Choosing

One side of a ridge is cold and foggy,
The other is hot and dry.
Just by choosing where you stand,
You alter your destiny.

Those who follow Tao talk of destiny. They define destiny as the course or pattern of your life as it spontaneously takes shape. They do not think of destiny as a preordained set of circumstances. There is no rigid script for this mad stage that we are on.

Those who follow Tao then talk of location. By this, they mean something as literal as where you situate your house or where you stand politically. They think that these factors are very important. Let us imagine for moment that you had a job offer in another city far from where you were born. You move there with your family. Do you think that your life would change? We can refine this perception : If you went to a certain school, you would be educated differently. If you went into a different profession, it would change your outlook. If you lived in one neighborhood or another, you would be a different person. Every choice you make changes you.

No matter how minor or how great, you must make choices each and every minute that passes. The irony of life is that it is a one-way journey. You cannot go back, you cannot make comparisons by trying one way and then another. There are no double-blind studies when it comes to your own life. Therefore, only wisdom will suffice to guide you.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

The highest form of goodness is like water.
Water knows how to benefit all things without
striving with them.
It stays in places loathed by all men.
Therefore, it comes near the Tao.

In choosing your dwelling, know how to keep to
the ground.
In cultivating your mind, know how to dive in
the hidden deeps.
In dealing with others, know how to be gentle and kind.
In speaking, know how to keep your words.
In governing, know how to maintain order.
In transacting business, know how to be efficient.
In making a move, know how to choose the right moment.

If you do not strive with others,
You will be free from blame.

— Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching, 8

How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light. — Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams

One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.

Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time,
As we journey along through life,
Tis the set of the soul,
That determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

— Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Meditation brings wisdom; lack of mediation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom. — Buddha

It took me a long time to accept that all of the things that happened in my life were those of my choosing, excepting those things none of us can prevent, like the death of loved ones. But the circumstances of my life, the place I live, the people I am with, the type of work I do and where I have worked — those are all things I made a conscious choice about. And I think that, for most of us, we make those choices willingly, but often without accepting the full consequences of our choice, or perhaps, the unintended consequences we didn’t forsee.

I don’t have to think so much about the choices I make these days. They seem to come more from within me, perhaps more guided by who I am now than by what I want someone else to think or feel about me. Not that I don’t care about these things, but that I know I will simply make the choice that best fits the flow of my path. I forsee consequences better than I have in the past.

But the best thing these days is I no longer blame myself or anyone else for the choices that have brought me to where I am now, because I am tremendously satisfied and happy with where I am and who I am right now. My life seems more effortless than it ever has, as I begin to “float effortlessly in the stream”. And perhaps, that has been the best choice of all.

Floating Spirit, Beverly Naidus