Remembering (#203)

Reflections while wandering the way of the path:

I felt the pieces of my world collapse into a heap. Having lost all, I found a new world. It fell into place when I let go.

Make no distinctions. Live without desire. Have no plans.

Distinctions, desires, and plans are things of a collapsing world. They are the result of doing something to improve your life. Instead, do nothing. This is the way of the Tao. Act only in the moment. To do something is to have expectation, and expectations have consequences. We expect that our doing something will be of benefit by bringing us closer to fulfilling our desires. This is the way of the world. It is not the way of the path, which is remembering twia.

The way of the world is to distinguish what we want from what we do not want in hopes of having a better life. In this lies our struggle, digging our own channel for the river to run to us by our bodily effort. Such struggle is not needed when we do nothing. The river will run its own course when we lie low in the valley.

Release your desire to manage the river on your own. You are squandering your power on a senseless quest. Give in to twia to let your power flow naturally. Let the river flow to you on its own. It knows the true way to you through the lowlands. Let the channels you built collapse so the river can find its way without your interference.

Now I live in the valley, in a garden tilled by twia on rich deposits of soil brought down from the hills by the river of life. It nourishes all who do nothing to receive it.