A Great 2011 and Beyond for All!

We all wish a great 2011 and beyond for everyone! May your year meet with success at the center of your wheel of existence, may all the good seeds brewing in the terrain grow into beautiful saplings and trees, and may the turn of the year provide a moment of new beginnings and new shared discoveries in life for all of us.

Night turns to day, day turns to night, flowers bloom and wither, seasons change,
crops are sown and reaped — life moves on in its endless cycle, and the wheel turns once again.

Everything comes in its season, and for good reason. The most we make out of the season we live in, the greater our peace of mind. If we scorch in the summer and wish for the winter, or freeze in the winter while longing for the summer, we will miss the lessons of the season, our minds absent from the present moment that exhorts us to listen to its many lessons.

Signs of the Nameless Way of Balance

For the wise and sincere observer, the Nameless Way has a message at every crossroad,
announcing itself across every culture and every continent since the beginning of time.

☯ The home of every living being on Earth is the Way. The Way gives room to all living beings. Every single living being holds the way sacred. Their reverence for the Way, and their obedience to is authority, are natural and unforced. Exercise power in accordance with the Way, and people will not be violent or disruptive. If you have true knowledge, you know how to be ignorant. If you are truly strong, you have the strength to be weak.

☯ To have without possessing, to do without claiming credit, to lead without controlling ― these are the mysterious virtues of the Way. When we seek power, we lose the Way. When we lose power, we find the Way. But beware of taking pride in finding the way, for fear that you will start claiming to live by high moral standards ― and then lose the Way again. If you know when enough is enough, you know enough.

☯ Wise people hear about the Way, and try hard to follow it. Ordinary people hear about the Way, and wander on and off it. Foolish people hear about the Way, and make jokes about it. After all, if the Way were not funny, it would not be the Way. People of the Way follow the Way; they belong to the Way. Eventually by following the Way you arrive at a place of inaction; in that place nothing is done, and nothing is undone.

☯ People say that the Way's brightness looks like darkness; that advancing along the Way feels like retreating; that the Way is so soft that walking along it is hard. If you listen to the Way, it seems dull. If you taste the Way, it seems insipid. Yet you cannot get enough of it. The Way is to the world as a stream is to a valley, and a river to a sea.

☯ The Way is hidden, so it has no name. But only the Way can bring you into existence, sustain you, and fulfill you. Following the Way makes that which is, become what it should be. The Way never does anything; yet it leaves nothing undone. Through following the Way, human beings are fulfilled. If heaven deviated from the Way, it would fall apart. Through following the Way, heaven is pure.

☯ People who know the Way are observant, subtle, penetrating and wise. Their wisdom is too deep for others to fathom. To follow the Way is to be fulfilled and happy, without fulfillment. To follow the Way is to grow old, and yet constantly be young. If you follow the Way, there is nowhere for death to enter. All things that are contrary to the Way are fleeting. If you know what endures, you follow the Way, because the Way endures forever.

☯ A wise person leaves the egoistic self behind, and moves forward on the Way. A selfish ego is extraneous to human life; and by leaving it behind the wise person reaches the center of life. Why let the self go? Without letting go of the self, the soul's needs cannot be met. If my mind is modest, I shall walk on the Way. If my mind is arrogant, I shall walk in fear. The Way is long, going around many mountains; but people prefer shortcuts.

☯ Why was the Way honored in days of old? People believed that, if they sought the Way, they would find it. And they believed that if they needed shelter, the Way would provide it. Thus the Way was honored above all things under heaven. If you move by the light of the Way, your movement takes you nowhere. At the center of the wheel there is stillness. ☯

― Tao Te Ching

The Broad Way That Claims No Authority

The Tao is broad; you can move far to the right and to the left; and still remain within it. Millions of living beings live on it, depend upon it for their existence; it accepts them willingly, and claims no authority over them.

The Tao accomplishes its tasks, and claims no credit. It clothes and feeds the living beings who live on it; yet it imposes no obligations on them, and expects no gratitude from them.

The Tao desires nothing, so it may be called small. Yet since it claims no credit, imposes no obligations, and expects no gratitude, it should be called great.

— Tao Te Ching #34

Celebration of Life

Attuned with the flow of dharma, life transforms from motions on a bleak and lifeless chessboard into a multifaceted, multidimensional celebration emanating from a virgin mountain spring.

An infinite melody in the flux of textured emptiness, the orchestra of the universe plays its haunted songs.

The universe is adance, saturated with celebration. Face the music, move your bones. Are you discordia or concordia?

The wheel of law is turned anew with a flowery touch. Polarities reconciled, the flower of dharma is born of mother nature's sacred womb.

Roams the bodhisattva, the infinitely benevolent light of the worlds, his task undone 'til the world samsara is frozen and all sentient beings are free.

And the fairies dance, they dance under the rainbows, in the terrestrial orchids woven of heaven-strands, intoxicated with joy of life and honey wine.

For the grieving it moves at a snaily pace, yet it races for the indulgent; and the universe is still for the one gone beyond time and space.

Enter the sacred arena of harmony, the great plateau of emptiness. Dance across the pristine fields in an endless celebration of life.

Chaos and Logos

A sudden and inexplicable burst of madness led me to decorate my left arm with a tattoo at Grasshopper Studio in Thamel, Kathmandu, owned by a friend of mine going by the name Bikash. The ink runs as follows:


The joint symbols of infinity / logos / emptiness / light / wisdom and space / chaos / form / darkness / ignorance, linked to each other by a bubble of cosmic mystery, are a symbolic caption of the fundamentals of our existence.

Drawing from the concept I drafted together one foggy evening at Om Tara, Bikash did a few touches and tweaks, arriving at the final product shown above.

* Bom Shankara, Baba Bolenath, Hara Hara Hara Mahadev *