Following Rather Than Forcing Reality As A Strategy For All-Round Success

You do have to be brave to follow the Tao. Following the Tao often puts you at odds with your rational mind and as you know your rational mind doesn’t cede the court without a struggle. Full of what-if-this-goes-wrongs you are nonetheless required to let go, almost to the point of being what your rational mind would consider utterly irresponsible. And it’s not as if just because you may have chosen to follow the Tao and may even have integrated various Taoist meditation techniques and philosophies into your daily routine to help you do so, you are suddenly fearless, suddenly without a rational mind trying to drum some everyday sense into you to get in the way of your freedom.

You still have all that to contend with, yet by and by, bit by bit, are learning to trust the flow and let go, rather than grip on with fear justified by what passes as plausible everyday sense and as you do, you receive proof that it works. But proof, no matter how much of it you receive, is still no antidote to the doubting mind, as you know.

No matter how much proof you’ve had in the past that when you take the jump, the Tao catches you, you can never be sure if it will work this time.

But that’s the whole point of the game – this exercise in following rather than attempting to force the flow, without which it wouldn’t be much of a game at all.

So yes, there is a chance you could lose everything you worked so hard for so long to gain but finally the energy expenditure in trying to force reality to a conclusion you want is just too much to bear and one way or another, either by choice or by the way circumstances evolve, you are required to let go and give it a try.

And what you find is, that by doing so, some of the things you held fast to will be taken from you but that’s only because they were weighing you down excessively. However what gets taken away is swiftly replaced by something far more appropriate to your healthy unfolding.

Eventually, it all comes down to creating enough space, enough of a vacuum to be able to receive something new.

So be brave. Let bravery inform you at every turn and instead of grappling with keeping it all under control. release your grip and allow reality and the Tao informing it some space to impress you.

And it will impress you with its deftness and elegance if you let it.

If you don’t know how to do that or don’t even know what I’m on about but fancy a taste of adventure, simply check your body (Taoist practice all points to referencing yourself and your experience of being you in the world to your body) and wherever you find yourself griping needlessly with your muscles and sinews, stop gripping and go soft. It helps focus on it if you use the exhalation to let go on. Letting go of the grip in your body, the mind lets go of ts grip on reality and once free, reality can perform fully, rather than be inhibited by the limitations you otherwise place on it.

May you feel cleansed of the need to control reality now and allow yourself to follow the Tao and as you do, may you be showered with a thousand gifts from unexpected quarters.

Love, Doc