Preface

Life doesn’t come with a set of instructions.

Life isn’t easy. Every one of us is challenged at different points by circumstance and luck. And how someone responds to adversity and good fortune is a defining part of character.

I’ve always been fascinated by how some people seem untroubled by anything they encounter. Unflappable, calm, and somehow always coming out on top smelling like roses. Others are have a terrible lot of it, and adversity is their lifelong companion. The rest of us experience something between… occasional highs balanced out with usually un-catastrophic lows.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy for any one, no matter how good things look on the surface. We’re all beset by doubts, uncertainty and anxiety. We’re all the owners of a fragile ego and emotions that can hinder as much as they help us connect with others. We all experience struggle and would like feel that life is a bit better every day.

We all want to succeed, but failure and adversity are inevitable in life. Experiences, good and bad, give us the opportunity to change. We choose how to receive an experience, how to think about it, and how to behave in response to it. But the lessons that help us change have to be lived to be truly understood.

Ancient philosophers and sages such as Cynics and Stoics tried to understand how to live well in an unpredictable world. In China, Lao Tzu, an ancient sage, was the purported author of the Tao te Ching – the “way of virtue”. The Tao, and the western Cynics and Stoics all focus on how to align with nature. Each aims to help provide a way of thinking, behaving and existing in a world which is complex, uncontrollable, and unpredictable.

This is the goal: to enjoy success and to live well without struggle, self-possessed and aligned with nature .

The Tao has been a focus of mine for the better part of two decades. Written around 500 BCE in Classical Chinese, there are now many English interpretations. Only 81 brief stanzas, it is a simple text but complex to interpret, with ambiguity and contradiction throughout.

The Tao te Ching talks about a “way” of virtue. It may be imperfect translation, but the word “way” suggests there is an obvious path to follow. Instead, the Tao is a way or manner of thinking and behaving as one experiences life and the world. These thinking and behaviour patterns are the virtues one can develop throughout life, to be self-possessed, to align with nature, and to help lead others well, too.

The challenge many find with the Tao is how to distill the words into actionable lessons. I’ve struggled with it, too. This is my effort to unlock the timeless lessons of the Tao in as few words possible.

And yet… This is also a stupid effort: it is absolute hubris to think my interpretation is correct. Or that it’s even worthy of sharing with others – I’m still learning. And the Tao, too, gives a warning against this, so I provide it now before anyone reads further:

He who knows (the Tao) does not (care to) speak (about it); he who is (ever ready to) speak about it does not know it.

With the reader now warned, I hope that someone else might find this useful.

Read on… Introduction