What the Current Knows
On the surface, the Tao is impractical, illogical
Painting: Seascape
What the Current Knows
Some days the river carries you.
Some days you push against it
and blame life.
I have spent time with people
who left me lighter than they found me,
and time with people
who took something I did not know I had.
I have done work
that returned me to myself,
and work that took me to places
where I was totally lost.
The Tao does not ask
which path is correct.
It asks which one
gives you energy.
Which path brings you joy?
. . .
Reflection
The Tao Te Ching returns again and again to a single question: are you moving with nature – both your nature and that of the reality that surrounds you -- or against it? The Chinese word for this is “ziran” — sometimes translated as “naturalness,” sometimes as “self-so.” It points to the way a thing is when nothing is forcing it to be otherwise.
Work that is aligned with who we are leaves us tired but not emptied. We finish and something has been returned to us. Work that runs against our grain — work we don’t like but do for money, work we do for status, for approval – takes more than it gives. It takes takes and destroys a piece of us.
The same is true of people. Some people bring out the best in us, and we bring out the best in them. Together we are stronger than the sum of our parts. One plus one equals three. Others, often without meaning to, pull us toward a lesser version of ourselves, and we diminish them. One plus one equals one and a half. The Tao does not judge either group. It simply asks us to notice the difference.
A life lived in alignment with ziran is not a life without effort. The river wears down rock, but it does not work against itself.
. . .
Question to consider:
Where in your life right now are you pushing against the current — and what would it feel like to stop?
. . .
To view this on the Zen Mountain Journal website visit here.