Tuesday 23 February 2010

The person of Tao

The 'real' person, the person of Tao - truly a Tao master - Is someone you have met and had no idea of their views, wants, needs, likes or dislikes.

Religion never came up in conversation, they were good to you but never made out they were being good. They were calm and collected but never felt the need to tell you how easy going they were. They fitted in and blended with the crowd without any loss of individuality. They were good at all things that came their way, did their best and had no bashfulness over their poor performance or ego over their greater achievements. They shone with an inner brightness and radiated a deep seated warmth but wore no label, no jewels, no robe, no dog collar, no stripes on their arms, no marks of distinction.

Fitting in and getting along they were solid and dependable - you could miss them for a day or a year and be greeted the same on meeting again. Always fit for a good laugh and a joke, they could be told your inner woes and neither give you advice or break your trust. If you asked for advice on life they'd tell you something about death, if you asked for advice on colours they'd play you a song, if you wanted fine food they'd make you some tea. On every occasion meeting your needs in the most simplistic, unassuming yet well chosen responses.

They appeared in your life without you noticing them, and disappeared softly without a trace. They were your greatest masters and never asked for thanks. You probably owe them your heartfelt gratitude but their reward is that you treated them like a completely normal person.

6 comments:

The Rambling Taoist said...

Utterly Superb!! You've outdone yourself with this post.

The trials and tribulations of QPR said...

Ah, yes, this one I know well, it is from one of you fine E-Books. I love it and it inspired me to write my own version of it based on my own insight. :-)

David "Shinzen" Nelson said...

Delicious cup of tao this morning.
Thanks.

C. Om said...

Excellent! The 'Way' personified.
Thank you.

Rizal Affif said...

I've read this before, it's my favorite post of Tao Wow, and now it's reposted, I still love it!

Ta-Wan said...

I was going to have this as the final post on this blog which should be 30 Nov 2010 (1 year after it began)

But due to a clerical error, well the universe does not make errors, but what seemed to the conditioned mind to be a clerical error, it got posted yesterday..

:)