Magical Dao

The world gets weirder every day in the appropriately misnamed Weirdale. As it happens the name using those letters might form Wiredale suggesting a Dale with fibre optic cables and Weirdale seems to be already in use as a word for a Dale brewing unusual ale. The point being that words have magic power sometimes and writers use them to enchant the reader who may miss the symbolic intention. Clever rhymes (not doggerel) and puns (not overworked), mystical allusions loved by many and understood by few (Blake's Universe in a Grain of Sand, Eternity in an Hour), all draw in the reader.

As is known, this blog, you might say a long running essay, is a contemporary form, always moving as if on Camino, trying to communicate the Dao by avoiding nouns, fixed things, employing more verbs (or verbing), trying to avoid reference to an I or me or mine in order to reprogramme my own mind into this new reality discovered that your blogger is not separate from all that is, though not less but infinitely more. The absence of full stops and the irritating use of three dots instead to signify infinity was part of plan. Rather like neuro-linguistic programming without the Common Purpose cult.

Now Dao or Tao appears in the Blog title as if by accident, explained initially as the Camino starting point (River Wear where I lived) and direction of travel (Rio Dao a river in Portugal which doesn't actually reach the sea). Astute philosophers may note an echo of Here and Now, which some say is all there is in deep reality. Let's say serendipity, a favourite word meaning a coincidence with significance, pointing towards weirdness and magic. Since Dao was the current teaching, its lessons embodied in the whole adventure in freedom which was wonderful in its entirety, Santiago de Compostela never the destination, Life School seen as the reason for a whole life and more, the three treasures according to Lao Tse (Tzu) translated for me as: Compassion, Simplicity and Patience. The first two came easy to be honest. Mum modelled Compassion, money never attracted me as long as there was enough, but Patience was tricky all this Life, always in a hurry to change the world (correctly seen as in dire need of Revolution of some kind or other).

Dao then in Life School may be seen in two parts: First theory, second practice. Theory of Dao may well include the Dao De Jing and scholars will have studied it in many translations in numerous languages, ancient and modern. However, just as reading an instruction manual called "How to Swim" is not much use until the reader jumps in to the water, so learning Dao from Lao's wise words is far from the amazing reality embodied by jumping in to the stream, or Way, or whatever words we use. Pilgrimage perhaps? Though even that is just a long walk with a halo some say!

Dao as a route to Truth and Power is well known and misused often when ethics are neglected, so Patience is indeed vital, but Simplicity is too, and Compassion or Universal Love is essential or the magic will eventually wear thin. Dao as an organised religion? No thanks, that falls into the trap of other religions, building castles in the sand. So, is Dao atheistic then? Absolutely not! Denial of God or gods or Theos or whatever makes no sense; a belief system itself, soon disproved when magic appears, which when observed and incorporated it does. In fact early researchers in the quantum world discovered the observer and the thing observed inseparable, which still puzzles scientists and philosophers.

And so, the experience of the Magic of Dao continues daily in Stanhope. Well qualified strangers pop up to explain a point and disappear. For example, a young Indian researcher into Virology came for coffee with his Persian friend who trained in Plant Medecine. A few days later they arrived with an Indian meal they prepared to further discuss important questions, which basically taught that the current viral crisis was contrived for nefarious reasons by power players at World Economic Forum level. In India itself it seems, folk are too busy dying young from hunger to concern themselves with masks. These are not exceptional at all. A Scholar and well qualified Lawyer and Philosopher turned up on the Fell and conversed an hour or so on topics of interest, naming famous philosophers of the West, but with little knowledge or experience of Buddha or Lao Tse.

Meanwhile, in the virtual world, where basically everyone can talk to anyone about anything, huge cartels control the way we see the world. FB and YouTube, for example dominate the field, though alternative platforms come and go. Their motive is money and how to make more for ever. Immortality being the delusion of the Plutocrats, storing their bodies in deep freezers as if consciousness does not continue when the body and brain are burnt or rotting in the ground.
Magic for me, the centre of my own universe like everyone else, means meaningful films are offered daily, FB access is limited to save the constant chatter and philosophical discourse occurs on the Fells, the street and in the Retreat House, which is always open for business.

If you, dear reader(s) are in the area or wish to stay a day or two, you're welcome. There is no charge; the experience is priceless. Which is good on many levels, not least because complaints are minimised and agencies seeking tax revenues have nothing to tax or regulate.

Time for breakfast before the morning wander, with no fixed route or expectations ...