a reason that is external is to be unseen. To take action where it is simple, to learn, and to be true to self is the Way.

Action

To take up a plan that is true to self, that holds to the middle and avoids extremes, action that is for self not an external existence. He is the path for transitioning.


So where do you need to take action?

My Dad had a heart attack a few weeks ago. Not his first, but had it not been for the work of paramedics and them defibrillating and resuscitating him he would not be alive today. Well into his seventies he has fought and worked hard his whole life. Although he has lived a long life, I am not ready to say goodbye. 

If I were to describe my father, he is a man who has worked hard his entire life to provide for his family. At the age of twelve, after his father was murdered, he lived in the closet of a store, where they offered him a place to stay, a hotplate to cook a daily meal of porridge, and 10 cents a day in pay for working in the store. He used the money to help out his mom and three younger sisters.

I can remember as a child eating a favorite meal of mine. It was canned baked beans. I still love this meal today. For a period of time my Mom would cook that for me for days on end. Sometimes she would cut up a hotdog, fry it and put in in the beans. I recall a night that Dad came home sat in the living room and Mom was cooking baked beans for supper. When she was done she called me to the table to eat my Dad did not join us. I went to him and, as only an excited child can, said Dad it’s bean supper lets go eat. He told me to go ahead that he was not hungry tonight. My Dad was always hungry and it would take me years to understand why he did not eat many nights. I can still see the hurt in his face when I talk about how much I love eating beans.

Now the years have passed and the Hero of my life has grown old. The hours of brutal hard labour work has torn at his body. He cannot walk twenty paces on his two legs that each have knee replacements. He thinks slower, smiles less, gets grumpy more and yet he  always has a smile for me when I come visit.

When he had his heart attack I was a thousand miles and two days away. My Mom tracked me down, always a strong woman; I could hear the fear in her voice.

Always the father and never wanting to take from his family, he has been slow to ask for any help; whether it is time, money, or a ride.  So when I returned and saw him in a hospital bed, and learned that he had not been taking his prescribed medication or eating proper prior to the heart attack, because he did not have the money to afford them, I felt shame. One of many values my father has instilled in me, is to take of each other and family. When I asked why he did not ask for help, he replied, you always give me so much and you did not need to waste more money on me.  Waste, waste, I felt more shame.

My Dad is out of the hospital. He is making a slow recovery and yet I feel he has changed forever, or I have. How am I to be a son, a son to a Hero who has sacrificed his life and body, so that I may have the chances and possibilities I have been blessed with.

Confucius, in Book IV of the Analects, writes:

1.       Wealth and honors are what men desire: but do not go from the Way, to keep them.

2.       Whilst thy father and mother are living, do not wander afar.

3.       A father and mother’s years must be borne in mind; with gladness on the one hand and fear on the other.

Confucius words only begin to raise the questions for me. This week I am shorter on answers.

What are the ways that my father has taught me? I have wealth and yet it does not bring the instant contentment and happiness, the poor child I was , thought it would. Is there not wealth in the values my father taught?

I have only recently moved back to where my parents live. It has given me joy to cook a meal and share it with them at my family dinner table. Yet I think that I have been in the same room and yet wandered from my parents. More worried about what needs to be done as opposed to the joy of my family. Have I wander from my parents in time, in my mind, in the Way?

I am so lucky that I can talk to my parents in their later years. It is a gift that I know not all can enjoy. Do I recognize this gift and live in it? Does the fear and shame I have overcome me?

My Dad and I talked yesterday. I am going over to take him for breakfast. I think I owe him a meal or two.

I had a morning coffee with an amazing lady that I love and adore. I fell in love with her when I least expected to connect. I fell in love with her brilliant thinking, her stunning beauty and just how I am simply, a better me, with her.

I never attributed much to others discussion on love. I have sought my whole life to be seen and “loved”.  I have been deeply damaged by a bad relationship and lost whole parts of myself within that relationship. I did not see anything as abstract and undefinable as love as have any place within spiritual enlightenment.

