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.

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.