Mr. Sam Myers passed away Mon. Jul 17, 2006 at around 10:30 a.m. Mr. Myers had spent the better part of the last twenty years as the lead vocalist and harmonica player in the prominent Dallas based blues band, Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets. “Sammy”, as he was called affectionately by fans, was diagnosed with throat cancer a couple of years ago, and in the early part of 2006 had to have his larynx removed.

 

The jewels in Myers’ musical crown included at least 10 W.C. Handy awards (the "Blues Grammy") for his work with Anson & the Rockets, many songwriting credits on classic Blues material, and serving a stint in his early days as the drummer in blues great Elmore James’ band. Mr. Myers had lost his sight at an early age, and Funderburgh met him in Mississippi, were Myers worked at the Light House for the Blind. Anson immediately jumped at the chance to have a Blues legend front his band, and it paid off for both men exponentially.

 

I was fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of Mr. Myers while attending the local blues jams in Dallas. He played the part of the “classic” blues man to a “T” with his gruff demeanor and sardonic wit. I will never forget hearing Sammy’s “battle cry” echoing through those dimly lit, smoky barrooms on Jam nights; in his deep, booming baritone voice, Sam would shout at the jammers “Play the Blues, GODDAMMIT!!!”

 

Sam Myers loved the blues, he loved living the life of a professional bluesman, and he loved entertaining the crowds of blues fans who would invariably show up if they knew he would be playing. He was, quite simply, one of the last (if indeed not the last) great blues harmonica players; carrying the torch that was lit so many years ago by men like Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson. His talent will be sorely missed in today’s blues scene. The sound of Sammy’s harp wasn’t silenced on July 17, 2006, however, because of the many fine recordings he made with Anson & the Rockets as well as his own recent c.d.

 

A giant fell today, a giant whose immeasurable stature will never be fully matched by anyone.

 

Sammy, I’ll miss you, man, and I love you.

 

Thanks for the tunes.

Sam's Website

 

Anson's Website

peace, wayf

 

In my time of dyin' don't want you to mourn

All I want for you to do is carry my body home

Well, well, well,

So I can die easy

(From "In My Time Of Dyin'" by Blind Willie Johnson)

Preachin’ Blues- Robert Johnson

 

Mmmmm mmmmm
I's up this mornin', ah, blues walkin' like a man
I's up this mornin', ah, blues walkin' like a man
Worried blues, give me your right hand

And the blues fell mama's child, tore me all upside down
Blues fell mama's child, and it tore me all upside down
Travel on, poor Bob, just can't turn you 'round

The blues, is a low-down shakin' chill
(spoken: Yes, preach 'em now)
Mmmmm mmmmm
Is a low-down shakin' chill
You ain't never had 'em I, hope you never will

Well, the blues is a achin' old heart disease
The blues, is a low-down achin' heart disease
Like consumption, killing me by degrees

I can study rain, oh oh drive, oh oh drive my blues
I been studyin' the rain and, I'm 'on drive my blues away
Goin' to the 'stil'ry stay out there all day

 

I Am Home

 

The edge of the forest is dark

It seems as if it is ready to swallow me whole

As I stand on the precipice

Peering into its mystery

Timidly I step in, it wraps around me

A silken soft blanket of uncertainty

Uneasily comfortable, I walk further on

Birds sing softly in treetops

Twigs crack beyond my line of site

I walk on, allowing the forest to guide me

Patches of sunlight glint randomly through the trees

Reminding me of the world I left at the forests’ border

I walk on, wistfully daydreaming;

I wonder if these trees could speak

What they would say?

Tales of days of old

Of the wise and loving people who dwelled here before me

The caretakers of this ancient, sacred place that loved it so

Before the others came and plowed it down,

Ripping the forest up by its roots

Baring the land so it may lay naked in the blazing sun

Foolish enough to think they were dominant

That they owned this place that knew no owner

Save the earth and sky

Slowly, as I ponder the forests story

I find it has gently guided me to its heart

A solitary rock waits for me to take a seat

In a peaceful clearing

That seems to be the center of the world

I sit and listen to the forests’ heart beat

And know that I am home…

 

 

 

 