Yet when this amazing lady’s light cast into my darkness I again began to see, believe and come to a new understanding. It raises the question of love’s role in spiritual self-understanding. Does love have any place in the writing of the ancient and wise ones? Turning to The Analects of Confucius Book III and Book IV some guidance can be found.

     A man without love, what is courtesy to him? A man without love, what is music to him? (Book III)

     Love makes a spot beautiful: who chooses not to dwell in love. Has he got wisdom? (Book IV)

     If a man were to give his strength to love for a day, I have seen no one whose strength would fail        him. (Book IV)

1.       A man without love, what is courtesy to him? A man without love, what is music to him? (Book III)

Within this statement I see Confucius telling us that from love comes an understanding of courtesy, care, niceties, and all the rich subtleness of fine things. In music there is joy, creativity, appreciation. Without love the fine edges of life have no meaning, the joy of creativity, the feel of the breeze on your arm. To connect to a deeper sense, love is a key.

What wondrous things come to your world when you walk hand in hand with your love? What parts of the world revel their secrets through your love?

2.       Love makes a spot beautiful: who chooses not to dwell in love. Has he got wisdom? (Book IV)

For over twenty five years I have traveled yearly into the mountains, to a place I found in my teens.  Down a goat trail, at the end of a waterfall, a river plunges and cuts its way through solid rock. Sitting on a cliff over this river, I have stared for hours at the turbulent waters thunder in, then flow increasing smoothly into a river. A massive boulder punctuates the river, as it turns to the right and further out of site. At my lowest times, at my most jubilant times I have come to silently commune with this rock.

My love and I traveled to this place. She over looked the rock and I felt as if I was sharing my most intimate place and space. She sat quietly with me, pointed to the rock and spoke.

“That rock is like a guide, the mother keeper of this river. After all the turbulence of the waterfall behind us, it stands through the years and guides us on the rest of the journey down the river.”

Indeed this is what that rock had done for me for most of my life. Yet it was the words of my love that defined and created beauty for all those years of sitting and watching it.

Why would I choose to not be in this love, to understand that the world is better by feeling so much for this incredible partner who has joined my journey?

How is your world reshaped by the love that you feel?

3.       If a man were to give his strength to love for a day, I have seen no one whose strength would fail him. (Book IV)

Can you change how you manifest through the state of being loved?

I find the toughest part of my days, the days I lack strength, the days I have doubt, the days I need more, in these days I find the fortitude that comes from knowing I am loved to be the difference in all levels of my performance.

I recall taking a brutal five hour marital arts exam. At the three hour mark I took a punishing kick to my left knee. Having damaged the ligaments in this knee prior it was prone to injury. I was filled with rage at my predicament. I was looking at the loss of over a year’s worth of hours dedicated to getting myself to this point. I was filling with shame to face my sensei and admit failure.  I did not want to share with my love that the hours I spent away from her did not bear fruit. It was in thinking of my love that the rage melted away and peace came.

I re-entered the exam and performed at a level I did not know I had. When my body was yelling at me to quit, I thought of all the love I felt for my partner and I carried on. It was not as if the pain did not exists, it was just the understanding that the pain could be tolerated and it would pass.

Love, love used to strengthen your resolve; love used to physically make you more capable.

How does your love give you a level of determination and strength beyond what you thought yourself capable of?

As I go into the world I ask what do I know?  I have spent over two decades as a teacher. Yet when I look back and reflect, that question 'What do I know?' stands out.  I also joke that in my twenties I knew everything. Now my days are filled with whole areas I do not know about and  I begin to understand my level of ignorance. 

Even more questions arise. Is knowledge different than wisdom?  Can wisdom be learned? Can I ever know enough? Should I know more?

In searching for an understanding and sense of guidance is found in The Analects of Confucius Book II.

Confucius shares;

To know what we know, and know what we do not know, is wisdom.
Learning without thought is naught; thought without learning is dangerous.
A gentleman is broad and fair; the small man takes sides and is narrow.
To keep old knowledge warm and get new makes the teacher.


