Utopie
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I just typed this out today from a book I am reading for a friend who I tought might get some comfort from it as she is going through a few trials and tribulations. Seeing as I spent half an hour typing it out I though I might as well post it here too as we are all normally going through some kind of trial at some point in our lives.
For those of you who don't know, Lao Tzu (lau zu) was a Chinese philosopher who around 5000 years ago wrote the Tao Te Ching (dow day ging)as a series of verses or poems to give people guidance and wisdom to live life in harmony with nature and as nature.
You miight have heard of Confucius, who was similar, but he wrote a list of rules much like the Bible, in order to guide people through life; Lao Tzu asked to people look around them at nature and ask questions of themselves. The Tao (dow) describes the spirit of life which flows through everything and everyone in the universe.
Anyway, a few people might be thinking this is more mumbo jumbo after the recent orb and ghost posts; It isn't, this is philosophy and hopes to stimulate your mind, make you think and maybe inspire you, like poetry or a painting perhaps! This isn't religion so would be apprechiated if you don't say anything at all unless you have something nice to say....
Oh, if it goes down well and people want, I could type one out a week! Yeahhhh, maybe not anyway, here it is.
This verse conveys so much with an economical use of words. Every time I read what Lao-tzu is saying here, I feel that it’s impossible for me to experience difficulties in my life if I’m willing to accept his sage advice. He counsels that we learn to think in moments, rather than in days, weeks, months, years, decades, or a lifetime. All we ever get right now – that’s it. So we must avoid the inclination to magnify tiny events or worry about a future that may never arrive. It’s the little things that make all the difference in our world, and keeping life simple replaces chaos. As Lao-tzu reminds us, “See simplicity in the complicated... do great things while they are still small.”
I’ve followed that advice while working on this book. As you might imagine, writing individual essays on the 81 verse of one of the most revered and enduring spiritual texts has been a daunting task! A project like this involves at least a year of daily researching, reading, writing, and revising. Yet instead of focusing on the challenges of this project, I choose to “see simplicity” and “take on difficulties while they are still easy.” I immerse myself in a single verse in the morning, allowing the words to flow through my heart and onto the page. I feel like I’ve mastered the ironic conclusion of this 63rd passage, which says that difficulties are not experienced when they’re confronted.
This, then, is the wisdom of this verse: There’s no such thing as difficulty when you live in the present moment, doing only what you can right now. So examine your thoughts about what you call the troubles in your life. Can you shift to thinking of every undertaking as not only manageable, but easy and small as well? After all, how do you pursue a difficult course of study that will take several years to complete? By not projecting yourself into the future or using your present moments to worry. How do you get through the long, difficult process of giving birth to a child? Moment by moment. I’ve watched my wife do just that during the years she was either pregnant or nursing, delivering five children in eight years. As Lao-tzu teaches, if you don’t attempt anything big, you will achieve greatness.
Almost every morning I do a 90 minute hot yoga class with 26 postures and two breathing exercises. Now an hour and a half of intense activity in a room that’s more than 105 degrees can seem not only big, but very difficult as well. I’ve learned to change the way I think about this daily routine I enjoy so much, and now I find it to be easy. As the first breathing exercise begins, I keep my mind and body totally focused on what I’m doing in the opening moment. If my mind wants to wander to what I’ll be doing in an hour, I just bring it back to the present. I look in the mirror and remind myself that this exercise or posture is small and simple. Bingo – difficult is out of the picture!
By practising in the present moment and training myself to stay in a state of simplicity, I’ve made my 90 minute yoga class a snap. I’ve achieved what I consider to be greatness in the little progressions and improvements that have evolved naturally. It’s confronted what might have been thought of as tough. The result is that I don’t experience difficulty.
Lao-tzu urges you to change the way you look at your 21st century world by doing the following:
Change your preoccupation with tomorrow, along with all of the tomorrows that compromise your future. My friend Byron Katie (whose husband, Stephen Mitchell, created a wonderful translation of the Tao Te Ching that I’ve incorporated in this book) gave me my favourite definition of insanity: “To believe that you need what you don’t have is insane.” I’d add, “Believing that you can’t be content and happy now because your future appears to you to be difficult is another form of insanity.”
Look at what you have and realise that you’re obviously fine in this moment – “You have no problems, though you think you have.”
Change the notion of “thinking big” to “thinking small and getting things done.” Examine whatever it is that seems so enormous that it terrifies you to start. Then shift your thinking to see what can be done today in your precious present moments, completely ignoring the overall picture. Your accomplishments will magnify into greatness when you undertake the small; by doing so, you’ll paradoxically see huge results.
Set aside time today to focus on the biggest challenge in your life. Break down whatever it is to one thing that can be done today, right in this moment. Erase the big picture – simply do what you can now and let everything else fade. Write the opening paragraph of your novel. Lay out your blueprint for the home you want to build. Sign up for one course at a local educational institution. Go for a two minute run. Be in the now. See how doing the Tao at this moment brings big results by paradoxically staying small and simple.
For those of you who don't know, Lao Tzu (lau zu) was a Chinese philosopher who around 5000 years ago wrote the Tao Te Ching (dow day ging)as a series of verses or poems to give people guidance and wisdom to live life in harmony with nature and as nature.
