tao

It was said by James D. Meacham 3rd that, �Very often the greatest truth and beauty are found in the midst of the greatest incongruity. In response to great suffering, we find people who rise to greatness in the alleviation of that suffering. In the desperate slums of urban India, Mother Theresa does her great work. It's often not in our triumphs where the greatest opportunities for self-knowledge and revelation come, but in our most crushing defeats. It was not the intellectual triumphs in my life that called me o my present vocation, but the despair of defeat and loneliness and homelessness. Similarly we sometimes find the greatest meaning in those things others would think us rather unlikely to do. For example, Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the most influential philosophers of our century, used to go to the movies nearly every day after their introduction. As one writer put it, the philosopher loved the flicks. He found a joy in the movies that he rarely found in philosophy.� In �those things others would think us rather unlikely to do� is exactly where my story begins; my journey into the Tao of surfing.

�If it could be named so simply, it would not be the eternal Tao.
Heaven and Earth began from the nameless (Tao),
but the multitudes of things around us were created by names.
We desire to understand the world by giving names to the things we see,
but these things are only the effects of something subtle.
When we see beyond the desire to use names,
we can sense the nameless cause of these effects.
The cause and the effects are aspects of the same, one thing.
They are both mysterious and profound.
At their most mysterious and profound point lies the "Gate of the Great Truth".�

The thing most likely others would not see me doing would be surfing. There�s something about a hill billie, Key West bread, country music, tobacco chewing, martial arts practicing young man that seemed contrary to the surfing image. A young man named David Hall introduced me, romanced me into what surfing was. He spoke of surfing as something so exciting and passionate yet so simple and pure that it never became a second thought if I was going to try it.
�We desire to understand the world by giving names to the things we see.� Yes, I was a poser (for lack of a better term) my first few trips to the beach. I grew up on the water so, it stands to reason, that I would have no problem getting in. However, without someone there to instruct me in the �what not to dos�, I was a bit hesitant. Nevertheless, the time came when I was ready to take my first plunge.

�Heaven and earth are like a set of bellows.
Although empty, they are endlessly productive.
The more you work them, the more they produce.
The mouth, on the other hand, becomes exhausted if you talk too much.
Better to keep your thoughts inside you.�

So, with verse three in mind, I started on my long journey to catch a wave. OK, grab the board, run, jump in, paddle�slip off!? Damn, forgot to wax. Roll in, wax, grab board, run, jump in, paddle�get beat to hell in the soup. Tuck and roll, get up, get hit by the next set, get beat, getting tired, get back on the board�get pounded by the next set, tuck and roll, almost exhausted, trying to get my board back, almost got my board, get pounded by the next set, ruck and toll, too tired, I think I�m going to drown, screw the board, I�ll kill David but only after the next set pounds me� again.

��There is no greater disaster than to underestimate your enemy.
If I did that, I would lose my 3 treasures (benevolence, frugality, never trying to be number one)
In combat, the most reticent side will win.�

I took me several months to learn I could not beat the ocean. I spent my whole life on the ocean but never had to battle it, one on one, like I felt I did when I started surfing. The more I gave in to understanding it was not about me vs. mother nature but me along side mother nature, the more I saw the spirit of surfing. I began to see again the things that first appealed to me about surfing. I began to understand.

�When alive, the body is supple, yielding.
In death, the body becomes hard, unyielding.
Living plants are flexible,
In death, they become dry and brittle.
Therefore, stubborn people are disciples of death, but
Flexible people are disciples of life.
In the same way,
Inflexible soldiers cannot win (a victory).
And the hardest trees are readiest for an axe to chop them down
Tough guys sink to the bottom, while
Flexible people rise to the top.�

The things that I love most about surfing are considered, by some, to be too intangible. To me, they are priceless. There are certain feelings that cannot be replaced, described or amply shared; the feeling of your first dawn patrol, the first drop in and ride, your first true, intended maneuver, any night session. Pulling up on the beach with your Big Mac, fries and Coke and sharing a spot on the beach with a nesting sea turtle, the anticipation of the drive to the beach and the simple satisfying solitude of the ride home; even though your friends are in the car with you. It�s the feeling of knowing there is something out there so much bigger than you or I and the gratification of knowing you got to share in it. It�s the whooping and hollering of your friends over a stupid stunt on a not so pretty ride. It�s a Perkins breakfast at 04:00, a ticket by the Beach Patrol at 05:30 and losing them both by 06:00. It�s surfing until dark in the summer and numb toes for two days in the winter. It�s about everything that escapes you and every memory you�ve ever had. Most of all, it�s about learning how to just be.

�The virtue of Tao governs its natural way.
Thus, he who is at one with it,
is one with everything which lives,
having freedom from the fear of death.
Boasting, and hurrying hither and thither,
destroy the enjoyment of a peace filled life.
Life is more fulfilled by far,
for he who does not have desire,
has no need of boasting.
Learn to see the insignificant and small,
grow in wisdom and develop insight,
that which is irrevocable,
do not try to fight,
and so be saved from harm.�

As I continued to surf, I continued to reap the rewards of surfing. Trials in my life were not so trying. Moments of success are so much more sweet. Over the past 22 years of surfing, I have learned to become nothing more than a person who surfs. Likewise, as a person who surfs, I have learned to become one with the ocean, more in tune with those around me and less inclined to find exception. I treasure my time for what it is and try not to look too far ahead or dwell too much in the past. The hardest lesson for me to learn was one challenged to me by one of my old instructors. He said. �See the world as it is not as you are.� I believe my journey to answer that challenge began with a simple 5� 8� Mad Dog swallow tail and 22 years of searching and practice. And though I know I have not yet arrived, I believe I am on the right track.