Will you join me for a cup of Te?

“Something is mysteriously brought into existence

Long before Heaven or Earth are made

It is silent and shapeless,

It is always present, endlessly in motion

From it like a mother every living thing has come.

I do not know what to call it.

So I call it Tao.”  Lao Tzu

“In the beginning was the Word. 

And the Word was with God.

And the Word was God.”   John 1:1

“At this moment, what is it you seek?

Nirvana is right here before you.

Pure land is right  here.” From Song of Zazen by Master Hakuin (1685-1768)

Tao (pronounced Dow) is not a religion.  You can’t convert to Taoism.  You can study to understand Taoism and to benefit from the philosophy, but you can’t pretend to understand it. It is said of the Tao that if you can define it then it’s not the Tao. And before you think that Taoism or any “Eastern thought” is strange, look at the first verse in the gospel of John.   Read it slowly and deliberately. And read it literally.  What could the writer of John possibly mean by that?  The Word was God?

In Taoist thought and practice Te (tay) means the real you, your authentic self.  Volumes have been written about Te so I’m just going to leave it at that.  Te is you. You are born with Te.  Very quickly your self is blended with the people around you. You learn to react to their reactions to you. But what starts off as delightful baby-parent play quickly becomes a matter of survival. You associate their approval of you with your very existence.   Most of us grow out of this dependence over the years, but some  of us  continue to desperately need the approval of others to feel secure and whole.  We still think this approval is necessary for our survival. Our salvation then is Te, becoming our true selves again, that self we were born with.

The most difficult part of finding Te is that we allow the people around us to dictate our priorities.  Instead of doing the things that we value, that we find pleasure in, we spend our time living the values of the people around us.  We try to live up to everyone else’s expectations. We aren’t living our own  lives, but the lives of other people. You may think you have no choice about it. You have the job you have, you live with the partner you live with, you have the friends you have, etc. Although any of these elements can be changed, that may not be necessary. The good news is that Te is very possible right where you are. It’s not necessarily these people and circumstances that need to change; it’s you who needs to change.

This morning I was stewing on  the same things that I have been stewing about the last couple of weeks. These two things had all but robbed me of my personal joy. One was a personal issue and the other was an issue with my car.  You would think the personal issue would matter the most, but it was the combination that was interfering with my peace of mind. But this morning on my way to work the answer to my frustration came full grown in my head—“These things will work out how they work out and when they work out. There is nothing you can do about either.  All you can do is wait.” And today  I have given either situation little thought.

Over twenty five years ago my wife and I were at our church on a Sunday night.  There was nothing remarkable about the service.  It was a generic, routine Sunday night Baptist church service. Our pastor, an excellent preacher, was preaching an ordinary sermon,. He was talking about the manna in the wilderness when something happened to my wife.  She was immediately transformed.  I could almost say transfigured. She left that church a much different person than the person  who had entered that building less than an  hour earlier.  Nothing had changed, but everything had changed. Since she was a baptized Christian, instead of saying she was “saved”, we’ve called it her “new metaphor.”

But sometimes you do need a new job.  And sometimes you need a new partner.   And maybe you need to find some new friends. Our problem is that most of us live our lives like we think it’s a dry run, like we’re going to get another chance. Maybe we will get another chance, but what if this is it?  What would you do differently tomorrow if you thought this is it?

The “Word” in John 1:1 is generally translated “Logos” and “Logos” is generally translated “Jesus Christ.”  Now it’s beginning to make more sense. "In the beginning was Jesus..." In many Chinese Bibles “Word” is translated “Tao.’  “In the beginning was the Tao and the Tao was with God and the Tao was God”.  Okay, now it’s getting weird.

Finding Te is difficult, but not impossible.  It takes determination and practice to find your true self. If you can’t practice at work, then practice at home. If you can’t practice at home then practice on  the golf course or at Chick fil A with a good friend.  Find Te however and wherever you can.  Let Te find a foothold and then let Te expand into your whole life. And how do you know if you are finding Te?  Because you’ll feel better. You’ll feel a lot better. And the people around you will notice something different about you too. Now instead of seeking approval, you will seek communion and companionship. Nothing is different, but everything is different.

Thanks for joining me. It means a lot to me. Do you take cream or sugar with your Te?