Tao Te Ching 55

He who is in harmony with the Tao is like a newborn child. Its bones are soft, its muscles are weak, but its grip is powerful. It can scream its head off all day, yet never becomes hoarse, so complete is its harmony.

The Master’s power is like this. He lets all things come and go effortlessly, without desire. He never expects results; thus he is never disappointed. He is never disappointed; thus his spirit never grows old.
_______________________________________________________

Expectation, which is synonymous with desire, is the father of disappointment and disappointment gives birth to death in the form of a withered spirit.

We should act without an expectation of results. Results are often outside of our control. Expecting certain results surrenders our power to others and thus drains our energy and ages our spirit. Whenever we feel that our “spirits are down” we can trace that feeling to some form of underlying disappointment that has arisen from some unmet expectation. We are in the grip of a desire for life to be other than it is.

This chapter doesn’t teach us to live without effort, but to allow the things of life around us to come and go without a desire for them to be other than they are at that moment. As had been said many times here, the ebb and flow of life at that moment cannot be other than it is at that moment, so any desire for it to be otherwise will bring disappointment and a diminished spirit.

Living in harmony with life as it is – is a source of power.
________________________________________________________

I’m thinking of my dad on this Father’s Day. I miss him.