The Dao of Nature & The Nature of Dao Podcast

Gregory Ripley
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Self-Improvement

A podcast about the intersection of Daoism and Nature where I'll be sharing my thoughts on these and related topics, informed by my training as a Nature & Forest Therapy Guide and an ordained 22nd generation Quanzhen Longmen Daoist Priest. gregoryripley.substack.com

  1. Sep 25

    Episode 15: The Cry and the Answer

    This episode covers a lot of ground. A Minneapolis traffic jam and a century-old lie about who's really in the way, and a Daoist tradition of universal compassion converge on a single question: what does it cost us, individually and collectively, when we redesign our systems around the comfort of power rather than the dignity of the people caught beneath it? This essay traces a line from a scripture about an archetypal savior who cannot stop listening to the world's cries, through a philosopher who dared to read the Daode jing as an act of universal salvation, through the Quanzhen ancestors who turned that theology into famine relief and mutual aid, to a single sentence that once stopped a Mongol emperor mid-slaughter—and asks what that same sentence, spoken now, would have to sound like. Preorder Bonus I’m offering a preorder bonus with the publication of my new book. * Preorder my new book, An Introduction to Daoism: A Practice Guide for Living the Way * Fill out the form on my website (https://www.gregoryripley.com/book-preorder) * Receive a 100+ page Introduction to Qigong as a special preorder bonus! This special offer is only available until publication day, November 24th. Get full access to The Dao of Nature & The Nature of Dao at gregoryripley.substack.com/subscribe

  2. Sep 14

    Episode 14: Lose Yourself

    Self-cultivation in Daoism carries a built-in paradox: are we returning to something we already are, or refining ourselves into something we’re not yet? The Daode Jing suggests both, but leans towards return, yet the entire tradition of inner alchemy is premised on patient, daily refinement. This essay holds those two models together rather than resolving them, tracing the paradox through the Daoist language of xiantian and houtian (pre-heaven and post-heaven), the Three Poisons and their antidote in Laozi’s Three Treasures, and a surprising kinship with the Greek distinction between chronos and kairos. What emerges is less a contradiction than a shift in vantage point—the same journey seen from the timeless perspective of the Dao and from the sequential, effortful perspective of a life still being lived. This post is an excerpt from my book, The Hundred Rememdies of the Tao (Inner Traditions, 2023) Get full access to The Dao of Nature & The Nature of Dao at gregoryripley.substack.com/subscribe

  3. Sep 6

    Episode 13: The Sigh & The Laughter

    This essay was prompted by a return trip to the North Shore of Lake Superior this summer, where standing at the shore of a lake that refuses to behave like a lake set me thinking about the two faces of a frame-dissolving encounter with mystery. The essay braids two classical Chinese chengyu — 望洋興嘆, gazing at the ocean and sighing, and 劉海戲蟾, Liu Hai plays with the toad — with two different settings: the North Shore and a kiva in Frijoles Canyon at Bandelier National Monument. The Zhuangzi’s Autumn Floods chapter holds both the ocean and the well in the same breath, and the essay follows that pairing outward to the shore where the frame dissolves in a sigh, and downward into the dark. Get full access to The Dao of Nature & The Nature of Dao at gregoryripley.substack.com/subscribe

    Episode 13: The Sigh & The Laughter

  4. Jul 28

    Episode 12: Continuous As If Ever-Present

    What does it mean for the Dao to be present in the world not as a dramatic force but as something barely perceptible, fine as silk thread, continuous as breath, hovering at the threshold between presence and absence? The Daode Jing offers a phrase for this: 綿綿若存, continuous as if ever-present. This essay follows that phrase through Daode Jing Chapter 6, the neidan tradition, and the short but concentrated Xinyin Miaojing—asking what it means to cultivate an attention fine enough to receive what has quietly always been here. The Dao of Nature & The Nature of Dao is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Gregory Ripley (Li Guan 理觀) is an ordained Daoist priest in the Quanzhen Longmen tradition and a certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide. He is the author of Tao of Sustainability (Three Pines Press, 2016) and The Hundred Remedies of the Tao (Inner Traditions, 2023) and his forthcoming book from Shambhala Publications, An Introduction to Daoism: A Practice Guide for Living the Way. (November 2026) Get full access to The Dao of Nature & The Nature of Dao at gregoryripley.substack.com/subscribe

