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If I had to pick one book– trust me, I’ve read lot of them– that had the greatest impact on my life, it would have to be Tao Te Ching by the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tse. Here is an excellent English translation of Tao Te Ching by J.H. McDonald made available to the public domain that you can read online for free. If you like the book, I suggest buying a hard copy to read over and over. I must have read various translations of Tao Te Ching more than a hundred times already.

Taoism is a philosophy that teaches you how to attain happiness by embracing simplicity– by returning to the Source. Although it bears many similarities to the philosophical aspects of Buddhism, taoism is not a religion and is not necessarily incompatible with any religious faith.

One of the most defining traits of my personality is that I tend to get carried away in everything I do. This is sometimes good, sometimes not so good. When I shift too far into one extreme, Tao helps pull me back to the center. This is why the book has been very useful in my life.

If you’re new to Taoism, try not to analyze the concepts on a literal level. Instead, try to internalize the words and let them play out through your everyday decision-making and activities. Although Taoism may not appeal to everyone, it might lead to positive changes that allow you to live a longer, more prosperous, and more meaningful life.

Read Online Tao Te Ching

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by Oudam Em

One of the most persistent struggles of life that it seems that the more we know about something, the more we realize we have to learn. As knowledge can become a constant source of stress and frustration in life, it might make more sense to discard the knowledge we already have and espouse ignorance, instead.

If ignorance is the answer to problems created by knowledge, then a person who has never attended a day of school in his life would be the ultimate sage.

This is not quite true.

Knowledge here refers to conditioning. From the day we are born we are conditioned to think a certain way about ourselves and the world around us. This conditioning is reinforced by our daily routines, the people with whom we associate, the books we read, the movies we see, and so on. Both educated and uneducated people alike are conditioned by their surroundings and life experiences, leading them to think and act through force of habit rather than free will.

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By Oudam Em

Mindfulness is the practice of living in the present moment. It is the art of engaging reality on a moment-to-moment basis. While fully engaged in whatever we are presently doing, we attune our minds to what is happening right here, right now. We watch our thoughts and emotions come and go, but we do not cling to them. Our primary focus is to maintain a calm, attentive, nonjudgmental state of heightened awareness.

We may think that we are already mindful of our life experiences, but this is just another trick fabricated by our minds to keep us in a dream state. Our minds have an uncanny ability to weave fleeting sensations, memories, thoughts, emotions into a coherent story that reinforces our false sense of a permanent, unchanging ego. We cling to our ego at all costs, even at the expense of seeing things as they really are.
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When we think of meditation, we normally think of sitting motionless in a quiet place away from the distractions of daily living. This is actually sitting meditation. By limiting sensory input during sitting meditation, we are able to calm our minds and reach the meditative state more easily. But meditation is not just limited to sitting in one place doing nothing. We can meditate by simply doing the ordinary things we do everyday with mindfulness. What we want to achieve in meditation is stillness. Stillness does not necessarily mean physical inactivity or even mental inactivity. In anything we do, be it eating, walking, driving, washing dishes, and so on, we have a capacity for stillness.

While the mind is fully engaged in physical activity, it is less likely to wander away from the present moment. While washing dishes, for instance, we attune our awareness to the moment-to-moment bodily movements and sensations involved in the chore. While the mind is preoccupied with the physical actions and sensations, it is less likely to be thinking, “Oh, this is such mindless drudgery; I have better things to do with my time!” Thoughts and feelings will continue to come and go, but as long as we can manage to hold our attention on the small details involved in getting the dishes cleaned, our minds will be attuned to the present moment. Dishwashing then becomes our object of meditation.
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In mindfulness we embrace stillness. Stillness leads to clarity. If puddle of muddy water is left undisturbed for a period of time, it eventually becomes clear on it own as dirt particles settle to the bottom. Clarity is an addition by subtraction– we value what is not there rather than what is there. Just as clear water is a potential of a muddy puddle, a clear mind is a potential of mental clutter. When we breathe mindfully and observe the arising and passing of our thoughts, without resisting or clinging to them, our mental turbidity will gradually decrease, leaving a clear mind that dwells in stillness.

If we were lost in the woods and came across a small muddy puddle of water, we would be wise to wait patiently until the mud settles before drinking from it. To still the mind also requires patience. In the same way that agitating a puddle of water with a stick makes it muddy, we muddle our minds by getting caught up in our thoughts. Getting involved in thoughts saps our energy and contributes to the restless chatter in our heads. If we can gain some degree of detachment from our mental phenomena, our thoughts and feelings will come and go without taking hold of our minds. The mind then calms on its own.
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