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September 6 - December 30, 2020
Tao is the supreme reality, an all-pervasive Source of everything.
Nature doesn’t create a storm that never ends. Within misfortune, good fortune hides.
Turn all of your attention to becoming open-minded, allowing permissiveness to befriend the mystery within yourself.
You may have a long list of goals that you believe will provide you with contentment when they’re achieved, yet if you examine your state of happiness in this moment, you’ll notice that the fulfillment of some previous ambitions didn’t create an enduring sense of joy. Desires can produce anxiety, stress, and competitiveness, and you need to recognize those that do. Bring happiness to every encounter in life, instead of expecting external events to produce joy.
“Stop pushing yourself,” Lao-tzu would say, “and feel gratitude and awe for what is. Your life is controlled by something far bigger and more significant than the petty details of your lofty aspirations.”
Inventory your desires and then turn them over to the unnameable. Yes, turn them over and do nothing but trust. At the same time, listen and watch for guidance, and then connect yourself to the perfect energy that sends whatever is necessary into your life. You (meaning your ego) don’t need to do anything. Instead, allow the eternal perfection of the Tao to work through you.
When you live infinitely, the rewards are a sense of peaceful joy because you know that all is in order.
From this ageless perspective, picture how important the things you feel depressed about now will be in a hundred, a thousand, a million, or an uncountable number of years. Remember that you, like the infinite Tao from which you originated, are part of an eternal reality.
If you find your worldly ego interpreting or judging, then just observe that without criticizing or changing it. You’ll begin to find more and more situations where it feels peaceful and joyful to be without response
“serve the needs of others, and all your own needs will be fulfilled.”
The main problem with listening to ego is that you’re always caught in the trap of striving and never arriving. Thus, you can never feel complete.
When you’re tempted to focus on your personal successes and defeats, shift your attention in that very moment to a less fortunate individual. You’ll feel more connected to life, as well as more satisfied than when you’re dwelling on your own circumstances.
The more you pursue desires, the more they’ll elude you. Try letting life come to you and begin to notice the clues that what you crave is on its way. You’re in a constant state of receiving because of the ceaseless generosity of the eternal Tao. The air you breathe, the water you drink, the food you eat, the sunshine that warms you, the nutrients that keep your body alive, and even the thoughts that fill your mind are all gifts from the eternal Tao. Stay appreciative of all that you receive, knowing that it flows from an all-providing Source.
By making every effort to avoid controlling the lives of others, you’ll be in peaceful harmony with the natural order of the Tao. This is the way you nourish others without trying. Be like water—which creates opportunities for swimming, fishing, surfing, drinking, wading, sprinkling, floating, and an endless list of benefits—by not trying to do anything other than simply flow.
Cramming life with possessions, pleasures, pride, and activities when we’ve obviously reached a point where more is less indicates being in harmony with ego, not the Tao! Living humility knows when to just stop, let go, and enjoy the fruits of our labor.
the pursuit of more status, more money, more power, more approval, more stuff, is as foolish as honing a carving knife after it has reached its zenith of sharpness.
Lao-tzu advises us to be careful about amassing great wealth and storing it away. This practice contributes to a life spent keeping our fortune safe and insured, while at the same time always feeling the need to pursue more. He counsels us to be satisfied at a level that fosters living with humility. If wealth and fame are desired, we must know when to retire from the treadmill and be like the Tao. This is the way of heaven, as opposed to the world that we live in, which is addicted to more.
Eat, but stop when you’re full—to continue stuffing food into a satiated body is to be trapped in believing that more of something is the cause of your happiness.
Lao-tzu uses similes to dramatize the flexible and peaceful lives of these sages: Imagine crossing an icy winter stream that might crack at any moment, remaining cautious and watchful while at the same time alert to imminent danger. These descriptors paint a picture of those who live unhurriedly but are also in a profoundly aware state.
through nature, everything ultimately becomes clear. Your purpose is to stay in harmony with nature like the sprout hidden beneath the surface of the ground, waiting unhurriedly to emerge and fulfill its destiny. It cannot be rushed, nor can anything in nature. Creation takes place on its own timetable. The metaphor is clear here for you as well: You are unfolding in Divine order. All that you require will be provided in an unhurried fashion. Let go of your demands and trust in the perfect unfolding of the Tao. Be in a state of watchful gratitude and align with the Way.
Stop chasing your dreams. Allow them to come to you in perfect order with unquestioned timing. Slow down your frantic pace and practice being hollow like the cave and open to all possibilities like the uncarved wood. Make stillness a regular part of your daily practice. Imagine all that you’d like to experience in life and then let go. Trust the Tao to work in Divine perfection, as it does with everything on the planet. You don’t really need to rush or force anything. Be an observer and receiver rather than the pushy director of your life. It is through this unhurried unfolding that you master
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Give up struggling and start trusting in the wisdom of the Tao. What is yours will come to you when you aren’t trying to push the river. You’ve probably been encouraged to actively direct and go after your desires all of your life . . . now it’s time to trust in the eternal wisdom that flows through you.