You miight have heard of Confucius, who was similar, but he wrote a list of rules much like the Bible, in order to guide people through life; Lao Tzu asked to people look around them at nature and ask questions of themselves. The Tao (dow) describes the spirit of life which flows through everything and everyone in the universe.
Anyway, a few people might be thinking this is more mumbo jumbo after the recent orb and ghost posts; It isn't, this is philosophy and hopes to stimulate your mind, make you think and maybe inspire you, like poetry or a painting perhaps! This isn't religion so would be apprechiated if you don't say anything at all unless you have something nice to say....
Oh, if it goes down well and people want, I could type one out a week! Yeahhhh, maybe not
anyway, here it is.63rd Verse – Living Without Difficulties.
Practice nonaction.
Work without doing.
Taste the tasteless.
Magnify the small, increase the few.
Reward bitterness with care.
See simplicity in the complicated.
Achieve greatness in little things.
Take on difficulties while they are still easy;
do great things while they are still small.
The sage does not attempt anything very big,
and thus achieves greatness.
If you agree too easily, you will be little trusted;
because the sage always confronts difficulties,
he never experiences them.
Practice nonaction.
Work without doing.
Taste the tasteless.
Magnify the small, increase the few.
Reward bitterness with care.
See simplicity in the complicated.
Achieve greatness in little things.
Take on difficulties while they are still easy;
do great things while they are still small.
The sage does not attempt anything very big,
and thus achieves greatness.
If you agree too easily, you will be little trusted;
because the sage always confronts difficulties,
he never experiences them.
This verse conveys so much with an economical use of words. Every time I read what Lao-tzu is saying here, I feel that it’s impossible for me to experience difficulties in my life if I’m willing to accept his sage advice. He counsels that we learn to think in moments, rather than in days, weeks, months, years, decades, or a lifetime. All we ever get right now – that’s it. So we must avoid the inclination to magnify tiny events or worry about a future that may never arrive. It’s the little things that make all the difference in our world, and keeping life simple replaces chaos. As Lao-tzu reminds us, “See simplicity in the complicated... do great things while they are still small.”
I’ve followed that advice while working on this book. As you might imagine, writing individual essays on the 81 verse of one of the most revered and enduring spiritual texts has been a daunting task! A project like this involves at least a year of daily researching, reading, writing, and revising. Yet instead of focusing on the challenges of this project, I choose to “see simplicity” and “take on difficulties while they are still easy.” I immerse myself in a single verse in the morning, allowing the words to flow through my heart and onto the page. I feel like I’ve mastered the ironic conclusion of this 63rd passage, which says that difficulties are not experienced when they’re confronted.
This, then, is the wisdom of this verse: There’s no such thing as difficulty when you live in the present moment, doing only what you can right now. So examine your thoughts about what you call the troubles in your life. Can you shift to thinking of every undertaking as not only manageable, but easy and small as well? After all, how do you pursue a difficult course of study that will take several years to complete? By not projecting yourself into the future or using your present moments to worry. How do you get through the long, difficult process of giving birth to a child? Moment by moment. I’ve watched my wife do just that during the years she was either pregnant or nursing, delivering five children in eight years. As Lao-tzu teaches, if you don’t attempt anything big, you will achieve greatness.
Almost every morning I do a 90 minute hot yoga class with 26 postures and two breathing exercises. Now an hour and a half of intense activity in a room that’s more than 105 degrees can seem not only big, but very difficult as well. I’ve learned to change the way I think about this daily routine I enjoy so much, and now I find it to be easy. As the first breathing exercise begins, I keep my mind and body totally focused on what I’m doing in the opening moment. If my mind wants to wander to what I’ll be doing in an hour, I just bring it back to the present. I look in the mirror and remind myself that this exercise or posture is small and simple. Bingo – difficult is out of the picture!
By practising in the present moment and training myself to stay in a state of simplicity, I’ve made my 90 minute yoga class a snap. I’ve achieved what I consider to be greatness in the little progressions and improvements that have evolved naturally. It’s confronted what might have been thought of as tough. The result is that I don’t experience difficulty.
Lao-tzu urges you to change the way you look at your 21st century world by doing the following:
Look for the simplicity in what you call complicated by seeing that in this moment, it’s not hard.
Change your preoccupation with tomorrow, along with all of the tomorrows that compromise your future. My friend Byron Katie (whose husband, Stephen Mitchell, created a wonderful translation of the Tao Te Ching that I’ve incorporated in this book) gave me my favourite definition of insanity: “To believe that you need what you don’t have is insane.” I’d add, “Believing that you can’t be content and happy now because your future appears to you to be difficult is another form of insanity.”
Look at what you have and realise that you’re obviously fine in this moment – “You have no problems, though you think you have.”
Think small
Change the notion of “thinking big” to “thinking small and getting things done.” Examine whatever it is that seems so enormous that it terrifies you to start. Then shift your thinking to see what can be done today in your precious present moments, completely ignoring the overall picture. Your accomplishments will magnify into greatness when you undertake the small; by doing so, you’ll paradoxically see huge results.
Do the Tao Now
Set aside time today to focus on the biggest challenge in your life. Break down whatever it is to one thing that can be done today, right in this moment. Erase the big picture – simply do what you can now and let everything else fade. Write the opening paragraph of your novel. Lay out your blueprint for the home you want to build. Sign up for one course at a local educational institution. Go for a two minute run. Be in the now. See how doing the Tao at this moment brings big results by paradoxically staying small and simple.
