The Master: Who is he, anyway?

The master does not know who he is. 
He has forgotten, while discovering what he is. 


Sometimes people ask if "the master" to whom I often refer, is me.
No. He is not. Although, sometimes, he might be...

Mastery is something to which I aspire.
Knowing full well, that I miss the mark more often than I hit it.
If, at moments, I am the master, the last thing I consider, is to call myself that.

The master is an attainable state.
Like the weather:
Calm, sunny, benign.
Or a cyclone, wielding unimaginable fury.

The Crow - the actual crow - after whom I pattern a part of myself, was a master.
But he did not know it.
How could he? He was only being what he was.

And we, foolish people, concerned with who we are, and how others see us:
We might do well to consider the crow: we alone, it seems, have no idea of what we are.

Wisdom: Thirteen.

The master has acquired wisdom. 
Being the master, he understands he can not share it. 


Paradox is the nature of reality, the essence of truth.
One may not seek out "the meaning of life" from anybody else.
One may, indeed, cross paths with someone who knows the "meaning".
But being told what it is, will inevitably  not understand it.

One may - at best - be guided by a master.
But one must make the journey, alone.

Wisdom can never be understood, as wisdom,
without wisdom being already present.

Taoism is a hands-off experience.

Honesty: Twelve.

The master is honest. 
Through his honesty, he knows himself. 


The wise man has discovered the value of honesty.
He understands that, far from rendering himself at a disadvantage,
his honesty renders him invulnerable.

The honest man fears nothing, for he deals with reality.
He lives in a world of what is, while others live in a world of what is not.

Few will understand him, and many may despise him,
for they can not trust him to be like them.

The honest man does not need to be liked, or even understood.
For he is able to like himself, for what he knows he is.
Better: he is able to respect himself, for his unchanging honesty.

One is unable to teach the value of honesty to one's children,
unless one is honest, oneself.

Becoming honest is no different from ending any other addiction:
Practicing awareness of dishonesty, one becomes less and less dishonest.

I Am: Eleven.

Yahweh. 
The word means "I Am". 
The name of God.

I will...
I shall...
I may...
...try...
...be...
...do...

No you won't. Don't kid yourself.
If you want something to happen, you will be: now, in the present moment.
"I will be more patient" means most probably that you will not be.
"I Am more patient" means that you are.

I Am is Now. Manifest. Made so.
I will is nothing more than a maybe.

Every conscious being has the means to make it so.
By not being here and now, few do.

I Am is entirely taoist, as it is Christian, and every other God-based belief.
Tao itself - as its entirety - Is. 
If Tao could speak, as humans do, it might well declare: 
I Am. 

But the entirety is not a personality of any kind,
thus it is for we humans to declare, for ourselves:
I Am. 

Leadership: Ten.

The greatest leader does not get people marching. 
He is the one that lets them know they can stop. 

A charismatic leader moves people.
People fall in with his wishes and follow where he leads.
An authoritarian leader forces people to his will.
Ego commands action.
The best leader leads by his own example.
He stops, and is content to be.

Stop.
And be.

Notice the need to conform, impress, placate, control, evade, all fall away.
Stop trying to get away with things and to give the impression of being what you are not.
Become what you are.