Tao: Metaphysical eastern philosophy term for "way," "path," or "route"
The Tao of Autumnforest:
Do it once with confidence.
Trust your first gut instinct.
Be fearless (of embarrassment or ghosts).
Stay in fighting shape.
Punctuate everything with a laugh (it attracts spirit activity and open-minded people like yourselves).
Always be your genuine self (then everyone knows what they're getting into when they befriend you)
The Tao of Scooby Doo:
Keep your circle of friends to include a jock, a cheerleader, a nerd and a stoner.
Don't go anywhere without munchies.
Everything can be explained, but until it is, it's pretty scary.
Everybody looks better in turtlenecks and headbands.
When all leads fails, the butler did it.
Taoists are have an interesting approach to the world and to their place in it. They use poetry a great deal because it is a more visceral way of portraying things that are not easy to explain in regular words. They also go about the natural world with childlike wonder and aimless wandering, including playfulness and communications with the natural spirit elements of the world like trees and flowers and streams. They have temples and monasteries, but a great deal of followers are lone practioners. They enjoy divination, through feng shui, calligraphy, art, alchemy. There are many ways to be a taoist.
This post is to open up your mind to ways to be inspired, to look at the universe. Now, after seeing my tao and the tao of the Scooby Doo gang, can you sum up your own life path/way in simple "truisms" that you know to be true for you?
Please share your tao in the comments.
Listen to your Heart
ReplyDeleteNever be afraid to dream
Embrace your Creative side
Laugh at yourself
Face your fears, then conquer them
Above all else, Stand out from the Crowd, be yourself!
I predict a very good future for you, HN! I think you described your path very well. When people have a defined path, it's like having a theme song for your future--everything falls into place. I often stop and look at my "way" and compare decisions asking myself "is this compatible with my path?" It takes many adults an entire lifetime until they figure out the tao and then they wonder how easy their life would have been if they laid it out early.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love Lao Tzu and the Tao te Ching. I was introduced to it at a very young age when I was obsessed with martial arts. And there's one part of it that is always stayed with me even unto this day...
ReplyDelete"Men come forth and live; they enter (again) and die.
Of every ten three are ministers of life (to themselves); and three
are ministers of death.
There are also three in every ten whose aim is to live, but whose
movements tend to the land (or place) of death. And for what reason?
Because of their excessive endeavours to perpetuate life.
But I have heard that he who is skilful in managing the life
entrusted to him for a time travels on the land without having to shun
rhinoceros or tiger, and enters a host without having to avoid buff
coat or sharp weapon. The rhinoceros finds no place in him into which
to thrust its horn, nor the tiger a place in which to fix its claws,
nor the weapon a place to admit its point. And for what reason?
Because there is in him no place of death."
That's some good stuff right there...
Aaron;
ReplyDeleteYou are like an onion. I am not certain there is a center because the layers are infinite. The point, perhaps is not to find the center, but to keep exposing layers.