Travelling: Eighteen.

The Master does not engage in meditation... 
...any more...

Meditation is like a bus trip.
Having a goal in mind, we must undertake a journey.

We board the bus, and quietly sit.
Our usual thoughts are let go, as we notice new and more interesting things go by, outside the windows.

By and by, we near our destination.
We return to the moment, arise, and disembark.

There we are.
Our journey is complete.

It is necessary to stop, if the journey is ever to be completed.

Ownership: Seventeen.

The Master owns nothing, 
but has everything.

Ownership is an important part of any civilization.
Money is paid, a deed of ownership given in exchange.
It is important to remember that this is an illusion...

I own a small forest.
But it could be more accurately said
that the small forest owns me.

Lying back and gazing into the treetops,
filled with birds, squirrels and raccoons,
I am aware:

I do not own this small forest:
I am the forest, and the forest is me.

Truth: Sixteen.

Truth may not get you what you want. 
Truth will get you what you get.

What do you want?
Be careful: Wanting something may be dangerous.

Speaking truthfully has consequences.
Just like speaking untruthfully.

By speaking the truth, you will never deviate from your own, unique path.
By not speaking truth, you have left the path of what could have been, and embarked upon the path that was never yours to travel.

Words Of Wisdom: Fifteen.

Words of Wisdom are a description of wisdom. 
They are not the wisdom itself.

Read, reflect, contemplate, digest.
Here are words that best describe a life.
They are but entertainment.
Second-hand.

In these words are tears and blood,
joy and sorrow.
In these words are experience.
But not yours.

Wisdom, if sought, can be found.
Its price is high.
It will cost you your life.
But, happily, you can afford this.

Without experience, there can be no wisdom.

May your life be filled with challenge.
May you live in interesting times.

Mind: Fourteen.

The master thinks when he chooses to. 
He is able to choose not to.

The mind is very useful:
It is able to look back.
It is able to look forward.
But it is not able to see where it is.

Looking back, it can learn from what has been.
Looking forward, it can learn what might be.
Like an eye, it has a blind spot:
It is unable to see itself, or where it is.

Awareness allows existence.
Without it, there is no present moment.

Stopping the mind allows the stopping of time.
Awareness is all that remains.

The master uses his mind as he chooses to.
But his awareness is where he lives.

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.

Meetings: Nine.

The wise man meets everyone, 
as if for the first time.

When we meet someone for the first time,
we probably know nothing about them.
So we are likely to accord them a degree of respect
that may be omitted when meeting someone we know.

If there have been problems with people we know,
we may react to those problems as if they are current.
This has the effect of bringing the past into the present.
The problem continues, or becomes a bigger problem.

Imagining that one "knows" a person,
may be very far from the truth.
People can change unexpectedly,
for better, or for worse.

Meet everyone without expectations.
Offer the benefit of the doubt.
Extend your own goodwill.
While being ready, willing, and able
to defend yourself, should it be necessary.

Nothingness: Eight.

The Shaman is content with nothingness.
Nothingness is what he works with.
Collecting the unseen and entering into it,
until he, himself, is nothingness.

The Shaman, the Medicine Man, the Master:
they all begin as men.
Noticing the nature of nothing,
they are drawn to it, and are engaged by it.

Calmness. Silence. Emptiness. Space.
The absence of form, awaiting creation.
A linen canvas before that first brush-stroke.
The eternal silence preceding the tick of time.

Anything is possible.
Anything.

Six: Compassion.

In dealing with anger, have compassion.
Confronted by force, employ calm.
In facing argument, offer serenity.
Present no target and you will never be fired upon.

Like arranging flowers: defense is an art.
The surest defense is knowing how never to need it.
Anger is everywhere. In you and outside you.
You cannot change the world: but you can change yourself .

Compassion for yourself lessens your proneness to anger.
Becoming less angry, you will have more compassion for others.
Anger added to anger brings disaster.
Compassion added to anger, brings peace.

Remain calm, in the face of unreason.
Like any storm, it will pass.
Serenity is all that remains.

Move deftly aside from the approaching storm; do not resist it.
Be elsewhere, without moving.
Attack always needs a target:
By not being the target, what can harm you?

Ai-Ki-Do is the perfect defense.
Irresistible.
Having the ability to defend yourself against attack,
teaches the unlikeliness of needing to use it.

Wisdom: Seven.

Wisdom may be offered, never forced. 
Wisdom may be misunderstood, or rejected. 
Wisdom may be wisdom, or not. 
Wisdom remains wisdom, if it is wisdom. 

The wise man knows what the unwise do not.
That is what makes him wise.
The unwise can not see what they can not see.
The wise man may only offer a vision of the unseen.
The unwise man may accept this, or not.

Being unable to see a thing,
does not cause the unseen thing to not exist.
Refusing to accept that it may exist,
in no way removes it from existing.

What is, is.
What is not, is not.
Free will allows a man, wise, or unwise, to choose
what may or may not exist in his life.

Wisdom is folly, and folly is wisdom,
depending upon the use to which he puts his free will.
He chooses what is wise, and what is not.
The wise man offers what he knows, because he knows it.

Not to cause others to think him wise.

Control: Six.

The Master knows he controls nothing. 
Thus he never exerts control. 
How could he exert something he does not have? 
Not having control, he can never lose it.

What do people fear the most of all?
It might well be: losing control.
Why this could be so terrifying, has never been very clear to me,
but I have heard, again and again, that the very thought scares people.

Losing control, or being out of control,
seems to be the worst case scenario,
for individuals, animals, organizations, even governments.
And yet: control itself is no more than an illusion.

A champion athlete may exhibit superb control.
But he does not own it.
At any moment, an asteroid may fall on him.
The world may explode.
He may have an epileptic seizure.
The police may come and arrest him...
All these things, and everything else that might happen,
are completely beyond his control.

Why would anyone imagine they are ever in control?
Why would anyone be so afraid of being out of control?

Calm is the closest state humans may achieve to control.
Clear focus, and attentiveness to the present moment.
When this focus is lost, as it sometimes is, disaster rarely ensues.
Calm, given a chance, will reassert itself, soon enough.
Control leads to unreasonable fear.
Calm leads to calm.