But what do abstractions matter? They aren’t really real.” If this is your position, only you can save yourself from the nihilistic abyss in which all human action and relation has been reduced to games of power.

More merging of Nietzsche and Lao-tzu today in Meditations: Tao Te Ching Chapter Twenty.

What does it mean to "be yourself?" Surely not to give in to every impulse and indulgence; but likewise it cannot be to yoke yourself for the sake of society (elsewise we make slaves of us all). What, then?

Taoism through the lens of some of Friedrich Nietzsche's earliest ideas. I'm not sure if I made the concepts clearer or more obscure.

“this is a warning”
—Tao Te Ching Chapter Seventeen

Separate the conscious mind from its unconscious impulses and—let them go. Observe your feelings and name the emotions. Give them form, understand them, and then make them irrelevant through self-acceptance. With practice, this tolerance can expand from yourself onto someone else, then to others in general, and then perhaps you can become able to bear listening to ideas and people whom previously you placed beneath contempt, as if you were so much better than them, as if you too are not an animal. And doing all this, your wisdom can expand beyond the borders of your current limitations. You can see your errors and the treasures hidden in plain sight. You can come closer to aligning yourself with an objective reality. You will touch upon something greater than yourself.

Peace of mind and excellence in action seem to be intrinsically tied to our biology (or out "nature" if you'll accept the term). While useful across time, consciousness is slow and often falsely presumptive. In the moment, our animal instincts are that which perform without distraction, doubt, or self-consciousness. Perhaps it is a mistake of modernity to look down on the perspectives of those who came before us.

Arrogance and obsession (both things I have been and am likely to be guilty of in the future) are destructive errors known by many names. Often, I call them "Presupposition of Correctness" and "Tunnel Vision" respectively, but whatever the name, both of them prevent us from paying attention to what actually happens or what other people actually say. Perhaps one means of absolving oneself from these vices is through acceptance of imperfection, of ignorance, that there is always something better in front of you if you were only willing to see it.

The faculty of desire purports to aim at securing what you want, while aversion purports to shield you from what you don’t. If you fail in your desire, you are unfortunate, if you experience what you would rather avoid you are unhappy. . . . If you desire something outside your control, you are bound to be disappointed.
—Epictetus. Enchiridion; Discourses and Selected Writings

More on inclusivity and exclusivity in Chapter Twelve of the Tao Te Ching. This topic might seem obscure, but I believe it is pertinent to today's social discourse. If you don't understand what your purported values actually are, then you are doomed to serve as a slave to purposes apart from your own.

We hear an awful lot about the value of inclusion, but it is arguable that many good things come from exclusion. Your loved ones are special because they are not everyone else. Your hard work in one pursuit sets you apart from others who specialize differently. To be yourself at all means that you aren't someone else. This is what is discussed in the Tao Te Ching Chapter Eleven.

When my friends and I were teenagers, whether we were playing a game or practicing martial arts, we often noticed moments during which time seemed to evaporate. We called it, "being in the zone," for lack of more sophisticated language, because we always performed our best during those brief flashes that we could hardly remember even seconds after they occurred.

These moments are the topic of Chapter Ten of the Tao Te Ching: now I understand them to be the temporary fusion of all aspects of the self.

I believe each individual has a responsibility to himself to pursue his own dream. Note that I say "pursue" and not "achieve." One can die happy if he has no regrets, but to have no regrets, one must place his aim on the Way and not on the End. So forewarns Chapter Eight of the Tao Te Ching.

“Be like water.“
—Bruce Lee

Concerning confronting the challenges and suffering inevitable in life, I've encountered a through-line across philosophies. Whether they be the ancient Greek Stoics, the European Alchemists, Japanese Zen Buddhists, or Chinese Taoists (among others), they all arrive at the same conclusion: recognize the objective world and what role you play as part of it.

Is not material reality affected by mere notions, ideas, perceptions, and beliefs? Do Heaven and Earth not touch when one is moved by a sudden spirit to strum a guitar, to sing, to dance, to put pen to paper, to put paint to canvas? What are art and innovation if not the emergence of formerly hidden properties from the bridge between the objective world and the subjective experience?

“nature as creation is a relentless force
the relentless constantly faces the decay of its own fruits
the sound person also relentless
faces the decay of the fruits of mankind”
—Tao Te Ching Chapter Five

Potential—what is it? That which is not a thing in any singular time or space but is something that could be, or better said, could become.

In Chapter Three, we are greeted with a warning and a juxtaposition. This first stanza could be read, “Do not conflate wisdom with sophistication!” It rings with echoes of humble Socrates and his questioning of the sophists.

Armed with this wisdom, one can free himself from any prison and find contentment despite the suffering intrinsic to being.