Even though I'm a new blogger who is attracted to old ideals and concepts, I know it's always important to link past wisdom with the "going-ons" of the world today. I don't remember what teacher it was that told me something I still hold to today: "Don't matter what you learn in here if you toss it out out there." Hopefully, it wasn't an English teacher...that would, perhaps, explain a few things. But, anyway, moving forward:
If you live within a vicinity of a television, newspaper, computer, or anything digital you should know that the above man is the condemned (now executed) death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis. I won't go over the history of his journey in detail or dilly-dally on the recantation of the witnesses and other unnecessary specificity. However, I will say that yesterday a man died within a shroud of doubt that left many feeling dejected, angry, and robbed.
Throughout the countdown to execution day, I did try to stay as unattached and focused as possible. Decisively, I maintained I thought there was too much evidence to warrant him being executed. I meditated on these thoughts. I prayed on these thoughts and tried to call on the concept of vipassana to see clearly that though I had these thoughts there had to be a balance; I couldn't tip the scale and allow these thoughts to become negative and counteractive. But, my spirit is young and, though I might sound a little Yoda-esque here, it seems that youth and fiery issues like these are an undeniable match. Add to that the fact I live a mere 40 mins from the Georgia Diagnostic Prison and it seemed pretty easy to throw myself headfirst into the unfocused, emotional chaos serving no purpose whatsoever.
Don't get me wrong. There is nothing more beautiful than fighting for what you believe in. But, taking a passionate stand on an issue is completely different than allowing emotions to dilute the power of focused thought and reasoning.
Today I awoke to the incessant conversations/arguments: the justice system is evil, Troy Davis was an angel, the murdered cop's mother was an insensitive bitch, the Georgia Board of Parole is evil, the witnesses have blood on their hands, Troy Davis' death was a death of epic proportions.....no, his death was just a death.
It took me all of today to come across that conclusion. I frowned at it, sure that it was far too apathetic (I still will ponder on it more). But even as I looked around I knew it to be true. When his last breath left the world, the fabric of time didn't stop. But, maybe that's too exaggerated. When his last breath left the world, the world didn't change that much. The same arguments continued. The same people believed what they wanted to believe. His death was the sole precious unaltered piece attached to the judgmental mosaic of a turbulent world.
Upon pondering and my meditation session today, I remembered a passage in Tao Te Ching. If you haven't read Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu, I recommend you do. It remains one of the best interpretation of Taoism to date. I've searched the internet and foundTao Te Ching online. It should take much less than a day to read it all, but it's taken centuries to understand.
I'm learning Chinese simplified (dabbling in traditional here) so forgive me for the characters, but I'd like to add some to help the imagination flow back to the way the "Old Master" (Lao-Tzu) must've wrote Tao Te Ching in the 3rd or 4th century B.C.E.: [Oh yea...a note on translation...Tao Te Ching has historically been a difficult work to translate giving rise to many different translations over the years. For simplicity (or added complexity...whatever your take), I will take from linked translations, the characters I've learned, my interpretations, and my own copies for the version that seems fit. I will also provide additional links to different translations online in the Enlightenment Across the Web tab.]
Ok maybe I could've done that better, but none of the character generators I found had the particular un-simplified characters I wanted. But, I'm still learning so hopefully that gets a subliminal A for effort.
- Ku: reason
- Yu: have
- wu: without
- hsiang: together
- sheng (my fav character thus far): birth
- "Ku yu wu hsiang sheng": "Therefore having reason and being without reason together creates the other." - My rough translation and you will find, if you read through the different translations offered, that this line is written in a variety of different ways.
When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.
Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.
Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.
This chapter, like all the chapters in Tao Te Ching, can be deconstructed for days, but I'll keep this short because of the lengthiness of the characters tangent. Ok maybe a tangent, but I feel I came closer to understanding Tao by immersing myself in the characters...they brought me closer to this culture so alien to me.
Troy Davis is gone, but placing the title of this and this (specifically good and evil) only serves to sour experiences going forward. Someone told me today that the world was darker now that he's gone. No, the world is as dark as it was before and....ever-changing. Calling and depicting Troy as an angel only paints the Georgia Parole Board as demons. Calling the dead cop's mother good only serves to call the mob of protesters evil. I found there is a balance to these things. Judgmentally bathing objects in all light will, without question, cast something else in total darkness. Its best to deal in the middle and realize that good and evil coincide. There was good and evil in all parties involved, so no one person takes the fault.
Troy Davis is gone, but placing the title of this and this (specifically good and evil) only serves to sour experiences going forward. Someone told me today that the world was darker now that he's gone. No, the world is as dark as it was before and....ever-changing. Calling and depicting Troy as an angel only paints the Georgia Parole Board as demons. Calling the dead cop's mother good only serves to call the mob of protesters evil. I found there is a balance to these things. Judgmentally bathing objects in all light will, without question, cast something else in total darkness. Its best to deal in the middle and realize that good and evil coincide. There was good and evil in all parties involved, so no one person takes the fault.
Furthermore, Lao-Tzu ends this chapter with the timeless image of the Sage and I can't help but be reminded of Davis: silenced behind the walls, unable to 'do,' but acting; he was given his circumstances, but didn't own them; he finally acted, but, in his final letter it was obvious, didn't expect the world to turn inside out and for him to be a free man. He said his piece and left in what, I can only assume, he felt was dignity. That is why we'll still talk about him for some time. I'll leave with another chapter that caught my eye and made me wander:
Chapter 74, from one of my printed copies:
If people do not fear death,
How can you threaten them with death?
But if people with a normal fear of death
Are about to do something vicious,
And I could seize and execute them,
Who would dare?
There is always an official executioner.
Trying to take the executioner's place,
Is like trying to replace a master woodworker--
Few would not slice their own hands.
