The Tao of Wonder Woman
Chapter Four, The Bowl
“The Tao is like an empty bowl, which in being used can never be filled up. Fathomless, it seems to be the origin of all things. It blunts all sharp edges, it unties all tangles, it harmonizes all lights, it unites the world into one whole. Hidden in the deeps, yet it seems to exist for ever. I do not know whose child it is; it seems to be the common ancestor of all, the father of things.”
All spirituality is like a fathomless bowel. It is useless until it is used. The spiritual life can never be filled put fruit in the bowl and soon it will be time to eat when the fruit is eaten fill the bowl back up. Using the “spiritual bowl” life’s sharpness and tangles are not as worrisome. Life becomes a bowl ready to be filled – expecting to be filled. An empty bowl on a table has no prejudices or rules it will accept anything. A true spiritual life has no prejudices, and anybody is welcomed to practice a spiritual life.
A spiritual life is personal. We create our own spiritual life. We practice a spiritual life. Our bodies are like bowls filled with the parts of the body that generates life. The more we exercise the more we can do things, the stronger and healthier we become. The more we relax and sit quietly the more serene we become. The more we share with people the more people share with us. Our lives become filled and our lives become deeper.
Wonder Woman is one of the most spiritual superheroes. She spends hours in communication and meditation. Wonder Woman seeks to be the best that she can be to honor and praise her gods. She was given life, so she seeks to live life to its fullest. She was granted with a heroic mission and she seeks its fulfillment. Her spiritual bowl is filled with her gifts and abilities but also with her lessons and her ideals. Diana fills her bowl with the people around her. Her bowl is filled with teachers and students; friends and family; strangers and admirers. The more her bowl fills the deeper her bowl becomes.
Like at the universe and galaxy. The more we learn the deeper and broader the space outside the Earth becomes. The universe is vast – vast beyond our comprehension. A spiritual life is just as similar. The more we learn the less we know. The more we use our spiritual bowl the deeper it becomes. Untangling the knots becomes easier. The sharpness of life becomes dull. Our bowls are ready to be filled.
*Tao Teh Ching, by Lao Tzu, translated by John C. H. Wu, Shambhala Publications, Boston & London, 2003
Chapter Five, The Bellows
“Heaven and Earth are not kind: the thousand things are straw dogs to them. Sages are not kind: people are straw dogs to them. Yet Heaven and Earth and all the space between are like a bellows: empty but inexhaustible, always producing more. Longwinded speech is exhausting. Better to stay centered.” *
As Eric Luke wrote the Amazons were gifted with the mission to unite the people of our world with love and compassion. Diana is an Amazon and therefore she is gifted with the same heroic mission. With that in mind Diana treats everyone the same. “It is an honor to help protect all inhabitants of earth the best I can captain.” *
Her compassion reaches for and wide. She will be just as compassionate to a villain as man or child in need. “You can think of this as a prison if you’d like or you can think of it as a new home – where no one will bother you. Where you can be whatever you want to be.” * To Diana all people even, the lowly, “They’re lowlies…freshly rescued, they’ll need compassion more than further violence.” *
Diana is often tasked with missions that will make the normal person run screaming. She will find the streak within the continue. For example, Wonder Woman once blinded herself to defeat Medusa (Wonder Woman (Vol.2) Issues #205-213). Wonder Woman to save the world and protect her friends thought it best to defeat all the JLA and shoulder the survival of the world herself (JLA: League of One, DC Comics 2002).
“Sometimes I feel I’ll NEVER fit in here. I’m not interested in answering the questions people ask. A relief. She’s just getting the job done. Isn’t that what I do? I get it handed to me and I always get it done.” *
The world treats everyone the same. The world could care less who we are or what we do. We all will be affected by what the world brings our way. In truth, all we have is our health. When tornadoes strike, do we sit on the porch watching the destruction or do we find shelter, making sure those in our presence is safe as well? It is the power we have inside our hearts that make it possible for us to withstand the Tornadoes, to withstand the Earthquakes or to withstand the Injustices. The Tao speaks of the Bellows. Empty but when in use is inexhaustible. The use comes from the center comes from what we perceive as the emptiness. We find in times of need that our center is NOT without. It is powerful and strong. Therefore, the Taoist treats everyone as “straw dogs” because he knows the truth of what we carry inside all of us. That center. That strength.