When you’re unaware of this steadying influence, you attach to one element of one cycle in life, leading to what Lao-tzu calls “eternal disaster.” When one person leaves you, it feels like the end of the world. When a business venture fails, you flunk out of school, or you have a painful illness or injury, you feel depressed. If you get trapped in these emotional endings, you’re not permitting them to also be a natural part of life, leading you to feel disconnected from your Source. You become stuck in the “rush of worldly comings and goings,” unable to remember the constancy where “endings
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Write these words and post them in a conspicuous place in your living environment: This too shall pass. This phrase will remind you that change is the only constant in life. Everything you notice is in a cycle of coming and going. Everything! There are no exceptions. Know this and let your thoughts flow in the constancy of change.
Even After All this time The sun never says to the earth, “You owe Me.” Look What happens With a love like that, It lights the Whole Sky.
Let go of your demands, along with your beliefs that you can’t be happy because of what is supposedly missing in your life. Insisting that you need what you don’t have is insane! The fact that you’re okay without what you think you need is the change you want to see. Then you can note that you already have everything you need to be peaceful, happy, and content right here and right now! Relax into this knowing, and affirm again and again: I am letting go and letting God. I am a glorious infant nursing at the great all-providing Mother’s breast.
In this 22nd verse of the Tao Te Ching, Lao-tzu invites you to embrace a similar quality of elasticity. Begin to sense the oneness that is the Tao supplying your resiliency and grounding, helping you withstand the storms of your life as pliantly as the supple palm tree. When destructive energy comes along, allow yourself to resist brokenness by bending. Look for times you can make the choice to weather a storm by allowing it to blow through without resistance. By not fighting, but instead relaxing and going with all that confronts you, you enter “the Tao time.”
Keep an inner vision of the wind symbolizing difficult situations as you affirm: I have no rigidity within me. I can bend to any wind and remain unbroken. I will use the strength of the wind to make me even stronger and better preserved.
Lao-tzu advises you to “be wise and help all beings impartially, abandoning none”—that is, you don’t need anyone else’s rules in order to reach out to others. Giving of yourself becomes your natural response because you’re following the inner light of the Tao. You and giving are one; you and receiving are one. In such an arrangement, there is no one who is not you.
You’re not in charge—you never have been, and you never will be. So you’re advised to let go of any ideas you have about controlling anything or anyone, including yourself. It’s a difficult lesson for most of us to learn.
Tuning in to this rapturous feeling of amazement at the sacred perfection of the world helps you release your desire to control anything or anyone. Doing so will allow you to live in the “harmony of natural law,” as Einstein describes it.
Lao-tzu reminds you that “everything under heaven is a sacred vessel,” needing no input from you. Since you’re also a part of everything, you may need to change the way you look at your life and all that has transpired in it, as well as your vision of the future. Whether you agree or disagree, whether you like it or not, all of it is outside of your ego’s domain. It’s all unfolding according to the same natural law that causes the seasons to follow one another, the moon to look as if it rises and falls, the whales to traverse oceans, and the birds to migrate and return without benefit of a map
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Ponder the advice that there’s a time for it all: Just as you must breathe in to breathe out, you may experience what it is to be ahead by also having a “being-behind experience.” All of those times that you felt betrayed, abandoned, abused, frightened, anxious, or incomplete—they all came about according to a natural law that also led you to feel cared for, protected, loved, comforted, and whole. There’s a time for everything, including what you’re experiencing today.
Lao-tzu urges you to avoid the extremes, the excesses, and the extravagant, and know that all is unfolding perfectly, even if your thoughts tell you that it’s imperfect. Those thoughts must also have their own time, and in the natural flow, they’ll be replaced by new ones . . . which will show up on time as well.
Begin a conscious program of surrendering, and allowing your world and everyone in it to do as they are ordained to do. Surrendering is a mental process: It involves taking a split second to stop yourself in your mode of judgment or frustration and have a brief talk with yourself on the spot. Just remind yourself to step back and be a witness rather than a protagonist, which you can do by providing a sanctuary for the feeling you’re judging. Invite Divine natural order in by simply allowing what you’re experiencing to go forward without criticism or control; in this way, you move to the
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I wouldn’t coax the plant if I were you. Such watchful nurturing may do it harm. Let the soil rest from so much digging And wait until it’s dry before you water it. The leaf’s inclined to find its own direction; Give it a chance to seek the sunlight for itself. Much growth is stunted by too much prodding, Too eager tenderness. The things we love we have to learn to leave alone.
