Applicable Lao Tzu

[Wu Wei]

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. --- Lao Tzu

I am short on time at the moment and I will post the story that actually made me realize this soon.

What I quoted from Lao Tzu seems to be very applicable to my life in general, although I forgot it this morning and had an argument with a co-worker...

 

[Wu Wei]

Here is what set this off a little over a week ago

locked myself out of my house one morning a little over a week ago… but I was in my garage and but I had a phone and I was able to call my mother to come over to my house to lend me her key so I could get in…. but that was going to take at least 30 minutes, it was 32 degrees and all I had on was sweat pants, a long sleeve T and a down vest…. I was cold, getting irritated, and saying things to myself like “how stupid am I” (no one needs to answer that by the way

)... “now I am going to be late for work”….. “what an idiot”….. “I can’t believe I was so dumb”

I will admit my inclination at that moment was to “resist” what had just happened, get angry and let it ruin my day….. But, for some reason, it changed and I just let it flow naturally (as with the old saying “go with the flow”).

And I started doing the Yang taijiquan long form, followed by some silk reeling and then other associated taijiquan training. After that…I was still in my garage….. but I was no longer irritated or self-deprecating and I started doing some Baguazhang circle walking, only the first palm change, its all I can remember, but I did circles and figure 8s until my mother arrived with a key to let me in and a bad situation turned out to be a good one because I “Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like” and I was able to get in about a 40 minute, impromptu, workout….. Yup, I was late for work but I felt great and it all turned out fine

I guess it all comes down to how you let things affect you. If I had let my anger and frustration build I am fairly sure I would have had a rotten day and I would have be a joy to be around at the office. But when I let my “ego” go and got my frustration out of the way things just seemed to flow in the right direction this morning and a negative became a great positive.

I will have to remember “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes” although I did forget it this morning and had a bit of n argument at work. But at least I now know I why it happened based on Lao Tzu

 

[Salek Atesh]

Taoist teachings are very beautiful in this regard. It is awesome and wonderful and a bit profound to realize the only reason we suffer is because we choose to suffer. And it is liberating to realize we can simply choose to stop suffering and stress. It takes some work un-learning our usual process of allowing things to affect us, but it is definitely worth it.

(Also made the stress management class I took last year interesting, where for homework I repeatedly asserted that the methods taught were overcomplicating the simple solution of simply not letting stress affect oneself)