I don’t recommend many books, but here is one by my friend and mentor Derek Lin. Regardless of what faith you follow, these philosophical lessons are practical and helpful. I have gained a lot of insight from this book that has helped me be patient and wise when it was needed most. If you do get and read the book, please leave a review.

Buy at Amazon

Here is the book cover we selected.

We are down to editing only three chapters and then its print time for the manuscript. Looking like this summer for publishing to the public.

TDT

The softest things of the world

Override the hardest things of the world

That which has no substance

Enters into that which has no openings

From this I know the benefits of unattached actions

The teaching without words

Are rarely matched in the world

Chapter 43, Tao Te Ching

Softness is both a Tao principle and virtue. In this book, I am putting under the category of a Tao virtue because of its inherent power. The first two verses bring emphasis to the inherent power of using softness to overcome hardness. The most commonly used metaphor and easiest to understand is water. Water is soft to touch and has little substance when you try to pick it up. Stone is the commonly used metaphor for hardness and a material which has no openings. To appreciate the inherent power of softness penetrating something harness, take a look at the Grand Canyon in the American Southwest. Water has slowly worn away the hard and rocky plateau to create one of the great wonders of the world. It is also quite evident when you take a look at a sandy beach or sand bar. Water has reduced solid rock into tiny particles. The process begins with water slowly penetrating the hard surface of the stone. Slowly and patiently water seeps into the rock in a process that to disintegrate its structure. Wind and Sun, also without substance, assist the process until the solid stone is no longer there.

The power of softness is especially useful in dealing with many aspects of life. It is so applicable in everyday life. As a life strategy, it gives you a methodology for resolving hard problems.  Use softness to penetrate the obstacle, get informed on what is going on. Be detached from the intended outcome and allow time chip away at the hardness. Let the Tao guide on your course. And one day, that mountain will be a big pile of sand.

One example is when dealing with some of the personality traits of the ego. Some of those hard characteristics might be stubbornness, anger, and aggression. The soft approach to these might be patience, non-reaction, or empathy.

Here is a story that I will share to reflect how softness can overcome hardness in interpersonal relationships.

In the city where I was living, there was a consignment shop that I affiliated with as a vendor. It was during the great recession. Times were hard, and people experienced a lot of stress trying to make ends meet. The owner and manager of this consignment shop had a challenging time trying to keep her business going. Her stress created a lot of tension among the people who worked there. Because of her anxiety, she was not a good manager, and retention was a problem. One of the more successful vendors, a lady who had a lot of experiencing in the antique market decide to leave and start her own business. She was a friendly and optimistic person who finally had enough of the stressful environment and opened up a similar business across the street. She was an immediate success. Most of the customers left the business of the cranky lady and started giving business to the new business across the street. Then many of the vendors, having had enough of the constant drama, left and came over to the new business too. It didn’t take long before the first business was in serious trouble with a lack of loyal customers and workers. One day which has been particularly bad for her, she got angry and marched across the street to have it out with the woman who had left and started the successful business. She threw open the door, walked up to the new store owner and begin to bless her out. Momentarily, she paused in her onslaught to take a breath. During her verbal attack, the other woman, the friendly optimistic and prosperous new store owner, smiled and said,

“Oh honey, I am so sorry you are having such a hard time. I know how difficult it is. Let me hug you”. She embraced the angry woman, who suddenly wilted and began to sob. She returned to her store, and before long it was closed and out of business. Later, she came to work at the new store for the friendly lady. The last time I saw them, they were both at peace and happy again.

In this true story, the friendly optimistic lady used a soft, non-reactive, empathetic and compassionate response to the hard attack. It is a classic case of wisdom vs. ego. Witnessing that event raised my spirit, and to this day, I keep that example in my mind as a strategy for dealing with hard personality types. I have told this story many times, and people have shared their own stories where they found it to be successful.

In this chapter of the Tao Te Ching, Wu Wei activates the inherent power of softness.

