mulberryshoots

I’ve just been reading “Hua Hu Ching, The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu” translated by Brian Walker. Following on from William James’s instruction that in order to change one’s life, do it immediately and with flamboyance, I was amused to reflect today, (while some mild machinations were going on in our household, not being able to reach people, looming deadlines and so on,) that the most flamboyant thing to do to greatly change my life today is to let go of it all and chill. Seriously chill out. Zen the rest of a frustrating day and let it go.

Stop worrying about what others do or won’t do (like call us.)

Stop depending upon someone else’s schedule to fit one’s sense of anxiety about meeting certain deadlines.

Come up with a simpler approach, which is to take care of things ourselves and just do it, which is the best we can do under the circumstances anyhow.

Without going through the details of any particular situation today, this kind of dynamic seems to occur and repeat itself almost everyday and to each and everyone of us.

It seems like an ironic turn to think that the most flamboyant thing I can do to change my life is to let it all go.

Haha. I like that a lot. Here’s a verse from the book too:

“The ego is a monkey catapulting through the jungle:
Totally fascinated by the realm of the senses,
it swings from one desire to the next,
one conflict to the next,
one self-centered idea to the next.
If you threaten it, it actually fears for its life.

Let this monkey go.
Let the senses go.
Let desires go.
Let conflicts go.
Let ideas go.
Let the fiction of life and death go.
Just remain in the center, watching.

And then forget that you are there.”

How about that?