The final entry for My Travels with Lieh Tzu in the chapter “Endeavor and Destiny,” two concepts seldom seen linked together, as titled “Finding Grace or Remaining an Enigma.” It came during a transitional period in my life, as I closed one chapter by moving from Massachusetts to Boynton Beach, Florida, and began a new role as the Assistant City Planner.
The move south was far more than just packing our belongings into a U-Haul and heading to a new place. It was mid-June 1995, and for two and a half years, I had been writing almost daily. This wasn’t just a physical relocation but a profound spiritual journey. I had been freed from who I thought I was and was stepping into what I thought was the unknown.
I was continuing a journey of both physical presence and spiritual growth as the dualism I was meant to follow into eternity. I had been working as the Assistant Planner for about six weeks when I wrote the entry below. Finding grace, what else could it mean but being enlightened to the sacred path or journey meant for me to follow? It wasn’t something I consciously wrote; it just emerged, perfectly reflecting my mindset and intentions at that moment. Also, I don’t think I had ever encountered or thought of the word “enigma” before using it here. It felt like being both here and elsewhere, with my writing leading or showing the way ahead. I was meant to align my actions with an almost instinctive purpose.
Writing today, as I did then, feels like simply filling in the next blank page within a pre-determined outline. Leaving me to simply fill in the details. 
How could I not stay on this path, this duality, that I’ve followed now for the past thirty-some odd years? How could I not see the journey described below as my own ultimate purpose and destiny?
This wasn’t just a solitary journey or path, but one not much unlike the one others too are eventually called to take. It’s about embracing the awakening of spirits—not only your own, but also for those relying on you to achieve their own greatest aspirations and destinies still waiting to unfold.
We rarely stop to reflect on what our greatest gift to others truly is. Material wealth, we learn, fades quickly. It’s the compassion and caring we share for all living things that allows and helps others to discover their own authenticity and grace that makes both them and us whole.
My travels with Lieh Tzu / Interpolations along the Way
Chapter Six – Endeavor and Destiny
102. Finding grace or remaining as an enigma
Why all the conundrum about the next step along the way that you must now follow? Do you not know to trust yourself to let the dragons lead you to new heights that are simply waiting for you to come forward to find? Has not the way been made perfectly clear?
As Lieh, Chuang and Lao we have seen great promise in the one we call Cloud Dancing. Don’t you know that everything that happened in the past was for a reason? That you truly have been reborn. That it does not matter, or you should not be concerned with who you were or where you are now as you travel with us through your writings. Eternal truths and your own destiny have been within yourself all along as you come forward through choices that you have made along the way.
There is no right or wrong and it makes no difference if others intentionally set out to destroy you through their own evil incantations. To continue to do battle with them only delays your journey that you are well on the way in pursuing. Remember what you have learned in the true yin and yang. For good there must be evil. Regardless of how pure your motives and sincere your efforts, there will always be those who through their own ego and selfish intentions set out to destroy who and what you have come to represent.
That is why we are here. You are being given grace the likes few will ever know. You need not be concerned about what comes next. Just stay on the edge of your own humanity and we will always be nearby to show you the way. You must simply let go of everything that represents who you once were.
Remain clear of attachments and clinging to earthly gain and just follow us along the true path of knowledge, compassion and sincerity that will set you free. Remaining as the enigma your writing leads you to become, whatever else could there be? 6/18/95
Number one hundred two of one hundred fifty-eight entries.
Leave a Reply