“From this, I know the benefits of unattached actions” verse 5 from above is talking about Wu Wei or “unattached actions.” Footnote

To see the inherent power consider this sample sentence:

Because she reacted softly with empathy and compassion, the woman stopped attacking her.

Verse 6, “The teaching without words

Are rarely matched in the world”

That woman taught me and everyone there how to use softness to overcome hardness for a beneficial outcome. We learned from her example. Later I asked her about it, and she said that she was living through her Christian conviction of “love thou neighbor.”

It takes self-discipline of ego control to choose softness. Self-control and ego management is the greater principle of sovereignty. In the moment of action, you have a choice. If you are mindful of ego, you can be detached from reacting. In that detached state, you can choose the wisdom of the Tao. In this case, the wisdom is the virtue of using softness to overcome hardness.

In the previous chapter, I stated that acceptance is a gateway virtue that enables other virtues such as patience. Patience is what I would call a lynch-pin virtue. It is the complement of so many other important virtues. A lynch-pin joins the axle of the wagon wheel to keep the wheel in position. The lynch-pin keeps the axle from sliding out of the hole in the wheel hub. Thus, the emptiness of the hub gives function to form and holds it all together so the vehicle can move forward towards its destination. In its most important role patience unifies possibility and intention to destiny. Destiny is determined by your choices. To choose wisely, you must be patient, and not be pushed by impulsive negative traits of the ego mind.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.

In holding the soul and embracing oneness

Can one be steadfast without straying?

Verse 1, Chapter 10

Meditation leads to the stillness of the mind and emptiness of ego. Stillness and emptiness is the space for acceptance. Acceptance creates space for patience. Patience enables you to be steadfast without straying like the lynch pin holding the wheel to the axle. It is said that emptiness gives “functionality to form.”¹The inherent power of patience is the wisdom to resist ego and avoid impulsiveness and reactionary choices. This is the inherent power of patience.

Example: Because she was so patient, the children came to love and respect her.

Patience creates the space for hope, giving you the courage to overcome fear. By the phrase ‘creating space’, I mean that you become present and self-aware. Free of the impatient ego, you can choose to be patient. In the moment of patience, you return to your true path.

Continuing with the wagon wheel metaphor, let thirty spokes of the wheel, be some of the many virtues one can practice as a sovereignty cultivator. Patience allows you to view many different perspectives and possible choices to the situations that you face. Without patience, these virtuous choices will probably not be realized. Lack of patience and impulsiveness can lead to costly stupid mistakes.

Exercise:

Here is a list of some important virtues, that when mindfully practiced can transform your life in a dramatic and wonderful way. Looking at the group of the virtues below, think about how well you practice them. Get a piece of paper and write each one down. Write down beside it score from 1 to 5. 1 is no patience and 5 is the patience of a Saint. You probably ought to begin with honesty and work your way down. Do you have the patience to stick with this exercise? Or are you already telling yourself you will come back later?

Honesty

Acceptance

Wisdom

Will Power

Contentment

Courage

Discipline

Cooperation

Detachment

Gratitude

Generosity

Simplicity

Flexibility

Softness

Honor

Modesty

Hope

Tranquility

Service

Tact

Wonder

Listening

Seeing

Moderation

Now if you scored low of any of these important virtues, sit quietly and reflect on why these virtues are difficult. The answer will lie in seeing how your ego resists virtue of patience. This is really where spiritual growth if effective. Seeing your faults and then choosing the right action. With sovereignty over ego, you can be mindful and then choose patience over the ego response. Can you see how powerful it is to be able to over-ride the self-destructive reactions of the ego?

Try these powerful steps of cultivation. The following chapters on virtues require you to exercise patience and practice. Here are some actions steps for cultivation.

1. Mindfulness. Take a course in meditation and mindfulness. Learn how to focus the mind away from the mind-stream of incessant thinking. Pay attention in a judgmental way to how the mind lost in ego intentions/responses. Consciously choose to ignore the impulsiveness and re-activity nature of the ego.

2. Keep a journal. I have found that it helps to keep a journal of some sort. At the end of each day, make notes in your journal of what you experienced.

