Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting the I-Kuan Tao temple in El Monte, California, and meeting my old friend, Derek Lin, for the very first time.
Derek, author of The Tao Te Ching: Annotated and Explained, was the first person of whom I asked a question about Taoism. I often wonder how different my life would be now had I asked the same question of someone else.
So many times, I see newcomers to Taoism asking perfectly valid questions and receiving ambiguous answers, shrouded in mystery, wrapped in paradoxes in hushed tones and the added caveat that we should not ask questions at all.
Derek, however, responded with a lengthy email which was clarity itself. It was a simple, easy to understand (in plain English) answer to the question I had asked. Nothing more and nothing less. And that set me on the path of practical understanding and application that I am on to this day some ten years later.
Derek, despite his close connections to the temple, never spoke to me about I-Kuan Tao or the work they do in El Monte unless I asked; and even then my queries were never taken as an opportunity to proselytise. This only deepened my curiosity about it all.
In recent years I have been able to help Derek with the Internet discussion group that is attached to the main website at taoism.net and also by contributing articles in the section in which the one you are reading now has been published.
Then, late last year, my personal life took an unexpected turn and I found myself, last March, on a plane bound for San Francisco where more than two months in the sunshine of neighbouring San Jose beckoned.
The temple, situated in Los Angeles, is about 450 miles from where I was staying in northern California, but the lady whose hospitality I was enjoying — the world famous Tao Babe — offered to drive me the eight-and-a-half hours there, and a date was set.
The Pacific Coast Highway, as an aside to the theme of this article, is the most scenic of scenic routes. The Tao babe — with a copy of the I Ching in the back alongside her heels and makeup bag — gunned her two seater convertible along its voluptuous curves with one manicured hand draped casually on the steering wheel and the other lying redundant on her thigh with me, seated beside her, pretending I was quiet because I was awed by the views and not (as was really the case) because I was unnerved by the speed she was barreling into the corners with.
The resolute cliffs and churning ocean eventually gave way to freeways and cities and, now late at night, the City of Angels herself. Sparkling in the gloaming, her tall buildings presented themselves proudly. Strung between them, like pulsing arteries, the broad lanes of traffic concertinaed and stretched out: ruby red lights going one way, diamond lights coming the other.
The following morning, in 90 degree heat and having checked out from our motel, we pulled up outside the impressive looking temple and were greeted by the happy face of Maitreya Buddha in the cool shade of the lobby. We had intended to just sit and wait for Derek to arrive, but the people who worked there were tripping over each other in their eagerness to be friendly and welcome to us.
One young lady kindly took us on a tour of the building and no sooner had we reseated ourselves when another attendee gave us a brief explanation of who they were, what they did at the temple and why. Lastly, the temple's pastor handed me a book on Taoism and walked away. It wasn't a hard sell, but a gift.
Preceded by his beautiful wife, Janice, who breezed through the meeting room to her duties elsewhere, the man himself entered. I was unsure of how to greet a Taiwanese man of the Tao and had decided to be safe and settle for a formal handshake, but before I could extend my hand, Derek threw his arms around me and patted me robustly on the back as if I were choking.
We helped him set up for the online meeting and were joined by several others who were able to attend the meeting in person. The live link-up with Bill in Indiana was established and we were under way.
Derek announced that, having come all the way from England, I now hold the record for the longest distance travelled to attend a meeting. What he did not mention was that I walked from the British Isles on my knees in the form of a pilgrimage. It took me three years. I was somewhat dispirited when Derek told me there is no need to do that in Taoism. However, I was brought up a catholic, so I enjoyed it anyway.
At the conclusion of Bill's presentation, after which the automated applause generated by the online users clicking on buttons to show their appreciation fooled me into thinking Bill had somehow managed to cram an audience of around a hundred and fifty people into his living room, Derek spoke about chapter 21 of the Tao Te Ching. Once Carmen in Seattle had spoken beautifully herself about 'Black Gold' (the soil of the earth) the meeting was over and it was time to eat.
About a hundred people from various meeting rooms suddenly appeared and lined up in the kitchen for the free vegetarian lunch lovingly prepared all morning. Yes, that's right, a free lunch. They say there is no such thing, but they are wrong.
(I have included a picture, below, of the Tao Babe with Derek to finally quash the rumours that Derek is the Tao Babe. I hope this satisfies the growing number of people who point out the two have never been seen in the same room together.)
Those of us who had been in the meeting ate together in the conference room where, as with any conversation involving me and Derek, the talk turned to sci-fi and computer-related topics. We had the inestimable pleasure of sitting with Sally, a redoubtable lady whose Tai Chi practice and other Taoist lifestyle choices betray her real age, which, as a gentleman, I will not betray to you now.
After about an hour, Derek's wife appeared at his shoulder and it was time for him to stop playing with his friends and to go home. It was also time for me and the Tao Babe to hit the road, as they say here in the United States.
But before leaving, I wanted to leave a donation. Donations at the temple are not solicited. There is no donation box by the wall or anywhere else, nor are there any notices indicating to the visitor what they should do if they wish to leave something. I knocked on the door of the office and a lady was fetched who, upon taking our modest sum, wrote out a receipt and thanked us. So, unlike some other institutions, giving the I-Kuan Tao temple in El Monte money is something you need to go out of your way to do, because they will not encourage you in the least.
We didn't take the scenic route back, but the freeway we took, which follows an old settler trail, lacked nothing in the grandeur of the spectacle it offers the weary traveller.
I am genuinely sorry that I cannot attend the temple on a regular basis. It's a social occasion where families and friends meet, share and laugh together. A happy place for experienced Tao cultivators, the first-time visitor and the very young and very old alike.
If you are in the area of LA and feel like dropping in, take it from me: you'll be made welcome.
