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Tao Te Tuesday - On a Wednesday (Last TTT of the year)
Welcome to TTT, a newsletter where we rescue and put to practice the ancient wisdom of Taoism - the art of living. If you are not subscribed already, you can do so here.
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Fame or integrity: which is more important?
Money or happiness: which is more valuable?
Success or failure: which is more destructive?
If you look to others for fulfillment,
you will never truly be fulfilled.
If your happiness depends on money,
you will never be happy with yourself.
Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.
44
Tao Te Ching, a New English Version, copyright ©️ 1988 by Stephen Mitchell, published by HarperCollins. All rights reserved.
How much more would you enjoy life if you had a billion dollars? How much more fulfilled would you feel if you had millions of fans (or followers) adoring your every move? How much happier would you be if everyone around you revered your integrity and everything you do is a success?
The scientific truth is: not that much. Your brain is biologically incapable of it.
“everything you will ever experience in life is within your own body and your own mind. Breaking out of the matrix or travelling to Fiji won’t make any difference. It’s not that somewhere in your mind there is an iron chest with a big red warning sign ‘Open only in Fiji!’ and when you finally travel to the South Pacific you get to open the chest, and out come all kinds of special emotions and feelings that you can have only in Fiji. And if you never visit Fiji in your life, then you missed these special feelings for ever. No. Whatever you can feel in Fiji, you can feel anywhere in the world; even inside the matrix.”
Excerpt From: Yuval Noah Harari. “21 Lessons for the 21st Century.”
Just like a trip to Fiji, fame, money and success can only be experienced through your own mind. And when we accept they wont unlock any secret corners of happiness and fulfillment, it is only reasonable to pay more attention to the mind, the great catalyzer, than to whatever happens on the outside.
Tao In Practice
So how exactly can you “be content with what you have” and “rejoice in the way things are”?
Step one is to accept that all discontent, dissatisfaction and suffering comes from mistakingly believing a thought.
Lets imagine that the mind works the same way as the universe and the manifestation of thoughts the same as particles:
"Quantum mechanics implies that the whole of space is filled with pairs of virtual particles and antiparticles, that are constantly materialising in pairs, separating, and then coming together again, and annihilating each other.”
Excerpt From: Stephen Hawking's second Reith Lecture
Every single stress inducing though has an antithought that is born with it:
I should have more money in the bank / I should NOT have more money in the bank.
I should have a loving partner / I should NOT have a loving partner.
More often than you might expect, both are equally true. And, only when we allow BOTH of these thoughts to live can they come together again, and annihilate each other.
So that’s it. Whenever you notice a though leading you away from absolute fulfillment, bring forth its antithough, and let both of them live, until they don’t.
Quote of The Week
“Music is not the sound, but the concept, the idea; ordinary people have trouble appoaching music from that perspective”
Haruki Murakami paraphrasing Arnold Schoenberg
Song Picks of the Week
I hope you like Classical music because I’m entering a deep classical phase.
I chose this specific version out six because of the quality of the recording and because Mitsuko Uchida is a Pianist from another dimension.
Giddy - Jessy Lanza (Indie) S/O to Mariana
Thank you so much and happy new year!
Until tuesday,
Daniel