Tao. Twenty Five.

Asked "What is tao?", 
the Master only smiles. 

His answer is his smile.

No words convey it, no teachings need be quoted.
No thoughts demand framing, no sermons clamor to be preached.

Why is this?

Tao does not live inside words, or thoughts,
manners or actions.

Anyone may learn words, and succeed in repeating them back.
Many do.
Anyone may learn to be, and merge mysteriously into the moment.
But few do.

His answer is his smile.
Tao is smiling him.

Calm: Twenty Four.

The Master does not own an iPod. 
Thus his mind is his own. 

He doesn't own much else, either.
No mobile phone, no mp3 player, no laptop...

Observe people, everywhere:
see how they bop and jerk to the beat of  various stimuli.
Hear the drone of radios in every workplace,
every restaurant, surgery, dental clinic, hospital.
Even parking lots have piped music.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to escape this rhythmic intrusion.
People even carry it around with them, wherever they go.
Madness results.

Search out silence, and the muted sounds of nature.
Your mind will become your own again.
And you will sleep better.

Charity: Twenty Three.

The Master may choose to offer help. 
He may also choose not to.

One may think an enlightened being would be disposed to run around helping people.
But an enlightened being might see things differently.
What is help anyway?

Industry is necessary to survival.
One may industriously perform those tasks that are necessary to provide food and shelter.
Or one may choose, by inactivity, to be cold and hungry.

Seeing someone who is cold and hungry,
The Master may decide to be charitable.
Or he may see that this coldness and hunger are the inevitable result of laziness and sloth.

Help is only help if it helps.
It is of no help at all, if it results only in dependency.

The Master is not charitable in order to feel good about himself.
He feels neither good, nor bad.
He is the Master.

Identity: Twenty Two.

The Master has no identity. 
None know who he is. 
He left who he was 
at the gates of heaven.

Enlightenment is a state that none may achieve
unless they are able to leave their identity behind.

People speak often of ego, not knowing what ego is.
Ego is who you think you are.

Who you are, seems important to those who have an identity.
While having no importance at all, to those who do not.

Abandoning your identity can fill you with a great dread.
With courage, and trust, you may discard yourself.

To discover that, without yourself,
you are far, far more than you were before.

Serenity: Twenty One.

The Master welcomes mosquitoes and allows them to feed. 
Others think him mad. 
Others itch and scratch, 
While The Master remains serene.

Mosquitoes. Who could like them?
I have never met anyone who does.

I have come to see mosquitoes as things of fragile beauty.
Teachers who teach without teaching.

Like anyone, I used to jump up and down, swatting and cursing.
Then I would itch, and then I would scratch.

Now I share my blood with them: realizing I have plenty to share.
I wait for them to finish, since to interrupt might injure or kill.

And now I do not itch.
And now I do not scratch.

Pretense: Twenty.

The Master finds it easier to be what he is, 
than to try to pretend he is what he is not.

There is value in doing what comes naturally.
There is less value in expending energy, unnecessarily.

Being what you are requires no effort,
unless you have forgotten what you are.

Remembering what you are, may be difficult, requiring effort.
But this effort is well spent, and need never be repeated.

Learning: Nineteen.

There is nothing to learn.
That is why it is so difficult to learn it.

Enlightenment arrives with a delighted laugh.
The realization that it is all so simple!

And it really is.
There is no great secret, no arcane ritual to perform.
Nothing to learn and nothing to know.
The abandonment of every notion leads to contentment.

Let it all go.
Be calm.
Simply.
Be.