 

peace, wayf

“Lead the people with administrative injunctions and put them in

 their place with penal law, and they will avoid punishments but will

 be without a sense of shame. Lead them with excellence and put them in

 their place through roles and ritual practices, and in addition to

 developing a sense of shame, will order themselves harmoniously”.-

                                            Confucius,  Analects II. 3.( tr. J. Legge)

 

 

“Why are the people rebellious? Because leaders interfere too much, therefore the people are rebellious.” Tao Te Ching, Verse 75

 

 

 

It is of paramount importance to note that until the time of the TTC, there was no concept in Chinese thought of this Order of Nature, this Great Tao. As Wing- Tsit Chan points out in “The Way of Lau Tzu”; “It (the idea of taos, or set rules of conduct) is a cardinal concept in practically all ancient Chinese philosophical schools. Hitherto, the connotation had been social and moral, but in Lau Tzu it connotes for the first time the metaphysical (Tao).” Early Taoist thought was in direct opposition to Confucian Doctrine, which was the State philosophy and religion of the time. Whereas Confucius’ philosophy set out many “Taos” or laws to be followed in order to achieve “moral excellence”, the Taoists taught that there was, in reality, only one law, the Natural Law. It was the Taoist school’s contention that the ritualistic and ceremonious affairs that Confucius preached were detrimental both socially and spiritually speaking, and served only to subjugate the people, not to free them or even to make the virtuous.

 

Chad Hansen, professor of philosophy at Hong Kong University, asserts that the early Taoist school was set up as a linguistic philosophy to critique Confucian and Mohist doctrine. While, arguably, there is more to Taoist thought than just a critique of Confucius, one would be remiss not to point out that this is a fundamentally accurate depiction of at least part of the motivation of the author(s) of the TTC. It also helps to clarify many of the more “incongruous” elements in the TTC when looked at in this light. On a personal note here, I do feel that Mr. Hansen, while fundamentally correct in his theories, does tend to downplay the spiritual aspect of Taoist thought to a degree that is not fitting. It is not just a philosophy of linguistics and politics anymore than it is just a philosophy of morality and mysticism, it contains all of these elements.

 

Like the Yin/Yang diagram that plays such an important role in Taoist thought, there are infinite degrees of divisibility found within the philosophy itself. It is a viable and accurate depiction of the natural world and our place in it as well as serving as a critique of the “social order” as set forth by the Conservative Regime (overtones of familiarity?) that was in power at the time.  It was through the establishment of the idea of Natural Law that the early Taoists pointed out the fallacy of the idea that man held a special place in the world. Many of the commentaries and articles that have been written concerning Taoist thought have been written from a Confucian or Legalist stance (both of which would be obviously critical of the philosophy). Most modern Taoists choose to follow the spiritual aspects of Tao, and do not speak much on the political and social aspects of the philosophy. While this is understandable, I feel it does do the overall scope of the Philosophy a slight injustice to focus only on one aspect of its teachings. We can not forget the social environment in which the Taoist school sprung up, nor can we forget the spiritual implications it contained.

 

 

 ~ * ~

 

I won't delve too far into the political aspects of Taoism for the time being, but I felt that it was important to point out the significance of the term "Tao" in the particualr historical context because it helps shed some light on the formulation of the philosophy as a whole.

 

peace, wayf

 

 

 “Tao”, the Wholeness of Reality

 

“There is in all visible things an invisible fecundity, a dimmed light, a meek namelessness, a hidden wholeness.” – Thomas Merton

 

“A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty - it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man”. -Albert Einstein

 

 

“Tao is forever undefined; small though it is in its unformed state, it can not be grasped.” – Tao Te Ching, Verse 32

 

 

 "Tao"

 

 

The Chinese character for “Tao” (pronounced “dow”) is comprised of a foot, meaning “to go”, and a head, representing a person walking on a path. In the Chinese language, the word “tao” is used both as a noun (path, way, or road), and also as a verb (walk, to lead, or to guide, as well as spoken of, said, or told.) Jonathan Star points out that Tao, as used to describe the Absolute, “has its own unique meaning but is similar in its intent to the English equivalent ‘That’ in that it makes no effort to capture any aspect of the attributeless Absolute- it simply refers to it.”

