Tao Te Ching 12

Thoughts weaken the mind. Desires wither the heart.

The Master observes the world but trusts his inner vision. He allows things to come and go. His heart is open as the sky.
________________________________________________

Some truth is self evident. Who hasn’t worn themselves to weakness by thinking too much or too long; who hasn’t experienced the withering that comes from desiring someone or something too much or too long.

This doesn’t make thoughts or desires bad. Like the bumper sticker says, these things happen. They come; they go. The weakness and withering come from grasping our thoughts and desires – it’s the mental or emotional attachment to the thought or desire that brings the exhaustion and other forms of suffering. Our problems arise when we don’t allow things to come and go, when we “hang on for dear life.”

Grasping causes us to clinch the heart and close the mind. The Tao invites us to open our mind and heart by allowing things to pass. After all, passing is the nature of all things. Everything is impermanent – that which arises is that which subsides. It’s our attempt to make something permanent, to make something other than what it is, that brings our weakening and withering.

Our inner vision, our nature, which is aligned with the nature of all things, will teach us this truth if we will stop, look and listen to what we’re being taught.