Devotion, forms, and living in harmony with Tao

“The first act of devotion is offering. …Devotion is commitment. Through our daily acts of devotion, we demonstrate our determination to live a holy life. …Offering shows that we are receptive. Offering shows that we are devoted. Offering shows acknowledgement.”

[Everyday Tao: Living With Balance and Harmony, by Deng Ming-Dao; published by HarperOne, 1996; p. 154.]

As one devoted to living in harmony with Tao, how do I make a commitment to it? How do I show devotion? How do I make an offering?

I have written previously about form and formless, and how the forms can simply fall away once we see how we really do not need them. But what has been coming to me recently is that the lesson is this: as long as we need the forms, we should learn to see beyond them and let go of them. Once we truly awaken to the fact that forms are such awkward outward human attempts to put the indefinable into a box, then we are truly free to work within the form, but not chained to the form.

Now, this is different from one who follows a path of form-hopping. That is not the sign of one who has transcended the need for form; truly, it is the opposite. The one constantly searching here and there for “truth”, for a spiritual “home,” still has not learned the deepest truth: that our spiritual “home” is within us all the time.

This, I have learned by life’s lessons, and am still learning. I have stopped the relentless, form-hopping search and finally awakened to the deeper truth, that forms are so unnecessary, so humanly-invented, so limiting. But that doesn’t mean that all forms are to be completely disregarded and discarded, does it?

In fact, it does not. As a human being attuned to the flow, to the sense that there is more to me than my small world, that true Reality and Beingness flow in ways unfathomable and beyond my limited perceptions, I am naturally drawn to some sort of form in order to make some sense of this larger picture.

Just look at what happened in China to those who followed the

ways of Tao! Someone got the bright idea of building up layers of form around the simple profundity of it all, and the result was an overly convoluted religion called Taoism. Taoism is not Tao. It was simply one humanly-constructed way of trying to make sense of Tao, of trying to find meaningful ways to remind oneself to live in harmony with Tao on a daily basis, of being devoted to Tao.

Unfortunately, as good-intentioned as it all began, the form and structure got in the way. The deepest truth was lost in a sea of form. It became a religion unto itself, and the original goal of helping one see beyond became so clouded and enshrouded in fog as to be lost and unseeable.

This is the deeper lesson:

First, not to be addicted to seeking the “right” or “true” form, for there are none. None. Not one. Form-hopping will not find a better way, a more truthful journey, for the real Truth is within. Second, in order to develop spiritual acuity and nurturance, and only after having truly discovered that the form is not necessary, work within a form as a spiritual practice. Be devoted, but be devoted to the deeper truth–that the form is limited and will never enlighten you. Form can only limit and bind.

In the end, it’s not really about letting go of forms, but letting go of the desperate search and need for form.

Once that desperate search and need for form is released, once the deeper truth is realized, then one is able and free to use form as it is most truly meant to be used–as a human invention to keep Tao ever before your face.

This is, I think, the meaning behind the koan of one’s original face. Let go of form, which helps one to let go of the need for form, and then one can return to form as it was originally meant to be used.

I also think this was one of those deeper layers of meaning for me with my recent involvement in and frustration with “the center.” It was a metaphorical lesson pointing to this. The leaders were fixated on their outward form, the space and their written words describing what they were trying to do, rather than opening up their very hearts, allowing others to be a part of their true “center”, not just the building.

I think now I have opened the way to find some meaningful spiritual practices that can help me find devotion without the need for the form, yet within the form.

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