Lessons of the Dao Kurt Levins Sr.
When one first comes to discovering the Dao there can be an ecstatic feeling that all has been solved and you are now on some style of magical mystical trip through life. From early October 2017 until January 2018 I fought various upper respiratory infections all of which were serious, from bronchitis to asthmatic bronchitis. Still I did what qi gong I could, and drank healing tea, but could not seem to raise my immune level this included Western medicine and Eastern medicine including herbology and acupuncture. I just kept getting sick. Finally around Christmas all seemed well until the first weekend in January. My wife could not wake me on Saturday until 6:00 pm. My fever was about 103 degrees; I knew it was the flu. My doctor and good friend Rick Costa D.O. called in tamiflu and other meds. On Sunday I was worse. I went to the hospital where I was treated to a brain scan, which showed no stroke. On Monday I was worse and I tried to write a note for my wife to text to Dr. Rick. I picked up a pen and pad and stared at it……I had no idea what to do with it, I could not write. My wife rushed me to the closest heart/stroke hospital where a wonderful older doctor Stuart Solomon, who knew Dr. Rick, very closely examined me and called Dr. Costa and advised him I was very sick and needed immediate admission and treatment. What was discovered was that I had suffered a minor stroke, which had resolved itself. Worse, I suffered internal dehydration resulting in acute renal shutdown. Thankfully, IV hydration corrected that. I was told I was about 2 days from making the big trip. So what does this have to do with Daoism. I am a Daoist, meaning I am a dedicated Daoist priest. I walk in the light of the North Star, I read my scripture and talk to the sage through the I Ching, yet I was
felled by normal human failings. So why bother with this qi gong stuff, standing like a tree, the post and so on? Because I didn’t die. Who knows where I would be if my protective chi wasn’t full. Dr. Rick thinks if my system had not been so weakened by the 4 months of sickness the flu may have bounced off but we’ll never know. My point is do not expect life in the Dao to be a life of bliss. Flowers, the earth’s gifts to us, could not make us smile without rain. I am still recovering. I have memory lapses and occasional balance challenges, but what better way to fight these than tai ji chuan and qi gong. While recovering from this illness I took a Daoist approach to it. I had several choices. I could have lain around complaining. I could have done massive qi gong but this could cause an imbalance. My dear old friend Dr. Kathleen Bello diagnosed wind and excess yin, so I had to be careful there. So I choose deep meditation. What came to me was this: Daoism is not just Chinese. Of course it is universal, but has become manifest and identified by different people around the world. My ancient folk the Celts had beliefs that were very similar. My friend and spiritual friend Laurie Ann Ship is a Comanche Medicine woman and we are amazed at the similarities between her path and Daoism. Here in America we have a huge body of work in the 19th century by American Daoists, only we know them as the transcendentalists. Thoreau, Emerson and Whitman. Go ahead, read them and the Dao will pop out at you. As I was born and worked in Whitman’s city of Camden, New Jersey I am most familiar with his writing. His wisdom linking all of nature together was pure Daoist, but that was long ago. But the movement did not die, it only hibernated. It re-emerged in the 1950’s. Laying in bed listening to various music from you. tube I found it had surfaced again in folk and rock music. Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger saw it. Maybe not quite how I see it but Seeger reworking of “Turn,Turn Turn” from Ecclesiastes, in the Bible is most certainly Daoist; it sounds like it could be a lost chapter from the Dao De Ching. Bob Dylan’s body of work is simply too large to quote but one has to mention ”Blowing In the Wind” as a Daoist tune. The Beatles “Let it Be” speaks of letting go and following a higher power which I find makes sense but understand if others choose to argue. George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” is practically texbook Kirtan Qi Gong, as I have been taught by Solala Towler, who has been my soul brother since we first met. This story has traveled a long way, but I wanted to present some things with lessons for both new and old travelers. The way of the Dao is a way and not THE way. It is not a superhighway. It is a path strewn with stones, rocks, and briars; but with the right attitude which can be learned from the Dao, which freely teaches it, can make for a mysterious and glorious life. And, it can guide you to meet many cool people along the way. If you told me I would one day call Solala a friend, or train with Chungliang Al Huang, or become a Daoist priest I would have said, “No way.” But with the Dao, “Who knows?”
