Run! Yes. A Jedi’s strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger... fear... aggression. The dark side are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan’s apprentice.
How can we achieve this state. Only by truly letting go of striving for, let what will happen happen and not trying to control things. We can try to change reality but this is not in harmony with the way. Only by truly letting go can we let life happen as it should. Wu Wei.
Everything that happens, happens and couldn't of happened any other way. We can question why things happen as they are but it would be simpler to simply accept them as they and move on with it.
Sometimes there are no simple answers but it simply easier and more in harmony to just go with the flow. Flows like water, reflect like a mirror, and responds like an echo live in harmony with the Tao:
This brings us back to Chuang-tse‘s riddle. What flows like water, reflects like a mirror, and responds like an echo? A life lived in harmony with the Tao:
* Flows like water —
Water flows over and around obstacles. It does not resort to force to destroy the obstacles in its path. One might say that the Taoist plays the cards that have been dealt to her, instead of sulking or demanding a new deal.
In the background of this riddle we can see P’u, the principle of the Uncarved Block (described in part one). Taoists orient their actions to Things As They Are — not Things As They Might Have Been, or Things As We Would Have Preferred Them.
* Reflects like a mirror —
A mirror does not distort; it accurately represents whatever is before it (blemishes and all!). The Taoist (like the Buddhist) tries to see what is actually there before him.
It is more difficult than it sounds! Human beings constantly interpret reality in accordance with our prior expectations, and thereby introduce distortions / illusions. As George Orwell observed, “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle”.
* Responds like an echo —
An echo does not generate sound, it merely deflects it. (Not unlike the mirror, which does not generate light but reflects it.)
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