September 10, 2023 – B

In conversation with Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers said,”There is this wonderful image in King Arthur where the knights of the Round Table are about to enter the search for the Grail in the Dark Forest, and the narrator says. ‘They thought it would be a disgrace to go forth in a group.’ So each entered the forest at a separate point of his choice.”

The Holy Grail represents the source of all that is vital and fertile and alive–the source of life and being. And we all are in search for it. It is our quest from birth to discover what brings us to life, what infuses us with life, what we discover to be the vital core, the élan vital, the vital force that drives and directs our living.

Martin Palmer translates Lao Tzu’s line ‘The Tao that can be said/told/explained is not the eternal Tao,’ as “The path that can be designated as a path is not a reliable path.” Which means the path that is the Tao, that is the source of life, can only be discerned in hindsight.

Now, where does that leave those who are searching for the vital force? With becoming students of emptiness, stillness and silence! The search is an inner realization of what is vital to us. We look within. We read the messages, the signals, from our body, our dreams, knowing what is “yes” and what is “no,” and going from there in each situation as it arises. And we all “enter the forest at a separate point by our own choice.”

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