Valuing a thing,
the best we can do for it
is to let it go.
Valuing ourselves,
our best course
is to let our selves go.
Letting go of self
sets self free.
Freed, self joins with the Tao.
This can be called immortality.
Putting value upon a thing, then we want to own it.
If we already own it, then we want to keep it.
When we come to truly value ourselves,
why not free ourselves of limits?
Letting go of ourselves, we find great freedom.
Removing all self-imposed limits,
there is nothing we can not do.
Finally we understand that death itself is meaningless.
Having no limits means that death, too, is no limit.
Immortality involves living each moment, so that time
no longer contains us within limits we have already let go of.
I have found that at a certain point in life, it is all about letting go. So many things that were once important to me, just aren't anymore. I always tell people (usually young people) when they are agonizing about the changes they are facing (or the ruts they are in), that nothing is permanent. Nothing. And in the letting go (of the fears, the attachments, the passions, the objects), comes such freedom.
ReplyDeleteThey say that the rigorous immortality practices of Taoism are best approached by people who are beyond all the worldly demands of children, family, work, etc. I think that's true.
Not that my house isn't full of a lot of junk I need to clear. And not that I don't delight in wu xia movies and wine. But my mind is pretty clear.
"...my mind is pretty clear..."
ReplyDeleteYou know it when it is, don't you?
People meditate for years to achieve a zen state.
For some it takes forever.
Others, far less.
I find it helpful to picture a flat, featureless plain.