3. Cultivate patience for a couple of weeks before moving onto the list of other virtues to incorporate into your life. Patience empowers self-discipline. Try to spend 3 or4 weeks on cultivating patience and use your journal to chart your progress.

4. Cultivate A Life Path of Virtue. Start with the virtue that you scored the lowest and work your way up to your best. The following chapters are some that I find very important to work on. Take each virtue and live with it for a week. At the beginning of each day, take a moment to set the intention to follow the virtue. Work your journal. Use moderation in your efforts. Always be mindful of ego. It is the great pretender. So, avoid attachment to outcome. You will experience some set-backs with cultivating patience so do not lose patience with yourself. That is an ego response (impatience).

You do not have to become an expert at virtuous living. Even just a modest improvement will transform your life. Just do the best that you can. Remember, that your choices will initiate cause and effect (karma). The causation of virtue will result in true wisdom which will guide to true success. What you concentrate on, what you send out will return bigger, deeper and strong. The more you invest in virtuous choices, the bigger the return of Mystic Virtue². This is the foundation for a long and successful life. This is the way of sovereignty. Begin with patience and self-honesty.

“Not knowing constancy, one recklessly cause trouble

Knowing constancy is acceptance

Acceptance is impartiality

Impartiality is Sovereign

Sovereign is Heaven

Heaven is Tao

Tao is eternal

The Self is no more, without danger”

Excerpt from Chapter 16

Acceptance begins with the present moment. It is an acknowledgment of reality and the allowing of something as it really is. Non-acceptance (denial) is something the ego does frequently when its self-serving desire is in conflict with reality. The illusion occurs when reality does not match up with how the ego wants it to be. Acceptance is impartial to desire.

The ego will have a bias towards the perspective that best serves its insatiable desire. Confirmation bias is an illusion where a person seeks out only that information that supports the biased view. Denial of the underlying reality of life as it avoids facing the root cause of suffering. The ego will delude itself for a number of reasons such as greed or fear. Both lead to suffering.

Non-acceptance to reality creates resistance. When you deny the underlying reality, you are resisting the natural flow of life. This resistance creates emotional friction. The ego response can be mood reactions such as anger, frustration, depression, resentment and other negative feelings. When you feel these dark moods, the usual reaction is to cope with them through superficial means such as sensational responses. We may do unhealthy things hoping to feel better. Distraction is a common means of coping. Instinctively people will try to fill their minds with something else so that they will feel better. Too often these coping measures are self-destructive and only lead to more and deeper suffering.

Acceptance is a virtue whose inherent power can lead to a more effective alternative. When you can accept the reality of a situation you become impartial to the desire of the self-absorbed ego. Non-acceptance can create a feeling of being imprisoned. However, the prison is one whose door is wide open and you just to walk through it. Free of desire, you become detached from the things that keep you confined and unhappy.

This ability to accept and let go is a trait of sovereignty. Remember, sovereignty is the higher-consciousness ruling over the ego mind. When you can take back your power from the ego, you free yourself from its attachments.

Acceptance is a gateway virtue that initiates the implementation of other virtues such as honesty, cooperation, patience, wisdom, contentment, detachment, gratitude, and simplicity. Each virtue has its own inherent powers for effective life management.

Acceptance is the first step in detachment. With detachment, you can cultivate Wu Wei¹. With attachment to outcome, you are striving which is opposite of the Tao.

You can use the “because of” litmus test to see the inherent power of acceptance.

Example: “Because of his acceptance, he was able to be patient with the child’s tantrums.”

And… “It was a time of great struggle. However, by virtue of acceptance, she was able to experience contentment and even joy during challenging times.”

Acceptance is a choice. It is available in the moment that you are mindful of feelings and intentions. Through meditation and mindfulness practice you can learn to be aware of the ego and transcend its control over those choices that affect your future.

“The future depends on what we do in the present.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Is it easy to practice acceptance? You will immediately know how you feel when you try it. If you (your ego) resists you will feel it in a negative way.

