Tenets of universal Taoist wisdom: don’t be ashamed or embarrassed about being down or out of sorts

People are generally primarily concerned with looking good, looking as if they have everything under control, looking as if they’re winning the game. And people are great actors. So when you’re feeling down, ill, or out of sorts, don’t be ashamed of it, don’t think you’re a freak of nature. It’s perfectly ordinary. Most people are fairly down most of the time, contrary to appearances, so you’re by no means alone in your plight. In fact it’s intrinsic to the human condition to suffer. Relax, accept and allow the natural cycle of yin and yang time to heal you.

By the same token, don’t make a cause out of it either. Don’t identify yourself so much with the suffering that that’s who you become: the sufferer.

For not only is it tedious for you, it’s tedious for everyone else too.

Be inspiring instead – inspiring to yourself and others. Be someone who’s not ashamed to accommodate all the suffering of life, yet remain courageously open to life all the while.

Don’t be ashamed to not be looking so good, in other words, but don’t go out of your way to make yourself bad either.

Ultimately this whole conundrum is merely symptomatic of getting distracted by externals in any case, so always remember to return your focus to that within, which bears witness, rather than the assumed, constructed, reactive self, to the stillness at the core as that will refresh you and enable you to accommodate more.

I wish you unassailable stability, whence arises unquenchable innate joy for being alive regardless.

Love, D