Freedom of Action

A Personal Tao is about freedom to be yourself.

Back in 1997 I began an exploration of how to make a positive difference in the world. During this time, several health issues came up to force a process of self examination. My reaching out to aid others, while inwardly healing myself, revealed that the deepest healing is the process of self acceptance.
This has also been a time of intense political turmoil.
Mixing these last few years together as a jambalaya of life, led to a simple insight and the foundation for a Personal Tao:

Accepting oneself without judgment is the starting point for personal liberty.

How can we change the world?

Culture reflects our personal and social interchanges. To be yourself includes the practice of advocating your nature in society. Taoism takes this concept further to state that the best political system is one that allows people to be themselves without hindrance.

Speak and act to your nature. Your actions dictate society.

As a reflection of the people, society also exerts a pressure onto each person to conform to its representation of the many. In a culture of mass communication, society exerts a strong influence to change people. Modern culture has sculpted a large portion of the population to the point where many individuals cannot separate their lives from a lifestyle imposed upon them through societal pressure and law.

The feeling of being lost is often due to a person not really living his or her life. This is the influence of acting outside one’s nature, by living the American Dream instead of one’s own personal dream.

A Personal Tao provides the power to stand up against any form of dictatorship. This is strength arising from inner peace to follow what feels right. Voting by one’s actions to make a statement about, or change, how the world should be.

We can help others find peace simply by having our own peace first. This is the message that Martin Luther King, Jesus, Gandhi and others of spiritual strength have shown us. Who am I to think I can express this truth any differently? I am just a father holding out my hand, lifting others by passing on a smile. Revealing hope that someone is out there to toss us back up into the air, if even for a moment, to be as a child again, to fly.

Being an angel:
Means —- having no wings.
Means lifting up to their feet
those who have fallen off the beat.

What the great teachers of the past would say today…

Isn’t for them to say

It has been handed to us now: here and now,
To stand up and make our way into truth.

Because we don’t have wings, yet we can help each other fly.

A Personal Tao can be a gift to make a difference.
The gift to simply say: “Hey, just be yourself ”.
It’s enough to make one fly.
It’s enough to change the world.

Namaste