Truth can be subjective. So use discernment rather than ego bias. I define discernment as perceiving without judgment so that you can perceive what the underlying reality is. Be mindful of ego bias and influence in what you believe to be true. Realize multiple perspectives and other viewpoints. Try to avoid being attached to an ego based outcome.

Another important point about acceptance is making the distinction of action vs reaction. An example to see this is when you experience a serious illness. Sometimes we can be in denial because we are afraid of the outcome or even the treatment. The right action is to accept that there is an anomaly in your well-being, yet you do not have to react by giving up and surrendering to despair. You can accept the reality of the illness, but you don’t have to accept the reaction of hopelessness. When you accept what is happening, it can be more effective in finding a solution. Hope can raise the spirit which has a better chance of healing.

In verses 1 – 11 of Chapter 64, Lao Tzu encourages us to deal with life issues early on.

When it is peaceful, it is easy to maintain

When it shows no signs, it is easy to plan

When it is fragile, it is easy to break

When it is small, it is easy to scatter

Act on it when it has not yet begun

Treat it when it is not yet chaotic

A Tree thick enough to embrace

Grows from the tiny sapling

A tower of nine levels

Starts from the dirt heap

A journey of a thousand miles

Begins beneath the feet

Acceptance avoids procrastination so that we can begin the right action while it is effective. Sometimes problems resolve themselves but many times they do not. Either way, acceptance is the more effective approach.

Acceptance is practiced by true-self and cultivates sovereignty. Your sovereignty will keep the ego in check which will lead to a more harmonious life. A life in harmony is one with less effort and striving. You can accomplish more by doing less.

Sovereign is Heaven

Heaven is Tao

Tao is eternal

The Self is no more, without danger”

In this way, you can get through the challenges and still live a long life of well-being. Acceptance opens the way for Sovereignty.

Attain the ultimate emptiness

Hold on to the truest tranquility

The myriad things are all active

I therefore watch their return

Everything flourishes, each returns to its root

Returning to its root is called tranquility

Tranquility is called returning to one’s nature

Returning to one’s nature is called constancy

Knowing constancy is called clarity

Not knowing constancy, one recklessly causes trouble

Knowing constancy is acceptance

Acceptance is impartiality

Impartiality is sovereign

Sovereign is Heaven

Heaven is Tao

Tao is eternal

The self is no more, without danger.

Chapter 16, Tao Te Ching

Constancy is a word that appears in at least three chapters of the Tao Te Ching. Before studying the Tao, it was a word I never used. Constancy is a very powerful virtue. It is a necessary element of cultivating sovereignty. In this context, I define constancy as a returning faithfully to the stillness of the Tao. What does this mean?

There are numerous references throughout the Tao Te Ching about returning to and being in a meditative state. The meditative state can be thought of as pure awareness within the stillness of the mind. A stillness of the mind is realized in the presence of the movement of thought processes. In this stillness, empty of mind movement is tranquility. In tranquility is your true nature. Your true nature is being. Your being is spirit.

Returning

The physical experience of life requires that we go forth and work to sustain our presence in the physical realm. As we engage our world, we use our mind to think.

“The myriad things are all active”

Along the path of our species evolution, we developed the ego. I consider the ego to be physical consciousness that helped us to survive and evolve. For many, this physical consciousness is the primary identity. When asked “who are you?”, the response is “I am me”. While the ego identity serves the purpose of dealing with self-preservation and strategies for survival it is not the highest state of conscientiousness. The ego mind and sense of self must be managed and ruled over by the higher state of consciousness, the spirit. This is the essence of sovereignty. The spirit and wisdom mind reigning with supreme authority over the animalistic ego mind. The eternal non-corporeal essence of pure being.

When you sit in meditation and focus your consciousness on the stillness beyond thought and mindstream of mind and emotion you return to being. This is returning. Spirituality is pure being and unity with the Tao. It is a return from ignorance to wisdom, from avarice to virtue, and from narcissism to altruism to realize and maintain harmony. Harmony leads to tranquility.

