Tao Te Ching 10

Can you coax your mind from its wandering and keep to the original oneness?
Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things?

Having without possessing, acting with no expectation, leading and not trying to control: this is the supreme virtue.
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Our thoughts and feelings rise like waves on an ocean. As we ride each wave we think that it’s somehow separate from the ocean. We actually believe that we can “catch a good wave”. We lose sight of the fact that it, like all other waves, arose from the ocean and will quickly return to the “original oneness”.

We all suffer from our wandering minds, what Eastern philosophers call the “monkey mind”. Our thoughts and feelings jump from branch to branch, grabbing this or that vine, swinging from tree to tree. It’s a triple-canopy jungle in there!

Stepping back, letting go, frees us from our wandering and allows us to settle on what we’ve been seeking all along – understanding. Understanding lies outside our mental activity. Stepping back actually moves us forward.

Who hasn’t experienced the sudden insight that comes when we finally step back from all our thinking and simply allow that understanding to emerge? Understanding is something we experience by living life here and now, not something that comes from wandering in thought.

Our disappointment with life lies in our expectations that life should be different than it is at the moment. We believe that life is or at least can be under our control and that we should “take control of our future”. This idea is contrary to the wisdom that encourages us simply to “lead a good life”. Leading without controlling; acting without expecting; having without possessing – the way to a good and peaceful life.