Diana is a sage. She sees in us the same strength and power. All we lack is the training and the opportunities to use the strength. And so, she shares her strength and gifts with her fellow “straw dogs”. Inside she knows her truth and is not afraid to face herself and her center.
“Lois, you asked me how I could ‘own’ my contradictions. It’s because I don’t allow myself to hide from them. I force myself to see what I could otherwise hide…” *
*Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu, translated by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo, Shambhala Publications, Boston & London, 2007
* “Sabotage is in the Stars”, Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman #8, DC Comics, 2015
* “Attack of the 500-Foot Woman”, Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman #4, DC Comics, 2014
* “Not Included”, Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman #6, DC Comics, 2015
* “Girl’s Day out”, Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman #9, DC Comics, 2015
* “A Day in the Life”, Wonder Woman #170, DC Comics, July 2001
Chapter Six, The Mysterious Feminine
“And that to me is something. Coming to an understanding of who you are is the midst of discovering who you aren’t.” Brian Azzarello
Wonder Woman is a mystery. We cannot comprehend how she came into existence, how she gained her powers or how she and her Amazons lived so long without notice for thousands of years on a hidden “Paradise Island”. The whole concept to us is amazing and mysterious. We can only use our imagination to even begin to comprehend her existence.
It is natural for all people practicing a spiritual life to question, wonder and examine the how’s and why’s of the spiritual mythos. Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote, “Doubt is part of all religion. All the religious thinkers were doubters.” It is in our examinations that we begin to see ourselves and learn who we are as humans and spiritual beings.
“The Spirit of the Fountain dies not. It is called the Mysterious Feminine. The Doorway of the Mysterious Feminine is called the Root of Heaven-and-Earth. Lingering like gossamer, it has only a hint of existence; and yet when we draw upon on, it is inexhaustible.” *
This reading is speaking to us on different levels -- the mystery of a spiritual life, the mystery of getting to know ourselves and that which is mysteriously inexhaustible. We are all doubters. We do not believe at times that our source of spiritual understanding and strength will be present at times of need. We doubt who we are – that we will not have the strength needed to get through the day. We doubt the deepness of our spiritual bowl. Therefore, the spiritual life is a mystery to us.
Lao Tzu often refers to the mystery of the spiritual life as the feminine side of being. The universe, the “Heaven-and-Earth” was created by the Mother of Creation. The females create children and life. To him women accepted their role as creator without hesitation. Accepting a spiritual life is like giving birth and becoming the mother of creation. Associated with the spiritual awakening. Looking at the whole process of creation there is Joy, Ecstasy, Pain, Loneliness, Acceptance and Growth. And through all the examinations and spiritual journeys we eventually learn who we are and become that which we are meant to be. We have created a self-actualized person – spiritually, physically, and emotionally. We find ourselves to can be inexhaustible.
On Themyscira, Paradise Island, Diana knew exactly who she was and who she was meant to be but then Steve Trevor appears, and she is forced to leave the safety of her womb. When entering patriarch’s world, she naturally became a doubter because nothing was the same for her. Everything was new. She doubted. But she discovered she had the ability to bring Peace and Love to patriarch’s world. She fell upon the teaching of her spiritual life.
“The ancient Greeks bequeathed us the lesson that death is but a dismal state. All men and women, from the greatest to the most ignoble, are eventually reclaimed by the soil of mother earth. The only way to deny death, then, is to live each day to its fullest by constantly striving to carve an immortal legend which will serve as your eternal legacy. By making the extraordinary look easy.” *
She changed and grew into a woman more powerful than even the Amazons comprehended. Through her own self-discovery she became. She became a woman that would seek to make all people’s life worth living. But she still falls back to her own mysterious spiritual beliefs. She finds her beliefs and gifts are inexhaustible. Becoming that of teacher pausing spiritual questions for those around her.
“If the prospect of living in a world where trying to respect the basic rights of those around you and valuing each other simply because we exist are such daunting, impossible tasks then what sort of world are we left with? And what sort of world do you want to live in?” *
*Tao Teh Ching, by Lao Tzu, translated by John C. H. Wu, Shambhala Publications, Boston & London, 2003
* “JLA: Heaven’s Ladder” #1, DC Comics, 2001
* “A Day in the Life”, Wonder Woman #170, DC Comics, July 2001