1. To know what we know, and know what we do not know, is wisdom.

As I think of the connection between wisdom and knowledge this statement is a defining link. The direction given by Confucius is not the acquisition of more knowledge. To be wise, is to be aware of your knowledge. To identify what you know and what you do not. How many times have I found myself speaking to a topic I do not know?  If a child asks us why the tide comes and goes, do we know? Or do we give an answer we do not fully understand. 

2. Learning without thought is naught; thought without learning is dangerous.

Do we learn and ask the questions to go deeper. Where does this knowledge fit into my wisdom? Does this learning connect to me? Will this learning moment challenge and change who I am? At other times we jump thinking through a process or situation and yet we do not reflect on how that has worked. Danger comes from not learning from our previous thought patterns. How do you reflect on your learning?

3. A gentleman is broad and fair, the small man takes sides and is narrow. 

There is wisdom is being broad and open to knowledge. It is fair to explore and honor the knowledge and wisdom of others; open, suspending judgement. To pick a side or point of view limits the openness of a person. Narrow thinking is not a path to wisdom and does not allow us to learn and know more than our own limits.  Can you look to other knowledge and learning and fairly see the strength of it?

4. To keep old knowledge warm and get new makes the teacher.

In warmth there is comfort, and there is substance. Does your understanding of old knowledge allow you the warmth of this comfort? Do you actively get new knowledge and link it to the understanding of the old. Without the movement from old to new, it is easy to confused the rigidness and complacency of staying in the old with a false sense of warmth. A teacher transitions from the old to the new, making neither one greater or less than the other.

So as Confucius guides us on the path of wisdom to that of a teacher he provides us a roadmap. Know what you know, tie your learning with thinking and reflect, be open and fair to ideas, and to teach, seek the link of old to new.

How will you seek your path to wisdom?

T

There are times when the days become longer and filled with less. Doubt, fatigue sneak in and the well empties. I had such a day last week. Locked in the office, a slave to paperwork, I saw little time or energy to connect to those I cared about and the greater world around me.   The next day was one of connection, time spent with the people I care about, love filling the well. The contrasts of such days back to back created the challenge. Both days are necessary in the mix of my life. Neither day is to be avoided or ran away from.  I cannot always, nor would choose to , live  completely static days. There is not light without dark.

In this shifting sand how do I measure the days? What stick can be used in both situations that does not judge one as greater than the other, but as both being required within the mix of life. 

To find spiritual guidance we turn to the Analects of Confucius Book I.

Thrice Daily I ask myself:

In dealing for others, have I been unfaithful?

Have I been untrue to friends?

Do I practice what I teach?

 
Note: Confucius guides us to check three times in a day. In any day do you take time to reflect more than once? Does that reflection only come at the end of a day? How would your personal power change if you could reflect early in the day and set your pace, tone and direction? How would a midday reflection allow you to take more control of your day? What could you learn about you day if it ended with reflection?

1.     In dealing for others, have I been unfaithful?

The key words to understand are for others. The assumption here is that you work to better those around you. How do you give to the world? What is your personal meaning of faithful? What values do you hold when you act in the faith of others?

2.     Have I been untrue to friends?

True to friends! Who would you count as your friends? How do you be true to the people that surround you?

3.     Do I practice what I teach?

Do you go into the world with the idea to teach and share what you know? Are your beliefs exemplified in your actions?

So how do I make sense of my two contrasting days. Neither were a result of design; I feel they would have held closer to my values and been shaped if I started the day with these three questions. The paperwork was indeed for others and it was necessary and important. If the task was draining, maybe I could find replenishment in know that it served the purpose of getting task done that had been entrusted to me. I tackled them with faith and good will. On the day of connection was I being true to my friends. I took time to be open, and share with them the gratitude that I felt owing to their connection to my life. So two days of different actions, events and energy and yet both honoring one of Confucius’s measures of a day.

How can you use these questions to measure you day?

Traveler – T
One who is on a journey