He's Got the Whole World in His Hands: A Universal Meditation While Creating The Taoist Art of Kamidoro Tama
Kamidoro tama as the universal symbol for Taoism has taken off. Taoism is the universal approach to life. Taoism teaches us to live in harmony with nature. Taoism teaches us to do without doing, to value nothing more than anything else, to appreciate what we have without wanting more. With kamidoro tama, as a physical symbol for Taoism, life, harmony, wu-wei, we put all those teachings into practice.
The Taoist remains humble, low to the ground, which is the genesis of kamidoro tama. While kamidoro tama has its roots deep in the heart of the art of Dorodango, it is fundamentally different. It emerges as a powerful meditation tool, it is supposed to help you reveal and understand the basic Taoist truths.
The kamidoro tama is delicate like the balance of life.
When we begin to make our tama we begin with water. From Tao Te Ching: The Old Man's Guide to the Virtuous Path, Lao-Tzu says this in verse 41:
Nothing is softer,
More yielding than water.
But is has no equal
In wearing down hard things.
If everyone knows that soft overcomes hard,
That yielding overcomes force,
Then why don't they do it?
We fill our bowl with water and we contemplate the properties of water. Lao-Tzu also says in verse 52:
Goodness is like water.
It benefits ten thousand things.
It fills the voids without working.
It always moves to the lowest place.
And as such is like Tao.
Tao is like water. It is good. It benefits everything, it fills the voids without working, and it moves to the lowest place. We contemplate the power of water.
We contemplate our bowl. Lao-tzu says in verses 55 and 72:
A pot is made from clay,
But it is useful because of the hole.
and
Raw materials form the vessels,
Tao forms the void.
Our bowls are useful because of the void. The void is formed because of Tao and we fill this vessel with living water; Tao. This bowl represents our bodies.
We add the toilet paper and let it dissolve into pulp and we contemplate our return to the uncarved state; our primordial beginnings. The pulp, like the uncarved block, is full of potential; harboring the untapped power of Tao, can be formed into anything. In kamidoro tama we choose to form it into the shape of a sphere. Lao-Tzu says from verse 4:
"True beauty offends the eye.
"Virtues are vices. Truth: imaginary."
It is hard to make:
The corners of a square,
The void of a vessel,
The music you don't hear,
The image you don't see.
Tao is hidden to us
And has no name.
Yet, Tao alone is the source of everything
We contemplate the sphere; as we squeeze the water out, shaping the primordial pulp into a denseness with space inside and out; still clinging to some amount of water, we recognize how Tao has shaped us and filled the spaces of our lives.
As we begin the long process of building the outer shell with the softest mineral on the planet, we recall the Lao-Tzu's words from verse 27:
Big trees begin as tiny seeds.
Big buildings begin as tiny heaps.
Big journeys begin as tiny steps.
In the end we can hold in our hand a ball, hard and shiny, yet delicate as life, that we have created from primordial nothingness that is the universal symbol for Taoism and for life itself.
About the Author
Mr. Young is a nationally certified activity director working at his local nursing home. He is currently working towards improving his state's education requirements for becoming a certified activity director. He has completed his master's level advanced coursework for his ACC certification.
He is an ordained minister and holds a MetD degree in metaphysics.
He consults with other nursing homes about how to meet spiritual needs and improve their activity programing.
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