When people of the highest awareness hear the subtle Way of the universe, they cultivate themselves diligently in order to live in accord with it.
When mediocre people hear the subtle Way of the universe, they are unimpressed.
When people who are low hear the subtle Way of the universe, they break into loud laughter.
If it were not laughed at, it would not be the subtle Way of the universe.
*Lao Tzu. The Complete Works of Lao Tzu: Tao Teh Ching and Hua Hu Ching. Hua Ching Ni, Trans. and Elucidator.
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Sister Annable Laity -
About twenty years ago, while leading Buddhist retreats in Israel, I was taken to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Tired of the crowds, I withdrew to a part of the church that had been abandoned, and there I saw an image of Jesus in my mind, robust, full of life and laughing. I had never imagined Jesus laughing. Maybe he laughed because the different Christian churches could not unite in order to worship together but had to divide the Church of the Holy Sepulchre into different sections. Jesus had escaped all of that and had come here to this grimy, neglected part of the building.
*Mindfulness: Walking with Jesus and Buddha.
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Imagine you want to live a life of sanity. Yet, you complain while remaining among the insane. You do not realize you can leave. You think there is no escape. You have been taught this is how things are, so just deal with it. You have a dream. A being reveals to you an escape route and informs you this is not the way it has to be, you are free to go and need to go, and many others have been fortunate to do so. What do you do?
How do you find refuge from the madness? People complain of being exhausted by the insanity on the news, for example, while behaving like they have no choice but to inundate themselves with toxic negativity.
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When the insanity is no longer in us, we will find refuge from it. There is an escape route from the madness. For many, the beginning of finding refuge from the prevalent madness as entertainment is to realize we can choose to say "no" to the madness. Spiritual refuge is this refuge from the social chaos many accept as sanity.
We were not meant to live with our heads in garbage cans, and certainly not because so many others seem to think there is no other way to live. We can cultivate within us the way of the Way and, thereby, enjoy the fruit of wisdom and virtue.
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and title and place of photograph.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
