Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao

Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, love is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life moves.

Rather than looking for miracles, shift to seeing everything as miraculous.

A composer once told me that the silence from which each note emerges is more important than the note itself.

Focus on understanding yourself instead of blaming others.

Remind yourself daily that there is no way to happiness; rather, happiness is the way. You may have a long list of goals that you believe will provide you with contentment when they’re achieved, yet if you examine your state of happiness in this moment, you’ll notice that the fulfillment of some previous ambitions didn’t create an enduring sense of joy. Desires can produce anxiety, stress, and competitiveness, and you need to recognize those that do. Bring happiness to every encounter in life, instead of expecting external events to produce joy. By staying in harmony on the path of the Tao, all the contentment you could ever dream of will begin to flow into your life—the right people, the means to finance where you’re headed, and the necessary factors will come together. “Stop pushing yourself,” Lao-tzu would say, “and feel gratitude and awe for what is. Your life is controlled by something far bigger and more significant than the petty details of your lofty aspirations.

Remind yourself daily that there is no way to happiness; rather, happiness is the way.

The things we love we have to learn to leave alone.

When expectations are shattered, practice allowing that to be the way it is. Relax, let go, allow, and recognize that some of your desires are about how you think your world should be, rather than how it is in that moment. Become an astute observer…judge less and listen more. Take time to open your mind to the

Remember that every use of force, even the smallest, creates a counterforce.

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. — George Bernard Shaw

What you fight weakens you; what you cooperate with strengthens you.

Are you willing to be sponged out, erased, cancelled, made nothing? Are you willing to be made nothing? dipped into oblivion? If not, you will never really change.

every victory accomplished with weapons is a funeral that should be mourned.

Love vanquishes all attackers, it is impregnable in defense. When heaven wants to protect someone, does it send an army? No, it protects him with love.

Which snowflake is the most magnificent? Is it possible that they are all magnificent—and that, celebrating their magnificence together they create an awesome display? Then they melt into each other, and into the Oneness. Yet they never go away. They never disappear. They never cease to be. Simply, they change form. And not just once, but several times: from solid to liquid, from liquid to vapor, from the seen to the unseen, to rise again, and then again to return in new displays of breathtaking beauty and wonder. This is Life, nourishing Life.

The difference between saints and the rest of us isn’t that they have loving, pure beliefs and we don’t; rather, they function solely from their essence,

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Do the Tao Now Spend an hour, a day, a week, or a month practicing not giving unsolicited advice. Stop yourself for an instant and call upon your silent knowing. Ask a question, rather than giving advice or citing an example from your life, and then just listen to yourself and the other person. As Lao-tzu would like you to know, that’s “the highest state of man.

Relax, let go, allow, and recognize that some of your desires are about how you think your world should be, rather than how it is in that moment. Become an astute observer…judge less and listen more. Take time to open your mind to the fascinating mystery and uncertainty that we all experience.

Relax, let go, allow, and recognize that some of your desires are about how you think your world should be, rather than how it is in that moment. Become an astute observer . . . judge less and listen more.

We must bask in the magnificence of what is seen and sensed, instead of always memorizing and categorizing.

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The Tao is both named and nameless. As nameless it is the origin of all things; as named it is the Mother of 10,000 things. Ever desireless, one can see the mystery; ever desiring, one sees only the manifestations. And the mystery itself is the doorway to all understanding.

Living by being instead of trying

Seek the pleasure in what you’re doing, rather than in how it might ultimately benefit you.

If only the ruler and his people would refrain from harming each other, all the benefits of life would accumulate in the kingdom.

A truly good man is not aware of his goodness and is therefore good. A foolish man tries to be good and is therefore not good.

Eliminate as many judgments of others in your thoughts as possible. The simplest, most natural way to accomplish this is to see yourself in everyone.

If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.