When you truly change the way you think about all of life, the world begins to look very different. You begin seeing everyone and everything as if they have round-trip tickets: You know they all arrived from spirit, and you know they must return. All that composes also decomposes, and whether anyone else understands that isn’t important to you. You find the awareness that life on Earth is a death sentence to be a liberating and amusing viewpoint. You’re choosing to live every day, each moment that you have and as much as you can, as the nonbeing aspect of yourself.
As a being of spirit, you decide to use your “return ticket” while you’re still in physical form by keeping yourself in precisely the same loving status that you occupied before entering this world of boundaries. As you take your return journey, you not only get to lose your ego-identification card, you have the added bonus of regaining the power of your Source, which is the all-creating power of the universe. You merge into the oneness of a being who dissolves ego concerns, and the world that you now see is perfect and infinite in nature. There is no more worry, anxiety, or identification with your possessions—you’re a free person. You’re a spiritual being first, last, and always.
This is what I feel that Lao-tzu is telling you in this brief yet profound teaching of the 40th verse of the Tao Te Ching: 40th Verse
Monitor your direction, emphasizing returning and yielding.
Mentally make an effort to assess every step you’re taking in all aspects of your life—including in your career, your relationships, and your health—in terms of directionality. That is, ask yourself, In which way am I truly moving? Am I getting away from my originating place, or am I returning to it? As you make this assessment, you can be more forthright about returning to, rather than moving away from, the Tao. A resolution to exercise or eat more nutritious foods is a step taking you back to the well-being from which you originated. A decision to suspend your ego and take an interest in another person is a movement of moving back to the Tao. A determination to be generous rather than hoard is a choice to be in the return motion. All of these actions come from your thinking first about the direction in which you’re moving—away from your origination spirit or back to it.
Surrender!
This is what yielding is all about. Recognize that your little ego does nothing and that the Tao creates everything, including you. As I sit and write these words in my magical writing space, I know that I don’t own what mysteriously appears on the paper. I’ve surrendered. I know that God writes all the books, composes all the music, and erects all the buildings. I bow to this all-creating power. While it appears that all of the 10,000 things are born of the world of beingness, as I think about it more, the beingness itself came from nonbeing.
It is to this glorious state of nonbeing spirituality, or the Tao, that I yield. I encourage you to do the same, and then peacefully observe how it all flows together perfectly.
Do the Tao Now
Strategically place a picture of a yield sign, frequently found as a traffic device, within your field of vision. Each time you look at this sign, use it as a reminder for you to return to the Tao. At least once each day, rather than continuing a disagreement, cede on the spot. In the midst of talking about your own achievements or basking in the light of your ego, stop and become an instant listener. The more you yield each day, the more you return to the peace and harmony of the Tao.
41st Verse
A great scholar hears of the Tao
and begins diligent practice.
A middling scholar hears of the Tao
and retains some and loses some.
An inferior scholar hears of the Tao
and roars with ridicule.
Without that laugh, it would not be the Tao.
So there are constructive sayings on this:
The way of illumination seems dark,
going forward seems like retreat,
the easy way seems hard,
true power seems weak,
true purity seems tarnished,
true clarity seems obscure,
the greatest art seems unsophisticated,
the greatest love seems indifferent,
the greatest wisdom seems childish.
The Tao is hidden and nameless;
the Tao alone nourishes and brings everything to fulfillment.
Living Beyond
Appearances
This verse of the Tao Te Ching influenced my choice of the title for this book. By changing your thoughts so that they harmonize with the Tao, you see that what you’ve called “reality” is in fact an outward form, an appearance only. In the beginning, your new way of regarding oneness is clouded by old ego-inspired habits. What you’ve been accustomed to still resonates within you as real, and your Tao-inspired world may not be consistently recognizable. But you will begin to look beyond what only seems to be your truth and move into a direct experience of the Tao, uncluttered by your previously limited views.
Reread the first section of this 41st verse of the Tao Te Ching, noticing your response. Ask yourself whether you’re a great, middling, or inferior