“I therefore watch their return

Everything flourishes, each returns to its root”

Tranquility is realized when you have moved beyond the thoughts [transcendence] that drive you crazy and create problems. In the dichotomy of Taoism, it can be thought of as heaven and earth. Or spiritual and physical.

As a physical living being, we must engage the physical aspect of living. Food, shelter, and thriving are daily activities that keep our physical presence in a sustained manner. However, we must return to spirit to maintain harmony. The harmony is a balance between spiritual and physical, being and doing, true nature and ego.

The meditative state is pure being, and mindfulness is the non-judgmental view of what you are thinking. Cultivating harmony is constancy returning to spiritual-awareness and the tranquility of calm-abiding. It is reflected in the principle of yin-yang. Yin is being/spiritual and yang is physical/action. This returning faithfully to spirit and oneness with the Tao (stillness) constancy.

Clarity

Spiritual clarity is seeing things as they really are without the influence and filtering of the ego. The ego perspective is always tainted by narcissistic traits and a self-serving agenda. The ego is unable to see the underlying reality because of its nature is often caught up in illusion.

Returning to one’s nature is called constancy

Knowing constancy is called clarity

Not knowing constancy, one recklessly causes trouble

When the ego has too much control over decision making and choices, then trouble and suffering ensue. The ego abhors wisdom and will default to what ever desire or emotion that happens to be prevailing. It will ignore the wise choice and try to fulfill its luster or cope with mood. Ignoring wisdom and following ignorance, it will recklessly cause trouble for itself and others.

When you have transcended the ego and returned to spirit, you use discernment to see reality as it really is. Detached from ego, you will be able to accept reality and take the right action accordingly. This is acceptance. Rather than being controlled by reactions and perception of the ego, the choices you make, the steps you take are in unity with the Tao. Wise choices create harmony. Harmony means more successes and less suffering. Harmony is the nature of the Tao. Harmony sustains longevity. With the self-discipline of the sovereign spirit holding the ego under control, your path is less fraught with the dangers of bad choices.

Knowing constancy is acceptance

Acceptance is impartiality

Impartiality is sovereign

Sovereign is Heaven

Heaven is Tao

Tao is eternal

The self is no more, without danger.

The inherent powers of constancy are clarity and acceptance. Because of the power of constancy, you will be able to see things as they really are and to practice acceptance. By the virtue of you can experience a longer life with more harmony. This is the way of Sovereignty. This is the Tao.

“…I have three treasures

I hold on to them and protect them

The first is called compassion

The second is called conservation

The third is called not daring to get ahead in the world.

Compassionate, thus able to have courage

Conserving, thus able to reach widely

Not daring to get ahead in the world

Thus able to assume leadership

Now if one has courage but discards compassion

Reaches widely but discards conservation

Goes ahead but discards being behind

Then death!”….

Excerpt from Chapter 67 verses 7 – 19 of the Tao Te Ching.

True Courage vs Bravery

True courage is the inherent power of compassion. ¹ This chapter highlights the important differences between just true courage and bravery.

Generally, courage is thought to be the ability to engage something difficult, dangerous, pain etcetera. This definition could also be applied to the word bravery, boldness, or guts. However, there is an important distinction between true courage and the other definitions.

The distinction can be found in the examination of the intention or mindset for how and why one faces danger and difficulty. One intention is to serve the self, the other is to serve something other than self. True courage is found through compassion and serving someone or something other than your specific needs or perspective. If you initiate an internet search for symbols of courage, you will see many images of the lion. The lion is a symbol of both power and true courage. The male lion will fearlessly protect the pride, and the lioness will fearlessly defend her cubs. They have a natural inherent intent of serving the pride.

To understand how compassion creates true courage, think of how the mothers or parents of many species will face great danger or difficulty in order to protect their young. Human parents will endure years of hardship and sacrifice to enable their children to have a good life. In nature, it is easy to see how mothers can be ferocious when their cubs are threatened. Every year we hear in the news how a mother bear attacked hikers or campers who came too close to the cubs.

