“What is meant by, ‘original?’” Answer: something in its initial state before being altered, developed, or modified; something primordial from which there are no steps backward without undoing the thing in itself. In this sense, “original” can be synonymous with “fundamental.” So, then, what do we mean when we talk about our original, fundamental selves?

And this is all accomplished here and now. The past is past, and the future is a guess. In truth there is only each and every moment. Each and every step is one on or away from the Path.

In large part, we are our habits, so it would be good if we could habituate ourselves into a mode of being that we could be proud of—in other words, make ourselves into people whose being we assent to. This is the shaping of our conscious will in accord with our internal nature. It is bringing our desires in alignment with what is both possible and agreeable to our animal selves.

The stereotype of a Zen riddle is a paradox, the answer seemingly impossible from the typical answerer’s point of view. But this apparent contradiction is actually a consequence of a divided mind.

While Confucianism describes the roles and responsibilities of the state by comparing it to the family, here the Tao Te Ching compares the roles and responsibilities we have to ourselves to those a king has to his citizens.

In today's Meditations, we discuss briefly the Taoist take on the notion that you ought to, "Set Your House In Perfect Order Before You Criticize The World"
—Dr Jordan B Peterson
12 Rules For Life: An Antidote To Chaos

"what is dying
dying is walking away
from the tao way of life"
—Tao Te Ching Chapter Fifty-Five

While it is easier to point to the sins of others or to advocate for someone else to solve yet another person’s problems—and seemingly easier still to advocate that others use force on your behalf in order to coerce or else outright purge dissidents from &/or of their sinful thoughts behavior—it is not virtue. It is not good, merely an exercise of power in an attempt to force externals to conform to your desire.

"it is easy to get sidetracked and lost in the wilderness
it happens all the time
but
the worst thing you can do
is worry too much about it"
—Tao Te Ching Chapter Fifty-Three

"visions cascade upon you so rapidly
that it becomes impossible
to divide or discern
what we normally regard as real"
—Tao Te Ching Chapter Fifty-Two

Philosophers throughout the ages have debated what is “The Good.” This is a question about morality and virtue. What is it we ought to do? What ought we pursue in our lives? There have been countless answers to these questions, some of which question the validity of “Goodness” (and thereby its counterpart, evil) itself. Here, the Tao Te Ching makes its own argument as to what constitutes virtue and why.

Our lives can be characterized as between birth and death, and the course of our lives shares in those tendencies—either toward the affirmation of life or its denial.

"a wise man does not think first and then act
when the tao way of life presents itself
thinking first stops the moment from unfolding"
—Tao Te Ching, Chapter Forty-Nine

As the young Nietzsche writing The Birth of Tragedy might say, he has refined his tastes as to be sustained when drinking from the cup of the tragedy of Nature. The experience and treasures are his, for he has made himself a dragon-slayer, undaunted by the dark, capable of traversing the abyss without need of fear of being swallowed up or possessed by it.

What is authentic knowledge?

But to fail to do this, to fail to let go of one’s belief that he is correct is to isolate that man from the real world. His order becomes decrepit, his sensitivities senile. He comes to assume he knows almost everything, and therefore all that he doesn’t know must by definition be wrong. Thus, monsters appear in the dark corners of all his thoughts. Inoffensive things become grave threats capable of destroying his very identity. He becomes less and less capable of assenting to how life actually is, favoring instead his presumption as to how life ought to be.

"sit quietly
focusing
forgetting
summon order from the void"
—Tao Te Ching Chapter Forty-Five

There is a social tension at the time of writing this Meditation, a tension that seems to have always existed with humankind but that has perhaps exacerbated recently. It is the divide between the materialist and the religious world views—a difference specifically of values . . . In Chapter Forty-Four, Lao-tzu weighs into this conflict amicably with questions for each of us to answer.

"water will always wear down a stone"
—Tao Te Ching Chapter Forty-Three

Many times during the course of these meditations we’ve discussed being, “in accordance with the Tao source of life,” though what exactly does that mean?