 

What is Tao? I think Thomas Cleary’s description in his introduction to “The Essential Tao” is as good as any you will find. Cleary writes; “Tao is one of the most basic and comprehensive symbols in the Chinese language, the center of all philosophical discourse. It may mean a path, a way, a principle, a method, a doctrine, a system of order; and it may also mean the matrix, structure, and reality of the universe itself. Every art and science is called a tao, or a way; but the source of everything, the fountain of all art and science, is called the Tao, or the Way.”  Beyond this description, the great Tao, the unknowable Tao, the Tao that is the central point of the Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu’s philosophy is indefinable. To attempt further definition is to limit its capacity only to what is known, or knowable. Tao operates outside the limits of our knowledge. In fact, it is the very well spring from which our consciousness arises, and ultimately, returns to.

 

 

“The tao that can be spoken of is not the Eternal Tao”

 

 

These are likely the most famous words in all Taoist literature. The first sentence of the Tao Te Ching. This thought is generally the very first introduction that the curious eyes of inquisitive searchers behold as they walk through the door left ajar by the Taoist philosophers of old; and step timidly into a new world of ancient, yet amazingly timely, ideas. The thing most of us miss is just exactly how important the idea conveyed by that little sentence is. “The tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao.” We can’t talk about it, dissect it, examine it, or lay it out on a table for all to see. How can we know it is real if we can’t talk about it? Chuang Tzu would most likely have said something along the lines of “it is the very fact that you can not talk about it that insures me it’s real”. In the Taoist philosophy, paradox is the only thing that makes any real sense at all. If paradox didn’t make sense, after all, it would not be Tao.

 

Picture yourself standing at the edge of an expansive forest. To your right you see nothing but trees and undergrowth. To your left, the same. Likewise, directly in front of you, all you see are trees. No matter how you try, you cannot see the entire forest because it is too big. Though you walk deep into the middle of it, you still cannot see the entire forest. If you were to get in an airplane and fly directly over the top of the forest and look down upon the tops of the trees, you would still be missing parts of it. You could never see the entire forest, no matter what angle you looked at it from. Though you can get a good idea of what the forest is, how it grows, and what happens throughout, your eyes will never see the entire forest all at once. When faced with the problem of explaining Tao, we simply can not see the forest for the trees.

 

The Complete Tao, the Wholeness of reality, is both the definition and the definer of all. It is the well spring of all arts, sciences, philosophies, and doctrines. To ascribe it as only this idea or that principle is to mistakenly label the group of trees that you stand in currently as the whole of the forest. All attempts to label Tao will ultimately fail, because it goes beyond our abilities to intellectually comprehend it. Just as we can not visualize an infinite plane, we can not fathom the whole of Tao. Our set of trees, our labels we use to describe the world, are not the complete reality, our words are not eternal. The complete and total reality is beyond all names we can place on it. The Eternal Name is Tao, and it is a Name we can not speak.

 

~ * ~

 

Admittedly, there are most likely many Taoist scholars and practitioners who would write me off as a charlatan because I do not follow what has become the subscribed set of “standards” for following Tao. I do not practice Tai Chi Chuan (there is no indication in the Chuang Tzu that he did either), I do not practice alchemy* (Chuang Tzu only sketchily mentions this, and often as a warning not as instruction), and I do not attend a formal meditation class. I write poetry and essays and play music as meditation. I walk in the wilderness when I wish to go to a temple. I engage my mind in discourse when I want to learn what I think about things. I do, on occasion, sit in the “proper” Zen form of meditation, but I do not make it an everyday practice.

 

There are a great number of aspects involved with what we know as “Taoism” that I have rejected because I find them to be very non-beneficial. I do not subscribe to the theory that Tao is something to be “attained” through any teacher, or even any book. It is something that we already have. Terminology like “enlightenment”, “attainment”, and the like only serve, in my opinion, to place before the student an object of desire that will never be fully reached because the desire clouds the reality.

 

In the TTC and Chuang Tzu, I found a very simple philosophy that when stripped to its bare bones provides an easy, cut and dried approach to living. It is my opinion that organized “schools” and “sects” in any religious, spiritual, or philosophical practice are set up in order to distract the follower and keep them subjugated. Organized Taoist “schools” are no exception to this rule. The one common thread I have found throughout the TTC and the Chuang Tzu is that of liberty and freedom, spiritually and socially speaking. The reader is encouraged to find his/her own truth within themselves. I think it was the belief of the authors that by giving people a sort of spiritual “autonomy” that all people would eventually come to the same conclusions. Of course, this is only my belief concerning their intent, and I could be way off the mark.