Another perspective of how people will exhibit true courage for something other than their own well being can be seen when they serve their team, their country, or even humanity. Courage and sacrifice for the great good is the element of virtue that gives true courage.

And then there is bravery. I use bravery as a comprehensive word to represent the different actions where one faces difficulty, adversity, danger, and sacrifice because of self-gain. Greed, avarice, vanity, anger, vengeance are just a few ego motivating factors that can cause people to face danger or sacrifice one thing to get another. Some examples might be a bank robber who just wants to be rich. Or it might be swindling older people out of their money. In both situations, the perpetrator faces challenges and the danger of getting caught, yet you can see the motivations for self-gain.

Sometimes a person’s ego can be so self-convincing to the degree that they draw others into their dangerous plight because they are convinced that their idea will save the day. It gives credence to the saying “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. It is still just a matter of a self-serving mindset for the ego or even collective ego. Seemingly good ideas can become a self-serving ideology masked under the name of religion.

If you are still not convinced, try considering what Lao Tzu says in verse 16 and 19:

verse 16 …“Now if one has courage but discards compassion”

verse 19 …“then death”.

“Death” can be both a metaphor for self-destruction and loss or it can be literal. Taking dangerous chances because of ego pursuits can end in death. Taking chances with financial resources because of greed can result in a great financial loss.

Once again, you can see how important it is to be mindfully aware of the mind and the ego’s influence over intentions. In those moments of choice, you must know what you are doing and why otherwise the chance you are taking will not be based on true courage and end badly for all involved.

To step out of your comfort zone to help someone takes courage. In this way, courage becomes a virtue and karma will reflect back your true intention. Today and every day the opportunity for courage will present itself. It might be helping someone stand up to a bully. It may be a chance to push back on bigotry or racism. You may be called on to sacrifice something important to you so that someone else gets what they really need. A moment of truth will present itself that offers you a chance to have the courage to move beyond judgment and be compassionate. When you decide to take action seek to know if you are doing it because you will look good and be famous or are you doing it stop someone from suffering.

You will have the choice to be safely indifferent to someone in need or to have the courage to do the right thing. I hope for karma’s sake that you make the right choice. I guarantee you that someone in your future will need for you to have the courage and act selflessly.

Inherent Power

The inherent power of true courage is “victory”. Victory can also be thought of as true success, longevity and most importantly, harmony. When you use the “because of or by virtue of” test², you can see the inherent power. Example:

Because of her true courage, she was able to inspire the workforce to achieve its goal in record time and keep morale high.

The analogy. When a leader and its group have a common goal, the leader can use compassion in leading the workforce. Putting her own ego-agenda aside and addressing the concerns of the workers raise the spirit of the workforce/team. They, in turn, will sacrifice and give extra effort for victory because they will be acting with compassion for those who stand to benefit from their efforts.

On the other hand, when the leader can be only focused on the result and uses coercion, manipulation, and trickery and forces the effort without compassion, then there will be a failure or at best-limited success. Any success will be soured by enmity to the leader and people will not want to follow them in the future.

True courage is knowing the “two standards” and choosing the right action.³ Compassionate courage is a virtue of sovereignty. Practice often.

My face is pretty red today. When I listened to Derek’s lecture taken from Chapter 72, I realized that I am guilty of the humble bragging part. This lecture is pretty long, but well worth it. Be honest and realize “fault as fault”.

Chapter 50 The Dixie Taoist: Sovereignty*

The Strategy: Striving for knowledge can be just another effort of ego desire. Wisdom is gained through experience and self-reflection.

The Application: Rein in the ego’s striving for knowledge and power. Cultivate wisdom and knowing through awareness and experience. By being mindful and self-aware, real understanding and growth occur through actual experience.

“knowledge is power”¹

An internet search for the phrase “knowledge is power”, will result in millions of hits.² It is accepted as such a given truth, that it may be difficult for you the reader to be able to consider an alternative perspective. However, some older and wiser readers will understand the concept that wisdom gained through experience is true power and “book knowledge” is at best just the beginning.