    Episode 12: Continuous As If Ever-Present

  5. Jul 8

    Episode Eleven: Never Separate From This

    This essay was unplanned. The series began as two pieces, one on 玄 (xuan) as the mystery at the heart of Daoist thought, and one tracing the compound 幽玄 (youxuan) on its journey from Chinese philosophy and aesthetics to Japan, where it became the celebrated concept of yugen. That second essay ended with a line from Liu Yiming’s commentary on the Huangting Jing (Yellow Court Scripture) that I couldn’t quite leave behind, so here we are with part three. That said, I should probably just add the caveat here that many if not all of my future posts will probably form a meandering path, one footstep leading to the next, each essay leading to the next, a process that will continue indefinitely. So, is it really part three of three? Who knows? Here’s a link for my forthcoming book from Shambhala Publications mentioned in the episode. It’s available everywhere for preorder now. An Introduction to Daoism: A Practice Guide for Living the Way Get full access to The Dao of Nature & The Nature of Dao at gregoryripley.substack.com/subscribe

  6. Jun 21

    Episode 10: From Youxuan to Yugen (and Back Again)

    This episode began as a companion to “Xuan: Mystery at the Heart of the Dao.” Where that episode explored xuan as a quality of reality and a contemplative orientation, this one was intended to follow the compound word 幽玄, youxuan, from its earliest appearances in Chinese literature through its long journey to Japan, where it became yugen, one of the most celebrated aesthetic concepts in the world. The meme, it turns out, has deep roots. What happened along the way was something far deeper than I expected. Which is perhaps appropriate for an essay about a concept that names exactly that, the depth that keeps going when you enter it, the center you find by not looking for it. Get full access to The Dao of Nature & The Nature of Dao at gregoryripley.substack.com/subscribe

    Episode 10: From Youxuan to Yugen (and Back Again)

  7. Jun 14

    Episode 9: Xuan

    This episode explores 玄 (xuan), a single Chinese character at the center of Daoist thought. Appearing in the opening lines of the Daodejing, xuan—most often translated as “dark,” “mysterious,” or “profound”—names not merely a feeling but a feature of reality: the quality of what exceeds ordinary knowing while remaining available to a different kind of awareness. Moving through the character’s etymology, its appearances across the Daodejing, and its resonances in other contemplative traditions, the essay traces how xuan functions as both threshold and method—the pivot on which the tradition turns, opening toward 妙 (miao), the wondrous. It closes in the forest, where the practice of forest therapy offers a contemporary form of the same ancient invitation: to release the “short and shallow ears and eyes” and enter, without grasping, the mystery that has always been there. Get full access to The Dao of Nature & The Nature of Dao at gregoryripley.substack.com/subscribe

    Episode 9: Xuan

  8. Jun 3

    Episode 8: Don't Believe Everything You Think

    Where do thoughts come from? And how much should we trust them? Drawing on Daoist philosophy, the Dao De Jing's Valley Spirit (谷神), and the inner alchemy writings of Bai Yuchan, this post explores the dual nature of thought: its generative, creative power and its capacity to distort our perception of reality. Thoughts arise spontaneously, like life emerging from an empty valley, yet left unexamined they can quietly shape everything we do. Mindfulness of thought—a practice as central to Daoism as to any contemplative tradition—is what allows us to engage with thoughts discerningly rather than be ruled by them. Get full access to The Dao of Nature & The Nature of Dao at gregoryripley.substack.com/subscribe

    Episode 8: Don't Believe Everything You Think
See All (16)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

A podcast about the intersection of Daoism and Nature where I'll be sharing my thoughts on these and related topics, informed by my training as a Nature & Forest Therapy Guide and an ordained 22nd generation Quanzhen Longmen Daoist Priest. gregoryripley.substack.com

Information

You Might Also Like