Connecting to the Universe
Inspired after reading the “Tao Te Ching” translated by Stephen Mitchell or Brian Browne Walker. Both versions are shown. Brian Browne Walker’s seems to be a more authentic translation. But Steven Mitchell’s is more up-to-date in terms of the political references and often has more interesting commentary.
Both translations are worth having!
Lao-tzu’s book is a remarkably practical guide to the esoteric issues of existence. I should have read this decades ago.
I have done bodywork therapy for about 30 years. It took about 25 years to finally discover how to work effortlessly and effectively. I had to practice bodywork for decades until it became a process, rather than a planned event. I have been a slow learner!
A few requirements for and properties of effective therapeutic sessions that have come to light over the years for me are:
1/ The session needs to begin with a prayer to ask for help from the Universe or help from benevolent forces for healing including spirits requested by the client. If I fail to use a prayer, I start to rely on my mind and it invariably become a mediocre session.
I have evolved prayers which are not offensive even to the most “devout athiest”. In my skeptical mind I say that the prayer is a tool to open my intuition and has no magic.
(But in reality the prayer is a magic tool!)
2/ If I reflect on the session I cannot remember it well. I might remember asking the person to turn over or I remember adjusting the heater or adding a pillow. Most of the session is not remembered by me at all.
3/ After the session I feel deeply healed myself in a way that is parallel to what the client experienced.
I have been puzzling over the process of providing good sessions for decades. I have learned to provide these sessions but my intellect was at a loss to explain them.
I recently got a really excellent English version of the “Tao Te Ching” by Stephen Mitchell. Much to my surprise the book was all about the elusive phenomena that had puzzled me for the last few decades.
I found the book to be a useful tool for guiding me into an effective session. I just had to read a few passages of the “Tao the Ching” and remain silent for a few minutes before working.
Here are a few quotes from the Stephen Mitchell translation that stand out …
“Less and less do you need to force things,
until finally you arrive at non-action.
When nothing is done,
nothing is undone.”
The commentary for this quote by Stephen Mitchell …
“Nothing is done because the doer has wholeheartedly vanished into the deed; the fuel has been completely transformed into flame. This ‘nothing’ is, in fact everything. It happens when we trust the intelligence of the universe in the same way … a dancer trusts the superior intelligence of the body. Hence Lao-tzu’s emphasis on softness.”
I am somewhat of a universalist in the area of religion and actually I have become more spiritual yet less religious the older I get. I don’t like to classify myself but I’m forced to admit that perhaps I’m a Taoist at heart.