 

I have assimilated many philosophies into my system of thought that deserve pointing out here. I have long been a fan of Alan Watts’ writings (he was greatly ostracized by many “higher authorities” within the Buddhist community of his time), as well as Thomas Merton’s (Merton was a Catholic monk who lived as recluse on the grounds of his monastery for a number of years and wrote many excellent books and essays concerning the reclusive Christian lifestyle). I am also a great fan of Einstein’s philosophical forays, and have a deep admiration for the teachings of Jesus (everyone should, in my opinion, read the “Jefferson Bible” regardless of their personal religious beliefs) and Buddha, as found in the Dhammapada, (if there is a third book in my “Canon”, it would be the Dhammapada), and many Hindu scriptures. Joseph Campbell’s work has greatly inspired me as well. Most importantly, the Native American’s spiritual philosophy and sense of “place” in the natural world, as well as their overall way of life, has had perhaps as profound an effect on me as Taoist thought has. No other society of people has ever demonstrated the basic Taoist principles in action quite as eloquently as the Native Americans before the invasion of Europeans (that is not mere romanticism on my behalf, either, it is the plain truth. The Native American culture was perhaps more “Taoist” than even any Chinese civilization has ever been.)

 

I do believe that there is some work involved in any spiritual endeavor. We can not just read the words and expect results from that action alone. We must put the words into action. We have to test the philosophy and see if it works. I have tested Taoist philosophy, and have discovered that within my little circle of life, it works quite well. I have brought many different viewpoints and ideas into what I loosely call “Taoism”, but it is the model presented of Tao, Yin and Yang that make me call myself Taoist. I have found no other system of belief, no other model in all of the spiritual, secular, and religious philosophies that I have looked into that so accurately depicts the order and system of nature as we can discern it from a completely intuitive level. It is as near a perfect picture of a completeness in reality that can be found, in my opinion. It is for this reason that I call myself a Taoist. It is that system of order that I call my “religion” for it is only the cycle of Yin/Yang that I am bound to. My day to day life involves constant reminders to myself that all things rise and fall according to the nature of things.

 

It is all a matter not of piling on more things, really. It is a matter of stripping things away. As the TTC says, “In the pursuit of knowledge, each day something is added. In the pursuit of Tao, each day something is dropped.” Or as Yoda said, “You must unlearn what you have learned.” Knowledge of the way the world works, knowledge of history, knowledge in general is a very commendable and excellent endeavor. However, we must always remember that our accumulated knowledge can never replace what it is that we all already know intuitively. We can argue with one another over the intricacies of this philosophy or that one all day long; but, each one of us knows that in the morning, the sun will rise, and in the evening it will set, the seasons will change, and life will invariably give over to death. We all realize that it is in these cycles that the necessary formula for life is found, it is because these things happen that this environment we are in became the perfect incubator for us. Is it more important, then, to look “out there” trying to find something else, or to look within and see those same processes taking place in our own being?

 

In the end, I think Buddha most likely explained the true objective of a spiritual person better than anyone I have found when he said, “Do not believe anything on the authority of your elders or teachers, or because it is found in any religious text. Do not just follow it because it is tradition, but only after careful analysis, if you find it to be beneficial to all, then accept it and follow it diligently.” (Paraphrased) I have come to the realization that the cyclical nature of things is best explained through the Taoist idea of Yin/Yang as it works through Tao (the Natural Order). I believe it is beneficial to all people to attempt to garner a deeper understanding of this process, not only as it applies to nature, but as it describes our physiology and psychology as well. A deeper and more profound understanding of this could, in my opinion, unchain people from the shackles of spiritual slavery that has been imposed by the organization of religion as well as secular thought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(*It should be noted that “Alchemy” as it is presented in later Taoist texts refers to a spiritual transformation through meditative practice, not the use of elixirs and the like. A very good book to read for clarification of the Taoist  Alchemical practices is “The Inner Teachings of Taoism”, as translated by Thomas Cleary.)

 

 

 peace, wayf