As in so many cases of cultivating sovereignty, this Tao wisdom begins with being aware of how the ego has influence over our feelings and actions. This chapter takes a look at the strategy of being aware of ego’s role in the pursuit of knowledge, and the Tao wisdom of cultivating a deeper wisdom for success in life. The harmony is found in the balance between knowledge and experience. It is not knowledge itself that is harmful, but the obsession and striving to possess it that goes against the Tao wisdom.

End sagacity; abandon knowledge

The people benefit a hundred times…

Excerpt from Chapter 19, Tao Te Ching

The pursuit of excessive knowledge is rife with ego traits.

• The ego is insecure and seeks knowledge as a means of security.
• The ego is vain. To be seen as filled with knowledge is to be admired by others.
• The ego is impatient and often lazy. It has a desire to circumvent experience and gain understanding through the gain of knowledge.
• The ego has an insatiable hunger and always wants more. Enough is not enough, and more is better. Sometimes it does not know when to stop pursuing knowledge and start living.
• The ego is ignorant and believes that knowledge supersedes experience.

When I finished my first enlistment in the Navy, I enrolled in a technical college after returning home. I studied electronic technology and loved every minute of it. After graduating, I went back into the Navy and couldn’t wait to get to work as a technician/operator on radio equipment. My head was filled with all sorts of theory and math formulas that I couldn’t wait to try out in the real world.

When I got to my first duty station which was a ship, I was immediately given a piece of equipment to troubleshoot and repair. After spending too many hours trying to figure out what was wrong, my supervisor came to me to find out what the problem was. I was trying to apply all the classroom knowledge instead of using my instincts and common sense. In a moment of humility, I asked my supervisor what I was missing. The answer and solution turned out to be so simple. He had never had the benefit of a college education but he did have hundreds of hours of experience with this equipment. His experience over the years gave him the real power of knowing on a deeper level how to keep our communications equipment operating with efficiency. I had almost no experience and the knowledge that I had gained in school fell way short of practical application. As I began to use my instincts and senses to help me troubleshoot and repair, my skill improved quickly. With experience, the book knowledge fell into place and made sense on a theoretical level. The hands-on experience along with the “book learning” found a harmony with each other and my skills improved dramatically.

Accumulating knowledge can also set up the illusion of knowing. Having acquired information, the ego will take on an attitude of “I’ve got this”. The Tao Te Ching warns us

“To know that you do not know is highest

To not know but think you know is flawed”

Excerpt from Chapter 70 Tao Te Ching

Knowing is defined as information or skill gained through education and experience. Both can be valuable attainments. The wisdom of this lesson is about having sovereignty over the ego so that your reasons for seeking knowledge and experience is grounded in virtue.

If I have a little knowledge

Walking the great Tao

I fear only to deviate from it

The great Tao is broad and plain

But people like the side paths…

Excerpt from Chapter 53, Tao Te Ching

The Tao as a spiritual and philosophical path has the potential to transform your life in the most positive way. As the sovereign, you must control the ego so that you do not stray from the path. Having a little knowledge can inflate the ego and you can lose your way. The way is “broad and plain”, yet you can become distracted in the pursuit of knowledge for ill gain and get lost on the side paths.

As someone who practices mindfulness, you can pay attention to your intentions and desires of the ego even if you meander along the way. The pursuit of knowledge for the sake of ego gain is a distraction or “side path” to be careful of. The ego, the great pretender, can even use the Tao as a pursuit of knowledge. Your understanding of Tao principles and virtues is best learned through experience. The best experience is found by the application in everyday life. Later, when you reflect on what your observed and experienced, your knowing will be on solid ground.

Music is a powerful tool. Humans are hard-wired to respond to music. Studies show music could help patients heal from Parkinson’s disease or stroke. Meditation is also a powerful tool. I’ve discuss…

Source: How I use music as meditation to improve clarity and focus