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Become aware of your inclination to tell others, particularly your family members, how they should be conducting their lives.
they’re in the energy field of someone who allows rather than dictates.
The highest kindness is to give without condition. The highest justice is to see without preference.
Ritual is the husk of true faith, the beginning of chaos.
isn’t right and it isn’t fair, but it is essential nature, and you’re encouraged to be true to your own.
Rituals keep you disconnected from the Tao, and you lose them by trying.
Observe it and live within its nature. In other words, act without being concerned for your own ego.
It certainly represents both an intellectual and a behavioral challenge for me at times.
Live in your essential nature by rejecting artificial principles.
Remind yourself that goodness isn’t accessed by obeying laws; rather, it is what resonates with your essential nature. You don’t need any sort of code to decide what is proper, good, moral, ethical, or legal. Trust yourself to be an instrument of love by surrendering to your highest nature rather than being seduced by mortal laws.
was sad one day and went for a walk; I sat in a field. A rabbit noticed my condition and came near. It often does not take more than that to help at times —to just be close to creatures who are so full of knowing, so full of love that they don’t— chat, they just gaze with their marvelous understanding.
They are, as the poet says, “so full of knowing.”
The pieces of a chariot are useless unless they work in accordance with the whole. A man’s life brings nothing unless he lives in accordance with the whole universe. Playing one’s part in accordance with the universe is true humility.
When humility evokes our wholeness, we live the reality that we’re pieces of the whole.
But if you can modify your ego’s viewpoint, your life will change.
For example, your body is a convenient analogy for a universe all unto itself. While it is one entity, it certainly has trillions of individual, although interconnected, cells. Just one cell with an arrogant relationship
And you’ll destroy yourself if you participate in destroying the Tao upon which you are dependent for your survival.
Your life needs to have a relationship with the Tao, and that relationship is characterized by Lao-tzu as a bond forged by humility.
In other words, wholeness and humility are one and the same, so update the way you think about your relationship to life, and play your part “in accordance with the whole.”
Cultivate your relationship with the planet.
“A man’s life brings nothing unless he lives in accordance with the whole universe.”
Change the way you think of yourself from being separate to seeing yourself in all that you encounter.
share the same originating spirit with every one of these people.
You accomplish this by realizing that you’re one of the 10,000 things that has appeared in the world of form.
In order for you, a much bigger speck, to form, you must have come from an originating spirit.
It’s spirit that gives life. So to truly live out your destiny as a piece of the originating Tao, you must shed your ego and return to spirit—or you can wait until your body dies and make your return trip at that time.
“You were created to be like God, and so you must please him and be truly holy” (Eph. 4:24). This is an invitation for us all to return to what we came from, which is loving, kind, and not exclusive in any way.
You do so by yielding your ego, surrendering, and being humble.
Indeed, yielding is the way of the Tao, as well as the key to an uplifted existence, according to virtually all spiritual texts that have survived over the
You begin seeing everyone and everything as if they have round-trip tickets: You know they all arrived from spirit, and you know they must return.
All that composes also decomposes, and whether anyone else understands that isn’t important to you. You find the awareness that life on Earth is a death sentence to be a liberating and amusing viewpoint. You’re choosing to live every day, each moment that you have and as much as you can, as the nonbeing aspect of yourself.
There is no more worry, anxiety, or identification with your possessions—you’re a free person. You’re a spiritual being first, last, and always.
Monitor your direction, emphasizing returning and yielding.
in terms of directionality.
A resolution to exercise or eat more nutritious foods is a step taking you back to the well-being from which you originated.
A decision to suspend your ego and
determination to be generous rather than hoard is a choice to be ...
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know that God writes all the books, composes all the music, and erects all the buildings. I bow to this all-creating power.
Each time you look at this sign, use it as a reminder for you to return to the Tao. At
The more you yield each day, the more you return to the peace and harmony of the Tao.
The way of illumination seems dark, going forward seems like retreat, the easy way seems hard, true power seems weak, true purity seems tarnished, true clarity seems obscure,
the greatest art seems unsophisticated, the greatest love seems indifferent, the greatest wisdom seems childish.
The Tao is hidden and nameless; the Tao alone nourishes and brings ever...
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But you will begin to look beyond what only seems to be your truth and move into a direct experience of the Tao, uncluttered by your previously limited views.
As you examine your own thoughts, you may discover an aspect of yourself that wants to learn how to utilize these ancient teachings.
You’ll experience times of darkness, but your new vision will eventually illuminate your inner world.
So when life looks difficult, stop and realize that you’re only one thought removed from being at peace.
You don’t have to struggle or dominate others in order to feel strong.
knowing that inner peace is power. Less
When you see what appears to be indifference, know in your heart that love is present.
