Living in harmony with the Way of the Virtuous means accepting that change is a constant part of life and embracing both who you are and who you’ve been. It’s about connecting with your natural spiritual essence and committing years to nurture it through dedication, learning, meditation, and practice. Whether it’s seen as a lifelong pursuit of growth or simply making virtuous choices each day, it’s a meaningful path to follow. Over the centuries, Taoism has presented two main paths for spiritual practice. The first is the philosophical path, which follows the Way of the Tao as a guide to daily living. The second is the religious path, more prevalent in China and the East, often practiced in Taoist temples and monasteries. (I have been to several in China).
As a guide in daily life, you might remain grounded in one place, but your essence spans the heavens, the earth, and the cosmos. When you accept your role, the sages of old recognize you, extending their protection and support. Your journey is acknowledged, and while you physically exist in the world, your heart and mind are already enlightened beyond the present moment.
Reflecting on this entry now is even more humbling than it was back then. It reminds me that we are more than we believe ourselves to be. Every day over the past thirty years feels like an epiphany, a constant question of, “What am I awakening to now?” One line below reads, “The sage that teaches and reforms cannot make things act counter to their functions; things with set places cannot leave their places.” Another paradox: if my purpose is to overcome a lack of discipline in following the eternal Way, learn from past and present mistakes, and prepare for the journey ahead, then what I’m truly discovering is that the path of the true sage is unmatched. Recognizing this twenty-five years ago, I wrote my own version of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, which was published in China in 2006.
Looking back and forward, I realize the answer has always been in my writing. After years of revisiting history, I write purely for my own growth and understanding. If it was meant to be more, I would have learned to speak Chinese during my twenty years of traveling in China—but I didn’t. My writing has gone mostly unnoticed, except for a few kind people on Facebook and my website. Now, I find myself less than fifty miles from the farm in Lamar where it all began—nothing extraordinary, just a personal reckoning as though the circle of life continues or flows without pause.
My Travels with Lieh Tzu / Interpolations along the Way
Chapter One – Heaven’s Gift
13. Everything as it should be
Nothing escaping change within the oneness of Tao. Looking you don’t see it, listening you cannot hear it, groping you cannot touch it. Lieh Tzu says heaven and earth cannot achieve everything. The sage is not capable of everything and none of the myriad things can be used for everything.
It is the responsibility of heaven to give birth and to shelter, the responsibility of earth to shape and to support; the sage to teach and reform and for each thing to perform its function. As a result, there are ways in which the earth excels heaven and ways in which each thing is smarter than the sage. Why is this?
Heaven which brings birth and shelters cannot shape and support, earth which shapes and supports cannot teach and reform. The sage that teaches and reforms cannot make things act counter to their functions, things with set places cannot leave their places.
Therefore, the way of heaven and earth must be either yin or yang. The teaching of the sage must be kindness or justice and the myriad things, whatever their function must be, either hard or soft. All these observe their functions and cannot lose their places.
Everything acts together in harmony. Everything the same and nothing the same all at the same time. Shape comes from the shapeless, form from the formless. Everything finds its essence in the way of the Tao. Everything only as it should be. 1/15/95
Number thirteen of one hundred fifty-eight entries.
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