Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"
"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"
This Zen koan came to mind recently, in a moment of noticing my mind being particularly full of agitation and judgment and outrage over reports of China's continuing violent oppression of both Falon Gong members and Tibetan monks, and CCP "party-line" distortions of the truth. What does it mean to maintain a commitment to a kind of humility which has a relaxed and spacious "not-knowing" as its core value, in the face of a situation such as this?
Thich Nhat Hahn's message in Being Peace also came to mind: that in order to be truly effective at bringing peace to the world, I must begin by finding (and maintaining) peace within me. If we engage violence with the energy of violence, he says, we just exacerbate the problem. "My friends, the enemy" is how the Dalai Lama has referred to the Chinese.
A challenging situation, for sure - not only politically, but for us as spiritual practitioners. I welcome any insights you might have re: how to do this skillfully ...
Healing
Taoism has produced a number of powerful healing modalities. The following essays provide a glimpse: