Ikigai and the Tao Te ChingWhat is Ikigai, and what does it have to do with the Tao Te Ching? Good questions. This newsletter will explore them, and hopefully show their common focus on how to live our lives in harmony with the world around...
Ikigai and the Tao Te ChingWhat is Ikigai, and what does it have to do with the Tao Te Ching? Good questions. This newsletter will explore them, and hopefully show their common focus on how to live our lives in harmony with the world around...
Time To Do Nothing?“When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.” (Lao Tzu) Sounds paradoxical, doesn’t it? This is Chapter 48 of the Tao Te Ching talking about how we often see each action as a separate “thing” expected to produce a...
How can a book club use In Harmony with the Tao?People sometimes join book clubs at the start of a new year. A while ago I was invited to speak to a spiritual book club. They had selected In Harmony with the Tao as a book they were going to...
At a Loss for Words? “For lack of a better name, I call it the Tao.” (Lao Tzu) We’re pretty good at naming anything we can wrap our minds around. We like analyzing and distinguishing one thing from another. But what about big...
What Is “Enough”?“We can never have enough of what we don’t really want.” I came across this quote and it got me thinking. Why would we want to have something we don’t “really want”? Isn’t there a contradiction in there? Interesti...
No Need to Prove Points“Wise men don’t need to prove their point; men who need to prove their point aren’t wise.” (Lao Tzu) Is Lao Tzu just being witty? Perhaps. But his main point is that wisdom has little to do with proving poin...
Why Is Nature An Example For Us?The Tao Te Ching often refers to nature as an example of the expression of the Tao. Why is nature held up as an example? Can’t we express the Tao just as well as nature can? The short answer is that of course...
Less Knowledge Is a Good Thing? “In the pursuit of knowledge, every day something is added. In the practice of the Tao, every day something is dropped.” (Lao Tzu) Knowledge calls for analyzing things, separating them into parts, n...
Flow versus InterferenceWe’ve all heard the phrase “to go with the flow.” It generally refers to going along with whatever is happening around us. “Interfering,” on other hand, is not going along with it, typically because we have a better idea in mi...
