Lao Tzu, the Old Master, is said to have been a keeper of the royal archives in ancient China. Legend says that as he left the kingdom riding an ox toward the western mountains, a gatekeeper begged him to write down his wisdom before he vanished.
What he left behind was the Tao Te Ching, eighty-one short verses on the Way, one of the most translated books in the world.
“Knowing others is wisdom. Knowing yourself is enlightenment. Mastering others takes strength. Mastering yourself is true power.”
Tao Te Ching 33 (translation by Dan Dillman)
“Nothing in the world is softer than water, yet nothing is better at wearing down the hard and strong.”
Tao Te Ching 78 (translation by Dan Dillman)
The Tao is the Way of the Kosmos, the great flow of life that cannot be named. Lao Tzu taught us to stop forcing and start flowing, to be humble like the valley, patient like water, and simple like the uncarved block.
When we stop fighting the current, the current carries us home.
Reflect: Where in your life could you stop pushing and start flowing?
What do you think about this? On January 20, 1996, three young women in Varginha, Brazil, saw a four foot creature with oily skin and red eyes crouched by a wall. The army was in town that morning. A policeman said to have handled it died a month later. Cover story, or Brazil’s Roswell?
What do you think about this? In 1800 settlers at Conneaut, Ohio, opened a four acre burial ground in rows and reported skeletons over seven feet, jaws that fit over a man’s face, double rows of teeth. The graves were plowed under within a generation. Tall tale, or a people buried twice?
What do you think about this? The Iron Pillar of Delhi is six tons of forged iron from around 400 AD. It has stood outside through 1,600 years of monsoons and never rusted, thanks to a protective film from phosphorus rich iron nobody made again. Lucky recipe, or knowledge lost on purpose?
What do you think about this? North Sea trawlers pull up mammoth teeth, flint tools and a carved harpoon from 120 feet deep. Until 8,000 years ago that seabed was Doggerland, a forested land the size of Britain, drowned by rising seas and a tsunami. The lost land of every old story?
What do you think about this? In 1974 a Florida family found a polished 22 pound steel ball in burned brush. It hummed when a guitar played, rolled across rooms on its own and changed direction. Navy X rays showed objects inside, origin unknown. Valve ball, or something that landed?
What do you think about this? The Whaley House in San Diego was built in 1857 where a man was slowly hanged five years earlier. A baby and a daughter later died inside. Visitors report footsteps in empty rooms and a pressure on the throat where the gallows stood. Old house, or long memory?
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