Angela V. Michaels

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Notes from the Surf XIV

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano update: lava now flowing through a lava tube, which means it could go farther and faster. No one is “officially” worried but I know people living down there who are on edge.

Comet Holmes still getting brighter and now has a tail. Check out this photo gallery.

The [...]

The Tao of Where

 

On any journey of self-discovery and seeking the unknowable, one cannot help but notice the inextricable and inevitable influence of place upon progress-to-date – until, of course, one reaches the place of no-place.

 

Though my own metaphysical journey started in Los Angeles, it quickly became clear that at [...]

Sway, float, balance

Learn to sway in the wind or you’ll break. No matter how many times the gales blow, it’s always the same.

 

Float down the center of the rapids, don’t try to swim against the current. No matter how often the rains come, it’s always the same.

 

The Tao Te Ching: A Way of Life

“When a superior man hears of the Tao, he immediately begins to embody it. When an average man hears of the Tao, he half believes it, half doubts it. When a foolish man hears of the Tao, he laughs out loud. If he didn’t laugh, it wouldn’t be the Tao.” [...]

Discernment

If you want to shrink something,you must first allow it to expand.If you want to get rid of something,you must first allow it to flourish.If you want to take something,you must first allow it to be given.This is called the subtle perceptionof the way things are.

The soft overcomes the hard.The slow overcomes the fast.Let your [...]

How to Know?

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” -Goethe

As came up in my last radio interview, there are quite a few different points of view regarding otherworldly or ‘non-human’ entities who have, are or will influence our world – angels, demons, aliens, ancient gods, ethereal masters, spirit guides [...]

Tao Te Ching

If you want to be a great leader,You must learn to follow the Tao.Stop trying to control.Let go of fixed plans and concepts,And the world will govern itself.

The more prohibitions you have,The less virtuous people will be.The more weapons you have,The less secure people will be.The more subsidies you have,The less self-reliant people [...]

Surfing the Tao

“Surfing the Tao” is a phrase created in an attempt to nutshell what could be the most important aspect of spiritual truth, or the Way of Life. A reader once sent me a great quote, “It is a lot like surfing… you catch a wave by being prepared, timing your move and having [...]

Free Will

… the sages:Manage the work of detached actionsConduct the teaching of no wordsThey work with myriad things but do not controlThey create but do not possessThey act but do not presumeThey succeed but do not dwell on successIt is because they do not dwell on successThat it never goes away

TTC, Chapter 2, trans. [...]

Upanishads

The Upanishads are a collection of Hindu spiritual treatises, written in Sanskrit from ancient oral transmissions. They are said to be spiritual interpretations of the Vedas, ancient Indo-Aryan religious literature, considered to be ‘revealed knowledge’ by Hindus (“Veda” means “knowledge”). It is believed that the oldest were written around 900 B.C., and the ‘modern’ [...]