The Way

What do you do when you come across tornados in your life? Don't some of the life's scary events feel that way? We used to get devastated too when unexpected traumas hit us, but more recently we started opening up to them. It is less scary when you realize that after every big storm the sun shines even brighter than ever before.

What makes it fun to walk the Way is that you learn to detach yourself from events that would have knocked you off your feet before. The "positive" as well as "negative" occurrences become intense as well as distant at the same time; the sequence of events becomes meaningful and you grasp the higher meaning of pretty much everything that is coming your way.

Observing how you react to different situations can be a lot of fun. You start realizing how you respond to situations; you can can observe patterns in your behavior; and you may discover the robot within. It takes time to erase the old patterns, but a prerequisite is that you are mindful of everything that goes on within you and how you interact with others.

Say, you always get grumpy in a particular situation and you always hurt your loved ones once you fall into this state. The beauty of walking the Tao is that you can always associate all the consequent pain with the original state of hurting yourself and others. The Oneness of everything that spiritual folks write about has become reality for you. So after you have repeated this movie a few times you realize that there must be another way.  With the love of your support system, with patience and insight, and with many signals of the Way pointing in a new direction you gradually succeed in embracing a new pattern. You live your life in a much more loving and effective way.

 Or say you are an anxious type and you start observing how your mind takes everything that happens in a negative direction. With some observation you will be able to monitor the drop in energy when the negative thought spirals kick in. Believe it or not, but a spiritual traveler can prevent the train of thought from leaving the station. You realize that the thought or the feeling is not the Way, and as you reconnect with the Way your energy level bounces right back to normal.

They say "where there is a will there is a way", but we would say instead, "along the Way, your will has disappeared". When you wander the Way happiness, energy and love will always be present. And when you are somehow off, your feedback mechanism will communicate this fact to you. Take a good look around, the Way will always connect with you. Practice a moment of inner silence and the Voice will speak to you. You don't have to work hard, often it is the lack of effort that connects you with the Way. Enjoy!

By Christian and Su Zhen