Ad Hoc Improve Post #2 - Lao Tse Said It Best

This is a great tie-in with the beautiful Chinese Coin quilt in Ann's post! 

In his book Tao te Ching, Lao Tse of ancient Taoism taught that it is better to let go of feelings of revenge. That person creates his own karma as his life goes on.

Today's translation of his words are: 
Don't waste your time on revenge. Those who hurt you will eventually face their own karma. Lao Tse

I remember those classes well, I loved going there and hearing the reverence and tolerance they had for life, it shaped my own life more than anything else has.  It was an acceptance I have never felt since.   I used to write a series of posts that talked about how the Tao te Ching related to Quilting.  I might have to revisit it.  There are many of us who could use the lessons.

Groan......

I have a headache, for 24 hours now.  And the entire post I just typed in disappeared. Can you say "insert bad words here"? I went to the ENT yesterday and got a steroid shot and an antibiotic shot.  I need  my ears to stop ringing.  I  don' think this is the total cause, but the steroids will feel good for a while.

So what I wanted to say was this:

I am adding this to the Improv site by Fret Not Yourself. (Click to go see others.) I am 99.9 % sure it is Improv.  I wanted an easy but girly cute quilt for the first child my nail salon owners are having in January.  I had intended to add three corner chunks to each block section to make them look like flower petals, but I got lazy.  It would have totally been clearly Improv.

Tomorrow, if my head feels better, I will begin laying out the quilts that will be given away for Christmas this year.  There may be spaces I need to fill in before Christmas.  I think every one will be excited about their gifts.  And I will make room in my quilt pile for more wonderful quilts.  My problem is that I love so many of my creations that is it really really hard to part with them.  

I have to consider that person "Quilt Worthy".  That comes from an old Seinfeld episode where Elaine was no longer able to find her birth control sponges since they had been discontinued.  She found a huge box of them wholesale but knew she needed to ration them.  Now every man needed to be "sponge worthy".  Some were found to be lacking under this new scrutiny.

Go and see the quilts that my friends at AHIG is creating.   You might get some quilt ideas for yourself!

Comparison is a slippery slope to envy and for the most part, envy wastes energy that could be put towards getting what you want or optimizing what you have.   Danielle Laporte said that yesterday.  

To the world actually, but I got it in my email.  So I guess she included me.

Just the day before she told me....Be your own guru.

And that was profound.  Why look elsewhere when you are your own best counsel.  you know what is right, you know what is wrong.  Why do you need someone else to tell you?

That was the insight for the day, maybe the week.  I guess I need to do my Tao Te Ching again.  I love intrepreting it in today's language.  That Lao Tsu was like Danielle.  Or maybe the other way around, she was like him.  Or if you believe in the rebirth of souls, then they could be the same!

This is the fabric for the week........I am hoping to get the call soon saying my elephants are ready from the most amazing quilter of all time!  

glen

Duality of Quilting and some background

Stick with me, this is ultimately about quilting.  But see the beauty in the words.  You can equate it to Christian religions if you wish, or you can just feel the peace in the words.

Lao-Tse, born in 604 BC.  Tao is a peaceful quiet belief that may be likened to a religion but it is not truly a religion.  It is more a state of mind.  I have studied it off and on since childhood. 

Lao-Tse is considered the first philosopher of the Taoist school. The Te-Tao Ching, attributed to Lao-Tse, is one of the most sacred texts of Taoism. His writings teach the philosophy of the Tao, or the Way, which is reality that naturally exists prior to and gives rise to all other things such as the physical universe and all things in it. Te, which means virtue, is the life energy in things and a sense of morality which constitutes the Way. The Tao can be found by experiencing the oneness in all things - fulfilling life as one with nature and as one with the inner self. The speaking of Lao-Tse's wisdom is what attracts people to follow him and make him the teacher of Taoism.


The 2nd verse of the Tao Te Ching talks of the duality of the world.  It states:  Under the heavens all can see beauty as beauty because there is ugliness .  We can know good because there is evil.


In the Tao Te Ching, Lao-tse writes that there are paradoxes in the universe. Short and tall, ugly and pretty, high and low. And that one must live openly with both in order to be able to see both.

"Being and non-being produce each other. The difficult is born in the easy. Long is defined by short, the high by the low. Before and after go along with each other.

So the sage lives openly with apparent duality and paradoxical unity. The sage can act without effort and teach without words. Nurturing things without possessing them, he works, not for the rewards; he competes but not for results."

If we follow this thought through to quilting, we can see that our quilting room is both "stocked and full" and "cluttered and never the right material". If we contemplate that duality of our own small universe, we see that we can be happy either way we look at it. Either we can feel happy to pull a piece of fabric from our shelves and use it in the quilt, or we can be comfortable heading out to the quilt shop to purchase a new piece of fabric for the quilt.

We can be either happy or unhappy with our stash. If we look at our stash with new eyes of wonderment and excitement we can see many happy possibilities in what we have. Consciously choose how you look at your stash, see the wonderment in colors, textures and potential.

If we choose the duality of that thought, we may just need to clean up our room and organize our stash, then head out to the fabric shop!

glen