Our inner most nature might be a higher self? One behind the day to day belief systems, and one of a core belief or path? Yes exactly. Chinese philosophy goes into that. They say, “That which goes against the Tao cannot stand.” The Tao is an all-encompassing harmony of the universe itself.

They also say that all paths come full circle. The master returns to a state not unlike the beginning student, because all things stem from that point. It’s the foundation that lets any practice stand, or endure.

I strongly feel all people are spiralling upward, so to begin again is just at a higher level? Arguably, yes. Since energy cannot be lost, there can be no degradation.

The master returns to a state not unlike the beginning student. The Chinese word Tzu means both master and child, perhaps like the fact that they don’t have separate words for heart and mind.

Their doctors must get confused. Nope, because state of mind is reflected in the heart, and they can reference the brain which they don’t see the same as mind.

So they don’t equate mind to brain, but instead to heart? Yes.

I wonder if your “loss of inspiration” is this plateau of a new start. Have you recently had an epiphany? I have and I have not. My rebirth may still be in process, but my comments may be leading up to this.

For things to change “within” is progress, I suppose. Rejoice? The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but we can get buried in the trail dust.

I see the things we learn in any practice as like the things a Navajo Shaman gathers for ceremony. If you watch them collecting the various stuff they use, it may look strange, even insane, and if they stop at that point, at the gather, well the behavior is insane.

The word insane comes from the original meaning of the word sane. Sane was a Latin word meaning clean. If you just gather bits of practice and lose sight of why, then, as they say, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. You have nothing.

They say in Taoism, the pot is valuable for what it is, but useful for what it is not. Thoughts?

It is not the soup.

Useful for its potential, useful for many thoughts it evokes, images too.

So all practices have a form. Practice in synonymous with form, and form is the same as substance. The value is there. Each act has its significance, every motion an intention, but do we all remember why we started? Do we remember the use of it?

We can. Yes. Why would we ever forget why we started in the first place?

It’s not always necessary though. We need to let go of some of this at times. Let it go? The practices or the motive? I really do not remember why I brush my teeth when I brush them. Well, science has some things to offer there. They have tested parts of the mind that they thought incapable of reason. They thought clear well-structured thought was only possible in what they saw as the conscious mind. They have discovered that the brain actually retains a sense of the world on even an unconscious level. Your waking awareness can be fooled, but your subconscious still gets and understands what it saw, and why it might be off kilter. My point is not to disparage the mystery, pardon if I gave that impression. But is an artist happy when they lost the ability to use their tools?

I had a struggle with that, so I just found another happy. Losing the physical ability to paint and dance was its own wake up call, so to speak. But it opened other doors, once I did the healing, cleansing necessary for this. Indeed, and that is part of my point, practice has a form, and form follows function. It doesn’t dictate it.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~