Читать книгу Don't take anything personally - Tõnn Sarv - Страница 4

We’re all on the way, but we’re built so we can’t see it. We don’t know what the future will bring; we can only imagine it, based on our own experiences and memories. Time is moving in only one direction for us, against us. Arrival is only seen when it has already arrived; we only see what is already in hand and over. We know what has been, and on the basis of this knowledge we are also trying to foresee the future and to make good decisions. Alas, mostly it doesn’t work.

In the future, things may not be the same as they have been so far. We know that, but yet we believe that perhaps things will still be the same as we are accustomed and adapted to. Just in case, we look at horoscopes and other predictions, not that we really believe them, but still...

Maybe something’s changing, maybe something’s going to happen, maybe we should do something differently, maybe that’s what someone else thinks and we believe them.

And then maybe we’ll do something that we wouldn’t have otherwise done, change something that might not have been worth the change.

Laozi:

Foresight is a blossom on the way,

But also the beginning of stupidity.

It’s like we’re sitting in a moving vehicle, but facing backwards. We only see the part of the road that has already passed. We have a steering wheel with which we can change the direction of our movement, of our own free will, but we will still only be able to decide which way to go on the basis of the path we have already travelled, only by the past.

For this purpose, our own experiences, lessons learned and memories count. If our current path in life is more or less smooth, we believe that we can go ahead without much concern, without altering anything, not turning the wheel.

But how do we know that? Maybe there’s a roadblock in the way, maybe the road will end very soon or turn off somewhere? We can’t foresee it and we’re going to get a little worried.

Laozi:

Deviation is feared

by whom it seems too easy.

On the contrary, if life seems to be going the wrong way and everything is miserable, we want to start changing something, we start struggling, looking for new directions, rethinking. In fact, both good and bad roads are the same: these are our own perceptions. They don’t need to be taken seriously, and there’s no need to worry about them.

Laozi:

The least wisdom is enough

to stay on the right way.

Sometimes it seems as though life is hopeless. We are troubled, confused, we misunderstand, every move hurts, everything seems wrong, everything looks bad. But we know there’s got to be a good and right way somewhere, and all we need to do is get there.

What to do? Can you hold yourself together quietly until you get out of nowhere, or try to change direction again in the hope that maybe you can get onto an easier path? Nobody knows, but there’s always something left.

Laozi:

Way vanish, might remains.

There are many ways: some are longer, some are more obsolete, some are more awkward, some are branching, some go into a thicket. We feel it all on the way. Some of the roads we hardly feel or notice, and some are so troubled that they feel like torture. No way really leads anywhere. The way itself is what is important.

Laozi:

Way is like a stream

that takes the river to the sea.

How do you find the right and good way? How are you going to have the most pleasing life?

Laozi:

Way won’t do anything.

And nothing remains undone.

The right ways have a light, very fragile, very simple and very natural draw for us.

Laozi:

Way holds the wayfarer.

It’s so delicate that it hardly seems right.

Laozi:

In the right way there is no call.

Yet they are coming.

You can’t hear it when you go beserk, rant and rage, and want to get out at any price.

Laozi:

Way has no fight.

Way has no taste.

It may be a secret, but that’s how it is: no need to see the way, it can be trusted, you can be released from the wheel.

Laozi:

Calming down is easy to hold.

The unpredictable is easy to do.

Clarity and peace will set up all.

Take the pressure off. The right way may be very close; the right way is easy.

Laozi:

Right way has benefits, no harm.