Ji Feng Dao - la via senza fine

17/09/2017

“The beauty of today is in all the things: feeling the gentle breeze on your skin, the sunlight filtering through the clouds, the sound of the birds, the silence of no wind. You notice the in-and-out flow of your breath, the feeling of aliveness inside your body. And then there is the beautiful stillness behind it all, which is deep within you. It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up.“

~ Eckhart Tolle ~

06/06/2017

~ Tao (道) - The Way of Nature ~

“Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts,
you return to the Source of Being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Tao or Dao: 道 is a Chinese word meaning 'way', 'path', 'route'... In Japanese pronounced "Do" - the symbol associated with traditional arts like judo, kendo, kyudo, chado (the way of tea)...

"Tao signifies the primordial essence or fundamental true nature of the Universe (and ourselves). Tao is not a 'name' for a 'thing' but the underlying natural order... It is thus "eternally nameless” and to be distinguished from the countless 'named' things (visible forms and structures) which are considered to be its manifestations."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao

28/05/2017

"Imagine that the earth is the tree and we are a leaf. The earth is not the environment, something outside of us that we need to care for. The earth is us… Taking care of the earth, we take care of ourselves."

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

17/04/2017

10/03/2017

LISTENING TO THE RAIN, PAINTING THE RAIN

Wang G*i (1677–1705) was a scholar artist. He was a native of Xiushui, Zhejiang province, but lived in Nanjing for most of his life. Wang is the famous author of “Jieziyuan huajuan” (Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting), the influential Chinese instruction manual on painting. In “Listening to the Rain,” on the first page of this album, the artist wrote a poem about Jiangnan (the area of China south of the Yangzi River):

Trees full of blossoming wisteria cover thatched huts
Waterbirds stand in a lake of spring water
Fishing boats, facing my window, take shelter for the night
At dawn, misty lamps resemble a string of stars.
Beyond my boat, lake clouds are like flowing water,
Ten miles of beaded curtains bring back memories of Yangzhou.
This solitary sail only allows me to keep a long flute,
fully loaded with wanderings through rain and mist in Jiangnan.*

The artist sits in a shelter by the edge of the lake and listens to the falling rain. Wang skillfully gives the sense of mist, rain, and windblown trees. Life may be turbulent, but we can still be calm and appreciate even the storms of life. If we are cultivated people, as the ancients would have us be, then we can bear buffeting conditions—and even make art that lasts longer than any event.

________

Landscape, 17th century
Wang G*i
album: ink and pigment on paper, 12 leaves, silk and cardboard, glued concertina binding
24.6 x 32.3 cm (image) 27.2 x 36.0 cm (page)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

* http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/three-perfections-poetry-calligraphy-and-painting-in-chinese-art/

03/12/2016

“See simplicity in the complicated, Seek greatness in small things. In the Universe, the difficult things are done as if they were easy.” ~Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching

30/11/2016

A Taoist master raising my prayers to heaven.

21/03/2016

THE TAO OF ENLIGHTENMENT

Tao means a Way. What are the steps to traverse that way?

This is an important question to ask, because Taoism excels in providing a step-by-step approach to spirituality. How do we go from basic study to enlightenment?

The first step is study and training, and this can take a long time. But as much as you have to work hard, you also have to work critically. If you’re lucky enough to have a broadminded teacher, you’ll learn about many different schools and approaches—even other spiritual traditions. You’ll study every different interpretation. You’ll compare and contrast.

Gradually, you’ll start to make choices. These have to be honest choices, not mere settling for something because you don’t understand an idea or you find a technique too hard to do. Every step along the way must be a choice.

After years of this process, ideas will come to you as if dictated from the unseen. You’ll decide to go in one direction or another, and you’ll find yourself becoming more calm in your understanding. This is an important intermediate stage.

Finally, you’ll get an overwhelming feeling of intuition, a flash realization of what it’s all about, a confident knowledge of where you need to go. This is enlightenment, this is spiritual understanding. All will then seem clear, simple, even absurdly easy. But you’ll know then: it was only possible after a journey of myriad steps.

[Huang Gongwang (1269–1354). Detail of “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.” National Palace Museum, Taipei]

23/02/2016

"First, gain control of the body. Then control the mind. Attain one-pointedness. Then the harmony of heaven will come down and dwell in you... You will be radiant with Life. You will rest in Tao."

~Chuang Tzu~

08/02/2016

Il passato è un'illusione.
Devi imparare a vivere nel presente ed accettarti per quello che sei ora. Quello che ti manca in flessibilità e in agilità devi acquisirlo con la conoscenza e la pratica costante.

Bruce Lee