Everything in nature happens as a result of what came before it. Our actions are influenced by what we have done up to this moment, which is why it’s said that we create our own reality—whether it turns out good, bad, or we remain indifferent to the outcome. Cause and effect, often referred to as karma, plays a significant role in how we live our lives. In the past, storytellers who gathered people around campfires or accompanied them on expeditions and hunts did so to share knowledge and insights about what might happen under certain conditions, helping others prepare for the future.
Today, we might talk about topics like direct correlation, causation, global warming, and quantum physics, but looking at nature in these terms can overlook the historical context of philosophy from over two thousand years ago. It’s important to view things through a historical lens, asking how we arrived here from where it all began.
Inscriptions on tortoise shells marked some of the earliest uses of language to communicate and foresee the future. Nowadays, we take written and driving tests to show we’re capable of safely operating a car before earning a license. In a sense, it serves a similar function, but in the early days, without a clear written language, verbal communication was all we had.
Over time, we’ve learned to harness our basic skills and talents, whether for personal success or to thrive within a community, all while letting change and nature lead the way.
The main idea is that certain truths about human nature, particularly virtues, have stayed consistent over time. The commentary emphasizes how the same words can take on different meanings depending on their context. This chapter of “My Travels with Lieh Tzu” explores the contrasts between dreams, imagination, and reality, showing how our lives often get wrapped up in things that don’t lead to growth or meaningful change.
The dragon is often used as a metaphor, representing something or someone beyond itself. In China, the dragon came to symbolize someone who has surpassed effort and achieved their highest attributes. As referenced in a previous entry dragons were to be seen on clouds in the sky. Hens my name from my mentors was to become “Cloud Dancing” as I was being reminded to memories I had forgotten.
My travels with Lieh Tzu / Interpolations along the Way
Chapter 3 – King Mu of Zhou
47. A conversation with Dragons
Please show me the way. The Way is within yourself. Please teach me the Way. You 
know all that there is to know. Have no fear of the reality yet to be made clear that you must follow.
The path you must follow will be difficult to travel until you lose the attachments not needed for the journey at hand. Refrain from clinging to that which is external to yourself and the way you must travel will be made clear for you to follow.
Come forward with peace in your heart, an openness of your mind, spirit, and body to find the knowledge in all things that have been, are now and are yet to be discovered.
Remember that what you write is who you are to become. Seek only truth, balance, and justice and all will be made perfect. Just as it should be. 3/4/95
Number forty-seven of one hundred fifty-eight entries.
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