TAO 35- Live in Harmony with Gaia

She who follows the way of the Tao
will draw the world to her steps.
She can go without fear of being injured,
because she has found peace and tranquility in her heart.
Where there is music and good food,
people will stop to enjoy it.
But words spoken of the Tao
seem to them boring and stale.
When looked at, there is nothing for them to see.
When listened for, there is nothing for them to hear.
Yet if they put it to use, it would never be exhausted.

When, as individuals or society, we learn to live in harmony with the Law of Thermodynamics and obey-

We will find that our world, Gaia, is everything we expect it to be.

We will be satisfied with participation in this harmony.

We will cease worrying about climate change and the politics.

We will stop exterminating the buffalo.

We will stop to smell the roses.

We can’t legislate bliss.

We can’t force someone to think.

We can only dissipate energy.

TAO 36- Be the TAO/ Be Thermodynamic

If you want something to return to the source,
you must first allow it to spread out.
If you want something to weaken,
you must first allow it to become strong.
If you want something to be removed,
you must first allow it to flourish.
If you want to possess something,
you must first give it away.
This is called the subtle understanding
of how things are meant to be.
The soft and pliable overcomes the hard and inflexible.
Just as fish remain hidden in deep waters,
it is best to keep weapons out of sight.

I have learned that a soft blade of grass will bend to the hurricane.

The old, stiff tree will break under the onslaught.

If we are to protect what is important and live on this speck of sand in the universal beach,

we must let go and let Tao, God, Thermodynamic prevail.

We cannot fight it, we cannot change it; we can only try to understand it.

We don’t live by the Law of Thermodynamics; We are the Law. 

The only survival tactic is to give in

be part of that field of wheat waving in the wind.

TAO 37- Thermodynamics Doesn't Care

The Tao never acts with force,
yet there is nothing that it can not do.

If rulers could follow the way of the Tao,
then all of creation would willingly follow their example.
If selfish desires were to arise after their transformation,
I would erase them with the power of the Uncarved Block.

By the power of the Uncarved Block,
future generations would lose their selfish desires.
By losing their selfish desires,
the world would naturally settle into peace.

Thermodynamics doesn’t smite the SUV pumping carbon into the atmosphere.

Thermodynamics doesn’t reward the bicyclist.

Thermodynamics doesn’t care about Democrats or Republicans or votes.

Thermodynamics doesn’t care about religion or answer prayers.

Thermodynamics doesn’t know right from wrong.

Get it.  Don’t get it.  Leave Gaia to our future generations or destroy it now.

Thermodynamics doesn’t care.

TAO 38 - Go With the Flow

The highest good is not to seek to do good,
but to allow yourself to become it.
The ordinary person seeks to do good things,
and finds that they can not do them continually.
The Master does not force virtue on others,
thus she is able to accomplish her task.
The ordinary person who uses force,
will find that they accomplish nothing.
The kind person acts from the heart,
and accomplishes a multitude of things.
The righteous person acts out of pity,
yet leaves many things undone.
The moral person will act out of duty,
and when no one will respond
will roll up his sleeves and use force.
When the Tao is forgotten, there is righteousness.
When righteousness is forgotten, there is morality.
When morality is forgotten, there is the law.
The law is the husk of faith,
and trust is the beginning of chaos.
Our basic understandings are not from the Tao
because they come from the depths of our misunderstanding.
The master abides in the fruit and not in the husk.
She dwells in the Tao,
and not with the things that hide it.
This is how she increases in wisdom.

The best we can do is to allow the Law of Thermodynamics to function.

Go with the flow is the colloquialism.

Many understand and try, but fail to give in completely.

They write regulations, exchange carbon credits, overpopulate, but cannot change reality.

When you understand this simple law and become part of the process, you can accomplish much.  Without action based on inaction, we fight the normal chaos.

Those who don’t understand it, fight it with righteous indignation.

Then force, then rules and regulations.  Then collapse.

To be a Gaian is to live beyond the chalkboard explanations.

It is simple- process energy.  It is complex beyond understanding.

TAO 39- Humility

The masters of old attained unity with the Tao.
Heaven attained unity and became pure.
The earth attained unity and found peace.
The spirits attained unity so they could minister.
The valleys attained unity that they might be full.
Humanity attained unity that they might flourish.
Their leaders attained unity that they might set the example.
This is the power of unity.
Without unity, the sky becomes filthy.
Without unity, the earth becomes unstable.
Without unity, the spirits become unresponsive and disappear.
Without unity, the valleys become dry as a desert.
Without unity, human kind can't reproduce and becomes extinct.
Without unity, our leaders become corrupt and fall.
The great view the small as their source,
and the high takes the low as their foundation.
Their greatest asset becomes their humility.
They speak of themselves as orphans and widows,
thus they truly seek humility.
Do not shine like the precious gem,
but be as dull as a common stone.

Who has not, at least once, thought?

“I wish I lived [fill in a time interval] ago.  They had it so much better.”

Who hasn’t been concerned about living in sewers of our own making?

Who hasn’t said, “I don’t care what the Dow Jones average is today.”

                                                                                                                  

As we destroy our speck of dust,

our conscience tunes to a deep understanding that this is wrong. 

We are but a moment in time to process energy.

Humility is not based in braggadocio, political power, intelligence, or rending of a hair shirt.

Humility is unity with the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

TAO 40- Thermal Death

All movement returns to the Tao.
Weakness is how the Tao works.

All of creation is born from substance.
Substance is born of nothing-ness.

In the beginning there was.

In the end there was.

In between the Big Bang and Thermal Death of the Universe is entropy and enthalpy.

TAO 41- Laughing at Reality

When a superior person hears of the Tao,
She diligently puts it into practice.
When an average person hears of the Tao,
he believes half of it, and doubts the other half.
When a foolish person hears of the Tao,
he laughs out loud at the very idea.
If he didn't laugh,
it wouldn't be the Tao.

Thus it is said:
The brightness of the Tao seems like darkness,
the advancement of the Tao seems like retreat,
the level path seems rough,
the superior path seem empty,
the pure seems to be tarnished,
and true virtue doesn't seem to be enough.
The virtue of caution seems like cowardice,
the pure seems to be polluted,
the true square seems to have no corners,
the best vessels take the most time to finish,
the greatest sounds cannot be heard,
and the greatest image has no form.

The Tao hides in the unnamed,
Yet it alone nourishes and completes all things.

Gaia lies within a delicate balance

Our sun provides unfathomable high quality energy.

Life evolved to a complex process of damping, absorbing, and dissipating this energy.

One small change to that balance and all is lost.

TAO speaks to balance

Thermodynamics speaks to the same balance.

Climate change is the indicator that we are out of balance.

Gaian’s understand and live with this

Many don’t understand: maybe it exists, maybe it doesn’t

Fools laugh and scoff, seeking immediate profits, resource utilization to maximize production and growth, convinced that an anthropomorphic god will rescue.

Beneath all is the unchanging, uncaring Law of Thermodynamics.

Choosing to follow the law is not an option.