If we cannot wait,
we cannot know
the right time to move.
If we cannot be still,
our actions will have
gathered no power.
- Friends of Silence
Before action, thought.
Unique and beautiful work
evolves out of the still point.
A Pause for Beauty:
An artist’s journal.
The Second Law of living life on your own terms: The source of your power is your still point. Your power comes from harmony with your inner world.
That relationship is nurtured in silence, in solitude, in reflection.
To paraphrase Joseph Campbell, when you enter the forest at its darkest point, where there is no path, where you must make your own path, which is what living life on your own terms means, much depends on knowing who you are and what you want out of life.
That self-knowledge requires reflection, quiet time, to nurture and build. Before expending energy, build energy. Spend time in contemplation, in a pre-verbal state of receiving, waiting for guidance.
Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance,
And there is only the dance.
- T.S. Eliot, from “Burnt Norton”, the first of the Four Quartets, as published in Eliot’s Collected Poems.
Everything unique and beautiful grows out of the still point. The still point is that place of quiet reflection, meditation or prayer. Time for nothing other than the flow of thoughts, time for rest and relaxation and meditation and contemplation.
The still point and the Taoist discipline of waiting
Within us is the soul of the whole; the wise silence, the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is related.
When it breaks through our intellect, it is genius; when it breathes through our will, it is virtue; when it flows through our affections, it is love.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
This is the Taoist discipline at its quietest: not inaction for its own sake, but the waiting that knows when to move. Wu wei — effortless action — begins here, in the still point, before a single step is taken.
The notes above are taken from the early work on an upcoming book, the working title of which is “The 45 Laws Of Living Life On Your Own Terms”.
The Tao Te Ching Journal: A Path To Inner Quiet
Zen Mountain Journal blends Taoist hermit poetry, contemplative art, and reflections drawn from a lifetime shaped by wilderness, solitude, and decades doing creative work on the outer boundaries of our culture. These journals are companions for seekers — guides in the reconnection with inner quiet, beauty, and the “soundless music” of a life lived with simplicity and meaning.
• Size: 9.25 × 8.5 inches — convenient size for desk or lap.
• Hardcover — the book can be written in without a table or desk.
• Double wire-o bound to lay flat.
• Printed on Mohawk Superfine, a premium uncoated paper for a beautiful writing surface.
• 160 pages.
