“Have little thought of self and as few desires as possible.”

I am currently reading the Tao Te Ching - wisdom and insight, available to all, but practised and internalised by only a few.

It has brought many truths to the surface - ideas and reflections I hold, compounding over time, but constantly in a mist - not settling into a condensed mass. Reading, often, gives these misty ideas a place to land, condense and become visible and able to be interacted with.

The book has highlighted the importance of simply being at one with nature, living with it and your path, not forcing things. Upon reflection, it has reminded me of the time I first went to a Tai Chi class. My instructor told me that I was trying too hard and, if I simply didn’t try at all, I would settle into the movements as I needed to. I was confused, my whole life I was told I had to do or to try - now, I was achieving less by doing what I thought I had to and, not what I should have been doing, which was just doing and not thinking. Flashbacks of Harry Potter gaining the Philosopher’s stone enter my mind every time I think about Tai Chi now.

I will leave you, dear reader, with the last line of the book I have just read before writing this post - “It is because it never attempts itself to be great that it succeeds in becoming great”.