Learn them before it is too late.
I will do what Lao Tzu did to me with his book Tao Te Ching: blow your mind.
Lao Tzu shared the world with Confucius; he lived between 551–479 B.C. I know he was a civil servant who cared for a small kingdom’s archives. And then, he became a hermit who lived away from society in a mountain hut.
Be that as it may, two things are clear, 1) his name Lao Tzu means Old Master, and 2) his book Tao Te Ching has transcended the passing of the years like all the authentic jewels of humanity.
And in his book, I have found so much wisdom that I want to share three of the most disturbing lessons I have learned after reading it.
Let’s begin.
1. How to leave a true legacy
“The master has, but does not possess; he acts, but expects nothing. When his work is done, he forgets it; therefore it is imperishable.” — Lao Tzu.
If you’ve ever wondered how to leave a true legacy that lasts for generations, read on.
Think of humanity’s most significant works.
- The Pyramid of Giza
- The book One Thousand and One Nights.
- Stonehenge
- The Moai of Easter Island.
- The Epic of Gilgamesh.
We do not know their intellectual authors, yet they are of priceless value.
Now think of the most important spiritual masters
- Buddha
- Eckart Tolle
- Ram Dass
They all spent their lives trying to undo their ego and become nothing. And paradoxically, they managed to be remembered and have their legacy live on.
How is this possible? Because they detached themselves from the result. And that improved their work. The same as the Tao says.
As the Zen master Dogen used to teach, everything you see, heaven and earth, is ego. All things are ego, which is a unity; if you abandon your ego, the whole universe becomes ego, and therefore you belong to the unit again.
Lesson: do that which is born of your heart. That is what you are destined to do. And detach yourself from the result, from the expectations, and so it will transcend in time because it will become the property of the universe, of humanity. Your name does not matter; it is your work that will endure.
2. How to live in peace
“Sharpen your knife too much and you will find it blunt. Pursue money and security and your heart can never be set free. Pursue people’s approval and you will be their prisoner.” — Lao Tzu.
The true path is the middle path.
- If you overdo it with salt, you can’t eat the stew.
- If you train too much, you get injured.
- If you only work and never rest, you get burned out.
- If you do everything you do for money, you won’t find love.
You must understand that life is like a ship, and you are the captain at the helm. And therefore, it is your task to stay the course, moving the rudder from one side to the other to keep your ship center.
This seems obvious, but it is not. Because we all have it very clear with the wrong things: don’t work too hard, don’t suffer too much, etc. But we are not clear about the good stuff: money, success, and physical appearance.
But suffering is waiting for us, hidden in the good and bad things.
Lesson: if you want to live in peace, you must learn to conform and not fall into excesses. And above all, to understand that obsessing over something or running away from something will also make you fall into these excesses. So if you want calm, look for your center; that is the only way.
3. How to stop constantly screwing up
“We put the spokes together in a wheel, but it’s the center of the wheel that allows the carriage to move” — Lao Tzu.
Hasn’t it happened to you that time after time you fall into the same mistakes?
That happens because our screw-ups are like the spokes of the wheel mentioned by Lao Tzu. They all look different because they are other problems, but they all stem from the central hole that allows the cart to move.
That is to say, all your self-sabotage and most recurrent screw-ups (spokes of the wheel) are born from the same metaprogram (central hole).
In other words, the problem is not that you always sleep with the wrong person, choose a lousy job, or never make ends meet. The problem is something in you and manifests itself in various forms.
If you can detect what it is and change that axis, you can change your luck and produce different results (spokes of the wheel).
I will give you an example that will be useful.
Years ago, I started mentoring a person; this person had many problems; among them, he had neglected his dental hygiene, had an underpaid job, and obesity.
This person believed that each of these things (spokes of the wheel) was a different problem. But they were not; they all stemmed from the same place (center hole).
His laziness.
His laziness allowed him to create a habitable world for himself, away from the pain and suffering he had lived through since he was a child. His laziness had built him a fortress of comfort that isolated him from the world.
Once he discovered this, he changed it by using order, cleanliness, and discipline.
Something that cost him a lot at first until he understood that having schedules, cleaning, and being tidy was not about having plans, cleaning, and being tidy: it was about taking medicine.
And that medicine changed his life; today, he has a clean house, a shiny mouth, and money in the bank.
Lesson: don’t see your problems as independent issues. Look for the coincidences and patterns between them. Something is operating in your subconscious that directly affects everything that doesn’t go right for you. When you know what it is, change it to its opposite, and life will go well for you.
A virtual hug
AG
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