Take time to “let go and let God,” every single day.
Say the words over and over to yourself until you can actually tell what the difference feels like. Letting go is a markedly distinct physical and psychological experience, much different from striving. Let go of your demands, along with your beliefs that you can’t be happy because of what is supposedly missing in your life. Insisting that you need what you don’t have is insane! The fact that you’re okay without what you think you need is the change you want to see. Then you can note that you already have everything you need to be peaceful, happy, and content right here and right now! Relax into this knowing, and affirm again and again: I am letting go and letting God. I am a glorious infant nursing at the great all-providing Mother’s breast.
Do the Tao Now
Begin to notice the situations where you’re not in the moment because you’re striving to complete or attain something for a future benefit. You may not realize how often you endeavor to accomplish all sorts of things with the idea that once you do, you’ll finally have the time to do what you really want. This is one of the most pernicious ways that many of us unconsciously prevent (or perpetually postpone) a life free of striving. It’s a tough one to become aware of, and may be easiest to see when your free time becomes hijacked by family members or business emergencies.
Here’s an example: You’ve put in extra hours at work all week in order to have a deliciously imagined free day to [fill in the blank], when you learn that your spouse has invited a friend of a friend who’s never been to this part of the country before—and whom you’ve never met—to stay at your home.
There are two opportunities to practice living without striving in this situation. The first, of course, is to catch yourself wrapped up in striving for future benefit, notice what you’re doing, and focus on the now. The second comes after the example above, which is a difficult but incredibly rewarding exercise. Do the Tao now by accepting what is offered—that is, know that this situation, in some way that your striving ego rejects, is actually sustenance from the Great Mother.
21st Verse
The greatest virtue is to follow the Tao and the Tao alone.
The Tao is elusive and intangible.
Although formless and intangible,
it gives rise to form.
Although vague and elusive,
it gives rise to shapes.
Although dark and obscure,
it is the spirit, the essence,
the life breath of all things.
Throughout the ages, its name has been preserved
in order to recall the beginning of all things.
How do I know the ways of all things at the beginning?
I look inside myself and see what is within me.
Living the
Elusive Paradox
Here in this 21st verse of the Tao Te Ching, Lao-tzu takes us back to the book’s very first premise: living the mystery. He has returned to the idea’s definition and virtue and reaffirmed it with greater clarity and precision. In this lesson, he not only asks us to become conscious of the elusive nature of the Tao, a principle that simply cannot be pinned down or experienced with the senses, but to also validate this awareness by recognizing ourselves as examples of this elusive paradox.
Reread the concluding lines of this important verse: “How do I know the ways of all things at the beginning? I look inside myself and see what is within me.” Now go all the way back to your own beginning—how did you get here? I don’t mean from a droplet or particle of human protoplasm; go even before that. Quantum physics teaches that particles emerge from an invisible and formless energy field. So all creation, including your own, is a function of motion: from formless energy to form, from spirit to body, from the nameless Tao to a named object. The process of creation, along with the theme of understanding eternal namelessness, runs throughout the Tao Te Ching. This is the elusive paradox that you’re invited to contemplate, allow, and experience. You can know it by examining your own nature and recognizing that the same principle that creates everything is animating your every thought and action.
Right now make a simple decision to move your index finger. Now wiggle your toes. Next, lift your arm. Finally, ask yourself, What is it that allows me to make these movements? In other words, what is it that allows you to see shapes and colors? What force behind your eyes invisibly signals you to process the sky as blue or a tree as tall? What is the formless energy that tweaks a vibration somewhere in your ear to give rise to sound?
What it all is, is formless and nameless. Yes, it is vague. Yes, it is obscure. And when you begin to see the world in this manner, you begin knowing that aspect of yourself. This is what Lao-tzu describes as “the life breath of all things,” and it needn’t remain a mystery. You have the same eternal Tao inside of you, and you apply it a million times a day. It is within you . . . it is you.
This far-reaching verse of the Tao Te Ching asks you to let go of seeking results in money, accomplishments, acquisitions, fame, and so on. Instead, shift your attention to the energy in the
